put me upon your clear fchoolmafter larnin, and there I am even with

you.

1ft Com. I am fatisfied with the gentleman. He has miffed but one question, and that was fuch a metatifical one, that it would have puzzled a Jefuit himself to have anfwered it. Gentleman, fhall the mafter withdraw a few minutes, for our further confultation?

[Exit Mafter. zd Com. I am much pleased with the stranger. He appears to be a man of wonderful parts; and I fhall cheerfully agree to employ him.

3d Com. For my part, I don't think we fhall find a cheaper mafter; and I move for engaging him at once. Par. Gentlemen, how long will you be blind to your own intereft? I can fay with you, that I am perfectly fatisfied that the man is, in his profeffion, emphatically what he calls himfelf by name, an ignoramus; and totally incapable of inftructing our children. You know not who he is, or what he is; whether he be a thief, a liar, or a drunkard. The very terms on which he offers himfelf, ought to operate as a fufficient objection against him. I am fenfible that my vote will now be of no avail, fince you are all agreed. I have been for years ftriving to procure a man of abilities and morals, fuitable for the employment; and fuch a one I had obtained; but, alas! we were unworthy of him. afperfed his character; invented a multitude of falfehoods; magnified every trifling error in his conduct; and even converted his virtues into vices. We réfused to give him that pecuniary reward which his fervices demanded; and he, knowing his own worth and our unworthinefs, has left us forever.

We

A Com. Come, come, Parfon, it is eafy for falary men to talk of liberality, and to vote away money which they never earned; but it won't do. The new master, I dare engage, will do as well, or better than the old one. Landlord, call him in for his answer.

Par. I proteft against your proceeding, and withdraw myself forever from the committee. But I muft

tell you, your children will reap the bitter confequences of fuch injudicious measures. It has always been furprising to me that people in general are more willing to pay their money for any thing elfe, than for "the one thing needful," that is, for the education of their children. Their tailor must be a workman, their carpenter a workman, their hairdreffer a workman, their hoftler a workman; but the inftructor of their children muft-work cheap! [Exit Parfon.

Re-enter SCHOOL-MASTER.

ift Com. We have agreed to employ you, Sir; and have only to recommend to you, not to follow the fteps of your predeceffor. This is an "age of reafon ;" and we do not imagine our children fo ftupid, as to need the rod to quicken their ideas, or fo vicious, as to require a moral leffon from the ferule. Be gentle and accommodating, and you have nothing to fear.

Land. I'll answer for him. He's as generous and merry a lad as I've had in my houfe this many a day.

EXTRACT FROM MR, PITT'S SPEECH, IN ANSWER TO LORD MANSFIELD, ON THE AFFAIR OF MR. WILKES, 1770.

MY LORDS,

TH

HERE is one plain maxim, to which I have invariably adhered through life; that in every queftion in which my liberty or my property were concerned, I should confult and be determined by the dictates of common fenfe. I confefs, my lords, that I am apt to distruft the refinements of learning, because I have feen the ableft and most learned men equally liable to deceive themfelves, and to miflead others..

The condition of human nature would be lamentable indeed, if nothing lefs than the greatest learning and talents, which fall to the share of so small a number of men, were fufficient to direct our judgment and

our conduct. But Providence has taken better care of our happiness, and given us, in the fimplicity of common fenfe, a rule for our direction, by which we fhall never be mifled.

I confefs, my lords, I had no other guide in drawing up the amendment, which I fubmitted to your confideration. And before I heard the opinion of the noble lord who fpoke laft, I did not conceive, that it was even within the limits of poffibility for the greatest human genius, the moft fubtle understanding, or the acuteft wit, fo ftrangely to mifreprefent my meaning; and to give it an interpretation fo entirely foreign from what I intended to exprefs, and from that fenfe, which the very terms of the amendment plainly and diftinctly carry with them.

If there be the fmalleft foundation for the cenfure thrown upon me by that noble lord; if, either expressly or by the moft diftant implication, I have faid or infinuated any part of what the noble lord has charged me with, discard my opinions forever; difcard the motion with contempt.

My lords, I must beg the indulgence of the House. Neither will my health permit me, nor do I pretend to be qualified, to follow that learned lord minutely through the whole of his argument. No man is better acquainted with his abilities and learning, nor has a greater refpect for them, than I have. I have had the pleasure of fitting with him in the other Houfe, and always liftened to him with attention. I have not now loft a word of what he said, nor did I ever. Upon the prefent question, I meet him without fear.

The evidence, which truth carries with it, is fuperior to all arguments; it neither wants the fupport, nor dreads the oppofition of the greatest abilities. If there be a fingle word in the amendment to justify the interpretation, which the noble lord has been pleased to give it, I am ready to renounce the whole. Let it be read, my lords; let it fpeak for itself. In what inftance does it interfere with the privileges of the

Houfe of Commons? In what refpect does it question their jurisdiction, or fuppofe an authority in this House to arraign the juftice of their fentence?

I am fure that every lord who hears me, will bear me witness that I faid not one word touching the merits of the Middlesex election. Far from conveying any opinion upon that matter in the amendment, I did not, even in difcourfe, deliver my own fentiments upon it. I did not fay that the Houfe of Commons had done either right or wrong; but when his Majefty was pleased to recommend it to us to cultivate unanimity amongst ourselves, I thought it the duty of. this Houfe, as the great hereditary council of the crown, to ftate to his Majefty the diftracted condition of his dominions, together, with the events which had de-. ftroyed unanimity among his fubjects.

But, my lords, I stated thofe events merely as facts, without the smallest addition either of censure or of opinion. They are facts, my lords, which I am not only convinced are true, but which I know are indifputably true.

Do they not tell us, in fo many words, that Mr. Wilkes, having been expelled, was thereby rendered incapable of ferving in that Parliament? and is it not their refolution alone, which refufes to the fubject his common right? The amendment fays farther, that the electors of Middlesex are deprived of their free choice of a reprefentative. Is this a fact, my lords? or have I given an unfair reprefentation of it? Will any man prefume to affirm that Colonel Luttrell is the free choice of the electors of Middlefex? We all know the contrary.

We all know that Mr. Wilkes (whom I mention without either praife or cenfure) was the favourite of the county, and chofen, by a very great and acknowledged majority, to reprefent them in Parliament. If the noble lord diflikes the manner in which these facts are stated, I shall think myself happy in being advised by him how to alter it. I am very little anxious about

terms, provided the fubftances be preferved; and these are facts, my lords, which I am fure will always retain their weight and importance, in whatever form of language they are described.

The conftitution of this country has been openly invaded in fact, and I have heard, with horror and aftonishment, that very invafion defended upon principle. What is this myfterious power, undefined by law, unknown to the fubject; which we must not approach without awe, nor fpeak of without reverence; which no man may question, and to which all men must submit? My lords, I thought the flavifh doctrine of paffive obedience had long fince been exploded: and, when our kings were obliged to confefs that their title to the crown, and the rule of their government, had no other foundation than the known laws of the land, I never expected to hear a divine right, or a divine infallibility, attributed to any other branch of the legiflature.

My lords, I beg to be understood. No man refpects the House of Commons more than I do, or would contend more ftrenuously than I would, to preferve to them their just and legal authority. Within the bounds prefcribed by the conftitution, that authority is neceffary to the well-being of the people: beyond that line, every exertion of power is arbitrary, is illegal; it threatens tyranny to the people, and deftruction to the State. Power without right is the most odious and detestable object that can be offered to the human imagination : it is not only pernicious to those who are fubject to it, but tends to its own destruction.