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"et idem nolle, ea demum vera amicitia est. "But this perfect harmony of sentiment is

not to be expected in this world. It is a great matter to agree in the great principles "of morals; in benevolence, in affection to "have one common mind. However, my "dear sir, the subject of politics is not an un"interesting concern. It is founded in mo"ral principle, it is a branch of morals, it "involves the character and the happiness of "a people, and to think and to act aright in "it, must for ever be a serious duty of man. "I am persuaded that you act conscientiously “in your judgment of the two dreadful bills, “which are ready to receive the sanction of "the legislature, and with confidence in your "virtuous intention, I should not have_ob"truded my own opinion of these bills upon you, if your friendly letter had not invited "me to a discussion. You will permit me "therefore to lay my mind before you on "this subject.

"The convention bill, which has passed your house, is so boldly designed and so " artfully

.

artfully framed, as, with an appearance of "regulating the right of discussing and re"monstrating against the acts of ministerial "or legislative government, to preclude the "exercise of the right altogether, to render it "a mere name, a nullity. It is clogged with "such obstructions in it's first commence"ment, as to render it doubtful, whether a "meeting, however earnestly desired, can be ❝obtained at all. The clerk of the peace may "not be found, and from a variety of pleas "his official act may not take place. The "printer of the paper of the district may de"cline, may refuse to print the notice sent to

him; he is his own master, and I see no law "to force him; he may plead, that his paper is

preoccupied, he may delay it ad infinitum, and thus the application for a meeting may "in it's preparatory steps be again defeated or protracted beyond the period of relief. Dis"affection to the cause, subserviency to the "pleasure of government in such low venal "characters, and dependence on ministerial *favour, will suggest a thousand evasions. Is

"it fit that liberty should depend on the plea

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sure and will of such agents as these? Yet

to such the legislature has humbled it. Sup"posing that nothing of this adverse nature "should take place, yet a fortnight must in

tervene, before the meeting can assemble. "Has the loss of a fortnight been contempla"ted in ministerial and legislative movements "of the highest importance to the public wel"fare? How fatal to every remonstrance "against the present bills would the silence of

a fortnight have been! But even when as"sembled, to what purpose? A dictator, too

generally, the least enlightened, the least "virtuous of the kingdom, and, with but few

exceptions, appointed by the crown, or ra"ther by ministerial policy and foresight, ❝controls all the freedom of discussion and .66 argument, views with his jaundiced eye every look and word, arrests by his sove"reign mandate the progress of debate, seizes "the person of every one whom he shall deem "to offend against temperance and propriety, and thus reduces the meeting to a mere

“ mockery.

"mockery. Will any freedom or manliness

of debate lift up it's head under such re"straints? If, resenting the interference of an "ignorant, insolent and corrupt dictator, the "imposition of silence should be repelled, and "resistance to arrest should in any form be "offered, the meeting is dissolved, and after ❝an hour's continuance on the spot, though "in passive but indignant silence, the whole ❝ assembly is adjudged to military execution ❝and to the punishment of felons. This is the

regulation of political meetings with a ven "geance! No! in all sober construction, it is "the utter annihilation of them; and assu

redly was so designed, though not by you,

yet by the deep, designing, and profligate "authors of these laws. The children of this "world have ever been in their generation "wiser than the children of light.

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"Let me now examine the other, of still

more awful complexion, the treason and "sedition bill. I say, of more awful com"plexion, for a nation may bear to exist with"out being allowed to interfere with, or re

monstrate

monstrate against, it's political government: "but to have the walks of private life invaded "by a law of indefinite treason and sedition; "to have the moral sense of right and wrong "suppressed in it's effort to speak, by a law, "to the construction of which no limit can "be assigned; and banishment and death "denounced against sentiments, words and С، acts, which have been the habits of Englishmen, which have been sanctioned to them by every venerable character of English story; is to step at once the barrier of all temperate government, and pass into the "silent and dreary region of pure and proper "despotism. Law renounces the idea of "crimes under such definitions as these, "disaffection to government, tendency to "excite a dislike to the person and office of "the king, a dislike to the government as " established in state and church; by stating "nothing precisely, they comprehend every “thing, and leave to a man no security but "in passive silence and submission. In consonance with an odious law of that tyrant

"Hen.