during the county election: and I can affure you, Mr. Baldwin, that though he was one of the luftieft men in that country, and above fix feet high, he could scarce put his head out of doors in the course of the whole controverfy. You, I am told, are a tight built little black man, but by no means fuch an able-bodied printer as my friend in the country. If you cannot weild the quarter-ftaff of party with cafe, and have not power fairly to cudgel your enemies into good humour, believe me, Sir, 'tis dangerous to hobble along on the unequal and unteady crutches of two oppofite factions. Your fugitive fcribblers are unknown, and leave you to ftand buff to the Publick for their labours. On the contrary, the authors of the feveral political papers now extant, keep the names of their printers as fecret as thofe of their furgeons: and as to themselves, they are a match for any thing. The club of the Monitor, is, I am told, more formida ble than his pen; the Briton, they fay, is a rawboned Scotfman; the Auditor a tall Irifhman; and the North Briton, or the world hugely belies him, has a broader pair of fhoulders than any author militant in this great metropolis.

After all, Mr. Baldwin, I believe you are a mighty good fort of man, and mean no harm. If.

the

the people of this town will write nothing but Politicks, and read nothing but Politicks, you are reduced of neceffity to print nothing but Politicks : because your stationer must be paid, your hawkers must be fee'd, nay you must give your very devil his due, and have an hot joint every day and a pudding on Sunday. Yet cannot I forbear admiring the publick spirit of our authors; who while, their all is at stake, while the very nature of literary property is in queftion, neglecting to refute the ftrange and unnatural doctrine, that "an author has no right to his own work," are all up in arms on another occafion, fettling the Ministry and agitating the Preliminaries of Peace. For my own part, though I have been equally follicited by both parties, and though you are ready to infert my arguments on either fide of the question, yet I am refolved, like Scrub, to say nothing, Pro nor Con, till we have a Peace. -In the mean time as nothing but Politicks will go down, to comply in fome measure with the humour of the town, fuppose I oblige you and your readers, with a critical review of our political writers. I do not mean to give a weekly detail of their arguments, to fcrutinize their characters, or criticise particular parts of their productions. Heaven forbid !-all I

VOL. 11.

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intend

intend is to draw their general characters; and perhaps, if I happen to be in the right vein for fuch. a whim, to give a short sketch of the style and manner of each of them. And fo, Mafter Baldwin, till you hear from me again I am,

Your humble fervant,

RHAPSODISTA,

To the PRINTER of the ST. JAMES'S CHRONICLE.

Mr. Baldwin,

G

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1762.

OING along the streets the other day, meditating on the fubject I opened to you in my laft, and confidering into what form I should throw my reflections on the prefent race of polical writers, I ftumbled by mere accident on the following M. S. which I muft beg you to commit to the prefs, juft as I found it, under the title of THE NORTH BRITON EXRTAORDINARY, June 4, 1762.

"AN extraordinary circumftance is a fufficient apology for a paper extraordinary. The date. of this effay will immediately denote the fubject of

it, and fhew that I mean to congratulate the Publick in general, and my countrymen in particular, on the occafion of his Majefty's Birth-day. The North-Briton is not one of those low fcribblers, who like that flave the Briton, or that prostitute the Auditor, mean to write themselves into a place or a penfion; nor will he be reftrained from delivering his fentiments by the fear of fire, pillory, or imprisonment. The Law fhall be his protection; and while Lord Mansfield fhall prefide as Lord Chief Justice in the Court of King's Bench, the North Briton fhall dread no oppreffion.

"On this occafion, as well as on every other, I fhall study to speak out. I have not been used to be a respecter of perfons. I do not, after the manner of the old patriots in the Craftsman, make ufe of nick-names. The ingenious devices of Lord Gawkee, Colonel Catiline, and Colonel Squintum, Lord Gothamstow, Captain Iago Annifeed, and Parfon Bruin, and Parfon Brawn, I leave to the Briton and Auditor. I use no afterisks; the names of Dukes, and Lords, and Minifters, are written at full length, for I am above all evafion. Wherefore, without further preface or preamble, I gladly feize the opportunity of this great anniyerfary, to congratulate thofe of our inclining

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inclining, that we have now a Prince upon the throne, who is an abfolute Jacobite.

"However paradoxical fuch an affertion may appear, I have no doubt of being able to demonftrate it as clearly as any propofition in Euclid. Imprimis, the groundwork and first principle of Jacobitifm, is to cherish the warmest fentiments for the family of Stuart. Lord Bute (I dare venture to affert it) is of the Stuart family. He is himself a Stuart. He cannot deny it. It is a circumftance which minifterial advocates may palliate, but which, like that of his being a true Scot, they cannot diffemble. Yet, Scot and Stuart as he is, we have feen him Secretary of State, and we now fee him at the head of the Treasury: I fay, we see a Scotsman (the reader may recollect I have written a whole paper on this fubject) at the head of the Treasury. There is a paffage in Archbishop Spotswood, p. 180 by which it appears, that during the troubles of that condemned Stuart, Charles I. there was at one time in his Majefty's Treafury, the immenfe fum of feven fhillings and fix-pence.-A fum that might almoft rival the contents of the Bank of Edinburgh, which fometimes difcounts bills to nearly that amount Yet Lord Bute is at the head of a treasury, drawing fchemes to raise at one time millions