wages of iniquity, the execrable wages of an hireling affaffin. And how har dened, how determined the preparation you made for that bloody work! day after day projecting the fame defign, till at laft deliberately putting on the ruffian frock and blackened face, you daringly entered the doors of the deceafed; and in his own houfe murdered him, with every circumftance of favage barbarity: yet he had never done the leaft wrong to you, not the fmalleft provocation or offence. The unfortunate man is now in the grave, and in two days you will be as cold and lifeless as he. And how different your departure! By your bloody hand he was wickedly murdered. You for that murder will justly die: it is now my duty to pronounce that dreadful fentence, an office which to me is very painful. I feel for the melancholy condition you are in, who are fo foon to die by the hands of justice; but how little did you feel for the poor man you murdered! Friday next, the day after to-morrow, will in this world be your laft; but think of the more dreadful day to come, when you will appear before a more awful tribunal, before the Great Judge of all mankind. Think how you will ftand before him, covered over with the blood of fel

your

low creature, whom you fo wickedly murdered, moft daringly prefuming to deftroy that life which the Almighty gave, and which he alone had a right to take away. You have now but two days to live, and in that fhort time have much work to do. I therefore mott earnestly intreat you to employ every moment that is left you in imploring God's mercy and forgiveness, that your foul may efcape that dreadful punishment, which laits through all eternity. At this bar you mult expect no mercy. The fentence of the law will moft certainly be executed upon you; and that fentence is, "That you must be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence on Friday next to the place of execution; that you be there hanged by the neck till you are dead; and that your body afterwards b. delivered to the furgeons to be diffected." And the Lord have mercy on your foul."

On Friday about twelve o'clock they were conveyed to execution by the theriff, and between one and two they were all turned off. Morris was fo deeply affect

ed that he fell into a fit, and was totally fenfelefs when he came to the gallows, where he was obliged to be held up, whilft the halter was placed round his neck.-Spiggott's concern was about the difpofal of his body, which he begged might be buried in a church-yard.-They all fubmitted to their fentence with much refignation -David Morgan made a fpeech in Welch to the fpectators, warning them by his own untimely end, how they listened to the perfuafions of bad men, and suffered the artifices of fuch to le duce them from the path of truth and viitue.- -Four of them were delivered to the furgeons for diffection, W. Spiggott and Walter Evan are hung in chains on Hardwick Common.- Before their execution they appeared very penitent, and made ample confethons to the clergyman who attended them; but it was the particular order of the judge, that they thould not be made public at that time.

Thoughts on the Caufe of the prefent Dif contents. 4to. Pr. 2s. 6d. Dudley.

-

- Hoc vero occultum, inteftinum, domefticum malum, non modo non exiftit, verum etiam opprimit antequam perfpicere atque explorare potueris. Cic, out to the reader in the titleTHE fubject of this pamphlet is point

page: from the operation and influence of one particular evil, our author derives all the difcontents which have of late gone abroad among the people. This is the principle and the fcope of his pamphlet. Whether the reader will be faisfied with this ingenious writer's (the fublime Mr, Bke) folut on, is a point fɔmewhat problematical; but that he may judge for himfelf, we fall lay before him a com pendious analyfis of the whole work, without interrupting the thread of the author's reafoning, who has guided his pen with a peculiar grace; and, though manifettly in oppofition to fome particular par ties, he has kept his paffions within due bounds, notwithstanding the subject is fuch as but too often incites animolity.

If a

"It is an undertaking, fays our author, of fome degree of delicacy, to examine into the caule of public diforders. man happens not to fucceed in fuch ar enquiry, he will be thought weak and vifionary. When the affairs of the nation are distracted, private people are, by the

fpirit of the law, juftified in stepping a little out of their ordinary fphere.

"To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the prefent poffeffors of power, to lament the paft, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common difpofitions of the greateft part of mankind; indeed the necellary effects of the ignorance and levity of the vulgar. Such complaints and humours have exiited in all times; yet as all times have not been alike, true political fagacity manifests itself, in diftinguishing that complaint, which only characterizes the general infirmity of human nature, from thofe which are fymptoms of the particular ditemperature of our own air and feafon.

"Our minifters are of opinion, that the encrease of our trade and manufactures, that our growth by colonization and by conqueft, have concurred to accumulate immenfe wealth in the hands of fome individuals; that the infolence of fome from their enormous wealth, and the boldness of others from a guilty poverty, have rendered them capable of the molt atrocious attempts. They contend, that no adequate provocation has been given for fo fpreading a difcontent: the wicked induftry of fome libellers, joined to the intrigues of a few difappointed politicians, have, in their opinion, been able to produce this unnatural ferment in the nation."

Our aut hor proceeds to make fome conceffions to government, before he affigns what he takes to be the caule of our difcontents. He fays, "Every age has its own manners, and its politics dependent upon them; and the fame attempts will not be made again a conftitution fully formtd and matured, that were used to destroy it in the cradle, or to refiit its growth du ting its infancy.

--

"The power of the crown, almost dead and rotten as prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more ftrength, and far less odium, under the name of influence. - At the Revolution, the court was obliged to delegate a part of its powers to men of such intereft as could fupport, and of fuch fidelity as would adhere to, its establishment. But as the title to the crown grew ftronger by long poffeffion, and by the conftant increase of its influence, thefe helps have of late feemed to certain perons no better than incun

brances. To get rid of all this intermediate and independent importance, and to fecure to the court the unlimited and uncontrolled use of its own vaft irAuence, under the fole direction of its own private favour, has for fome years paft been the great object of policy. A new project was therefore devifed, by a certain fet of intriguing men, totally different from the fyftem of adminiftration which had prevailed fince the acceffion of the houte of Brunswick. This project, I have heard, was first conceived by tome perfons in the court of Frederick prince of Wales.

"The first part of the reformed plan was to draw a line which should feparate the court from the miniftry. Hitherto these names had been looked upon as fynonymous; but for the future, court and administration were to be confidered as things totally diftinct; two systems of administration were to be formed; one which should be in the real fecret and confidence: the other merely oftentible, to perform the official and executory duties of government.

"Secondly, A party was to be formed in favour of the court against the miniftry this party was to have a large fhare in the emoluments of government, and to hold it totally feparate from, and independent of, oftensible administration. Parliament was to look on, as it perfectly unconcerned, while a cabal of the clofet and back-ftairs was fubilituted in the place of a national adminiftration.

"His Majefty came to the throne of thefe kingdoms with more advantages than any of his predeceffors fince the Revolution. Fourth in defcent, and third in fucceflion of his royal family, even the zealots of hereditary right, in him, faw fomething to flatter their favourite preju dices; and to justify a transfer of their attachments, without a change in their principles.-The greatest weight of popular opinion and party connexion were then with the Duke of Newcattle and Mr. Pitt. Neither of these held their importance by the new tenure of the court; they were not therefore thought to be fo proper as others for the fervices which were required by that tenure. Mr. Pitt was firit attacked. Not fatisfied with removing him from power, they endeavoured by various artifices to ruin his charac ter. The other party feemed rather pleafed to get rid of to oppreflive a fupport;

not

not perceiving, that their own fall was prepared by his, and involved in it.

The great ruling principles of the cabal, and that which animated and harmonized all their proceedings, how various foever they may have been, was to fignify to the world, that the court would proceed upon its own proper forces only; and that the pretence of bringing any other into its fervice was an affront to it, and not a fupport. Therefore, when the chiefs were removed, in order to go to the root, the whole party was put under a profcription, fo general and fevere as to take their hard-earned bread from the loweft officers, in a manner which had never been known before, even in general revolutions. But it was thought neceffa ry effectually to deftroy all dependencies but one; and to fhew an example of the firmness and rigour with which the new fystem was to be fupported.

"Thus for the time were pulled down, in the perfons of the Whig leaders and of Mr. Pitt (in spite of the fervices of the one at the acceffion of the Royal Family, and the recent fervices of the other in the war) the two only fecurities for the importance of the people; power arifing from popularity; and power arifing from connexion. Here and there indeed a few individuals were left ftanding, who gave fecurity for their total eftrangement from the odious principles of party connexion and perfonal attachment; and it must be confeffed that most of them have religioufly kept their faith. Such a change could not however be made, without a mighty fhock to Government.

To reconcile the minds of the people to all these movements, principles correfpondent to them had been preached up with great zeal. Every one must remember that the cabal fet out with the most aftonishing prudery, both moral and po. litical. Thofe who in a few months after foufed over head and ears into the deepeft and dirtieft pits of corruption, cried out violently against the indirect practices in the electing and managing of Parliaments, which had formerly prevailed. This marvellous abhorrence which the Court had fuddenly taken to all influence, was not only circulated in converfation through the kingdom, but pompously a nounced to the public, with many other extraordinary things, in a pamphlet [Sentiments of an Honest Man] which had all the appearance of a manitetto prepara

tory to fome confiderable enterprize. Throughout, it was a fatire, though in terms managed and decent enough, on the politics of the former reign. It was indeed written with no fmall art and addrefs.

"In this piece appeared the first drawing of the new fyftem; there first appeared the idea (then only in fpeculation) of feparating the Court from the Adminiftration; of carrying every thing from connexion to perfonal regards; and of forming a regular party for that purpose, under the name of King's men.

"The time was come, to restore Royalty to its original splendour. Mettre le Roy hors de page, became a fort of watchword. And it was conftantly in the mouths of all the runners of the Court, that nothing could preferve the balance of the conftitution from being overturned by the rabble, or by a faction of the nobili ty, but to free the Sovereign effectually from that Minifterial tyranny under which the royal dignity had been oppreffed in the perfon of his Majefty's grand-father.

"As a foundation of their scheme, the cabal have established a sort of rota in the court. All forts of parties, by this means, have been brought into adminiftration, from whence few have had the good fortune to escape without difgrace; none at all without confiderable loffes. In the beginning of each arrangement no profeffions of confidence and fupport are wanting, to induce the leading men to engage. But while the minifters of the day appear in all the pomp and pride of power, while they have all their canvas spread out to the wind, and every fail filled with the fair and profperous gale of royal favour, in a fhort time they find, they know not how, a current, which fets directly against them; which prevents all progrefs; and even drives them backwards. They grow afhamed and mortified in a fituation, which, by its vicinity to power, only ferves to remind them the more ftrongly of their intignificance. They are obliged either to execute the orders of their inferiors, or to fee themfelves oppofed by the natural inftruments of their office. With the lofs of their dignity, they lofe their temper. In their turn they grow troublefome to that cabal, which, whether it fupports or oppofes, equally disgraces and equally betrays

them..

them. It is foon found neceffary to get rid of the heads of administration; but it is of the heads only. As there always are many rotten members belonging to the best connexions, it is not hard to perfuade feveral to continue in office without their leaders. By this means the party goes out much thinner than it came in; and is only reduced in ftrength by its temporary poffeffion of power. Befides, if by accident, or in courfe of changes, that power fhould be recovered, the junto have thrown up a retrenchment of thefe carcafes, which may ferve to cover themfelves in a day of danger. They conclude, not unwifely, that fuch rotten members will become the first objects of difguft and refentment to their antient connexions.

"When fuch perfons have broke in this manner with their connexions, they are foon compelled to commit fome flagrant act of iniquitous perfonal hoftility against fome of them (fuch as an attempt to trip a particular friend of his family eftate), by which the cabal hope to render the parties utterly irreconcileable. In truth, they have fo contrived matters, that people have a greater hatred to the fubordinate inftruments than to the principal movers. "When the faction has any job of lucre to obtain, or of vengeance to perpetrate, their way is, to felect, for the execution, thofe very perfons, to whofe habits, friendships, principles, and declarations, fuch proceedings are publicly known to be the most adverfe; at once to render the inftruments more odious, and therefore the more dependent, and to prevent the people from ever repofing a confidence in any appearance of private friendthip, or public principle.

"Here is a sketch, though a flight one, of the conftitution, laws, and policy, of this new court corporation. The name by which they chufe to distinguish themfelves, is that of King's men, or the King's friends, by an invidious exclufion of the reft of his Majesty's most loyal and af. fectionate fubjects. The whole fyftem, comprehending the exterior and interior adminiftration, is commonly called, in the technical language of the court, Double Cabinet; in French or English, as you choofe to pronounce it.

"It is true, that about four years ago, during the adminiftration of the Marquis of Rockingham, an attempt was made to

carry on government without their con currence. However, this was only a tranfient cloud; they were hid but for a moment; and their conftellation blazed out with greater brightness, and a far more vigorous influence, fome time after it was blown over. An attempt was at that time made (but without the fame idea of profcription) to break their corps, to dif countenance their doctrmes, to revive connexions of a different kind, to restore the principles and policy of the Whigs, to re-animate the caufe of Liberty by minifterial countenance; and then for the firit time were men feen attached in office to every principle they had maintained in oppofition.

No one will doubt, that fuch men were abhorred and violently oppofed by the court faction, and that fuch a fyftem could have but a hort duration.

"It may appear fomewhat affected, that in fo much difcourfe upon this extraordinary party, I fhould fay fo little of the Earl of Bute, who is the supposed head of it. But this was neither owing to affectation nor inadvertence. I have carefully avoided the introduction of perfonal reflections of any kind. Much the greater part of the topics which have been used to blacken this nobleman, are either unjuft or frivolous. This fyftem has not rifen folely from the ambition of Lord Bute. We fhould have been tried with it, if the Earl of Bute had never existed; and it will want neither a contriving head nor active members, when the Earl of Bute exists no longer.

"Another motive induces me to put the perfonal confideration of Lord Bute wholly out of the question. He communicates very little in a direct manner with the greater part of our men of business. This has never been his cuftom. It is enough for him that he furrounds them with his creatures. Several imagine therefore, that they have a very good excuse for doing all the work of this faction, when they have no perfonal connexion with Lord Bute. But whoever becomes a party to an administration, composed of infulated individuals, without faith plighted, tie, or common principle; an adminiftration conftitutionally impotent, because fupported by no party in the nation; he who contributes to deftroy the connexions of men and their truft in one another, or in any fort to throw the dependence of pub›

lic

lic counfels upon private will and favour, poffibly may have nothing to do with the Earl of Bute. It matters little whether he be the friend or the enemy of that particular perfon. But let him be who or what he will, he abets a faction that is driving hard to the ruin of his country. He is tapping the foundation of its liberty, disturbing the fources of its domeftic tranquility, weakening its government over its dependencies, degrading it from all its importance in the fyftem of Europe. "It is this unnatural infufion, of a fyf tem of favouritifm into a government which in a great part of its conftitution is popular, that has raised the prefent ferment in the nation. The people without entering deeply into its principles could plainly perceive its effects, in much violence, in 'a great spirit of innovation, and a general dilorder in all the functions of government. I keep my eye folely on this fyftem; it I fpeak of thofe meatures which have arifen from it, it will be fo far only as they illustrate the general fcheme. This is the fountain of all thofe bitter waters of which, through an hundred different conduits, we have drank until we are ready to burft. The difcretionary power of the crown in the formation of miniftry, abused by bad or weak men, has given rife to a fyftem, which, without directly violating the let ter of any law, operates against the spirit of the whole constitution.

A plan of favouritifm for our executory government is effentially at variance with the plan of our Legiflature. One great end undoubtedly of a mixed government like ours, compofed of monarchy, and of controls, on the part of the higher people and the lower, is, that the prince fhall not be able to violate the laws. This is useful indeed and fundamental. But this, even at first view, is no more than a negative advantage; an armour merely defenfive. It is therefore next in order, and equal in importance, that the difcretionary powers which are neceffarily vefled in the Monarch, whether for the execution of the lars, or for the nomination to magistracy and office, or for conducting the affairs of peace and war, or for ordering the revenue, fhould all be exercised upon public principles and national grounds, and not on the likings or prejudices, the intrigues or policies of a court. This, I faid, is

equal in importance to the fecuring a government according to law. The laws reach but a very little way. Conftitute go! vernment how you please,"infinitely the greater part of it mult depend upon the exercife of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of minifters of state. Even all the ule and

potency of the law depends upon them. Without them, your commonwealth is no better than a scheme upon paper; and not a living, acting, effective conftitution. It is poffible, that through negligence, or ignorance, or defign artfully conducted, minifters may fuffer one part of government to languish, another to be perverted from its purposes, and every valuable intereft of the country to fall into ruin and decay, without poffibility of fixing any fingle act on which a criminal profecution can justly be grounded. The due arrangement of men in the active part of the ftate, far from being foreign to the purposes of a wife government, ought to be among its firft and dearest objects. When, therefore, the abettors of the new system"tell us, that between them and their oppofers there is nothing but a truggle for power, and that therefore we are no ways concerned in it; we muft tell thofe who have the impudence to infult us in this manner, that of all things we ought to be the most concerned, who and what fort of men they are, that hold the truit of every thing that is dear to us. Nothing can render this a point of indifference to the nation, but what must either ender us totally defperate, or footh us into the fecurity of ideots. We must foften into a credulity below the milkines of infancy, to think all men virtuous. We muit be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world. to be equally wicked and corrupt. Men are in public life as in private, fome good, fome evil. The elevation of the one, and the depreffion of the other, are the first objects of all true policy. But that form of government, which, neither in its dire&t inftitutions, nor in their immediate tendency, has contrived to throw its affairs into the most trust-worthy hands, but has left its whole executory fystem to be difpofed of agreeably to the uncontrolled pleasure of any one man, however excellent or virtuous, is a plan of polity defe&tive not only in that member, but confequently erroneous in every part of it.