fible from the ftate in which the seven years war had left Saxony. Saxony during the whole of that dreadful period having been in the hands of an exasperated enemy, rigorous by refentment, by nature, and by neceffity, was obliged to bear, in a manner, the whole burthen of the war; in the intervals, when their allies prevailed, the inhabitants of that country were not better treated.

The moderation and prudence of the prefent Elector, in my opinion, rather perhaps refpites the troubles than fecures the peace of the Electorate. The offer of the fucceffion to the Crown of Poland is truly critical, whether he accepts, or whether he declines it. If the States will confent to his acceptance, it will add to the difficulties, already great, of his fituation between the King of Pruffia and the Emperor. But these thoughts lead me too far, when I mean to speak only of the interior condition of thefe Princes. It has always, however, fome neceffary connexion with their foreign politics.-Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791.

TACITUS AND MACHIAVEL.

IT has been faid (and, with regard to one of them, with truth) that Tacitus and Machiavel, by their cold way of relating enormous crimes, have in fome fort appeared not to disapprove them; that they feem a fort of profeffors of the art of tyranny, and that they corrupt the minds of their readers by not expreffing the deteftation and horror that naturally belong to horrible and deteftable proceedings.- -Speech on Mr. Fox's India Bill.

TOWNSHEND (CHARLES.)

THERE are many young members in the Houfe {fuch of late has been the rapid fucceffion of public men) who never faw that prodigy Charles Town

fhend; nor of courfe know what a ferment he was able to excite in every thing by the violent ebullitioni of his mixed virtues and failings. For failings he had undoubtedly-many of us remember them; we are this day confidering the effect of them. But he had no failings which were not owing to a noble caufe; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immederate paffion for fame; a paffion which is the inftinct of all great fouls. He worshipped that goddess wherefoever fhe appeared; but he paid his particular devotions to her in her favorite habitation, in her chofen temple, the Houfe of Commons. Befides the characters of the individuals that compofe our body, it is impoffible, Mr. Speaker, not to obferve, that this Houfe has a collective character of its own. That character, too, however imperfect, is not unamiable. Like all great public collections of men, you poffefs a marked love of virtue, and an abhorrence of vice. But among vices, there is none, which the Houfe abhors in the fame degree with obftinacy. Obftinacy, Sir, is certainly a great vice; and in the changeful ftate of political affairs it is frequently the caufe of great mifchief. It happens, however, very unfortunately, that almost the whole line of the great and mafculine virtues, conftancy, gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness, are clofely allied to this difagreeable quality, of which you have so just an abhorrence; and in their excefs, all thefe virtues very eafily fall into it. He, who paid fuch a punctilious attention to all your feelings, certainly took care not to fhock them by that vice which is the moft difguftful to you.

That fear of difpleafing those who ought moft to be pleased, betrayed him fometimes into the other extreme. He had voted, and in the year 1765, had been an advocate for the ftamp-act. Things and the difpofition of men's minds were changed. In fhort, the ftamp-act began to be no favorite in this Houfe. He therefore attended at the private meet

ing, in which the refolutions moved by a Right Honourable Gentleman was fettled; refolutions leading to the repeal. The next day he voted for that' repeal; and he would have fpoken for it too, if an illness (not as was then given out a political) but to my knowledge, a very real illness, had not preventedit.

In

The very next feffion, as the fafhion of this world paffeth away, the repeal began to be in as bad an odour in this Houfe as the ftamp-act had been in the feffion before. To conform to the temper which began to prevail, and to prevail mostly amongst those most in power, he declared, very early in the winter, that a revenue must be had out of America. ftantly he was tied down to his engagements by fome, who had no objection to fuch experiments, when made at the coft of perfons for whom they had no particular regard. The whole body of courtiers drove him onward. They always talked as if the king flood in a fort of humiliated ftate, until fomething of the kind fhould be done.

Here this extraordinary man, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, found himfelf in great ftraits. To please univerfally was the object of his life; but to tax and to pleafe, no more than to love and to be. wife, is not given to men. However he attempted it. To render the tax palatable to the partizans of American revenue, he made a preamble, ftating the neceffity of fuch a revenue. To close with the American diftinction, this revenue was external, or port duty; but again, to soften it to the other party, it was a duty of fupply. To gratify the colonists, it was laid on British manufactures; to fatisfy the merchants of Britain, the duty was trivial, and (except that on tea, which touched only the devoted East India company) on none of the grand objects of commerce. To counterwork tne American contraband, the duty on tea was reduced from a fhilling to three-pence. But to fecure the favour of thofe

who would tax America, the fcene of collection was changed, and, with the reft, it was levied in the colo mes. What need I fay more? This fine-fpun scheme had the ufual fate of all exquifite policy. But the original plan of theies, and the mode of executing that plan, both arofe, fingly and folely, from a love of our applaufe. He was truly the child of the Houfe. He never thought, did, or faid any thing but with a view to you. He every day adapted himself to your difpofition; and adjufted himfelf before it, as at a looking-glass.

He had obferved (indeed it could not escape him) that feveral perfons, infinitely his inferiors in all refpects, had formerly rendered themselves confider able in this Houfe by one method alone. They were a race of men (I hope in God the fpecies is extinct) who, when they rofe in their place, no man living could divine, from any known adherence to parties, to opinions, or to principles; from any order or fyftem in their politics; or from any fequel or connexion in their ideas, what part they were going to take in any debate. It is aftonishing how much this uncertainty, efpecially at critical times, called: the attention of all parties on fuch men. All eyes were fixed on them, all ears open to hear them; each party gaped, and looked alternately for their vote, almost to the end of their fpeeches. While. the House hung in this uncertainty, now the hear-hims rofe from this fide-now they rebellowed from the other; and that party to whom they fell at length from their tremulous and dancing balance, always received them in a tempeft of applaufe. The fortune of such men was a temptation too great to be refifted by one, to whom, a fingle whiff of incenfe withheld gave much greater pain, than he received delight, in the clouds of it, which daily rofe about him from the prodigal fuperftition of innumerable admirers. He was a candidate for contradictory honours; and his great aim was to make thofe agree in admiration

of him who never agreed in any thing else.-Speech on American Taxation.

WALPOLE, (MR.)

IN ftating that Walpole was driven by a popular clamour into a measure not to be justified, I do not mean wholly, to excufe his conduct. My time of obfervation did not exactly coincide with that event; but I read much of the controverfies then carried on. Several years after the contefts of parties had ceafed, the people were amufed, and in a degree warmed with them. The events of that æra feemed then of magnitude, which the revolutions of our time have reduced to parochial importance; and the debates, which then fhook the nation, now appear of no higher moment than a difcuffion in a veftry. When I was very young, a general fafhion told me I was to admire fome of the writings againft that Minister; a little more maturity taught me as much to defpife them. I obferved one fault in his general proceeding. He never manfully put forward the entire ftrength of his caufe. He temporifed; he managed; and adopting very nearly the fentiments of his adverfaries; he oppofed their inferences.-This, for a political commander, is the choice of a weak poft. His adverfaries had the better of the argument, as he handled it, not as the reafon and juftice of his caufe enabled him to manage it.Regicide

Peace.

WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ.

ATTEND, I pray you, to the fituation and profperity of Benfield, Hastings, and others of that fort. The laft of these has been treated by the Company with an afperity of reprehenfion that has no parallel. They lament," that the power of difpofing of their property for perpetuity, fhould fall into fuch

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