OBSERVATIONS

ON A LATE

PUBLICATION,

INTITULED,

"THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION."

P

ARTY divifions, whether on the whole operating for good or evil, are things infeparable from free government. This is a truth which, I believe, admits little difpute, having been established by the uniform experience of all ages. The part a good citizen ought to take in thefe divisions, has been a matter of much deeper controversy. But God forbid, that any controversy relating to our effential morals fhould admit of no decifion. It appears to me, that this queftion, like most of the others which regard our duties in life, is to be determined by our station in it. Private men may be wholly neutral, and entirely innocent: but they who are legally invefted with public truft, or ftand on the high ground of rank and dignity, which is trust implied, can hardly in any case remain indifferent, without the certainty of finking into infignificance; and thereby in effect deferting that poft in which, with the fullest authority, and for the wifest purposes, the laws and inftitutions of their country

have fixed them. However, if it be the office of thofe who are thus circumstanced, to take a decided part, it is no less their duty that it should be a sober one. It ought to be circumfcribed by the fame laws of decorum, and balanced by the fame temper, which bound and regulate all the virtues. In a word, we ought to act in party with all the moderation which does not abfolutely enervate that vigour, and quench that fervency of spirit, without which the best wishes for the public good muft evaporate in empty fpeculation.

It is probably from fome fuch motives that the friends of a very refpectable party in this kingdom have been hitherto filent. For these two years paft, from one and the fame quarter of politicks, a continual fire has been kept upon them; fometimes from the unwieldy column of quartos and octavos; fometimes from the light squadrons of occasional pamphlets and flying sheets. Every month has brought on its periodical calumny. The abuse has taken every shape which the ability of the writers could give it; plain invective, clumsy raillery, misrepresented anecdote *. No method of vilifying the measures, the abilities, the intentions, or the perfons. which compofe that body, has been omitted.

On their part nothing was oppofed but patience and character. It was a matter of the most ferious and indignant affliction to perfons, who thought themselves in confcience bound to oppofe a ministry, dangerous from its very conftitution, as well as its measures, to find themselves, whenever they faced their adverfaries, continually attacked on the rear by a set of men, who pretended to be actuated by motives fimilar to theirs. They faw that the plan long purfued with but too fatal a fuccefs, was to break the ftrength of this kingdom; by frittering down the bodies which compose it;

Hiftory of the Minority. Hiftory of the Repeal of the Stamp-act. Confiderations on Trade and Finances. Political Regifter, &c. &c.

by

by fomenting bitter and fanguinary animofities, and by diffolving every tie of focial affection and public trust. These virtuous men, fuch I am warranted by public opinion to call them, were refolved rather to endure every thing, than cooperate in that defign. A diverfity of opinion upon almost every principle of politicks had indeed drawn a strong line of feparation between them and fome others. However, they were defirous not to extend the misfortune by unneceffary bitterness; they wished to prevent a difference of opinion on the commonwealth from feftering into rancorous and incurable hostility. Accordingly they endeavoured that all past controverfies should be forgotten; and that enough for the day should be the evil thereof. There is however a limit at which forbearance ceafes to be a virtue. Men may tolerate injuries, whilst they are only perfonal to themselves. But it is not the first of virtues to bear with moderation the indignities that are offered to our country. A piece has at length appeared, from the quarter of all the former attacks, which upon every publick confideration demands an answer. Whilst persons more equal to this business may be engaged in affairs of greater moment, I hope I fhall be excused, if, in a few hours of a time not very important, and from fuch materials as I have by me (more than enough however for this purpose), I undertake to set the facts and arguments of this wonderful performance in a proper light. I will endeavour to state what this piece is; the purpose for which I take it to have been written; and the effects (fuppofing it should have any effect at all) it must neceffarily produce.

This piece is called, The prefent State of the Nation. It may be confidered as a fort of digeft of the avowed maxims of a certain political school, the effects of whofe doctrines and practices this country will feel long and feverely. It is made up of a farrago of almost every topick which has been agitated

tated in parliamentary debate, or private conversation, on national affairs, for these seven last years. The oldest controverfies are hauled out of the duft with which time and neglect had covered them. Arguments ten times repeated, a thousand times anfwered before, are here repeated again. Public accounts formerly printed and re-printed revolve once more, and find their old ftation in this fober meridian. All the common-place lamentations upon the decay of trade, the increase of taxes, and the high price of labour and provifions, are here retailed again and again in the fame tone with which they have drawled through columns of Gazetteers and Advertisers for a century together. Paradoxes which affront common fenfe, and uninteresting barren truths which generate no conclufion, are thrown in to augment unwieldy bulk, without adding any thing to weight. Bezaufe two accufations are better than one, contradictions are fet ftaring one another in the face, without even an attempt to reconcile them. And to give the whole a fort of portentous air of labour and information, the table of the house of commons is swept into this grand reservoir of politicks.

As to the compofition, it bears a striking and whimsical refemblance to a funeral fermon, not only in the pathetic prayer with which it concludes, but in the ftyle and tenor of the whole performance. It is piteously doleful, nodding every now and then towards dullness; well ftored with pious frauds, and, like most discourses of the fort, much better calculated for the private advantage of the preacher than the edification of the hearers.

The author has indeed fo involved his subject, that it is frequently far from being eafy to comprehend his meaning. It is happy for the publick that it is never difficult to fathom his defign. The apparent intention of this author is to draw the most aggravated, hideous, and deformed picture of the ftate

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