This fhort description of the ufe and nature of these two branches of the legiflature, will, I hope, be fufficient. But, as the third eftate is more vifibly of your own creation, and within your power to correct, I shall explain it more largely, and animadvert upon it with greater freedom. The Houfe of Commons being the only part of the legiflature over which the people have referved any pofitive influence, they cannot be too cautious that it may never be fo connected with the crown, or the House of Lords, as to diminish its dependence upon themselves; and this will be very evident, if you confider the duty and employment of that House. Its bufinefs, as a branch of the legislature, is to provide, by the impofition of taxes, fupplies for the exigencies of the ftate; to re vife the conduct of thofe who are entrusted with public property, and to cenfure and punish those who mifapply it; to make new laws, and to repeal or amend fuch as want correction; to regulate and improve the commerce and internal conveniencies of the kingdom; and, befides these public acts, to mitigate and redrefs the hardships of individuals, arifing from too fevere a con struction of former laws. An office fo comprehenfive, neceffarily demands prodigious power; and the legislature, were its existence permanent, might focn affume the character of an unbounded defpot: for, to what tribunal, but that of heaven, can you appeal, should it, under the fpecious appearance of a legal form, repeal your best laws, and fubftitute, in their ftead, the most partial and unjust ? Can a charge like this be conftituted with too much circumspection? Can we be too jealous of every privilege that tends to direct the use of it to the intereft of the community? And fhall we be entitled to the refpect of our fucceffors, if we impofe upon them the neceffity of fubmitting to fuch an enormous power, without a proper limitation? The remedy our ancestors wifely provided, against the abuse of a truft fo extenfive, was every way equal to the end; and gave more perfect freedom and fecurity, both to our perfons and property, than if we had lived in a state of nature; and what is fingular, by a mode fo fimple, that any talents are equal to the execution of it. They elected out of their own body a certain number of men to reprefent them in parliament; and, as the laws they made for others were binding on themfelves, it was reasonable to prefume they would be careful in framing them. But this was not thought a fufficient fecurity; for it might happen that fome of thofe deputies would be employed by the crown as officers for managing the concerns of the nation; and being paid VOL. I. 6. R for for that fervice with the public money, the fhare that was levied upon themselves might be very inconfiderable, when compared with what they gained by their places: nay, perhaps in fome cafes, the more taxes they imposed on the people, the larger their falaries would be. [To be continued.] MISERY ATALE, from CECILIA. "L' : An EXCELLENT NOVEL, lately published. ET me not (faid he) wafte my compaffion upon nothing; compaffion is with me no effufion of affectation : tell me, then, if thou deferveft it, or if thy misfortunes are imaginary, and thy grief is factitious ??? "Factitious!" repeated the, " Good heaven !" "Answer me, then, thefe queftions, in which I fhall comprife the only calamities for which forrow has no controul, or none from human motives. Tell me, then, have you loft by death the friend of your bofom?” "No!" "Is your fortune diffipated by extravagance, and your power of relieving the diftreffed at an end ?" No; the power and the will are, I hope, equally undiminifhed." "O then, unhappy girl! have you been guilty of fome vice, and hangs remorfe thus heavy on your confcience ??? No, no; thank heaven, to that mifery, at leaft, I am a Atranger?" His countenance now again refumed its feverity, and, in the fterneft manner, "Whence then (faid he) these tears, and what is this caprice you dignify with the name of forrow?-Strange wantonnefs of indolence and luxury perverfe repining of ungrateful plenitude !-Oh! hadft thou known what I have fufs fered!" "Could I leffen what you have fuffered, (faid Cecilia,) I fhould fincerely rejoice; but heavy indeed muft be your affliction, if mine, in its comparifon, deferves to be filed caprice!" "Caprice!" repeated he, "tis joy! 'tis extacy, compared with mine!-Thou haft not, in licentioufnefs, wafted thy inhe tance! Thou haft not, by remorse, barred each avenue to enjoyment; nor yet has the cold grave feized the beloved of thy foul !! Neither, "Neither, (faid Cecilia,) I hope, are the evils you have yourself fuftained fo irremediable." "Yes, I have borne them all!-Have borne ? I bear them fill! I fhall bear them while I breathe! I may rue them, perhaps, yet longer." Good God! (cried Cecilia, fhrinking,) what a world is this! how full of woe and wickedness !" "Yet thou, too, can't complain, (cried he,) though happy in life's only bleffing, innocence! Thou, too, canft murmur, though a stranger to death's only terror, fin! -Oh! yet if thy forrow is unpolluted with guilt, be regardless of all elfe, and rejoice in thy destiny !" "But who (cried the, deeply fighing,) fhall teach me fuch a leffon of joy, when all within rifes to oppofe it ?" "I (cried he) will teach it thee, for I will tell thee my own fad flory. Then wilt thou find how much happier is thy lot: then wilt thou raife thy head in thankful triumph." "Oh, no! triumph comes not fo lightly? yet, if you will venture to truft me with fome account of yourfef, I fhall be glad to hear it, and much obliged by the communication." "I will, (anfwered he;) whatever I may fuffer. To awaken thee from this dream of fancied forrow, I will open all my wounds, and thou fhalt probe them with fresh fhame." "No, indeed (cried Cecilia with quicknefs) I will not hear you, if the relation will be fo painful." "Upon me this humanity is loft, (faid he,) fince punishment and penitence alone give me comfort. I will tell thee, therefore, my crimes, that thou mayeft know thy own felicity, left, ignorant it means nothing but innocence, thou fhouldest lose it, unconscious of its value. Liften then to me, and learn what mifery is! Guilt is alone the bafis of lafting happinefs: guilt is the bafis of mine, and therefore I am a wretch for ever!" Cecilia would again have declined hearing him, bet he refufed to be fpared; and as her curiofity had long been excited to know fomething of his hiftory, and the motives of his extraordinary conduct, fhe was glad to have it fatisfied, and gave him the utmost attention. "I will not fpeak to you of my family," faid he; "hiftorical accuracy would little anfwer to either of us.-I am a native of the Weft-Indies, and I was early fent hither to be educated. While I was yet at the university, I faw, I adored, and I purfued the fairest flower that ever put forth its fweet buds, the fofteft heart that ever was broken by ill-ufage! She was poor, and unprotected, the daughter of a villager: fhe was untaught, and unpretending, the child of fimplicity! But fifteen fummers R 2 had had the bloomed, and her heart was an easy conqueft; yet, once made mine, it refifted all allurement to infidelity. My fellow ftudents attacked her; she was affaulted by all the arts of feduction; flattery, bribery, fupplication, all were employed, yet all failed: fhe was wholly my own; and with fincerity fo attractive, I determined to marry her in defiance of all worldly objections. "The fudden death of my father called me haftily to Jamaica: I feared leaving this treasure unguarded, yet in decency could neither marry nor take her directly; I pledged my faith, therefore, to return to her as foon as I had fettled my affairs, and I left to a bofom friend the inspection of her conduct in my fence. ab. "To leave her was madness-to truft in man was madness→ oh, hateful race! how has the world been abhorrent to me fince that time! I have loathed the light of the fun, I have shrunk from the commerce of my fellow-creatures; the voice of man have I detested, his fight I have abominated !—but, oh! mere than all fhould I be abominated myself! "When I came to my fortune, intoxicated with fudden power, I forgot this fair bloffom; I revelled in licentioufness and vice, and left it exposed and forlorn. Riot fucceeded riot, 'till a fever, incurred by my own intemperance, first gave me time to think. Then was the revenged, for then firft remorfe was my portion: her image was brought back to my mind with frantic fondness, and the bittereft contrition. The moment I recovered, I returned to England: I flew to claim her-but he was loft! No one knew whither fhe was gone; the wretch I had trufted pretended to know leaft of all; yet, after a furious search, I traced her to a cottage, where he had concealed her himself! "When she saw me, fhe fcreamed, and would have flown; I ftopped her, and told her I came faithfully and honourably to make her my wife her own faith and honour, though fullied, were not extinguished, for fhe inftantly acknowledged the fatal tale of her undoing! "Did I recompenfe this ingenuousness; this unexampled, this beautiful facrifice, to intuitive integrity? Yes, with my curfes loaded her with execrations I reviled her in language the moft opprobrious-I infulted her even for her confeffion-invoked all evil upon her from the bottom of my heart! She knelt at my feet, the implored my forgiveness and compaffion, the wept with bitternefs and defpair-and yet I spurned her from me!Spurned !-let me not hide my fhame! I barbaroufly ftruck her!-nor fingle was the blow!-it was doubled, it was reiterated!-Oh, wretch, unyielding and unpitying, where where fhall hereafter be clemency for thee!-So fair a form! fo young a culprit! fo infamously feduced! fo humbly penitent ! In this miferable condition, helplefs and deplorable, mangled by thefe favage hands, and reviled by this inhuman tongue, I left her, in fearch of the villain who had deftroyed her; but, cowardly as treacherous, he had abfconded. Repenting my fury, I haftened to her again: the fiercenefs of my cruelty fhamed me when I grew calmer; the foftness of her forrow melted me upon recollection: I returned, therefore, to foothe her-but again fhe was gone! Terrified with the expectation of infult, the hid herself from all my enquiries. I wandered in fearch of her two long years to no purpose, regardless of my affairs, and of all things but that of purfuit. At length, I thought I faw her-in London, alone, and walking in the streets at midnight.-I fearfully followed her, and followed her into an house of infamy! "The wretches by whom he was furrounded, were noify and drinking; they heeded me little, but the faw and knew me at once: she did not fpeak, nor did I,—but in two moments she fainted and fell. "Yet did I not help her: the people took their own meafures to recover her; and when he was again able to ftand, would have removed her to another apartment. "I then went forward, and, forcing them away from her with all the ftrength of defperation, I turned to the unhappy finner, who to chance only feemed to leave what became of her, and cried, From this fcene of vice and horror let me refcue you! you look ftill unfit for fuch fociety; truft yourself, therefore, to me.' I feized her hand; I drew, I almost dragged her away. She trembled, fhe could fcarce totter; but neither confented, nor refused; neither fhed a tear, nor spoke a word; and her countenance prefented a picture of affright, amaze ment, and horror. "I took her to a house in the country, each of us filent the whole way. I gave her an apartment, and a female attendant, and ordered for her every convenience I could fuggeft. I stayed myfelf in the fame houfe; but, distracted with remorse for the guilt and ruin into which I had terrified her, I could not bear her fight. "In a few days her maid affured me the life the led muft deftroy her; that she would tafte nothing but bread and water, never ípoke, nor never flept. "Alarmed by this account, I flew into her apartment : pride and refentment gave way to pity and fondness, and I befought her to take comfort. I fpoke, however, to a ftatue; the replied not, |