1769. To Serjeant Wr's Speech. first warrant as treasonable; afterwards that fevere appellation was dropped: why then, but to warrant and juftify an intention to treat Mr. Ws with feverity, was it ever affumed? Their 1- s it feems had followed the course of precedents; they had previoufly taken the opinions of the Attorney and Solicitor General, and how far they could opprefs Mr. W-s was the conftant fubject of their conferences after his arreft. No hardship, it is faid, was occafioned by this warrant: yet under this very identical warrant were W-s's papers feized, by means of which papers, fo illegally obtained, the noble peer and affociate have perfecuted him even to the ruin of his fair hopes and expectations in life, of his fortune, and, at this moment, he is imprifoned in confequence of it. It would have become the fecretaries to have fent for him, made him all the amends in their power, and to have discharged him from his confine ment; but they, artfully and difingenuously, offered to bail him, when they knew he was in confinement under an illegal warrant. For fear the meaning of clofe confinement should not be fufficiently un⚫derstood at the Tower, a particular verbal explanation was sent by these humane fecretaries, of what they defired his confinement fhould be; and what kind of imprisonment did they direct? Even that of the most atrocious ftate-prifoner; the fuppofed author of a libel was ordered to the confinement of a traitor; to see no friends, no relations; to be prevented from making proof of his innocence, for want of advice; and when the rigour of his confinement was relaxed, and softened, as they ftile it; to be able to communicate nothing in confidence to his friends, to his lawyers; but every word and action muft pafs the obfervation of two officers of the Tower. Such was the confinement to which Mr. W was doomed by Lord H -x; but this mode of imprifonment has been exercifed, we are told, in a more tyrannical degree than Mr. Ws experienced. I take it for granted, that thofe precedents of warrants for clofe imprisonment, which - 555 have been produced in fuch clouds, are juft; and I do moreover believe, that there is not a fpecies of tyranny which may not be warranted by the practice of the fecretary of state's office; but if thefe precedents were his guides, the noble peer had little of the fpirit of an Englishman, if, at the fight of fuch, he did not start and refufe to follow them. If thefe precedents were unknown to him, and the form new, the offence against the law was entirely his own, and he must be confidered as the author of the precedent; by which conduct he has raised and introduced a fpirit of examination, that will exert itself in censuring him, because it is plain he governed himself by rules inconfiftent with the laws of this country; and will ftigmatize the fecretary's office, because we now fee it is the custom of that office to purfue methods destructive of every barrier, which the wifdom of our ancestors interpofed between the power of the crown, and the liberty of the people. Thefe rules and customs the noble peer hath followed; nor does be give any reasonable hopes, that if it were in his power, he would not obferve the fame again; he expreffes no compunction, he does not confefs, that he has acted upon miftaken principles. But even if he had expreffed concern for the injury he has done, if he had not made an offer of indemnification at the fame time, you would not have accepted of fuch repentance. We all know upon whom the expence will light of indemnifying Mr. Ws for the injury he has received from the laws which the noble peer takes for his rule of conduct; that they are not the laws of this country, we all know likewife; yet fuch has been the economy of the Treafury, and fuch the obftinacy of the noble defendant, that I am firmly convinced, that roo,oool. would have been gladly expended towards maintaining them. But I hope and believe these things will be enquired into shortly in a proper place; you too, gentlemen of the jury, in your province in forming a verdict, will provide, that it may be an inftructive example to pofterity, by giving vindictive damages, which go hand in hand with exemplary juftice. Political 556 Political Thoughts.-Question answered. No Political Thoughts recommended to all of minifters, as if their patriotifm wa Parties. Though the people fhould be jealous of the leaft violation of the conftitution, they should refift with the greateft caution; for, unless the violation is manifeft, the oppofition will not be general, and the arm of a minifter is ftrengthened by a fruitless oppofition. A falfe patriot is a greater enemy to liberty than a tyrannical minister. The latter forges the chains for a day; the former rivets them for a century. A true patriot will be careful to reftrain the infolence and violence of the populace, left riots and tumults should oblige the civil magiftrate to call for the affiftance of the military, and furnith a pretence to a minifter to fix barracks in the heart of every city. Though dragooning is the most expeditious method of fecuring abitrary power, corrupting is the most effectual and most fafe. No man can be a true patriot who is liable to be corrupted; and none but men of the strictest honour, and the best morals, can withstand corruption. A vicious, profligate man may make a good minifter, but can never make a patriot; for the fear of punishment may keep him true to his truft, as a minifter, while nothing but the love of honour, virtue, and his country, even to enthufiafm, can carry a man through the difficulties of patriotifm. The fupporters of the Bill of Rights have fuffered more from the defertion of S. Vaughan, than they profitted by their own Readiness. The conftitution of England is fo fecured by the Revolution, that the crown need not be attacked in any oppofition. The people will be fools, if they fuffer a bad minister to escape; and a king fhould be too wife to fupport him. The prefent difputes feem rather for places than meafures, even for falaries than places, as fo many are contented with penfions; yet the people are gainers by thefe diffentions, for the feekers are as attentive checks to the conduct real. Those who made ufe of genera warrants exclaimed loudly against them when they ceafed to be minifters The man who fet the Americans in a flame while a minifter, now adds fut to encrease it, to distress those wh fucceeded him and we have feen the man who guided the pen for Numb. 45, moft ftrenuous in withing perdition to the unfortunate Author. If mock patriots can be popular, = minifter may be popular too, where power and profit are the only aim of both parties. A Friend to the British Conflitution. [London Packet.] ̧ To the AUTHOR of the LONDON MAGAZINE. SIR, Nuneaton, Nov. 18, 1769. Have sent you an answer to the Algebraical Queftion inferted in your laft Magazine, with a new queftion: your infertion thereof, will greatly oblige, Sir, Your most humble Servant, EDWARD PARNEL. An Anfwer to the Queflion in your laf. Let the firft legacyx, then, by the Question, the 2d 183-x, the 11th 10065-212, and 12th = 16287 — 34x, therefore 2 × 16287-34x+10065 21X 183 + x = 42456—88x= the fum of the legacies; whence 42456-88x must be a whole number, 1000 from whence the leaft value of x, in whole numbers, that will bring out that expreffion a whole number, will be found = 62; therefore the 1lt, 28, 3d,......12th legacies, are 62, 121, 183, 304, 487, 791, 1278, 2069, 3347, 5416, 8763, 14179 refpectively; and their fum 37000. A New Question. Given the bafe of a right-angled plane triangle, to determine the perpendicular and hypothenufe, when an indefinite right line, bifecting the vertical angle, will divide the greatest parallelogram that can be infcribed therein into two trapeziums, which are to each other in a given ratio. The 1769. 557 The HISTORY of PARTY during the PRESENT REIGN. IN Nour laft Magazine we endeavoured to apologize for the extravagance of the populace on fome recent occafions, and attributed their turbulence rather to the narrowness of their understandings than to the depravity of their hearts. They faw adminiftration weak, and had many reafons to believe it wicked; they faw the feats of magiftracy infulted with impunity, and beheld the fovereign himself almoft befieged in his palace, without any vigorous attempt of bringing the rioters to juftice. When they faw thefe things, faw the laws unexecuted, the prince neglected, and the whole kingdom in a state of confufion, they naturally attributed the fault to the minifter; they naturally confidered, that where a nation is distracted, the government is most commonly to blame; as licentioufnefs feldom prevails where juf tice is equally administered: hence they were offended, they were inflamed whenever the grand fource of all their calamities was mentioned with moderation; and thinking it impoffible that any difpationate man could be a friend, they treated all indifcriminately who combated their opinions, as the minions, the flaves, the panders of the miniftry. The leaders of the popular band having worked up the body of the nation to their purpose, the mild and the peace able were intimidated from appearing at any meetings, where national queftions were to be difcuffed: this afforded a fingular advantage to the heads of the oppofition, and they accordingly made the most of it; confcious of carrying every point as they pleafed, they came to their county and corporation meetings with their petitions ready written, and when they had terrified every diffenting voice from the affembly, triumphantly acquainted the world with the unanimity of their refolutions. . While their enemies were in this manner inceffantly harrafling them, the adminiftration was far from being idle, and yet it was not labouring to one falutary purpose. Instead of checking diforders at their first appearance, they timidly fuffered them to increafe, and then with a coward's defperation ran in to punish, what a very little prudence would have originally prevented: befides, inftead of Nov. 1769. gaining the confidence of the nation by actions, they vainly attempted to amufe it with words, and industriously fought for addreffes in approbation of their conduct from every county, corporation, and feminary, in which they pretended to the smallest influence. Many came particularly from Scotland, but ftill they no way advanced the reputation of government. The addreffers were ftigmatized, as the corrupt inftruments of a court, and fenfible people unanimously concurred, that it would be much wifer in the premier to fill the London Gazette with intelligence of use, than to ftuff it perpetually with invectives against his opponents, and indirect compliments to his own abilities. Matters, however, feem now approaching to a crifis; the flame of discontent is hourly gaining head, and the fate both of the ins and outs materially depends upon the existence or diffolution of the prefent parliament. It is a matter of much wonder with many, while adminiftration has fuch an inconfiderable number of friends thro the kingdom, to find that the oppofition fhould be counteracted by fo formidable a band of enemies; but the truth is, the difpaffionate and the fenfible are grown heartily weary of political difputes; experience has repeatedly convinced them, that profeffions of public fpirit are now-a-days wholly founded upon private intereft, and they fee, with an honeft indignation, the welfare of a great empire infamously trifled with, to promote the purposes of a few ambitious families; they recollect, moreover, that there is not a party, or faction, in being among us, but what has been occafionally at the head of our affairs, and made a fhameful market of the national profperity, the Rockingham only excepted; when they fee and confider thefe things, when they fee this Rockingham party diftracted in itself, and univerfally find the advocates for liberty more oppreffive than even the tyrants in power, as the latter at leaft allow the privilege of talking, they can difcover nothing advantageous in an alteration of minifters; they think it every whit as well to continue under their prefent fet of mafters, as crouch beneath the feet 4 B of |