Scene at an Ale-House will of a king, it is a fpecies of tyranny and arbitrary power. Loyalty. When the Demagogue is in place, to behave with moderation and obedience to his majefty, and refpect to the royal family, is loyalty; when he is out, fuch conduct is downright A jacobitifm. Wretched English. The king, all the great officers of ftate, the lords of the bed-chamber, and all other fubjects, except the Penfioner, Lord Gawkee, Al derman Sugar-cane, Colonel Squintum, and two or three more. Religion. A ridiculous thing in a prince, who, according to modern ideas, ought to commit a rape once a week, and fill the palace with bastards to increafe the influence of the crown, in the upper houfe of parliament, and be a future tax upon the people, Friends to the Hanover fucceffion.] The great Demagogue, Lord Gawkee, and all who abufe and vilify the royal family. Friends to their country.] Men who with for public calamities that they and their adherents may rife upon the ruin of the nation. The treasury.] The freehold of a cer tain duke for life. The fecretary's Office.] The property of a penfioner for life. War.] Which ought to laft till every guinea, and all the oats in this coun try are fent to Germany. 413 and Senegal, and Goree, and Martinico? Peace. A vile thing upon any terms. The Church is in danger.] A political E lye. In a late St James's Chronicle is the following, humorous fcene: SCENE an Pleboufe. A. This is good tobacco. B. D-n all Scotchmen, fay I. A. (After three whiffs.) This is good tobacco. way of parallel, or to furnish evil F" minded people with examples to be "wantonly applied to imaginary ob "jects." G The BRITON, No. XIII, is a piece of perfonal fcurrility, with which the public has not the leaf concern. The NORTH BRITON, No. XIII, contains a reprefentation of that part of this country called Scotland, and of its inhabitants, which is at once falfe, filthy, and prophane. Our readers, therefore, can neither expect nor defire any extract of it, especially as it H has not the leaft relation to the conduct of the ministry, or the ftate of public affairs, 414 Extraordinary Incident at an Affize Meeting. B "At a late affize-meeting in a neighbouring county, at which there A were prefent an hundred and ten gentlemen and freeholders, one of the gentlemen being called upon for his toaft, named a certain great man, who is not at prefent very highly in efteem, from his having fucceeded to the poft of another great man, who has not loft his intereft with his power, and under whofe very nofe this toaft was given, when ninety of the company, including the chairman, rofe immediately from their feats, and after a minute's conference, the chairman made this remarkable request to the toaster, Sir, you are defired to take notice, that ninety of the prefent company not approving your toast, have withdrawn themselves; and you are likewife defired to inform the perfon you toafted of your fuccefs. The GLORIOUS NINETY is now the ftanding toast of the county." The author of the Auditor, to take off the force of the fuppofed refufal of D the glorious ninety, endeavours to turn them into ridicule; but as it has fince appeared that this glorious ninety never exited, his ridicule has no object. The following paragraph from the Gazetteer of the 30th of Auguft is therefore inferted inftead of any farther account of this Auditor. "There is one perfon of the company who, fays he, refufed the toaft, but none of the rest of the company ever beard the toaft object ed to." The MONITOR, of Sept. the 4th, continues his fcraps of English history. The BRITON, No. XIV. is mere perfonal abufe, of perfons fuppofed to, be anti-minifterial writers. The NORTH BRITON, No. XIV. gives us his word, that the prefent minifter is totally incapable of carrying on the war, that the exiftence of his power depends on the making a peace, and that therefore he has alked a peace of a beaten enemy, who will not grant it but upon terms that are greatly difhonourable and difadvantageous to Britain; and that the peace, faid by fome to be now figned, is therefore an infamous peace. It is hoped that a very little time will convince this writer that he his mistaken, and the fatire of the following paragraph with which he concludes will, like the F ridicule of the Auditor on the glorious ninety, be without an object. As the negociation is foon to be opened in form, I rejoice to hear that the adminiftration is fo fortunate in the choice of a noole perfonage, who has condescended to go on the part of England, not to fign, but to treat of a peace. His Grace's happy temper, his winning manners and obliging deportment, will foon fecure him the hearts of the French, as entirely as they did the hearts of the Irish, who lived fo bleffed under his government. I hope for this purpose that his old fecretary, the learned matter of the rolls, is to attend the embassy. I am fatisfied that the French will approve our choice, and that there will be the trueft harmony: for as his Grace has been pleased to declare that he wept over our victories, fo have the French: There may therefore be a true chorus of fighs and groans between them; and when their tears are dried up, I fuppofe they will laugh together at our lofs of Newfoundland. One particular I beg to fuggeft. I will venture to prophefy, that on the noble duke's wished for return to his native country, he will be attended to the Gallic there by at least as great crouds of Frenchmen, fhrugging their fhoulders, as he was to the Irish thore, by the men, women, and children of that country, all diffolved in tears. I think, in common policy, the nakedness of our land thould rather be concealed by his Grace abroad; for though it is very encouraging to the nation, and highly proper in a houfe of parliament, and in all companies here to represent the nation as totally exhaufted, and unable to proceed at all with the war, yet in France this fame language, held by a minifter fent to treat of a peace, might be no fmall argument against the glorious terms of it, which the unparal lelled fucceffes of the war gave the nation the jufteft right to expect. G The AUDITOR, No. XII, cenfures the fuppofed writers of the North Briton for fcurrility and defamation, and tben tells us, that they are adapted by nature to malice, falood, fophiftry, evafion, impudence, and jeandal; that they dath through thick and thin, fparing neither age nor fex, nor the character of any perfon who is employed in the fervice of his king and country: how Atrange are the effects of party spirit, and how true is it, that rage is a short madness! How else could men be perpetually guilty of that, for which they The People who clamour against Peace. they are perpetually blaming others, and even in the fame breath! Of the prime fources of the malignity which appears in the anti-minifterial writers, he gives the following account. B On the 18th of September last, the A grand penfioner voluntarily refigned the feals of office: And why did he refign? Because he was not suffered to ufurpa power unknown to the conftitution; because he was wifely hindered from wrefting out of the hands of the crown the prerogative right of making war, in whatever manner the violence of his paffions fhould direct him. Add to this, that, about the end of May laft, another minister thought proper to retire, because he was not enabled to opprefs the fubject with levies of two millions more, upon a mifreprefentation, that without fuch a fupply the treafury could not go on. that fuggeftion being fully refuted, he complained, that he was betrayed by his collegues in office, and founded a retreat. May every man, who like the former, arrogates to himself an undue influence, be penfioned off; and may every treasurer, who wants to fwell the Exchequer like a distempered Spleen, be betrayed like the latter. But It is alfo obferved, in this paper, that there are in the city of London, a fet of defperate adventurers, who have no capital to fet up with in a fair and honest branch of commerce, and yet have wriggled themselves into the alley, where they drive an uncertain trade upon the strength of mere paper credit; whofe profits depend upon the lye of the day; who give the detail of a battle that was never loft, and rejoice for a victory that was never won. By ftratagems like thefe, they find their account in the troubles of Europe; and in times of peace they know they can rife no higher than the invention of a bloody murder, upon which they dine but very flenderly. All thefe to a man are averfe from terms of pacification; not to mention the very honourable method taken by the E. of Egremont, (fee p. 389.) to prevent roboery and plunder in the alley, fo totally defeated the purposes, for which they procured intelligence from Verfailles of the Duke de Nivernois' appointment, that they have very folid reafons to lafh themfelves into a rage on the prefent occasion. L The race of contracters, fays this writer, will alfo fee the fountain of their riches entirely stopped up. If D G H 415 they have already made large acquifitions of wealth by the favours of government, their ingratitude will operate the more keenly, efpecially if they happen to be Dutchmen, and have had offers, in the exigence of their affairs, of affiftance from the Treasury, the allegiance of thefe people is merely local; their affections are centered in their native dykes, and to fink and raife alternately the public credit of this nation, in order to enrich their foreign correfpondents at the expence of this land, is the fole drift of their policy. From this race of men, nothing but feditious report is to be expected, and indeed whenever I hear of their evil practices, I must own myself heartily rejoiced, as I thence conceive fome flender hope that, being fully de-. tected, the adminiftration will fome time or other determine not to employ them in preference to honest, wellmeaning, true born Britons. Upon the continent there will always be found certain princes of inordinate ambition, turbulent in their politics, and inflamed with a love of war dangerous to the tranquillity of Europe. Deftitute of finances equal to their projects of conqueft, fuch princes may well find their account in that fpirit of quixotifm which has, for more than half a century, made Great Britain the bubble of her allies, under the fpecious pretext of maintaining the ballance of power, while, in fact, he has been exhaufting her blood and treature in fighting the battles of aliens and strangers to her intereft. In proportion as this continental fury abates in this country, fuch peor ambitious states will perceive their fchemes for aggrandizing themselves by our folly, in their wane; and the little agents, the envoys ordinary and extraordinary from thefe poor, but warlike powers, will be at work to excite the minds of Englishmen againít all terms of accomoda. tion. There is a fpecies of men in this country, who confider themselves pof feffed of an hereditary right to the favours of government. One man's father perjured himself upon fuch an occafion in the fervice of the ministry, another got drunk at fuch an election, and a third refufed a particular toast at an affize meeting; hence the title of their fons upon the treatury lift for preferment. But, by the late revolu tion at court, the corruption of their ancestors is no longer a recommendation of thefe gentlemen, who with much 416 Parallel between a Favourite of the Mod and Watt Tyler. nuch repining fee their hopes all blaited, and the peace is therefore ruinous and dishonourable. ་ 1 The mechanicks, who in time of war find a quick demand for their fandry commodities, and the enterprizers in trade to Martinique, Guadaloupe, and A every conquered ifland will álló be loud advocates for the continuance of deftruction. With regard to the latter fet of people, I fhall tell you a hort tory. I happened to fall into converfation with one of them the other day in the city: We are going to have a B vile peace, fir, fays he pray how do you know?-How do I know?Guadaloupe is to be given up, and I have agreed for ten thousand pounds ⚫ worth of goods for that very place. -When did you make this contract, fir?-In the beginning of Auguft Why then, before that day they C might have made peace with your confent-Oh! yes-any thing would have done then." I have great compaffion for the dealers in falt-petre, and the makers of gun-powder. When the havock of human fpecies ceafes, I am forely D grieved to think what must become of that coniderable body. Pray my Là B-fack a few more cities, fpread another alarm upon the coast of France, and blow up thirty or forty thoufand men for the fake of the gun-powder manufacture, otherwife, in my idea, you cannot with any propriety give the world a refpite from the ravages of war. téna, he does not write to fecure, but These are fome of the fources of obloquy, which occur to me at prefent, and, no doubt, the king and council will confider how cruel it is to hop the effusion of human blood, till all there gentlemen can find their account in it. The MONITOR, Saturday, Sept. 11, only tells us that the peace, of which will be a bad one. he does not pretend to know the terms, The BRITON, No. XV. contains a parallel Between the oppofition to government which is now maintained By the friends of the late favourite of the mob, and the infurrection under Wat Tyler and Jack Strate, of which the following extract is a fufficient fpecimen True it is, the inalecontents of our days have hot yet proceeded to open infurrection; perhaps their courage is not fufficiently roufed, nor their caufe fufficiently ftrengthened for fuch an attempt; but, it must be owned, they have exactly followed the footsteps of their anceffors in thofe circumstances we have already mentioned, as well as in divers other particulars. They have taken public exceptions to the proceedings of government, and boldly intrenched upon the king's preroEgative. They have not indeed affembled, and fent a message, giving him to understand they were conte to speak with him about certain important affairs; but, they have freely condemned his conduct, and infitted upon á change of meatures. They havè ftex. dily kept in view the example of Mr Tyler's followers, in directing their chief animofity against the treasurer, and in treating the k-g's mother with the most outrageous indignity. F I tremble to think what will be the fate of our news-papers, and factious writers, Robberies on Finchley-common, deaths and burials of men in very good health, c. will afford the former but a leanty fubfiftence; and as to the latter, I bear their landlords begin to dun them already for their quarter's rent, the panch-houses refuse to score for them, their credit is funk at the fix-penny ordinary, and fresh fubfer iptions will be wanting to pay their debts. With these felf chofen ftatefmen the poor peace mult fuffer greatly; and hould they abule it heartily (as no doubt they will) it will be comillent with their characters; for as Mr Addijon obferves, "they draw their pens in the defence of property, without having any, except, perhaps, in the H copy of a libel, or ballad. One is apt to fufpect, that the paffion for liberty, which appears in a Grub-Areet patriot, arifes only from his apprehenfion of a goal; and that, whatever he may pre. In fome respects, their virtue hath feared a pitch above the patriotifm of former times. Their interpofing in G Hate-affairs is not the effect of oppreffion and defpair, which were the atowed motives of Tier's fatrection, but the spontaneous working of pub. Hc fpirit. They groan under no fpecies of tyranny. They complain of no taxation. On the contrary, they ftrenuously contend for a prosecution of fuch measures as muft accumulate the public burthen; and reject with fcorn all thoughts of a pacification, until they themfelves fhall have an upportunity of fending deputies to the congrefs. Freeborn Englishmen, congrefs. In another particular, their fpirit feems to tranfcend that magna-, nimity which Tyler's bands difplayed. Without having recourfe to arms for their defence; without taking any measures for fecuring themfelves from the penalties of the law; they have A had the courage to fcatter the feeds of fedition in public; to practife every fpecies of defamation; to infult the government, and belie the minif try; to laugh at Bridewell and flagellation; defpife and brave the pillory, and even fet the gallows at defiance. B But their courage is not more admirable than their penetration. Other malcontents have complained only of fuch grievances as they pretend to feel, and condemned fuch meafures as were already known to the Public; but our reformers are too quick in their ap. prehenfion to wait for events in the ordinary courfe of production; they penetrate into the womb of time, and, by a peculiar fagacity, anticipate the birth of incidents. Let us hear with what energy of argument, with what a tide of elocution, thofe confummate politicians inveigh against the peace which is fuppofed to be upon the carpet. Have they confidered the horrors of war? They never thought upon the fubject. Do they understand the true intereft of their country.-They have no intereft in their country.-Do they know the terms of peace which the enemy has offered?-They do not even pretend to guefs.-But the fpirit of patriotifm whispers them in the ear that it is their duty and their birthright, as free-born Englishmen, to revile their p-e, defame his friends, and oppofe his g-t; Jacky Straw affures them it is their privilege to be infolent and refractory; and Bull the parfon declares, that Vox populi eft vox Dei; the voice of the people is the voice of God. с D E F of whom compofed. 417 parish-tax-Not a. farthing. They reverence no king, they fubmit to no law, they belong to no parish. Have they a right to give their voice in any fort of election, or their advice in any affembly of the people? They have no fuch right established by law, and therefore they deduce a right from na ture, inconfiftent with all law, incompatible with every form of government. They confift of that clafs which our neighbours diftinguish by the name of Canaille, forlorn grubs and garetteers, defperate gamblers, tradeimen thrice bankrupt, prentices to journeymen, underftrappers to porters, hungry pettifoggers, bailiffs followers, difcarded draymen, hoftlers out of place, and felons returned from tranfportation. Thefe are the people who proclaim themfelves free born Englishmen, and tranfported with a laudable fpirit of patriotifm, insist upon having a spoke in the wheel of government; who diftribute infamy among the great; calumniate their f-n, afperfe his family; condemn his minifters, criticife his conduct, and publickly declaim upon politicks in coffee-houfes, ale-houfes, in cellars, stalls, in prisons, and the public streets. And indeed, if we reflect that this divifion of the fpecies among us, are neither electing nor elected, neither reprefenting nor reprefented in any national, provincial, municipal, or parochial affembly; it is proper they fhould enjoy fome extraordinary privilege to afcertain their title of freeborn Englishmen. The NORTH BRITON, No. XV. remarks the great difference between the fentiments of mankind during the prefent negociation, and what they were when we were treating with France a few months ago. But this difference, which cannot be denied, is very injurious to the North Briton's caufe, because all that the miniftry have declared about the peace now in Gagitation, is, that the terms are much more favourable to Britain than thofe which were the foundation of the. treaty last year, and which was fo near being concluded when we had no enemy but France to contend with. Let the North Briton, or his patron, or his coadjutors, tell us, if they can, why an oppofition is made now to a better peace than that against which there was no oppofition in the adminiftration of their favourite, except that they, and fuch as they, have excited As thefe reformers have, upon all occafions, affumed the title of freeborn Englifemen, and denominated themselves the good people of England; it will not be amifs to enquire who the individuals are that compofe this refpectable community. Are they perfons of wealth, property, or credit? -No. Have they diftinguished themselves as valuable members of the H common-wealth, by their industry, probity, or learning?-No fuch matter.Do they contribute to the neceffities of the publick, or of the poor, by paying fcot or lot, king's tax or (Gent. Mag. Sept. 1762.) a fpirit |