being unconftitutional, to produce one pofitive law in it's behalf. They are therefore feparate articles: but the examining either of them reflects light upon the other.' To cite any of this writer's numerous authorities, without citing all, would be useless.-We shall conclude our extracts from this publication with a passage written to prove, that the practice of preffing is to be found in our conftitution under a variety of forms. Preffing, or, in other words, obliging perfons to ferve the public contrary to their will, appears throughout our conftitation in a variety of forms. It is impoffible to point the time when it did not exist. It is the nature of all government, that fome of it's offices fhould be the objects of the ambition, others the objects of the diflike, of the individuals governed. To fome of them is annexed whatever attracts the wishes of the human heart to others, expence, labour, and danger are infeparably joined. The latter are not lefs neceffary to the existence of government than the former. But as individuals feldom poffefs the etherial spirit of patriotism in a fufficient degree to make them feek, by their own choice, the latter objects, it is absolutely neceffary that government fhould have recourfe to compulfory methods. What was originally the election of members to ferve in parliament, but impreffing fuch perfons as were deemed qualified by fortune and abilities to perform the public bufinefs? For doing this duty they received a stated Aipend; against it they had no negative. Where would our conftitution have been if, in thofe days, the language which now is used by the adverfaries of the prefs, had been used by the wealthy commoners, and met with it's defired effect? What is at prefent the obligation to ferve the office of a fheriff, but being preffed to a fervice of fatigue, expence, and even of danger? To perfons of inferior rank, are not the ferving the office of a juryman, a churchwarden, a conftable, or any other parish-office, all different fpecies of preffing, all of inconvenience, fome of danger, to the parties? Yet fociety could not exist without fuch fervice. And has not the fheriff a right, on certain occafions, to raise the poffe comitatus? and what is this right, but a right to press every male in his county above fifteen years of age (peers excepted), who are obliged to attend under pain of fine and imprifonment? And has not the militia act made every man liable to ferve as a foldier, and, at times, fubject to the articles of war?' The obligations to this ingenious writer, for having fo laboriously fearched into fo interesting a question, are numerous. One fide of the queftion he has examined; there is another open for other writers. From the attention which we have given to this pamphlet, and to the fubject of which it treats, we cannot but give our voices for the legality of preffing. Letters 7 Letters from Lord Chesterfield, to Alderman George Faulkner, Dr, Madden, Mr. Sexton, Mr. Derrick, and the Earl of Arran. Being a Supplement to his Lordship's Letters. 410. 25. Wallis. THE HE more we read of lord Chefterfield's Letters, the more are we convinced of the excellent understanding which he poffeffed, and of that happy versatility of genius, which could adapt itself with ease and addrefs to the different fituations and characters of his feveral correfpondents. In none of his lordship's epiftolary productions, is his facetioufness more confpicuous than in the prefent collection, where good fenfe is enlivened with great vivacity, and where palpable burlesque is conveyed with the most delicate hand. The following are two of the letters to Mr. Faulkner, whofe character is well known. My worthy Friend, Blackheath, Sept. 15, 1753. Though I am very forry for your quarrels in Ireland, by which I am sure the públic must fuffer, let who will prevail, I gladly accept your kind offer of fending me the controverfial productions of the belligerant parties. Pray do not think any of those polemical pieces too low, too grub-street, or too scurrilous to fend me; for I have leisure to read them all, and prefer them infinitely to all other controverfial performances. I have often wished, and wish it now more than ever, that you were in parliament, where, in my opinion, your coolness, gravity, and impartiality, would greatly contribute to calm if not to cure those animofities. Virgil feems prophetically to have pointed at you, in his description of a perfon qualified to footh and moderate popular tumults. These are the lines, which will perhaps bs more intelligent to us both in Dryden's tranflation, than in the original : If then fome grave and pious man appear, They hush their noife, and lend a listening ear; I am not very fuperftitious; but I am perfuaded that, if you were to try the Sortes Virgiliana, you would open the book at the very place. That incomparable and religious prince, king Charles the first, confulted them with great faith, and to his great information. There is one thing which I would rather know, than all the contending parties in Ireland fay or write against each other, and that is, your real fentiments upon the whole; but all that I know of them is, that I fhall never know them; such is your candour, and fuch is your caution. The celebrated At I ticus ticus feems to have been your prototype. He kept well with all parties, fo do you; he was trufted and confulted by individuals on all fides, fo are you; he wrote fome hiftories, fo have you; he was the most eminent bookfeller of the age he lived in, fo are you; and he died immenfely rich, and fo will you. It is true he was a knight, and you are not, but that you know is your own fault; and he was an epicurean, and you are a ftoic. For the next feven weeks pray direct your pacquets to me at Bath, where I am going next week, as deaf as ever your friend the dean was, and full as much, though not fo profitably, Your friend and fervant, CHESTERFIELD. Pray make my compliments to your friend Mr. Bristow when you fee him.' < My worthy friend, London, Jan. 4, 1763. Many thanks to you for your letter, many thanks to you for your almanack, and more thanks to you for your friend Swift's Works, in which laft, to borrow an expreffion of Cibber's, you have outdone your ufual outdoings; for the paper is whit-ish, and the ink is black-ish. I only wish that the margin had been a little broader; however, without flattery, its beats Elziver, Aldus, Vafcofan, and I make no doubt but that, in seven or eight hundred years, the learned and the curious in those times, will, like the learned and curious in thefe, who prefer the im preffion of a book to the matter of it, collect with pains and expence all the books that were published ex Typographia Faulkneriana-But I am impatient to congratulate you upon your late triumph; you have made (if you will forgive a quib'ble upon fo ferious a subject) your enemy your foot-stool; a victory which the divine Socrates had not influence enough to obtain at Athens over Ariftophanes, nor the great Pompey. at Rome, over the aor who had the infolence to abuse him under the name of Magnus, by which he was univerfally known, and to tell him from the ftage, Mifriis noftris Magnus Magnus es. A man of lefs philofophy than yourself, would, perhaps, have chaftifed Mr. Foote corporally, and have made him feel that your wooden leg which he mimicked, had an avenging arm to protect it; but you fcorned fo inglorious a victory, and called juftice and the laws of your country to pu nish the criminal, and to avenge your caufe. You triumphed ; and I heartily join my weak voice to the loud acclamations of the good citizens of Dublin upon this occafion. I take it for granted that fome of your many tributary wits have already prefented you with gratulatory poems, odes, &c. upon this ̈ subject: I own I had fome thoughts myself of infcribing a fhert fhort poem to you upon your triumph; but to tell you the truth, when I had writ not above two thoufand verfes of it, my mufe forfook me, my poetic vein stopped, I threw away my pen, and I burned my poem, to the irreparable lofs not only of the prefent age, but also of latest posterity. I very ferioufly and fincerely wish you a great many very happy new years, and am Your most faithful friend and fervant, CHESTERFIELD. • I like your meffenger, young Dunkin, mightily: he is a very fenfible well-behaved young man.' Of the twenty letters in this collection, thirteen are addreffed to Mr. Faulkner, three to Dr. Madden, one to Mr. Sexton, two to Mr. Derrick, and one to the earl of Arran. Second Thoughts, or Obfervations upon Lord Abingdon's Thoughts ou the Letter of Edmund Burke, Efq. to the Sheriffs of Bristol, By the Author of the Answer to Mr. Burke's Letter. 8vo. is. 6d. Cadell. SECOND thoughts are beft.'-So fays the proverb. Nor do we think our readers will confider the prefent performance as an exception to this general rule. We could, however, have wished that even this gentleman had thought again before he committed his work to the prefs: we could have wifhed, for inftance, that he had not fuffered the orderor rather diforder-of his noble antagonist to have led him aftray from the plain road of method. Had his Lordship's thoughts been previously digefted and methodifed, our author's answer, we conceive, would have had double weight. Take, however, his excufe in his own words. • Obfervations, fays our author, upon a performance which is not written with the greatest regularity and order, whatever be its other merit, will sometimes want method, will now and then be irregular. We fhall follow Lord Abingdon step by step.' Perhaps too we might have wished he had been more sparing of his poetical quotations: fome of which feem introduced rather for the fake of fhewing the extent of his reading, than of giving weight to his argument. There is another objection which some readers may, perhaps, make to his performance-that it is fometimes more than fevere; borders on the acrimonious. But here too his Lordfhip's example furnishes him with an excufe, that to Lord Abingdon, at least, must be full and unanswerable. If the reader recollect the phrafes in the use of which his Lordship indulges indulges, when fpeaking either of the acts or of the perfons that he disapproves, he will allow that his obferver did not owe it to him at least, to follow the rigid rules of politenefs. In fact, though deviating from these rules, our author may have endeavoured to follow his antagonist step by step,' he has, in this instance, followed him haud pari paffum:' or, to fpeak in a language which the obferver thinks familiar to his Lordship-has been distanced. . Juftice required us to hint at these little imperfections. Juftice too requires that we should point out the merits of the work. The diction is pure: the style manly, On a fubject so hackneyed, not many new thoughts could be expected. But many obfervations, not in themselves new, acquire almost the merit of novelty by being placed in a new point of view. His reflections on Lord Abingdon's abfence from the houfe, when the Sufpenfion bill was first brought in, are pointed and severe. In his character of Franklyn his traits are bold. His colouring has rather, the force of a Rubens than the foft tints of a Titian. His remarks on the abfurdity of talking of the expiring liberties of our country, and publishing, at the fame time, fuch pamphlets as Letters to the Sheriffs of Briftol, and Thoughts on thofe Letters,' are just and poignant. His account of the feceffion in 1738; his reafoning on the propofal of Lord Abingdon to fecede in fuch a moment, and in fuch a fituation, as his Lordfhip paints, are pertinent. His diftinction between the actual fupremacy of Parliament, and the nominal fupremacy of the King; his remarks on Lord Abingdon's vifions about contracts, and compacts, and law, and conftitution, are juft. In a word, in this, as in his former work, our author has given ftrong marks of genius: and, comparing the two works together, we may add, of a genius which the hand of time improves. As a fpecimen of his ftyle and manner, we will clofe this article by the concluding words of the Obfervations; having previously given the reader our author's remark on Mr. Burke's great, fteady, uniform principle; that whenever an act is made for the ceffation of law and juftice, the whole people fhould be univerfally fubjected to the fame fufpenfion of their franchifes.' "Law and Juftice." By thefe words a common man undoubtedly means the common courfe of law; the common, ordinary, courfe of justice; of that juftice, of that law, which are the common guardians of the common rank of citizens. Is this Mr. Burke's meaning? Impoffible! For every ceffation of thefe is not, ought not to be, univerfal. For mind-when |