ting confidence in princes. On the contrary, Charles II. will be an immortal evidence of what mean, base, and difhoneft arts, the Sovereign of a great People may be guilty "3.

IT has been faid, that Sir John Dalrymple's publication has afforded much fubject of exultation to the fons of venality, who are defirous of feeing all pretenfions to patriotism placed in an unfavourable light; and who are glad of an opportunity of infinuating, that they have not a much better opinion of the patriots of the last age, than of those of the prefent. But the reality of the existence of public fpirit in this country, does not de

23 Charles II. was eminently profligate as a private man, as well as in his character as a prince; and yet, to the memory of this unprincipled tyrant, a new and pompous ftatue has lately been erected in the Royal Exchange.

pend

pend merely on a RUSSEL or a SYDNEY, dear as those names defervedly are to us.

Our annals are adorned with the names of

illustrious men, who may be ranked with the most celebrated patriots of antiquity. If GREECE produced an ARISTIDES, a TIMOLEON, and an EPAMINONDAS; ROME a FABRICIUS, a CATO, and a BRUTUS; ENGLAND has also produced her WentWORTH 24, her ELLIOT 25, her HAMPDEN,

her

24 PETER WENTWORTH was a member of the house of commons in the reign of queen Elizabeth. He was a man of a most undaunted and incorruptible fpirit, and defended the rights of the subject with more vigour than any other man in that reign. He appears to have had more just and enlarged notions of liberty than any of his contemporaries. He was three several times committed to the Tower, for the freedom of his speeches in parliament.

25 Sir JOHN ELLIOT was one of the most able and active leaders of the oppofition to the tyranny of James the First and Charles the First. He was an

eloquent,

her LUDLOW, her ANDREW MARVEL, and her GEORGE Savile.

. AMONG the many attempts which have been made by fuperficial modern wits, to

1

throw an air of ridicule upon the love of freedom, it has lately been represented, by some writers, as a propenfity which was chiefly found among the low, the vulgar, and the illiterate. Thefe fublime geniuffes have difcovered, that the love of liberty is a paffion fuited only to rude and uncultivated minds. But the truth is, that among those who, in different ages of the world, have rendered themselves most con fpicuous by their zeal for public freedom, there have been many who were poffeffed of every quality of the head, and of the heart, that could render them ornaments

eloquent, incorrupt, and independent fenator; and died in a confinement, which was folely brought upon him by his manly and steady adherence to the principles of a free conftitution,

VOL. II,

of

of human nature. And it is obfervable, that three of the greateft men which this country has produced, were not more diftinguished by the force of their underftanding, their extenfive learning, and the fplendour of their genius, than by their ardent zeal for the liberties of their country. I mean SELDEN, LOCKE, and MILTON,

THE name of SELDEN is univerfally celebrated for his various and profound erudition; and, in the character of an English fenator, he exhibited the strongest attachment to the rights of the fubject, and defended them with a degree of ardour, which caused him to be more than once imprisoned by an arbitrary court. As to Mr. LoCKE, who was one of the moft virtuous men, and one of the greateft philofophers of the last age, his Trea tife on Government, and Letters on Toleration, will ever be a fafting and honourable

memo

memorial of his folicitude to promote the cause of civil and religious liberty. And of our immortal! MILTON, one of the moft fublime poets who have appeared among mankind, it has been juftly said, that "the darling paffion of his foul was "the love of liberty;" and at the close of his life, he frequently expreffed to his friends' his entire fatisfaction of mind, "that he had conftantly employed his

86

ftrength and faculties in the defence of "liberty, and in opposition to flavery.”

No age ever abounded more than the prefent, with men who affect to ridicule all who profess an affection for their country, and a zeal for its honour and its interests. They are fo far from being animated by any fuch generous fentiments themselves, that they cannot even form 'even an idea of the poffibility of their existence. But it is certain, that no man can