ments and establishments are shaking around us, we are to be told with effrontery and impunity in public papers which pass from hand to hand, through cities, towns, and villages, that, where there is no despotism there is no usurpation, and that the authority of an ufurper, while he conforms to laws. of his own making, is legal. What is this but to overthrow the principle of all just obedience, and the basis of every established government? What is it but to invite the subjects of every kingdom to revolution and open rebellion, from the example of a fortunate soldier? But I hope still, that THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY will for ever remember, and act under the impression of the words of an ardent, powerful, and eloquent writer, that "From the beginning of the world "to this day, there never was ANY GREAT PUBLIC OR "PRIVATE VILLAINY acted by men, and submitted to, "but upon the strength of some great fallacy put upon. "their minds by a false representation of good for evil, "and of evil for good." We cannot now, and I trust we never shall, consent to hear the raving of Clubs declared to be the national opinion; and in the same sentence, to hear that national opinion declar"ed to possess a just authority over the proceedings of the "Legislature." (i) I think that the Essence of the Jaco bin (i) Read the Declaration of the Whig Club on January 23, 1796, signed, CHARLES JAMES Fox! In the copy now before me, printed for R. White, Piccadilly, 1796, this Declaration is asserted to be the composition of Mr. SHERIDAN, Mr. ERSKINE, Mr. FRANCIS, all Members of Parliament, and of Mr. JAMES MACKINTOSH, who is now (A. D. 1800.) a Reader of Public Lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations in the Hall of Lincoln's Inn, in pursuance of an order of that Honourable Society. I appeal to printed pamphlets, and to matters of fact; but in this instance F shall leave the comment to the reader. Dec. 18co. * * See the words in the title-page of Mr. Mackintosh's Introductory Dis course, 3d edia Cadell 1800. bin Club-doctrine, in what country soever such Clubs are instituted and continued, may be properly and adequately stated (and may all the loyal and reflecting subjects in Great Britain and Ireland never forget their inevitable tendency and irreversible conclusion!) to consist in these positions; namely: "To call the People of any country the Sovereign Power "in opposition to the lawful, permanent, and established authority vested in the Governors of it: 86 "To call the sense of Clubs associated the sense of that Sovereign People: "That when those Clubs have thought proper to deliver "and publish their doctrines and resolutions, to declare "that THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE have in effect SPOKEN "THEIR WILL: 66 That in consequence of THIS THEIR SOVEREIGN "WILL, the measures of a government are to be changed, "ministers deposed, a King dethroned, and a constitution "regenerated! "That further, as these momentous concerns are carried "on chiefly in the metropolis of any kingdom, it is virtu ally to declare, that the sense of the disaffected part of "the People of that metropolis is THE CONTROLLING "POWER OF THE STATE; as the Government and it's Minis"ters can neither be overawed, nor seized upon in any other place; and particularly as all the other disaffected "Clubs in the country establish their doctrines and "found their resolutions on the grand Metropolitan Heresy." Such is the spirit of that informe Cadaver, of that shapeless body which has been dragged forth and exposed to the light of heaven. For we must never suffer this truth to pass from our minds, namely that, TO PRESERVE THE METROPOLIS IS TO PRESERVE THE EMPIRE. Prodita Prodita dum laxant portarum claustra Tyrannis, Jacobinism in her natural, ferocious, and unsoftened features has for a season slunk away from the public loathing in Great Britain; but we may depend upon it, she yet "lies "couching head on ground, with catlike watch;" though in this country the Monster has lost many of her offspring, whom true reason and sober philosophy have torn from her. Deserta sub antro Accubat Illa jacens! ubi enim quibus ubera pascat, Aut quos ingenti premat exspectata ruinâ? Hactenus arma, tubæ, ferrumque, et vulnera. (k) But surely the most powerful light should still continue to be thrown on her secret caverns and skulking places; for the sleeping and the inactive will be her prey. We have reason still to watch over our safety, while so many of the original principles of Jacobinism are not only unretracted but solemnly avowed, and openly renewed at stated periods, by men who would be thought worthy of high political trust, and of their Country's best confidence and consideration. Idle compliments however, timid compromising, fatal halfmeasures, and the false politeness of submission to names must not once be heard of at such a time, when the powers of darkness, of tyranny, of ignorance, and of sophistry are set in array against us. We are not fallen: we may yet travel on in the greatness of our imparted strength, since we know in what and in whom we have trusted. We must also preserve the dignity of Learning in all her original brightness and integrity, for we are not in the ruins of OUR ATHENS; but in the walks of Literature, of true philosophy, and of unshrinking eloquence, we have yet something more to shew than the Lantern of Demosthenes. (*) Stat. Theb. L 10. In conclusion, I would observe that the following or similar words, or the substance of them, are recorded to have been delivered in Parliament a few years before the Rebellion in 1745. I shall apply the spirit of them to the enemies of the principles of this work on the Pursuits of Literature, but not to the enemies of the work itself. The words are these: The heat which has offended them "is the ardour of conviction, and that zeal for the service "of my country, which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned when '(public) Liberty is threatened or invaded; nor look in "silence on (intended) public Robbery. I will exert 66 my endeavours, at whatever hazard, to drag the aggressors to justice, whoever may protect them, or whoever may (ultimately) partake of THE NATIONAL PLUN"DER!" 66 66 64 It is remarkable that the Speaker was William Pitt, and the Reporter, Samuel Johnson. But whether the words were ever spoken, and faithfully reported, or only ingeniously invented and applied, the substance of them I adopt and publicly profess as my unequivocal sentiments, as far as they can be applicable to any endeavours, or to any labours of mine. With the same firmness therefore, and with the same unabated, deliberate confidence of intention with which I first submitted this volume to the public, I again respectfully offer it to the serious regard and impartial judgment of the British Nation. DOCTRINE HÆC VINDEX GENIO MONITA ALTA BRITANNO, - Dr. Johnson's Parliamentary Debates in 1741, vol. 1. p. 307. TO TO THE READER. Έλαμψε μεν τη νιφόεντος Αρτίως φανείσα Φαμα Παρνασσ ΤΟΝ ΑΔΗΛΟΝ ΑΝΔΡΑ παντ' ιχνεύειν ! * I RECOMMEND the following anecdote to sagacious persons, who know all authors (and me among the rest) by their style, or by any other certain or infallible sign. The anecdote is known to those who are accurately versed in literary history. Julius Scaliger wrote and published an oration, without his name, against the celebrated tract by Erasmus, called Ciceronianus. b Erasmus, having perused Soph. Ed. T. v. 481. |