- '^' *■■'■ ■*- /A-^ f ALUMNI LIBRARY, THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINC I t ON, N. J,,._ |j CVf.S*:, Division d' . VIINARY. I Iiooh\ <•' THE .^ WORKS O F GEORGE Lord LYTTELTON; Formerly printed feparately, and now firft collefted together : With fome other Pieces, never before printed. Publifhed by GEORGE EDWARD AYSGOUGH, Efq. VOL. I. DUBLIN: Printed by G. F ATTT .KNER, in Parliament-flreet. M.DCC.LXXIV, ( iv ) fenfible and pertinent remarks on the ftate of Europe at that period i but I fhall further add, that I have ftronger and more weighty reafons for their publica- tion, not only becaufe they are the produce of the beft of heads^ but becaufe they are effufions from the befl: of hearts ; and becaufe they are the early and wonder- ful proofs of his generofity, piety, and above all his filial reverence ; and may be juftly deemed the firft ebullitions of virtues, which, being afterwards ma- tured by age and experience, extended their benefi- cent influence over mankind in general, and were more immediately felt by the inhabitants of this free country, I mull now beg leave to afTure your lordfhip, that it is my defire that this work may not only give fatis- fadion to the public, but alfo be honoured with your lordfliip's particular approbation. I am proud to confeA that I have ever had the highefi veneration for your refined tafte, found judgment, and ripened abilities ; and, at the fame time, permit me to add my moft ardent wifhes that thefe great talents, which are certainly equal to thofe your father pofTefTed, may, like his, be exerted with indefatigable zeal in the fer- vice of your country ; and that, like him, your lord- fhip may hereafter prove a fhining ornament of the fe- nate, and one of the firmed pillars of the conftitution. Sed quid verbis opus ejl ? Your lordfhip has al- ready foreftalled my hopes ; and my wifhes, even at this early period, are nearly accomplifhed. I remain, fny Lord, Your Lordfhip^s Much obliged and Mofl aftedionate friend, and Obedient, humble Servant, GEORGE EDWARD ASYCOUGH. C O N= f^^- ' -^<^^mM-.--S c on ^'' '' ^(-^ r T S. FIRST and SECOND VOLUMES. Pase. OBSERVATIONS on the Life of Cicero. Obfervations on the Roman Hiftory. Obfervations on the prefent Scate of our Affairs, at Home and Abroad -, in a Letter to a Mem- ber of Parliament, from a Friend in the Country. — — Letters from a Perfian in England to his Friend at Ifpahan. — — Obfervations on the Converfion and Apoftlefliip of St. Paul , in a Letter to Gilbert Weft, Efq. Dialogues of the Dead. — Four Speeches in Parliament. — Poems. — • — Letters to Sir Thomas Lyttelton. — Account of a Journey into Wales -, in Two Letters to Mr. Bower. — 5 31 53 105 291 364 557 587 661 741 DIALOGUE I. T ORD FALKLAND— Mr. Hampden. II. I V Louis Le Grand Peter the Great. Plato Fenelon Mr. Addifon Dr. Swift. Hi. IV V. Ulyffes VI. Mercury- -Circe. — AnEnglifhDuemft.- Page. 3^4- 27^ 380 •A North American Savage. 5}^^ VII. Pliny the Elder Pliny the Younger. 388 VIII. Fernando Cortez William Penn. 392 IX. Marcus Fortius Cato — MefTalla Corvinus. 397 X. Chriftina 6 CONTENTS. X. Chriftina, Queen of Sweden — Chan- Page, cellor Oxenftiern. ^oi XI. Titus Vefpafianus Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. 404 XII. Henry Duke of Guife Machiavel. 408 XIII. Virgil Horace Mercury — Sca- liger the Elder. 414 XIV. Boileau Pope. 418 XV. Odavia Portia ^Arria. 434 XVI. Louife de Coligni, Princefs of Orange —Frances Walfingham, Countefs of Eflex and of Clanrickard ; before, Lady Sidney. 439 XVII. Marcus Brutus — Pomponius Atticus. 442 XVIII. V^illiam the Third, King of Eng- land John De V^itt, Penfioner of Holland. 450 XIX. M. Apicius Darteneuf. 463 XX. Alexander the Great -Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden. 470 XXI. Cardinal Ximenes-— Cardinal Wolfey. 477 XXII. Lucian Rabelais. 482 XXIII. Pericles Cofmo de Mcdicis, the Firft of that Name. .$7 XXIV. Locke Bayle. 408 XXV. Archibald Earl of Douglas, Duke of Touraine John, Duke of Argyle and Green- wich, Field Marfhal of his Britannic Majefty's Forces. ror XXVI. Cadmus Hercules. 516 XXVII. Mercury -And a modern fineLady. 520 XXVIII. Plutarch Charon— And a mo- dern Bookfcller. C2 9 XXIX. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus-— Caius Julius C^far. ^oj XXX. Plato Diogenes. 540 XXXI. Ariftides Phocion — Demofthencs 545 XXXII. Marcus Aurelius Philofophus Servius Tullius. ^^2 OBSERVATIONS L IF E O N T H E /(m/>^^^ O F CICERO. MeI« ixiyloi Ssa; xai ccvactiiira!* To rsoiv yiv'^ To aei iTrilsyvofAEvov aicfi'Ss* B yap Ik (TXotu vfi,cii ol .5nN. Vol, I B TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ARTHUR ONSLOW, Speaker of the HOUSE of COMMONS. SIR, TH E honour I do myfelf of addrefTing thefe remarks to you, is a proof how confident I am in the partiality of your friend- Ihip; if they have any other claim to your regard, it is only from a fpirit of liberty, which, where-ever it appears, is always fure of your favour and prote6tion. The fubjedl of them, which is the Life of Cicero, mufl be doubly interefting to you, as he was the mod excellent Orator of all antiquity, and bore the moft eminent charadter in the Roman Senate, while it remained free, and was worthy of that name, I am, with the moft perfed refped, and high eft fenfe of your favours to me, SIR, Your moft obliged, and moft obedient humble Servant. B 2 PR. [ 5 ] O B S E R V AT IONS O N T H E LIFE OF CICERO. AMONG all the celebrated charaders in the Roman Hiftory, there are none moie worthy our attention, than thofe great men who were at the head of the Republick when fhe was arrived at her highefl degree of power and glory, and by a natural confequence of excellive profperity was fallen into thofe vices and corruptions, which foon after produced a change of government, and brought her into an infamous flavery. This revo- lution was either haftened or delayed according as they who had the management of affairs were more or lefs infeded with the general depravity : fome there were who preferved themfelves quite untainted ; who gallantly ftood in the breach, and ftruggled hard for liberty. Such were Marcus Cato, Quintus Hortenfius, Quintus Catulus, and Marcus Brutus ; whofe virtues were the more valuable to their country, becaufe they were exerted at a jun6\:ure when fhe found herfelf moft in need of their ailiftance : with thefe Cicero has generally been placed, and if we may take his own word, Rome had not a more un- fpotted patriot to boaft of than himfelf : but I doubt, when we look ftridtly into his conducl, we iTiall often find it very different from theirs who really defervQ. that name; and it will appear even from the teili- mony of his own letters, in which he fpoke more naturally 6 OBSERVATIONS ON naturally and with lefs vanity than he does in his orations, that his publick chara6ler was far from be- ing perfect ; that he a(£led upon many occafions more like an ambitious orator than a philofophical republican ; that his virtues were blended with many weaknelTes and pernicious failings ; and that, not- withftanding his exalted notions of integrity, he fometimes yielded to the corruption of the age, and facrificed the welfare of his country to his private interefts and paflions. What makes him the lefs excufable is, that none ever underftood the rules of virtue or faw the beauty of it more than he : his writings are the nobleft leffons of publick honefty, difmtereftednefs, and the love of liberty, that are to be found in all antiquity : and it is the excellent and almofb divine fpirit which appears in thofe books, that has made the majority of readers conclude the author of them to have been in his own pradtice, what he takes fo much pains to recommend, and in- culcates with fuch force of eloquence. And, to do him right, in many parts of his adminiftration he was the patriot he defcribes ; the Commonwealth had great obligations to him ; no lefs than its pre- fervation at one crifis : but there wanted a fleadinefs and uniformity in his condu6t, which alone could entitle him to the reputation he was fo defirous of obtaining, and that has been given him rather by the partiality of learned men, than from the fufFrage of hiftorical jnfhice. I fhall endeavour in the following obfervations to fet his adions in their proper light, and, without aggravating or foftening any thing, confider them as they vyere dire(5ted to the advantage or pre- judice of his country ; in doing which, I fhall dwell only upon fuch circumflances as are important to his charader, paflmg by a great number of other fads which have no relation to my defign. The THE LIFE OF CICERO. 7 The firft caufe of moment that he undertook was the defence of Rofcius Amerinus, in which he gained great honour by his oppofition to Sylla, who was the profecutor, and whofe power had frightened every body elfe from appearing in his behalf: fuch a fpirit in a young man at his firfl: entrance into pub- lick bufmefs was admired by all the world, and' feemed to promife fomething very extraordinary ( but though the danger of offending the tyrant could not deter him from pleading for Rofcius, yet he thought it not prudent to expofe himfelf to his refentment afterwards ; but left Rome, and retired into Greece, under pretence of travelling for his health. He there applied himfelf to the fludy of eloquence ; and having the advantage of the befl: mailers in the world, he made fuch improvements in it, that when he came to the bar upon his return to Rome, he foon eclipfed all his competitors, even Hortenfius himfelf, who could not fee without un- eafinefs the fuperiority he was gaining over him, though they afterwards became very good friends ; the conformity of their fentiments upon publick bu- finefs, and the interells of the Commonwealth, hav- ing united them notwithftanding their emulation. This great ability in fpeaking could not fail to raife him very high in a government where every thing was difpofed of by the favour of the people ; and for the firft proof of their good-will towards him, he was fent to Sicily in the office of quasftor, where he behaved himfelf with fo much juflice, integrity, and moderation, that his reputation as a magi (Irate was not inferior to that which he had obtained before as an orator. To ingratiate himfelf flill further with the Sicilians, he engaged in the profecution of Verres, who, during his praetorfhip in their ifland, had drawn upon himfelf an univerfal hatred by his rapacioufnefs, infolence, and other crimes, which were too often committed with impunity by the Roman gover- nours : 8 OBSERVATIONS ON ijours : and Verres himfelf, infamous as he was, did not want the countenance and protedion of fome of the moil confiderable men in Rome, who endea- voured to fhelter him from juftice for a reafon ob- vious enough, becaufe they were unwilling any en- quiry fliould be made into offences of that publick nature, in the guilt of which fo many of their friends, and perhaps they themfelves, were too much involved. But the eloquence and credit of Cicero condemned Verres in fpite of their oppofition ; and the Sicilians were fo pleafed with the fervice he had done them upon that occafion, that they put themfelves wholly under his protedion, and continued their efteem and affection to the end of his life. Soon after his fuccefs in this affair, which recom- mended him extremely to the Roman people, who were always glad to fee magiftrates profecuted for male-adminiflration, he was made edile ; and having gone through that office with a deferved applaufe, he was unanimoufly chofen praetor. As that dignity was the fecond in the Commonwealth, the poffelfion of it infpired him with higher thoughts and more afpiring hopes than he had entertained before ; he ih n began to take fuch meafures as he judged mofl Jikely to contribute to his advancement : and as Pompey was more capable than any body of ailifling him in that defign, he fought all means of gaining him to his interefts ; and with that view pronounced his famous oration pro Lege Manilla^ in which he entirely forfook his former charader of a lover of his country, and became a principal inflrument of ille- gal and arbitrary power. As the part that Cicero adled in this affair deferves a very particular con- fider?.tijn, I fhall fet it in as full a light as poffible ; the more, becaufe Plutarch takes no notice of it, which it is not very eafy to account for, confidering his ufual impartiality. The THE LIFE OF CICERO. 9 The extravagant afFedlon of the people, in com- mitting to Pompey the command of the war againft the pirates, had veiled him with fo exorbitant a power, that it utterly deftroyed the equality eflential to a Commonwealth. His commiflion gave him an abfolute authority over the whole length of the Me- diterranean as far as Hercules's pillars, and along all the coafts of it to the diftance of fifty miles from the fea : he was impowered to take what money he thought fit out of the publick treafury without ac- counting for it, and to raife as many foldiers and mariners as he judged convenient. Befides this, he 'had a liberty of chufing out of the body of the fenate, fifteen perfons to ferve him as lieutenants, to whom he affigned their provinces at his own dif- cretion. In vain did the confnis, with molt of the fenators, c po?^? this prodigious authority, fo contrary to the maxims oi ih' » g^ ernment : their refiflance ferved only to inflame the people, and occafioned them to add to their decree, that Pompey fhould have power to fit out five hundred fail of fhips, to raife an army of an hundred and twenty fix thoufand men, and that he fhould have twenty four fenators and two quaeftors to obey his orders. With this force he foon reduced the pirates; and his victory was hardly known at Rome, when Mani- lius, one of the tribunes of the people, to gratify his infatiable ambition, propofed the giving him the government of Lucullus, and the command of that general's army then carrying on the war with Mi- thridates, and that he fhould (lill retain the whole ex- tent of that authority which had been granted him by the former decree, though the reafon^ for which it had been given were entirely ceafed. This was nothing lefs than delivering to him all the forces both by fea and land, and making him abfolute mafter of the Roman empire: what rendered the favourers of this decree more inexcufable was, that they had not the leaft pretence of publick necellity to juflify the propofing lo OBSERVATIONS ON propofing it, as they feemed to have had in thecom- miflion they gave him againft the pirates, who were at that time very formidable enemies : but Lucullus, who commanded in Afia, had overcome Mithridates in feveral battles, and was as capable of finifh- ing the war as he whom they appointed to be his fuc- ceiTor. Such an exceflive power entrufted to one man, whicre there was fo little occafion for it, ap- peared to the fenate an utter fubverfion of the confti- tution ; but fuch was their fear of Pompey, whofe greatnefs was become no lefs terrible than that of Sylla, that except Qitintus Catulus and Hortenfius none durft contradict the paffing of it. Thefe two great men, one of which was beyond difpute the fecond orator in Rome, fpoke with much warmth and force againfb the decree, endeavouring to per- fuade the people of the unreafonablenefs and danger of it ; and perhaps they would have made fome im- preffion, if Pompey's fadion, apprehending the efFedt their orations might have produced, had not fet up an abler fpeaker than either of them to harangue on their fide of the queftion. Cicero mounted the rof- triim^ and vi'ith an eloquence worthy of a better caufe, moft artfully relieved on Lucullus, whofe re- putation, as well as his authority, was to be made a Sacrifice to the envy of Pompey ; then he proceeded to defcj^nt upon Pompey's character, which he fet off with all the ornaments of rhetorick, attributing to him the whole fuccefs not only of the African, Spa- nifh, and Piratick v/ars, but even of that againft the Haves, the honour of which was folely due to CrafTus. Thus by cruelly injuring two of thegreateft generals that were then in the Commonwealth ; by a moft fervilc flattery of the man who was manifeftly over- turning all its liberties : he brought the people to Confent to the Manilian Lav/, which, had a regard to the intereft of his country been his conftant prin- ciple, he ought to have oppofed as violently as he did afterwards THE LI FE^ OF CICERO. ii afterwards the Agrarian, or any other attempt agalnfl the fafety and freedom of the ftate. It is certain that ^jlhefe extraordinary honours conferred on Pompey, as they broke the balance of the Rcpublick, fo they ir- ritated the ambition of Casfar, and afterwards fur- nifhed him with a pretence of demanding as great a power for himfelf, and feizing it by force whan it was refufed. I come now to fpeak of his confulOiip, which real- ly deferves all the praifes that not only the Greek and Roman hiftorians have beflowed upon it, but even thofe which he himfelf is fo lavifh of whenever he has an opportunity to mention it. His oppofition to the law propofed by Rullus, which was prefented to the people in a form they were always eafy to be caught with, was a matter of the moft delicate na- ture ; and nothing lefs than his confummate addrefs in the managing thofe aifemblies, could poffibly have hindered its being carried by the artful contrivers of it : but by fhewing the people that under the notion of a popular decree they were really fetting up a pri- vate tyranny, from which no advantage could arife to the poor, for whofe fake alone this law was pre- tended to be formed, but the revenues of the publick would be diflipated and its liberty deflroyed ; he flopped the execution of their defigns, and favcd the Commonwealth from the yoke which v/as jufl ready to be impofcd upon it. I believe no affair was ever managed with greater prudence, nor ever fo much fkill exerted in any oration as in thofe he made upon this occafion, which are certainly mafter-pieces in their kind, though others of a more pompous llile are generally more admired. His condiK':t in Cati- line's confpiracy is too well known to be repeated here : the vigilance, firmnefs, and aftivity, with which he difcovered and prevented that defign, can never be too much extolled ; nor could any thing have depreciated the fervices he then did his country, but 12 ORSERVATIONS ON * but his being fo feRfible of them himfelf. As to the charge brought againft him by his enemies of having violated the Porcian law, by putting to death the chief of the confpirators without allowing them a tri- al, he was abundantly juftified in fo doing by the ur- gent necellity of affairs, and by the order of the fe- nate, 'J hat he Jhould take care the Reptihlick might re- ceive no detriment. This commiflion vefted him with fomething like a dictatorial power, and the extream danger of the Commonwealth required it ; for the leaft delay would have been fatal. But as the people were always jealous of any ftretch of authority in the fenate, they were more eafily wrought upon to take umbrage at this extraordinary adt, which Cicero him- felf calls in one of his letters Invidiofa Potentia. — — - After the expiration of his confuHliip all mens eyes were turned upon him, as one who they hoped would continue to be the chief fupport of thofe that were af- fedionate to the Commonwealth. What engage- ments he then entered into, what friendfliips he culti- vated, what policy he obferved, demands a very flri6t examination, though this period of his life, from the death of Catiline to his banifhment by Clodius, has been palTed lightly over by hiflori;ins; and therefore many parts of it are only to be colle6led from his pri- vate letters, in which he gives a very particular ac- count of every ftep he took, and of the many changes both in his fentiments and behaviour that happened during that remarkable interval. We Ihall find him fometimes devoted to Pompey, fometimes at variance with him ; fometimes imploding his protedlion, fome- times defpifing his power; now refolved to ftand or fall with the Commonwealth, now making his terms with its tyrants ; almofl always reafoning differently, and yet frequently reafoning better than he could prevail upon himfelf to a6l. When he was to make an oration to the people upon quitting the confulfnip, the fecret enemies of his adminillration declared them- felves. THE LIFE OF CICERO. 13 felves, and Csefar who was one of the praetors, toge- ther with Merullus aud Beftia, two tribunes, would iiot futfer him to give an account of his condudt as was always ufual, but commanded him to abjure his ofTict, and leave the roftrum. This they grounded upon his having put to death fome Roman citizens wiihout a legal trial ; and they thought it would be a gr-at mortification to Cicero's vanity, to deprive bim of fo fair an opportunity of making his own pa- n gyrick : but the readinefs of his wit found a way to difappoint their malice ; for he took the oath in a new-invented form, and inftead of fwearing that he had aded nothing contrary to the interefts of the re- publick, he fwore that he had faved the city and the whole Hate from ruin. As extraordinary as this oath was, all the people took it after him in the fame words, and the affront that his enemies would have done him fell entirely upon themfelves. The next day he complained of them in the fenate, and pre- vailed upon that order to pafs a decree. That no pro- /ecu t ion Jhould be brought againjl him for what he had executed by virtue of ihe power which they had given him. This drove the cabal againft him to propofe a law for the calling home Pompey with the army un- der his command, to fecure the liberties of the peo- ple againft the pretended tyranny of Cicero : but by the invincible oppofition of Cato this projedt failed. However, it made fuch an imprelTion upon the mind of Cicero, that he refolved to negled no methods of binding Pompey more ftrongly to his interefl, who had already very great obligations to him, as has been (hewn before. Accordingly when that general was preparing to return to Rome, he writ to him : and having complained of his want of friendfhip, in not congratulating him upon what he had done du- ring his abfence for the fervice of the ftate ; he com- pares Pompey to the younger Scipio, and himfelf to Lelius, defiling that their union might be as ftricl as was 14 OBSERVATIONS ON was the famous one between thofe two great men. This produced an appearance of amity towards him, but he himfelf fufpeded it not to be fincere, as is evident from his 13th epiflle to Atticus, in which he fays of Pompey, That indeed he made great profef- fions of efteem and confideration for him, and afFecl- ed openly to fupport and praife him ; but it was eafy enough to fee he envied him, though he endeavoured to conceal it. Cicero's vanity makes him call that envy, which was really ill-will, for Pompey could not be a friend to any body that had declared him- felf in the interefls of the Republick. The charader that Cicero gives of him in the fame letter, is very different fron^ a\3X of Scipio, to whom he had com- pared him a little before : his words are, fpcaking of his conduct, Nibil come^ nihil Jimpkx^ nihil Iv ror? •n(>kiiiKo7i honejlum^ nihil lUuJire, nihil forte^ nihil lihe- riim. And again in the 20th of the fame book, Is vir nihil habet amplum^ nihil excelfum^ nihil non fum- tnijjum ^ populare. Would one believe, that the hero of the fine oration pro lege Manilla^ and the Pompey thus defcribed, was the fame man ? Had he nothing great ? nothing elevated ? nothing but what was mean and vulgar ? was there neither dig- nity, nor fpirit, nor freedom, nor candour, nor ho- nefly, nor good-nature in his whole behaviour ? But to this perfon, fuch as he is here reprefented, Cicero earneftly laboured to recommend himfelf: and he had foon after more need than ever of his protedlion in the famous quarrel with Clodius, which he entered into more to fatisfy the ill humour of his wife Teren- tia, who was jealous of an intrigue between him and Clodia, than out of any regard to the ceremonies of the Bona Dea. Had he known the parts and capacity of Clodius as well as he did afterwards when he came to feel them, in all probability he would not have expofed himfelf to the enmity of a, man fo able to do him mifchief, and with whom he had always lived before THE LIFE OF CICERO. 15 before in a degree of friendfhip. But befides thar he thought his ruin infallible from the evidence he brought againft him, the perpetual riot and debauch- ery in which' he pafTed his time, made him apprehend no great confequences from his refentment : but he was foon convinced, that a turn to pleafure does not always render thofe that follow it unfit for bufinefs, efpi'cially when they are excited to adion by any violent pallion, Clodius found means to corrupt his judges, and was no fooner acquitted but he turn- ed all his thoughts to the purfuit of his revenge upon Cicero, and kept him in continual alarms till he got an opportunity of compaffing it, which obliged him to court Pompey more and more, though fuch a conduct was extreamly inconfillent with his princi- ples of liberty. As much diftruft: as he had exprefTed of that great man's friendfhip in the letter to Atticus I mentioned firft, he now deceived himfelf into an entire dependance on it, and mofl of his letters were filled with boafls of his good policy in fecuring fuch a powerful proteftor againlt Clodius and all his fac- tion. How little foundation he had for fo much confidence, will appear by the fequel of that affair. In the mean time there was a bufmcfs brought before the fenate, which, as it very much affedcd one of the main points of Cicero's policy, it will be necef- fary to give fome account of. It had always been his favourite fyflem, through the whole courfe of his adminiftration, to ftrengthen the power of the fenate, by a clofe union with the equeftrian order, they ma- king a very conhderable body, and carrying a great weight along with them to which ever fide they in- clined. He fucceeded fo well in this defign, that during the confpiracy of Catiline they were a con- flant guard to the fenate, and ready upon all occa- fions to fupport the refolutions of that houfe. This was certainly a very important fervice to the Com- monwealth, and it was no fmall honour to Cicero to have i6 OBSERVATIONS ON have been the author of it : but moft of this order being employed in colle6ling the taxes of the Repiib- lick, * or in farming of its revenues, there were grie- vous complaints made againft them from air parts of the empire for the frequent abufes of their office, in all which Cicero v/as forced to defend them contrary to truth and equity, for fear of alienating them from the fenate. But foon after the affair of Clodius, Ca- to who did not underftand thofe managements, ac- cufed the judges who abfolved him of corruption, many of which were Roman knights, and obtained a decree againft them. This was relented as an af- front upon the whole body, and Cicero to pacify them again, was obliged to fpeak in the fenate againft the decree. But a much worfe matter "f* that followed fhortly after, involved him in a new trouble upon their account. Many of them who had farm- ed the Afian revenues of the cenfor, whofe office it was to fett4:hem, had taken them at too high a price, out of emulation to go beyond the other bidders i and afterwards repenting of their bargain, made a moft impudent requeft to the fenate, that they might be difcharged of fo much of their rents as they thought would burthen them too much. It was impoffible for Cato to be patient under fuch a demand : he op- pofed it with all his might, and on the other fide Ci- cero, who knew of what confequence it was not to difoblige the order, fupported them no lefs vigorouf- ly : the difpute between them lafted a good while, but at length Cato, who had juftice and reafon en- tirely on his fide, got the better, and the petition was rejeded. Experience foon ftiewed how much more uleful it would have been for the Commonwealth to have followed Cicero's advice. The knights, exaf- perated at the feverity of the fenate, abandoned their party. L. II. Ep. i. t Ibid. THE LIFE OF CICERO. 17 party, and gave themfelves up to Caefar, who knew very well how to turn this divifion to his own ad van ■ tage. It was the fault of Cato not to fee that public affairs are incapable of perfedion, and that it is in:i- poflible to govern a ftate without fubmitting leflTer in- terefts to greater : hence it was that with admirable intentions for the fervice of his country, he fome- times did a great deal of mifchief, for want of dif- tinguifhing between what was good in fpeculation, and what in pradlicc. This was feldom the cafe with Cicero : when he departed from the interefls of the Republick, it was for the mofl part with his eyes open, and without the excufe of error. During thefe wrangles between him and Cato, the triumvirate was fecretly forming, and Casfar, under the fpecious pre- tence of reconciling Pompey and CralTus, was work- ing himfelf into a fhare of power with them, which he knew better than they did how to fupport. Ci- cero perceived it, and takes notice to Atticus * of his growing greatnefs. But as dangerous as this union was to the Commonwealth, he did not think fit to oppofe it, or break with Pompey upon that account j though he makes the ftrongeft declarations of his re- folution not to abandon the good caufe, but ever to maintain it at all events. It feems he flattered him- felf with an unaccountable chimaera of being able to govern them both, as he tells Atiicus in the firft epiflle of the fecond book. And again, in the tiiird of the fame book, he informs his l^riend, that Csefar had affured him he would do nothing but by his ad- vice : polTibly C^eiar, being fenfible of his foible, might have foothed his vanity in making him beli:ye fo ; but it is much more likely, tliat his >,ocdu(ft was owing to other motives which are men joned in that letter, vi2. Reditus in gratiam cum inimicis, pax aim Vol. I. C multi- L. II. Ep. i. i8 OBSERVATIONS OM mtihitudine^ feneHutis otiutn. Thus he manifeftfy gave up the care of the Commonwealth to a pre- carious Oifety and fhameful eafe ; but he could not help reproaching himfelf for it at the end of the letter, and acknowledging that this was adling very differently from the virtuous maxims of his conful- fhip, and very much beneath his reputation. The fifth letter of the fecond book is fo extraor- dinary a confeflion of his weaknefs, not to give it a worfe name, that I am furprtzed how it came to drop from him even to fo intimate a friend as Atticus. He very ingenuoufly tells him, That if they whom he afterwards calls Tyrants, would have bribed him with the place of augur, they had it in their power to have gained him. ^o quidem uno (Ati-^ guratu fcilj ego ah iftis cafi pojfum \ vide kvitatefn meam. But, being difappointed in the object of his ambition, he refolves, out of the abundance of his virtue, to retire from bufinefs, and philofophize : accordingly he went into the country ^ and in the letters he wrote from thence, treats both Clodius and Pompey with great contempt, and even threatens the lafl with a publick recantation of all the firie things he had faid of him. While he was abfent, Pompey married Caefar's daughter ; upon which, Cicero, whofe penetration faw all the confequences of the fatal alliance, returned to Rome, and, join- ing with Curio and other oppofers of Caefar in the fenate, endeavoured to obftrudt his defigns, though without offending Pompey, with whom he ftill kept up a fhew of friendfhip. But the florm which had hung over him fo long now broke upon his head : Caefar, to be revenged, aflifted Clodius, and got him to be chofcn tribune of the people. No fooncr was he entered upon this office, but he openly menaced Cicero with a profecution for the death of the con- fpirators. This threw him into one of his ufuai terrors ; but Pompey flattered him with repeated Tarances that he would not fuffer Clodius to pro- ceed : THE LIFE OF CICERO. 19 ceed : at firfl: he gave credit to thefe promifes; but finding that the defign againft him ftill went on, he began to fufpedt that he was betrayed. His affairs were in this difagreeable pofture, when Casfar, who defired only to draw him off from giving him trou- ble at Rome, offered to carry him his lieutenant into Gaul, for which province he was ready to fet out. Plutarch fays he folicited it himfelf, but the letters to Atticus exprefsly affirm that the propofal came from Caefar. Be it how it will, there could nothing more advantageous have happened to Cicero at that time. The employment was very honourable, and would have effedually fecured him from the malice and power of his enemies '.being fenfible of this himfelf, be was inclined to accept of it, and would have gone with Caefar, if Clodius, perceiving that he was in danger of lofing his revenge, had not very artfully changed his conduit, and, by affecting to feem mo- derate and void of rancour, perfuaded people that he had laid afide his refentment, and was even difpofed to a reconciliation if fought for. Cicero was weak enough to be duped by this behaviour, and refufed the lieu- tenancy of Caefar, who thereupon infifted with Pompey upon giving him up to the fury of Clodius, and declared in an affembly of the people, that he thought Cicero had aded illegally in putting to death the accomplices of Catiline. Clodius pulhed the affair fo vigoroufly, that Cicero foon found he had undone himfelf in not making ufe of Caefar's offer. He fell into a mod unmanly dejection, changing his robe, and walking about the ftreet in a fordid habit, to move the compaflion of the people, while Clodius infulted and reviled him for his want of fpirit. The fenatc indeed, and the whole equeftrian order, gave him all the marks he could defire of affedion and concern j but the fadion againft him was the ftronger : Craffus was his enemy upon many accounts, Catulus was dead, Lucullus retired from bufinefs : Pompey was his only refource, and he ftill counted upon C 2 feme 2b OBSERVATIONS ON fome return for the many fervices he had done him in the coiirfe of his adminiftration. But it is the juft piinifliment of thofe who make themfelves the tools of other men's ambition. That whenever the in- terefls of thofe they ferve may happen to demand it, they are fure to be facrificed : for no very ambitious man was ever grateful any further than it was ufeful to him to be fo. This Cicero moft cruelly expe- rienced, when, going to Pompey to implore his pro- te«5lion, he, to avoid his importunities or reproaches, refufed to fee him. Upon this he utterly loft all hopes, and, abandoning himfelf to the moft abjedt complaints, confulted with his friends what he ftiould do to avoid the prefent danger. Moft of them ad- vifed him to go voluntarily into baniftiment, as the only means to prevent a Civil War ; which council he refolved to follow, as moft conformable to his own genius and circumftances. In how fpiritlefs and effeminate a manner he be- haved during his exile, is fufficiently known to all the world ; the ftain that is left upon his charafter was too great to be varnifhed over by all the glory of his triumphant return, which he chiefly owed to the imprudence of Clodius in quarrelling with Pompey, though the vigorous proceeding of his friend Milo and the firmnefs of the fenate were of no fmall fer- vice to him. As foon as he was re-eftabliftied in his former dignities, he linked himfelf more clofely than ever in friendftiip with Pompey, making his court to Caefar at the fame time, whom he found it was not fafe for him to offend. This complaifance had the effedt that he propofed from it ; he obtained the place of augur which he defired fo paflionately, and not long after the governiuent of Cilicia. His be- haviour in the adminiftration of this province would have done him a great deal of honour, if he could have been content with the reputation he had ac- quired of a wife and upright magiftrate, without maiing at the glory of a foldier, to which he was far THE LIFE OF CICERO. 21 far from having Co good a title. Cato's anfwer to the letter, in which he foiicits him to get a triumph de- creed him by the fenate, is a very handfome reproof of his vanity, and a more gentle one than one would have expedited from the roughnefs of that great man's charader. But notwithftanding all the pains he took to foften his denial, Cicero was griev- oufly offended at it ; which ill difpofition of his, the enemies' of Cato, * particularly Casfar, omitted no endeavours to confirm Upon his return to Rome he found the Civil War juit ready to break out be- tween him and Pompey : this extreamly embarraifed him, for he was verv defirous to be upon good terms with both, and both equally courted him to their party. At firft he attempted to bring them to fome agreement, but he foon found that defign impracflicable ; for ambition, which had formerly made them friends, now made them enemies : then he laboured to dilTuade Pompey in particular from hazarding a war, by reprefenting to him the inequa- lity of their forces, and that it was now too late to quarrel with the man whom he himfelf had made fo lirong : thefe arguments, jufl and reafonable as they were, had no effedt upon Pompey, who was infa- tuated with a vain conceit of his own power, and a falfe confidence which betrayed him to his ruin. All his efforts towards preventing a rupture meeting with no fuccefs, Cicero found himfelf in the greatefl perplexities for which of the two fadlions he fhould deolare. On one fide he faw a general without authority, troops without obedience, negled of all neceffary preparation, and .a continual feries of mif- takes ; on the other an adive leader, a well-dif- ciplined army, great courage, and admirable con- duit : whichever got the better, the Common- wealth L. VII. Ep. i, ii. 22 OBSERVATIONS ON wealth was almoft equally fure of being enflaved. That this was the cafe, very plainly appears from rnany paflages in his Epiftles to Atticus, where he fays, That let the fuccefs of the Civil War be whati>t would, the confequence of it would certainly be a tyrant, 1 fhall only cite one, which is in the 7th letter of the 7th book, Depugna, ingiiis^ potius quam Jervias : ut (jidd ? ft villus en's, profcrtbare ; Ji viceris, tamen Jervias. The only difference was, That the tyranny of Pompey would be eitablifhed upon the authority of the fenate, and Csefar chofe rather to build his upon the favour of the people. Under ihefe diffi- culties Cicero remained fome time, in a mofl uneafy fuuation ; at lafl: he tells Atticus the conclufion of all his i'-:r;fonings in the following words : * ^id ergo, tnqmSy a^iirus es f Idem qiwd pecudes qtite depulja Jul generis Jeqmintur greges : ut bos armenta, Jic ego bonos viros, aut eos qui dicuntur botiiy Jequar, etiam J nietit. He refolves to herd with his own kind ; that is, to follow thofe who had the reputation of being the honeft party, the majority of fenators, and the men whofe dignity was moft erninent in the Commonwe'^lth. But though he had taken this re- fblution, he delayed a good while to execute it, from the natural timidity of his temper. In the mean time, forne of his friends that were in Caefar's army, and Caefar himfeif, were very earned with him to Hand neuter at leaft, if he would not join with them, which condud they perfuaded him would be moft for his honour, as well as infinitely for his ad- vantage. But Pompey preffed him to come imme- diately to his camp, and in fuch a manner as let him fee, that he refented the. uncertainty of his behaviour. This alarm.ed him, and he began to declare himfeif according to his firft intention, though he every day fay/ 3., VII. Ep. vii. THE LIFE OF CICERO. 23 faw more reafon to apprehend the ill faccefs of their party. But what determined him at lafl was the feverity with which Pompey threatened to proceed againfl all who remained unaflive and neuters in the quarrel ; i" Crudeliter minabitiir otiofis^ (ays he in a letter to one of his friends. And in another to At- ticus § he tells him, that the leaft he (Atticus) would fufFer if Pompey fhould be vidlorious, was a con- fifcation of all his fortune ; and that as many as continued in the fame neutrality muft expe(5l to come off no better. He himfelf therefore, upon the report of fome difadvantage Casfar lay under in Spain (which, contrary to the expedation of his ene- mies, he foon furmounted), fet fail, and joined Pompey at his camp in Greece, who received him coldly, as knowing he came thither very much a- gainft his will. He endeavoured to revenge himfelf by bitter railleries upon the ill management of their affairs, and fo derided the weaknefs of the party, that it drew from Pompey this fevere reproof, Pafs into C^fafs camp^ and then you will give over ridi- culing uSj and begin to fear us. Cicero fo far fol- lowed his advice, that he withdrew himfelf before the battle of Pharfalia, and immediately after that declfive adtion made his peace v/ith the conqueror. From that time to the death of Caefar, he led a mod inglorious and dilhonourable life, courting the ufur- per, whom in his heart he hated, with the mod ab- ject and fervile adulations, entirely forgetting the dignity of his former charader, and not even hiding the difgraceful circumftances of his pre- fent fituation by a prudent and modeft retreat, but expofing them to the eyes of the publick, and brav- ing the cenfures of mankind. Yet in this unworthy and 'Y Ad Familiares, L. IX. Ep. v. § Ad Varronem, L. XI. Ep. vi. 24 OBSERVATIONS ON and contemptible fcene of adion, which brought fuch a cloud upon his reputation, one merit he flill preferved, that in his flatteries to Caefar he fhewed a regard to the interefls of his friends, and the fafety of thofe who had faithfully ferved the Common- wealth. Such a condudl fhews there were yet fome fparks of virtue remaining in him ; and though it does not atone for the mean homage which he paid to the tyrant of his country, yet it certainly leflens the guilt, and takes off from the infamy of his crime. The confpiracy againfl Caefar, which was, formed and executed without his participation, is a plain proof how low he was then fallen in the opinion, of honeft men ; for who was fo fit to have engaged in a defign againfl: the life of an ufurper, as the de- flroyer of Catiline and his accomplices .? from whom could the Republick fo properly expert her freedom, as from him who had before defended her in fo immi- nent a danger ? But they who efpoufed that caufe which he had deferted, faw and knew that he had no longer fpirit enough for fo great an under- taking ; and therefore they contented themfelves with requiring his approbation afterwards, which they were fatisfied he would not refufe them w^hen the blow was ll:ruck ; and then indeed, as they ex- pedled he would do, he returned to the maxims of his former policy, and his cliaradter in fome mea- fure recovered its former ]ufl:re. He entered into the interefl:s of the confpirators, and did them all the fervice he was able, the particular inflances of which it will not be neceflary to mention here. But when he found that all was going again to wreck by the cabals of Antony and other friends of Caefar, when Brutus and the other heads of the confpiracy were obliged to yield to the violence of the ccnjundure and abandon Italy, he too judged it prudent to re- tire, and took fhipping to go into Greece ; but, meet- ing with contrary winds, he was driven back once or THE LIFE OF CICERO. 25 or twice to fhore ; by which delay, time was given to his friends in Rom eto acquaint him with An- tony's having made a decree, for the perpetual abo- Hfhment of the didatorfhip, which Sylla and Caefar had made fo odious, and fome other popular adls, that gave them hopes he would return to his duty, and no longer hinder the reftoration of the Com- monwealth. Being thus called back by, what he terms himfelf, the general voice of his country, and looking upon the accidents which had delayed his paflage as miraculous declarations of the will of Providence to command his return, he made what hafte he could to Rome, u'here he was received by the whole city with uncommon honours. But the good opinion he had conceived of Antony did not laft long : fome harfh words he fpoke in the fenate con- cerning him, occafioned a very fharp reply, which Antony refenting, loudly threatened him in his ora- tion, and accufed him as an accomplice ot Ceefar's murder. Cicero from that moment kept no meafures with him ; but, arming himfelf with all the thunder of his eloquence, poured forth thofe terrible invedlives which compelled the fenate to declare war upon Antony, and foon after drove him out of Italy. This was certainly a very great adlion, and one of the fhining parts of Cicero's life ; but poffibly he would have done the flate more fervice, in the fitua- tion it then was, if his animofity againfl Antony had been lefs violent, becaufe it precipitated the exe- cution of thofe defigns which ended in the ruin of the Commonwealth ; at lead this was the opinion of Brutus, as appears by feveral palTages in his letters. But there is another part of his condudl, which it will be more difficult to know how to juftify. I mean his committing the fafety of the Republick to an ambitious boy, who, from the near relation he bore to Caefar, could never be a proper perfon to de- fend it in conjunction witli his father's murderers. At firft ■x6 OBSERVATIONS ON indeed It might look like good policy, to make ufc of his credit among the friends and foldiers of Julius Caefar, againft the more formidable greatn'='fs of Mark Antony ; but when he afterwards grew fopowerftrt, it was a moft inconfiderate and fatal miflake to con- tinue him any longer in employment, and put the lad (take of liberty into the hands of one who had fo great temptations to betray it. It feems Odtavius, unexperienced as he was, had difcovered the old man's weak fide, and, by flattering and perfuading him that he would always a6t fubfervient to his au- thority, had engaged him to that exceflive confidence which his friends faw the danger of, though he did not. Brutus in particular, whofe eyes were ever open to all that might affed the Commonwealth, made him ftrong and frequent inftances to have a care of fetting up one tyrant while he was pulling down another : but when, without any regard to thefe remonftrances, he carried his fervility fo far as even to fupplicate Odavius for the lives of Brutus and the other conTpirators, that truly great and free- fpirited Roman could not help venting his indigna- tion againft him in two letters, one to Atticus *, and the other to Cicero himfelf, which are at the fame time the nobleft monuments of the heroick virtue of him that wrote them, and the moft un- anfwerable condemnations of that condudl which gave occafion to them. And indeed he had too much reafon to fay, that Cicero aded as if he was not fo folicitous about fecuring the liberty of his country, as to chufe a mafter who would be favoura- ble to himfelf. But what moft of ail exafperated Brutus was, that in the excefs of his complaifance for Odavius, he had even refleded upon Cafca, whofe caufe had been efpoufed by him with fo much warmth, * Ep. xvi, xvii. ad Biutum. THE LIFE OF CICERO. 27 warmth, and upon whofe a£tion he had beftcwed fuch high encomiums, while he had freedom and courage to fpeak his mind. Of this Brutus, whofe reputation was ftrongly linked to that of Cafca, moft: grievoufly complains to Atticus, and tells him with noble contempt, that though he and his aflbciates, in a the generous defign of delivering the whole world from flavery, did not boafl fo much of the Ides of March as Cicero of the Nones of Decetnber *, yet their glory was not inferior to his, nor their charadters lefs facred. I muft tranfcribe both the letters, if I were to repeat all the admirable reproofs which they con- tain of Cicero's bafenefs and indifcretion, in fo meanly courting the enemy of the Commonwealth, and for having planted and fupportcd a tyranny, whofe roots were like to ftrike deeper, and grow more ftrongly, than that of Antony ; which he valued himfelf upon having attempted to deftroy. All that can be alledged in his excufe is, that he believed he fhould be able to deprive Odtavius of the power he had given him, when the intereft of the ftate fhould require it : there are fome paflages in the hiftory of thofe times, which feem to favour this fuppofition, and even to aflure us, that he intended doing it, when he was prevented by the fudden form- ing of the triumvirate. It is faid that Panfa, who re- ceived a mortal wound at the battle of Modena, de- clared at his death, to the young Caefar, that the fenate only made ufe of him as an inftrument of their vengeance upon Antony, and that they were determined to make him the next facrifice to the jealoufy of the republick. There was alfo an expreflion of Cicero reported to him, in which by an equivocation eafily * At which time Cicero quafhed the confpiracy of Catiline, a8 OBSERVATIONS ON eafily underftood, there was intimated a defign to cut him off + (laudaffdum juvenem ornandum tollendum) as foon as he had ferved their turn •, upon which, he openly declared that he would take care to put it ©ut of their power. If this was the cafe, it very much takes off from the ingratitude of Odtavius, in Gonfenting to the death of his benefa<5lor, fince fuch double dealing could hardly deferve the name of an obligation, let the effedls of it be ever fo advanta- geous. Upon the whole, I am inclined to think, that though his behaviour in regard to Caefar was productive of infinite mifchiefs, yet he meant well in it to the Commonwealth, and that the fault was rather of his judgment than his heart : but to whatever caufe it is to be afcribed, he fuffered death as a punifhment for it, and fell himfelf the earlieft vidim to that tyranny his mif- raanagement had eftabliihed f. There was fome- thing mean in the circumltances that immediately preceded his murder ; but at the inftant of death it- felf he behaved with dignity, and fhewed a firmnefs not unworthy of a Roman, In his private character he was very amiable, only fometimes too much given to raillery, a fault which very witty men are feldom wife enough to fhun. I cannot pafs fo fevere a cenfure as fome have done upon his grief for the death of his daughter Tullia, whofe extraordinary merit is a fufficient an- fwer to thofe who reproach it with the name of weaknefs. Great minds are moft fenfible of fuch loffes ; and the fentiments of humanity and affec- tion are ufually moft tender, where in every other refpedt there is the greateft flrength of reafon. I (hall * V. Epift. D. Bruto, lib. XL. ad Familiares, Ep. 20. + See Plutarch. THE LIFE OF CICERO. 29 I Ihall clofe thefe obfervations with one remark upon the works of Cicero, that they are a ftrong proof how effential freedom is to the excellency of writing, particularly in the two mod manly kinds of it, philofophy and oratory ; fmce, after the lofs of the Roman liberties, they were fo far from ever being equalled, that all attempts which were made to imitate them, ferved only to demonftrate that the genius and learning of Rome were funk together with its conftitution. Poetry indeed, and other parts of literature which are only for amufe- ment, may pofTibly flourifh under the fmiles of an arbitrary Prince ; but force and folidity of rea- foning, or a fublime and commanding eloquence, are inconfiftent with llavilh reftraint, or timorous dependancy. O B S E R- [ 3' ] OBSERVATIONS O N T H E ROMAN HISTORY. IN the early part of my youth I wrote a little trea- tife, entitled Obfervations on the Life of Cicero^ which went through two editions : the firfi coming out in the year 1731, the fecond in the year 1741. During the laft of thefe years Dr. Middleton alfo publifhed his Life of Cicero, in the preface to which elegant and elaborate work he did me the honour to take fome notice of mine, and exprelTed a wifh that I (hould re-confider the fubjed in a more extenfive view of that great man's whole condud. Finding my mind difengaged from other occupations, I now obey that call ; and, upon examining the general flate of the times in which Cicero lived, I have made fome reflexions, which induce me to enlarge my firft defign, fo as to take in the whole period from the hrfl alteration of the Roman republick into an abfo- lute monarchy, by the fhort ufurpation of Cornelius Sylla, to the final fcttlement of the Imperial power, another fpecies of defpotifm, no lefs violently affum- ed, but more moderately exercifed, and more art- fully conflituted, by Auguftus Caefar. The means by which Sylla, after a dangerous conteft, obtained an uncontrouled dominion over Rome, are fo well fet forth by Plutarch, * that no comment V. Plut. Vit. Syll. & Mar. 32 OBSERVATIONS ON comment upon them will be neceflary here. I (hall only take notice of a weighty obiervation, made by another hiftorian, * who wrote in thofe times, viz, that the army, which, under the command of this conful, expelled Cains Marius and all his party out of Rome, was the firji Roman army which ever had entered into that city in a hoftile manner. To this I will add, that Sylla was the firft Roman general who ventured to refift a decree of the people, however ill procured, and to continue himfelf in the command of an army againfl their orders, by the aid and llrength of that army. But it muft be alfo obferved, that although the diflentions preceding this event had rot rifen to the heighth of civil war, yet for fome time before thefe legions drew their fwords in their general's quarrel, the violent outrages of the tribune Sulpicius and his armed band of ruffiansj which he called his Anti-fenate, had, in effed, deftroyed the legal government and liberty of the ftate. Nor was it only the fury of a popular fadtion which had pro- duced thefe diforders. By the barbarous murder of Tiberius Gracchus the fenate itfelf had fet the exam- ple of fuch pernicious riots. The laws, which could not guard the facred perfon of a tribune from the clubs of a mob brought againft him by the nobles, became as unable to proted: the nobles from the dag- gers of villains, banded together againft them by fe- ditious plebeians. And this anarchy foon conflrain- ed both parties to refort to a military force. At the end of the civil war Sylla found himfelf mafter of the Roman commonwealth. Had he then fheathed the fword, without doing any injury to the freedom of his country, he would have been ranked among her greateft heroes : but, againft the whole tenor of his former behaviour, he fhewed himfelf a worfe * App. Alexandrin, de Bello Civili, 1. i. THE ROMAN HISTORY. 3^ worfe tyrant than Marius had been in the utmofl ex- ceffes of his defpotifm and cruelty, after Cinna had brought him back to Rome. It vvould be out of the compafs of what I propofe in thefe remarks, were I to relate all the horrors of the bloody profcription carried on by Sylla's orders : but, concerning the magiftracy, under the name of which he chofe to exercife his tyranny, (I mean the didta- torfhip) fomethmg muft be faid in this place. The inflitution of this office was almoft coseval with the liberty of Rome. Twelve years after the expulfion of Tarquin the Proud, or, as fome reckon, only eight,* (it a lex jubebat de diBatore creando lata) a law was made for the creating of a dictator, with a power fuperior to that of all other officers, military or civil, and fubjed to no appeal, being only re:- trained by the following limi cations — that it was to be exercifed within the bounds of Italy, and not for more than fix months. The idea of it Teems to have been taken from Alba, "f of which city the Romans were a colony, and may therefore have adopted, without much deliberation, what had been pradifed there : but the occafion of their having recourfe to it was (according to Livy) the inflant dread of a war, which thirty Latin cities, confederated with the Sa- bines, threatened to make againfl Rome. Other reafons have been given, but this feems the mofl probable ^ becaufe military operations are bet- ter carried on by a fingle commandei, than by two equal chiefs ; and the people, at a time of imminent danger, might more eafily be induced to conflitute fuch an officer for the defence of their country againft foreign enemies, than if the law had been firft pro- pofed by the fenate for any political purpofe. Yet they Ihould have confidered, that the didatorial power Vol. I. D extended Liv. 1. J. c. 18. ii Liv. ut fupra. 54 OBSERVATIONS ON extended over the flate, as well as over the army, and that the nobles might ufe it as an engine againft them upon other occafions. The nomination of this magiftrate appears to have been alllgned by law to either of the iwo confuls ; but the choice was confined to fome one of thofe fe- nators who had before obtained the confulfhip : and the ufual method was, for the fenate to decree, upon any great exigency, that a didtator fliould be made, and to dire^ on what perfon of confular dignity the nomination fhould fall. Yet it was in the pov/er of either of the confuls, without any order from themy and without the approbation of his collegue, to name, of his own accord, any confular fenator to this fu- preme magiflracy ; and their approbation, concur- ring with fuch an appointment, fully ratified and confirmed it, however difagreeable it might be to the people. A remarkable inftance of this, and like- wife of the ufe occafionally made of the didtatorial power for the purpofes of the fenate, occurs in the account which is given by Livy * of the events of the year 316 from the building of Rome. He tells us, that the fenate reproaching the confuls with a negleft of their duty, for not having exerted the au- thority of their charge to punifh a confpiracy of the Roman knight, Spurius Maelius, with fome tribunes of the people, againft the Commonv/ealth, one of them faid, " The blame laid on them was unjuft; for they, being fiibjedl to the controul of the laws, which had given an appeal from them to the people, wanted ftrength in their magiftracy, more than they did in their minds, to inflidt the vengeance due to a crime of this nature. (Opus ejje non for ti foliim viro^ Jed etiam lihero exfolutcque legum vinculis. Itaqne fe di^atorcm Luciiim ^^uintium di^urmn.) That there was f L. iv. c. 13, 14, 15, Ann. Urb, Condit. 3161, THE ROMAN HISTORY. Z5 was need of a man, not only courageous, but more- over free^ and not fettered with the reflraints of the laws. He therefore ivoidd name Lucius ^lintiits dic- tator.'' The whole (enate approying it, Lucius Quintius was accordingly namf»i to that office ; and the next day guards of foldi?rs having been placed in the forum, Caius Servilius Ahala, v/hom he had ap- pointed his general of the horfe, cited Maelius, by his orders, to come before his tribunal, and anfwer there to the charge brought againfl" him in the fenate. But, he calling on the people to fuccour him in this danger, which, he faid, was drawn upon him by his kindnefs to them and the malice of the fenate, fome of them refcued him from the hands of an officer, who was going to carry him before the didaror : whereupon Servilius, allifted by a band of young patricians, followed him into the croud, in which he had taken refuge, and killed him there with his own hand : after which, covered over with the blood he had Ibed, he went back to Qiiin- tius, and told him what he had done. That magif- trate praifed him for having freed the repuhlick •■, and then, in an harangue which he made to the people, whom the fight of this deed had thrown into a tu- mult, declared, (M^h'um jure cafum, eiiam ft regni crimme infons fuerit^ qui vocatus a magtjtro equitum ad diclaiorem non venifj'et.) That Mce'lius^ though he were innocent of afpiring to make himf elf king rf Rome., with which he had been charged., was yet jttftiy put to death, hecaufe, having been cited by the maftcr of the horfe., to come before the dilator., he did not come. When we confider, that this man vvas probably guilty of no oiher treafon, thnn affeding to render himfelf too popular, by largefles of corn to the pea- pie, in a time of great dearth ; it mull appear that a power, whict., upon fuch an occafion, could fo fud- denly be called forth, and fo violently exercifed, vvas D 2 not S6 OBSERVATIONS ON not very confiftent with the much-boafted liberty of the Roman republick. The conflitution of that (late is praifed by Polybi- ns, * as a happy mixture of monarchy, ariftocracy, and democracy, but the dicftatorfhip brought into it a kind of domination more pjoperly tyrannical than regal. For, in a limited monarchy, the king is not abfo- lute, but reftrained by the laws, and his minifters. are refponfible to the other eftates of the kingdom, or the courts of judicature therein, for any abufe of his power : but a diftator in Rome (abfolutus kgum vinculus) was abfolved by his office from all reftraints of the laws, and not accountable to the fenate, or af- fembly of the people, or any other jurifditlion, for any adt he had done in the exercife of his charge, however arbitrary or illegal. If it be faid, that the regal power in the Roman conftitution was exercifed by confuls, and the diftatorfhip was only an extraor- dinary remedy, to which recourfe was had in fudden emergencies, when the ordinary courfe of government was unable to anfwer the exigency of the flate, or provide for its fafety, I anfwer, that not only the confuls, or the fenate, or both thefe powers united, but the people alio, as one conftitutional part of the Roman commonwealth, ought to have judged of the neceflity of employing this remedy, fo dangerous to their freedom, and without their confent it never Ihould have been ufed. Thus, in England, where a mixed conftitution of government unites the powers of monarchy, ariftocracy, and democracy, much more happily than that of Rome ever did, even in its beft ftate, (as I hope to lliew in the courfe of thefe remarks) if extraordinary danger require that the Habeas Corpus law (the great fecurity of our freedom) Polyb. 1. vi. THE ROMAN HISTORY. 37 freedom) fhould for a time be fufpended, it can only be done by the joint advice and authority of tlie whole legiilatnre. And if, in a^y c:;fe where delay would be fatal, the fafety (/i the public apparently obligJr-s the king, in vhom alone th*" ; xecutive power refides, to adi againft this or any otiier law, without having been previoufly impowered fo to do by both houfcs of parliament, his minifters are refponfible for it to their country, and can no otherwife be fecured than by a bill of indemnity, which, if the neceffity pleaded for their juflincation is found to have been real; the lords and commons will not refufe to pafs. But, in Rome, a fmgle conful, agreeing with the fe- nate to name a dictator, without the cmcurrence and againft the will of the people, might fubje(5t, at any time, the liberty and the life of every Roman citizen to the arbitrary power of one man, fet above all the laws, and in no way refponfible, for the exercife of his fovereignty, to the juftice of the flate. Indeed, after the end of the fecond Punic w^ar, the fenate it- felf grew fo jealous of the danger of this office, that, for 120 year? 'jl fore S}- 11a took it, no didator was appoiited. The manner in which he chofe to have it conterred demands obfervation. Both the confuls of the year 670, * from the build- ing of Rome, having perifhed in the war w!;ich Sylla and his friends made againft them, he notified to the fenate, that, agreeably to the cuftom of their ancef- tors in fuch cales, vhey fliould create an interrex, to hold the comitia for ele6ling new confuls. They na- med to that office, the prefident of the fenate, Lu- cius Valerius Flaccus, to whom Sylla wrote, and bade him report his opinion to the people, that the prefent Hate of affairs required the appointment of a dictator ; not for the term of fix months, but till the whole Appian. de Bello Civ. 1. i. 38 OBSERVATIONS ON whde commonwealth, and every part of the empire, which the civil wars had fhaken, fhould be more firmly fettled, and brought into better order ; ad- ding, at the end of his letter, that, if the fenate ap- proved it, he offered himfelf to do the repnblick this fervice. His offer was underftood to be a command : he therefore was named diftator by the interrexy without any term being fixed for the expiration of his office ; and thus (fays Appian *) the ditJatorJhip, which had before been a tyranny limited to a Jhort time, this reflraint being taken off^ became a tyranny corn- pleat. Nor yet was the diftator content with this indefi- nite prolongation of his power ; but caufed a law to be propofed by the interrex to the people, which ra- tified all his a6ls., whatever they might be ; and autho- rized him to put to deaths without a trial, any citizen of Rome, according to his pleafure. Cicero, fpeaking of this law, in one of his ora- tions, i" calls it the mqft tinjufi and the mofi unlike a law, that had ever been made ; and in his treatife De Legibus, confiders it as null and void in itfelf Yet to fuch an extreme degree of fervility were the peo- ple and fenate reduced, that it was enacted without the leafl oppofition ; and Sylla rewarded Flaccus for havii-'g been the propounder of it, by naming him to the dignity of his general of the horfe ! Having thus, under the colour of a legal authori- ty, aflumed the moft abfolute and enormous defpot- ifm, he made feveral laws for the fettlement of the ftate, chiefly tending to raife the power of the fenate. This was contrary to the policy of every other tyrant, who, either at Rome, or elfe where, had ever enfla- ved * Appian. de Bello Civ. 1. i. t De Lege Agratia, contra RuUum, Orat. 17. De Legibus, 1. i. c. 15. THE ROMAN HISTORY. 39 ved a free country ! But the fpirit of party was ftrong in Sylla's mind ; and, as all his greateft 'ene- mies had courted the people, he was led by ref'nt- ment, and by every connexion he had hitherto form- ed, to favour the nobles. In aftiig on th'S plm his principal objedt was, to reduce th.° authority of the tribunes of the people. But, before I tJike notice of what he did to that pmpofe, feme cccc)U;n mud be given of the nature and power of the tribunitial of- fice. About fifteen years after the expulfion of Tar- quin, * in the 2''oth year of Rome, the people ob- tained, by a treaty with the fenate, that they fhould, for the future, have magiftrates of .heir own, whofe perfons fhould be deemed inviolably facred ; and that no patrician fhould be capable of holding this ma- giftracy, which, by Vv hat was called ini,ef ^Qp^on^ had a power to protect them againft any injuries from the confuls or fenate. The number of thefe magifl:ror?s, at their firfl inftitution, + was five, and continued fo till the year of Rome 296, when it was augmented to ten, and never afterwards altered. They were an- nually chofen ; and a law was made, in the year of Rome 282, § that the eledlions fhould be in the af- fembly of the people, not by centuries, but by tribes, from which the patricians were entirely excluded, and where, the loweft of the populace always making a majority, the fenfe of the better fort was little re- garded. Soon after their firfl: creation, the tribunes added to the power of protedting the people that of accuhrg the nobles and judging them by the people, and of {topping, by a negative from any one of their number, any decree of the fenate ! Thefe points be- ing gained notwithfl:anding all the force of a warm oppofition * Liv. 1. ii. c. 33. Dionyf Halic. 1. viii.' t Liv. 1. iii. c, 30. § L. ii. c. ^6, SI* 40 OBSERVATIONS ON oppofition on the part of the nobles, the tribunes in procefs of time extended their authority to a right of propofing any law to the people without the alTent of the fenate, and referring to them any bufinefs treated of in that hoLif The exercife of thefe powers was carried on with a violence more refembling the anarchy of a ftate of war, than the orderly atts of regular magiflrates in a well fettled commonwealth. Tiberius Gracchus, in the year of Rome 619, forbade any publick bufinefs to be carried on in the city, till, notwithftanding the oppofition of one of his collegues, his Agrarian law bad been propofed to the people. He alfo feal?d up the door of the treafury, that none of the quaeftors, who had the adminiftration of the publick revenue, might enter into it ; and flopped the praetors from performing the duty of their office in trying of caufes, by threatening them with fines, till every obftacle to his legiflation from any other magiftrate (hould have been removed. In the year of Pvome 614, * the tri- bunes of the people contending for what they had no right to, that each of them Ihould have a power to ex- empt from the obligation of military fervice ten citizens at his choice ; and the confuls of that year refifting the attempt, they ordered both thofe fupreme magis- trates to be carried to prifon •, which was accordingly done : an ac^t, by which the whole majefty of the con- fular power, which reprefented the regal, was viola- ted and deflroyed. If fuch exertions of the tribu- nitial power had been frequent, the government muft have fallen into a mere der»<;>cracy, or rather, indeed, into a tyrannical oligarchy in the perfons of the tri- bunes •, but the ad mj,ni ft ration of this power being divided, at firft, between five perfons, and afterwards between ten, a check was ufually given to the extra- vagances Liv. 1, Iv. c, 2. THE ROMAN HISTORY. 41 vagances of it, by tb^ opnofition of feme one among thofe magiftrates to what the others propofed : and to this, on nnany occnfions, * the fenate had recourfe, particularly in iheir conteft with Ti'oerius Gracchu& about his Agrarian laws, the pafling of which they obftru(fted by the intercefTion or negative of Marcus Odavius, one of his coHegues : nor could he any otherwife get over that obflacle, than by caufing the people to dfcpofe Otflavius, if he v/ould not defift frotn that oppofition which his magiilracy gave him a right to make. This had never been done in any other inftance, and was then confidered by many as an odious ad of violence, which, for the purpofes of a fadtious demagogue, flagrantly violated the fandlity given by the laws to the perfon of a tribune, and tended to dcftroy the facred power of that office by the people themfelves. But Gracchus pleaded, with great force, the necefllty of it, in order to prevent the betraying of the people, in points of the higheft moment, by fome of thofc very magiftrates who were inftituted to ferve them. And it muft be confeft that the blame of this irregular adl ought lefs to fall on him than on the bad conftitution of the magiftracy itfelf. As unanimity in all thofe invefted therewith could feldom be hoped for, the only means of giving confiftency to it, and carrying things on in a quiet and orderly courfe, would have been the deciding oi' all differences among them, by a majority of votes : but, each having a power, by his firgle oppofition, to flop any adt of his colJegues, the obllinacy of one was fufficient to obllruct any bufmefs ; and that im- pediment could not be removed by any other methocji than depriving him of his office. * SeeLivy, 1. ii. c. 44. I, iv. 48. 1. vi. ^^. 59. et al. Appian, Plutarch, Epitome libri Iviii. Liv. Frein- fhem Supplem. NOTES [ 42 ] NOTES on the preceding Observations. P. 34. And the ufual mctbod was^ for the fenate to decree^ upon any great exigency^ that a dictator fljould bd made^ and to dire5i on what per/on of covfular dignity the nomination Jh^uld fall. In relating the tranfadlions of the year 318 from the building of Rome, Livy ufes thefe words, " Major itaqiie ex civibus amilTis dolor quam laetitia fufis hoftibus fuit ; et fenatus (ut in trepidis rebus) ditlatorem did Mamercum JEmVium ji^Jfty See alfo other proofs of their exercifing this power, which the fame hiftorian gives, 1. iv. c. 46. Ann. Urb. Condit. 317. I. ix. c. 38. Ann. Urb. Condit. 444. Yet we find that fome confuls did not think them- felves bound to obey fuch an order : for (as Livy alfo informs us*) in the year of Rome 324, the fe- nate, alarmed at the extraordinary preparations of the ^qui and Volfci againft the Roman ftate, and ftill more apprehenfive of bad confequences from the difcord between the two confuls, who differed in all counfels the one from the other, recurred to the ex- pedient of creating a didlator : but thofe magiftrates, fo difcordant in all other points, agreed in pertina- cioufly refufing to name one : whereupon, as the danger, by new intelligences brought, feemed to be more and more dreadfuJ, Quintus Servilius Prifcus, who, with a great reputation, had held the higheft dignities of the commonwealth, applying himfelf to fome of the tribunes of the people, v.ho were prefent in the fenate-houfe, told them, the fenate called upon them in that extremity to lompel the confuls, by their power^ to name a dictator. There * L. iv. c. 26. NOTES ON THE, &c. 43 There had never been a precedf^nt, either of fuch a refufal on the part of the confu's, or of fuch an ap- plication on the part of the fenate. The tribunes, glad of the opportunity to augment their power, after conruking apart with all their collegues, declared. It was their plea/ure, that the confuh jhould obey the de- er le of the fena'e ; a>^d if thefe fhould perjil in a longer rejijinnce agninjl it, they would fend them to prifon. The confuls, chufing (fays Livy) to be overcome by the tribunes rather than by the fenate, yielded to this command ; but not without a proteft againft the injury done to the confular power, which the fenate thus betrayed. Nor yet could they agree which fhould name the di(flator, but ended the difpute by cafting lots. In the year of Rome 347,* when the confular of- fice was exercifed by three military tribunes, in^ead of two confuls, thefe making a rcfiftance to a decree of the fenate for creating a dictator, the tribunes of the people were again applied to by that body, for the aid of their power to force a compliance : but they, difcontented at feeing the plebeians perpetually excluded, by the influence and intrigues of the p-^tri- cians, from the military tribunefliip, to which, by law, they might attain, though not to the confulfhip, fuUenly refufed their alfiftance. Yet they faid, that, when all the dignities of the ftate fhould be, without diftindlion, communicated to the people, they would then take good care that the decrees of the fenate /hould not he made ineffeHKal by any arrogance of the magif- trat'^s. This refource having failed, the contention was kept up between the fenate and two of the mili- tary tribunes ; who, thinking themfelves equal to the condu6t of the war, complained " that th-^ dig- nity they had obtained from the people, fliou.J be thus ♦ Liv. 1. iv. 58. 44 NOTES ON THE thns taken- from them : but the third faid, that hi- therto he had remained filent, becaufe he rather de- fired that his coHegues fhould yield to the auchoriry of the fenate, without any force upon them, than fnffer the power of the tribunes of the people to be implored againft them. That even now he would willingly give ihem more time to alter their opi- nion, if the exigency of the flate could bear that delay ; but, as the necelllty of war would not wait for longer confultations, he would prefer the fervice of the publick to their good- will, and contenting himfelf with the fole authority of the lenate (what- ever oppofition migh: be made againft it) would name a dicStator that night." He did fo ; and this ftiews, that any one of the confuls, or n ilitary tri- bunes, with confular power, might nrme a didator without the confent of his collegue or collegues : the reafon of which, doubtlefs, was, that the natural un- "willingnefs in the mind of fuch a magiftrate, to make over to another the fupreme command, would probably hinder its being unneceiTarily or wantonly done ; but on many occafions a contrary difpofition might be well apprehended ; and the abfence of one conful, or military tribune, on the publick fervice abroad, might happen to difappoint the defire of the fenate, if the concurrence of both confuls, or of all the military tribunes, had been neceffary to this ad. In the year of Rome 542, * the fenate decreed, that the conful, before he went out of the city, fhould ojk the people whom they would be pkajed to have him fiame dictator^ and fhould name the 'per/on they ordered; adding, that, if the conful refufed to refer this mat- ter to the people, the praetor fhoiild do it ; and, if the praetor would not, it fhould be don9 by the tri- I bunes. Livy, 1. xxv.ii. 5. PRECEDING OBSERVATIONS. 45 bunes. The conful did refufe, declaring that he would not confult the people on a matter which was in bis own poivrr^ and loibade the praetor to do it ; whereupon it was do le by the tribunes of the people^ and .be people emitled^ that ^tin us Fulvius, who wa^ then ai Capua^ JJjotild be named didator, Qnum conful fe populum rogaturum negailet, quod jiice po- ufi-atis ejfei^ praetoremque vetuifTet rogare ; tribuni plbbis rogarunt, plebefaue fcivit, ut ^ Fulvius^ qui iutn nd C.fpiiam eral, dilator diceretur. I find no other inftance in the Roman hifbory of tliG fenate's fubmittiiig to the will of the people the nomination of the perfon who lliould be raifed to this ofrice. T!ie purpofe of creating a dirove that they have been trading with our colonies, as our having fuch goods aboard can prove that ii^e have been trading with theirs. And their manner of trial is a mockery of juftice, which would be highly ridiculous^ if the effeds of it were not fo terrible. The caiife is tried in their own courts in America, a Spanifli advocate is to plead for our merchants, and the judges themfelves almoft always fhare in the prize. The confequence of this is, that every fhip which is taken by them mufl be confifcatsd. But fuppofing, for argument fake, that all thofe fpecies of goods upon which fentence is pad by this moft righteous judicature, were undeniable proofs of an illicit trade, on what ground of the law of nati- ons, or by what article of any treaty, have the Spa- niards a right to flop or fearch our Jhips at all? Where a general trade is allowed, one fpecies of goods may be prohibited ; as, for inftance, wool, or fuller's earth ; and the exporting it may be highly penal : but did this country ever pretend, when her naval power was at the height, to flop fhips out at Jea, in order to fearch whether fuch commodities were aboard ? would the little republick of Genoa endure our doing it ? could any thing lefs than a conquefl bring her to fubmit to it ? But the doing it in America is much lefs defenfible. For where no general trade is allowed, no one particular fpecies of goods MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 57 goods can be more prohibited than another, and the fearching there has no obje(5t at all, and no founda- tion in reafon. All the rules therefore laid down in the treaty of 1667, between England and Spain, concerning the method of fearching for prohibited goods, are plainly confined to Europe, where a ge- neral trade is allowed ; and have no relation to A- merica, where all trade is forbid. For in the one cafe they may be necelTary, but in the other they muft be ufelefs. And it is much to be wifhed, that this moft manifeft diftin(flion had been better under- flood by our minifters in their treating with Spain ; and that, by infifting on articles which are not to our purpofe, they had not weakened thofe by which our rights are fecured. The ground on which thofe rights ftand is the law of nations, which eftablillies a freedom of navigation to all, and confiders the fea as an univerfal benefit, not a particular property or dominion of one : there is no nation fo powerful^ none fo proud in the world, as diredtly to deny this maxim ; there is none fo weak^ none fo abje^, as to give it up. We have been fo far from departing from it by treaty, that in all thofe we have made con- cerning America it is exprefsly ftipulated, and indu- bitably confirmed, particularly in that of 1670 ; which declares that the freedom of navigation ought by no mam^er of means to he interrupted^ and makes no other exception to this general rule, than a reci- procal prohibition to both nations in America, to come iyito the ports and havens of the other to trade there ; for in cafes of diftrefs, or neceflity, the fame treaty allows, that they may come into them^ and ought to be kindly received. As to our failing near their coafts^ it is not only permitted, but it is of ab- folute necelfity in the courfe of our voyage to and from our own plantations m America : hoiv near we fhall go to them, it is impoffible to fix, becaufe it depends upon circumflances we cannot command, as winds, 58 A LETTER TO A winds, and tides ; but very near we mufl go fre- quently ; and they reciprocally muft go near to ours. No treaty therefore has ever fettled any bounds, except the ports and havens of either crown in America, within vi^hich it fhall not be lawful to fail; nor can they be fettled, fo as not to be liable to infinite dif- ficulties, and endlejs chicane. It remains then certain, that in reafon, and juftice, by the law of nations, and by all our treaties, the way to and from our dominions in America is as free as the pafifage between London and Briftol ; and that Spain has no more right to flop and fearch our fhips in the feas of America, than in the Britijb channel. Indeed this pradice o'i Searching is fo very inexcuf- able, that it cannnot be fupported upon any notion of right. Nothing can warrant it but fuperior force, and the famous argument of Brennus, VaVidisl All forts of mifchiefs mud arife from admitting it, or from merely fufFering it, as we have fadly expe- rienced, and no one inconvenience can attend its be- ing denied. Were our fhips found trading in the SpaniJJj ports and havens themfelves, even in that cafe, though they ought to be confifcated, it is a great abfurdity to fuppofe they fhould h^ Searched. For as the fhip and cargo, be it what it will, is forfeited by our being there without diftrefs, or necefTity, to what intent or purpofe is a Search to be made after any particular fpecies we may have aboard ? But upon this pretence to ftop our fhips on the high feas, is to inSult our iinderftanditig., and deSpiSe our powers as well as to infi inge our rights, and to deflroy our trade. Ihus for fome years things have gone on from bad to worfe, England con plaining and remonftrating, Spain chicaning and infulting ; fatisfadlion fometimes icfuied, fometin["!es promifed, never given : our ne- gotiations, and our lofies always continuing, and en- creafing MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 59 creaftng almojl in the fame proportion : at lafl: our merchants weary of thefe ufekfs methods applied a third time to parliament, and petitioned there for re- drefs. In the courfe of their examination it appeared too plain, that we had been treated by Spain with the utmofl injuftice, the utmofl barbarity, and the utmoft contempt : and that no one effedual flap had been taken to procure reparation of our lofTes, fatisfadion to our honour, or fecurity for our trade. It appeared indeed, that as far as writing would go, our miniftry had tried to put a flop to thefe infults. They had fpared no pains, they had fpared no paper. Memorials, reprcfentations to the court of Spain had been as frequent, and as little minded, as the orders and cedulas fent from thence, in behalf of our mer- chants, to the Spanifh tribunals, and governors in America. Neither produced any effed, but to en- creafe the depredations, augment our fufferings, and amufe the fufFerers. Nay, though in confequence of a treaty with Spain, in which we ferved her more perhaps than we could juftify^ commiiTaries were ap- pointed to adjuft thefe differences, and obtain resti- tution for our loiTes, as a return for favours received^ though they continued negotiating for fome years in Spain, though much was promifed from this com- milllon, yet it does not appear, that any body got by it, but the commiffaries themfelves. Upon the proof of all this it was the fenfe of par- liament, that more efFe(ttual meafures ought to be pur-" fued. And to enable his majefty to take them, great fupplies were voted, great armaments made ; the whole nation expe(5led, and defired a war, if fuch a peace could not be gained, as would retrieve our honour, and fecure our trade. Soon after the parliament rofe, the war appeared inevitable : firong fleets were fitted out, and fent to Spair., and the Indies : this could not be done without l vaft expence, great obflrudtion 6o A LETTER TO A obflmdllon to our trade, and hardships on our failors. Yet fuch was the fpirit of the people, fuch their re- fentment at the indignities put upon the king and na- tion, that they came into it chearfully ; and not a murmur was heard unlefs againft the Spaniards. I believe it will be difficult to find a period in hiftory, when this nation was fo univerfally and fo eagerly bent upon a war, as at that time. They had a juft abhorrence, and a juft dijdain of the Spaniards ; nor did th'fe^ who are known to judge the beft of foreign affairs, apprehend any danger, at that criftSy from any other more formidable power ; fo that all concluded we fhould a6t with vigour^ when it was more than probable we might a6t with fuccefs : and the effort we had made, the force we had raifed, was very fufficient to give us a fuperiority in fo juft a quarrel ; a quarrel in which all nations trading to America had an equal intereft, and a common caufe with England : it was now believed, our adminiftra- tion would Ihew, that their former remiffnefs did not proceed from fear, or negligence ; but that they curbed their fpirit till the point of time^ when they might be fjre to exert it with decijive advantages. This their friends gave out, and candid men were willing to think ; efpecially as it was faid, that 07ie great perfon had declared, he thought it for the in- tereft of a minifter to have war rather than peace. But in the height and warmth of thefe expectations, while all Europe was intent on the motions and ope- rations of our fleets, we heard of a convention be- ing ligned, and that we might expedt a fpeedy ac- commodation of our differences by a peace. Of the terms of this convention you will, no doubt, be apprifcd at the meeting of the parliament ; and then you will judge, whether it is proportionate to the charge we have been at, the opportunity we have negleded, the wrongs we have fuftained, the fatisfadion and fecurity we have a right to exped. I only MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 6i I only beg leave to mark out to yen two principal points, upon which I think you cannot mii^ake in forming your judgment. If we make a peace, it ought to be fuch, as will remove^ in the mofl fFec- tual manner, both the caufc, and pretence, of the injuries done us by the Spanifh nation. Now the pretence for them has been folely this, that they claim a right of flopping and fearching our (hips, on the high feas, or near their own ccpfrs ; which claim of theirs is unfupported by treaty, and diredly repugnant to the law of nations, to the rights of our crown, and the freedom of our navi- gation. If therefore we clearly affert, that they have no fuch ri^ht ; that where we have no trade with them there can be no prohibited goods ; that we have a liberty to fail as nigh to their coafls as the courfe of our voyage, the convenience of winds and tides, and other circumflances of navigation, ma}'^ require ; that, in purfuing that courfe, our fhips are not to he Searched ox flopped on any account ; that, in cafes of neceffity, they may even enter their ports, and that only in cafe of trading there they are to be feized ; if we exprefsly affert all this in our treaty of peace, it may be a fecure and lafting one, and deferves well the fancflion of parliament. But if we leave this loofe, or if we admit of any limits, within which a fearch may he made on any pretence, we have yielded every thing, we have no fecurity, all will be fubjed to difpute and chicane ; we fhall have the fame weary round to run, of ap- plications to Madrid, references from thence to the Weft- Indies, and from the Weft- Indies to Madrid again ; and, after the folemn hearing of our v/rongs in parliament, after laying open all our wounds to the view of the world, after declarations of right, and lofty threats of rcfentment, after millions fpsnt, we fhall be in a woi fe condition, than we ever have been yet by any former treaty, or than we fliould have 62 ALETTERTOA have been, if we had taken no notice of the com- plaints of our merchants, and not moved in them at all. As to the other point, the caufe of all thefe in- juries, I take it to have been the contempt this na- tion is fallen into, from what unhappily may have Teemed to your enemies a defpicable tamenefs and pufillanimity in our conduct. How far this has gone, I am afhamed to fay. Thofe, who to infult us could not prefume on their own ftrength, by long obferving, or fuppofmg they obferved, a weaknefs in our councils, have come to fuppofe it in the nation itfelf : and on this prefumption they became as ar- rogant, as they imagined England to be timid, and weak. They have certainly aded as if they thought we were the meanejl of nations^ or that the meaneji of minijlers had condu(5ted our affairs. This prejudice therefore muft be removed, or we fhall continue to fuffer, as much as we have done, and (till more : for, where impunity is certain, infolence knows no bounds. If the peace we make does not retrieve our reputation, it is impoflible it can laft, for // may be broke without fear. Spain can have no reafon to keep it, unlefe it is made on fuch terms, as to convince her that the temper, and fpirit of our court is changed ; and that we will bear no longer what we have borne fo long. Should any article of it be difhonourahle or mean^ though all the reft were advantageous, that alone would be fatal, be- caufe it would leave us expofed to endlefs infults and affronts, the certain confequence of a ftain imprinted on our national charader. Reputation is to a people, jufl what credit is to a merchant. The firft de- pends on an opinion of ftrength, as the latter does on an opinion of opulence. But that opinion of opulence is a real advantage, that opinion of ftrength is a real fecurity. When a contrary notion prevails m MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 63 in the cafe of the merchant, when his credit is hurt, there comes a run upon him fuddenly, and, by be- ing thought infufficient, he becomes fo in reality. The fame thing may happen to a nation from the lofs of character. An opinion of its weaknefs may encourage enemies, may unite them againft it in a fudden attack, may difhearten its friends, and leave it deftitute of fuccour. All which might have been prevented, had due care been taken to fupport the opinion of its ftrength by a fpirited condudt. 1 hope attention will be had to this in our peace with Spain, and that we fliall on no account yield to any thing fcandalous, but feek reparation to our honour, as well as to our merchants. And I dare anfwer for them, that, great as their loiTes are, they had rather endure them without any compenfation, than have it made in a way, that may be difgraceful to their country. Sure I am it would be better for them to lofe their money, or for us to pay it out of our own pockets, than, for the fake of retribution to them, to admit of a treaty, in which the fecurity of our commerce is not firmly eftablidied, beyond a pofll- bility of all future cavils, by exprefs declarations of our right not to he fearched. For to admit of fuch a treaty, would be no lefs an abfurdity than to he bribed with our owft money to our own undoing. In thefe plain lights. Sir, I hope you will con- fider this convention, when it fhall be laid before you in the courfe of the feflion. You will not, I dare fay, fuffer yourfelf to be amufed with nice diftindions, and refinements of policy. You will remember how ufelefs, nay, how fatal, all thefe fubtilties have hitherto proved, and what they are like to produce. You will defire to fee a treaty, which fliall not be the beginning, but the end of negotiation ; which fhall fpeak fo plain, that every Englifh country- gendeman, and every Spanifh governor in the Indies, fhall 64 ALETTERTOA fhall underfland the fenfe of it, as well as the JVal- poles^ and La ^ladras. You will not be fatisfied with a prefent compli- ance, and temporary expedients, which are only patch-work, nor refer that to commilTaries, which requires inftant difpatch ; nor fuffer that to be argued which is inconteftable ; but demand a folid and a durable peace, founded on real fecurity, and exprefs ac- knowledgment of all thofe rights that have been quef- tioned by Spain, either with regard to our commerce, or to our pojjcffions. For nothing lefs than this will Satisfy the nation. And when this is done, you will confider of the methods, how to turn this peace to the bed advan- tage, and fecure it effectually for the time to come. The only way of doing that, Sir, is, to put the na- tion in a condition to he feared ; and this can only be done, by reducing its debt, and gradually leifening its taxes. It is a melancholy thought that fo much time fhould have been loft from this neceflary work, fmce it has been in our power, I believe it conld be proved almoft to a demonftration, that ever fmce the peace of Utrecht, we might have attended to it con- flantly, without the leaft interruption from our neigh- bours abroad, who had no defire to difturb us, till within thefe few years paft, when, notwithftanding great compliances on our fide, the hoftilities of Spain have loudly called for our refentment. In all our quarrels during the late reign, though it can no more be doubted that the interefl of England was the only point confidered, than that Bremen and Vcrden were ncDcr thought of in them, yet how far that interefl was rightly underftood by us, is not quite fo clear. To fome it appears we had no grounds for quarrelling, no more than we had upon other occafions for nego- tiating ; ar.d that we might better have been quiet, if luch adtive abiiiiies, as fome of our minifters were endowed MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 65 rndowed with, could have been content to repofe. But the entering lightly into wars, and alliances, in which we had no concern, or a very diftant one at mofl:, if it was the fault, was not the only fault of our government. Thofe who cannot fee into the depth of our po- licy, and the infcrutable wifdom of our councils, may be apt to think, that we have been no lefs f?ulty in our way of managing peace in our negk(5l of ufmg the advantages atiend: jg it, and in finding the fecret by an unaccountable condud:, to make it as expenfwe^ and as ruinous as war : that we have purchafed dijhonour at as dear a rate, as we did glory in fome former reigns : that tliis hath continued, this hath fixed upon us the difficulties, v. hich, with tolerable management, ought to have been conquered long ago: and that to this it is owing, not to King Wil- liam, or Qiieen Anne, if we are a diftreft and a declining nation. Had it not been for this, fay they, we have had leifure enough to pay off great part of our debt, and to encreafe the finking fund to fuch an annual fum, as would enable the government to maintain our dignity, without wafting our fubftance. Had that been done, we had been now a mighty people, eafy at home, and formidable abroad. And though we had no difputes with Spain, yet, on other accounts, it would be highly defirable for us to be in thoje circumftances, rather than in a ftate of indigence, which miift be a ftate of fear. For though by re.fon of fome lucky circumftances at this jundlure we have no caufe to apprehend any inftant danger fiom France, thofe, who look forwards at all, have very dreadAil apprehenfions. The Empire is already open to her by Alface, and Loraine, and there has been g terrible alarm, that it may foon be fo by Luxembourgh. The weaknefs of the Low Countries is apparent to every body ; and God knows how foon they may be made a facrifice either to the F friendjhipy ^ A LETTER TO A friendjbipy or the arms of France. If the power of that crown in former times had equalled its ambi- tion, Europe had been loft ; if its ambition now fhall equal its power, it will probably accomplifh what it then defigned. And bad is our condition, when our fate is to depend on a fpirit of conqueft not prevail- ing in that court. They have wifely been doing what we ought to have done. They have, by oeconomy, by attention to trade, by eafmg their people, and hufbanding well the money they raife, laid fuch foundations for their future greatnefs, that if an enterprifing minifter fhould fucceed to this^ he will find advantages, which his greateft: predeceflbrs, Richlieu, Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, never had, and will have reafon to expert a much more glorious fuccefs. What may then be the circumftances of that kingdom, and this ? On one fide mortgaged revenues, credit funk at home and abroad, an exhaufted, difpirited, dif- contented people : on the other, a rich and popular government, ftrong in alliances, in reputation, in the confidence and afFedion of its fubjeds. Will the conteft be equal between thefe two powers ? and what an aggravation is it to the pain of this thought, to reflect how eafily we might have been in a con- dition, to fa.ve ourfelves and Europe from this danger and fear ; if, for thefe twelve years paft, (to go no higher) our debt had decreafed, in proportion to the means that have been in our hands, and no greater expence had been incurred by the * government, than * N. B. Had the fmking fund' been duly applied fince the year 17^7 to the payment of the national debt, at leaft twelve millions might have been paid off: the finking fund would then produce at 4 j>i?r cent, little lefs dian two millions, and (were intereft reduced to 3 per cent ) confiderably more. Upon fuch a bottom as tins, we miglit well maintain a new- French war. MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 67 than the real neceflity of affairs required ! We might then have fpoke to France with as much authority, as becomes this nation in the common caufe, efpe- cially if we had taken any care at the fame time to fet ourfelves at |he head of the Proteftant intereft, which is our natural pod -, and has on former occa- fions given great advantages as well as luftre to the crown of England. Had we purfued thefe mea- fures, we fhould now have nothing to dread ; by purfuing them fteadily we may yet be fafe, we may yet be confiderable, we may yet hold the balance of Europe. But till a wifer adminiflration fhall reftore our affairs, little dignity, or vigour, is to be ex- pecfted in our councils. Some appearance of vigour may perhaps be maintained ; but it will impofe on nobody ; no, not on ourfelves. To think that keep- ing up, at a vaft expence, great fleets and armies, with a refolution not to employ them, can fecure our reputation, is as grofs a miftake, as if, in private fife, a gentleman known to be in debt, and not dif- pofed to clear himfelf, fhould think to cheat his creditors, and fupport his credit, by encreafing his equipage, making fumptuous entertainments, and beggaring his family with new debts and mortgages. Jt is fcarce to be computed what it has coft this nation in well-equipt fleets, and well'dreji troops, for Ibme years paft |iS»nd I fhould be glad to be told (bating the finenefs of the fhow) what ufe they have been of to us either at home or abroad. They give, to be fure, an air of magnificence ; but then it is well known, that we owe almofl: fifty millions, and have been forced to apply the finking fund, not to difcharge that debt, but to furnijb out theje jhows. In mofl: parts of England gentlemens rents are fo ill paid, and the weight of taxes lies fo heavy upon them, that thofe who have nothing from the court can fcarce fupport their families j and thofe in place are hardly favcrs on the account, if what they give F z be 68 ALETTERTOA be balanced againft what they receive. There are indeed fome rich people who have money in the funds ; and out of tendernefs to them I fuppofe it was, that when intereft was naturally, and appa- rently fallen to three per cent, the national debt was flill continued at four, by which the publick has loft millions, and fuch an opportunity, as it may not again be in our power to retrieve. Yet if peace fhould be fettled on a durable foot, I hope the worthy gentleman^ who, two years ago, propofed the redu6lion of intereft, will renew his motion ; and that it will not be mended fo as to be made lefs elipble, and then objeded to, and thrown out by the amenders. 1 hope too care will be taken, that, when the fcheme fhall have its efFecft, reduc- tion of intereft and taxes fhall go hand in hand ; and that the finking fund fo encreafed fhall not be left at the difpofition of a minifter, but applied in part to take off fome of the duties, which are fuch a load on induftry, and fo dangerous to free- dom. All thefe particulars, Sir, deferve your ferious attention. We expedt to find we have a peace^ not by his majefty's fpeech alone, and the con- gratulatory compliments of both houfes of parlia- ment (which during all our late fufferings, and the hoftilities of Spain, have been ariM^ally made with great encomiums on his meafures7L>ut by the fruits of peace^ a confiderable leiTening of our expences, and relief to the people at whofe charge it was gained. We may yet recover, low as we are, with good management. To make a great Jiate Utile, is not fo difficult indeed, as to make a Utile one ^reat ; yet it is not to be done imm.ediately ; and with all the fldll fome have fhewn in endeavouring it here, it will re- quire ftili more time to fink us fo, as that, with the help of friends^ we may not rife again. The natural ftrength MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 69 flrength of this nation is great, its refoiirces great, and in one refpecft greater than ever, becaufe, the funds having been tried^ and Cound fifffic ten t^ the bor- rowing on them again, when our debt is reduced, would be fecure and eafy. To reduce it therefore ought to be the principal objecft of all who meddle with our public affairs. We (Tiall judpje of all your other virtues now by your frugality. The befl oeco- nomift for the public will be the beft member of par- liament, the belt counfellor o^ ftate, and the beft mi- nifler. I do not know how it has happened, but for fome time paft, an ignorant country- gentleman might be almoft provoked to fay, that our fegm has fliewn itfelf only in bearing offronts^ and our fpirit only in fquandering away the public money. I fuppofe we fhall now have no occafion to lliew our fir?, but we fhall have great occafion for a referved and cautious tem- per. Let this operate ^ the granting of money, in a conftant refufmg of new powers to the crown, and watching over the ufe of thofe already granted. Above all, beware of new additions to the civil lift. It is a ftrange circumflance, and will not found well to pofterity, that while the publick lofes in fo many articles, fo inany gains have been of late made to the crown : that when every gentleman's eftate is falling in value, the eftate of the crown fhould be fo much encreafed, that if we were to purchafe it back with fifty thoufand pounds per ann. more than it was given j or ^ we iTiould fave by the bargain. I will juft take notice how great profits have accrued to the civil lift upon the gin-bill only. All that had been gained by the higheft amount of the duties on fpirits, that is, by the iiighefl excels of the evil defigncd to be reformed, was made up to his majcfty out of the aggregate fu;id, by way of compenfarion for the lofs he fhould fuftain upon favmg (he liv j of many ihou- Jands of hi.. /"Ijedls, At the fame time all he might gain by the encreafe of the brewery, and by that of the 70 ALETTERTOA the wine licence duty, (which together cannot be lefs^ and ought to be reckoned at more than an equal proportion to the decreafe on the fpirits *) is, by the bounty of this a6t, prefer ved to him entire, and without account. So that the preventing a national michief^ of fo deftru6tive a nature, that, rather than fufFer it to continue, the legiilature was forced to ruin many particulars, and grievoufly hurt our fugar co- lonies, hath (no doubt to the comfort of the fufferers) been fo h :ppily managed, that it may prove an ad- vantage to the civil lift of fevcnty thoufand pounds a year, and probably more. I would only obferve, that if our other popular vices could be turned as much to account as the drinking of fpirits hath been, the eftate of the king of England would be more a gainer by the fins of the people^ than the exchequer of the pope. But there is another article I muft not pafs over in filence, becaufe it may probably come before the houfe this feflion j and that is, that his majefty has been, and flill is, in pofTeflion of 50,000 /. per ann. which moft people think was defigned by parliament for the prince of Wales, over and above the fifty which he now enjoys. It feems evident to me by all I have heard, and read upon this fubjed:, that the parliament which gave the civil lift could not intend, that his majefty fhould retain for himfelf any part of this hundred thoufand pounds a year ; fmce fuppofing the prince to have it all, and allowing his majefty to fpend one hundred thoufand pounds a year extraordinary in penfions^ bounties^ fecret-fervice money^ &c. he will ftill have, for the fupport of his houftiold, a revenue equal to that of the late king. The expence of his family has been unhappily lefiened, fmce the confideration of this * N. B. The fhare of the civil lift: upon foreign fpirits is about ^ ; upon home fpirits about 4- j upon beer and ale about -. MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 71 this matter in parliament, by no lefs a faving than the whole fum in difpute ; and as for the charge which re- mains, it will be abundantly fupplied out of fo large an income as fix hundred thoufand pounds a year, with the great additional profits arifing from the gin bill, crown land, plantation rents, and other articles commonly known by the name of licks, &c. So that if the prince hath not the fifty thoufand pounds per annum, which I apprehend he has a right to from the intention of parliament out of the feven hundred and fifty thoufimd enjoyed by his majefty, (exclufive of the profits on the articles above-mentioned) if, I fay, this be not given to him, upon the birth of two children, and the hopes of a third, it certainly ought to be returmd to the public. If his royal highnefs hath it, it will indeed be lojl to the public ; it is like to cir- culate freely, and the poor Vv'ill have their fhare of it ; but as I am arguing now upon a principle o{ faving^ I muft needs fay, the nation wants it^ and the royal family all together has enough. L$ Joon as ive can. For what .: caa MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 7^ can we exped by delaying; it longer, but to draw on farther infults, farther wrongs, farther contempt ; to be treated on all occafions as a provnce to France : to be daily weakened more and more by the incroach- ments of all our neighbours upon every branch of our trade ; and to be at laft devoured without the means of refiflance, when all our friends are afhamed of us, and when a long /i.i'e of dependency (hall have funk our courage, and prepared our minds, to en- dure the infamy of a foreign yoke ? But we have the Itrongeft grounds to think that our affairs are not fo defperate. France is no party concerned in this dif- I pute with Spain ; and the prefent genius of that court is, not to engage without necelfity, in any quarrel that muft coft her a v/ar. She may perhaps defire to mediate, and to mediate partially ; but it is in the power of Englaed to refufe that mediation : fhe may fpeak in an unfriendly, or perhaps an angry fhyle ; but we have profited little by a great deal of experi- ence, if we have not learnt, that there is a wide dif- tance between laiking angrih, and declaring wa-'-. It feems evident upon the whole, that what we ought to apprehend, is not an immediate, but a future dan- ger from France ^ and the care of the legiflature fhould extend to that, not by approving a peace which may deferve to be cenfured, but by attending to things, which, either in war or peace, are of ex- treme importance to the flrength of the kingdom, and therefore demand particularly the infpedion of parliament. Such is the (late of our mayiufa^lures, fuch is that of our colonies ; both fhould be enquired into, that the nation rAay know, whether the former can fap- port themfclves much longer under the various pref- fures that affed our manuficturers ; and hov/ is it polfible that the litter ibould decline, when if it had not been for a falfe report of bis death. Sir O o B-^ n 74 ALETTERTOA B n might have governed one of them ; and fo ma- ny gentlemen of no lefs fortune and chara£Jer have been frequently fent to take care of the refi ? The ftate of our garrifons abroad too may deferve to be confidered, and whether the abfolute power, lodged in fome of our governors there^ has been dif- erectly, moderately, and humanely exercifed, to the ho- nour of his majefty's commiflion, and of the Englifl:i name. Sir, what I would farther fubmit to your attention is, whether fome new powers have not been afTumed by the crown, or old ones Jlretcbt beyond their legal bounds, by the conftrudlion of minifters, and the acquiefcence, or perhaps the authority of the judges ^ themfelves. This is moft likely to happen with re- gard to criminal profecutions, and many inftances of it have been complained of formerly, and fal- len under the notice and the cenfure of parlia- ment. No longer ago than lalt year there was a loud complaint of a power afllimed and exercifed by the fecretaries of ftate againft all law, and particular- ly againft that tnoji /acred law the habeas corpus adt ; I mean the demanding fecurity for their good beha- viour, from perfons examined before them on fufpi- cion of writing, printing, or publifhing hbels againft the government. This having been exercifed for the mod part upon low and inconfiderable people, who had neither fpirit nor flrength enough to fupport their right, it had pafled unqueftioned many years together, till Mr. Franklin was advifed not to comply with that de- mand, but to infift on giving bail for his appearance only. Upon this the matter was brought by habeas corpus before my lord chief juftice Raymond, who decided it in his favour, for he admitted him to bail without any fecurity for his good behaviour. Not- withflanding which the fame pra^^ice continued in the MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 75 the fecretary's office, and pafled fiib fikntio^ till lafl: year Mr. Amhurfl brought it into publick difcourfe. Though the circumftances of this fadl are pretty well known, yet as they are of a weighty and grie- vous nature, I will remind you of them by a fliort recital of all fuch particulars as are come to my knowledge. Some time after Chriflmas 1737, Mr. Amhurft, hearing that a warrant from the Duke of Newcaftle was out againft him, furrendered himfclf to a meflenger,- and was carried before his grace to be examined. The crime imputed to him was, that he was fufpeSled to be author of a paper fufpe^ed to be a libel. As no proofs were alledged againft him, ^j]ci witnefles produced, an examination of this kind could not laft long. As foon as it was over, he was told, that the crime being bailable, he fhould be bailed upon finding fufficient fureties to anfwer for his appearance, and trial ; and gave bail for his ap- pearance, but the other terms impofed upon him he abfolutely refufed. Upon that refufal he was re- manded back to cuflody,4and the next day brought his habeas corpus, and was then fet at liberty by con- fent, till the twelve judges fhould determine the queflion, whether he was obliged to give bail for his good behaviour, as well as for his appearance, before he was entitled to his liberty. As this determination would have been the mofl important to the liberty of every man in England, that perhaps the judges ever gave, it was impatiently expeded, and defired by the publick. Several days were fixed for hearing counfel on both fides ; but they were never heard, and the queflion remains lliji undetermined. A queflion of no lefs confequence, than whether ignominy and punifhment (for/«f/?.the being bound to good behaviour is by the law fuppofed to be) fhall be infhdled on a freeman before any trial, and with- 9Ut his being charged upon oathy even of fufpicion of suik : 76 ALETTERTOA guilt : a queflion of no lefs confequence, than whe- ther any man in the kingdom, whom the court are pleafed tojTufpedl of writing a libel, fhall by frequent fuccefTive commitments upon other fufpicions, with no proof at all, be either conflantly imprifoned, from not being able to find fecurity for his good behavi- our, fo often as it is afked, which may be every week ; or be expofed to forfeit many bails at once, to the value poiTibly of ten thoufand pounds *, for a fingle breach of the peace, which' in another cir- cumftance, he could not be fined ten (hillings for, by any court in England. A queftion of no lefs aonfequence, than whetherj^ the habeas corpus aft fhall be the rule of proceedings in all cafes bailable ; or whether it Hiall be in the power of every juftice of the peace to add new terms to it, and make ne%v exceptions to the advantages gi- ven by that acfl to the fubjedl ; that is, whether tbey fhould do what all the judges in England would de- ferve to be impeached for if they did, and what the parliament itfelf ought liNb more to do, than to re- peal, or alter MAGNA CHARTA. A queflion of no lefs confequence, than whether we fhould lofe the entire benefit of the liberty of the prefs, which fecures and flrengthens all our other liberties : fince upon fufpicion only of a book or paper being libellous, any man fufpected to be concerned in it, may be put under the load of finding fecurity for his good behaviour, which is fuch a vexation, and fuch a diftrefs, that it is commonly part, and a heavy part, of the fentence upon convihed criminals^ in all but capital caufes : fmce this is in the power of every * N. B. While a man is bound to his good beha- viour, if he fliould chance to commit any common a6t of natural frailty or paifion, get drunk, for in- flance, or return a blow, he would be liable to for- feit his fecurities. MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 77 every juftice of peace * ; and fince, by confeqiicnce, no man can be fafe who publifhes a book, how inno- cent foever it may be, without as many h'cencers, as there are Middle/ex jtijtices. Why this queftion was not decided at that time, why it remains ftill undetermined, I cannot tell. If there is no intention to revive the pra<5tice which oc- cafioned the difpiite, I am furprized and forry, that the terror of it is fuffered to hang over us ftill, and that the opinion of all mankind concerning it has not yet received the fandion of a judicial determination, onthe declaration of parliament. >!',/From my good opinion of the prefent judges, I hope and believe, that if they decide it, we have no- thing to fear. They know the danger, and deteft the iniquity, of adding reftridions of their own to laws declaratory of liberty. They know that parlia- ments have often refented fuch proceedings ; that they have been produdive of the greateft mifchiefs, the greateft diforders, and convulfions in the ftate : that the arbitrary interpretation of our laws in Weft- minfter-hall has been more than once the caufe of civil war, the diiTolution of our government, and the deftrudion of our kings. They will therefore de- cide, not as former judges have done, who held jj^ieir places at the mercy of the crown, but as men,^'ho deferve the places, which, without a crime, they can- not Iqfe. Yet if this decifion fhould be long-^r delayed, it will be highly proper, that the fcnl'e of parliament be taken upon it, and that we fhould know to what we may truft. For fo long as this is in doubt, fo long the nobleft privileges, that EngliHitnen erjoy bevond all * The law knows of no power in a fecre:ary of ftate, in this refped, which is not equally lodged in every juftice of peace. 78 A LETTER TO A all other nations, are left in uncertainty, and may be thought in danger. And if the confideration of this fhall come before the legiflature, they will be naturally led at the fame time to confider, if there are not grievous in- conveniencies that attend the trial of criminal caufes by fpecial juries ; and whether moft of the provifi- ons made by the aft of 3 George II. fhould not be extended to them. By the feveral regulations in that 261 for the return and. ballotting of common juries in civil caufes, the property tried in fmall aflions is pretty ftrongly guarded : but it is very extraordin?,-|g^ that no provifion of that kind has been made, wht.-.' the queftion to be tried is of the higheft confequence. It is very well known, that even in civil caufes, few above the value of an hundred pounds are tried with- out a fpecial jury, to which this aft does not extend. Now I can fee no reafon for thefe regulations with regard to the property tried by common juries, which tioes not hold much ftronger for extending the care of parliament to the regulating fpecial juries alio. The fmall value of the caufes tried by the former makes it highly improbable, that either of the parties fliould attempt to influence the fherifF to make a par- tial %eturn, fince the gain would no way equal the hazard. The fame reafon too will prevent an inter- efted juryman, fuppofmg fuch a one was returned, from giving a verdidt contrary to evidence, and per- juring himfelf in the fight of his country, for fo in- confiderable an advantage to the party he favours. And that crimes will be more or lefs frequent in pro- portion to the temptation to commit them, mufi be allowed. In criminal cafes, this is ftill more dangerous, be- caufe the power of the crown may be exerted in the profecution, and the queftion to be tried is the im- prifonment and punifhment of a freeman. If 'he mafter of the crown-office, or his deputy, lliould be ever MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 79 ever under any influence, he may * name twelve of the defendant's friends to cover his purpofe, and thirty-fix of thofe who are mofl prejudiced againft him upon reafons of party, or other caufes, if he can find fo many in the county ; and as the folicitor for the crown would flrikc off the former, the defendant mufl: be tried from a jury among the latter. It is true that officer is/worn, but fo is the fheriff in re- turning common juries, and it is jufl: as likely that the one fhould fiame partially, as the other return partially. , u^^ut there feems to be lefs reafon for allowing of -,ri^ial juries to be ftruck by the mafler of the crown- office, or by any other officer, upon informations, or indidments for crimes committed in London or Weflminfter (which is the cafe of moft of the crown profecutions upon libels, &c. for very few arife in any other county) becaufe the fheriffs of London and Middlefex, being annual and elective officers, are lefs liable to fufpicion of influence, and by confequence^ the mofl: impartial officers between the crown and the fubje(^. The ufual argument in fupport of fpecial juries is, that it is fometimes neceflary for a caufe to be con- fidered by perfons of a higher rank and better edu- cation than common freeholders, and that they arc never ufed in a capital cafe. • As to the firfl:, admitting the reafon to be right, why may not fpecial juries be balTotted for out of a number of freeholders, pojfejl of eft ate s tofuch a value, and * The rule of ftriking fpecial juries is, that the flieriff of the county do attend the maflier of the crown-office with the freeholders books, cut of which he is to name forty-eight in prefence of each party, who by their attornies or folicitors (hall fl:rike off twelve a-piece. 8o ALETTERTOA and the lifts be made in the fame manner as is di- reded by the jury-adt with regard to common ju- ries ? And as to the fecond p^rt of the argument, that fpecial juries are not ufed in capital cafes, that, at beft, is but to fay, that the practice is not a bad one^ becaufe it might be worfe ; and that, becaufe the life of the fubjeft is fafe, therefore his liberty is not worth Gonfideration. Sir, I think it is evident, this pradtice is fuch as requires a new law, no lefs than the abufes and corruptions, recited in the preamble to the jury-ad, required the regulations thereb" made for fpecial juries ; nay, that without theyneif^ extended to common juries, that law is of lefs utility, than the parliament, which made it, hoped and de- figned. It was certainly well-intended., and I pre- fume the prefent parliament, when they fee the de- feds of it, will not have lefs zeal for the principle it goes upon, than their predecefTors. But v/hen this method of trial Iball be better regu- lated, I hope it will be alio confidered by the legifla- turc, whether it be not advifable to take another quite away., I mean informations in the king's-bench for cri- minal caufes : Becaufe, by this method, the fubjecl lofes one great benefit, he is by law entitled to, that of a grand jury : Becaufe, though in cafes between fubjedt and fub- jed, it is in the power of the court to refufe an in- formation, if the defendant fhe'w caufe -, yet in crown-profecutions, of which the Icgiflaturc ought to be moft jealous, the attorney-general, by his own authority, files an information, which the court can- not refufe : Becaufe, though it com.es out to be ever fo ground- lefs a charge, the crown pays no cofts, and the de- fendant may be undone by the expence : Becaufe MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 8t Becaufs the aj6t imaqi.-'c they would rife again in the king's bench, upon pretence, that they had been antiently^ though very rarely pra(f\ifed there -^ and that all the powers the ftar chamber claimed from common law did, by the abolition of that court, devolve on the king's bench : Becaufe, in all cafes, criminal^ the crown has ano- ther way of proceeding equally eafy to the king, and much more fafe to the fubjedt, viz. the method of indiBment : and becaufe the retaining that, which may be made oppreflive, when :here is no occafion for it, is no honour to the crown, and no advantage hut againjl the innocent. In anfwer to all this it will, I know, be faid, that this is an ancient power veiled by law in the crown ; that it is invading the prerogative to attempt to take it away ; and that we ought to preferve the conlticu- tion unchanged. To which I reply, that the anti- quity of this power is no defence of it, if it be unfit to remain, fince others as aiitient have been taken away : that the prerogative of the king is no more facred than the liberty of ihe fubjedl : thi <■ this has been abridged in levsr.l inilances of late, p.irticularly the riot ad, on a fuppofition, that the reftraint was neceflary for the public good ; and the fame reafon- ing will hold with regard to a power in the crown, G the 82 A LETTER TO A the exercife of which is fuppofed to be dangerous to the publick. , As to the expediency and duty of preferving the conftitution unchanged^ it is no doubt in general a right maxim. But does not every nevo power given to the crown change the conftitution, as much as an old jXDwer taken away ? In the balance of our government is the fcale of the crown to be 2\vfdt.^s filling, and that of the people always emptying ? Is there no danger to the ftate, but from .^^^^hufe of liberty, which is daily the argument for c, .^^^..ye laws, enforced with heavy penalties, and unk-.i^ii to our anceftors ? May there not alfo be danger from the abufe of prerogative, efpecially in profccu- tions carried on by the crown, where palfion may mix itfelf, and where influence may prevail ? And is it not as worthy of a parliament to provide a re- medy againft one of thefe dangers, as againft the other ? We are told by a great man, by my lord Bacon, in his life of Henry VII. that when that prince had drawn great fums of money by taxes, and other im- pofitions from his people, he ufed to remunerate them by good and wholfome laws, beneficial to liberty, and of a popular nature, which, as his lordfhip obferves, ivere evermore his retribution for treafure. And the beft retribution it was that could be made, the moft: efFeftual for relief, and the moft capable of flopping complaints and healing difcontents. This honour indeed did not belong to him alone ; part of it ought to be imputed to his parliaments ; though parliaments in thofe days were not fo independent as, I hope, they are now, but were a good deal influenced by the power of the crown and the will of the king in directing their proceedings. But they both together had this merit to the nation, that what they took in fubfidies, thev paid again in laws. It MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 83 It is the misfortune, (I would not fay the fault) of the prefent times, to have laid moft heavy burdens, fuch as were even unknown to the days of Henry the Seventh, with unintermitting feverity, on the people of thefe kingdoms. In this parliaments and kings have long concurred, not without great difcontent on tke fide of thofe at whofe expence it was done, and who have not always been fo much convinced of the necejfity. But as for retribution, except that retri- bution which confifts in falaries and penjions paid by the j^^-n *» to t^^^ happy few, who are the objeds of ^yfvis /our, I am afraid little of this will be found - ilvlirbeen given, in the fenfe the word is ufed by my lord Bacon, to make the people amends for the hardfhips they fuftain. New penal laws and new powers to the crown have for thefe twenty years paft been almoft the only prefents made by the legillature to us and our pofterity, in return for above one hun- dred millions raifed upon the publick, in all the va- rious fhapes from the land tax down to turnpikes. But it is full time to think of other retributions : the nation requires it from your hands, requires yoa to flrengthen, to enlarge the bafis upon which their fights are fixed, and if there any rotten parts in that great fabrick, to take them away, left they en- danger the whole. Much of this was done at the renovation of our government by the late happy Re- volution, but not all. Some defedts were left through inattention or other caufes, which it may be the. glory of his majefty's reign and of this parliament by their united wifdom and goydnefs to remove. This will concihate to both th;e^ affedions of the people, and do more, much more, towards fecuring the government, than ati army could of an hundred thou/and men. We hear much of difaffed^ion ; this would crufh it at once : it would ' unite the friends of the eftablifhment, and confound its enemies ; G 2 it 84- A LETTER TO A it would fhew the caufe we fupport to be the caufe of liberty. Sir, I have now laid before you, with great plain- nefs and fincerity, what I beheve the nation afks of its reprefentatives. I am one unpradtifed in writing, and that underftand no rhetorick, but what owes its prevalence to the fingle force of troth : and lead of ail do I underftand the method of arguing, which want of genius in writers, and meanfjels of fpirit in their pay-mafters, have made fo common in political difputes, attacking private chara5lers^ and ^ \Q^^'f a national queftion into ^^r^««/ altercations a^cv.^/^^^^ live lies. 1 am fo much unknown, that I tWv.i myfelf very fecure from this fort of anfwer being made mo. on account of this tetter. If any other fuffers in my ftead (as thefe hired ajjaffins are apt to miltake their objed in the dark) I fhall recommend to him, what I would pya€tife myfelf in that cafe, Jilence and contempt. As to the fads and reafonings laid down here, if they are controverted, I am ready to fupport them againft any attack which comes from a better hand than ordinary, and has common fenfe in it. I am quite a ftranger to the perfonsof our minifteis, I knov/ them only by the effeds of their condud, and neither they nor their fuccejjors can pleafe or offend me, but as my country gains or fuffers by their power. And 1 pity thofe, if there are any fuch, v/ho think tbe^ removing an ill niinijler is a point of confequenee, if with them the maxims and the 7nea- fiires of his government, how ftrongly foever ella- blillied, are not alfo ^x/Jit'//^^. I (hall only add to what I have faid, that, unlefs fomething be done by this parliament^ to give new vigour to our liberties, ftcp the torrent of corrup- tion, and revive the principles, and the fpirit of our fathers, we have lefs to hope, ;han to apprehend from tbo/e to come. The time, I doubt, is not far off, when by the encreafe of influence, there may be fuch difficulties upon country gentlemen to oi>- pofe MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. 85 pofe the court in eledions, and fuch a defpondency, fiich a difpiritednefs on the minds of all, except the favourites of power, that no flruggle could be ex- pedled, no oppofition at all to the nomination of the crown. A kind of con^e d' elire might be fent down into the country, and direded to our trujiy atid •well- beloved officers of the cufioms^ excife, and army^ in all the towns and boroughs of England, Scotland, Wales, and the dutchy of Cornwall. Suitable re- turns would.;>e made : but, Sir, this would not be a parlin*y . '' ? for inftance, been often aff.ired that the Englifh parliament is a check to the king's authority ; and yet I am well informed, that the only way to advancement at court, is to gain a feat in parlia" ment. Thehoufe of commons is the reprefentative of the nation ; neverthelefs there are many grear towns which fend no deputies thinner, and many hamlets alrood uninhabited, that have a right of fending two. Seve- ral members have nev'='r feen their electors, and feveral are eledted by the parliament^ who were rejt(fled by the people. All the electors fvear not to fell their voices : yet many of the candidates are undone by the expence of buying tbem. This whole affair is in- volved in deep myflery, and inexplicable diffi-- cultjes. Thou afkeft if commerce be as flourifhing as for- rnerly ? Sorne, whom I have confulted on that head, ERSIAN LETTERS. My father was fo fhocked and afflifted at it, that It threw him into a fever, which proved mortal. He WGS no fooner dead, but his loving; widow turned her lifter and rne out of doors, and it was with great difficulty that I carried off my money and necefl^iry apparel. In this diftrefs, which was the greateft I ever knew, Du Frefne propofed to me to go with her to BrufTe's, where fhe had an old aunt whom fhe expeded fomething from, and that would be willing to receive iis. I gladly accepted of her propofal, my fpirit being too high to return to England in the condition I was reduced to. When we came to Bruf- fels we found that her aunt was dead, but had left her the befl part of what fhe had, which amounted to a reafonable fubfiftence. We agreed that I fhould board with her under the name of mademoifelle Da- lincourt, and pretend I was a relation of her former brother-in-law ; fhe not caring to fay any thing of the alliance, which had been attended with fuch ill confequences to us both. Upon this foot I lived with her very quietly, till the count d'Aguilar found me oiit, and, by corrupting my mercenary friend, obtained. more frequent accefs to me than I defired. You remember the diforder I was in when he brought you firfl: to fee me. I knew you inftantly ; for my love had traced your image too ftrongly in my mind to be effaced by any length of time ; whereas your indifference quickly made you lofe all memory of me, and the alteration of almoft fifteen years had changed my perfon entirely from what it Xvas when you faw me laft. — I thought I fhould have died with the furprife, and was going, as foon as I could fpeak, to difcover myfelf to you ; but per- ceiving that you did not remember me, I checked myfelf, and invented & pretence to cover my con- fufion. It ftruck me, that I might poffibly make fome advantage of the difguife in which you faw me : PERSIAN LETTERS. isi me : at lead, I was fure of the fatisfadlon of con- verfing with you freely, and knowing what had hap- pened to you fince our parting. When you came to me again as the confidant of the count d'Aguilar, it was no fmall revenge and pleafure to me, to fee you ignorantly helping another man to debauch your own wife ; and I could have found in my heart to have let you fucceed in your friendly mediation, as a punifhment for the injuries you had done me: but my virtue foon rejeded that temptation, and thought of nothing but how to gain your efteem. When you brought me the bafe propofal of count Aguilar, it appeared to me fuch a mark of your contempt, that I fully refolved not to fee you any more. But when you exprefled a repentance of that fault, and declared a rci'pedful pallion for me, even to the offering me marriage, I yielded to the didtates of my love, and admitted you to all freedoms but one. That I told you your future conduft might obtain ^ and I believe, faid llie blufhing, you will hardly now have the fame reluAance to accept it as you had formerly. But though I had thus engaged you by your promife, and flill more by your inclina- tion, my happinefs was far from being fixed. While the name of Emilia was concealed, I could not tell how the knowledge of it might affedt you. It was ftill in your power to make me miferable, by being angry with my innocent deceit ; but fince you have been fo good to approve it, and acknowledge me for your wife, I fhall make it my whole ftudy and ambition to deferve that title, and never think of my pail misfortunes, but to inhance my prefent happinefs. Thus Emilia ended her narration, and received the compliments of Count Aguilar and his Lady, who both expreifed the highefc joy at her good fortune. Polydore, on his fide, endeavoured to perfuade the G)untefs to follow the example of Emilia, and be rtccr.ciled iSz PERSIAN LETTERS. reconciled to her hufband. She anfwered him coldly, that fhe had had too much experience of the temper of the count, to truft to a fudden fit of fondnefs, which would wear itfelf out in a few months : tnat fhe was neither fo young, nor fo handfome now, as be- fore their reparation ; how then could fhe flatter her- felf, that he would like her better when fhe was really lefs amiable ? that what flie had done for him might fecure his efheem, but fhe had received abun- dant proof that his efleem could but ill fecure his love. I know, faid fhe, the weaknefs of my heart : were I to live with him again, I fhould be Jealous of him, even though he did not give me caufe ; and that would certainly make us both unhappy. It is better for me to leave him to his pleafures, and en- deavour to fecure my own tranquillity, by retiring from a world which I am unfit for. Polydore, finding it in vain to argue with her, and admiring the greatnefs of her mind, took his leave of the count, and returned to BruiTels, where his l^arriage with Emilia was confummated almojl twenty ^ears afier it was contra^ed. • LET- PERSIAN LETTERS. 183 LETTER XXXII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. I WENT yefterday with one of my acquaintance to fee a friend of his, who has a houfe about twenty miles from London. He had formerly been a citizen and tradefman, but growing rich on a fud- den by fome lucky hit in the more profitable trade of (lock jobbing, he as fuddenly fet up for a judge in architedlure, painting, and all the arts which men of quality would be thought to underftand, and built this houfe as a fpecimen of his learning. When we came in, though it was in the midft of winter, we were carried into a room without a fire-place ; and which looked^ if poflible, ftill colder than it felt. I fuppofe, faid I, i\\\s /lone-vault that we are in, is de- figned to be the burying-p'ace of the family ; but I fhould be glad to fee tlig rooms in which they live, for the chilnefs of thefe walls is infupportable to a Perfian conflitution. I fee, faid my companion, that you have no tajie^ or elfe you could not be cold xwajaloon fo beaiinfut as this. Bt^fore I had time to make him any anfwer, the mafler of the houfe came in \ but, infiead of carry- ing us to a fire, as I hoped he would, he walked us about all his vaft apartments, then down into the offices under ground, and lafl into a garden, where a north-eaft wind, that blew very keen from off a heath io which it was laid open, finilhed what th? fuloon had begun, and gave me a cold, which took away my voice in the very inflant that I was going to complain of what he made me fuffer. At length we ended our obfervations, and fate dqwn to dinner, in a room i84 PERSIAN LETTERS. a room where, by good fortune, the rules of archi- tedlure allowed us to be warm : but when the meat was ferved, I was in great confufion not to know how to aflc for any difh of all I faw before me ; for itfeems the gentleman ate in the French way, and no- thing came up to his table in its natural form. My uneafinefs was ftill greater, when, upon tafting of five or fix diffeient compofitions, I found they were all mixed with the flefh of * hogs, which 1 could not touch without pollurion. After lofing my dinner in this manner, I was en- tertained all the evening with a converfation between the gentleman of the houfe and another man (who, they told me, was an architeifl) fo fluffed with hard words and terms of art, that I could not underfland one part in five of it. They talked much of certain men called, virtuoji, v/hom, by the near relation their title bore to virtue, I took at firfl to be a Je5l of rigid morahfis : but, upon enquiry, I difcovered that they were a company of fidkrs, eunuchs, pain-r ten, builders, gardeners ; %id, above all, gentlemen that had travelled into Italy, who immediately came home perfe6l virturji, though they went out the dulleji fellows in the world. This order of men, which is pretty numerous (as I could colledt from the dif courfe of thefe two adepts) affume a fort of legiflative authority over the body of their countrymen : they bid one man pull down his houfe, and build another, which he can neither pay for, nor inhabit ; they take a diflike to the furniture of a fecond, and command him to change it for a different one more expenfive and lefs commodious ; they order a third to go and languifh at an opera, when he had rathc-r be hallooing in a bear-garden : it is even feared they will take upori * Larded. PERSIAN LETTERS. 185 upon them to decide what fort of woman every man fhali be in love with, and prelcribe a particular co- lour of eyes and hair for the only objedt of univerfal inclination. I defired to be informed whether this juriJdiBion had been ancient in this kingdom, h.ving m:t v.ith no traces of it in hiftory ? No, faid he, it is fo modern, that all the laws of it are changed once in feven years ; and that which before was the only thing right, becomes at once a high crime and mif demeanor. Upon the whole, it appears to me to be a kind of epidemical madnefs, and I am afraid to return to my own country, for fear I fhould carry it with me thither, as thofe who have been in Italy bring ti.e in- fedion along with them into England. LETTER XXXIII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London, THERE is a lady's houfe where I often pafs my time, though I have very httle intimacy with her ; becaufe it is really being in a public place, and making a vifit to half the town. The firil time I v/ent thither I congratulated her on the prodi- gious number of her friends, and told her, that fhe rauft certainly be pofieiTed of moft extraordinary perfedions, to attrad fuch a variety of people, and pleafe them all alike. But I foon found that, in all that croud of vifitants, there was hardly one who came thither on her account, but that their reafon for coming was the flime as hers for receiving them, becaufe they had nothing elle to do. The 18-6 PERSIAN LETTERS. The lad time I was there I met a gentleman, whofe charader I was flill a ftranger to, though I was very well acquainted with his face. I want to know (faid I to a lady who fate next me) what is the merit of that gentleman over-againfl us, which recommends him fo much to all the world ? It feems to me that he does nothing, fays nothing, means nothing, and is nothing ; yet I al- ways fee him in good company ! His charader, faid fhe, may be comprehended in very few words — he is 2. good-natured man. I am mighty glad to hear it, returned I, for I want fuch a man very much : there is a friend of mine in great diflreis, and it lies in his. power to do him fervice. No, faid fhe, he is of too indolent a temper, to give himfelf the trouble of ferving any body. Then what fignifies his good-nature ? anfwered I ; or how do you know that he has any ? During this dialogue between us, the reft of the company had turned their difcourfe wholly upon fcandal ; and few reputations were fpared by them, that were good enough to be thought worth at- tacking. The good-natured man fate filently attentive, and with great humanity let them abufe his abfent friends, as much as they thought fit. When that was over, he began to entertain us with his forrow for the death of a noble perfon, who, he faid, had been his patron and benefacftor : but me- thought, he talked of it mightily at his eaje ; and the lady, who had given me his charadler, whifp?red me, that^ notwithllanding his obligations and love to the de.ea/ed.) he was now making court to his worft enemy, as obftquioufly as he ever had to him. At that iijflant there came in a certain colonel, who, as foon as he faw my gentleman, ran up to him, PERSIAN LETTERS. 187 him, and embracing him very tenderly, my dear Jack, faid he, thou fhalt be drunk with me to-night. — You know I have been ill, faid the other gen ly, and drinking does not agree with me. No matter for that, replied the colonel, you muft pofitively be drunk bef re you fleep •, for I am diC appointed of my company, and will not be reduced either to driik by myfelf, or to go to bed fober. The good-natured man could not refift fuch oblig- ing follicitations : he kindly agreed to the propofal, and all the room exprefled their apprehenfions, that \\\s good-nature would be the death of him Tome time or other. LETTER XXXIV, Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. 1HAD, lafl night, fo extraordinary a dream, and it made fuch an impreflion upon my mind, that I cannot forbear writing thee an account of it. I thought I was tranfported, on a fudden, to the palace of Ifpahan. Our mighty lord was fitting on a throne, the fplendor of which my eyes could hardly bear : at the foot of it were his emirs^ and great officers, all proftrate on the ground in adoration, and expedling their fate from his commands. Around him flood a multitude of his guards, ready to exe- cute any orders he fhould give, and ftrikmg terror into the hearts of all his fubjeds. My foul was av/ed with the majefty of the fcene ; and I faid to myfelf, can a king of England compare himfelf to this } can he, whofe authority is confined within the narrow bounds of lav;, pretend to an equality with a monarch, v/hofe power has no limits but his will ^ I had i88 PERSIAN LETTERS. I had fcarce made this reflcdion, when, turning my eyes a fecond time towards the throne, inftead of the Jopbi^ 1 faw an eunuch feated there, who feemed to govern more defpotically than he. The eunuch was foon changed into a woman, who alfo took the tiara and the fword. To her fucceeded another, and then a third : but, before fhe was well eftablifhed in her feat, the captain of the guards that flood around us marched up to the throne and feized upon it. In that moment I looked and beheld the Jopbi lying ftrangled on the floor, with his vizir and three of his Julianas. Struck with horror at this fpeftacle, I left the palace, and going out into the city, faw it abandoned to the fury of the foldiers, who pillaged all its riches, and cut the throats of the defencelefs inhabitants. From thence 1 made my efcape into the country, which was a wafle uncul- tivated defert, where I found nothing but idlenefs and want. O, faid ], how much happier is England, and how much greater are its kings! Their throne is eftablifhed upon jullice, and therefore cannot be overturned. They are guarded by the afFedions of their people, and have no military violence to fear. They are the moft to be honoured of all princes, becaufe their government isbefl framed to make their fubjecfts rich, happy, and fafe. LET- PERSIAN LETTERS. 189 LETTER XXXV. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. I HAD fome difcourfe to-day with an Englirti gentleman, who has an afFedation of being thought a great philofopher : his pretenfions to it confiil in nothing elfe but refining away all the hap- pinefs of his life. By a great force of reafoning, he is arrived at a total difrelijh of himfelf^ and as com- plete an indifference to others. I am quite weary of living, faid he to me : I have gone through every thing that bears the name of pleafure, and am abfo- lutely difgufted with it all. 1 have no tafte for the common amufements of wine, women, or play, be- caufe I have experienced the folly of purfuing them : and as for bufmefs, it appears to me to be more r/- diculoiis than any of the three. The buftle of the town diflurbs my quiet, and in the country I am dy- ing of the fpleen. I believe I fhall go with you into Perfia, only to change the fcene a little ; and when I am tired of being there, take a dofe of opium^ and remove to the other world. I hope, Mirza, that thou and I fhall never know what it is to be fo wife ; but make the beft of thofe comforts and delights which nature has kindly be- ftowed upon us, and endeavour to diffufe them as wide as pollible, by the practice of thofc virtues from which they flow. LET- ipo PERSIAN LETTERS, LETTER XXXVL Selim io MmzA at Ifpahan. From London. THERE is another gentleman of my acquain* tance, who is a philofopher^ but of a fpecies very different from him I defcribed to thee in my M. He is pofTefled of a confiderable eftate, which his friends are as much mafters of as he. His children love him out of a principle o{ gratitude^ by far more endearing than that of duty ; and his fervants confi- der him as 2i father^ whom it would be unnatural for them not to obey. His tenants are never hurt by drought or rain, becaufe the goodnefs of their lord makes amende for the inclemency of the fky. The whole country looks gay about his dwelling, and you may trace all his footfteps by his bounties. Is it not ftrange (I have often heard him fay) that men fhould be fo delicate as not to bear a dif agree- able piBure in their houfes, and yet force every face they fee about them to wear a cloud of uneafinefs and difcontent .? Is there any objed fo pleafmg to the eye, as the fight of a man whom you have obliged, or any mufic fo agreeable to the ear, as the voice of one that owns you for his benefador } He has alfo a deep fenfe of religion ; which is fo far from cafting a gloom over his mind, that it is to that chiefly he owes his conftant ferenity. Were there no reward (faid he to me in our laft converfa- tion) for virtue after this life, a wife man would pradife it for its own beauty and reafonablenefs here ; PERSIAN LETTERS. 191 here : yet the vvifeft man in that cafe might be un- happy from the psrverfity of accidents ; but he who adds to the ple.ifures of virtue, the hopes of religion, has no excufi for finking under any misfortune ; and without the extravagance of philofophical pride may always find a refource in his mind as much fuperior to all human events, as the infinite extent of eternity is beyond the fhort bounds of human duration. Such are the notions of this man concerning hap- pine/s ; and it is probable they are not very wrongy for he himfelf is never out of hwmur, nor is it pofTi- ble to be fo in his company. LETTER XXXVII. Selim /o Mirza at Ifpahan. From London. I WENT laft night with my friend to fee a lady, whofe houfe is the favourite refort of the moft agreeable people of both fexes. The lady herfelf re- ceived me with a good breeding, which I found was the refult of good fenfe : fhe treated me as 2ijlr anger that came to fee, not like a monfier that came to be feen ; and feemed more defirous to appear in a good light herfelf to me, though a Perfian, than to fet me in a ridiculous one to her company. The converfa- tion turned upon various fubjeds, in all which fhe bore a confiderable, but not a petulant or overbear- ing part ; and with modefly fhewed herfelf a miftrefs of raofl of the living languages, and not unacquaint- ed with ?ncient and modern hiflory. The reft of the company had their due fhare of the converfation, which was carried on with fpirit aqid good manners. One gentleman in particular dif- 192 PERSIAN LETTERS. diftinguifhed himfelf by the faperionty of his wlf^ accompanied with fo much delicacy and politenefs^ that none who heard him felt themfelves hurt by that pre-eminence, which he alone feemed not to be con- fcious of. His wit was all founded on good fenfe ; it was wit which a Perfian could comprehend as eafily as an En- glirhman ; whereas moft that 1 have met with from other men, who are ambitious of being admired for that accompliihment, is confined not only to the tafle of tneir own countrymen, but to that of their own peculiar (et of friends. When this gentleman had entertained us for an hour or two, with the jviftefi:, as well as liveliefl remarks, both on perfons and things, that I ever heard, he went away ; and to comfort us for lofmg him, there came in the man of great good-nature, whom 1 defcribed to thee in one of my former letters. This courteous per/on^ hearing all of us very warm in praife of the other's wit, joined in with us, but ended his panegyric, with a plain, though indiredt infinuation, that there was a fatyrkal turn in it, which rendered it very dangerous, and that the gen- tleman could not poflibly be fo witty, but at the ex- pence of his good-nature. I could not help being quite angry at fo imperti- nent and ill grounded a refledion, on a man for whom I had conceived a great efteem, and defired to know why he fuppofed him to be ;// natured, only becaufe he was not dull. Has he abuf.d, faid I, any worthy man .? Has he defamed any woman of good charader .? If all the edge of his wit is turned on thofe who are jullly the objeds of ridicule, his wit is as great a benefit to private life, as the fword of the magiftrate is to the public. My gentleman, fearing to be drawn into a difpute, which he could not carry on without expohng the fecret PERSIAN LETTERS. 193 ftcret envy of his heart, changed the difcourfe : and for the reft of his ftay among us, which was not very long, kept a moft ftrid filence, and gave no other indications of life, but that of laughing when every body laughed ; and nods and geftures of approbation to whoever fpoke. The moment he was gone, I told my friend, that I did not much wonder to fee that gentlemen in mix- ed company^ where it was enough that he gave no offence ; but that, in a feledt fociety as this was, he fhould be received only from a general notion of his good-nature^ which was fupported by no one action of his life, feemed to me entirely unaccountable : for, even allowing his pretenfions to that title, I was fur- prized that iiich a characfler lliould be fo fcarce^ as to make it fo very valuable. I can eafily conceive, continued I, that the noto- rious reverfe of that virtue would be a good reafon to turn a man out of company ; but I cannot think, that the pofTeffion of that virtue, deftitute of all others, is a reafon for letting him into it. If you will keep my fecret, replied my friend, I will tell you the whole truth ; but if you difcover me, I fhall pafs for lU-tiatured myfelf. You muft know then, that there are about this tov/n ten thoufand fuch fellows as this, who, w ithout a grain of fenfe or merit, make their way by reciprocally complimenting one another. Their numbers make them formidable, efpecially fupported as they are, by the fair fex. They fneak into good company like dogs after fome man of fenfe, whom they feem to bslong to ; where they neither bark nor bite^ but cringe and faivn : fo that neither good-manners nor humanity will allow one to kick them out, till at laft they acquire a fore of right by Jiifferance. They preferve their charatfter, by having no will of their own, which in reality is owing to their having no diftinguilliing judgment. O They 194 PERSIAN LETTERS. They are all pofTefied of fome degree of cunning, and their paflions are too low and dull to break in upon it, or hurry them into the indifcretions of men of parts, Befides, they know that they are in a conflant flate of probation, where the leaft tranfgref- fion damns them : they carry no compenfation about them ; for a^ive faults will not be borne, where there are at beil but negative virtues. The fmall number of people of fenfe are forced to fubmit in this, as in many other filly cuftoms, to a tyrannical majority, and lavifh undefervedly the valuable character of good-nature, to avoid being as unjuftly branded with that of ill-nature themfelves. Might not another reafon be given for it ? anfwer- ed I. Are not vanity and felf-love the great caufes of not only the toleration, but the privileges thefe people enjoy ? and does not fecurity from cenfure, certainty of applaufe, or the difcovery of an eminent fuperiority, prevail with thofe of the bed parts to really like what they only pretend to fufFer, the con- verfation of thofe of the worft } Very poflibly, replied my friend ; at leaft the va- nity of the wifeft is certainly the comfort of the weak- eft, and feems to be given as an allay to fuperior underftandings, like cares to fuperior ftations, to preferve a certain degree of equality, that Providence intended among mankind. LE T- PERSIAN LETTERS. 195 LETTER XXXVIIL Selim id MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. IH A D 5^efterday the pleafure of a fpedacle, than which nothing is more ftriking to a foreigner, becaufe he can have a right idea of it no where elfe : I favv the three eftates of the kingdom affembled in parliament. The king was on his throne in all his majefty ; around him fate the peers in their different robes ; at the bar ftood the fpe«ker of the commons, attended by the houfe. Accuftomed as I am to the . fublime court of our great emperor, I beheld this fcene with much more reverence ; but it was re- verence mixed with love. Now, and never till now, did I fee a true image of civil governments the fupport and perfedtion of human fociety, A tyrant's court is no more worthy to be compared with this af- fembly, than a lion's den with a temple. Here fuch laws, as, after mature and free dfliberaticn, have obtained the concurrence of the Jiobhs and commons^ receive the royal ajfent , nor can any bind the peo- ple which have not the authority of that triple fane- lion. A gentleman who came v/ith me made me obferve, that when the commons fent up the fubil^ dies granted to the king, he thanked them for them, as an acknowledgment, that he had no power to raife them without their confent : anciently, added he, fupplies of money, and redrefs of grievances went together ; but, fuch is the prefent happinefs of O 2 our 196 PERSIAN LETTERS. our condition, that we have tnore money than ever to beflow, and no grievances at all to be rcdrefled. I have heard, faid I, that when thefe gifts are moft liberal, they have a natural tendency, hke plen- tiful exhalations drawn from the earth, to fall again upon the place from whence they came. He was going to anfwer me, when the houfe rofe, and put an end to my enquiries. LETTER XXXIX. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London, THIS morning I received a vifit from the gen- tleman under whofe condud I had been at the houfe of lords. After fome general difcourfe upon that fubjed\, he afked me what I thought of their nobility ^ I am too great a ftranger, anfwered I, to have formed a right opinion of what they are; but, if you pleafe, 1 will tell you freely what I think they ihould be. An Englifh nobleman fhould be a flrenuous af- fertor of the privileges of the people, becaufe he is perpetually intrulled with the care of them ; and, at the fame time, delirous to preferve the juft rights of the crown^ becaufe it is the fource from vi'hich his honour is derived. He fhould have an eftate that might fet him above dependance, and employ the fuperfluities, if fuch there were, not in improving luxury, but extending charily. He i PERSIAN LETTERS. 197 He fhould make his dignity eafy to -his inferiorsj by the modefly and fimplicity of his behaviour » nor ever think himfelf too great for the lowell offices of friendfhip and humanity. He (hould claim no privilege that might exempt him from the ftrideft rules of juftice ; and afford his proteclion not to m.en ohiioxions to the laWy but to every modeft virtue and ufeful art. The character yoii have drawn, replied my friend, though it be 7-arey yet is not imaginary : fome there are to whom ftill it may belong; and it eminently exifls in a young nobleman, grand/on and heir to a late illuftrious commander, whofe name even in Per- fia is not unknown. LETTER XL. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From Londoff. THE EngliHi are bleft with fome privileges which no nation now in the world enjoys in fo high a degree. One is, that they cannot be long de- prived of their liberty upon fufpicion of any crime, not even of treafon itfelf, without being brought to a trial : another is, that they cannot be tortured^ either to force a confeffion of what is laid to their charge, or a difcovery of their accomplices. It is a wonderful thing that even in many free dates thefe two efTential rights of human nature have not been fecured : for can any thing be more repugnant to natural juftice, than to punifh without proof of a crime ? or is there a greater punifhment than long impri- 19? P E Pv S I A N L E T T E R S. imprifonment, and the infliction of violent pain, ei- ther of which is worfe than death to an innocent man ? From both thefe evils the Englifh are guard- ed by their excellent lav/s, which have alfo provided that none fhall undergo the vexation and fhame of of a trial in a criminal caufe without the confent of twelve of their countrymen, who are called the grand jury ; nor can fen ten ce be paft upon them by the unanimous voice of twelve more of their equals, w'ith as ftrong provifions (in trials for treafon efpe- cially) againfl any influence of fear or corruption, as human laws are able to frame. To thefe glorious privileges is added the right of being taxed by none but their reprefentatives, of advifmg the king in a parliamentary manner upon all matters of government, of enquiring into the condu6l of miniflers, of ar- raigning the guilty, and taking them out of the l"hel- ter of the throne, liberty of fpeech in parliament, and liberty of writing and publiiliing with all decent freedom what every man thinks upon public affairs. When I confider all thefe advantages, and reflect on the ffate I am in v/hen in my own country, expofed upon the lightefb fufpicion to be fhut up in a prifon, to be tortured there, and, if ever brought out from thence, to be tried by a partial judge, poflibly by my accufer himfelf, to have my eft ate taken from me at the emperor's pleafure, having no means of re- drefs againfl him, or his miniflers, and deprived of the power even to complain ; when I reflect on all this, I cannot but look upon the loweft fubjedt of England with envy and with refpect, as I fhould on a being of an order fuperior to mine. But on the other hand, v/ere there an Englifhman v/icked and foolilTi enough to give up the leafl of thefe rights for any temptation of fortune or power, I fhould look down upon him, however exalted by titles or wealth, with PRRSIAN LETTERS, 199 with more contempt than upon the loweft flave in my feraglio : for if unwilling Jlavery be the word of misfortunes, voluntary fervitude is the bafell: of crimes. LETTER XLI. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. ABOUT a fortnight ago I went in company with one of my acquainiace, to fee a place in this city, called the Exchange^ which is the general rendezvous of all the merchants, not only of England, but the whole trading world. I never yet came into an ajjcmhly with fo much refped as into this. Thefe, faid I, to my friend, are the moft iifefid^ and there- fore the moll honourable of mankind. T'hey are met here to carry on the com.mon happinefs ^ their gains are the advantage of the public j and their labour makes the eafe of human life. I had fcarce fpoke thefe words, when he carried me out into a neighbouring alley^ where I alfo faw fbme bufy faces, but which looked, methought, very different from the others. Thefe, faid he, are a fort of traders^ whofe whole bufinefs is confined within the compafs of this alley, where they create a kind of ebb and flow, which they know how to turn to good account ^ but which is deftrudive to all trade, except their own. Nay, they have fometimes raifed fuch violent tempejls here, that half the wealth of the nation has been funk by it. They are then a fort of magicians, anfwered I. Amofl 20O PERSIAN LETTERS. A moft diabolioal one truly, replied he ; and what is moft wonderful, the majlers of the art have the fe- cret to render themfelves inviftble. Though they are always virtually prefent here, they never appear to vulgar eyes : but fome of their imps are frequently difcovered, and by their motions, the ikilful in this traffic fteer their couiTe, and regulate their ventures. While he was faying this to me, there came up to lis an ill-looked fellow, and afked if we had any Jiock to fell. My friend whifpered me in the ear, that this was an imp. — I ftarted ; called on Mahomet to proteft me, and made the befl of my way out of the al- ley. LETTER XLIL Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. THAT Abdallah, whom I mentioned in a for- mer letter, is gone from England ; thou wile be affeded with the virtue of the man, when I tell thee the caufe of his departure. He fent laft week to defire I would come to him ; I came, and found him opprefTed with the deepefl forrow. Ah, Selim, faid he to me, I mull leave thee ; I muft go and difcharge my duty to the beft of fathers : I mull give my all for him to whom I owe it. At thefe words he put a letter into my hand, which he had juft re- ceived the day before : I found by it, that his father, who was a merchant, in a voyage from Grand Cairo to Aleppo, was taken by a cruizer of the ifle of Malta, PERSIAN LETTERS. 201 Malta, and being unable himfelf to pay his ranfom, had writ to his Ton to do it for him. Thou knovvefl-, iaid he to me, that I am not rich : to raife the fum demanded for my father's liberty, I muft fell all my effeds, and leave myfelf without the means of a fubfiftance, except what my labour can procure me. But my own diftrefs is not what concerns me moft : the fear of poverty cannot afright me from my duty ; I only grieve for the fate of my poor wife, whom the ruin of my fortune will expofe to indigence and fhame. It is for her fake that I have fent for you ; and I conjure you by all our friendfhip, by the pro^ phet and the God whom we adore, not to refufe me the firft favour I ever afked.— When he had fiid this, he opened the door of another room, where I faw a beautiful woman in the Turkifh habit, who, with a modefty peculiar to our Eaftern ladies, endeavour- ed to conceal herfelf from my regards. Come hither, Zelis, faid my friend, and fee the man whom I have chofen to proted you : fee him who muft fhortly be your hufband in the room of the unfortunate Abdal- lah._ Then turning to me, and weeping bitterly. This, cried he, O Selim, is the grace for which I am a fuppliant: permit me to give her to a man, who 1 know will ufe her well ; I am refolved to divorce her this very inftant, according to the power allowed me by our law, if you will confent to take her for your wife ; nor could the fophi himfelf make you a prefent of greater value. If the charms of her per- fon are not fufficient to recommend her to you, know that her mind is ftill fair and more accom- plilhed. I brought her with me into England three years ago, in all which time, fhe has hardly ftirred out of my houfe, nor defired any company but mine. It is impoiTible to be happier with a wife, than I have been with iier : nothing fhould ever have pre- vailed 202 PERSIAN LETTERS. vailed on me to part with her, but the defire to fe- parate her from my misfortunes, and to procure her a maintenance agreeable to her birth and merit, which I am no longer able to provide for her my- felf. He had fcarce ended, when the lady, tearing her hair, and beating the whiteft bread I ever favv, im- plored him not to think of a feparation, more painful to her than any mifery that poverty could reduce her to. After many paflionate expreflions of her love, (he declared, that Ihe v/ould accompany him to Malta, and beg her bread widi him afcerwards, if it was neceffary, rather than ftay behind in the moft affluent condition. But he pofitively refufed to let her go, and infifted upon giving her to me, as the only ex- pedient to make him eafy. To carry her with me, faid he, would be expofmg her to fuch dangers and. wants, as I cannot endure even to think of. But lefs can I bear the thought of leaving her here, in a nation of infidels, among women who have given up tnodejiy, and men who profefs to make war upon it where-ever it is to be found. Your houfe is the only afylum to which her virtue can fafely retire. As your wife, fhe will be protected from any infult, even in this land of licentioujnefs. To thefe words of Abdallah, Zelis replied with many (^r^z^wc-w/j, but with more tears. I continued fome time a filent witnefs of this extraordinary difpute -, but at laft, feeing him determined to divorce her, 1 told him, 1 would accept her as a treafure committed to my hands, not for my own ufe, but to fecure it for my friend : that fhe fhould remain with me under the charader of my wife, but I would always be a ftranger to her bed, and if at his return he found himfelf in circumftances fufficient to maintain her, I would PERSIAN LETTERS. 203 I would reflore her back again to him untouched ; or in cafe they fliould mutually defire it, carry her with me to my feraglio in the Eafl. They were both much comforted with this afTurance, and Zelis confented to fhay with me, fmce Abdallah command- ed it. The poor man embarked for Malta the fol- lowing week, with his whole fortune on board for his father's ranfom, and left me fo touched with his filial piety, that I made an offer to pay part of it my- felf ; but he told me I had done enough for him, in taking care of v/hat was dearefb to him upon earth, and refufed any further fuccour from me. N. B. This Story is refumed, in Letter LXXVIIL LETTER XLIII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahaii. From London. I Lately fell into difcourfe with an Englifhman, who has well examined the conllitution of his country : I begged him to tell me what he thought of the pre- fent ftate of it. Two principal evils, anfwered he, are making v/ay for arbitrary power, if the court fhould ever be inclined to take advantage of them, viz. the abufe of our wealth, and the abufe of our eloquence. The laft is, if poflible, more mifchievous than the iirfl ; for it feduces thofe whom money could not corrupt. It is the moft pernicious of all our refinements, and the mod to be dreaded in a free country. To fpeak truth, is the privilege of a free- man J to do it roundly and plainly, is his glory. Thus 204 PERSIAN LETTERS. Thus it was that the ancient Romans debated every thing that concerned the common-wealth, at a time when they beft knew how to govern, before Greece had infeded them with rhetoric : as nothing was propounded to them with difguife, they eafilyjudged "what was moft for their honour and intereft. But the thing called eloquence here is of another kind. It is lefs the talent of enforcing truth, than of im- pofmg falfhood ; it does not depend on a true know- ledge of the matter in debate, for generally, it aims at nothing moje than a fpecious appearance : nor is wifdom a necefifary quality in the compofition of an orator ; he can do without it very well, provided he has the happy facility of difcourfmg fmoothly, and aflerting boldly. I own to thee, Mirza, this account furprized me ; we have no knowledge in the Eafb of fuch an eloquence as this man defcribed : it is our cuf- tom to fpeak naturally and pertinently, without ever imagining that there was an art in it, or that it was pollible to talk finely upon a fubjedl which we do not underfland. Pray Sir, faid I, when thefe orators you tell me of have been caught two or three times in a lie, do not you treat them with the utmoft contempt ? Quite the contrary, anfwered he, the whole merit and pride of their profelHon is to deceive : they are to lay falfe colours upon every thing, and the greater the impofition is, the greater their reputation : the orator who can only perluade us to ad: againft fome of our lefTer interefts, is but a genius of ihefecond rate ; but he who can compel us by his eloquence to violate the moft effential, is an able man indeed^ and will cer- tainly rife very high. I fuppofe it may be your cuf- tom in l^erfia to beftow employments on fuch per- fons as have particularly qualified themfelves for them : you put the care of the army and the marine into the hands of foldiers and Teamen ^ you make one man PERSIAN LETTERS. ^o^ man fecretary of flate, becaufe he has been bred in foreign courts, and underftands the interefts of your neighbouring princes ; to another you truft the reve- nue, becaufe he is fkilful in oeconomy, and has prov- ed himfelf above the temptation of embezzling u^hat paffes through his hands. Yes, replied I, this is furely the right method, and I conclude it mud be yours. No, faid he, we are above thofe vulgar pre- judices ; fuch qualifications are not requifite among us : to be fit for any, or all of thefe pofts, one muft be a good Speaker in parliament. How ! faid I, be- caufe I make a fine harangue upon a treaty of peace, am I therefore fit to fuperintend an army ? We think fo, anfwered he : and if I can plaufibly defend a mi- nifter of flate from a reafonable charge brought a- gainft him, have I thereby a title to be taken into the adminiflration ? Beyond difpute, in this country, anfwered he. Why then, by Mahomet, faid I, your government may well be fick : what a diftempered body muft that be, whofe members are fo monftroufly out of joint, that there is no one part, in its proper place! if my tongue fhould undertake to do the office of my head and arms, the abfurdity and the impotency would be juft the fame. Yet thus, faid he, we go on, lamely enough, 1 muft confefs, but ftill admiring our own wife policy, and laughing at the reft of the world. You may laugh, replied f, as you think fit; but if the fuitan, my mafter, had among his counfellors fuch an orator as you defcribe, a fellow that would prate away truth, equity and common fenfe ; by the tomb of our holy prophet, he would make a miue of him, and fet him to v/atch over ihtferaglio infteid of the JIate. At thefe words, I was obliged to take my leave, and our difcourfe was broke off till another meeting. LET' fio6 PERSIAN LETTERS. LETTER XLIV. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. THE next day I faw my friend again, and he re- fumed the fubje6l of eloquence. You cannot imagine, faid he to me, of what fatal confequence this art of haranguing has been to all free ftates : good laws have been eftablifhed by wife men, who were far from being eloquent ; and eloquent men, who were far from being wife, have every where de- ftroyed or corrupted them. Look into hiftory, you will find, that the fame period which carried elo- quence to its perfedion, was almofl always mortal to liberty. The republics of Greece, and that of Rome, did not fee their moft celebrated orators, till the very moment that their conftitutions were overt\irned. And how, indeed, fhould it be otherwife ? When once it becomes a fafhion to advance men to dignity and power, not for the good council that they give, but for an agreeable manner of recommending bad ones; it is impoffible that a government fo admini- ftered can long fubfift. Is any thing complained of as amifs ? Inftead of redrefs, they give you an ora- tion : have you propofed a good and needful law ? In exchange for that you receive an oration. Has your natural reafon determined you upon any point ? Up gets an orator, and fo confounds you, that you are no longer able to reafon at all : is any right meafure to be obftrudtcd, or wrong one to be advanced ^ There is an orator always ready, and it is moft charmingly PERSIAN LETTERS. 207 charmingly performed to the delight of all the hearers. I do not know, faid I, what pleai'ure you may find in being deceived ; but I dare fay, fhould thefe gen- tlemen undertake to inftrucft a merchant in his bu- fmefs, or a farmer in his work, without underfland- ing either trade or hulbandry, they would only be laughed at for their pains ; and yet when they at- tempt to perfuade a nation to commit a thoufand fenfelefs faults, they are liftened to with great atten- tion, and come off with abundance of applaufe. But for my part, I think they deferve nothing but hatred and contempt, for daring to play with fuch facred things as truth, juflice, and public good, in fo wanton and diflblute a manner. Moft certainly, anfwered he, they are very dange- rous to all fociety ; for what is it that they profefs? do not they make it their boaft, that they have the pow- er to footh or inflame ; that is, in proper terms, to make us partial, or to make us mad ? are either of thefe tempers of the mind agreeable to the duty of a judge, or of a counfellor of flate .? I maintain, that it would bejuft as proper for us to decide a queftion of right or wrong, after a debauch of wine, or a dofe of opium, as after being heated or cooled, to the degree we often are, by the addrefs ot one of thefe fkilful fpeakers. Wifely was it done by the Venetians, to banifh a member of their fenate (as I have read they did) only becaufe they thought he had too much elo- quence, and gained too great an afcendant in their councils by that bewitching talent. Without fuch a caution there is no fafety ^ for we are led, when we fancy that we a6l moft freely, and th.e man who can mafter our affedions, will have but little trouble with our reafon — but, to fhov/ you the power of oratory, in its ftrongeft light, let us fee what it does with re- ligion : 2o8 PERSIAN LETTERS. ligion : in itfelf it is fimple and beneficent, full of charity and humility; and yet, let an eloquent jefuit get up into a pulpit, what monftrous fyftems will he draw out of it ! what pride, what tyranny will he make it authorize I how much rancour and malignity will he graft upon it ! If then the laws of God may be thus corrupted by the taint of eloquence, do we wonder that the laws of men cannot efcape? No, faid I, no mifchiefs are to be wondered at, where the reafon of mankind is fo abufed. LETTER XLV. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. THE converfation I repeated to thee in my lafl letter was heard by a gentleman that fat near us, who, I have been told, has found his account fo much in eloquence, as to be interefted in the defence of it : accordingly he attacked my friend, and told him, he was afraid he had forgot his hiflory, or he would have recolleded, that Demoflhenes and Cicero, the two greateft orators that ever were, employed their rhetoric in the fervice of their country. I might, perhaps, anfwered he, make fome objedions to the integrity of both ; but allowing what you fay, it amounts to no more than this, that eloquence may be of fervice to mankind in the pofldfion of very good men; and fo may arbitrary power, of the greateft fervice; but yet we fay in England, that it is wifer not to truft to it ; becaufe, as it is generally managed, it becomes a mod grievous opprellion. And, 1 am fure. PERSIAN LETTERS. 209 fure, I can fhew you in hiftory as many orators that have abufed their eloquence, as kings that have abufed their authority : for, befides the v/ickednefs common to human nature, the vanity of making a bad caufe appear a good one, is in itfelf a dangerous temptation. When a man fees he is able to impofe upon the judg- ments of others, he mud be a very honefl, and very modefl one indeed, if he never does it wrongfully. Alas, Sir, returned his antagonift, the generality of men are too weak to bear truth ! they mud be cheat- ed into happinefs. — I am fure they are often cheated out of it^ replied my friend : nor can I wholly agree to your propofition in the fenfe you underfland it. It may be neceflary for the government of mankind, not to tell them the whole truth : fom'ething may be proper to be hid behind the veil of policy ; but it is feldom necefTary to tell them lies. Thefe pious frauds are the inventions of very im- pious men ; they are the tricks of thofe who make the public good a pretence for ferving their private vices. Let us confider how mankind was governed in thofe ages and ftates, where they are known to have been the happieft. How was it in Athens while the laws of Solon prefer ved their forces ? Was it then thought neceffary to lie for the good of the commonwealth ? No : — the people were truly informed of every thing that concerned them ; and as they judged by their natural underftanding, their determinations were right, and their adions glorious : but when the ora- tors had got the dominion over them, and they were deceived upon the principle you eflablifhed, what was the confequence ? their leaders became fadious and corrupt, their government venal, their public coun- cils uncertain and fluctuating, either too weakly fear- ful^ or too raJlAy hold\ till, at lad, from generous high-fpirited freemen, they funk into prating, con- P temptibk 2IO PERSIAN LETTERS. temptible (laves. In Rome the cafe was much the fame : as long as they were a great and free people, they underftood not thofe political refinements. All oovernments, in their firft inflitution, were founded in truth and juftice, and the lirfl rulers of them v/ere generally honefl: men ; but, by length of time, cor- ruption is introduced, and men come to look upon thofe frauds as neceffary to government, which their forefathers abhorred as deftrudive to it. It docs not, faid I, belong to me to decide in this difpute ; but it feems to be highly important, that this power of de- ceiving for the public good fhould be lodged in fafe hands. And, I fuppofe, that fuch among you as are trufted with it, are very conjiant and uniform in their principles : though the colours may vary, the ground of their condud is flill the fame. What with them is the ejjential and fundamental intereft of the nation now, will certainly be fo «f a-/ w^r : difgrace or favour can make no difference. L E T- PERSIAN LETTERS. 211 L E TT E R XLVI. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. I Was the other day in company with a clergyman, v/ho has the education of feveral young noblemen committed to his care : a truft of this importance made me regard him as one of the moft confiderahk men in England. This fage, laid I to myfelf, has much toanfwer for: the virtue and happinefs of the next age will in a great meafure depend on his capa- city.— I was very defirous to enter into difcourfe with him, that I might know if he was equal to his office, and tried all the common topics of corerfa- tion ; but on none of thefe was I able to draw a word frorn him : at laft, upon fome point being flarted, which gave him occafion to quote a Latin poet, he opened all at once, and poured forth fuch a deluge of hard words, compofed out of all the learned lan- guages, that though 1 underftood but little of his meaning, I could not help admiring his elocution. As his fcholars were many of them born to an he- reditary fhare in the legiflature, I concluded he muftr be thoroughly acquainted with the EnglilTi conftitu- tion, and able to inftrud them in the knowledge of it : but on alking him fome queftions on that fubjed, I found to my very great furprize, that he was more a ftranger to it than myfelf, and had no notions of government, but what he drew from the imaginary republic of a Great philofopher. Well, fa id I, you at Icaft inftrudl your fcholars in Grecian and Roman 1* 2 virtue ^ 2ti I* ER^I AN LETTERS. virtue ; you light up in them a fpin't of liberty ; you exercife therrl \njujiice and magnanimity-^ you form them to a refemblance of the great charaBers they meet with in ancient authors. Far from it, faid a gentleman in company. They arc accuftomed to tremble at a rod, to tell lies in excufe of trifling faults, to betray their companions^ ioht f pies and coward}; the natural vigour of their fpirits is broke, the natu"^ ral ingenuity of their tempers varnifhed over, the na- tural bent of their genius curbed and thwarted. The whole purpofe of their education is to acquire fome Greek and Latin words j by this only they are al- lowed to try their parts ; if they are backward in this, they are pronounced dunces, and often made fo from difcouragement and defpair. I fhould think, faid I, if words only are to be taught them, they fhould learn to fpeak Englifh with grace and elegance, which is particularly necelTary in a government where eloquence has obtained fo great a fway. That article is never thought of, an- fwered he ; I came myfelf from the college a perfedl mafler of one or two dead languages, but could nei- ther write nor fpeak my own, till it was taught me by the letters and converfation of a lady about the courts whom, luckily for my education, I fell in love with. I have heard, faid I, that it is uflial for young gen- tlemen to finifii their ftudies in other countries j and, indeed, it feems neceflary enough by the accouat you have given me of them here : but if I may judge by the greateft part of thofe whom I have feen at their return, t\ie foreign majiers are no better than the Englifh, and the foreign mifirejfes not fo good. Were I to go back to Perfia with an Englifh ,coat, an Englifh footman, and an Englifh cough, it would amount to juft the improvement made in France, by one half of the youth who travel thither. Add to thefe, a tafle for mufic, replied the gentleman, w^ith two PERSIAN LETTERS. 21- two or three terms of building and of painting, and you would want but o«f tajie more to be as accom- plifl-ed as fome of the fined gentlemen that Italy fends us back. LETTER XLVir. Seli^ to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. FROM confidering the education of Englifh gen- tlemen, we turned our difcourfe to that of Englifh ladies. I afl^ed a married man that was in company, to inflrudt me a little in the courfe of it, being particularly curious to know the methods which could render a woman in this country fo different a creature from one in Perfia, Indeed, Sir, faid he, you muft afk my wife, not me, that queftion : thefe are myfleries I am not allowed to pry into. When I prefume to give my advice about it, fhe tells me the education of a lady is above the capacity of a man, let him be ever fo wife in his own affairs. I fliould think, faid I, that as the purpofe of womens breeding is nothing elfe, but to teach them to pleafe men ; a man fliould be a better judge of that than any woman in the world. But, pray. Sir, what in gene- ral have you obferved of this myfierious injlitmion ? I do not inquire into the fecrets /W^/;/^ the altar ^ but only the outward forms of difcipline which are ex- pofed to the eyes of all the vvorld. Why, Sir, re- plied he, the firfl great point which every mother aims at, is to make her girl agodd'fs if fhe can. A goddefs \ 214 P E R S I A N L E T T E R S. A goddefsl cried I, in great aflonifhment. — Yes, faid he ; you have none of them in the Eaft ; but here we have five or fix in every ftreet : there never were more divinities in ^gypt, than there are at this time in the town of London. In order there- fore to fit them for that charaEler^ they are made to throw off human nature^ as much as pofhble, in their looks, geftures, words, actions, drefs, ^c. But is it j3ot apt to return again ? iaid I. — Yes, re- plied he, it returns indeed again, but ftrangely dif- torted and deformed. The fame thing happens to their minds as to ^}\z\x jhapes ; both are crampt by a violent confinement, which makes them fvTell out /;/ the wrong -place. You cannot conceive the v/ild tricks that women play from this habitual perverfion of their ;feculties : there is not a fingle quality belonging to them, which they do not apply to other purpofes than Providence defigned it for. Hence it is, that they are vain of being cowards., and ajhamed of being modeji : hence they /mile on the man whom they dijflike, and look cold on him they love : hence they kill every fen- timent of their own, and not only a^ with the fnjhion, but really thiiik with it. All this is taught them carefully from their childhood, or elfe it v/ould be impoffible fo to conquer their natural difpofitions. I do not know, faid I, v/hat the ufe is of thefc inflrudtions ; but it feems tome, that in a country where the women are admitted to a familiar and con- ftant fhare in every active fcene of life, particular care fhould be taken in their education, to cultivate their reafon^ and form their hearts, that they may be equal to the part they have to aft. Where great temptations mufl occur, great virtues are re- quired; and xhz giddy fttuations in which they are placed, or love to place themfelves, demand a more than ordinary ftrength of brain. In Perfia a woman has nooccalion for any thing but beauty, becaufe of the PERSIAN LETTERS. 215 the confinement which fhe lives under, and therefore that only is attended to : but here, methinks, good fenfe is fo very neceflary, that it is the bufinefs of a lady to improve and adorn her underftanding with as much application as the other fex ; and, generally fpeaking, by jnethods much the fame. LETTER XLVIII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. IW A S this morning with fome gentlemen of my acquaintance, who were talking of the attempt that had been made not long ago of fetting up a prefs at Conftantinople, and the oppofition it had met with from the mufti. They applied to me to know what I thought of it, and whether in Perfia alfo it was our religion that deprived us of fo ufeful an art. 1 told them, that policy had more part than reli- gion in that affair : that the prefs was a very dan- gerous engine, and the abufes of it made us juftly apprehend ill confequences from it- You are in the right, faid one of the company, for this fingle reafon, becaufe your government is a def- potic one. But, in a free country, the prefs may be very ufeful, as long as it is under no partial reftraint : for it is of great confequence, that the people Ihould be informed of every thing that concerns them ; and without printing, fuch knowledge could not circu- late, either fo eafily or fo faft. And to argue againft any branch of liberty from the ill ufe that may be made of it, is to argue againft liberty itfeif, fmce all 2t6 PERSIAN LETTERS. all is capable of being abufed ■ nor can any part of freedom be more important, or better worth contend- ing for than that by which the fpirit of it is pre- Served^ fupported^ and diffufed. By this appeal to the judgment of the people, we lay fome reflraint upon thofe minifters, who may have found means to fecure themfelves from any other lefs incorruptible tri- bunal \ and fure they have no reafon to complain, if the public exercifes a right, which cannot be denied without avowing, that their condu(ft will not bear en- quiry. For though the beft adminiftration may be attacked by calumny, I can, hardly believe it would be hurt by it, becaufe I have known a great deal of it employed to very little purpofe againft gentlemen, in oppofition to minifters, who had nothing to de- fend them but the force of truth : I do not mean by this to juftify any fcurrilities upon the perfonal cha- racters either of magiftrates or private men, or any libel properly fo called. Againft fuch abufes of the prefs the laws have provided a remedy ; and let the laws take their courfe ; it is for the intereft of liberty they fhould do fo. as well as for the fecurity and ho- nour of government-, but let them not be ftrained into oppreilion h^ forced conJlru6tions^ or extraordinary a£fs of power., alike repugnant to natural juftice, and to the fpirit of a free ftate. Such arbitrary pra6ti- ces no provocation can juftify, no precedents warrant, no danger excufe. The gentleman who fpoke thus, was contradided by another of the company, who, with great warmth, and many arguments, maintained, ' That the licen- tioufnefs of the prefs v/as grovin, of late, to fuch a dangerous heighth as to require extraordinary re- medies ; and that if it were put under the injpec- •tion of fome difcreet and judicious perfon, it would be far more beneficial to the public.' I agree PERSIAN LETTERS. 217 I agree to it, anfwered he, upon one condition, viz. That there may be likewife an infpedor for the Peo- ple, as well as one for the court ; but if nothing is to be licenfed on one fide, and every thing on the other, it would be vaftly better for us to adopt the Eaftern policy, and allow no printing here at all^ than to leave it und^i fuch a partial direflion. LETTER XLIX, Selim to MiRZA. at Ifpahan. From London. TH E fame gentleman, who, as I told thee in my laft, argued fo ftrongly for the liberty of the prefs, went on with his difcourfe in the following manner. If we have fo much reafon to be unwilling, that what we print fhould be under the infpeflion of the court ; how much more may we complain of a new power affumed within thefe laft fifty years by all the courts of Europe, o{ inf peeing private letters^ and invading the liberty of the pofi ? The fecrecy and fafety of correfpondence, is a point of fuch confe- quence to mankind, that the leaft interruption of it ' would be criminal, without an evident yiecejfty ; but that of courfe, from one year to another, there Hiould be a conftant breach of it publicly avowed, is fuch a violation of the rights of fociety, as one cannot but wonder at even in this age. You may well v/onder, faid I to him, when I myfelf am quite amazed to hear of fuch a thing ; the like of which was never pradlifed among us, whom vou Englifh 2i8 PERSIAN LETTERS. tnglifh reproach with hting /laves. But I beg you to inform me what it was» that could induce a free people to give up all the fecrets of their bufmefs and private thoughts, to the curiofity and difcretion of a minifter, or his inferior tools in office ? They never gave them up, anfwered he ; but thofe gentlemen have exercifed this power by their own authority, under pretence of difcovering plots againft the ftate. — No doubt, faid one of the company, it is a great advantage and eafe to the government, to be acquainted at all times with the fentiments of confi- derable perfons, becaufc it is poflible they may have Tome ill intent. — It is very true, replied the other, and it might be ftill a greater eafe and advantage to the government to have a licenfed fpy in every houfe, who fhould report the moft private converfations, and let the minifter thoroughly into the fecrets of every family in the kingdom. This would effedu- ally detecfl and prevent confpiracies ; but would any- body come into it on that account .? Is it not making a bad compliment to a govern- ment, to fuppofe, that it could not be fecured with- out fuch meafures, as are inconfiftent with the end for which it is defigned ? But fuch, in general, is the wretched turn of mo- dern policy : the moft facred ties of fociety are often infringed, to promote fome prefent intereft, without confidering how fatal it may prove in its remoter con- fequences, and how greatly we may want thofe ufeful barriers we have fo lightly broken down. LET- PERSIAN LETTERS. 219 LETTER L. Selim to MiRZA ai Ifpahan. From London, I HAD lately the pleafure of feeing a fight which filled my mind beyond all the magnificence that our Eaftern monarchs can fhew ; I faw a Britifli fleet under full fail. Nothing can be imagined more pompous, or moreauguft! The vaft fize of thefliips and the flvill of the failors exceed any others now in the univerfe ; nor are they lefs renowned for their in- trepidity. The whole fpedacle gave me the higheft ideas of the fhrength of this nation ; a (Irength not confined to their own coafts, but equally formidable to the mod diftant parts of the globe. Were I a king of England, I would never receive an EmbalTador with any folemnity but in the cabin of a firfl rate man of war. There is the true feat of his empire ; and from that throne he might awe the whole world, if he underflood how to exert his maritime power in its full ftrength, and was wife enough to aim at no other. But, by an unaccountable miflake in their policy, many kings of England have feemed to forget that their dominions had the advantage of being an ifland: they have been as deep- ly engaged in the affairs of the continent ; as the mod expofed of the dates there, and negleded the fea, to give all their attention to expenfive and ruinous wars undertaken at land. Nav what is drange dill, they have been fond of acquifnions made upon the conti- nent. 220 PERSIAN LETTERS. nent, not confidering that all/wr^ acquifuions^ inftead of encreafing their real ftrength, are only fo many nneak and vulnerable parts, in which they are liable to be hurt by thofe enemies, who could not poflibly hurt them in their natural ftate, as the fovereigns of a powerful ifland. Their cafe is the reverfe of that expreffed by the poets of Greece in the fable of An- taeus. He wap (fays thofe poets) the f on of the earth ; and as long as he fought upon her furface, even Her- cules, the ftrongeft of heroes, could not overcome him ; but being drawn from thence he was eafily van- quiflied : the Englifli (in the fame poetical ftile) are the Jons of the Jea^ and while they adhere to their mo- ther they are invincible ; but if they can once be drawn out of that Situation^ their ftrength forfakes them, and they are not only in danger of being crujhed by their enemies^ byt may be hugged to death even by th&r friends, LE T. PERSIAN LETTERS. 221 LETTER LII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. I AM returned to this city, from which I have made a long excurfion, and am going to give thee an account how I have paffed my time. A friend of mine, who lives in a part of England, diflant from the capital, invited me to fpend the fummer at his houfe : my curiofity to fee iomething new, and a na- tural love to fields and groves at this feafon of the year, made me glad to accept of his propofal. The firft thing that ftruck me in leaving London, was to find all the country cultivated like one great garden. This is the genuine efFedt of that happy li- berty, which the Englifii enjoy : where property is fecure, induftry will exert itfelf; and fuch is the force of induftry, that without any particular ad- vantages of foil or climate, the lands about this city are of a hundred times greater profit to their owners, than the bed tempered and mod fertile fpots of Afia to the fubjeds of the fophi, or the Turk. Another circumftance which engaged my attention throughout all my journey, was the vaft number of fine feats that adorned the way as I travelled along, and feemed to exprefs a certain rural greatnefs ex- tremely becoming a free people. It looked to me, as if men who were poflelTed of fuch magnificent re- treats, were above depending on a court, and had wifely fixed the fcene of their pride and pleafure in the centre of their own eitates, where they could really 3522 PERSIAN LETTERS. really make themfelves mod confiderable. And, in- deed, this notion is true in faft ; for it has always been the policy of princes that wanted to be abfo- lute, to draw gendemen away from their country feats, and place them about a court, as well to deprive them of the popularity which hofpitality might ac- quire, as to render them cold to the interefl of the country, and wholly devoted to themfelves. Thus we have often been told by our friend U(bec, that the court and capital of France is crouded with no- bility, while in the provinces there is fcarce a man- iion-houfe that is not falling to ruin ; an infallible fign of the decay and downfal of the nobility itfelf ! Thofe who remember what England was forty years ago, fpeak with much uneafinefs of the change they obferve in this particular ; and complain, that their countrymen are making hade to copy the French, by abandoning their family feats, and living too con- ftantly in town ; but this is not yet fenfible to a fo- reigner. Thou mayeft exped the fequcl of my jour- ney in other letters. L £ T- PERSIAN LETTERS. 223 LETTER LIII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. IT happened when I fet out from London, that the parliament, who had fat feven years, was juft diflTolved, and elections for a new one were carrying on all over England. My firft day's ftage had no- thing in it remarkable, more than what I obferved to thee in my lafl. But when I came to the town where I was to lodge, I found the ftreets all crouded with men and women, who gave me a lively idea of what I have read of the the antient Bacchanals. Inftead of ivy, they carried oaken boughs, were exceeding drunk and mutinous, but, at the fame time, mighty 2ealous for religion. My Perfian habit drew them all about me, and I found they were much puzzled what to make of me. Some faid, I was a German minifter, fent by the court to corrupt the electors ; upon which fuggeftion, I had like to have been torn to pieces; others fancied me a Jefuif ; but at laft they agreed I was a mountebank ; and as fuch con- duced me to my inn with great refped. When I was fafely delivered from this danger, I took a re- folution to lay afide my foreign drefs, that I miaht travel with lefs diflurbancci and fell into difcourfe upon what had pafled with a gentleman that accom- panied me in my journey. It feemed to me very ftrange, that in an affair of fo great importance as the choice of a guardian for their liberties, men fhould drink themfelves out of their reafon. I alked, whe- ther 2Z4 PERSIAN LETTERS. ther riots of this kind were common at thefe times ? He anfwered, that the whole bufinefs of the candi- dates was to prevert and confound the underftand- jngs of thofe that chufe them, by all imaginable ways : that from the day they began to make their intereft, there was nothing but idlenefs and debauch- ery among the common people : the care of their families is negledled -, trades and manufactures are at a Hand ; and fuch a habit of diforder is brought upon them, that it requires the bell part of /even years to fettle them again. And yet, continued he, this evil, great as it is, may be reckoned one of the leajl attending thefe affairs. Could we bring our eledors to content themfelves with being made drunk for a year together, we might hope to preferve our conflitution j but it is the fober, confiderate corrupiioji, the cool bargaining for a fale of their liberties, that will be the certain undoing of this nation, whenever a wicked minifter fhall be the purchafer. LET- PERSIAN LETTERS, aas LETTER LIV. Selim to Mirza at Ifpahan* From London* TH E next day brought us Into a country towfi^' where the eledtions for the city and the fliire were carrying on together. It was with fome diffi- culty that we made our way through two or three mobs of different parties, that oWiged us by turns to declare ourfelves for their refpe6tive fadtions. Some of them wore in their hats tobacco leaves, and feemed principally concerned for the honour of that noble plant, which they faid had been attacked by the miniflry ; and in this I heartily joined with them, being myfelf a great admirer of its virtues, like mofl: of my countrymen. When we came to our inn, I entertained myfelf with aiking my fellow traveller queilions about eledions. The thing was fo new to me, that in many points I could not believe him. As for inftance, it feems very odd, that a corporation fhould take fuch a fudden liking to a man's face, whom they never faw before, as to prefer him to a family that had ferved them time out of mind ; yet this, 1 was aiTured, very often happened, and what was ftranger ftill, on the recommendation of another perfon, who was no better known to them himfelf. My inftrudor added. That there was in England ONE MAN fo extremely -popular^ though he never af- fefted popularity, that a line from him, accompanied with two or three bits of a particular fort of paper, CL was 226 PERSIAN LETTERS. was enough to diredt half the nation in the choice of their reprefentatives. It would be endlefs to repeat to thee all the tricks which he told me other gentlemen were forced to ufe to get themfelves eleded. One way of being well with a corporation (which a Perfian would hardly conceive) is to kifs all their wives. My com- panion con felTed to me, that he himfelf had formerly been obliged to go through this laborious follicitation, and had met with fome old women in his way, who made him piy dear for their intereft. But thefe methods (faid he), and other arts of popularity, are growing out of fafhion every day. We now court ©ur elrftors, as wc do our miftrefles, by fending a notary to them with a propofal : if they like the fettlement, it is no matter how they like the man that makes it : but if we difagree about \that^ other pretenfions are of very little ufe. And to fnake the comparifon the jufter, the members thus chofen have no more regard to their venal confli- tuents, than hufbands fo married to their wives. I afked, if they had no laws againfl corruption. Yes, faid he, very flrong ones, but corruption is ftronger than the laws. \^ the raagiftrates in Perfia were to fell wine, it would fignify very little that your law forbids the drinking it. How is it pofiible, faid I, to bribe a whole nation to the undoing itfelf ? It is not pofiible, anfwered he ; but the misfortune of our government is, that the majority of the reprefenta- tive body is chofen not by the whole nation, but by ?i Small., and very mean part of it. There are a num- ber of boroughs which have at prefent no other trade than fending members to parliament^ and whofe in- habitants think the right o^ felling themfelves and their country., the only valuable privilege of Englifh- men. Time has produced this evil, which was quite unforefeen in the original frame of our conflitution ; and time alone can furnilh occafions, and means of applying PERSIAN LETTERS. 227 applying an adequate remedy. Before it can be thoroughly cured, one of two very unlikely things muft come to pafs, either a court muft be fo difin- terefted as to exert all its power for the redrefling an evil advantageous to itfelf; or a popular party fo llrong as to give laws to the court, muft have virtue enough to venture difgufiing the people^ as well as offending the crown^ for the fake of reforming the CONSTITUTION. LETTER LV. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London.' ON the third day our travels were at an end, and I arrived at my friend's houfe with all the pleafure which we receive from retirement and repofe, after a life of tumult and fatigue. I was as weary of elections, as if I bad been a candidate myfelf, and could not help expreffing my furprize, that the general diforder on thefe occafions, had not brought fome fatal mifchief upon the nation. — That we are not undone by it, replied my friend, is entirely owing to the happy circumfta:;ce of our being an ifland. Were we feated on the continent, every election of a new parliament would infallibly draw on an invafion. — It is not only from enemies abroad that you are in danger, anfwered I : one would think that the violence of domeftic feuds fhould of itfelf overturn your conftitution, as it has fo many others ; and how you have been able to efcape fo long, is the wonder of all who have been bred up under abfolute 0^2 monarchies : 228 PERSIAN LETTERS. monarchies i for they are taught, that the fuperlor advantage of their form of government confifls in the (Irength of union ; and that in other ftates, where power is more divided, a pernicious confufion muft enfue. — They argue rightly enough, faid the gen- tleman who came along with me, but they carry the argument too far. No doubt, fadions are the natural inconveniences of all free governments, as oppreflion is too apt to attend on arbitrary power. But the difference lies here, that in an abfolute mo- narchy, a tyrant has nothing to reftrain him ; whereas parties are not only a controul on thofe that govern, but on each other ; nay, they are even a controul upon them/elves^ as the leaders of them dare not give a loofe to their own particular paflions and defigns, for fear of hurting their credit with thofe whom it is their interefl to manage, and pleafe. Befides, that it is eafier to infedt a prince with a fpirit of tyranny, than a nation with a fpirit of fac- tion ; and where the difcontent is not general, the mifchief will be light. To engage a whole people in a revolt, the highefl provocations muft be given ; in fuch a cafe, the diforder is not chargeable on thofe that defend their liberties, but on the aggreflbr that invades them. Parties in fociety, are like tempefts in the natural world ; they caufe indeed, a very great diflurbance, and when violent tear up every thing that oppofes them ; but then they purge away many noxious qualities, and prevent a ftagnation which would be fatal : all nations that live in a quiet flavery, may be properly faid to ftagnate -, and happy would it be for them if they were roufed and put in motion by that fpirit of fadion they dread fo much ; for, let the confequences of refiftance be what they would, they can produce nothing worfe than a con- firmed and eftablifhed fervitude : but generally fuch a ferment in a nation throws off what is moft op- preflive PERSIAN LETTERS. 229 prefllve to it, and fettles by degrees, into a better and more eligible (late. Of this we have received abundant proof; for there is hardly a p;ivilege be- longing to us, which has not been gained by popular difcontent, and preferved by frequent oppofition. I may add, that we have known many inilances, where parties, though ever fo inflamed againfl each other, have united, from a fenfe of common danger, and joined in fecuring their common happinefs. And this is more eafily done, when the points that were once the great fubjeds of heat and divifion, are either worn out by time, or changed by the clearer and more temperate medium through which they are feen : for in that cafe, parties which thought that they ftood at a very great diftance from one another, may find themfelves brought very near, and the only Separation remaining would be the ejjen- tial and everlajimg one, between boneji men and knaves^ wife men and fools. That this may happen experience fhews, and this, I think, ought to free us from the reproach of facrificing our country to our divifions, and make thofe defpair of fuccefe, that hope by dividing to deftroy us. L E T- 230 PERSIAN LETTERS. LETTER LVI. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. FOR the firft month of my being in the country; we did nothing from morning till night, but difpute about the government. The natural beau- ties round about us were little attended to, fo much were we taken up with our enquiries into political defedls. My two companions difagreed in many points, though I am perfuaded they both meant the fame thing, and were almoft equally good fubje6ls, and good citizens. I fometimes fancied, that I had learnt a great deal in thefe debates ; but when I came to put my learning together, I found myfelf not much wifer than before. The mafter of the houfe was inclined to the fide of the court, not from any interefted or ambitious views ; but, as he faid, from a principle of whiggijm : this word is one of thofe dif- tindtions, which, for little lefs than a century, have divided and perplexed this nation. The oppofite party are called tories. They have as flrong an antipathy to each other, as the followers of Hali to thofe of Ofman. I defired my friend to give me fome cer- tain mark by which I might know one from the other. The whigs, faid he, are they that are now in place^ and the tories are they that are out. I un- derftand you, returned I, the difference is only there ; fo that if they who are now tories^ were employed^ they inftantly become whigs : and if the whigs were removed, they would be tories. Not, fo, anfwered he, with fome warmth : there Is a great diffcr-ence in PERSIAN LETTERS. 231 in their princip'es and their condudl. Ay, faid I, let me hear that, and then I fhall be able to chufe my party. The tories, faid he, are for advancing the power of the croivn, and making the clergy the tools of their ambition. When they were in power, they weakened our ancient allies, difgraced our arms^ hurt our trade^ loft our honour, and were ajfijlant to the greatnefs of France. You furprife me ! replied I; for I have heard all this imputed to fome, who, you affure, are good whigs ; nay, the very pillars of whiggifm. I will explain that matter to you immediately, faid the gentleman that came down with me : whig- gifm is an indelible charafler, like epifcopacy : for as he who has once been a bijhop, though he no longer perform any of the offices and duties of his funcflion, is a bijbop neverthelefs ; fo he who has once been a whig, let him ad ever fo contrary to his principles, /i, neverthelefs a whig\ and as all true chuichmea are obliged in confcience to acknowledge the firfl:, fo all true whigs are in duty bound to fupport the laft. Very well, faid I ; but are there none who differ from this orthodox belief ? Yes, faid he, certain objii- nate people ; but like other dijfejiters, they are punifh- ed for their feparation, by being excluded from all places of trufi and profit, A heavy punilhment, indeed ! anfwered I, and more likely to diminiflo the fe^ than any other kind of perfecution. But if you will allow a ftranger to give any advice in your affairs, I think you Ihould pull down, at once, thefe enfigns of party ^ which are, indeeds falje coheirs hung out by fatlion, and fet up, inftead of them, one national jlandard^ which all who leave, by whatever name they may call ihem- felves, Ihould be confidered, and ufed as deferters. L E T-^ %SZ PERSIAN LETTERS. LETTER LVir, Selim fo MiRZA at Ifpahan, From London, I Went with my country friend feme days ago, to make a vifit in a neighbouring county, to the prelate of that diocefe. His chara6ter is fo extra- ordinary, that not to give it to thee, v/ould be de- parting from the rule I have laid down, to let no- thing that is f.ngidar efcape my notice. In the firfl place, he refides conftantly on his diocefe, and has done fo for many years : he afks nothing of die court for himfelf or family : he hoards up no v/ealth for his relations, but lays out the revenues of his fee in a decent hofpitality, and a charity void of oftenta- tion. At his firfl entrance into the world, he diftin- guifhed himfelf by a zeal for the liberty of his coun- try, and had a confiderable fhare in bringing on the Kevoiution that preferved it. His principles never altered by his preferment : he never proflituted his pen, nor debafed his charader by party dtfputes or blind compliance. Though he is warmly ferious in the belief of his religion, he is moderate to all who differ from him : he knows no diftindlion of party, but extends his good offices alike to whig and tory ; a friend to virtue urder any denomination ; an enemy to vice under any colours. His health and old age are the effeds of a temperate life and a quiet con- Icience : though he is now fome years above four- fcore, nobody ever thought he lived too long, unlefs it was out of an impatience to /needed him. This PERSIAN LETTERS, 233 This excellent perfon entertained me with the greateft humanity, and feemed to take a particular delight in being ufeful and infl:ru(f\ive to a flranger. To tell thee the truth, Mirza, I was fo afFedted with the piety and virtue of this teacher* -, the Chriftian re- ligion appeared to me To amiable in his character and manners, that if the force of education had not rooted Mahometifm in my heart, he would certainly have made a convert of me. « LETTER LVIII. Selim to Mirza at Ifpahan. From London. MY long flay in the country gave me leifure to read a good deal ; I applied myfelf to hiflory, particularly that of England ; for rightly to under- ftand what a nation /V, one fhould previoufly learn what it has been. If I complained of the different accounts which are given by the Englifh of them- felves in their prefent circumflances, 1 have no lefs reafon to complain of their hiftorians : pafl tranf- adtions are fo variouily related, and with fuch a mix- ture of prejudice on both fides, that it is as hard to know truth from their relations, as religion from the comments of divines. The great article m which they differ mofl, is the ancient power of the crown, and that of the parliament : according to fome, the latter * The tranflator fuppofes, that the author means Dr. Hough, bifhop of W'orcefter. 234 PERSIAN LETTERS. ktter is no more than an incroachment on the for- mer ; but according to others, it is as old as the mo- narchy Jtfelf. This point is debated with great warmth, and a multitude of proofs alledged by either party : yet the importance of the controverfy is not fo great as fome may conceive it. For many hundred years the point is out of difpute ; but fuppofe it were otherwife, would it follow from thence, that the parliamentary powers are ufurpations ? No, Mirza, no ; if liberty were but a year old, the Englifh would have juft as good a right to claim and to preferve it, as if it had been handed down to them from many ages : for allowing that their anceftors were flavcs, through weaknefs or want of fpirit, is jlavery fo valuable an inheritance that it never mufl be parted with ? is a long prefcription necelTary to give force to the na- tural rights of mankind ? if privileges of the people of England be concejfions from the crown, is not the power of the crown itfelf a concejfwn from the people ? however, it mufl be con fed, that though a long poffeflion of abfolute power can give no right to con- tinue it againft the natural claim of the people in behalf of their liberties, whenever that claim fhall be made ; yet a long poffeflion of freedom ferves to eftablifh and ftrengthen original right, or, at leaft, makes it more ihameful to give it up, I will there- fore Iketch out to thee, as (hort as I can in my next letters, the refult of what I have read, and what I have thought on this fubjecft, not with the minute exadnefs of a political critic, who, of all critics, would tire thee moft, but by iiich a general view of the feveral changes this government has undergone, .as may fet the true flate of it pretty clearly before thee. Further than this it would be almoft impoiTi- ble for a ftranger to go upon that fubjedt, or for one fo dillant as thou art, either to receive or defire in- formation : PERSIAN LETTERS. 235 formation : nor, indeed, were it more feafible, fliould I think it of Life, to engage in a much larger detail. It is with enquiries into the conftiutions of nations, as with enquiries into the conftitution of the uni- verfe ; thofe who are moft nicely curious about par- ticular and trifling parts, are often thofe who fee leaft of the whole. LETTER LIX. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. IT has been a ufual piece of vlhity in the writers of every nation, to reprefent the original confti- tutionsof their refpedtive ftates, as founded on deep- laid fyftems and plans of policy, in which they ima- gine that they difcover the utmoll refinements of human wifdom ; whereas, in truth, they are often the efFeds of downright chance, and produced by the force of certain circumllances, or the fimple dictates of nature itfelf, out of a regard to fome prefent expediency, and with little providence to the future. Such was the original of the celebrated Gothic government, that was formerly fpread ail over Europe. It was produced not in a cabinet, but a camp ; and owes much lefs to the prudence of a legillator, than to die necellity of the times, which gave it birth. The people that introduced it into Britain, and every where elfe, were a multitude of foldiers, un- acquainted with any thing but war: their leader, for 236 PERSIAN LETTERS. for the better carrying it on, was invefled with a fort of regal power, and when it happened that the war continued long, he acquired a prefcriptive authority over thofe who had been accuftomed to obey his orders ; but this authority was directed by the advice of the other officers, and dependant on the good-liking of the army, from which alone it was derived : in like manner, the firfl revenues of this leader, were nothing more than a title to a larger fhare in the common booty, or the voluntary contributions of the foldiers out of the wealth acquired under his com- mand. But had he attempted to take a horfe or cow, or any part of the plunder from the meaneft foldier, without his free confent, a mutiny would certainly have enfued, and the violation of property been revenged. From thefe principles, we may naturally draw the^hole form of the Saxon or Go- thic government. When thefe invaders became mafters of kingdoms, and not only ravaged them, but fettled there, the general was changed into a king, the officers into nobles, the council of war into a council of Hate, and the body of the foldiery itfelf into a general afiembly of all the freemen. A principal fhare of the conquefts, as it had been of the fpoils, was freely allotted to the prince, and the reft by him diftributed according to rank and merit among his troops and followers, under certain conditions agreeable to the Saxon cuftoms. Hence the different tenures, and the fervices founded upon them ; hence the vaffalage, or rather fervitude of the conquered, who \vere obliged to till the lands which they had loft, for the conquerors who had gained them, or, at beft, to hold them of thofe new proprietors on fuch hard and flavifh terms as they thought fit to impofe. Hence, likewife, the riches of the clergy, and their early authority in the ftate : for thofe people being ignorant and fuperftitious in the fame degree, an,d heated with the zeal of a new converfion, thought they PERSIAN LETTERS. 237 they could not do too much for their teachers, but with a confiderable (hare of the conquered lands, admitted them to a large participation of dominion itfelf.— Thus, without any fettled defign, or fpecu- lative (kill, this conftitution in a manner formed it- felf ; and it was the better for that reafon, as there was more of nature in it, and little ol political myjiery^ which, where-ever it prevails, is the bane of public good. A government fo eflablifhed, could admit of no pretence of a power in the king tranfcendant to law, or an unalterable right in the fucceffion. It could never come into the heads of fuch a people, that they were to fubmit to a tyranny for conjcience Jake ; or, that their liberties were not every way as facred as the prerogative of their prince. They could never be brought to underftand, that there was fuch a thing as reafon of ft ate diftind from the com- mon reafon of mankind j much lefs would they allow pernicious meafures to pafs unqueftioned or unpuniOied, under the ridiculous fandion of that name. LET- 258 PERSIAN LETTERS. LETTER LX. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. I Gave thee in my lafl: a fhort account of the firfl rife and conftriidion of the Saxon government, on very plain and fimple foundations. It was, perhaps, the moft free of all the limited monarchies that have been known in the world. The nobles and people had fuch a fhare in the legiilature, and fuch a weight in the government, that the king could do nothing but with their afTiftance, ^nd by their advice. He could not opprefs them by force, becaufe they were armed ^ and he was not^ unlefs when they employed their arms in his fervice for the defence of the kingdom. He could not corrupt them : for all offices of power or judicature were then ^/^<5?/i;i?, the eftate of the crown was held inalienable, and only fufficed to maintain the expence of the royal houlhold, and civil govern- ment. No caufes were tried but by juries, even in fpiritual matters ; fo that the lives and properties of^ the people could not be touched without their own co-operation, either by the king, the nobles, or clergy. To all this was joined the beft police that any nation ever enjoyed except the Chinefe, among whom many of the fame regulations have been eflablifhed with a conformity very furprifing^ as it is certain that neither copied the other. Such was the Saxon confti- tution, when by the wifdom and virtue of two or three kings it had received its final perfedion. The only eflential defedl of it was, the excsjfve immunities granted PERSIAN LETTERS. 239 granted to churchmen, which made them too indepen- dant upon the civil authority, and very burthenfome to the flate. This form of government continued un- altered in its principal parts, till the Norman inva- fion, which, like a foreign weight roughly laid upon the fprings, difturbed and obflruded its proper motions : yet, by degrees, it recovered itfelf again ; and how ill foever the Saxon people might be treated, under the notion of a conqueji, the Saxon conjlitutioa was never wholly fubdued. The new comers re- lifhed flavery no better than the old inhabitants, and gladly joined with them, upon a fenfe of mutual intereft, to force a confirmation of their freedom and the antient laws. Indeed there was fo great a con- formity between the government of Normandy and that of England, the cufloms of both nations were fo much the fame, that unlefs the Normans by con- quering this ifland had loft their original rights, and fought on purpofe to degrade themfelves and their pofterity, it was impolTible their kings could have a right to abfolute power. So far was that nation from owning any fuch right, that, in conjunftion with the Englijh^ they demanded, and obtained of their kings charters declaring their liberties, not as grants de^ rived from the favour, or innovations forced from the weaknefs, but as acknowledgments due from the jujlice of the crown. As fuch the beft and greateft princes confidered thofe charters ^ as fuch they con- firmed and obferved them, and when they were difputed, or broken by others of a different charader, civil wars enfued, which ended to the difadvantage of the crown ; but the misfortune was, that in all the ftruggles, the hifoops and nobles treated for the people, not the people for thetnfelves ; and therefore their interefts were much negleded, and the advan- tages gained from the king were much more be- neficial to the church and nobility than to thofe who were £40 PERSIAN LETTERS. were under their patronage. 1 will fay more on this head when I write next. LETTER LXL Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. THOU wilt be furprifed to hear that the period when the Englifh nation enjoyed the greateft happinefs, after the Norman invafion, was under the influence of a woman. As much as we Perfians fhould defpife a female ruler, it was not till the reign of queen Elizabeth, that the government came to an equal balance^ which is its true flate of per- fedion. Though the commons of England had regained, hy degrees^ and in a different fhape^ that fhare of the legiflature, which was, in a great meafure, loft by them under the firft Norman kings, yet their power was not fo great as it had been in the Saxon witenage- mote, or general affembly, nor their condition fb happy in many reipecfts ; for the chief ftrength of the government refided in the great lords, and the clergy, who fupremely directed all public affairs. The proceedings of the commons could not be free in their reprefenlative body^ v/hile in their colk^five body they were weak and oppreft. The laws of vaflalage, the authority of the church, the poverty and dependency in which they lived, hung heavy upon them, fo that they were obliged to aft in fub- ferviency to the nobles and bifhops, even when they fhewed moft vigour againfl the crov/n, following the paflions of both upon many occafions in the parlia- ment. PERSIAN LETTERS. 241 ment, and in the field, and making, or unmaking kings ns thefe their immediate majlers defired. But in return for their fervices they often obtained a re- drcfs of their grievances, revenged themfelves upon bad mi I lifters, and obtained good laws for the com- monwealth. To whatever purpofes their ftrength might be ufed, though to the purpofes of fadlion, by being ufed it increafed. The crown at lafl itfelf aflifted the growth of it, in oppofition to that of the church and the nobility. The bonds of vafiTalage were broke, or lightened ; the barons were by differ- ent laws encouraged and enabled to part with their lands ; the weight of property was transferred to the fide of the people. Many accidents concurred to the fame effeft. A reformation in religion was be- gun, by which that mighty fabric of church power, ereded on the ruins of public liberty, and adorned with the fpoiis of the crown itfelf, was happily at- tacked and overturned, A great part of the im- menfe pofleflions of the clergy was taken away, and moft of it fold to the commons upon eafy terms. They had now a very confiderable (liare of the lands .of England, and a ftill greater trcafure in their com- merce, which they were beginning to extend and im- prove. Their riches fecured their independancy ; the clergy feared them, and the nobles could not hurt them. In this ftate queen Elizabeth found the parliament : the lords and commons were nigh upon a level, and the church in a decent fubordination. She was the head of this well-proportioned body, and fupremely diredted all its motions. Thus, what in mixed forms of government feldom happens, there was no conteft for power in the legiflature \ be- caufe no part was fo high as to be unconrrouled, or fo low as to be oppreft. A reformation of religion was compleatly eftablifhed by this excellent princefs, which entirely refcued the nation from that foreign R yoke. 242 PERSIAN LETTERS. yoke, the pope had impofed upon it for fo many cen- turies, and from the dominion of fuperflition, the worfi of all Jlavery. The next great benefits that fhe conferred upon her fubjeds, were the extenfion of commerce into all parts of the world, and the foun- dation of their maritime power ^ which is their true^ natural greatnefs. Under her it began, and fhe lived to carry it to fuch a heighth, as to make them really lords of the fea^ an empire more glorious than that of the fophi our mafter, and richer than that of the mogul. In doing this, fhe did more for England than her greatefl predecefTors had ever done, far more than thofe who conquered France, though they could have fecured it to their poflerity. Thefe were the arts by which (he ruled, and by thefe (he was able to preferve her authority, nay, and to extend it further upon certain occafions than very abfolute princes could do, even while (he afTifted her people in the corroborating and confirming their liberty. The ftrength of her -power was their fatisfa5iion, and every other happinefs followed that^ as every mif- fortune and difgrace is fure to attend on their dif- content. LET- PERSIAN LETTERS, 243 LETTER LXII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. I ENDED my laft letter with the felicity of Elizabeth's reign : very different was that of her fuccelTor James the Firft : for his character and con- du6t were the reverfe of hers. He endeavoured to break the balance of the government by her fo wifely fixed, and wanted to be greater than her^ without one quality that could render him capable of filling her place. He had neither courage, ability^ nor addrefs : he was contemned both at home and abroad ; his very favourites did not love him, though he was governed by them in every thing ; nor did they maintain their dominion by his affe(ftions fo much as by his fears. Yet this meaneft of kings made great advances towards abfolute power^ and would have compleatly obtained it, if he could have found means to have introduced the fame luxury into the nation^ as he did into the court^ with the conllant attendant of luxury the fame corruption. But the virtue ir^^ufed by Elizabeth into the mafs of the people, and the indigence of the crown, ftopt the contagion from fpreading fo far : the commons re- fifted it, though the lords and the bifhops did not, and fome check: was given to the defigns of the king, yet not enough for the fecuring of liberty, or preventing the evils his condu£l prepared for the fol- lowing reign. The clergy, whom he attached to his interefts by favouring theirs, or what they took R 2 t« 244 PERSIAN LETTERS. to be theirs, more than a ivife prince would ^ or a good prince oufrht to have done, were very aHiftant to hi in, by preaching up notions which he and they Teem to have borrowed from our religion, of a right divine in kings, neither derived from human laws, nor to be hmited by them, and other fucli Mahome- tan tenets, that had never been heard of before in this country : yet there were many who difliked thefe innovations, and their oppofition hindered th.em from taking deep root in any minds but thofe of the royal family. Thefe obftinate proteftants and patriots were branded with the name of Puritans, and much hated by James, and Charles his fon, who, upon the deceafe of the former, fucceeded to his kingdoms, iiis notions, and his defigns. He had many better qualifications than his father, but as wrong a judgment, and greater obftinacy. He carried his afFedtion for the clergy, and abhorrence of the puritans, to an excefs of bigotry and rage. He agreed fo ill with his. parliaments, that he foon grew weary of them, and refolved to be troubled with no more ; none were called for twelve years together, and all that time he governed as defpoti- cally as the fophi of Perfia. The laws were either openly infringed, or explained in the manner he dire<5led : he levied money upon his fubjeds againfl privileges exprefsly confirmed by himfelf. In lliort, his pailion for powder might have been fully gratified, if his more prevailing one of bigotry had not enga- ged him in a fenfelefs undertaking, of forcing the fame form of worfhip upon his fubjeds in Scotland, as he had declared himfelf fo warmly for in England. It is fafer to attack men in their civil rights, than their religious opinions : the Scots, who had acqui- cfced under tyranny, took up arms againfl perfecu- tion. Their infurredion made it neceflary to call a parliament ; i-t met, but was inftantly dilTolved by the PERSIAN LETTERS. 245 the intemperate folly of tjie court. All hopes of better meafures were put an end to by this laft provocation. Tlie Scots marched into England, and v/ere received by the Englifh, not as enemies, but as brothers and allies : the king, unable to op- pofe them, was compelled to ailv the aid of another parliament, A parliament met, exafperated with nie opprefllons of fifteen years : the principal mem- bers were men of the greateft capacity, courage, and virtue, firmly united among themfelves, and whom the court could neither corrupt nor iniimidate. They refolved to make ufe of the opportunity to redrefs their grievances^ and fectire their liberty ; the king granted every thing that was neceflary to either of thofe ends, except fuch fecunties as might have been turned cigainji kimfelf : but what, perhaps, was really conceJHon^ had the appearance of conjlraint^ and therefore gained neither gratitude nor confidence : the nation could no longer truft the king ; or, if it might, particular men could not \ and the fupport of thofe particular men was become a national concern : they had expofed themfelves by ferving the public ; the public therefore judged that it was bound in juflice to defend them. Nor indeed was it poflible, when the work of reformation was begun, after fo long a denial of juftice, to keep a people, fore with the remembrance of injuries received, and fatisfac- tion refufed, within the bounds of a proper moderation. Such a fobriety is much eafier in fpeculation than it ever was in pradice. Thus, partly for the fafety of their leaders, and partly from a jealoufy of his intentions too juftly conceived, the parliament drew the fword againft the king ; but the fword, when drawn, was no longer theirs ; it was quickly turned againft them by thofe to whofe hands they trufted it : the honefteft and wifeft of both parties were out- witted 246 PERSIAN LETTERS. witted and over-powered by villains : the king pc- riflied, and the conftitution peridied with him. A private man, whofe genius was called forth by the troubles of his country, and formed in the ex- ercife of fadion, ufrrped the government. His charadler was as extraordinary as his fortune :. he had an air of enthufiafm which gained all thofe who were real enthufiafts (the number of whom v/as great in thofe days) and put him at their head. That he was one himfelf in fome degree may be fuppofed, notwithftanding the prudence with which he con- ducted all his defigns ; becaufe the fame fpark of en- thufiafm which makes common men mad, may, in cer- tain ConjunClures , only capacitate others of fuperior abilities to undertake and perform estraordinary things. Whether Cromwell was one of thefe, or adled entirely from political cunning, the times he lived in could .not difcover, and much lefs can the prefent. Thus far is certain, that, by an uncommon appearance of zeal, by great addrefs, and great valour, he firft inflamed the fpirit of liberty into extra- vagflfice, and afterwards duped and aived it into fub- mijpon. He trampled on the laws of the nation, but he raifed the glory of it ; and it is hard to fay which he deferved moft, a halter or a crown. If the enthufiafts of his own party would have perniitted him to have taken the title of king as well as the power, it is probable the royalty might have been fixed in his family by a well-modelled and lafting eftablifhent. jHe fhewed a great defire to carry that point : and I have heard him compared in this inftance to Julius Caefar, a great Roman ge- neral, who, like him, having maftered his country by its own arms, and being polfefTed of more than the power of a king, was fo fond of adding the name to it, that it coft him his life. But the two cafes are totally different. What in the Roman was a weak PERSIAN LETTERS. 247 a weak vanity, and below the reft of his charader, was in the Englifhman folid good fenfe. The one could not take that name without deftroying the forms of the Roman conjlituiion^ the other could not prefer ve the forms of the Etigltjh confiitution without taking that name. He therefore did wifely in feek- ing it ; but not being able to bring his own friends toconfent to it, or to do it againft their oppofition,' he could make no fettlement of the government to out-laft his own life : for it is hardly pollible from the nature of things, that a dominion newly ac- quired fhould long be maintained in any country, if the antient forms and names are not kept up. Im- mediately after the death of this great man, all order was loft in the ftate : various tyrannies were fet up, and deftroyed each other ; but all fhewed a republick to be impracticable. At laft the nation, growing weary of fuch wild confufion, agreed to recal the baniftied fon of their murthered king, not for his fake^ but for the fake of the monarchy., which all the nation defired to reftore -, and fo inconfiderate was the zeal of thofe times, that they reftored it without any limitations, or any conditions made for the public. Thus the fruits of a tedious civil war were lightly and carelefsly thrown away by too hafty a paflion for repofe. The conftitution revived in- jdeed again, but revived as Jick'y as before : the ill humours, which ought to have been purged away by the violent remedies that had been ufed, continu- ed as prevalent as ever, and naturally broke out in the fame diftempers. The king wanted to fet him- felf above the law ; wicked men encouraged this difpofition, and many good men were weak enough to comply with it, out of averfion to thofe principles of refiftance which they had feen fo fatally abufed. LE 248 PERSIAN LETTERS. LETTER LXIII. Seltm to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. nr^ H E methods piirfued by Charles the Second, in -*• the condu6t of his government, were in many refpedts different from his father's, though the pur- pofe of both was much the fame. The father al- ways bullied his parliaments ; the fon endeavoured to corrupt them : the fadier obftinately refufed to change his miniflers, becaufe he really efleemed them as honeft men : the fon very eafily changed his, be- caufe he thought they were all alike difhoneit, and that his defigns might as well be carried on by one knave as by another : the father v/as a tool of the clergy, and a perfecutor, out of zeal for his religion, the fon was almoft indifferent to religion, but ferved the pafiions of his clergy againfl the diflenters from motives of policy : the father defired to be abfolute at home, but to make the nation refpedable abroad : the fon affifted the king of France in his invafions on the liberties of Europe, that, by his help, he might maffer thofe of England : nay, he was even a penfioner to France, and, by Co vile a proftitution of his dignity, fet an exarr.p]e to the nobility of his realm, to fell their honoiir 'uhiutfe for a penjim ^ an example, the ill effects of which have been felt too fenfibly ever fince. Yet with all thefe vices and imperfedlions in the charafler of Charles the Second, there was fome- thing fo bewitching in his behaviour, that the charms of it prevailed on many to connive at the faults of his PERSIAN LETTERS. 249 his p;overnment : and, indeed, nothing can be Co hurtful to a country, vvhicli has liberties to defend, ns a prince who knows how at the fame time to make h\m\i:\( defponc and n^reeable : this was eminently the talent of Charles the Second; and what is moft fur- priiing, he poffcfl- it without any great depth of un- derllanding. But the principal inftrument of his bad intentions, was a general depravity of manners, with which he took pains to infeft his court, and they the nation. All virtues, both public and private, v>ere openly ri- diculed ; and none'were allowed to have any talents for wit or bufinefs, who pretended to any fenfe of honour, or regard to decency. The king made great ufe of thefe new notions, and they proved veiy pernicious to the freedom, as well as morals of his fubjeds ; but an indolence, natural to his temper, was fome check to his defigns •, and, fond as he was of arbitrary pov/er, he did not purfue it any further than was confiflent with hi.? pleafure and refojc. His brother, v/ho bore a great fway in his govern- ment, had changed his religion abroad, as the king himfelf had alfo done, but with this difference, that the latter retained almoft as little of that which he embraced, as of that which he forfook -, v/hereas the former was a bigot to popery, and known to be fuch, while the change of the king was a fecret to moft of his fubjeds. The fear of a popifti fuccejfor raifed great difcontent, and great diforders in the nation : the houfe of commons pafTed a bill for ex- cluding that prince from the crown, founded un- doubtedly in juftice and reafon ; but the firmnefs of the king in that Jingle pointy the complaifance of the lords, the jealoufy the church entertained of the diffenters, the fcruples of thofe who thought heredi- tary right drjine and indtfeafible^ and, above all, the 250 PERSIAN LETTERS. the fear of being involved in a new civil war, which alarmed many well-meaning people from a mixture oi fa5iion that had difcovered itfelf in fome of the ational caufe was then carried on, fruflrared the at- tempt to change the fuccejfmi^ as the obftinacy of thofe engaged in that attempt did all expedients to limit the fuccejjor. The unhappy advantages all this gave to the king made him a great deal more abfo- lute in the lafl years of his reign than in all the fore- going ones ; and, upon his demife, brought his brother in peace and triumph to the throne. He had not been long feated there before he convinced the moft attached to his party, that the apprehenfions conceived of him, and the defign of excluding him, had been too jufl. All that the fpirit of bigotry could add to a temper in itfelf harjh and violent^ ap- peared in his government : all that a weak under- fianding^ madly eoiiduSfed^ could undertake was un- dertaken : arbitrary power was the means ufed, and the end defigned was a change of religion. Happy was it for England that this end fo plainly declared itfelf : it roufed even thofe whom no danger to li- berty could have ever alarmed, and taught the preach- ers of non-refijiance to refiji. A revolution was evi- dently neceiTary to fave the whole, and that necef- Hty produced one. King James the Second loft his crown, and the nation gave it to their deliverer the prince of Orange: the s;overnment v/as fettled on a firmer foundation, agreeable to the antient Saxon principles from which It had declined ; and by a ha'^pinejs peculiar to itfelf, grew Jlronger from the Jlmh it had fujiained. LET- PERSIAN LETTERS. 25c LETTER LXIV. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. TH E firft advantage gained by the Englifh na- tion in the change of their government, was the utter extinction of thofe vain and empty phan- toms of hereditary indefenfible rights and a power Juperior to law^ which king James the Firft had conjured up, to the great difturbance and terror of his people. With James the Second they were ex- pelled, nor can they ever be brought back again with any proiped of fuccefs, but by that family alone, v/hich claims from him : for which reafon it will eternally be the intereft of the people of' Eng- land not to fuffer fuch a claim to prevail ; but to maintain an eftablilTiment which is founded on the bafis of their liberty, and from which their liberty cannot be feparated, unlefs the rights of both are deflroyed. As the parliament plainly difpofed of the crown in altering the fucceilion, the princes who have reigned fince that time, could pretend to none but a parlia- mentary title^ and the fame force as the legillature could give to that, it aUb gave to the privileges of the fubjed. The word loyalty^ which had long been mifap- phed, recovered its original and proper fenfe ; it was now underflood to mean no more than a due obe- dience to the authority of the king, in conformity to the laws, inftead of a bigoted compliance to the will of the king, in oppofition to the laws. How 252 PERSIAN LETTERS. How great an advantage this muft be, will appear by reflecting on the mifchiefs that have been brought upon this country in p.irticular, from the v/rong in- terpretation of certain names. But this is not the only benefit that enfued from that happy Revolu- tion. The prerogative of the crown had been till then fo ill defined, that the full extent of it was rather flopt by the degree of prudence in the govern- ment, or of impatience in the people, than by the letter of the law : nay, it feemed as if in many in* ftances the law allowed a power to the king, entire- ly dcflrudive to itfelf. Thus princes had been often made to believe, that what their fubjeds com- plained of as oppreflion, was a legal exercife of the rights of the crov/n : and no wonder, if, in difputa- ble points, they decided the queftion in favour of their own authority.- But now the bounds of prerogative were marked oiit by exprcfs reftridions -, the courfe of it became regular and fixed, and could no longer move obv liquely to the danger of the general fyflem. Let me alfo obferve to thee, that whereas before, to govern by parliaments was the policy only of gpod and wife princes ; after this petition, it may be con- fidered in a different light, becaufe all expedients of governing otherwife are plainly impradicable, and it may not always imply a conforming the government to the Jenfe of the people. I will explain this to thee more diflindly when I write again. In the mean while, let me a little recall thy thoughts from pad events, and the hifiory of England^ to the remem- brance and love of thy faithful Selim, who is not be- come fo much an Englifliman as to forget his native Perfia, but perpetually fighs for his friends and country amidft all that engages his attention in a foreign land. LET- PERSIAN LETTERS. 253 LETTER LXV. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. TH E antient revenues of the kings of England, confided chiefly in a large demefne of lands, and certain rights and powers referved to them over the lands held of the crown ; by means of which they fupported the royal dignity without the imme- diate aliiflance of the people, except upon extraordi- nary occafions. But in procefs of time, the extrava- gance of princes, and the rapacioufnefs of favourites having wafted the beft part of this eftate, and their fucceffors endeavouring to repair it by a tyrannical abufe of thofe rights and powers, fome of them, which were found to be moll grievous, were brought off by the parliament, with a fixed eftablifhment for the maintenance of the houfhold, compofed of cer- tain taxes yearly raifed, and appropriated thereto. But after the expiiljton of the Stuarts the expence of the government being augmented for the defence of the fucceflion, the crov/n was conftrained to ap- ply to parliament, not only for the maintenance of its houlhold, which was fettled at the beginning of every reign, and in every reign confiderably encreqfed-^ not only for extraordinary fupplies, to v/hich end padiaments anciently were called \ but for the ordi- nary fervice of the year. Thus a continual dependance on the people be- came necefTary to kings, and they were fo truly the Servants of the public, that they received the wages of 254 PERSIAN LETTERS. of it in form, and were obliged to the parliament for the means of exercifing the royalty, as well as for the right they had to claim it. Nor can this fa- liitary dependance ever ceafe, except the parliament itfelf fliould give it up, by impowering the king to raife money without limiting the fum, or Jpecifying the Services. Such concelfions are abfurd in their own nature ; for if a prince is afraid to truft his people with a power of fupplying his neceflities upon a tho- rough knowledge of them, the people have no en- couragement to truft their prince, or, to fpeak more properly, his minifter, with fo blind and undeter- mined an authority. LETTER LXVI. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. YO U have feen in my laft, that from the time of king James's expulfion, annual meetings of parliament v/ere become neceffary to the carrying on the government. But that the reprefentatives of the people from too long a delegation of their authority might not forget ^y whom^ and for what it was given them ; and that the people might be enabled to cor- rect a Z'^^ choice., which experience fhould prove to be fuch, it was thought expedient not long after to pafs a law for the chufmg a 7iew parliament at the end of every three years. This term has been fmce prolonged to /even., I think for very good reafons ; becaufe the country intereft could not fupport the redoubled expence of contefting with court corrup- tion PERSIAN LETTERS. 255 tion fo much oftener than now, and there are no good grounds to fuppofe that the efforts on that fide would be much lefs for a triennial than a feptennial parliament, a majority in that being; equally nccef- fary to a court as in this : fo that the attacks would be the fame, or near the fame, and the refi fiance much weaker on the fide of the people. If then the good propofed by Shortening the terra be very un- certain, it mufb be confidered that very great and certain evils attend upon frequent elecftions, viz. the inflaming of party-divifions, depraving the morals of the people, and many other inconveniencies of no little weight. However, this is a point about which I have found the bed men differ, and which thou wilt therefore confider as more problematical than others I have mentioned before. I now return to my hiftory. Among other advantages gained to liberty at this its happy rejloration^ a free exercife of their religion was allowed to thofe who differ from the rites of the Englifh church, which has been continued and fe- cured to them ever fince, with fome fhort interrup- tions, which even the party that caufed them is now ajhamed of. Nor has any thing contributed more than this, to the peace and happinefs of the govern- ment, by gaining it the affedion of all its fubjeds, and taking from the fpirit of fadion a pretence, and a ftrcngth, of v/hich it has often made a very bad ufe. I muff alfo obferve to thee, that from this period a different temper has fhewn itfelf in the clergy of England. They are become better friends toliber- ty, better fubjeds, better Englifhmen, than they had ufually been either before, or fince the Refor- mation. Some among them have writ in defence of the religious and civil rights of mankind with as free a fpirit, and as much force of learning and argument, as 256 PERSIAN LETTERS. as any layman has ever done ; a merit peculiar to themfelves, and to which no other clergy in the whole Ivor Id can pretend. The generality of them are now very moderate^ quiet ^ and iifeful members of the com- monwealth^ in due fubmifTion to the civil authority, and defiring nothing bat what they deferve, the pro- te6lion of governnnnt in the enjoyment of their jufi rights. They who would deny them that., are them- lelves per [editors., difturhers of government ^ and very had members of the commonwealth. This fucceflion was facilitated and fecured by the union of Scotland with England ; and Great-Britain becafne infinitely ftronger, by being undivided, en- tire, and wholly an ifland. One condition of that union, was the admitting fixteen Scotch peers, chofen by the whole body of the peerage, into the Englilli houfe of lords, but up- on a tenure very different from the reft, being to fit there only for the duration of the parliament, at the end of which, a new election muft be made. If thofe eledtions are //v^ ^nd uninfluenced, this altera- tion in the Englifh conftitution, may prove very much to its advantage, becaufe fuch a number of independent votes will balance any part of the houfe of peers., over which the court may have obtained too great an influence ; but if they fiiould ever be chofen by corruption., and have no hopes of fitting there again., except by an iinconflitutional dependence on the favour of a court, then fuch a number added to the others., would grievoufly endanger the conftitu- tion, and the houfe of lords inftead of being, as it ought, a fnediating power between the crown and the people, would become a fort of anti-chamber to the court, a mere office for executing and authorifing the purpofes of a minifter. I have now, my dear Mirza, traced thee out a general plan of the Englifh conftitution, and I believe thou PERSIAN LETTERS. 257 thou wilt agree with me upon the whole, that a bet- ter can hardly be contrived ; the only misfortune is, xh2it fo good a one can hardly be preferved. The great diftindion between the ancient plan of it, and that which has taken place fmce the expul- fion of the Stuarts is this, that the firft was lefs per- fe5l^ but better Secured^ becaufe the nobility and peo- ple had the /word in their hands ; whereas the lafl is more regular, fubjed to fewer diforders, and in the frame of it more free, but ill fe cured, the fword be- ing only in the hands of the king ; to which is added a vaft encreafe of the wealth of the crown, and a mighty influence gained to it by the debts of the public, which have brought on new taxes, new pow- trs for the raifing thofe taxes, of a very dangerous nature, and a prodigious multiplication of officers wholly dependent upon the court ; from all which the court has acquired new means of corrupt ioUy without any new effe5lual fecurities againft that cor- ruption being yet gained on the fide of the people. And this fort of power is fo much more to be feared than any other, as it cannot be exercifed without de- praving the morals, and debajing the fpirit of the whole people, which in the end would not only en- flave them, but render their fervitude voluntary, de- f'Crved, and remedilefs. % LET- 258 PERSIAN LETTERS, LETTER LXVIi. Semm to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. IN former reigns, when parliaments were laid a fide for any length of time, the whole authority of the flate was lodged in a privy council, by the advice and direction of which, all affairs were carried on. But thefe counfellors being chofen by the king, and depending on his favour, were too apt to advife fuch things only, as they knew would be moft agree- able ; and thus the interefls of the nation were often facrificed to the profit and expedtations of a few par- ticulars. Yet flill, as on extraordinary occafions the king might be forced to call a parliament, the fear of it was fome check to their proceedings ; and a degree of caution was natural to men who forefaw they fiiould fooner or later be called to an account. But let us fuppofe, that any future prince could wholly influence the election of a parliament, and make the members of it dependent on him/elf, what would be the difference between that parliament and a privy council .? would it fpeak the fenfe of the na- tion, or of the court ^ would the interefl of the people be confidered in it, or that of their reprefen- tatives ? They would only differ in this refpeft, that one having no power above it, might be abfolutely free from all refiraini, which, with the terror of a parlia- ment hanging over it, the other fiever could. ,. This is the only imaginable method, by which the liberty of the Englilh nation can be attacked with I>ERSIAN LETTERS. 259 with any fuccefs ; but thou wilt afk to what end rhould an attack of this nature be made ? Why fhould a king of England go about to deftroy a con- ftitution, the maintenance of which would render him both great and happy ? I reply, that a king indeed can have no reafonabls inducement to make fuch an experiment, but a mi- nifter may find it neceffary for his own fupport; and happy would it have been for many countries, if the majier's intereft had been confidered by the fervant half fo warmly as the fervant's by the mafter. Jf a man who travels through Italy was 'to all:, what advantage all the wealth in religious houfes, and all the idolatrous worfhip paid there, are to the faints they are dedicated to ? The anfwer mud be, Of none at all. But the priefls, who are really gain- ers by them, know that they abufe the people to very good purpofe ; and make ufe of a venerable name, not from any regard they have to it, but to raife their own greatnefs, fwell their own pride, and cover and fecure their own extortion. By the weaknefs therefore of princg||the arts of minifters, and the fedudlion of the ^^le againft their own interefts, the conftitution of E-glancTonly can perifh, and probably will perilh at laft. This will happen fooner or later, as more or lefs care is taken by thofe whofe duty it is to wrtch over it. I am not ignorant that there are feme vifion^iry men, who dream of fchemes to perpetuate it beyond all poffibility of future change : but I have always thought the fame of political projeds to render a go- vernment, as of chemical projeds to render a rnan immortal. Such a grand elixir cannot be found ; and thofe who would tamper with ftates in hopes of procuring them that immortality.^ are the moft unfit to prefcribe to them of all men in the v/orld. But at the fame time that I know this, I ahb know, that S 2, the 26o PERSIAN LETTERS. the date of a government may be prolonged by pro- per and falutary remedies, applied by thofe who un- derftand its true nature, and join to fpeculative wif- dom, experience and temper. Nor fhould I think it at all a better excufe for allifting to ruin the conflitu- tion of my country, that it mufi come to an end, and perhaps begins to decay, than for joining in the mur- der of my father, that he mtiji die at lajl^ and begins to grow old, LETTER LXVIII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan, From London. TH E other morning, a friend of mine came to mejgtod told me, with the air of one who brings an a^eable piece of news, that there was a Jady who moft paflionately defired the pleafure of my acquaintance, and had commiffioned him to carry me to fee her. — I will not deny to thee, that my va- nity was a little flattered with this melTage : I fancied fhe had feen me in fome public place^ and taken a liking to my perfon ^ not being able to comprehend what other motive could make her fend for a man ftie was a flranger to in fo free and extraordinary a manner. I painted her in my own imagination very young, and very handfome, and fet out with mofl pleafmg expedations, to fee the conqueft I had made : but when I arrived at the place of aflignation, I found a little old woman very dirty, encircled by- four or five ftrange fellows, one of whom had a paper in his hand, which he was reading to her with all the emphafis of an author. My PERSIAN LETTERS. 261 My coming in obliged him to break off, which put him a good deal out of" humour ; but the lady, underflanding who I was, received me with great fatisfadlion, and told me, fhe had long had a cu- riofity to be acquainted with a Mahometan : for you mufl know, faid fhe, that I have applied myfelf particularly to the ftudy of theology^ and by pro- found meditation and enquiry have formed a religion of my own, much better than the the vulgar one ia all refpeds, \ never admit any body to my houfe, who is not diftinguillied from the common herd of chrijiians by fome extraordinary notion in divinity : all thefe gentlemen are eminently heretical^ each in a way peculiar to himfelf : they are fo good to do me the honour of inftrufting me in their feveral points of faith, and fubmit thtir opinions to my judgment. Thus, Sir, I have compofed a private fyftem, which mufl necelfarily be perfeder than any, becaufe it is coUedted out of all ; but to compleat it, I want a lit- tle of the Koran, a book which I have heard fpoken of mighty handfomely by many learned men of my acquaintance : and I affure you, Sir, I fhould have a very good opinion of Mahomet himfelf, if he was not a little too hard upon the ladies. Be fo kind therefore to initiate me in your myjieries, and you fhall find me very docile and very grateful. Madam, replied I in great confufion, I did not come to England as a mijjionary, and was never verf- ed in religious difputation. But if a Perfian tale would entertain you, I could tell you one that the Eaflern ladies are mighty fond of A Perfian tale ! cried (he ; have you the infolence to offer me a Perfian tale ! Really, Sir, I am not ufed to be fo affronted. At thefe words, fhe retired into her clofet, with her whole train of metaphyficians, and left my friend and me to go away, as unworthy of any further communion with her. LET- 262 PERSIAN LETTERS. LETTER LXIX. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London, WOuldll thou know, Mirza, the prefent ftate of Europe ? I will give it thee in very few ■words. — There is one nation in it, which thinks of nothing but how to prey upon the others^ while the others are entirely taken up with preying upon them- felves. There is one nation where particulars take a pride in the glory of their country ; while in the others no glory is confidered, but that of raifing or im- proving a vaft eflate. There is one nation which, though able in negociation, puts its principal confi- dence in the /word ; while the others trufl wholly to the pen, though much lefs capable of ufing it with advantage. There is one nation which invariably pur- fues a great plan of general dominion, while the others are purfuing little interefts, through a labyrinth of changes and contradictions. What, Mirza, doft thou think will be the confequence } Is it not probable that this nation will in the end be lord of all the reft .? It certainly muft — one thing only can hinder it, which is, that the fear of falling under that yoke, when the peril appears to be imminent, may raife a different fpirit in all thoje nations, and work out their fafety from their danger itfelf, LET- PERSIAN LETTERS. 263 LETTER LXX. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpghan. From London. I WAS the other day in a coffee-houfe, where 1 found a man declaiming upon the prefent ftate of Perfia, and fo warm for the interefts of Tamas Kouli Kan, our invincible general *, that if it had not been for his language and drefs, 1 fhould hav« taken him for a Perfian. Sir, faid I, are you acquainted with Tamas Kou- li Kan, that you concern yourfelf thus about him ? No, faid he, i was never out of England ; but I love the Perfians, for being enemies to the Turks, What hurt have the Turks done you, anfwered I, that you bear fuch enmity againft them ? Sir, replied he, I am afraid they ftiould hurt the emperor^ whofe friend I have always declared mv- felf. I enquired of a gentleman that fate by me, who this Friend of the Emperor might be? and was told that he was a dancing-mafter in St. James's- ftreet. For my part (faid a young gentleman finely dreft, that ftood fipping a difh of tea by the fire-fide) I do not care if Tamas Kouli Kan, and the great Turk, and all the Perfians and emperors in Europe were at the bottom of the fea, provided Farinelli be but fafe. The * By thefe words it appears, that thefe letters were writ before Tamas Kouli Kan ufurped the throne. 264 PERSIAN LETTERS. The indifference of this gentleman furprifed me more than the importance of the other. • If yoQ are concerned for Farinelli, faid a third (who they told me was a chemift) perfuade him to take my drop^ and that will feciire him from the hu- midity of the Englifh air, which may very much prejudice his voice. Will it not alfo make a man of him again^ faid a gentleman to the dodor .? After the miracles we have been told it has performed, there is nothing more wanting but fuch a cure to compleat its repu- tation. LETTER LXXI. Selim to MiRZA ^t Ifpahan. A From London. FRIEND of mine was talking to me fome days ago, of the fpirit of enthufiafm, which appeared fo flrongly in the firft profelTors of our re- ligion ; and, as he pretended, in the prophet him- felf : to that chiefly he afcribed their mighty con- quefts, and obferved, that there needed nothing more to render them invincible, fuch a fpirit being conftantly attended with a contempt of pleafure and of eafe, of danger and of pain. — If, faid he, the en- thufiafts of this country, in the reign of Charles the Firfl, had been united among themfelves, like the Arabians under Mahomet and his fucceflbrs, I make no doubt but they might have conquered all Europe : but unhappily their enthufiafm was diredcd to dif- ferent points i fome were bigots to the church of England, fome to Calvin, fome to particular whim- fies of their ov/n > one fet of them ran mad for a re- public, PERSIAN LETTERS. 265 public, others were no lefs out of their wits in the love of monarchy ; To that inftead of making them- felves formidable to their neighbours, they turned the edge of their fury againft each other, and de- ftroyed all peace and order here at home. Yet as much as our anceftors fuftered then by the wrong di- reftion of their zeaL, I wifh the prefent age may not fuffer more by the total want of it among us. There is fo cold and lifelefs an unconcern to every thing but a narrow, private intereft ; we are fo litde in earned about religion, virtue, honour, or the good of our country ; that unlefs fome fpark of the an- cient fire fhould revive, I am afraid we fliall jefl away our liberties, and all that is ferious to our hap- pinefs. If the great Mr. Hampden had converfed with our modern race of wits, he would have been told, that it was a ridiculous enthujiafm^ to trouble himfelf about a trifling fum of money, becaufe it was raifed againft the privileges of the people ; and that he might get a thoufand times more than he fiilputed for, by a prudent fubmijfion. LETTER LXXII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. THERE is a new fcience produced in Europe of late years, entirely unknown to any former age, or to any other part of the world, whicli is called Treatv Learning. 1 have been let into a general idea of it, by a very ingenious friend of mine, who has acquired a confiderable talent in it, having ferved an apprenticeHiip of twenty years un- der different mafters in foreign courts, and mad*^, i \ z€6 PERSIAN LETTERS. in a political fenfe, the tour of*Europe. He tells me, it is a very extenfive fludy ; for not only the rights of every prince, but their inclinations to the rights of any other ^ are therein fet forth and comprehended. This has branched itfelf out into an infinity di Sepa- rate and fecret articles^ engagements^ counter -engage- ments^ memorials^ remonjlrances^ declarations ; all which the learned in this fcience are required to know perfedly by heart, that they may be ready upon occafion to apply them, or elude their applica- tion, as the intereft of their mafters fhall demand. He fhewed me ten or twelve volumes lately pub- lifhed, confining only of the treaties which have been made fmce the beginning of this century, four or five of which were quite filled with thofe of Eng- land. Sure, faid I, this huge heap of negociations could never have been employed about the bufinefs of this little fpot of earth for fo fmall a fpace of time as thirty years ^ No, — the affairs of all Europe mufl be fettled in them, for the iiext century at leaji. — For the next fejfion of parliament^ anfwered he; thefe political machines are feWom mounted to go longer than that period^ without being taken to pieces^ or ne"jo wound-up. But how, faid I, could England, which is an ifland, be enough concerned in what pafTes on the conti- nent, to undergo all this labour in adjufling it. O, replied he, we grew weary of being confined 'Within the narrovj verge of our own interejis \ we thought it looked more confiderahle to expatiate., and give our talents room to play. But this was not the only end of our continual and reftlefs agitation : it may frequently be the interefl of a minifter, if he finds things in a calm, to trouble the waters., and work up a florm about him ; if not to perplex and confound thofe ahove him., yet to embarrafs and inti- midate the competitors or rivals of his power. Perhaps PERSIAN LETTERS. 267 Perhaps too, there might be a ftill deeper motive : thefe engagements are for the moft part pretty chargeable ; and thofe who are obliged to make them good, complain that they are much the poorer for them ; but it is not fure, that thofe who fot:m them are fo too. — As far, faid I, as my little obfervation can enable me to judge of thefe affairs, the multiplicity of your treaties is as hurtful as the multiplicity of your laws. In Afia, a few plain words are found fufficient to fet- tle the differences of particulars in a (late, or of one ftate with another ; but here you run into volumes upon both ; and what is the effe6\: of it ? Why after great trouble and great expence, you are as far from a decifion as before ; nay, often more puzzled and confounded. The only diflinftion feems to be, that in your law-fuits, perplexing as they are, therc% at laft, a rule of equity to refort to ; but in the other difputes, the laft appeal is to the iniquitous rule of force, and princes treat by the mouths of their great guns, which foon demolifh all the paper on both fides, and tear to pieces every cobweb of Jiegociation, LETTER LXXIII. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. IW A S lately at a tavern with a fet of company very oddly put together : there v/as a country gentleman, a man of honeil principles, but extreme- ly a bigot to his religion, which was that of the church of Rome -, there was a lawyer, who was a very good proteftant, moderate to thofe who differed from him in points of belief, but zealous in the caufe of 268 PERSIAN LETTERS. of civil liberty ; there was a courtier, who feemed not to believe any thing, and to be angry with every body that did. This lad, very rudely attacked the faith of the poor country gentleman, and laid open to him the frauds*^ the Roman priefthood, who, by flow, but regular degrees, had erefted fuch a tyranny over the minds and fpirits of the people, that nothing was too grofs for them to impofe, or too arrogant to aflume^ He fet forth the vaft difference between a bijhop in the primitive ages of chriftianity, and a pope^ with a triple crown upon his head, and half the wealth of Chriftendom in his rreafury. He lamented the fim- plicity of thofe, who, without looking back to the original of things, imagine that all is right which they jBnd e/iab'ijhed -^ and miflake the corruptions of a fyf^fn for the fyflem itfelf: he inveighed ngainfl the pufillanimity of others, who though theyyV^ the cor- ruptions, and detejl them, yet fuffer them to conti- nue imreformed^ only becaufe they have been tolerated Jo long ; as if any evil was kfs dangerous, by being grown hahitiial. He concluded, by declaiming very eloquently on the ufe and advantage of free-thinking, that is, of doubting and examining every article propofed to our belief, which alone could detedl thefe impofiti- ons, and confound the ill purpofes of their authors ; mixing, in the courfe of his talk, with thefe jufl re- flexions, many licentious witticifms againfl: what all religion and all philqfophy have ever accounted facred and venerable. His antagonifl had little to reply, but intrenched . himfelf in the neceliity of Submitting to the authority of the church, and the danger of allowing private judgment to call in queftion her decifions. The difpute would have been turned into a quar- rel by the zeal of one, and the afperity of the other, had not the lawyer very feafonably interpofed, who, ad- PERSIAN LETTERS. 269 addreflmg himfelf to the advocate' for freedota| de- fined to know, whether liberty in temporals was not of importance to mankind, as well as libertj in fpi- rittiah ? How then comes it, that you, m\o ai>" fo warm for the maintenance of the lajl, are fo ..to- rioufly indifferent to the firfl: ? To what fhall we af^ cribe the mighty difference between your Politi- cal and Religious Faith ? and whence is it that the former is fo eafy, and the latter fo intra£lable ? can thofe who«are thus quick-fighted in the frauds of ecdefiajlical dominicn fee no juggling at all in their civil rulers ? are the impojitions lefs glaring or more tolerable, which they both acquiefce in and fupport, than thofe which they fo violently oppofe ? Let us take the very inftance, you have given. — Is a pope more unlike to a chrijiian biJJjop^ than a fole minifter to an officer of a free /late? if you look back to the original of things, what traces will you find of fucb an office ? In what antient conflitution can you dif- cover the foundations o^ fuch a power ? Is not this a moil manifefl corruption, growing out of ten thou- fand corruptions, and naturally produdlive of ten thoufand more ? If you fay thefe are myfleries of ftate, and therefore not to be examined-, 1 am fure the myfleries you attack have yet a better title to your refped, and kfs mifchief will attend on their remaining not fubjecl to enquiry. Or will you borrow the arguments of your adver- fary, and plead the neceffity of fubmffion., and the danger of letting up reafon againft authority f If fo, I would only put you in mind, that all authority flows from reafon, and ought to lofe its force in pro- portion as it deviates from its fource. It is a jeft to fay, that mankind cannot be govern- ed without thefe impojitions ; they were governed happily before thefe were ifivented, much more hap- pily than they have been ever fmce : as well may it be faid, that chriflian piety, which was eflablilhed in 270 PERSIAN LETTERS. in plain dealing and fimplicity, miift be fupported bv tife knavery and pageantry introduced in late ages by the church of Rome. But the truth is, that moft men do in the ftate juft what you fay has been done in the church ; they maintain abufes by pre/crip- tion^ and make the bad condition things are in, an argument for letting them grow worje. I cannot, faid I, debate with the gentleman who has attacked the abufes of ecclefiaftical power up- on the particular fads he has alTerted, nor will I wholly deny the conclufions he draws from thofe fads. But it feems to me that he has often con- founded two things entirely different ; a juft regard to religion, without which no fociety can longfub- fift, and a weak attachment to what either folly or knavery may have grafted upon religion, and fanfti- fied under that name. To diftinguifh thefc is the part of a man of fenfe, and a good man ; but to at- tack both without any diftindion, to attack the firft becaufe of the laft, is at leaft as far from true wif- dom as fuperftition itfelf. Can a worfe corruption, or a more dreadful diforder, arife in any government than an open contempt of religion, avowed and pro- fefled .? a nation where that prevails is on the brink of deftrudion. What degree of refped or fubmif- lion is due to particular religious opinions, even to thofe that are not ejjential^ I will not take upon me now to difpute ; but this I am fure of, that a blind confidence in temporal affairs, agrees very ill with doubt in Jpirituals. A free enquirer into points of fpecu- lation fhould, beyond all others, be afhamed of a tame compliance in points of adion. The unthinking may be paflive from delufion, or at leaft from inadvertency ; but the greateji monficr and worfi criminal in fociety, is a Free-thinking Slave. L ExT- PERSIAN LETTERS. 271 LETTER LXXIV. Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. VERY nation has fome peculiar excellence by which it is diftinguifhed from its neighbours, E and of which without vanity it may boaft : thus Ita- ly produces the finefl fingers-, England the floutell boxers ; Germany the profoundeft theologians ; and France is incomparable for its cooks. This laft advantage carries the palm from all the reft, and that nation has great reafon to be proud of it, as a talent of univerfal currency ; and for which all otlier countries do them homage : on this fingle perfedtion depends the pleafure, the magnificence, the pride, nay the reputation of every court in Europe ; with- out a good French cook there is no embafTador can poflibly do his mafter's bufinefs ; no fecretary of ftate can hold his office, no man of quality can fup- port his rank and dignity. A friend of mine, who frequently has the honour to dine at the tables of the great, for which he pays no higher price than his "vote in parliament, has fometimes obliged me with the ^ill of fare, and (as near as he could) an eftimate of the charge which thefe genteel entertainments are attended with. I told him, that their dinners put me in mind of what I had heard about their politics : they are artijiciaU itnfubflantial, and miwholefome^ but at the fame time moft ruinoujly expenfive. Sure, Taid I, your great tnen muft have digejtions prodi- gioufly (harp and ftrong, to carr}'' off fuch a load of various meats as are ferved up to them every day ! thev 272 I'ERsiAN Letters. they mud: not only be made with heads and hearts^ but with /iomacbs very different from other people! Not in the leaft, anfwered he — They feldom touch any of the dainties that are before them : thofe dainties, like the women in your feraglios, are more intended for ornament than nfe. There is al- ways a plain difh fet in a corner, a homely joint of Englifh beef or mutton, on which the mailer of the feaft makes his dinner, and two or three choice friends, who are allowed to have a cut with him out of fpecial grace and favour^ while the reft are lan- guifhing in vain for fuch a happinefs, and piddling upon ortolans and truffles. I have feen a poor country gentlemati fit down to one of thefe fine dinners with an extream diflike to the French cookery ; yet, for fear of being counted impolite, not daring to refufe any thing that was of- fered him ; but cramming and fweating with the llruggle between his averfion and civility. Why then, faid I, this continual extravagance } why this number of vidims daily facrificed to the daemon of luxury } how is it worth a man's while to undo himfelf, perhaps to undo his country, that his board may be graced with pates of perigord, when his guefts had rather have the fowl from his barn- door } your comparifon of the feraglio will not hold ; for though indeed there is an unneceffary variety, yet they are not all ferved up to us together ; \yq content ourfelves with 07ie or two of them at a meal, and referve the reft for future entertainments. I concluded, with repeating to him a ftory, which is taken out of the annals of our kings. Schah Abbas, at the beginning of his reign, was more luxurious than became fo great a prince. One. might have judged of the vaftnefs of his empire, by the variety of difhes at his table : fome were fcnt him from the Euphrates and Perfian gulph, others from the Oxus and Cafpian fea. One day when he gave PERSIAN LETTERS. 273 gave a dinner to his nobles, Mahomet Ali, keeper of the three tombs, was placed next to the beft dilh of all the feafl, out of refpedt for the facility of his office : but infiead of falling- to, and eating heartily, as holy men are wont to do, he fetched a difmal groan, and fell a weeping. Schah Abbas, furprifed at his behaviour, defired him to explain it to the company : he would fain have been excufed, but the fophi ordered him, on pain of his difpleafure, to ac- quaint them with the caufe of his diforder. Know then, faid he, O monarch of the earth, that when I faw thy table covered in this manner, it brought to my mind a dream, or rather a vifion, which was fent me from the prophets whom I ferve : on the feventh night of the moon Rhamazan, I was lleeping under the fhade of the facred tombs, when, methought, the holy ravens of the fanduary bore me up on their wings into the air, and in a few mo- ments conveyed me to the loweft heaven, where the meffenger of God, on whom be peace, was fitting in his luminous tribunal, to receive petitions from the earth. Around him ftood an infinite throng of ani- mals, of every fpecies and quality, which all joined in preferring^ a complaint againft thee, Schah Abbas, for deflroying them wantonly and tyrannically, be- yond what any necelTity could juflify, or any natural appetite demand. It was alledged by them, that ten or twelve of them were often murdered, to compofe one difh for the nicenefs of thy palate ; fome gave their tongues only, fome their bowels, fome their fat, and others their brains or blood. In fhort, they declared, fuch conflant wafte was made of them, that unlefs a flop was put to it in time, they fhould peafh entirely by thy gluttony. The prophet hearing this, bent his brows, and ordered fix vultures to fetch thee alive before him : they inftantly brought thee to his tribu- nal, where he commanded thy ftomach to be open- T ^d. ii74 PERSIAN L E T T E R g. ed, and examined whether it was bigger or more ca-^ pacious than thofe of other men : when it was found to be jufl of the common fize, he permitted all the animals to m.ake reprizals on the body of their def- troyer ; but before one in ten thoufand could get at thee, every particle of it was devoured ; ' fo ill-pro- portioned was the offender to the offence. — This ftory made fuch an impreifion on the fophi, that he would not fufFer above one difh of meat to be brought to his table ever after. LETTER LXXVL Yo Ibrahim Mollac at Ifpahail. • From London. YE ^, holy Mollac, I am more and more con- vinced of it ; infidelity is certainly attended with a fpirit of infatuation. The prophet hurts the underftandings of thofe who refufe to receive his ho- ly law ; he punifhes the hardnefs of their hearts, by the depravation of their judgments. How can we otherwife account for what I have feen fince my ar- rival among Chriftians ? I have feen a people, whofe very being depends on commerce, fuffer lu;>cnry and the heavy load of taxes to ruin their manufa(5tures at home, and turn the balance againft them in foreign trade! — I have feen them glory in the greatnefs of their wealth, when they are reduced every year to carry on the expences of government, by robbing the very fund which is to eafe them of a debt of fifty mil- lions ! I have feen ih&m fit out fleets, augment thpr forces, exprefs continual fears of an invafmi, and fufFer con- tinual PERSIAN LETTERS. 275 tihual depredations upon their merchants from a con- temptible enemy, yet all the while hug themfelves in the notion of being blefl with a prafonnd and lajling peace ! I have feen them wrapped up in full fecurity, up- on the flourifhing ftate of public credit^ only becaufe they had a prodigious flock of paper ^ which now, in- deed, they circulate as money ; but which the firft alarm of a calamity may, in an inftant, make meer paper of again ! I have feen them conftantly bufied in pajfing laws for the better regulation of their police^ and never taking any care of their execution : loudly declaring the abufes of their government, and quietly allow- ing them to encreafe ! I have feen them diftreft for want of hands to carry on their hufbandry and manufactures, yet per-^ mitting thoufands of their people to be deftroyed, or rendered ufelefs and hurtful to fociety, by the abomi- nable ufe q{ fpirituous liquors ! I have feen them make fuch a provifion for their poor as would relieve all their wants, if well applied ; and fuffer a third part of them to Jiarve, from the roguery and riot of thofe entrufted with the care of them ! But the greatej} of all the wonders I have feen, and which mofl of all proves their infatuation^ is, xh'^it they prof efs To MAiNTAfN Liberty by Cor- RUPTIObf. T 2 LET- i^6 PERSIAN LETTERS. LETTER LXXVIL Selim to MiRZA ai Ifpahan. From London. I Felicitate thee, Mirza, on thy new dignity ; I bow myfeif reverently before thee, not with the heart of a flatt^fer, but a friend : the favour of thy mailer fhines ujfjoh thee; he has raifed thee to the right hand of his throne • the treafures of Perfia are com- mitted to thy ciiftody : if thoU behaveft thyfelf honeftly and wifely, I mall think thee much greater from thy aduancement 5 if otherwife, much lower^ than before. Thou haft undertaken a charge very important to thy prince, and to his people ; both are equally concerned in thy adminiftration, both have equally a right to thy fidelity. If ever thou fhalt feparate their interefts, if thou (halt fet up the one againft the other, know, it will end in the ruin of both. Do not imagine, that thy mafter will be richer by draining his fubjeds of their weahh : fuch gains are irreparable Iqffes ; they may ferve a prefent fordid purpofe, but dry up the fources of opulence for futurity. I would recommend to thy attention and remembrance, the faying of a famous Englifh treafurer in the happy reign of queen Elizabeth. / do not love^ faid that truly able minifter, to fee the treafury /well like a diftempered Spleen^ when the ether parts of the ^ate are in a confumption. — Be it thy care to prevent fuch a decay ; and, to that end, not only fave the public all unneceffary expence, but fo digeft and order what is needful, that perplexity may not ferve to cover fraud, nor incapacity lurk behind corfufion. Rather fubmit to any difficulty and PERSIAN LETTERS. 277 and diftrefs in the condud of thy miniftry, than atitir cipate the revenues of the government without an ab- folate neceflity ; for fuch expedients are a temporary eqfe, but a permanent dejini^lion. Ill relieving the people from their taxes, let it alfo be thy glory to relieve them from the infinite number of tax-gatherers ^ which, far worfe than the Turkifh or Ruflian armies, have harrajfed and plundered our poor country. As thou art the diftributor of the bounties of the crown, make them the reward of fervice and merit ; not the hire of parafites and flatterers to thy mafter, or thy/elf. But, above all, as thou art now a public per/on^ elevate thy mind beyond any private view ; try to enrich the public before thyfelf: and think lefs of cftablifhing thy family at the head of thy country, than of fetting thy country at the head of Afia. If thou canft fteadily perfevere in fuch a condudl, thy prince will want tbee more than diou doft him : if thou buildell thy fortune on any other bafts, how high foever it may rife, it will be tottering from the weaknefs of its foundation. He alone is a minifler of flate, whofe fcrvices are necejfary to the public-, the reft arc the creatures of caprice^ and feel their jlavery eycn in their power. LETTER LXXVIIL Selim to MiRZA at Ifpahan. From London. np H E virtuous Abdallah is returned to England, -■' after having been afeffent fourteen moons. I yefterday reftored to him iiis lovely Zelis, the wife whom he had given me at his departure, and whom 1 had 278 PERSIAN LETTERS. I had treated like a Jijler. Nothing ever was fo moving as the fcene, when I joined their hands again after a reparation which they had feared would prove eternal. The pofTeffion of the fineft woman in the world could not give me fo much pleafure as this aft of humanity and j-uflice : I made two people happy who deferved it ; and am fecured of the affec- tions of both to the lad moment of their lives. When the tranfports of their joy were a little over, Ab- dallah gave me the following relation of all that ha4 happened to him fince he left us.— - I'he History of Abdallah. YOU know that I failed from England with an intent to redeem my father from captivity : as foon as I came to Malta, I went and threw myfelf at the feet of the grand mafler, befeeching him to take the ranfom I had brought, and fet my father free. He anfwered me, that the perfon for whom I fued, was no longer in a condition to be ranfomed, being condemned to die the next day. I was ready to die myfelf at this account ; and defiring to know his offence, was informed, that, being unable to redeem himfelf, he was put to the oar like a common flave, without any regard to his innccengc or age : that during an engagemerit with a Turkifh fhip, he had perfuaded the other flaves to quit their oars, and fight againft the Chrillians j but that, being over- powered, he was brought to Malta, and con- demned to be broke upon the wheels as an example to the other captives \i\ the gallies : that this dread- ful fentence was to be executed upon him the morn- ing after my arrival, and no ranfom could be acr cepted for his life. O Heaven ! faid I, did I come fo far to no other purpofe, but to be wjtnefs of the death of my wretched father, and a death fo full of horror ? Wou,ld PERSIAN LETTERS. 279 Would the waves of the Tea had fwallowed me up,before I reached this fatal and accurfed fhore ! O Abderamen ! O my father ! what avails to thee the piety of thy fon ? how fhall I bear to take my leave of thee for ever, at our hrft meeting, after an abfence which feemed fo long ? Can 1 (land by, and give thee up to tor- ments, when I flattered myfelf that I arrived to bring thee liberty ? Alas! my prefence will only ag- gravate thy fufferings, and make the bitternefs of death more infupportable. In this extremity, I offered the grand mailer, not only to pay down all the ranfom I had promifed be- fore, but to yield myfelf a voluntary flave, and ferve in the gallies all my Ijfe, if Abderamen's might be fpared. . He feemed touched with my propofal,and inclined to pity me ; but was told by a jefuit, who was his confeflbr, that an example of fe verity was necefTary ; and that he ought to pardon my father on no terms but renouncing Mahometifm, and being converted immediately to the church of Rome. No, cried I, if thai is to be the price of a few unhappy years, it is better both of us fhould perifh than accept them. — But can you, faid I to the prieft, who profefs an holinefs fuperior to other men, can you obflrud the mercy of your prince, and compel him to deftroy a wretched man, whofe only crime was the natural love of liberty ? is this your way of making converts to your faith, by the terror of racks and wheels, inflead of reafon ? — • My reproaches fignificd nothing but to incenfe him, and I quitted the palace in defpair. I was going to the prifon to fee my father, for the firfl "andlaft time, when a Tiirkifh flave accofted me, and bid me follow him. — I refufed to do it, but he afuired me it was of moment to the life of Abderamen. I followed him, and he led me by a back-way to a woman's apartment in the palace. — i continued there till 28o PERSIAN LETTERS. till paft midnight without feeing any body, in agi- tations not to be conceived : at lafl there came to me a lady richly drefTed in the habit of my own country. After looking at me attentively fome time, O! Abdallah, faid fhe, have you forgot Zoraide, the fifter of Zelis ? Thefe words foon brought her to my remembrance, though I had not feen her for many years : I em- braced her tenderly, and defired to hear what fortune had carried her to Malta ? You know, faid fhe, that my family is of the ifland of Cyprus, and that I was married young to a rich merchant of Aleppo. I had by him two children, a fon and daughter ; and lived very hap- pily fome years, till my hufband's bufinefs carrying him to Cyprus, I perfuaded him to let me go, and make a vifit to my relations in that ifland. In our pafTage a violent llorm arofe, which drove us weft-: ward beyond the ifleof Candia ; and before we could put into any harbour, a Maltefe pirate attacked us, killed my hufband, and carried me to Malt^. My beauty touched the heart of the grand mafter ; which is the more furprizing, as I took no pains to fet it off, thinking of nothing but the lofs I had fuftained : he bought me of the knight, whofe prize I was; and I thought it fome comfort in my captivity, that I was delivered from the hands that had been fiained in my hufband's blood. The paffion of my new lord was fo excelTive, that he ufed me more like a princefs than a flave. He could deny me nothing I afked him, and was fo liberal, that he never approached me without a prefent. You fee the pomp and mag- nificence in which I live : my wealth is great, and my power in this place fuperior to any-body's. Hear then, Abdallah, what my friendfhip has done for you, and remember the obligation you have to rne. I have employed all my intereft with my lover to fave the life of Abderamen : he has confented to it, and moreover. PERSIAN LETTERS. 281 moreover, to fet hirri free upon payment of the ranfom you propofed. But, in recompence for the aid which I have given you,, you muft promife to aflift me in an affair that will, probably, be attended with fome danger. I afliired her, there was nothing I would not rifque to do the fifter of Zelis any fervice. You fhall know, faid (he, what it is I require of you, when the time comes to put it in execution ; till then remain at Malta, and wait my orders. ^t thefe words (he delivered to me a pardon under the feal of the grand mafler, and bid me carry it inftantly to my father ; I was fo tranfported that I could not flay to thank her ; I ran, I flew to the pri- fon of Abderamen, and fhewing the order I brought with me to his guards, was admitted to the dungeon where he lay. The poor old man, expedling nothing but death, and believing I was the officer that came to carry him to the place of execution, fainted away before I had time to difcover to him either my perfon or my errand. "VVhile he lay in that flate of infenfibility, I unbound his chains, and bore him into the open air, where, with a good deal of difHculty, he recovered. O my father I faid I to him (when I perceived that his fenfes were returned) do you not know your fon Abdallah, who is come hither to fave your life, who has ob- tained your pardon, and redeemed you from cap- tivity .? — The furprize of joy that feized him in that inflant, at my fight and words, was too fudden and violent for his age and weaknefs to fupport. He ftruggled fome time to make an anfwer ; but at lafl, (training me in his arms, and muttering fome half-formed founds, he funk dov/n, and expired on m^Lbofom. — When I faw that he was dead, I loft all patience, and covering myfelf with dufl bewailed my folly, in not telling him my good tidings by degrees. By 282 P E R S I A N L E T T E R S. By this time it was broad day, and the whole town being informed of my afflidion, was gathered about me in great crouds. The grand mafter him- felf, taking pity of me, fent to tell me, that he would permit me to bear away my father's body to Aleppo, and excufe me the ranfom I had offered, fince death had delivered him without it. This in- dulgence comforted me a little, and I would haveem- barqued immediately for the Levant, if I had not been flopped by my promife to Zoraide. Several days pafTed without my hearing any news of her** I had already hired a fmall veflel, and put on board the remains of Abderamen, when, late one night, I was waked out of my fleep by Zoraide in the habit of a man, who told me, that fhe was come to claim my promife. I afl-ied what (lie required me to do ? To carry me to Aleppo, anfwered fhe, that I may fee my dear children once again, and enrich them with the treafures which I have gained from the bounty of my lover. Thofe treafures are ufelefs to me without them ; in the m.idft of all my pomp and outward pleafure I am perpetually pining for their lofs y the mother's heart is unfatisfied within ; nor will it let me enjoy a moment's peace, till I am reftored to them in my happy native land. As fhe faid this, fhe fhe wed me fome bags of gold, and a cafket filled with jewels of great value. I muft infift, Abdallah, continued fhe, that you fet fail this very night, and take me along with you. The weather is tempeftuous, but that circumflance will favour my efcape ; and I had rather venture to perifh in the fea, than live any longer from my family. The fenfe of the obligation I had to her made me confent to do what fhe defired, how perilous foever it appeared to me. As I had a permilfion from the grand mafher to go away as foon as I thought £t, 1 put to fea that night without any hindrance ; and the wind blowing hard off the fhore, in a little while PER SI AN LETTERS. 283 while we were out of fipiht of Malta. The water was fo rough for two or three days, that we thought it impoflible our barque could weather it out ; but at length the ftorms abating, we purfued our voyage with a very fiiir wind, and arrived fafe in the port of Scanderoon. Zoraide was tranfported with the thought of being fo near Aleppo, and her children ; fhe embraced me in the moft afFedionate manner, and exprefled a gratitude for the fervice I had done her far beyond what it deferved. But how great was her difappointment and afflidion, when we were told by the people of Scanderoon, that the plague was at Aleppo, and had deftroyed a third part of the inhabitants ! Ah, wretched Zoraide I cried fhe weeping, where are now all thy hopes of being blefl in the fight of thy two children ? perhaps thofe two children are no more; or, if they flill live, it is in hourly expecta- tion of dying with the reft of their fellow citizens. Perhaps, at this moment they vbegin to ficken, and want the care of their mother to tend upon them, when they are abandoned by every other friend. Thus did fhe torture herfelf with dreadful appre- hcnfions, and often turning her eyes towards Aleppo, gave herfelf up to all the agonies of grief. I faid every th'ng I could think of to relieve her, but file would not be comforted. The next morning the fervants I had put about her, came and told me, that ihe was not to be found : they alfo brought me a letter which informed me, that not being able to endure the uncertainty flie was in aboi^ her children, fhe had flolen away by night, and gone to Aleppo to Ihare their danger with them. That if fhe and her family efcaped the ficknefs, I fhould hear from her agiin ; but that if they died, fhe was refoh-ed not to furvive them. She added, that (he had left me a box of diamonds worth two thoufand 284 PERSIAN LETTERS. thoufand piftoles, being a fourth part of the jewels which fhe had brought from Malta by my aiTiftance. You may imagine how deeply I was affe