BUT the most hardy of all this original's pofitions were thefe:-That commerce would, fooner or later, prove the ruin of every nation, where it flourishes to any extent that the parliament was the rotten part of the British conftitution-that the liberty of the prefs was a national evil-and that the boafted inftitution of juries, as managed in England, was productive of fhameful perjury and flagrant injuftice. He obferved, that traffic was an enemy to all the liberal paffions of the foul, founded on the thirft of lucre, a fordid difpofition to take advantage of the neceffities of our fellow creatures. He affirmed, the nature of commerce was fuch, that it could not be fixed or perpetuated, but, having flowed to a certain height, would immediately begin to ebb, and so continue till the channels fhould be left almoft dry; but there was no inftance of the tide's rifing a fecond time to any confiderable influx in the fame nation. Meanwhile, the fudden affluence occafioned by trade, forced open all the fluices of luxury, and overflowed the land with every.fpecies of profligacy and corruption; a total depravity of manners would enfue, and this must be attended with bankruptcy and ruin. He obferved of the parliament, that the practice of buying boroughs, and canvaffing for votes, was an avowed fyftem of venality, already established on the ruins of principle, integrity, faith, and good order; in confequence of which, the elected, and the elector, and, in fhort, the whole body of the people, were equally and univerfally contaminated and corrupted. He affirmed, that, of a parliament thus conftituted, the crown would always have influence enough to fecure a great majority in its dependence, from the great number of pofts, places, and penfions it had to bestow; that fuch a parliament would, as it had already done, lengthen the term of its fitting and authority, whenever the prince should think it for his intereft to continue the representatives; for, without doubt, they had the fame right to protract their authority ad infinitum, as they had to extend it from three to feven years-With a parliament therefore dependent upon the crown, devoted to the prince, and fupported by a standing army, garbled and modelled for the purpose, any king of England may, and probably fome

ambitious fovereign will, totally overthrow all the bulwarks of the conftitution; for it is not to be supposed that a prince of a high spirit will tamely submit to be thwarted in all his meafures, abufed and infulted by a populace of unbridled ferocity, when he has it in his power to crush all oppofition under his feet with the concurrence of the legiflature. He said, he should always confider the liberty of the prefs as a national evil, while it enabled the vileft reptile to foil the luftre of the most fhining merit, and furnished the most infamous incendiary with the means of disturbing the peace, and destroying the good order of the community. He owned, however, that, under due restrictions, it would be a valuable privilege; but affirmed, that, at present, there was no law in England fufficient to reftrain it within proper bounds.

WITH refpect to juries, he expreffed himself to this effect:-Juries are generally compofed of illiterate plebeians, apt to be mistaken, easily misled, and open to finifter influence; for if either of the parties to be tried, can gain over one of the twelve jurors, he has fecured the verdict in his favour; the juryman thus brought over, will, in defpight of all evidence and conviction, generally hold out till his fellows are fatigued, and haraffed, and starved into concurrence; in which case the verdict is unjust, and the jurors are all perjured;-but cafes will often occur, when the jurors are really divided in opinion, and each fide is convinced in oppofition to the other; but no verdict will be received, unless they are unanimous, and they are all bound, not only in confcience, but by oath, to judge and declare according to their conviction. What then will be the confequence? They must either starve in company, or one fide muft facrifice their conscience to their convenience, and join in a verdict which they believe to be false.— This abfurdity is avoided in Sweden, where a bare majority is fufficient; and in Scotland, where two-thirds * of the jury are required to concur in the verdict.

You must not imagine that all these deductions were made on his part, without contradiction on mine.No-the truth is, I found myfelf piqued in point of honour, at his pretending to be so much wiser than his *A mistake-a majority is fufficient in Scotland.

neighbours-I queftioned all his affertions, ftarted innumerable objections, argued and wrangled with uncommon perfeverance, and grew very warm, and even violent in the debate. Sometimes he was puzzled, and once or twice, I think, fairly refuted; but from those falls, he rofe again, like Antæus, with redoubled vigour, till at length I was tired, exhaufted, and really did not know how to proceed, when luckily he dropped a hint, by which he discovered he had been bred to the law; a confeffion which enabled me to retire from the difpute with a good grace, as it could not be suppofed that a man like me, who had been bred to nothing, should be able to cope with a veteran in his own profeffion. I believe, however, that I fhall for fome time continue to chew the cud of reflection upon many obfervations which this original discharged.

WHETHER Our fifter Tabby was really ftruck with his converfation, or is refolved to throw at every thing she meets in the shape of a man, till she can fasten the matrimonial noose, certain it is, she has taken desperate strides towards the affection of Lifmahago, who cannot be faid to have met her half way, though he does not feem altogether infenfible to her civilities-She infinuated more than once, how happy we fhould be to have his company through that part of Scotland which we proposed to vifit, till at length he plainly told us, that his road was totally different from that which we intended to take; that, for his part, his company would be of very little service to us in our progress, as he was utterly unacquainted with the country, which he had left in his early youth, confequently, he could neither direct us in our inquiries, nor introduce us to any family of diftinction. He faid, he was ftimulated by an irrefistible impulse to revifit the paternus lar, or patria domus, though he expected little fatisfaction, inafmuch as he understood that his nephew, the prefent poffeffor, was but ill qualified to fupport the honour of the family-He affured us, however, as we defigned to return by the weft road, that he would watch our motions, and endeavour to pay his refpects to us at Dumfries. Accordingly he took his leave of us at a place half way betwixt Morpeth and Alnwick, and pranced away in great state, VOL. VI.

G g

mounted on a tall, meagre, raw-boned, fhambling grey gelding, without e'er a tooth in his head, the very counter part of the rider; and, indeed, the appearance of the two was fo picturefque, that I would give twenty guineas to have them tolerably reprefented on canvas.

NORTHUMBERLAND is a fine county, extending to the Tweed, which is a pleafant paftoral ftream; but you will be surprised when I tell you that the English fide of that river is neither fo well cultivated nor fo populous as the other. The farms are thinly fcattered, the lands uninclofed, and scarce a gentleman's feat is to be feen in fome miles from the Tweed; whereas the Scots are advanced in crowds to the very brink of the river; fo that you may reckon above thirty good houses in the compafs of a few miles belonging to proprietors whose ancestors had fortified caftles in the fame fituations; a circumstance that fhews what dangerous neighbours the Scotch must have formerly been to the northern counties of England.

OUR domeftic economy continues on the old footing. My fifter Tabby ftill adheres to Methodism, and had the benefit of a fermon at Wefley's meeting in Newcastle; but I believe the paffion of love has in some meafure abated the fervour of devotion, both in her and her woman Mrs Jenkins, about whose good graces there has been a violent conteft betwixt my nephew's valet, Mr Dutton, and my man, Humphry Clinker. Jery has been obliged to interpofe his authority to keep the peace; and to him I have left the difcuffion of that important affair, which had like to have kindled the flames of difcord in the family of

Yours always,

MATT. BRAMBLE.

Tweedmouth, July 15.

IN

To Sir WATKIN PHILLIPS, Bart. at Oxon.

DEAR WAT,

Ν my two laft you had fo much of Lifmahago, that I fuppofe you are glad he is gone off the stage for the prefent. I must now descend to domeftic occurrences.-Love, it seems, is refolved to affert his dominion over all the females of our family-After having practifed upon poor Liddy's heart; and played ftrange vagaries with our aunt Mrs Tabitha, he began to runriot in the affections of her woman, Mrs Winifred Jenkins, whom I have had occafion to mention more than once in the course of our memoirs. Nature intended Jenkins for fomething very different from the character of her mistress; yet cuftom and habit have effected a wonderful refemblance betwixt them in many particulars. Win, to be fure, is much younger, and more agreeable in her perfon; fhe is likewife tender-hearted. and benevolent, qualities for which her mistress is by no means remarkable, no more than fhe is for being of a timorous difpofition, and much fubject to fits of the mother, which are the infirmities of Win's conftitution; but then she seems to have adopted Mrs Tabby's manper with her caft cloaths,-She dreffes and endeavours to look like her mistress, although her own looks are much more engaging-She enters into her schemes of economy, learns her phrafes, repeats her remarks, imitates her ftile in fcolding the inferior fervants, and, finally fubfcribes implicitly to her fyftem of devotionThis, indeed, the found the more agreeable, as it was in a great measure introduced and confirmed by the miniftry of Clinker, with whofe perfonal merit fhe feems to have been ftruck ever fince he exhibited the pattern of his naked fkin at Marlborough.

NEVERTHELESS, though Humphry had this double hank upon her inclinations, and exerted all his power to maintain the conqueft he had made, he found it impoffible to guard it on the fide of vanity, where poor Win was as frail as any female in the kingdom. In hort, my rafcal, Dutton, profeffed himfelf her admirer,