tion can be contented with a fyftem of government fo loose and fo depraved (for a change of hands and uncertainty of measures feem now reduced to a fyftem) much more if they can applaud the levity and weakness that only varies their distress, the prospect before us will be almost desperate. If they can be habituated to fee with indifference their most effential interests made the sport of ignorance, of vanity, and avarice, without any steady direction from the crown, what hope will remain of ever recovering from anarchy and confufion. To fay the truth, fuch base fupineness will neither deferve compaffion nor relief. Sir, no man can feel more intimately than I do for the afflictions with which the best of fovereigns is furrounded and oppreffed. Anxious as he is for the happiness of his people, what muft he fuffer at being involved in the distractions of a worthless tribe, who only contend with one another in what manner they can moft torment their master and ruin his fubjects. It is no violation of duty and affection to him to declare loudly, what his gracious heart is but too fenfible of WE ARE ILL GOVERNED. A good Englishman may and will be attached to the perfon of a good Prince, while he beholds the conduct of his fervants with abhorrence. He will lament the misfortune of his Sovereign, and confider it as a part of his own.

But let me haften to the great object, which I had in view in writing this paper. It is in vain for us to diffemble any longer, or to conceal our fitua tion from ourselves. We have hitherto voluntarily fhut our eyes to the accumulated ruin that has been gathering round us. A debt, of which few men can form an exact conception, although we easily repeat the words that defcribe it;-the whole laborious part of our people driven by penury to despair, and ready with a strong hand to violate, perhaps, wholly to fubvert the laws;-our foreign commerce

underfold

underfold and perifhing in every market in Europe

one moft confiderable branch of it (formerly the great fupport of our interior currency) upon the point of final diffolution ;-the crown of Great Britain infulted, and the moft folemn treaties with us arbitrarily violated by the most abject court in EuFope, notwithstanding that their very existence depends upon the protection of this country;—a total lofs of weight and dignity in our transactions with foreign powers.

Evils fo numerous, and of fuch magnitude, require but one addition to make the ftate of this kingdom compleatly calamitous. If we had a hope of ever being extricated from them, this weak, unfteady, miferable administration of affairs at home would deprive us of it. How fhall a monftrous debt be diminifhed?-How fhall the diftreffes of the bulk of the people be relieved, or the fatal confequences of their defpair prevented?-How fhall interior indufury or foreign commerce be revived, if the whole government of the nation be relaxed, which must be the cafe as long as it is committed to men new to bufinefs, difunited among themselves, incapable of forming any fixed general plan, or of purfuing any determined fyftem of meafures; and whofe abilities, if they had any, could never, under fuch circumstances of weakness and distraction, operate with fuccefs. These reflections, are not the exaggerations of a heated fancy. Every man, who will permit himself to examine them for a moment, will be fatisfied that they are but too well founded. What then must be done? What defence can be opposed to fuch complicated ruin? A erifis like this demands that the two great bodies of the legislature fhould affume the exercise of the most honourable and moft important duty of their office. They are not called together merely to prefent addreffes cf humble thanks for benefits not

received

received, or to grant money for fervices not ac counted for, or to pafs acts of indemnity for un warrantable stretches of prerogative. Thefe, how ever ufeful, are not the only objects of their duty. No, by their inftitution they are affembled to advise their Sovereign, if, indeed, there be yet room for advice. When every thing that can concern a great nation is at stake, they are not to be overfcrupulous of pointing out to fo good a Prince in what manner his prerogative in the choice of his fervants, might have been better exercised. It is not to be doubted but that a firm and dutiful remonftrance upon the state of the nation, from the two Houses of Parliament, would be attended with a falutary effect; nor is it difficult to imagine, what the terms and purport of it might be.

But if the legislative body should neglect to take a step fo neceffary and fo conftitutional, what alternative will remain? The cafe has happened, and our conftitution fuppofes it may happen again. When the government is become totally weak or oppreffive ;-when protection, refused on one side, has loofened the compact on the other;—and when, in fo alarming a conjuncture, the legislative powers are filent and inactive; the collective body of the people will re-affume their natural rights; and, fince the cafe can neither be supposed nor provided for by any written law, they will be directed by the great original law of felf-prefervation. Much will be hazarded; but like their glorious ancestors, they will redress the conftitution. May this ftruggle, or rather may the indifpenfable neceffity of it, be far removed. VINDEX.

The fubject continued.

INDEX's letter was filled with melancholy apprehenfions for the public fafety, drawn from the apparent weakness and diftraction of the

councils

's

councils by which we were then governed: but, fince that letter was published, the ftate of things has been confiderably altered. A change* has happened, which, but a few days ago, we had little reason to expect. The noblehimself, to whofe prudence and patriotism we are indebted for it, either had, or meant that we should believe he had, a very different plan under confideration: it was impoffible he could foresee the event which has now taken place, unless he was always fecretly determined to reserve this for his laft refource. There was lately no prospect of harmony among his principal fervants, or of any fteady direction in government. We had every thing to fear from a weak, divided administration. If these were evils fo alarming as we have feen represented, we have now fufficient reafon to rejoice, and to congratulate ourselves upon feeing the cause of them removed. A compact of private friendship, and a strict union of political interefts, lately declared, though perhaps, not lately formed, between the and the of- - gives us all poffible reason to believe that the management of public affairs is now fettled upon a firm and folid foundation. If we have at this time any dangers to apprehend, they are certainly of a very different nature from thofe with which the former divifions of the two great men have threatened us. I doubt not they are closely united, and will remain fo in fpite of all the oppofition of a numerous faction, or the vain jealousies of a fufpicious people. The of

of

cannot be too much admired for his prudence, in widening the bottom of his adminiftration. He has taken in the whole kingdom of Scotland, and for the fake of public good, has gloriously facrificed

*This change was the turning out Lord Edgcumbe, and others, at the beginning of December 1766.

all

all his refentments, real or fuppofed, to the refpectable chief of that antient nation. Nor, indeed, is this the only facrifice he has made with the fame laudable view. The principle of public neceffity, on which he hazarded a violation of the laws of the land, has fufficiently juftified him, at leaft in his own mind, in the accidental violation of many other laws. Every candid man will, I think, readily agree with him, that neither confiftency of conduct, nor repeated declarations, nor public decency, nor the vain opinion of the world, are to be regarded, when the first of all objects, the falus populi is in queftion. But of this hereafter. We may now rejoice in the well-founded hope that, for the future, we fhall be uniformly governed. The twohaving but one intereft, will, undoubtedly, agree in one plan of administration, as well as in a total exclufion of thofe factious noblemen, who, from their rank and fortune, might think themfeves entitled to some share of power as well as place; and whose ungovernable ambition might, perhaps, interrupt the uniformity with which the two tend to govern this country. Under their direction the other departments of the state may be fafely committed to natives of Ireland and Scotland, who, befides their pliancy in the tranfaction of bufinefs, have acquired an intereft, almost equal to a natural one in this country, and a fort of prefcriptive right to be employed in governing it. As to the families of Cavendish, Ruffel, Bentinck and Grenville, it is plain that their principles favour too much of revolutions, to be trufted with any fhare in a fixed and steady administration; and, indeed, one would think that the care of their overgrown eftates would furnish them with fufficient employment, and prevent their meddling in matters they have fo little concern in. TheThe of's pian, taken in this view, is full of fpirit and patriotifm.

-in

There