SECTION VI.

A. D. 1798, 1794.

DISGUSTED and alarmed at the proceedings of the minister of the day, who, not content with fines and imprisonment on authors and publishers, meditated nothing short of the total suppression of all freedom of speech and writing, Mr. Hall published in 1793 his celebrated " Apology for the Freedom of the Press, and for general Liberty," a work imperiously demanded at that memorable crisis, and which is unquestionably one of the most powerful ever written on that or any other subject. The general consternation excited by its appearance is not easily described; several large editions found a rapid sale, the high-church party became indignant and inflamed, and some of the author's own friends were apprehensive for the consequences; but his character and his fame rendered him too formidable for attack. No one ventured to publish a reply, for the work was unanswerable. Some of the tory critics could not help admitting, that "if a book must be praised at all events for being well written, this ought to be praised."

The general sentiments of this performance are similar to those exhibited in the former pamphlet,

but more expanded, and confirmed by a train of eloquent and powerful reasoning. The topics which pass under review are, 1. The right of public discussion. 2. On political associations. 3. Reform of parliament. 4. Theories and rights of man. 5. State of the dissenters. 6. Causes of existing discontents.

The latter of these topics is discussed with peculiar energy, and the discontents of that period are stated to have arisen from the accumulation of debts and taxes, the encreasing patronage of the crown, the inclination of ministers to arbitrary power, the maintenance of a standing army to overawe the people, filling the country with spies and informers, exciting alarm at political associations and pretended insurrections, for the purpose of preventing free discussion and stifling the complaints of the people; who are here reminded that, though "a vindictive ministry may hang the terrors of criminal prosecution over the heads of a few with success, it would be at their peril to attempt to intimidate a nation."

In the author's apprehension, the state of public affairs was at that period the fullest of terror and of danger of any that had previously happened. "In the extension of excise laws, in the erection of barracks, in the determined adherence to abuses, in the desertion of pretended patriots, the spread of arbitrary principles, and the tame subdued spirit of the nation, we behold the seeds of political ruin quickening into life. The little of public virtue

that still subsists, is no match for disciplined armies of corruption." He afterwards remarks, that "the evils of anarchy and of despotism are equally to be dreaded, and between these no middle path can be found but that of effectual reform. To avert the calamities that await us on either side, the streams of corruption must be drained off, the independence of parliament restored, the ambition of the aristocrasy repressed, and the majesty of the people lift itself up."

About ten years before this time Mr. Pitt was the strenuous advocate of reform, on the principle laid down by the duke of Richmond, that of universal suffrage and annual parliaments, as the only remedy of existing evils; but after his elevation to power he resisted with the greatest pertinacity every attempt at reform, however limited or moderate, on the ground of its being unnecessary or unseasonable. "This pretence for delay," says Mr. Hall, “will appear the more extraordinary, in the british ministry, from a comparison of the exploits they have performed, with the task they decline. They have found time for involving us in millions of debt, for cementing a system of corruption that reaches from the cabinet to the cottage, for carrying on havoc and destruction to the remotest extremities of the globe, for accumulating taxes which famish the peasant and reward the parasite, for banding the whole kingdom into factions, to the ruin of all virtue and public spirit ; and for the completion of these achievements they

have suffered no opportunity to escape them. Elementary treatises on time mention various arrangements and divisions, but have never touched on the chronology of statesmen. These are a generation who measure time, not so much by the revolutions of the sun, as by the revolutions of power. There are two eras particularly marked in their calendar; the one the period when they are in the ministry, and the other when they are out; which have a very different effect on their sentiments and reasoning. Their course commences in the character of friends to the people, whose grievances they display in all the colours of variegated diction. But the moment they step over the threshold of St. James's, they behold everything in a new light; the taxes seem lessened, the people rise from their depression, the nation flourishes in peace and plenty, and every attempt at improvement is like heightening the beauties of paradise, or mending the air of elysium.

Dr. Horsley, the fit successor of the Bonners and Lauds, in their slavish principles, having been rewarded with a bishopric for his successful opposition to the theological errors of Dr. Priestley, was now disposed to return the courtesy by denouncing the dissenters as disaffected to the state; and delivered, on the appropriate day of St. Charles's martyrdom,' a sermon, in which he endeavoured to revive the long-exploded doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, and the divine right of kings. Against this haughty prelate Mr.

Hall directed the force of his reasoning and

powers

of sarcasm, but said, that to render him the justice he deserved, would require "all the fierceness of his own character."

In the preface to his Apology he remarks, “It is not a little extraordinary that this defender of tyranny, and patron of passive obedience, should affect to admire the british constitution, whose freedom was attained by a palpable violation of the principles for which he contends. He will not say that the barons of Runnemede acted on his maxims, in extorting the magna charta from king John, or in demanding its confirmation from Henry iii. If he approve of their conduct he gives up his cause, and is compelled at least to confess the principles of passive obedience were not true at that time: if he disapprove of their conduct, he must, to be consistent, reprobate the restraints which it imposed on kingly power. The limitations of monarchy, which his lordship pretends to applaud, were effected by resistance; the freedom of the british constitution flowed from a departure from passive obedience, and was therefore stained with what he calls "high treason against the authority of God." To these conclusions he must inevitably come, unless he can point out something peculiar to the spot of Runnemede, or to the reign of king John, which confines the exception to the general doctrine of submission, to that particular time and place.

"With whatever colours the advocates of passive