complexion of a fine woman, is how ever neceffary to make them agreable; virtue, modefty, good fenfe, and good nature will fignify but little without it. It is not fufficient, that a woman have good features and a handfome perfon, unless the know how to fhew them off to the best advantage; nor will the finest accomplishments make her completely agreeable, unless they be properly improved by a good education, and appear confpicuous in a polite behaviour. Every man of fenfe and talte will Ibeli.ve allow the neceffity of the qualifications above mentioned, to make beauty truly amiable; and that, notwithstanding they all equally contribute to effect this, yet if one of them only be wanting, the others will have but little power with out it. How inexpreffibly amiable muft that perfon be, in whom all these qualifications are united, whofe countenance befpeaks the most untainted virtue; whofe looks are full of the most engaging modefty; from whofe eyes good fenfe and good nature dart their enlivening rays, and whofe whole behaviour is a perfect pattern of good breeding! Account of the Attempt made by Tiberius Gracchus to establish an Agrarian Law among the Romans. IKE young men of high ex Lpectations, Tiberius Gracchus had entered at an early age on the duties of a military life. He had ferved with reputation under his brother-in-law, Scipio, at the fiege of Carthage: in the unfortunate expedition of Mancinus, Tiberius had acted as quæftor; he had been involved in the difgrace of his commander, and it was propofed to deliver him with Mancinus to the difcretion of the Numantians. He avoided the danger by appealing from the fenate to the people; and if in his fubfequent conduct we trace his remembrance of the protection of the multitude, the errors of the patriot may be palliated by the gratitude of the man. From the defeat of Mancinus, Tiberius relinquished all further hopes of military laurels, and deterrined to direct his attention to the civil concern of his country. He had already attained the rank of tribune of the people; his mind was impreffed by the alluring idea that has found place in modern times, that the unequal diftribution of property, favourable to the rich, is an injury to the par; and he refolved to revive the celebrated law of Licinius, by which a Roman citizen was reftrained from poffeffing above five hundred acres of land, or more than one hundred oxen, or five hundred sheep. He could not be infenfible how obnoxious this defign muft prove to the overgrown patricians; and his prudence induced him in fome measure to mitigate the feverity of the regulation, by permitting every family that enjoyed five hundred acres in right of the father, to hold half as much more in right of every emancipated fon; and by this appearance of moderation, he engaged a few of the moft eminent patricians to fecond his intentions. But the majority of the fenate ftill ftrenuously oppofed the dangerous project; and it was only in the affemblies of the people that Tiberius could expect to be liftened to with approbation In thefe his eloquence was fuccefsfully exerted against thofe diftinctions which overwhelm the natural rights of man. "Every wild beaft in this land," exclaimed he, " has a cave or den to fhelter itself; but thofe citizens who have thed their blood, and expofed their lives in the fervice of their country, have not a home to which they may retire: they wander with their wives and their children ftripped of every poffeffion but : thofe of the air and light. It is an infult to fuch men to exhort them to fight for the tombs of their fathers, and for the altars of their houshold gods. They have no fepulchres, they have no altars; they fight and die folely to fwell the riches and luxury of others; and, as citizens of Rome, are ftiled the masters of the world, while they poffefs not a fingle foot of earth on which they may reft themfelves. fortune of the republic is already fplendid, her profpects extenfive: fhe has already acquired much; the has more to acquire. But it remains now for the citizens of Rome to determine, whether by a moderate diftribution of property they may enable all to maintain their refpective families; and by multiplying their numbers, increafe their ftrength to terminate the conqueft of the world: or by fuffering the refources of the people to be engroffed by a few, weaken the finews of the commonwealth, and expofe it to the jealoufy or refentment of the nations which furround it?" He exhorted the prefent proprietors of land, whom a divifion of property might affect, not to withhold for the fake of a trifling advantage to themfelves, fo great a benefit to their country. He warned them maturely to reflect, whether they would not by the fecure poffeffion of five hundred acres, and of half as much more to each of their children, be fufficiently rewarded for the conceffions which were required from them? He reminded them that riches were merely comparative; and that by what was affigned them they would ftill be wealthy, fince their poffeffions would exceed thofe of the greater number of their fellow-citi zens. The difpofitions of the people were favourable to the views of Gracchus; oppreffed by the rich, and ftruggling beneath continual hardthips, they embraced with tranfport any fyftem that offered to them prefent relief; and the patricians, aware of the danger which impended over them, could only hope to avert it by oppofing to the influence of one tribune the authority of another. Marcus Octavius Cæcina, a tribune of the people, had hitherto lived in the ftricteft intimacy and friendship with Gracchus; but naturally grave and moderate, he was eafily prevailed on by the nobles to oppofe innovations which menaced fuch dangerous and extenfive confequences; and when the law was propofed, and the expectations of the multitude were moft elevated, his fingle tive prohibited all further procee dings Whatever might be the surprise of Gracchus at this unexpected obftacle, he contented himself with defiring the people to affemble the next day, and to judge between him and his colleague; and in that affembly he proposed a motion more viclent than the former; in which he erafed all the claufes by which he had endeavoured to allure the confent of the rich, and refirained the landed property of any Roman to five hundred acres. From Rome the fears of the wealthy and the hopes of the indigent were dif fufed through the different colonies and cities of Italy; and the capital was thronged by the multitudes who anxi oufly awaited the fate of a project which promised to extinguifh the magnificence of the firft and the mifery of the lait.' Gracchus, it is well known, could not effect the eftablishment of the Agrarian law, without depofing his colleague Octavius, whofe life he faved from the refentment of the multitude. The fenate thus obtained against him a just ground of complaint. Anecdotes and Obfervations. HE first time that Thomas Aqui nas vifited Rome, Innocent the fourth, who then filled the pontificial chair, faid to him, " You fee we cannot fay with St, Peter, "Silver and gold have I none." "No," faid Aquinas, "neither can you command, as he did, the lame man to arife and walk." AN old woman who had witneffed the religious changes under Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, used to say her prayers in Latin and English, and "Let God," said fhe, "take which he likes best." "An epitaph," obferves a witty writer," fhould be true (De mortuis nil rifi verum,) not as on fome monuments, where the red veins in the marble may seem to blufh at the falfehoods written on it. He was a witty man that first taught a ftone to fpeak, but he was a wicked man who taught it firft to lie." High Parliamentary Intelligence. (Continued from our laft.) HOUSE OF T COMMON S. WEDNESDAY APRIL 18, 1792. HE houfe met purfuant to adjournment. Sir John Blaquiere prefented the report from the committee appointed to inquire into the ftate of the Foundling Hofpital-expreffing at the fame time a wish that the house would, early in the next feffion, take up the subject in an effectual measure. Report received, ond ordered to lie on the table. Mr. Attorney General, adverting to the order of the house, for his official interference in the profecution of James Napper Tandy, for a breach of privilege with relation to Mr. Toler, as formerly mentioned, moved, preparatory thereto, that the right hon. James Cuffe, John Toler, Efq. his majefty's folicitor general, and Richard Grace, Efq. all members of this houfe, and who he underflood were intimately acquainted with the particulars of this affair, be enjoined forthwith, to lodge informations of all they knew thereof before a civil magiftrate. The question was carried nem. con. The Attorney General took occafion to mention that fince the last fitting of the house, several daring and libellous publications had appeared in many of the public newspapers, and one in particular, purporting to be the refolutions of a fociety calling themfelves The United Irishmen, and figned Theobald Wolfe Tone, with the hon. Simon Butler in the chair, contumaciously arraigning the proceedings of that houfe as illegal, and indirectly exciting the people to contema and refift the authority of parliament. There was also a statement published in The Dublin Evening Poft, in which the parliament was accufed with adopting measures fubverfive of the conftitution, and termed "the oppreffors of the people." The latenefs of the period, and the fudden prorogation of parliament, must for the prefent prevent the necetary fteps for bringing fuch libellers to juftice. But whenever that houfe thould again aflemble within thefe walls, they would vindicate their privileges, and bring the authors, the printers, and the publishers of fuch libels to exemplary punishment, and he pledged himself to bring the matter forward in the first week of the next feffions, at which period, he trufted, the conduct of thofe magiftrates who did not think fit to confider the proclamation of government ifited at the infance of that houfe, for the apprehenfion of James Napper Tandy, a fufficient warrant for detaining him when furrendered to their custody, but fuffered him to go at large, fhould become the fubject of proper inquiry. The Speaker now informed the houfe, that Mr. Tandy was re-taken, and at prefent in the cuftody of the ferjeant at arms. Hib. Mag. 08, 1792. On the motion of Mr. Att. Gen. he was brought to the bar in custody. 1 Mr. Speaker afked him if he had not feen a warrant of that houfe for taking him into cuftody? to which Mr. Tandy anfwered, he had feen fome fuch paper. Mr. Speaker afked him if he obeyed that warrant, or had been taken into cuftody? Mr. Tandy replied, he was now taken into cuftody, after a manner which he conceived to be illegal and unconftitutional.-He was proceeding, but Mr. Speaker topt him, by asking if he di not efcape from cuftody? Counsellor Sheridan confidered this question as contrary to all rules of proceeding in criminal accufations. The Att. Gen. had moved for an order to profecute Mr. Tandy-he now was at the bar-and he was afked a queftion, which if he anfwered in the affirmative must directly criminate himfelf. He trusted the houfe would not deny to a citizen, accufed at their bar, the common and conftitutional privilege he might claim in any court of justice, that of objecting to interrogatories tending to criminate himfelf; and if the citizen at the bar would take his counfel, he would not anfwer any fuch interrogatories. The Attorney General faid, Mr. Tandy was himfelf a judge whether he should answer the question put to him or not. If he did not think proper to answer it, he was now at liberty to state his reafons. Mr. Speaker faid, he did not think it neceffary to have acquainted any man who came to that bar that he was not obliged to anfwer questions tending to criminate himself-he thought every man who came there fufficiently apprifed of the fact. The queftion of privilege now before the house war, he conceived, merely the fact of efcape from the cuftody, and had nothing to do with the previous matter; however, he should ask Mr. Tandy no further queftions but under the direction of the house. Mr. Attorney General then moved, that the, speaker do proceed to interrogate Mr. Tandy, which being confidered the fenfe of the houfe, the freaker repeated his former queftion, to which Mr. Tandy anfwered, that as he was not permitted to enter into his defence, he should anfwer no interrogatories. The Attorney General then fald, that as Mr. Tandy had not denied his having been taken into cuftody, nor yet had he denied his efcape from cuftody, and as the houfe had fufficient cognizance of the fact on the oaths of their own officers, they were warranted fully to proceed to punishment for fuch contempt of their authority.--He therefore moved, that James Napper Tandy be now committed to Newgate, and that the fpeaker do forthwith iffue his warrant for that purpose The hon. Denis Browne feconded the motion, in vindication of the most valuable privilege of parliament-freedom of debate. It was carried nem. con. and Mr. Tandy was accordingly ordered to Newgate, whither he was attended by a crowd of refpeftable citizen, who thronged the gallery on this interefting occafion, and inftantly quitted it on Mr. Tandy's being taken from the bar. A me 1 Dundas A meffage from the lords announced the prefence of his excellency the lord lieutenant on the throne, and fummoned the attendance of the houfe, who went up forthwith, and shortly after returned when the fpeaker, without taking the chair, reported the royal affent to thirty public bills and one private one, and then announced that his excellency had prorogued the parliament until Monday the 18th of June next. HIS excellency the lord lieutenant having come down in ftate, entered the house at a quarter paft fix o'clock: the ufher being defired to inform the commons, That it was his excellency's pleasure they fhould attend him forthwith,' the members of that houfe, with their fpeaker, appeared at the bar. The Speaker prefented the Dublin harbour bill, the bill granting 5,0col. to the Dublin Society, and the fpirit license bill, which, with the following bills, received the royal affent : The lottery bill, The Malahide road bill, The bill for the relief of Roman Catholics, The bill for the conftruction of docks by the royal canal company, The King's-inn bill, and Gentlemen, "Gentlemen of the Houle of Commons, "His majefty commands me to thank you for the fupplies you have voted for the public fervice: you may depend upon their faithful application to the purposes for which they were granted. "My Lords and Gentlemen, I have his majesty's commands to exprefs his approbation of the wisdom that has guided your proceedings during the prefent fefiion, especially in the liberal indulgences you have afforded to your Roman Catholic brethren, by establishing the legality of intermarriage, by admitting then to the profeffion of the law and the benefits of education, and by removing all reftrictions upan their industry in trade and manufactures. "Your knowledge of the true intereft of your country is plainly marked in the meafure you have adopted for carrying into effect a reciprocal preference in the corn trade with Great Britain, a fyftem beneficial to both countries, and peculiarly advantageous to the agriculture of Ireland, that fource of your wealth and profperity. The farther steps you have taken to check the immoderate ufe of fpirituous liquors, and your wife regulations for the charitable inftitutions, prove your attention The bill to enable his majefty to grant licenfes to the interefts of the lower orders of the people. to alien lands in mortmain, The revenue bill, The inland navigation bill, The Kinnegad road bill, The Lough Erne navigation bill, "I shall firmly rely on your cordial co-operation for the fupport of public order and the en forcing obedience to the laws, by which alene the fruits of national induftry can be fecured; and when you reflect upon the flourishing refour The bill for the encouragement of the fisheries ces, the encreafing wealth and unexampled prof on the coafts, The county Wicklow mine bill, The bill for the recovery of forfeited recognizances, The county Tipperary road bill, The bill to allow papists to take and fubfcribe the oath of allegiance, &c. till the first of Noven ber next, The Kilkenny road bill, Mr. Brooke's private bill, The bill for employing in hard labour perfons fentenced to be tranfported, The conftables bill, The temporary statutes bill, The toll bill, The mortgage bill, The poft road bill, perity of the country, you will not fail to impre upon the minds of the people that the mainte nance of our free and happy conftitution will e fure the continuance of thefe invaluable bleffings.” When the lord lieutenant retired, The Lord Chancellor informed the house, the parliament was prorogued to Monday the 18th f June. "I [Concluded.] Thomas Paine to Mr. Secretary Dundas, "SIR, "Calais, Sept. 15, 1792. CONCEIVE it neceffary to make y acquainted with the following circun ftances. The department of Calais having elett ed me a member of the national convention f The bill to promote the building of new France, I fat off from London the 13th inf churches, The globe bill, in company with Mr. Froft, of Spring Gardens, and Mr. Aud bert, one of the municipal officers of The bill for the conveyance of rectories impro- Calais, who brought me the certificate of my priate and tithes, &c. and ing elected. We had not arrived more, I believe, A bill to enable the dean of the cathedral than five minutes at the York Hotel, at Derr church of the holy and undivided Trinity in Dub- than the train of circumftances began, that I am him he must return into the room, which he did, and the gentleman came in with him and shut the door: 1 had remained in the room. Mr. Audibert was gone to enquire when the packet was to fail. The gentleman then faid, that he was collector of the customs, and had an information against us, and must examine our baggage for prohibited articles. He produced his commiflion as collector. Mr. F. demanded to fee the information, which the collector refused to fhew, and continued to refufe on every demand that we made. The collector then called in feveral other officers, and began first to search our pockets. He took from Mr. Audibert, who was then returned into the room, every thing he found in his pockets, and laid it on the table. He then fearched Mr. Froft in the fame manner, (who, among other things, had the keys of the trunks in his pocket), and then did the fame by me. Mr. Froft wanting to go out, mentioned it, and was going towards the door, on which the collector placed himself against the door, and faid nobody should depart the room. After the keys had been taken from Mr. Frost, (for I had given him the keys of the trunks before-hand, for the purpofe of his attending the baggage to the cuftoms, if it fhould be neceffary) the collector afked us to open the trunks, prefenting us with the keys for that purpofe; this we declined to do, unlefs he would produce his information, which he again refufed. The collector opened the trunks himself, and took out every paper and letter, fealed or unfealed. On our remonftrating with him on the bad policy, as well - as the illegality of Custom-houfe officers feizing papers and letters, which were things that did not conne under their cognizance, he replied, that, the Proclamation gave him that authority. "Among the letters which he took out of my trunk were two fealed letters given into my charge by the American minifter at London, one of which was directed to the American minister at Paris, the other to a private gentleman; a letter from the prefident of the United States, and a letter from the fecretary of state in America, both directed to me, and which I had received from the American minister now in London, and were private letters of friendship; a letter from the electoral body of the department of C.Jais, containing the notification of my being elected to the national convention; and a letter from the prefident of the national affembly, informing me of my being allo elected for the department of Oife. As we found that all remonftrances with the collector, on the bad policy and illegality of seizing papers and letters, and detaining our perfons by force, under the pretence of fearching for prohibited articles, were vain (for he juftified himself on the Proclamation, and on the information which he refufed to fhew), we contented ourselves with affuring him, that what, he was then doing he' would afterwards have to answer for, and left it to himself to do as he pleased. "It appeared to us that the collector was acting under the direction of fome other perfon or perfons then in the hotel, but whom he did not chufe we should fee, or who did not chufe to be feen by us; for the collector went feveral times out of the room for a few minutes, and was alfo called out feveral times. "When the collector had taken what papers and letters he pleafed out of the trunks, he proceeded to read them. The first letter he took up for this purpofe was that from the prefident of the United States to me. While he was doing this, I faid, that it was very extraordinary that general Washington could not write a letter of private friendship to me, without its being fubject to be read by a custom-houfe officer. Upon this Mr. Froft laid his hand over the face of the letter, and told the collector he should not read it, and took it from him. Mr. Froft then cutting his eye on the concluding paragraph in the letter, said, I will read this part to you, which he did; of which the following is an exact tranfcript- and as no one can feel a greater intereft in the happire's, of mankind than I do, it is the first wish of my heart, that the enlightened policy of the prefent age may diffuse to all men thofe blejjings to which tey are entitled, and lay the foundation of bap- · piness to future generations." "As all the other letters and papers lay thenon the table, the collector took them up, and was going out of the room with them. During the tranfactions already ftated, i contented myself with obferving what paffed, but spoke but little; but on feeing the collector going out of the room with the letters, I told him that the papers and letters then in his hand, were either belonging to me or entrusted to my charge, and that as I could not permit them to be out of my fight, I must infift on going with him. "The collector then made a list of all the let ters and papers, and went out of the room, giving the letters and papers into the charge of one of the officers. "He returned in a fhort time, and after fome trifling converfation, chiefly about the proclamation, told us that he saw the proclamation was illfounded, and asked if we chofe to put the letters and papers into the trunk ourselves; which, as we had not taken them out, we declined doing, and he did it himself, and returned us the keys. "In ftating to you there matters, I make no complaint against the conduct of the collector, or of any of the officers. Their manner was as civil as fuch an extr ordinary piece of bufineis could admit of. "My chief motive in writing to you on this fubject is, that you may take measures for preventing the like in future, not only as it concerns private individuals, but in order to prevent a renewal of thofe unpleasant confequences that have heretofore arifen between nations from circumftances equally as infignificant. I mention this only for myself: but as the interruption extended to two other gentlemen, it is probable that they, as individuals, will take fome more effectual mode for redrefs." "P. S. Among the papers feized was a copy of the attorney general's information against me for publishing the Rights of Man, and a printed proof copy of my letter to the Addreffers, which will foon be published," |