troverfy concerning the genuineness of Phalaris's epiftles, and with as much acutenefs as that which tended to afcertain the queftion, whether the poems lately afcribed to Rowlie are not forgeries. Moderators have alfo interpofed, as there did in the difpute about the authenticity of the Sybilline oracles, and with as little fuccefs: the world remains, and is likely ever to remain, without fatisfaction in refpect of either the one or the other.

Before this time, Johnfon had undertaken to revise the former edition of his Shakespeare, and extend his plan, by admitting the corrections and illuftrations of various other commentators. He therefore, in conjunction with Mr. George Steevens, published in 1773, a new edition of that author, in ten octavo volumes, which was republifhed with additions in 1778.

In 1774, the parliament having been diffolved, and Mr. Wilkes perfifting in his endeavours to become a reprefentative in that which was about to be chofen, Johnfon addreffed to the electors of Great Britain a pamphlet, entitled The Patriot;' the defign whereof is to guard them from impofition, and teach them to diftinguish that which, of itself feems fufficiently obvious, the difference between true and falfe patriotifin; but the madnefs of the people was then at its height, and they needed to be told how often in their lucid intervals they had lamented the deceits practifed on them by artful and defigning men. With this view, he defcribes a patriot, as one whofe public conduct is regulated by one fingle motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for himfelf, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor refentment, but refers every

thing to the common intereft. These, and other marks of patriotifm by him pointed out, he allows to be fuch as artifice may counterfeit, or folly mifapply; but he enumerates feveral characteristical modes of fpeaking and acting, which may prove a man not to be a patriot; which difcrimination he illuftrates in fundry inftances, by pointed references to the conduct of many of those men who were courting the favour of the people: these, an abridgment would injure, and I therefore give them in his own words: It may fafely be pronounced, that those men are no patriots, who, when the national honour was vindicated in the fight of Europe, and the Spaniards having invaded what they call their own, had fhrunk to a difavowal of their attempt, and a relaxation of their claim, would ftill have instigated us to a war for a bleak and barren fpot in the Magellanic ocean, of which no ufe could. ✦ be made, unless it were a place of exile for the hypocrites of patriotifm.--He that wishes to fee his country robbed of its rights, cannot be a patriot. That man, therefore, is no patriot, who juftifies the ridiculous claims of American ufurpation; who endeavours to deprive the nation of its natural and lawful authority over its own colonies, thofe colonies which were fettled under Englifh protection, were conftituted by an English charter, and have been defended by English arms.

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fuppofe, that, by fending out a colony, the nation eftablished an independent power; that when, by

indulgence and favour, emigrants are become rich, < they fhall not contribute to their own defence, but at their own pleasure, and that they shall not be

included,

⚫ included, like millions of their fellow fubjects, in ⚫ the general system of representation, involves fuch

an accumulation of abfurdity, as nothing but the ⚫ fhew of patriotism would palliate.'-- His last defignation of the class of men whom he means to stigmatife, is the following: That man is not a patriot, who denies his governors their due praise, ⚫ and who conceals from the public the benefits which they receive. Thofe, therefore, can lay no claim to this illuftrious appellation, who impute want of public fpirit to the late parliament; an affembly of men, whom, notwithstanding fome fluctuations of counfel, and fome weaknefs of agency, the nation must always remember with gratitude, fince it is ⚫ indebted to them for a very ample conceflion in the refignation of protections, and a wife and honest attempt to improve the conftitution, in the new judicature inftituted to try elections.'

Johnfon publifhed alfo in 1775, a pamphlet intitled, Taxation no Tyranny,' an anfwer to the refolutions and addrefs of the American congrefs; in which, as the ground of his argument, he affumes as felf-evident, the following propofition: In all the parts of human knowledge, whether terminating in science merely fpeculative, or operating upon life private or civil, are admitted fome fundamental principles, or common axioms, which, being generally received, are little doubted, and being little doubted, have been rarely proved.

Of these gratuitous and acknowledged truths, it is often the fate to become lefs evident by endeavours to explain them, however neceffary fuch endeavours may be made by the misapprehenfions

• of

of abfurdity, or the fophiftries of intereft. It is ⚫ difficult to prove the principles of science, because < notions cannot always be found more intelligible

than those which are questioned. It is difficult to · prove the principles of practice, because they have, for the most part, not been discovered by inveftigation, but obtruded by experience; and the demonftrator will find, after an operofe deduction, that he has been trying to make that feen, which can ' be only felt.

Of this kind is the pofition that the fupreme power of every community has the right of requiring from all its fubjects, fuch contributions as are neceffary to the public fafety or public profperity, which was confidered by all mankind as comprifing the primary and effential condition of all political fociety, till it became difputed by thofe zealots of anarchy, 'who have denied to the parliament of Britain the right of taxing the American colonies.'

With much wit does he ridicule, and with force of reafoning refute, the arguments founded on the inability of the Americans to bear taxation, their powers of resistance, the stubbornness of their tempers, and the profits accruing to this country by its commerce with them: thefe, he tells us, are used only as auxiliaries to that other, which, as he briefly states it, is that to tax the colonies is ufurpation and oppreffion, an in' vasion of natural and legal rights, and a violation of thofe principles which support the conftitution of the English government.

He next confiders the legal confequences of migration from a mother-country, and afterwards proceeds to an examination of that fallacious pofition, that from

an

an Englishman nothing can be taken but by his own confent, and of the argument grounded thereon, that the Americans, being unreprefented in parliament, cannot be faid to have confented in their corporate capacity, and that, refusing their confent as individuals, they cannot legally be taxed.

Of this he fays, that it is a pofition of a mighty found, but that every man that utters it, with what< ever confidence, and every man that hears it, with whatever acquiefcence, if confent be fuppofed to imply the power of refufal, feels to be falfe, for that, in wide extended dominions, the bufinefs of the public must be done by delegation, and the choice of delegates is by a felect number of electors, who are often far from unanimity in their choice; and where the numbers approach to equality, almost half muft be governed, not only without, but against their choice.' Of thofe, who are not electors, he fays :--they ftand idle and helplefs fpectators of the commonweal, wholly unconcerned in the government of themfelves.' The refolution of the Congrefs, that their ancestors, who first fettled the colonies, were, at the time of their emigration from the mother-country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural-born fubjects within the realm of England, he admits; but granting it, he contends, that their boast of original rights is at an end, and that, by their emigration, they funk down into colonists, governed by a charter; and that though, by fuch emigration, they had not forfeited, furrendered, or loft, any of those rights, they had loft them by natural effects, that is to fay, had abandoned them. A man,' fays he,' can

be but in one place at once; he cannot have the ad'vantages