C. How fo? F. Shew me the Statute which allows aMember to leave the Parliament when they don't do as he directs them. C. Sir, there is no Statute; but a Man's Reafon F. Tells him, fometimes when he wants Money he may take it with a Piftol. But then comes the Judge, and he talks as I do, of Law ; and, if you talk to him of Reafon, he will turn you over to the Reafon of Twelve Men, who, if they have any Regard to their Oaths, will have none to your Excufes. C. But, Sir, this is nothing to the Purpofe F. In my Opinion it is. In Matters of a Publick Concern, we must have Regard to the B Law, which is the Realon of the Nation; and not to the Opinion of every fanciful Man. 'Tis the Law, Sir, that gives me a Vote, as a Freeholder, at your Election. 'Tis the Law that gives you a Seat, when you are elected. And by your good Leave, Sir, if the Law did not permit you to quit that Seat, then the old Proverb, which Lord Bacon fays is the Reason of the C People, tells us, That Law-Makers ought not to be Lasu-Breakers. C. But, Sir, this was not my private Opinion nor of a few; but the Opinion of many fober and judicious Men F. Suppofe, in the Interval of Parliament, a King of England fhould declare, by and with the Advice of his Privy Council, that Parliaments were no longer neceffary? C. This would be diffolving the Constitution. F. And for that Realon, I like no fuch Precedents as you have made. C. But, Sir, we did nothing like this. C. How? We have no Power. F. Not much, God be thanked; but what you have, you ufe with a Vengeance. The King, because he is not in your Hands, is treated with the utmoft Disrefpect; the Laws of the Land, because they have not your Concurrence, are often reprefented as no Laws, or, at leaft, as Laws not fit to be put in Force. Thofe who execute the Laws are treated with moft opprobrious Language: Smuglers, Rioters, and other Offenders, are countenanced, cherifhed and excufed. If a Man differs with you in Parliament, you charge him with Corruption; in Writing, he wants common Sense; in Speech, he is a Coxcomb, and does not deserve an Answer. Yet, Sir, in former Days, Englishmen differed in Parliament, in Writings, in Speech, without lofing their Refpect to good Manners, or to the Publick Good. If then you are Tyrants without Power; what would you be, if you had it? After fuch Specimens, is it reasonabld to think we should truit you farther? C. Well, Sir, fee what will become of your Trufting other People. F. There may, for aught I know, come as bad from trusting them, as from trusting you. But then we do not fin with Eyes open; we don't truft those who have already betray'd us, those who act in direct Oppofition to what they profefs, and while they rail at Placemen cabal for their Places. We do not trust those, who are Dafraid of trufting each other. In fine, we do not truft Men, who have acted in such a Manner as to deferee no Truft; and if, fpite of all our Care, they should betray us, why then, Sir, if they have your Stock of Affurance, they will come and ask our Votes at the next Election; which when they do, I hope they will have the fame Anfwer, I now make you ; and that is, That if I had a thousand Votes, I would go a thousand Miles to Poll them in favour of him by whom you are Oppofed. F. Excufe me, Sir, you did as much as you could; and if thofe whom you brand with fo many harth Names had not had more Moderation thin yourfelves, the Nation might have fmarted feverely for your Indifcretion. Come, come, Sir, Diffembling is in vain: You thought the Seceffion would diffolve the Conftitution; you told the People fo; you bid them fave themfelves s; you beat to Arms, and they did not march; fo you wifely cry'd, As you were; and this you believe will let all things to Rights. But, Sir, you are mistaken; the People of England F are not to eafily deceived, nor will, I hope, fo eafily forgive fo bafe, fo inexcufable an Action. For, Sir, let me tell you, upon Jacobite, Tory, and Whig Principles, every Man in the Seceffion was a Traitor, a Traitor to his Country and the Conftitution, by betraying the Truit the People of Great Britain repofed in him. That fuch Men fhould efcape unpunished, may, as things ftand, be reasonable; but, fhould they be elected again, how fhall the Nation escape! C. I perceive, Sir, you must be wrought upon by ftronger Reafons than mine. F. Sir, I deteft and defpife your Infinuations. Tho' I must tell you, that, confidering the Behaviour of thofe you call the Oppofition, Ihould look upon any Measures to be laudable, which G C. Mighty well, Sir ! I hope every-body will not be of your Mind. F. Every Man, as fure as you live, Sir, who makes ufe of his own Money and his own Mind, who does not place Eloquence in Party Sounds, or Liberty and Property in March Beer. I think it incumbent on me to affure my Readers, that there has been a Converfation agreeable to the above Dialogue, between a certain Candidate and a Freeholder, but it not being fo proper to mention Names and Places, or other leading Circumstances, I fhall leave it to the candid and impartial Caleb D'Anvers, Efq; to declare what he knows of this Matter. R. FREEMAN. Weekly Miscellany, Aug. 18. N° 347. Extract of a Letter to Mr Whitefield, from the Rev. Mr Nath. Well. Cardiffe, July 17, 1739. should appear neceffary to prevent their feizing Nothing but feeing with my own Eyes the Administration. C. Are not thefe fcurvy, flavish Doctrines? H could convince me, that you who take fo much Pains to be thought a Saint, and conclud every Paragraph almost with such devout Ejacue lations and Profeflion sofFsith „Pietyand Grace the outward Signs of Baptifm and the Lord's Supper, and for having no outward Call to the Miniftry were not at all Convincing. Admi-. rable Confiftency! But tho' you had the Confidence to deny that you advised Mr H. H. not to offer himself for Holy Orders; yet a Perfon of Understanding and Credit, and (till the Time of your giving that Advice) your Admirer, will teftify, that at a private Conference, to which he was admitted, he heard you advise him not to do it; with this hopeful and fanatical Argument, That the Succefs the Holy Spirit had 'blefs'd his Labours with, was a fufficient EviB'dence and Proof of his Dianne Commiffion, fhould yet have fo little of all three, as to publish Rev. Sir, Abergavenny, Ap. 5, 1739. "Excels of Bufinefs prevented my answering your Letter fooner, and now I hay but a few "Moments; I never told any one that I difputed with you, and confuted you in every thing you advanced; fo far from it that I said, that I talked all the while I was in the Boat, and you would not fpeak a Word to me, &c. G. Whitefield. and he need no other." And yet his boafted Succels upon Enquiry is this, (not much unlike your own) he has alienated the Affectims of ignorant People from thir Parish Minifters, and fent most of them to Diffenting Meeting-Houfes. You would villy infinuate that I was at Dice in the publick Kitchen, for in that Li bt you leave it, by (the pubick Kitchen just before mention'd) 47. When a little after as I paffed Ifw him fhaking his Elbow over a GamingTable,' The real Truth is the. After waiting fer eral Hours for a Paffage-Boat, a Gentleman prop fed diverting ourselves a little at BackGammon (the Tables lying on the Window be fore us) in the Parlour where we dined. This is all the Foundation for tas fcurrilous Part of. your Journal. In fuch a View where is the grass Immorality of it? But by the ugly Features you have painted it in, making a publick Kitchen the Scene of Action, and by using the barfbest Phrafe to exprefs it by, you difcover plainly the inward Venom and Rancour of your heart, and bow you would gladly have the Publick conceive of it. How inconfiftent is this Part of your Letter, with the above Paragraph in your Journal! When I read your Letter to a bigotted Methodist (pointing at the fame Time to the Paragraph in 1) your Journal) he was startled at it; and defired to read it himself. He had no fooner ftisfied himself, than he cries out, Is it poffible Mr W. fo full of God and the Holy Gheft, could be guilty of fo barefaced a Contradiction? This wilful and notorious Falfehood appearing to clearly under your own Hand, can you have the leaft Pretence to refent my turning your own charitable Stile upon you, That the Spirit of Lying and Slander had fo far the Dominion over you,' that tho' your own Confcience must remind you it was falfe, yet you would publish it in your Journal, Thit I would not go over with you. &c. for the Sake of that fupid as well as uncharitable Remark, Alas, thought I, this very Temper would make Heaven itself unpleasant to that Man, if he faw me there. Journal continued, p. 46. Atter fuch Falfeboods, Prevarications and Malice, I won't answer for myself,but a Sight of you there might perhaps furprize me. That Truth is not fo facred with you, as it should be, will farther appear from another Paragraph in your Leiter, viz. I never advised my dear Brother Mr H- The gaten Aug. 18. No. 684. wel Harris not to go into Holy Orders; on the contrary I perfuaded him to it: But it without Reafoning of the Gazetteers on orruption. • Cold longit the many points lately con as if they would without Caulo reject any Candi- troverted, none has given more date, worthy of it, and qualify'd for it) to worG tky a Perfon fhould be rejected, I lay now, as I Vexation to these ingenious Literati than often faid before, I would have him go on Difthat of Corruption. They have turn'd it · courfing, and he may do as much Good withevery Way, and till found it to itubborn out it. What? Is not an outward Call to the to yield to their bungling Touch. Some Ministry neceffary? And a Clergyman of the of them boldly deny the Charge, and Church of England preach fuch Doctrine? Comloudly exclaim against every thing of pare this Declaration with your Conference with Hthat Nature as a Scandal, whichc gld be the Quakers, Journal continued, p. 54. where fram'd only in the bad Hearts of thofe you by That their Arguments for emitting who would be glad to be fo corrupted. But is your Praying and Preaching in the Fields agreeable to the Canons? Are clandeftine MarEriages without a Licence (or with fuch a Licence as would be almoft Blasphemy only to repeat after you) cfiftent with the Orders and C'mlitutions of th: Church? Or is Feasting on fuch Days, as the Church requires Abftinence and Fatting up on, agreeable to its Prefcriptions and Rules? and vatn Ah-Wednesday lait, atter a refreshing Breakaft at the Water-fide, after another Refrejhment you acknowledge in your Journal at Newporty u had afterwards an elegant Dinner at the Wire Lyon in Cardiffe, with the famous Mr H. Harris on one hand, and a Diffenting Teacher on the other. They e They acknowledged, indeed, that there are above two hundred Places of Profit poffeffed by their good Friends of a certain Affembly; but thefe fame Places are the most harmlefs and inoffenfive Things imaginable in fuch good Hands, and have not the leaft Influence upon their Votes, or their Actions. At the fame Time our Special Reafoners will maintain that thefe very Places govern every Vote of the wicked and corrupt Men in the Oppofition; for it feems the Tenure and prefent Enjoyment of a profitable Employment B has no Eff &t, whint the bare Hopes and Expectation of one have a Power irrefiftible. This is the Reafoning in our Ga Surely thefe profound Cafuifs have forgot that famous Declaration of their Patron concerning the Conduct of Place-Men, by which he gave them plainly to understand what Services were C expected from them; as well as the many Initances of Gentlemen, who have felt the Effects of his Difpleafure for prefuming to yote contrary to his Prefcriptions. I would therefore recommend it to the Gentlemen of this Clafs, in their next Effay upon this Subject, to fatisfy the good People of England why their Patron has difplaced many Gentlemen for voting against his Meafures, if Places are not bestowed with a View to engage and fecure Votes to his Measures. have fold themselves to fupport a wicke Adminiftration, is without Foundation in History, as it likewife is to imagine that the People of England, in that Conjuncture, would have tamely fubmitted to the Court, only becaufe they faw new Faces there, without any Redress of Grievances. Indeed, had that misguided Prince treely given up his evil Counsellors to the Cenfure of the Laws, and fincerely design'd to regulate his Government by the Advice of a free Parliament, it is probable thofe great Men, faid to be in Treaty with the Court, would have underto k the Ad miniftration, and it is reafunable to believe, they would have conducted it to the Satisfaction of the Nation, as well as to the Safety and Honour of the King. Happy had it been for him, and for his Pe ple, if he had executed that Scheme, instead of obftinately adhering to his old Counsellors, and perfifting in his old Max ims, the true Source of all his Mis fortunes, and the Publick Miferies. But, methinks, it it is a little furprising (if any Abfurdity could furprife from that Quar ter) to find a Man of Revolution Principles lamenting that Means were wanting in the Year forty one, to establish arbi trary Power. Nor is it more confiftent with thofe Principles to be raking into the Afhes of K. W. to produce one Precedent to juftify the wholefome Doctrine of bribing Senators. But if one artful, treacherous Man, who deceitfully had gained Popularity, was luckily taken off, which in immedi ate Confequence might be of real Service; will that justify the leaving a Gate open to Corruption, for Minifters to go through as often, and as heavy loaded as they pleafe? But to do Juftice to our Advocates of a minifterial Faction, we must own they do not carry their Defence of Corruption fo far, as to justify all Parties concern'd in it. Their Bulinefs is only to stand up As for for their Patron's Character. thofe, who take his Money, they think a Scandal and Reproach good Bribe is full Recumpence for a little Therefore, to make their Doctrine lefs fhocking, they allow that Bribery cannot be practifed with perfect Innocence; but, if you will believe them, the Perion, who receives the Bribe, is guilty of Corruption, but he that gives it is net. Now I fhould think it very hard, if upon faying the minifterial Hacks write contounded Nonfenfe, any Body fhould reply; No, it is not their Nonfenfe, who exhibit it, but yours, who receive and read it, I I have often heard that the Receiver was as bad as the Thief; but till this Argument was advanced, I never heard the Thief was innocent. If Minifters are the fole Judges of their own Actions, and have a Right to use corrupt or any Means for the Support of A them; if all, who oppose their Actions, are to be deemed falfe Patriots, and Ene mies to their Country, becaufe by oppofing, they add a Neceflity of bribing higher; fuch Poftulata will prove more than is intended; that a Body of Men who will do no Duty, for which they are not paid at their own Price, fhould rather be dif- B banded than kept up at an exorbitant Expence. Common Dense, August, 18. No. 133. The Cafe of Thrafea Patus, from Tacitus; with an Eye to the Seceffion. Henever I meet with a fine Paf Wage in Hiftory, concerning thofe his Followers pretended a Zeal for Li berty, that they might overturn the Go vernment, and when they had gain'd that Point, their next Attack would be upon Liberty itfelt." The Emperor himself made a Speech by the Mouth of his Quator, in which he accus'd the Senators of deferting their Functions, and he added, "It was no Wonder if thofe from remote Provin ces fail'd to attend, when many who had born the highett Offices in the State withdrew from the Senare, and went to divert themselves in their Gardens.” One of the hired Orators for the Coure declaim'd with great Vehemence, " That the whole Satery of the State was concern'd By the Contumacy of Subjects the Lenity of the Government was nate had been too mild in fuffering fo long abus'd and wearied on. The SeCthe Revolt of Thrafea rom his Obedience, that of his Son-in-Law, Helvidius, who was his Accomplice in Rebellion, that of Paconius Agrippinus, who had an Hereditary Hatred to the prefent Government, and Curtius Montanus, the deteftable Au thor of Libellous Poems, to escape with Im punity."-He required" the Pretence of Thrafea in the Senate, unless he had renounc'd the Conftitution, and the Forms eltablished by their Ancestors, and openly declared himfelf a Traytor and at owed Enemy to the State. Let him come (cried the Orator) he who was wont to be fo active a Senator, and fo forward in defending thofe who had libell'd the Emperor, let him refume his Place, and offer his Sentiments what he would have cor rected, or changed. It would be much more cafy to endure his Railing at parti cular Measures, than by his Silence condemning the whole Adminiftration at who have acted fuccefsfully, or fuffer'd bravely, for Liberty, I take a Pleasure in recommending their Example to my Coun. trymen: Let them fee how Patriots have behaved themselves in the best, and wort of Times, when Rome was difinnte. D reited and free, and when the was venal, and enflaved. To this Purpofe Tacitus will be as ufeful as Livy:--- -He will teach us how to act under a Tigellinas, if fo corrupt, and fhamclefs a Minifter, fhould ever Lord it over the Senate of England. E After murdering fo many illuftrious Men (lays my Author) Nero defired at Jaft to cut off Virtue itself by putting to Death Thrafen Patus." The once. chief Crime objected to him was, "That he, who had ever been so affiduous, and unwearied in his Attendance; he who, What is it offends him? Is it F even in the ordinary Bufinefs of the Se- the general Peace? And our Triumphs nate, had been used to diftinguish him gain'd without the Lofs of a Man? Nofelt on one Side or the other, now, for let us by no means fuffer one who grieves three Years, had not come into the Houfe. at the Publick Felicities; one who looks upon our publick Affemblies as Defarts not fit for them to inhabit ;one who is continually threatening us with G a voluntary Exile, to attain the Ends of his malignant Ambition; To him That this was a Seceffion, a Party formed against the Government, and, if Numbers fhould dare to engage in it, would be open Rebellion. That, in the Provinces, and Armies, the Journals of the Roman People were read more eagely than ever, only to know, what thofe Proceedings were in which Thrafea would not take any Part." To this Charge were added fome other Proofs of the Malignity of his Spirit; a, "That he did not believe in the Di vinity of Poppen, the deceas'd Empress, whom the Senate had deified." The Conclufion was, "That he and our Decrees are null, our Offices void, we are not Senators, we are not Magiftrates ; this City is no longer Rome. Let him therefore cut himself off entirely from that Commonwealth which he has long fince ceas'd to love, and now cannot bear even to fee." Thus was the Retreat of this Great and Good Man mifreprefented by the proítitute Tools of Court Defamation; thes thus was he cenfur'd, becaufe he would dain'd to mingle with the Slaves of Ti- Thus all the Iniquities, all the Tyranny of thofe Times had the Authority of the Senate, and the Sanction of Law.. Thus, as bad as Nero was, the Roman People fuffer'd still more by the Forms of their Republick being kept up when the Spirit was loft, than they would have done had B the Government been purely Monarchical. For Tigellinus and the Emperor durft not have acted fo tyrannically alone, as they ventured to do with the Concurrence, and under the Name of the Senate. Thrafea fcrupled to give that Concurrence, and to lend that Name to impofe on his Country He therefore retired, and, in his Retreat rom the Senate, was, much more than those who continued there, a true Roman Senator. While Thrafea Patus was expecting his Condemnation from the Senate, and his Friends were confulting with him what it was fit for him to do, there affifted" in the Confultation Rufticus Arulenus, a young Man of great Fire, who, from a Defire of Glory, offer'd to oppofe the Decrees of the Senate; which, being Tribune of the People, he had Authority to do. But Thrafea check'd his Spirit, and would not let him attempt a vain Oppofition, ufele is to him in his Danger, and which would certainly prove deftructive to the Tribune himself." It is impoffible, from this Paffage, for the Reader not to obferve, how very ufelefs it is to the Good of a State, that Names and Forms fhould be kept up, when Realities are gone. The Tribunitial Power was the great Guard of the Roman Liberties.Did the Confuls, did the Senate exceed their Bounds, and incroach upon Freedom? They were ftopp'd by the Oppofition of the Tribunes, and the Rights of the People were fav'd. After the Ufurpation of the Cafars, the fame Office remain'd, the. fame Power was lodg'd in it, the fame Duty Canner'd to it, and the fame cutward Veneration pay'd to the Perfon who bore it How happen'd this? The Reader may afk was this compatible with ablolute Power? My Brother Gordon will tell you in his 7th Dif courfe upon Tacitus, where he gives the Reafon why the Senate of Rome, and the ancient Magifirac es fubfifted under the Tyranny of the Emperors: "They found (fays he) their Account fufficiently in breaking the Power, and Spirit of the Senate, in reducing it to a Skele ton, a Name, and in exercifing under that Name all their own Violences, and Exorbitances. HE manly Freedom with which Mr Gor Thus it was with the Tribunitial Power.Had any Good been propos'd by the Senate againft the Liking of the Emperor, he wouldhave order'd the Tribune to interpofe with his Negative, and if the Senate had complain'd of it, they would have been told, it was the ancient Conftitution; it cuas the Right of the People; it was facred, and they who oppos'd it fubverted the Laus. But when the fame Power was to be exercis'd for the Good of the Publick, then the Mafk was pull'd off, and Caefar declar'd Laws were His, and he would bear no Controul. This would have happen'd in the Cafe of Arulenus. Nero was willing that the Senate fhould condemn Thrafea Patas, and cloak his Murder under the Form of Law, rather than destroy him by an Act of his own Abfolute Power: But had the Tribune of the People interpos'd against that Decree, he would have had Recourfe to his Abfolute Power, and murder'd them both. He did not regard the Senatorial, more than the Tribunitial Authority; but he allow'd both to be exercis'd as far as ferv'd to his Purposes, and neither fo far as to thwart them for the Sake of Juftice, Law, or the Publick. It was therefore an Act of Humanity in Thrafea not to fuffer his Friend to expofe himself to certain Deftruation by a ufelefs Attempt: And yet what Arulenus offer'd was no more than a juft, honett Man was bound to, in the Office hheld.- -For can there be any Thing more. fhameful than to have a Legal Authority to ftop Injustice, and not ufe that Authority? Is it not |