fructions, could eafily have reached far. Jealoufies would have arifen, that political purposes of one against another were defigned to be ferved by it: fome fuch perhaps would have been grafted upon it. One nation would have favoured and established the new scheme; another rejected and calumniated it: and by these contefts every part of its evidence, and especially that great one, the difinterestedness of its teachers, would have become fo doubtful, that many confiderate men would fcarce have known what to think of it.

• Befides, had our bleffed Lord's inftructions been given much earlier; after-times would never have known fufficiently the need they had of them: but would have imagined, that, in a little while, men would have found out of themselves, every thing which he had taught them. Even now, after the experience of fo many ages to the contrary, fome tell us, that the whole of religion, of all we have to believe and do, to hope or fear, is so plain, that no one could ever mifs it. How much more plausibly then would they have faid fo, and indeed how much fainter a fense should we all have had of our obligations to Chrift, if the most enlightened parts of the world, had not, before his coming, wandered fo long in fuperftition and fin?

Nor is this farther confideration without its weight: that, had our Saviour come and delivered the precepts of Christianity in their full purity and strictness, before the light of nature had been fufficiently improved, by a few of the heathens, to discern and own the juftness of them; what is ftill faid by fome, would then have been faid by many more: that they were utterly too rigid for the nature and circumftances of man; and unfit to be required of fuch creatures, as we are.

:

• But now, instead of all these inconveniencies, the oppofite advantages are happily obtained, only by waiting, till the fulness of time was come, By this prudent delay, the Jews were fo far prepared for his reception, as they were reclaimed from idolatry and therefore the Mofaick law, which had been made to keep them from it, might be fafely laid afide. Some of them were grown fuperftitioufly fond of the legal ceremonies: these it was time to enlighten. Others were longing for that better ftate of things, which the prophets had foretold: these it was time to blefs with the confolation they waited for. The expectation, which they both had of the Meffiah, would excite a great attention to the holy Jefus: and yet the too common opinion, that he was to appear as a temporal prince, would fufficiently keep them from being partial in his favour, fince he appeared in a manner fo different. Their government was ftill in being, and their laws in ufe, for thofe, who

would,

has any relation to the inatter in difpute. But the great art of the performance lies fingly in this, that it does not relate to the matter in difpute. There is unfortunately a petty fogging ingenuity, natural to fome men, and which a certain fort of practice in the law never fails to improve, by which thofe who poffefs it, can play round the queftion in agitation, through the courfe of a long argument, or a longer pamphlet, without ever touching or receding fo far from it, that common understandings will perceive they are going upon another question. This pitiful knack has acquired great reputation to more than one I could mention at the bar, and, if we may judge from the Letters upon Libels, and thofe figned Phileutherus Anglicanus, in the Public Advertiser, the author of them feems to have acquired all his reputation by his fkill in it.

Nothing fo easily deceives people, who are not accustomed to diftinguish logical truth from falfehood; but to men of clear and found understandings, thefe idols of the gaping mob are infinitely more contemptible than people of the plaineft and most common apprehenfions. The fophiftry of an haranguer's arguments cafts no mift before the eye of true reafon and judgment; but there is fome art required to strip it of its falfe glare, and make it appear, as it really is, a phantom and an illufion. That art does not confift in following it step by step; for it is an ignis fatuus that will lead you into quagmires and over precipices. The true and only method is, to keep clearly and fteadily to the precife terms of the queftion; and not to recede a line from logical truth and demonfrable deduction; whatever plaufible fhape the fophifm may take, to despise and neglect it; and (to apply to the fubject the ancient allegories concerning virtue and pleasure) to keep onward to a direct conclufion, in fpite of all the delusions which it may throw in your way, to tempt you from the path of fair and fteady argumentation.

This letter takes in a large field of political fpeculation. To confute Mr. Morris, and to examine the cafes of Almon and Woodfall, are not its only objects. It contains an accurate and fpirited furvey of lord Bute's character and administration, and of the conduct of Mr. Wilkes. We feel an inclination to take particular notice of his analyfis of that gentleman's principles and actions; an inclination which is counteracted by the pain it would give us to be fevere upon the dead †.

It is now fo difficult to determine the province of juries, by reafon of the many difputes of able lawyers upon that subject, that we must not prefume to fhow, in a fummary manner, how our author difcuffes it, left in fome places we fhould miftake his meaning, and in others, let material circumstances escape us.

We fhall therefore, in juftice to him, and to our readers, quote his own words.

This part of his letter, however, we beg leave to recommend to the ferious attention of those who fancy they are patriots, or would impofe themselves as fuch upon the public.

• How

one of as great fimplicity of manners, as fome of the foregoing; it might have been pretended, that the goodness of the morality of the gospel had made its other doctrines pafs without evidence. But to require of a generation, fo extremely vicious, what had never been required of man before, an abfolute denial of every wrong inclination of every kind, was a full proof of honefty in the teachers: and, if they prevailed, a ftrong presumption of the truth of what they taught. Now we know they did prevail. And as, without the least learning, they delivered a fublimer and purer religion; fo, without the leaft worldly help, they produced, in a few years, a greater reformation; than all the wit and power of man had ever been able to do before: of both which arguments Christianity must have been deprived, had God revealed it, before philofophy and human policy, had tried their own ftrength.

• But further yet, when our Saviour appeared, and scarce till then, the greatest part of the known world was peaceably fettled under one empire, that of the Romans. On which account, men were much more at leisure for attending to a new religion: travelling, and fending intelligence was much more commodious: Chriftianity therefore was eafily propagated; and its proofs as eafily examined. Befides this, its being persecuted so soon, and fo long, through the whole of that vaft dominion, fhewed its profeffors to have no worldly intereft in view: which they poffibly might, if the fame extent of coun→ try had still been divided amongst different princes; one of whom perhaps would have protected them against another. And their getting the better, by mere argument and patience, of this moft formidable power, was a ftrong proof, that truth, and the God of truth, was their fupport. To which it must be added, that the fcene of this noble struggle being at the fame time the feat of learning, we have a fufficient account of it handed down to us from the first, both by friends and enemies: whereas in the more ignorant countries, where Christianity was taught, (and the obfervation is greatly to its ho nour) it either could not get footing, or could not keep it; and where it lafted longeft, little or no hiftory of it remains.

Thefe advantages then our religion had, from not being published till the age, in which it was. If any former might poffibly be as proper in some refpects, yet none will be found fo proper in all. And if what hath been faid hath only weight enough to remove an objection against the gospel, no more is neceffary. But I hope it will be thought a powerful circumstance in its favour, that the time of its promulgation was fo evidently the right one. And I hope alío, that confiderate men will take occafion from this inftance to reflect, that in VOL. XXX. Auguft, 1770, others

K

others too the ways of God may be very just and wife, where perhaps, on a hafty view, they may feem very exceptionable.' These discourses are proper to be read in private families, when edification, rather than amufement is intended,

VIII. The Hiftory of the Reign of George the Third, King of Great Britain, &c. to the Conclufion of the Seffion of Parliament, ending in May 1770. To which is prefixed, a Review of the late War. 8vo. 6s. Evans.

THE

HE firft duty of an historian is certainly to be impartial and biaffed in favour of no party or nation. But this quality is most difficult to be obtained. Nay, fuch is the weakness of human nature, that an author often contracts, infenfibly to himself, a partial attachment for a people, though no otherwise connected with him, but by his writing their history. How much less is impartiality to be expected from an historian who treats of the affairs of his own times and country? Yet fome who have done fo, have been so hardy as to profefs being free from all biass or prejudice in favour of any party or nation whatsoever; and many have been fo weak as to believe them.

The author, however, of the work now before us has been much more candid and honeft. He lets the reader at once into the ftate of his own mind, and makes no fecret of his principles or of the party he efpoufes; fo that if any one shouldbe mifled or deceived by him, it must be his own fault. This appears evident from his preface,

At the acceffion of George III. Great Britain had arrived at the highest pitch of glory and felicity. Bleffed with concord at home, and victory abroad, it saw its trade and influence extended beyond the example of any former period. The scene is now entirely changed. Difcord rages throughout the land our credit among foreign nations is at a low ebb; and our trade, the fource of our riches, is greatly impaired.

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It is natural for a man to enquire, what caufes produced fo fad a reverse of fortune? This queftion the author of the following sheets has endeavoured to answer, by developing the impolitic and ungracious system of government, which has been pursued for thefe ten years paft. None can deny that the events, which have diftinguished that period, are objects worthy of our attention. They are no lefs interefting to the prefent age than they will be inftructive to pofterity. A well drawn picture of a mighty empire tottering under its own weight, after having paffed over the nations, like a storm,

and

of an exprefs malicious intent, was ever required in any cafe, and in moft cafes was impoffible to be given. That if the defendant's intent was innocent, or juftifiable, the proof of justification or excufe lay upon him, and on failure thereof the law implied a cris minal intent."

• Whatever blind, inconfiderate prejudice and paffion may do, I know not; but I think it would be hard, in found reafon and fair construction, to find an objection to this doctrine. Upon the first branch, a man to impeach the opinion must deny that the question, crime or no crime? is a queftion of law, but that it is a question of fact. It has been faid, that every man can tell what is a libel, and what is not a libel, just as well as a judge. Many cafes have been quoted, to prove that judges have permitted the queftion, libel or no libel? to be agitated by the counfel; and have themfelves, in directing juries, enlarged upon it; and from thence an inference has been drawn, that thefe judges confidered the question as the province of the jury to determine.

'Most of thofe cafes have been taken from the State Trials, which, when they make for the patriots, are authentic and undoubted authority; but when they make against them, are ill-collected, loofe, inaccurate, arbitrary and unconstitutional. Scroggs and Jefferys too are quoted in one fentence, and anathematized in another. Refemblances to them (as like as I to Hercules) are difcovered, when they act partially and unjustly; but when their opinions fupport thofe of the patriots, they are fet up as patterns above the reach of imitation. Holt, when he favours their purpose, is a great luminary of the law, and a zealous defender of the conftitution; when he makes against them, he is the whig chief justice, trampling on the conftitution, and perverting law and reafon to wreak his patron's vengeance on an obscure libeller. Raymond is a fresh convert, and, like all fresh converts, his zeal hurries him on to injustice and all its concomitant evils. By this way of reafoning all authority is baffled and confounded. Should I cite my lord Coke, it would be retorted on me, that he too was a court fycophant, because he was at one time devoted to the court; and perhaps I fhould not be able to prove, that the opinion I rely upon was given when he was in opposition to the court. (For fo, at the time of the question of jurifdiction between the King's Bench and Chancery, he certainly was.) I know, therefore, but of one authority directly applicable to the prefent purpose, which fome of the law patriots will not controvert; or if they controvert the opinion, they will not furely attribute it to partial or finifter motives. The perfon I mean is lord chief juftice Pratt, who not only held, that the question, libel or no libel? and the intent of publication, were queftions of law, and determinable by the court; but alfo that the meaning of the paper, and the applications to matter and perfons, was alfo a queftion of law, and not the province of the jury. To this purpofe he gave a charge to a jury at Guildhall, in 1722, the King against Gallard: a note of the cafe, very accurately and judiciously taken, is amongst the papers of Mr. Filmer, then a prac tifing counsel. Lord Raymond, it is true, rectified the error, as to the meaning of the paper in this charge of lord chief justice Pratt; but he is a new convert, and all who have followed him are tainted with fome one vice or other, which I will not give the fatyrist of our judges an opportunity of expofing.'

The