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was tormented for feveral years together: The pain was indeed fupportable during the day, but at night confiderably increased; it did not yield to any remedies, and was fo violent, that the patient could no longer bear it. I perfuaded her at laft to fubmit to have a cautery on the head, a remedy which the had hitherto obftinately refused.

Having therefore had her head fhaved, I made her chew, and by placing afterwards the palm of my hand at the root of the nofe, and by the extention of the middle finger, having found the junction of the two futures fagittal and coronal, I applied thereto a potential cautery, which penetrated fo deep, that, the efchar falling, the bone appeared naked and stripped of its pericranium. Such

is the depth these artificial ulcers should have" in order to their being falutary, and fuch alfo was the method of the ancients; the intention being to procure the evacuation of the vitiated humours, and to mitigate the pains the pericranium might continue to occasion, as being perpetually irritated by the pea inferted in thofe little ulcers, if left to fubfift. In fine, the cautery had not kept running a month, when the pains began to be lefs fenfible, and in time they intirely ceafed; fo that this young Lady was very well during four years which the had still lived after the application of the cautery. She died of a fcorbutic cachexia, but without ever afterwards complaining of a head-ach, to the last moment of her life.

Some INSTRUCTIONS highly useful for our Prefent Conduct.

WARNED by the fate of moft

lic

money; and the diffipations of luxury,

of the free States that have hitherto by promoting trade, will gild over private exifted in the world, we may learn, - that vices with the plaufible appearance of pubthe most effectual method which a bad Mi- lic benefits.-That when a State, fo circumnifter can take, to tame the spirit of a brave stanced, is forced into a war with any formiand free people, and to melt them down to dable power, then, and not until then, these flavery, is to promote luxury, and encourage baleful evils will thew themfelves in their and diffufe a taste for public diverfions - true colours, and produce their proper efThat luxury, and a prevailing fondness for fects. The counfels in fuch a State will be public diverions, are the never-failing fore- weak and pufillanimous, because the able and runners of univerfal idlenefs, effeminacy, honest citizens, who aim folely at the public and corruption. That there cannot be a welfare, will be excluded from all fhare in more certain fymptom of the approaching the Government from party motives.— ruin of a State that when a firm adherence Their measures will terminate in poor fhifts, to party is fixed upon as the only teft of merit, and temporary expedients, calculated only to and all the qualifications, requisite to a right amufe, or divert the attention of the people difcharge of every employment, are reduced from prying too clofely into their iniquitous to that fingle ftandard.-That thefe evils conduct. Their fleets and armies will be take root, and spread by almost imperceptible either employed in ufelefs parade, or will misdegrees in times of peace and national af- carry in action from the incapacity of their fluence; but, if left to their full and natural Commanders, because, as all the chief posts effects without controul, they will inevitably will be filled up with the creatures of the undermine and deftroy the most flourishing prevailing faction, fuch Officers will be more and beft founded conftitution.-That in intent upon inriching themselves than annoytimes of peace and affluence luxury, and a ing the enemy; and will act as fhall be judgfondness for diverfions, will affume the feed moft conducive to the private intereft of cious names of politenefs, tafte, and magnificence. Corruption will put on different masks. In the corruptors it will be termed able management, encouraging the friends of the Adminiftration, and cementing a mutual harmony, and mutual dependence between the three different eftates of the Government. In the corrupted it will be denominated loyalty, attachment to the Government, and prudence in providing for one's own family. That in fuch times thefe evils will gain a fresh acceffion of ftrength from their very effects; because corruption will occasion a greater circulation of the pub

their party, not to the public service of their country. For they will naturally ima gine, that the fame power, which placed them in the command, will have weight enough to fcreen them from the refentment of an injured people.Their fupplies for the extraordinary expences of the war will be raised with difficulty ;—because, as fo great a part of the public money will be abforbed by the number of pen ions and lucrative employments, and diverted to other purposes of corruption, the funds deftined for the public fervice will be found greatly deficient. If the rich are applied to, in fuch

de.

depraved times, to contribute their fuperfluous wealth towards the public expences, their answer will be the fame which Scopas, the rich Theffalian, made to a friend, who afked him for a piece of furniture, which he judged wholly useless to the poffeffor, becaufe it was quite fuperfluous: You mistake, my friend; the fupreme happiness of our lives confifts in thofe things which you call fuperfluous, not in thofe which you call neceffaries.' The people, accustomed to fell themselves to the belt bidder, will look upon the wages of corruption as their birth-right, and will neceifarily rife in their demands, in proportion as luxury, like other fathions, defcends from the higher to the lower claffes. Heavy and unequal taxes must confequently be impofed to make up this deficiency; and the operations of the war muft either be retarded by the flownefs in collecting the produce, or the money must be borrowed at high intereft and exceflive premiums, and the public given up a prey to the extortion of ufurers. If a venal and luxurious Minister should be at the head of the ruling party, fuch an Administration would hardly find credit fufficient to fupport their measures, as the moneyed men would be averse to trufting their property in fuch rapacious hands; for the chain of felf-intereft, which links fuch a fet of men together, will reach from the highest quite down to the lowest Officer of the State; because the higher Officers, for the mutual fupport of the whole, muit connive at the frauds and rapines of the inferior, or fcreen them if detected.

If therefore the united voice of a people, exhaufted by the oppreffions of a weak and iniquitous Administration, fhould call a truly difinterested patriot to the helm, fuch a man must be expofed to all the malice of detected villainy, backed by the whole weight of difappointed faction Plutarch has handed down to us a ftriking inftance of this truth in the cafe of Ariftides, which is too remarkable to be omitted:

When Aristides was created Quæftor, or High Treaturer of Athens, he fairly laid before the Athenians what immenfe fums the public had been robbed of by their former Treasurers, but especially by Themiftocles, whom he proved to be more criminal than any of the others. This warm and honeft remonftrance produced inch a powerful coalition between these public plunderers, that, when Ariftides, at the expiration of his of fice, (which was annual and elective) came to give up his accounts to the people, Themistocles publicly impeached him of the fame crime, and, by the artifice of his corrupt party, procurei him to be condemned and fined; but the honefter and more re

fpectable part of the citizens, highly resenting fuch an infamous method of proceeding, not only acquitted Ariftides nonourably, and remitted his fine, but, to hew their approbation of his conduct, elected him Treaturer for the following year. At his entrance upon his office the fecond time, he affected to appear fenfible of his former error, and, by winking at the frauds of the inferior Officers, and neglecting to scrutinife into their accounts, he fuffered them to plunder with impunity. Thefe State-leeches, thus gorged with the public money, grew fo extremely fond of Ariftides, that they employed a l their intereft to perfuade the people to elect him a third time to that important office. On the day of election, when the voices of the Athenians were unanimous in his favour, this real patriot stood up with honeft indignation, and gave the people this fevere, but just reprimand: When, fays he, I difcharged my duty in this office the first time, with that zeal and fidelity which every honeft man owes to his country, I was vilified, infulted, and condemned. Now I have given full Jiberty to all these robbers of the public here prefent to pilfer, and prey upon your finances at pleafure, I am, it feems, a moft upright Minifter, and a moft worthy citizen. Believe me, O Athenians; I am more afhamed of the honour, which you have fo unanimoufly conferred upon me this day, than of that unjuft fentence which you paffed upon me with fo much infamy the year before. But it gives me the utmost concern, upon your account, when I fee that it is eafier to merit your favour and applause by flattering, and conniving at the rogueries of a pack of villains, than by a frugal and uncorrupt Adminiftration of the public reveHe then difclofed all the frauds and thefts, which had been committed that year in the Treafury, which he had privately minuted down for that purpofe. The confequence was, that all thofe, who just before had been fo loud in his praife, were struck dumb with fhame and confufion; but he himself received thofe high encomiums, which he had fo juftly merited from every honeft citizen. It is evident from this whole paffage, as related by Plutarch, that Ariftides might have made his own fortune, at the ex-pence of the public, with the fame eafe, and to as great a degree as any of his predeceffors had done before, or any Minifters in modern States have done fince. For the rest of the Officers, who feemed to think their chief duty confifted in making the most of their places, fhewed themfelves extremely ready to conceal the peculation of their Chief, becaufe it gave them a right to claim the fame indulgence from him in return. A remark

nues.

not

not restricted to the Athenians alone, but equally applicable to every corrupt Adminiftration under every Government. Hiftory, both ancient and modern, will furnish us with numerous inftances of this truth, and pofterity will probably make the fame remark, when the genuine hiftory of fome of our late Adminiftrations fhall fee the light in a future age.

If the Athenians were fo corrupt in the time when Aristides lived, ought we to wonder at that amazing height to which that corruption arrived at the time of Demofthenes, when left to its full effects for fo long a term of years? Could the State of Athens at that time have been preferved by human means; the indefatigable zeal of Demofthenes, joined to the ftrict ceconomy, the inflexible integrity, and fuperior abilities of Phocion, might have raised her once more to her ancient luftre. But the event fhewed, that luxury, corruption, and faction, the causes of her ruin, had taken too deep root in the very vitals of the republic. The Grecian hiftory indeed affords us ever memorable inftances of republics bending under the yoke of foreign or domeftic oppreflion, yet freed and reftored to their former liberty and dignity by the courage and virtue of fome eminent patriot citizen. But if we reflect upon the means, by which these great events were so fuccefsfully conducted, we fhall always find, that there yet remained in the people a fund of public virtue fufficient to fupport their Chiefs in thofe arduous enterprifes. The fpirit of liberty in a free people may be cramped and preffed down by external violence, but can fcarce ever be totally extinguished Oppreffion will only increate its elastic force, and, when rouled to action by fome daring Chief, it will break out, like fired gun-powder, with irrefiftible impetuolity. We have no occafion to look back to antiquity for convincing proofs of this most important truth. Our own history is but one continued fcene of alternate struggles between incroaching Princes, aiming at abfolute power, and a brave people refolutely determined to vindicate their freedom. The genius of liberty has hitherto rofe fuperior in all thofe conflicts, and acquired ftrength from oppofition. May it continue to prevail to the end of time! The United Provinces are a striking proof that the spirit of liberty, when animated and conducted by public virtue, is invincible. Whilft under the dominion of the Houfe of Auftria, they were little better than a poor affemblage of fishing-towns and villages. But the virtue of one great man not only inabled them to throw off that inhuman yoke, but to make a respectable figure among the

firft powers in Europe. All the different States in Europe, founded by our Gothic ancestors, were originally free. Liberty was as truly their birth-right as it is ours; and, though they have been wormed out of it by fraud, or robbed of it by violence, yet their inherent right to it still subfifts, though the exercife of that right is fuperfeded, and reftrained by force. Hence no defpotic Government can ever fubfift without the fupport of that inftrument of tyranny and oppref fion, a standing army. For all illegal power muft ever be fupported by the fame means by which it was first acquired. France was not broke into the yoke of slavery until the infamous administrations of Richlieu and Mazarine. But, though loyalty and zeal for the glory of their Prince feem to form the characteristic of the French nation, yet the late glorious stand against the arbitrary impofitions of the Crown, which will immortalife the Parliament of Paris, proves that they fubmit to their chains with reluctance. Luxury is the real bane of public virtue, and confequently of liberty, which gradually finks in proportion as the manners of a people are foftened and corrupted. Whenever therefore this effential fpirit, as I may term it, of a free nation is totally diffipated, the people become a mere caput mortuum, a dead inert mass, incapable of resuscitation, and ready to receive the deepest impreffions of flavery. Thus the public virtue of Thrafybulus, Pelopidas and Epaminondas, Philopamen, Aratus, Dion, &c. reftored their respective States to freedom and power, because though liberty was fuppreffed, yet the fpirit of it still remained, and acquired new vigour from opprettion. Phocion and Demofthenes failed, because corruption had extinguifhed public virtue, and luxury had changed the fpirit of liberty into licentioufnefs and fervility.

That luxury and corruption, encouraged and propagated by a most abandoned faction, have made an alarming progrefs in our nation, is a truth too evident to be denied. The effects have been long fenfibly felt. But the spirit, lately roufed in the nation, is a convincing proof, that we have a fund of public virtue ftill remaining, capable of vindicating our juft rights, and railing us out of that calamitious fituation, into which we were plunged, under fome late Adminiftrations. When the public imagined the helm in the hands of conuption, pubillanimity, and ignorance, they transferred it, in the late war, to a virtuous citizen, pofieised, in their opinion, of the zeal and eloquence of Demofthenes, joined to the public economy, incorrupt honesty, and immoveable fortitude

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