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governments, not on a queftion of abufe, but at queftion of competency and a queftion of title."

from this that no man of fenfe, in any matter of importance, will either take or feek the highway of error. deliberately, and from more authentic fources, communications in this way, may indeed have their ufe, checked both by what has been already learned, and by the natural circumstances of probability. Under this limitation they are admiflible, and may be serviceable. In any other way they deferve no regard. But this is not the cafe with belief at large. People, in general, obtain information in no other manner than this, and they are accustomed to credit what comes to them in the ufual channel. In the common affairs of common life, as no other is to be had, so they think that in all affairs no other is needed, Besides this is the very age of anecdote. It is a fort of luxu ry, and an artificial fondness is thus added to the natural. Hence, whether facility of reception be confidered, or difficulty of detection (and betwixt these there is also a strong reac tion), the man who will refolutely fet himfelf to be a liar, and especially in fecret and scandalous anecdote, cannot fail of obtaining at least fome credit and doing fome mischief, and most probably of both a very great deal. Nor will a mixture of the marvellous (even to a great degree) impair this credit. In many instances it will increase it,

any information in this way. "It is After information is obtained more

In this manner, a publication fuch as the Jockey Club, is, perhaps, the best literary concern that a person can be engaged in. If the man who writes it be not fo fhabbily poor, as to be wholly at the mercy of his bookfeller, he ought very foon to put himself in a fituation to be above any other neceffity of telling falfehoods all his life again, unless what arifes from the neceffity of his nature. It is certainly a very lucrative thing. If, indeed, he be thus miferably poor, it will be very

In another paffage it is faid, "Government is "not made in virtue of natural rights, which may " and

right in his employers (that is right for their own interest) to keep him fo. They may feed him chained in the ftable. And, indeed, for this they could not be much blamed; unless that, after all, the confinement may be useless, as there being little more labour than mere copying, the business might be done by almost any body who was not too apt to blush at an untruth.

I have dwelt too long upon these perfons, the one with, and the other without a name. But as I never wish to fpeal of Mr. Paine afterwards, where I can poffibly avoid it, it may not be wrong juft now to fay all of him that I mean at any time to fay in general.

I cannot bring myself to think that he is a man of any abilities, even in the low caft to which he belongs. It is evident (though fometimes it is clear that he wilfully mistakes) that from mere ftupidity he cannot comprehend the meaning of sufficiently fimple propofitions. What Dr. Parr fays of his talents (with all the reftrictions) is a feverer libel than I would choose to pronounce upon the Doctor's judgment. It is no doubt true that Paine here and there expreffes himself forcibly. But fo does a fifhwoman at Billingfgate. He is far from deferving the better part of the character given of a raf cal of old by Cicero. Part of it applies exactly enough. Longe autem poft natos homines improbiffimus C. Servilius Glaucia, fed peracutus, et callidus, cum primifque ridiculus. I think he is better represented by a character of still more antiquity, and his interference, I trust, will in no long time be univerfally attended with the fame effects. The perfonage I mean is Therfites. Of him Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus fays: Τότο καὶ ἡ Ὁμήρε τέχνη, επειδή γαρ ἑώρα τὸ τρατόπεδον ἀγανακτῶντας ὑπὲρ * Αχιλλέως πρὸς Ἀγαμέμνονα, καὶ διὰ τᾶτο ἡ προθύμως ἔχοντας συμμαχῶν, ἀλλ ̓ ἀπαλλακτικῶς ἐπὶ τῶν πατρίδων, ἠθέλησε λῦσαι τὰ ὑπὲρ ̓Αχιλλέως δίκαια, ἀνίσησιν ἐν αὐτῷ συνήγορον ἐπίφθονον, γελοῖον, ἵν ἐν τῇ τῇ συνηγόρε κακια ἀφανισθῆ τὸ δίκαιον τῇ πράγματος. Perhaps it may be thought very foolith to

quote

and do exist in total independence of it, and ex ift in much greater clearnefs, and in a much greater degree of abftract perfection, but their "abstract perfection is their practical defect." And again, The reftraints on men, as well as "their liberties, are to be reckoned among their rights, But as the liberties and the reftrictions vary with times and circumstances, and admit "of infinite modifications, they cannot be fettled upon any abstract rule, and nothing is fo foolish as to discuss them upon that principle."

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་

quote Greek when speaking about Mr. Paine. But I am speaking about Mr. Paine to Dr. Parr, and to you, gentlemen. Dr. Parr fees that far from being of opinion with him, that Mr. Paine can make the worse appear the better reason, I think that the better reason, should it by any strange accident fall into his hands, would infallibly appear the worse. What Therfites, however, in a good caufe did, Mr. Paine will foon do in his bad caufe; in this country, at least, so long renowned for genuine natural feeling and plain manly fense; he will have rendered it ftill more contemptible to our understandings, and still more difgufting to our fentiments.

By the bye, the Latin tranflation of the Greek quoted above is fo admirably stupid as to be truly diverting, that is," after reading the Greek, for the Latin of itself is unintelligi ble. Reifke, whose edition I have, fays that he allowed the Latin to stand juft as he found it in Hudfon. Reiske fays alfo (and I think he is right) that Greek books should be published without any Latin tranflation. I am fure that in fome cafes the tranflation is more difficult than the original. But Reifke fays another thing, (in which I hope he is wrong) that no good edition of a Greek author has ever been published by an Englishman. If he is right, I wish Dr. Parr (giv ing up politics) would make him wrong.

And to quote no more (for the thing would be endless), the fame book fays: "The pretended "rights of these theorists are all extremes, and in

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proportion as they are metaphyfically true, they "are morally and politically falfe. The rights of "men are in a fort of middle, incapable of defini"tion, but not impoffible to be difcerned. The

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rights of men in governments are their advan"tages, and thefe are often in balances between

differences of good; in compromises sometimes "between good and evil, and fometimes between " evil and evil. Political reafon is a computing principle, adding, fubtracting, multiplying, and dividing, morally and not metaphyfically, or "mathematically, true moral denominations.' The coincidence, the almost identity between these paffages and those which have been quoted from the letter to the sheriffs of Bristol, is fo ftriking, and there are so many others of the fame defcription to be found in all Mr. Burke's works, that I have fometimes been ready to wonder, that, among the many accufations against this gentleman, nobody ever yet took it in his head to charge him with want of genius aud imagination, from his so often faying over again the fame things. It would be a charge much more eafily made out than that of inconsistency.

My friend Mr. Mackintosh has here got himself into a strange hobble. His enlightened advocate of bumanity and freedom maintains the very fame pro

pofitions

pofitious in the work from which he obtains this title, that are expressly, and by name, and at much length, combated by my friend when found in the book on the Revolution. Particularly that maxim which my friend confiders as destructive of the grand theoretic principle of the ci-devant French Constitution, that the abstract perfection of liberty is its real fault, is the maxim of the letter to the fheriffs of Bristol, and only repeated in the Reflections on the Revolution in France. This fhews how much deliberation is neceffary before venturing upon approbation and praife.

It must, however, be confeffed (in this parallel between the opinions on government held in France and Englahd, antecedent to this revolution) that some men in England, and not democratifts, were not juft of the fame mind with my friend as to Mr. Burke's doctrines in this letter to the sheriffs of the city he reprefented in Parliament. Of this number was the Earl of Abingdon, who wrote a pamphlet of no lefs than fixty-four pages against this celebrated letter. His Lordship gives the very highest praises to Mr. Burke, but he thinks his principles of government to be, in many inftances, adverfe to freedom. The noble Lord, however, feems to have adopted this opinion from a confiderable confufion of thought (yet there are fome not bad things in his pamphlet), and from not being able exactly to comprehend what Mr. Burke plainly enough fays. The Earl

makes