is now fo amended by the conceffions which, fince the restoration, have been made by the crown to the people, that lefs is to be feared from princes or their minifters, who are ever refponfible for their conduct, than from artful and defigning men, ftimulated by ambition, or provoked by disappointment, and furnished with the fafcinating powers of popular eloquence.

I forbear to animadvert on the two next fucceeding pamphlets, Falkland's iflands,' and The Patriot;" but shall obferve that the last of the four, Taxation no Tyranny,' has not only never received an answer, but the converse of the propofition has never yet been so proved, by arguments founded on legal principles, as to make a vindication of Johnson's reasoning neceffary, for any other purpose, than that of preventing the ignorant from being misled. The principle affumed by Johnson, 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,' is as felf-evident, as that obedience is due from children to parents, and is not refuted by the affertion, that the confent of thofe who are required thus to contribute, is neceffary, for, were it fo, what becomes of the right? Neither is the pofition, that taxation and representation are correlative, to be admitted as a principle of the English conftitution, seeing it does not, nor ever did, exift as a part of it; and that the far greater number of the fubjects of England, men who are not freeholders to a certain amount, copyholders, who are a third of the landholders in this kingdom, and all women, are unreprefented in parliament, and bound by laws enacted by the reprefentatives of others, but

in no sense of themselves. In cities, and boroughs, the reprefentation is often of the meaneft of the people; in London, for instance, where a mechanic, if he be a liveryman, has a vote, and a freeholder, wanting that qualification, though affeffed ever fo high to the land-tax, has none.

This affertion might poffibly have place in a state about to be founded, as none ever was or is likely to be, on folemn agreement, or that political fiction called an original contract; but, the conftitution of a state already formed, is to be taken as we find it, Nor has any one of those who deny the right of a mothercountry to tax its colonies, attempted to prove an exemption, by any other arguments than are to be found in Mr. Locke's Effay on Government, a difcourse of general import, and which applies to no exifting constitution on earth *.

The above tracts, as they contain no evidence of a perfonal attachment of the author to those who, at the respective times of their appearance, had the direction of the public councils, are a refutation of all those flanders which they drew on him; and, as

I once had a conversation on this fubject with a nobleman, who afterwards attained to the height of power in the administration, and was against the prosecution of the American war; the same who was once heard to utter this ftabbing truth, that the fun of Great Britain's glory was then fet; who went no farther than to doubt of the right above spoken of; and, for this doubt he had no better a reason to urge, than that Cromwell, in his levies on the Americans for the common fervice, contented himfelf with a bare requifition of such supplies as they, in their discretion, fhould judge proportionate to their circumstances and abilities. The fame offer had been made by Mr. Grenville to the American agents here; but, being kept back from their conftituents, it failed of its effect.

the subjects of them, feverally, are questions of the greatest national importance, fufficiently distinguish him from those hireling fcribblers, who, in the contests of factions, are retained on the fide of either party, and whom the vulgar ftyle political writers. In like manner did Addison and Hoadly employ their talents: they were both friends of government, and wrote in defence of the public measures, and not only efcaped obloquy, but were and ftill are celebrated as lovers of their country.

I have hitherto forborne to speak, otherwise than in general terms, of Johnfon's political principles; but, the task of reviewing the tracts above cited, has revived in my memory many of his fentiments, which, at different times, he communicated to me, on the fubjects of government, the English conftitution, and the motives to party oppofition. That he was a tory, he not only never hesitated to confefs, but, by his frequent invectives against the whigs, was forward to proclaim yet, was he not so befotted in his notions, as to abett what is called the patriarchal scheme, as delineated by Sir Robert Filmer and other writers on government; nor, with others of a more fober caft, to acquiefce in the opinion that, becaufe fubmiffion to governors is, in general terms, inculcated in the Holy Scriptures, the refiftance of tyranny and oppreffion is, in all cafes, unlawful: he feemed rather to adopt the fentiments of Hooker on the subject, as explained by Hoadly, and, by confequence, to look on fubmiffion to lawful authority as a moral obligation: he, therefore, condemned the conduct of James the fecond during his fhort reign; and, had he been a fubject of that weak and infatuated monarch, would,

I am perfuaded, have refifted any invasion of his right, or unwarrantable exertion of power, with the fame fpirit, as did the prefident and fellows of Magdalen college, or thofe confcientious divines the feven bifhops. This difpofition, as it leads to whiggifm, one would have thought, might have reconciled him to the memory of his fucceffor, whofe exercife of the regal authority among us merited better returns than were made him; but, it had no fuch effect: he never fpoke of king William but in terms of reproach, and, in his opinion of him, seemed to adopt all the prejudices of jacobite bigotry and rancour,

For the English conftitution, as originally framed, he ever expreffed a profound reverence. He understood it well, and had noted in his mind the changes it had at various periods undergone, that is to fay, first, in the reign of Hen. VII, when the yeomanry were put into a state of competition with the nobility; afterwards, when by the abolition of tenures, and the putting down the court of wards and liveries, occafion was given to Sir Harbottle Grimfton to fay that, in that tranfaction, neither did the crown know what it loft, nor the people what they had gained; and laftly, by the erecting a monied, in oppofition to the landed, intereft, and the introduction of the fcience and practice of funding.

He, therefore, looked not on Magna Charta as the palladium of our liberties, (knowing full well, that, excepting that chapter thereof, which has been fo often partially cited, that is to fay, with the omiffion of the words, vel per legem terræ *, very little of the whole

Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut diffcifietur

de

whole ftatute will apply to the conftitutión in its now improved state;) but to the subsequent conceffions of the crown in favour of the people, fuch as are the petition of right, the habeas-corpus act, the bill of rights, and numerous other statutes of a like beneficial tendency.

To party-oppofition he ever expreffed great averfion; and, of the pretences of patriots, always spoke with indignation and contempt. He partook of the fhort-lived joy that infatuated the public, when Sir Robert Walpole ceased to have the direction of the national councils, and trusted to the profeffions of Mr. Pulteney and his adherents, who called themselves the country-party, that all elections fhould thenceforward be free and uninfluenced, and that bribery and corruption, which were never practised but by courtiers and their agents, fhould be no more. A few weeks, nay, a few days, convinced Johnson, and indeed all England, that what had affumed the appearance of patriotism, was perfonal hatred and inveterate malice in fome, and in others, an ambition for that power, which, when they had got it, they knew not how to exercise. A change of men, and in some respect, of measures, took place; Mr. Pulteney's ambition was gratified by a peerage; the wants of his affociates were relieved by places, and feats at the public boards; and, in a fhort time, the stream of government refumed its former channel, and ran with a current as even as it had ever done.

de libero tenemento fuo, vel libertatibus, vel liberis confuetudinibus fuis, aut utlegatur, aut exuletur, aut aliquo modo deftruatur, nec fuper eum ibimus, nec fuper eum mittemus, nifi per legale judicium parium fuorum, vel per legem terræ. Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus justițiam, vel rectum.

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