fhip. If the manner in which I have expreffed myfelf of him, fhall be the means of preventing this, it will be confidered by me as a very great lofs. But I neither can nor will exprefs myself otherwife. Indeed, not to speak of France, and much as I admire the preface to Bellendenus, I wifh the Doctor, with his great warmth, and the little pains he takes of information, would abstain from politics altogether. Perhaps even wholly from controverfy. There are many things, very many indeed, which the Doctor might regret having been faid in the republication of tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian. Yet in all his writings, a learning and a mind is difplayed which establish his claim both to admiration and esteem; only let his talents be employed upon their proper objects. I have no more knowledge of Greek than what belongs to a well educated gentleman. I am not, therefore, entitled to quote it fo profufely as Dr. Parr. It is his more immediate bufinefs. But he will allow me to apply to him (he will profit by it as he himself thinks fit) what a great critic, whom I was taught early to admire, has faid of Plato. The critic is fpeaking of the style, but I mean at prefent only the Doctors matter, and chiefly what he fays about France. Εγω τὴν μὲν δεινότητα τῇ ἀνδρὸς πάνυ ἄγαμαὶ τε καὶ τεθαύμακα. τῆς δάπειρο καλίας αὐτὸν ἐδεπώποτ' εζήλωσα τῆς ἐν τῆις ἐπιθέσεις κατασκευξις, καὶ πάντων ἥκιστα ἐν δὶς ἂν ἐις πολιτικὰς ὑποθέσεις συγκαθεὶς, ἐγκώμια καὶ ψόγες, κατηγορίας τε καὶ ἀπολογίας ἐπιχειρῇ γράφειν. ἕτερος γάρ τις αυτε γίνεται τότε καὶ καταισχυνει τὴν φιλόσοφον ἀξίωσιν.

It is ftrange to think whence Dr. Parr has taken his information about French affairs. He tells

us

us himself that it is derived from Mr. Paine, whose detail of the tranfactions in France he applauds as masterly, though he diffents, and greatly, from some of his reasonings. I must tell the Doctor very plainly (as I muft all the reft of the world who do not know it already), that this man's hiftorical account is wholly false, either by what he mentions being in itself untrue, or by the fuppreffion of what is neceffary to make the truth complete. This can be made out from the very fources (the democratic publications of the day) to which Paine refers, and whence he draws his fcanty and confufed information.

With fuch an inftructor, it is no wonder that the Doctor talks fo fillily about this matter as he does. Any perfon, the moft diftantly converfant in the affairs of France, can fcarcely avoid fmiling at the manner in which he speaks. It is worse than infantine. One altogether lofes fight (for a moment that is to fay----the thing could not laft) of the atrocity of the scenes to which he alludes, when we hear him talking of those wife and mighty men whose abilities and courage (according to the Doctor) faved France at, and after the flight and capture of its unhappy fovereigns. There is nothing in the Dunciad (the best mockheroic poem that ever was, or probably ever will be written) that can equal the paragraph in which the Doctor celebrates these heroes. It would be cruel to ask him what is become of them and their

conftitution.

conftitution. They were worthy of each other. At the fame time, fome of them do not seem to think fo; for they are now employed as daylabourers in the conftruction of another.

I believe the present time is juft as good as any other for faying a little about the affairs of France. Upon this fubject I have collected a great many materials, with different views at different times; not of the subject itself (upon that no man's opinions could vary) but as to the employment of the materials. It is probable they may now lie by me for many years. I could not, were I to begin now, make fuch a collection of facts. If they ever fhall be published, they will be accompanied with their vouchers and documents. In the mean time, as to what I am now to notice of the original beginnings of the troubles in France, and fome of the chief fubfequent transactions, I must requeft the public to take them upon my word. At the fame time, if any one perfon fhall publicly queftion the authenticity of any thing I ftate (in the way of fact; I shall never answer arguments), I moft certainly fhall, in that cafe, take the trouble of publicly proving that authenticity.

In the mean time, before proceeding to this detail, I fhall begin with fome fingular enough documents, regarding the fituation of France feveral years antecedent to the Revolution.

I am not going out of my way in entering upon this matter. It belongs much to the subject of this addrefs, gentlemen. It is now openly given out by many perfons, that what is now doing in France differs totally and effentially from what was accomplished in the firft periods of the Revolution. The purpose of giving this out is very plain. At all events, it would be no justification of the original French measures. But the truth is, that the measures, the men, the purpofes, and the means, have been all along the fame. This is an awful confideration to you reformers.

Dr. Parr, with a foolish fimplicity, has faid, that the calling together the third eftate (I fuppofe he means the three eftates) was a demonstration that France was in a fituation the most desperate, that her evils were intolerable, and almost incurable. His own words are: "That the maladies of France "had reached almoft the laft ftages of malignity, " and threatened a speedy diffolution of all go"vernment, it were folly to controvert. The very act of calling the third eftate, is a proof "that the paltry tricks of political cunning, and "the ordinary refources of political wifdom, were

แ

quite exhausted." And afterwards: "In France, "the heavy preffure of the regal power clogged "the firft efforts of reformation." Dr. Parr fhall be refuted by Dr. Price.

In the fecond tract on civil liberty, and the war with America, Dr. Price fays, "A new reign pro

duced a new minister of finance in France, whose "name will be refpected by pofterity for a fet of

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measures, as new to the political world, as any "late difcoveries in the fyftem of nature have "been to the philofophical world: Doubtful in "their operation, as all untried measures must "be, but diftinguished by their tendency to lay "a folid foundation for endless peace, induftry, " and a general enjoyment of the gifts of nature, "arts and commerce. The edicts iffued during "his administration, exhibit indeed a phenomenon "of the most extraordinary kind. An abfolute

king, rendering a voluntary account to his fubjects, "and exciting his people to think; a right which "it has been the bufinefs of all abfolute princes, and "their minifters, to extinguish, In thefe edicts, the king declared, in the moft diftinct terms against

a bankruptcy, &c.; while the minifter applied "himself to increase every public refource, by 66 principles more liberal than France, or any part of

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Europe, ever had in ferious contemplation. It is "much to be regretted, that the oppofition he "met with, and the intrigues of a court, fhould "have deprived the world of thofe lights which "must have resulted from the example of fuch an "adminiftration."

Dr. Price, however, confoles himfelf for the difmiffion of Turgot (the perfon of whom he was speaking), by the nomination of his fucceffor.

"After