commons, for fuch offences as he had been convicted 'of, was both just and seasonable, and that no fuch calamity as the fubverfion of the constitution, was to be feared from an act, that had ufage, which is the law of parliament, to warrant it. The non-acquiefcence of the people interested in the question, is therefore branded by him with folly and madness, in the following animated expreffions:- Every artifice of fedition has been fince practised to awaken difcon< tent, and inflame indignation. The papers of every day have been filled with the exhortations and menaces of faction. The madness has spread through all ranks and both fexes; women and children have clamoured for Mr. Wilkes: honeft fimplicity has 'been cheated into fury, and only the wife have efcaped the infection.'

To ridicule the conduct of oppofition, he adopts a term, invented by the leaders thereof, and calls the conjuncture of events, at the time of which he is fpeaking, an alarming crifis, but endeavours to abate the fears of its termination, by alluding to parliamentary decifions apparently partial, and fometimes oppreffive; and fhewing, that the vexation excited by injustice, suffered, or fuppofed to be fuffered, by any private man or fingie community, was local and temporary. This position he illuftrates by the following obfervation: We have found by experience, that though a fquire has given ale and venifon in vain, and a borough has been compelled to fee its dearest

<interefts in the hands of him whom it did not trust,

yet the general ftate of the nation has continued the fame. The fun has rifen, and the corn has grown, and whatever talk has been of the danger of pro< perty,

perty, yet he that ploughed the field commonly reaped it, and he that built the house was master of 'the door.'

In a tone more grave, he addreffes fuch as are capable of conviction, and tells them-that they have as much happiness as the condition of life will easily receive; and that a government, of which an erroneous, or unjust, representation of one county only, is the greatest crime that interest can discover, or malice can upbraid, is a government approaching nearer to perfection than any that experience has ' fhewn, or history related.'

The pamphlet concludes with fome fhrewd remarks on the fupport given to faction by the fectaries, and that frigid neutrality of the tories in this business, which he cenfures in thefe words:

They do not yet confider that they have at last a king, who knows not the name of a party, and who wishes to be the common father of his people.'

It was not to be imagined, that a publication, fo unpopular as this, would long remain unanswered. Of many answers to it, one alone feemed to Johnfon worthy of a reply; but, in a confultation with his friends, he was advised to forbear. Had he engaged in a vindication of The falfe alarm,' the world might poffibly have been entertained with a fpecimen of his abilities in controverfial writing, in which there is little doubt that he would have difplayed the temper and perfpicuity of Hooker, the ftrength of Chillingworth, and the dexterity of Hoadly, though, in truth, he was no friend to controverfy;

1

his opinion on that fubject being, that it feldom produced conviction, that an impotent argument against a book was beft refuted by filence, and that it is want of policy to give immortality to that which muft of itself expire.

In the next fucceeding year, a fubject of more general importance to the interefts of this country engaged his attention: it was a queftion between us and the court of Spain, touching the pre-difcovery, and, confequently, the right of dominion over certain islands in the South feas, known to us by the name of Pepys's or Falkland's islands, and to the Spaniards by that of the Malouines, fpots of earth fo inconfiderable, as Johnson afferts, that in the desert of the ocean they had almost escaped human notice and which, if they had not happened to make a feamark, had perhaps never had a name. Lord Anfon, in his voyage, had noticed these islands, and the relator thereof had recommended them as neceffary to the fuccefs of any future expedition against the coaft of Chili, and, of fuch importance, that the poffeffion of them would produce many advantages in peace; and in war would make us mafters of the South fea. In 1748, our miniftry fent out a few floops, for a fuller knowledge of Pepys's and Falkland's islands, and for further difcoveries in the South fea; but, upon a remonftrance of Wall, the Spanish ambassador here, maintaining the right of his mafter to the exclufive dominion of the South fea, they relinquished part of their original defign, and our purpofe of fettling there was difowned. Thus the matter refted, till lord Egmont was appointed to the

direction

direction of our naval operations, who, in the year 1765, fent out an expedition, the commander whereof took poffeffion of Falkland's island in the name of his Britannic majefty, and placed a garrifon in a place of defence, to which he gave the appellation of Port Egmont. In this fettlement, we were foon after difturbed; for Madariaga, a Spanish commodore, with five frigates and a train of artillery, appearing before the island, obliged our people to capitulate, and obtained poffeffion. This event was no fooner known at our court, than hoftilities against Spain were refolved on, and a powerful fleet was affembled: thefe preparations brought on a conference between prince Mafferano, the Spanish ambassador here, and our minister, and a fubfequent negociation at Madrid, between Mr. Harris our minifter there, and the marquis Grimaldi: the refult was, a difavowal on the part of Spain of the violent enterprise of Buccarelli, the governor of Buenos Ayres, who had fent the force that difpoffeffed the English, and a promise to restore the port and fort called Egmont, with all the artillery and ftores therein, but with a declaration, that this engagement should not affect the question of the prior right of fovereignty of the Malouine, otherwife called Falkland's iflands*.

The

The conference at London was with lord Rochford, then fecretary of state for the fouthern department, who, in difcourfe with me, gave an account of it to this effect, viz. that he reprefented to the Spanish ambaffador, that the inflexibility of his court in this bufinefs had compelled us to arm, that our fleet was manned, and the officers and failors impatient for action ; that the nation having incurred the expence of a naval equipment, would hardly be fatisfied without a trial of what it was able to

The acquiefcence of our court in thefe conceffion's of that of Madrid, and the reference of a disputable queftion to the Greek calends, furnished the leaders of faction with a new topic for clamour, and war became the cry. The heavy burthen of debt, incurred by the laft, was no reafon against a new one, and millions were to be expended, and thousands murdered, for the titular fovereignty of an island, which Johnfon thus ftrongly and even poetically characterifes :-— A bleak and gloomy folitude, an ifland thrown afide from human ufe, ftormy in winter, and barren in fummer: an ifland which not the fouthern favages have dignified with habitation; where a garrifon must be kept in a state that contemplates with envy the exiles of Siberia; of which the expence will be ⚫ perpetual, and the use only occafional, and which, if fortune fmile upon our labours, may become a neft of fmugglers in peace, and in war the future refuge of buccaniers.'

These are his fentiments refpecting the incommodities of this contefted fettlement: against the advan tages fuggefted by the relator of Anfon's expedition, whom he reprefents as having written under the inAuence of a heated imagination, he oppofes the following arguments, founded in true policy and found morality:

с

That fuch a fettlement may be of ufe in war, no man that confiders its fituation will deny. But war is not the whole bufinefs of life; it happens but

effect; and that a refufal of conceffions on the part of Spain would inevitably bring on a war between the two powers, which, as it would be confined to the fea, must prove a fhort one.

•feldom,