Are Mr. Crosby and Mr. Sawbridge likely to execute the extraordinary, as well as the ordinary, duties of Lord Mayor? Will they grant you common-halls when it shall be necessary? Will they go up with remonstrances to the King? Have they firmness enough to meet the fury of a venal House of Commons? Have they fortitude enough not to shrink at imprisonment ? Have they spirit enough to hazard their lives and fortunes in a contest, if it should be neces sary, with a prostituted Legislature? If these questions can fairly be answered in the affirmative, your choice is made. Forgive this passionate language. I am unable to correct it. The subject comes home to us all. It is the language of my heart.

JUNIUS.

LETTER LIX.

TO THE

Printer of the Public Advertiser.

SIR,

October 5, 1771.

No man laments more sincerely than I do, the unhappy differences which have arisen. among the friends of the people, and divided them from each other. The cause, undoubtedly, suffers as well by the diminution of that strength which union carries along with it, as by the separate loss of personal reputation, which every man sustains when his character and conduct are frequently held forth in odious or contemptible colours. These differences are only advantageous to the common enemy of the country. The hearty friends of the cause are provoked and disgusted. The lukewarm advocate avails

himself of any pretence, to relapse into that indolent indifference about every thing that ought to interest an Englishman, so unjustly dignified with the title of moderation. The false, insidious partizan, who creates or foments the disorder, sees the fruit of his honest industry ripen beyond his hopes, and rejoices in the promise of a banquet, only delicious to such an appetite as his own. It is time for those who really mean the Cause and the People, who have no view to private advantage, and who have virtue enough to prefer the general good of the community to the gratification of personal animosities; it is time for such men to interpose. Let us try whether these fatal dissentions may not be re. conciled; or, if that be impracticable, let us guard at least against the worst effects of divi sion, and endeavour to persuade these furious partizans, if they will not consent to draw together, to be separately useful to that cause which they all pretend to be attached to. Honour and honesty must not be renounced, although a thousand modes of right and wrong were to occupy the degrees of morality between Zeno and Epicurus. The fundamental principles of Christianity may still be preserved, though every zealous sectary adheres to his own exclusive doctrine, and pious ecclesiastics make it part of their religion to persecute one another. The civil constitution, too, that legal liberty, that general creed which every Englishman professes, may still be supported, though Wilkes and Horne, and Townshend and Sawbridge, should obstinately refuse to communicate; and even if the fathers of the church, if Savile, Richmond, Camden, Rockingham, and Chatham, should disagree in the ceremonies of their political worship, and even in the interpretation of twenty texts in Magna Charta. I speak to the people, as one of the people.

Let us employ these men in whatever departments their various abilities are best suited to, and as much to the advantage of the common cause, as their different inclinations will permit. They cannot serve us, without essentially serving themselves.

If Mr. Nash be elected, he will hardly venture, after so recent a mark of the personal esteem of his fellow-citizens, to declare himself immediately a courtier. The spirit and activity of the sheriff's will, I hope, be sufficient to counteract any sinister intentions of the Lord Mayor. In collision with their virtue, perhaps, he inay take fire.

It is not necessary to exact from Mr. Wilkes the virtues of a Stoic. They were inconsistent with themselves, who, almost at the same moment, represented him asthe basest of mankind, yet seemed to expect from him such instances. of fortitude and self-denial, as would do honour to an apostle. It is not, however, flattery to say, that he is obstinate, intrepid, and fertile in expedients. That he has no possible resource but in the public favour, is, in my judgment, a considerable recommendation of him. I wish that every man who pretended to popularity were in the same predicament. I wish that a retreat to St. James's were not so easy and open as patriots have found it. To Mr. Wilkes there is no access. However he may be misled by passion or imprudence, I think he cannot be guilty of a deliberate treachery to the public. The favour of his country constitutes the shield which defends him against a thousand daggers. Desertion would disarm him.

I can more readily admire the liberal spirit and integrity, than the sound judgment, of any man who prefers a republican form of government, in this or any other empire of equal extent, to a monarchy so qualified and limited as

ours. I am convinced, that neither is it in theory the wisest system of government, nor prac. ticable in this country. Yet, though I hope the English constitution will for ever preserve its original monarchical form, I would have the manners of the people purely and strictly republican. I do not mean the licentious spirit of anarchy and riot. I mean a general attachment to the common weal, distinct from any partial attachment to persons or families; an implicit submission to the laws only; and an affection to the magistrate, proportioned to the integrity and wisdom with which he distributes justice to his people, and administers their affairs. The present habit of our political body appears to me the very reverse of what it ought to be. The form of the constitution leans rather more than enough to the popular branch; while, in effect, the manners of the people (of those at least who are likely to take a lead in the country) incline too generally to a dependence upon the Crown. The real friends of arbitrary power combine the facts, and are not inconsistent with their principles, when they strenuously support the unwarrantable privileges assumed by the House of Commons. In these circumstances, it were much to be desired, that we had many such men as Mr. Sawbridge to represent us in Parliament. I speak from common report and opinion only, when I impute to him a speculative predilection in favour of a republic. In the personal conduct and manners of the man I cannot be mistaken. He has shewn himself possessed of that republican firmness which the times require; and by which an English gentleman may be as usefully and as honourably distinguished, as any citizen of ancient Rome, of Athens, or Lacedemon.

Mr. Townshend complains that the public gratitude has not been answerable to his deserts. It is not difficult to trace the artifices which

have suggested to him a language so unworthy of his understanding. A great man commands the affections of the people: a prudent man does not complain when he has lost them. Yet they are far from being lost to Mr. Townshend. He has treated our opinion a little too cavalierly. A young man is apt to rely too confidently upon himself, to be as attentive to his mistress as a polite and passionate lover ought to be. Perhaps he found her at first too easy a conquest. Yet I fancy she will be ready to receive him whenever he thinks proper to renew his addresses. With all his youth, his spirit, and his appearance, it would be indecent in the lady to solicit his return.

I have too much respect for the abilities of Mr. Horne, to flatter myself that these gentlemen will ever be cordially re-united. It is not, however, unreasonable to expect, that each of them should act his separate part with honour and integrity to the public. As for differences of opinion upon speculative questions, if we wait until they are reconciled, the action of human affairs must be suspended for ever. But neither are we to look for perfection in any one man nor for agreement among many. When Lord Chatham affirms, that the authority of the Bri. tish Legislature is not supreme over the Colo. nies in the same sense in which it is supreme over Great Britain; when Lord Camden supposes a necessity, (which the King is to judge of,) and, founded upon that necessity, attributes to the Crown a legal power (not given by the act itself,) to suspend the operation of an act of the Legislature; I listen to them both with dif fidence and respect, but without the smallest degree of conviction or assent. Yet I doubt not they delivered their real sentiments, nor ought they to be hastily condemned. I too have a claim to the candid interpretation of my country,