no liberty where a ferocious mob is fuffered to fuperfede the law. Very true. This is what the Doctor has been told a thousand times, but he never would believe it. He ftill continued to bawl out," The fun-fhine of reafon will affuredly chafe away and diffipate the mifts of darkness and error: and when the majesty of the people is infulted, or they feel themselves oppreffed by any fet of men, they have the power to redrefs the grievance." So the people of Birmingham, feeling their majefty infulted by a fet of men (and a very impudent fet of men too) who audaciously attempted to perfuade them that they were all flaves and idolaters," and to feduce them from their duty to God and their country, rofe to redress the grievance. And yet he complains-Ah! fays he, but my good townfmen, you mistake the matter; For in all fcruples of this nature And therefore he fays to the people of Birmingham: " You have been mifled." But had they fuffered themselves to be mifled by himself into an infurrection against the Government; had they burnt the churches, cut the throats of the clergy, and hung the magiftrates, military officers and nobility to the lamp-pofis, would he not have faid that they exercised a facred right? Nay, was not the very feftival, which was the immediate caufe of the riots, held exprefsly to celebrate fcenes like thefe? to celebrate the inglorious triumphs of a mob? The fourteenth of July was a day marked with the blood of the innocent, and, eventually, the deftruction of an empire. The events of that day muft ftrike horror to every heart except that of a deistical philofopher, and would brand with eternal infamy any other nation but France; which, thanks to the benign influence of the Rights of Man, has made fuch a progrefs in ferociousness, murder, facrilege, and every fpecies of infamy, that the horrors of the 14th of July are already forgotten. "What we celebrate we muft approve; and does not the man who approved of the events of the fourteenth of July, blush to complain of the Birmingham riots?" P. 16. On the labours of the Doctor and his friends, under pretence of a "Reform in Parliament," this impartial reafoner thus expreffes himself: "The Doctor, and his fellow-labourers, who have lately emigrated to Botany Bay, have been continually bawling cut, "A Reform of Parliament." The fame vifionary delufion feems to have pervaded all reformers in all ages. They do not confider what can be done, but what they think ought to be done. They have no calculating principle to direct them to difcover whether a reform will cost them more than it is worth or not. They do not fet down to count the coft; but, the object being as they think defirable, the means are totally difregarded. If the reformers in France had fat down to count the coft, I do not believe they were villains enough to have pursued their plan plan as they did. To fave a tenth part of their income, they have given the whole, or rather it has been taken from them. To preferve the life of a perfon now and then perhaps unjustly condemned, they have drenched the country with the blood of the innocent. Even the Baftile, that terrible monument of tyranny which has been painted in fuch frightful colours, contained but two ftate prifoners when it was forced by the mob; and the reformers, to deliver thefe two prifoners, and to guard others from a like fate, have erected Baftiles in every town and in every ftreet. Before the Revolution there were only two ftate prifoners, there are now above two hundred thoufand. Do thefe people calculate? Certainly not. They will not take man as they find him, and govern him upon principles eftablished by experience; they will have him to be a faultle's nonfter that the world ne'er faw," and wifh to govern him according to a fyftem that never was, or can be brought into practice. Thefe waking dreams would be of no more confequence than thofe of the night, were they not generally purfued with an unjuftifiable degree of obftinacy and intrigue, and even villainy; and did they not, being always adapted to flatter and inflame the lower orders of the people, often baffle every effort of legal power. Thus it happened in England in the reign of Charles the First; and thus has it happened in France. Some trifling innovation always paves the way to the fubversion of a Government, The axe, in the foreft, humbly befought a little piece of wood to make it a handle: the foreft, confifting of fo many itately trees, could not, without manifeft cruelty, refufe the "humble" requeft; but, the handle once granted, the before contemptible tool began to lay about it with fo much violence, that in a little time not a tree nor even a fhrub was standing. That a Parliamentary Reform was the handle by which the English revolutionifts intended to effect the deftruction of the Conftitution, need not be infifted on, at least if we believe their own repeated declarations. Paine, and fome others, clearly expreffed themfelves on this head: the Doctor was more cautious while in England. but, fafely arrived in his " afylum," he has been a little more undifguifed. He fays, the troubles in Europe are the natural offspring of the " forms of Government" that exift there; and that the abufes fpring from the "artificial diftinctions in fociety." P. 26. Our American then shows how fully the horrors of France were foreseen by multitudes here, and reduces the Doctor to the following awkward dilemma; too ftrongly expreffed, yet not eafy to be altogether eluded. "Either he forefaw the confequences of the French Revolution, or he did not foresee them. If he did not, he muft confefs that his penetration was far inferior to that of his antagonists, and even to that of the multitude of his countrymen; for they all forefaw them. If he did foresee them, he ought to blush at being called the "friend of human happinefs;" for, to forefee fuch dreadful calamities, and to form a deliberate plan for bringing them upon his country, he must have a difpofition, truly diabolical. If he did not foresee them, he must have an understanding little fuperior to that of an ideot: If he did, he must have the heart of a Marat. Let him choofe." P. 35. That That he either forefaw, or approves, our author thinks fufficiently clear from his fending his fon to become a French citizen in the midft of the mallacres. With one or two more extracts, though many well deferve to be taken, we thall finish our account of this tract. Our author thus luftrates the right of the people of England to reject French liberty if they thought proper; a right which we hope they will always have the fpirit to vindicate, even if their maffes of banditi were actually landed on our fhores. "Even fuppofe his intended plan of improvement had been the best in the world instead of the worst: The people of England had certainly a right to reject it. He claims, as an indubitable right, the ight of thinking for others, and yet he will not permit the people of England to think for themjelves. Paine fays, "What a whole nation wills it has a right to do." Confequently, what a whole nation does not will it has a right not to do. Roufleau fays, "The majority of a people has a right to force the reft to be free;" but even the infane Socrates of the National Affembly" has never, in all his abfurd reveries, had the folly to pretend, that a club of diffenting malecontents has a right to force a whole nation to be free. If the English chose to remain flaves, bigots, and idolaters, as the Doctor calls them, that was no bufinefs of his; He had nothing to do with them. He fhould have let them alone; and perhaps, in due time, the abufes of their Government would have come to that "natural termination," which he trufts "will guard against all future abufes." But no, faid the Doctor, I will reform you-I will enlighten you--I will make you free. You fhall not, fay the people. But I will! fays the Doctor. By fay the People, you fhall not!" And when Ahitophel faw that his counsel was not followed, he faddled his afs, and arofe, and gat bim home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the fepulchre of bis father." P. 36. Our last fpecimen fhall be the fable of the PoT-SHOP, which is happily devifed, and happily expreffed. It is strongly in the ftyle of Swift. THE POT-SHOP, A FABLE. "In a Pot-fhop that was well stocked with ware of all forts, a dife contented ill-formed pitcher unluckily bore the fway. One day, after the mortifying neglect of feveral customers, "Gentlemen," faid he, addrefling himfelf to his brown brethren in general, "Gentlemen, with your permiffion, we are a fet of tame fools, without ambition, without courage. Condemned to the vileft ufes, we fuffer all without murmuring. Let us dare to declare ourselves, and we fhall foon fee the difference. That fuperb ewer, which, like us, is but earth; thofe gilded jars, vales, china, and in fhort all thofe elegant nonfenfes, whofe colours and beauty have neither weight nor folidity, muft yield to our frength, and give place to our fuperior merit," "This civic harangue was received with peals of applause, and the pitcher (chofen Prefident) became the organ of the Affembly. Some, however, more moderate than the reft, attempted to calm the minds of the multitude. But all thofe which are called jordans or chamber pots, were become intractable. Eager to vie with the bowls and cups, they were impatient almoft to madnefs to quit their obfcure abodes, and to fhine upon the table, kifs the lip, and ornament the cup board. "In vain did a wife water-jug (fome fay it was a platter) make them a long and ferious difcourfe upon the peacefulness of their vocation; "Thofe," fays he, "who are deftined to great employments are rarely the most happy. We are all of the fame clay, 'tis true, but he who made us, formed us for different functions. One is for ornament, another for ufe. The potts the leaft important are often the most neceffary. Our employments are extremely different, and fo are our ta lents." This had a wonderful effect: the most ftupid began to open their ears. Perhaps it would have fucceeded, if a greafe-pot had not cried out with a decifive tone; "You reafon like an afs; to the Devil with you, and your filly leffons." "Now the fcale was turned again. All the horde of jordans, pans and pitchers applauded the fuperior eloquence and reafon of the greafe-pot. In short, they determined on the enterprize; but a difpute arose who fhould be chief: All would command, and none obey. It was then you might have heard a clutter! Pots, pans and pitchers, mugs, jugs, and jordans, all put themfelves in motion at once; and fo quick and fo wifely were their operations conducted, that the whole was foon changed-not into china, but rubbish." P. 50. Many are the striking parts of this publication befides what our limits would allow us to cite. The maffacre of the prifoners at Orleans, from Dr. Moore, with the comments of our author, p. 20. His proof of the falfehood of the pretence that the league against France has been the caufe of the inhuman conduct of the French to each other, p. 32.; and the accounts of, and remarks on, the Addreffes, are all excellent ; and we doubt not that the whole will be of general fervice here, by fhowing in what light our contefts are viewed by the moft intelligent perfons in America. The time will come, we hope and truft, when to excite difcontent and rebellion against governments will be univerfally confidered as a crime. too atrocious to be palliated by any fpecioufnefs of theory. The evil of fuch conduct is real, certain, and immediate, though in extent beyond calculation; the good precarious and uncertain, liable to be loft by very little wickednefs, by a very trifling intervention of thofe paflions without which mankind have never yet been found to exift. ART. ART. VII. Afhort Acoount of the Plague, or Malignant Fever, Lately prevalent in Philadelphia: with a Statement of the Proceedings, that took place on the Subject, in different Parts of the United States, by Mathew Carey. 8vo. pp. 92. price is. Philadelphia, printed. London, re-printed: Darton and Harvey, Grace-Church-Street, &c. 1794. THIS HI8 pamphlet also, is of American origin, and curious, on a very different account: it defcribes a dreadful diforder, little inferior in malignity to the plague itself.Of the ravages committed by the yellow fever in Philadel phia, in the fummer and autumn of the last year, we have all heard, but the extent of the mifchief, and many curious and interefting circumftances attending it, are not fo well known. As the little tract before us appears to contain a faithful narrative of all the principal facts, we fhall lay fuch parts of it before our readers as feem moft worthy of notice. The author begins, by defcribing the ftate of Philadelphia, prior to the irruption of the fever. The population of Philadelphia had increafed within a very few years, fo confiderably, that notwithstanding a very great increase in buildings, many new houses having been added to almost every street, the demand for them was fo great, as to raise the rents to an extravagant height. Luxury, the ufual concomitant of prosperity, was gaining ground daily, the number of coaches, chariots, chairs, &c. fet up by men in the middling ranks of life, was hardly credible. But the time approached, when this profperous ftate of affairs was to be changed, and to give way to the extremeft diftrefs and mifery. The yellow fever made its first appearance at the latter end of July. A child of Dr. Hodges, probably, the writer fays, the first victim, was taken ill the 27th of July, and died the 7th of Auguft. But the progrefs of the difeafe foon became much more rapid, and it deftroyed the patients frequently in two or three days, and fometimes in less than twenty-four hours.-On the origin of the difeafe, there appears to have been a variety of opinions, fome attribute it to a cargo of decayed coffee, with other putrid vegetable and animal matter, which lay for a long time on one of the wharfs; others thought it was occafioned by the unusual heat and duration of the fummer. Others, that it was brought by the crew of a veffel from Martinico, or by the Sans Culottes privateer, and that the extreme heat of the weather exalted its malignity, and rendered the people more fufceptible of infection, |