by the same official obligation, to give a graceful utterance to the sentiments of his minister. The cold formality of a well-repeated lesson is widely distant from the animated expression of the heart.

His majesty proceeds to assure us, that he has made the people, his majesty might think himself bound, the laws the rule of his conduct. Was it in ordering or permitting his ministers to apprehend Mr. Wilkes by a general warrant? Was it in suffering his ministers to revive the obsolete maxim of nullum tempus, to rob the duke of Portland of his property, and This distinction, however, is only true with rethereby give a decisive turn to a county election? spect to the measure itself. The consequences of it Was it in erecting a chamber consultation of surgeons, reach beyond the minister, and materially affect his with authority to examine into and supersede the majesty's honor. In their own nature they are formidlegal verdict of a jury? Or did his majesty consult able enough to alarm a man of prudence, and disthe laws of this country, when he permitted his sec-graceful enough to afflict a man of spirit. A subject, retary of state to declare, that, whenever the civil whose sincere attachment to his majesty's person and magistrate is trifled with, a military force must be family is founded upon rational principles, will not, sent for, without the delay of a moment, and effectually in the present conjuncture, be scrupulous of alarmemployed? Or was it in the barbarous exactness ing, or even of afflicting, his sovereign. I know there with which this illegal, inhuman doctrine was car- is another sort of royalty, of which his majesty has ried into execution? If his majesty had recollected had plenty of experience. When the loyalty of these facts, I think, he would never have said, at Tories, Jacobites, and Scotchmen, has once taken least with any reference to the measures of his gov-possession of an unhappy prince, it seldom leaves ernment, that he had made the laws the rule of his him without accomplishing his destruction. When conduct. To talk of preserving the affections, or re- the poison of their doctrines has tainted the natural lying on the support of his subjects, while he con- benevolence of his disposition, when their insidious tinues to act upon these principles is, indeed, paying counsels have corrupted the stamina of his governa compliment to their royalty, which, I hope, they ment, what antidote can restore him to his political have too much spirit and understanding to deserve. health and honor but the firm sincerity of his English subjects?

The

His majesty, we are told, is not only punctual in the performance of his own duty, but careful not to It has not been usual, in this country, at least assume any of those powers which the constitution since the days of Charles the *First, to see the soverhas placed in other hands. Admitting this last as- eign personally at variance, or engaged in a direct sertion to be strictly true, it is no way to the purpose. altercation with his subjects. Acts of grace and inThe city of London have not desired the king to as dulgence are wisely appropriated to him, and should sume a power placed in other hands. If they had, I constantly be performed by himself. He never should should hope to see the person who dared to present appear but in an amiable light to his subjects. Even such a petition immediately impeached. They solicit in France, as long as any ideas of a limited monarchy their sovereign to exert that constitutional authority were thought worth preserving, it was a maxim that which the laws have vested in him for the benefit of no man should leave the royal presence discontented. his subjects. They call upon him to make use of his They have lost or renounced the moderate principles lawful prerogative in a case which our laws evidently of their government; and now, when their parliasupposed might happen, since they have provided for ments venture to remonstrate, the tyrant comes forit by trusting the sovereign with a discretionary ward, and answers absolutely for himself. power to dissolve the parliament. This request will, spirit of their present constitution requires that the I am confident, be supported by remonstrances from king should be feared; and the principle, I believe, is all parts of the kingdom. His majesty will find, at tolerably supported by the fact. But, in our political last, that this is the sense of his people; and that it is system, the theory is at variance with the practice, not his interest to support either ministry or parlia- for the king should be beloved. Measures of greater ment at the hazard of a breach with the collective severity may, indeed, in some circumstances, be necbody of his subjects. That he is king of a free peo-essary: but the minister who advises should take the ple, is, indeed, his greatest glory. That he may long execution and odium of them entirely upon himself. continue the king of a free people is the second wish He not only betrays his master, but violates the that animates my heart. The first is, that the people spirit of the English constitution, when he exposes may be free.* the chief magistrate to the personal hatred or contempt of his subjects. When we speak of the firmness of government, we mean an uniform system of measures, deliberately adopted, and resolutely maintained by the servants of the crown; not a peevish asperity in the language and behavior of the sovereign. The government of a weak, irresolute monarch, may be wise, moderate, and firm: that of an obstinate, capricious prince, on the contrary, may be feeble, undetermined, and relaxed. The reputation of public measures depends upon the minister, who is responsible; not upon the king, whose private opinions are not supposed to have any weight against the advice of his council, and whose personal authority should, therefore, never be interposed in public affairs. This, I believe, is true constitutional doctrine. But for a moment let us suppose it false. Let it be taken for granted, that an occasion may arise in which a king of England shall be compelled to take upon himself the ungrateful office of rejecting the petitions and censuring the conduct of his subjects; and let the city remonstrance be supposed to have created so extraordinary an occasion. On this principle, which I presume no friend of administration will dispute, let the wisdom and spirit of the

JOHN HORNE.

LETTER XXXVIII.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

SIR,

April 3, 1770.

In my last letter I offered you my opinion of the truth and propriety of his majesty's answer to the city of London, considering it merely as the speech of a minister, drawn up in his own defense, and delivered, as usual, by the chief magistrate. I would separate, as much as possible, the king's personal character and behavior from the acts of the present government. I wish it to be understood that his majesty had, in effect, no more concern in the substance of what he said, than sir James Hodges had in the remonstrance; and that as sir James, in virtue of his office, was obliged to speak the sentiments of

* When his majesty had done reading his speech, the lord mayor, etc, had the honor of kissing his majesty's hand: after which, as they were withdrawing, his majesty instantly turned round to his courtiers, and burst out a laughing.

Nero fiddled, while Rome was burning.

ministry be examined. They advise the king to hazard his dignity, by a positive declaration of his own sentiments; they suggest to him a language full of severity and reproach. What follows? When his majesty had taken so decisive a part in support of his ministry and parliament, he had a right to expect from them a reciprocal demonstration of firmness in their own cause, and of their zeal for his honor. He had reason to expect (and such, I doubt not, were the blustering promises of lord North) that the persons whom he had been advised to charge with having failed in their respect to him, with having injured parliament, and violated the principles of the constitution, should not have been permitted to escape without some severe marks of the displeasure and vengeance of parliament. As the matter stands, the minister, after placing his sovereign in the most unfavorable light to his subjects, and after attempting to fix the ridicule and odium of his own precipitate measures upon the royal character, leaves him a solitary figure upon the scene, to recall, if he can, or to compensate, by future compliances, for one unhappy demonstration of ill-supported firmness and ineffectual resentment. As a man of spirit, his majesty cannot but be sensible, that the lofty terms in which he was persuaded to reprimand the city, when united with the silly conclusion of the business, resembled the pomp of a mock tragedy, where the most pathetic sentiments, and even the sufferings of the hero, are calculated for derision.

has been too much the system of the present reign, to introduce him personally either to act for or defend his servants. They persuade him to do what is properly their business, and desert him in the midst of it. Yet this is an inconvenience to which he must for ever be exposed, while he adheres to a ministry divided among themselves, or unequal in credit and ability to the great task they have undertaken. 'Instead of reserving the interposition of the royal personage as the last resource of government, their weakness obliges them to apply it to every ordinary occasion, and to render it cheap and common in the opinion of the people. Instead of supporting their master, they look to him for support; and for the emoluments of remaining one day more in office, care not how much his sacred character is prostituted and dishonored.

If I thought it possible for this paper to reach the closet, I would venture to appeal at once to his majesty's judgment. I would ask him, but in the most respectful terms, "As you are a young man, sir, who ought to have a life of happiness in prospect; as you are a husband, as you are a father, (your filial duties, I own, have been religiously performed) is it bona fide for your interest or your honor, to sacrifice your domestic tranquillity, and to live in a perpetual disagreement with your people, merely to preserve such a chain of beings, as North, Barrington, Weymouth, Gower, Ellis, Onslow, Rigby, Jerry Dyson, and Sandwich? Their very names are a satire upon all government? and I defy the gravest of your chaplains to read the catalogue without laughing."

Such have been the boasted firmness and consistency of a minister,* whose appearance in the house of commons was thought essential to the king's ser- For my own part, sir, I have always considered vice; whose presence was to influence every division; addresses from parliament, as a fashionable, unmeanwho had a voice to persuade, an eye to penetrate, aing formality. Usurpers, idiots, and tyrants, have gesture to command. The reputation of these great qualities has been fatal to his friends. The little dignity of Mr. Ellis has been committed. The mine was sunk; combustibles were provided; and Welbore Ellis, the Guy Faux of the fable, waited only for the signal of command. All of a sudden the country gentlemen discover how grossly they have been deceived: the minister's heart fails him; the grand plot is defeated in a moment; and poor Mr. Ellis and his motion taken into custody. From the event of Friday last, one would imagine that some fatality hung over this gentleman. Whether he makes or suppresses a motion, he is equally sure of disgrace. But the complexion of the times will suffer no nan to be vice-treasurer of Ireland with impunity †

I do not mean to express the smallest anxiety for the minister's reputation. He acts separately for himself, and the most shameful inconsistency may perhaps be no disgrace to him. But when the soveign, who represents the majesty of the state, appears in person, his dignity should be supported: the occasion should be important; the plan well considered; the execution steady and consistent. My zeal for his majesty's real honor, compels me to assert, that it

been successively complimented with almost the same professions of duty and affection. But let us suppose them to mean exactly what they profess. The consequences deserve to be considered. Either the sovereign is a man of high spirit and dangerous ambition, ready to take advantage of the treachery of the parliament, ready to accept of the surrender they make him of the public liberty; or he is a mild, undesigning prince, who, provided they indulge him with a little state and pageantry would of himself intend no mischief. On the first supposition, it must soon be decided by the sword, whether the constitution should be lost or preserved. On the second, a prince, no way qualified for the execution of a great and hazardous enterprise, and without any determined object in view, may nevertheless be driven into such desperate measures, as may lead directly to his ruin; or disgrace himself by a shameful fluctuation between the extremes of violence at one moment, and timidity at another. The minister, perhaps, may have reason to be satisfied with the success of the present hour, and with the profits of his employment. He is the tenant of the day, and has no interest in the inheritance. The sovereign himself is bound by other obligations, and ought to look forward to a superior, a permanent interest. His paternal tenderness should remind him how many hostages he has given to society. The ties of nature come powerfully in aid of oaths and protestations. The father, who considers his own precari+ About this time the courtiers talked of nothing but a bill of pains and penalties against the lord mayor and shreous state of health, and the possible hazard of a long iffs, or impeachment at the least. Little Mannikin Ellis minority, will wish to see the family estate free and told the king, that if the business were left to his manage- unincumbered.* What is the dignity of the crown, ment, be would engage to do wonders very odd that a business of so much importance should honor of parliament, supposing it could exist withIt was thought though it were really maintained; what is the be entrusted to the most contemptible little piece of machinery in the whole kingdom. His honest zeal, however, out any foundation of integrity and justice; or what was disappointed. The minister took fright; and, at the very instant that little Ellis was going to open, sent him an order to set down. All their magnanimous threats ended in a ridiculous vote of censure, and a still more ridiculous address to the king.

*This graceful minister is oddly constructed. tongue is a little too big for his mouth, and his eyes a His great deal too big for their sockets. Every part of his person sets natural proportion at defiance. At this present writing his head is supposed to be much too heavy for his

shoulders.

Every true friend to the house of Brunswick sees with affliction how rapidly some of the principal branches of the family have dropped off.

is the vain reputation of firmness, even if the scheme | The prorogation of parliament naturally calls upon of the government were uniform and consistent, us to review their proceedings, and to consider the compared with the heart-felt affections of the people, with the happiness and security of the royal family, or even with the grateful acclamation of the populace? Whatever style of contempt may be adopted by ministers or parliaments, no man sincerely despises the voice of the English nation. The house of commons are only interpreters, whose duty it is to convey the sense of the people faithfully to the crown. If the interpretation be false or imperfect, the constituent powers are called upon to deliver their own sentiments. Their speech is rude, but intelligible; their gestures fierce, but full of expression. Perplexed by sophistries, their honest eloquence rises into action. Their first appeal was to the integrity of their representatives; their second, to the king's justice. The last argument of the people, whenever they have recourse to it, will carry more perhaps, than persuasion to parliament, or supplication to the throne.

LETTER XXXIX.

JUNIUS.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. SIR,

May 28, 1770.

condition in which they have left the kingdom. I do not question but they have done what is usually called the king's business, much to his majesty's satisfaction: we have only to lament, that, in consequence of a system introduced or revived in the present reign, this kind of merit should be very consistent with the neglect of every duty they owe to the nation. The interval between the opening of the last, and close of the former session, was longer than usual. Whatever were the views of the minister it deferring the meeting of parliament, sufficient time was certainly given to every member of the house of commons, to look back upon the steps he had taken, and the consequences they had produced. The zeal of party, the violence of personal animosities, and the heat of contention, had leisure to subside. From that period, whatever resolution they took was deliberate and prepense. In the preceeding session, the dependents of the ministry had affected to believe, that the final determination of the question would have satisfied the nation, or at least put a stop to their complaints; as if the certainty of an evil could dimin ish the sense of it, or the nature of injustice could be altered by decision. But they found the people of England were in a temper very distant from submission; and although it was contended that the house of commons could not themselves reverse a resolution which had the force and affect of a judicial While parliament was sitting, it would neither sentence, there were other constitutional expedients have been safe, nor perhaps, quite regular, to offer which would have given a security against any any opinion to the public upon the just ce or wisdom similar attempts for the future. The general proposiof their proceedings. To pronounce fairly upon their tion, in which the whole country had an interest. conduct, it was necessary to wait until we could con- might have been reduced to a particular fact, in which sider, in one view, the beginning, progress, and con- Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Luttrell would alone have been clusion of their deliberations. The cause of the concerned. The house of lords might interpose; the public was undertaken and supported by men, whose king might dissolve the parliament; or if every other abilities and united authority, to say nothing of the resource failed, there still lay a grand constitutional advantageous ground they stood on, might well be writ of error, in behalf of the people, from the dethought sufficient to determine a popular question in cision of one court to the wisdom of the whole legisfavor of the people. Neither was the house of com- lature. Every one of these remedies has been suemons so absolutely engaged in defense of the minis- cessively attempted. The people performed their try, or even of their own resolutions, but that they part with dignity, spirit, and perseverance. might have paid some decent regard to the known many months his majesty heard nothing from his disposition of their constituents; and without any people but the language of complaint and resentdishonor to their firmness, might have retracted an ment: unhappily for this country, it was the daily opinion too hastily adopted, when they saw the triumph of his courtiers, that he heard it with an inalarm it had created, and how strongly it was opposed difference approaching to contempt. by the general sense of the nation. The ministry, too, would have consulted their own immediate interest in making some concession satisfactory to the moderate part of the people. Without touching the fact, they might have consented to guard against, or give up, the dangerous principle on which it was established. In this state of things, I think it was highly improbable, at the beginning of the session, that the complaints of the people upon a matter, which in their apprehension at least, immediately affected the life of the constitution, would be treated with as much contempt by their own representatives, and by the house of lords, as they had been by the other branch of the legislature. Despairing of their integrity, we had a right to expect something from their prudence, and something from their fears. The duke of Grafton certainly did not foresee to what an extent the corruption of a parliament might be carried. He thought, perhaps, that there was still some portion of shame or virtue left in the majority of the house of commons, or that there was a line in public prostitution beyond which they would scruple to proceed. Had the young man been a little more practised in the world, or had he ventured to measure the characters of other men by his own, he would not have been so easily discouraged.

For

The house of commons, having assumed a power unknown to the constitution, were determined not merely to support it in the single instance in question but to maintain the doctrine in its utmost extent, and to establish the fact as a precedent in law, to be applied in whatever manner his majesty's servants should hereafter think fit. Their proceedings upon this occasion are a strong proof that a decision, in the first instance illegal and unjust, can only be supported by a continuation of falsehood and injustice. To support their former resolutions, they were obliged to violate some of the best known and es tablished rules of the house. In one instance, they went so far as to declare, in open defiance of truth and common sense, that it was not the rule of the house to divide a complicated question at the request of a member.* But, after trampling upon the laws of the land, it was not wonderful that they should treat the private regulations of their own assembly with equal disregard. The speaker, being young in office. began with pretended ignorance, and ended with

*The extravagant resolution appears in the vote of the house; but, in the minutes of the committees, the refusals to acknowledge law and truth when proposed to instances of resolutions contrary to law and truth, or of them, are innumerable.

the inhabitants of Boston to take up arms in their de-source or consolation in the attachment of a few fav. fense, have been thought worthy of a moment's consideration. In the repeal of those acts which were most offensive to America, the parliament have done every thing but remove the offense. They have relinquished the revenue, but judiciously taken care to preserve the contention. It is not pretended that the continuation of the tea-duty is to produce any direct benefit whatsoever to the mother country. What is it then, but an odious, unprofitable exertion of a speculative right, and fixing a badge of slavery upon the Americans, without service to their masters? But it has pleased God to give us a ministry and a parliament, who are neither to be persuaded by argument, nor instructed by experience.

orites; against the general contempt and detestation of his subjects. Edward and Richard the Second made the same distinction between the collective body of people, and a contemptible party, who sur rounded the throne. The event of their mistaken conduct might have been a warning to their successors. Yet the errors of those princes were not without excuse. They had as many false friends as our present gracious sovereign, and infinitely greater temptations to seduce them. They were neither sober, religious, nor demure. Intoxicated with pleasure, they wasted their inheritance in pursuit of it. Their lives were like a rapid torrent, brilliant in prospect, though useless or dangerous in its course. Lord North, I presume, will not claim an extra- In the dull unanimated existence of other princes, we ordinary merit from any thing he has done this year, see nothing but a sickly stagnant water, which taints in the improvement or application of the revenue. the atmosphere without fertilizing the soil. The A great operation, directed to an important object, morality of a king is not to be measured by vulgar though it should fail of success, marks the genius, rules. His situation is singular: there are taults and elevates the character of a minister. A poor which do him honor, and virtues that disgrace him. contracted understanding deals in little schemes, A faultless, insipid equality in his character, is neither which dishonor him if they fail, and do him no cred- capable of virtue or vice in the extreme; but it seit when they succeed Lord North had fortunately cures his submission to those persons whom he has the means in his possession of reducing all the four been accustomed to respect, and makes him a danper cents. at once. The failure of his first enterprise gerous instrument of their ambition. Secluded from in finance is not half so disgraceful to his reputation the world, attached from his infancy to one set of as a minister, as the enterprise itself is injurious to persons and one set of ideas, he can neither open his the public. Instead of striking one decisive blow, heart to new connections, nor his mind to better inwhich would have cleared the market at once, upon formation. A character of this sort is the soil fittest terms proportioned to the price of the four per cents. to produce that obstinate bigotry in politics and reli six weeks ago, he has tampered with a pitiful por-gion, which begins. with a meritorious sacrifice of the tion of a commodity which ought never to have been understanding, and finally conducts the monarch touched but in gross. He has given notice to the and the martyr to the block. At any other period, I holders of that stock, of a design formed by govern-doubt not, the scandalous disorders which have been ment to prevail upon them to surrender it by de- introduced into the government of all the dependgrees, consequently has warned them to hold up and encies in the empire, would have roused the attention enhance the price : so that the plan of reducing the of the public. The odious abuse and prostitution of four per cents. must either be dropped entirely, or con- the prerogative at home; the unconstitutional emtinued with an increasing disadvantage to the pub-ployment of the military; the arbitrary fines and lic. The minister's sagacity has served to raise the commitments by the house of lords and court of value of the thing he means to purchase, and to sink king's bench; the mercy of a chaste and pious prince that of the three per cents. which it is his purpose to extended cheerfully to a wilful murderer, because sell. In effect, he has contrived to make it the inter- that murderer is the brother of a common prostitute; est of the proprietor of the four per cents. to sell out, would, I think, at any other time, have excited uniand buy three per cents. in the market, rather than versal indignation. But the daring attack upon the subscribe his stock upon any terms that can possibly constitution, in the Middlesex election, makes us calbe offered by government. lous and indifferent to inferior grievances. No man regards an eruption upon the surface, when the noble parts are invaded, and he feels a mortification approaching to his heart. The free election of our representatives in parliament comprehends, because it is, the source aud security of every right and privilege of the English nation. The ministry have realized the compendious ideas of Caligula. They know that the liberty, the laws, and property of an Englishman, have, in truth, but one neck, and that to violate the freedom of election, strikes deeply at them all. JUNIUS.

LETTER XL.

The state of the nation leads us naturally to consider the situation of the king. The prorogation of parliament has the effect of a temporary dissolution. The odium of measures adopted by the collective body sits lightly upon the separate members who composed it. They retire into summer quarters, and rest from the disgraceful labors of the campaign. But as for the sovereign, it is not so with him; he has a permanent existence in this country; he cannot withdraw himself from the complaints, the discontents, the reproaches of his subjects. They pursue him to his retirement, and invade his domestic happiness, when no address can be obtained from an obsequious parliament to encourage or console him. In other times, the interest of the king and the people of England was, as it ought to be, entirely the same. August 22, 1770. A new system has not only been adopted in fact, Mr. Luttrell's services were the chief support but professed upon principle. Ministers are no and ornament of the duke of Grafton's administration. longer the public servants of the state, but the pri- The honor of rewarding them was reserved for your vate domestics of the sovereign. One particular lordship. The duke it seems, had contracted an obclass of men are permitted to call themselves the ligation he was ashamed to acknowledge, and unaking's friends, as if the body of the people were the ble to acquit. You, my lord, had no scruples. You king's enemies; or, as if his majesty looked for a re-accepted the succession with all its incumbrances, "An ignorant, mercenary, and servile crew; unani- and have paid Mr. Luttrell his legacy, at the hazard mous in evil, diligent in mischief, variable in principles, of ruining the estate. constant to flattery, talkers for liberty, but slaves to power: styling themselves the court party, and the prince's only friends." Davenant.

MY LORD.

TO LORD North.

When this accomplished youth declared himself
Miss Kennedy.