"Hen. VIII, repealed even by his daughter "Mary, it is now treason to call in question "the title to the crown. What a whig thinks "of this title, and what the framers of the present bill may think of it, is a very se"rious question, which is now put to issue. "Mr. Burke, the apostle of fashionable po"litics, thinks it an absolute, unconditional, "hereditary right, claiming in defiance of, "and in contempt of all choice of the peo'ple. Whiggism has considered it as a con"ditional right, dependant on a settled com

pact of rights between the crown and the people, unquestionably valid, while this compact is adhered to, but null, when this compact is violated. A whig may con"tinue to think and speak and write as he "has been used to do; but court lawyers, "who have calculated the blessings of court "favour, ascending from a king's counsel "to a lord chancellor, may construe the "title to the crown in the unconditional

sense, and under this new act the old whig "notion may be found to be treason. The very revival in words of Hen. VIII's.

❝ law,

"law, may with good show of reason plead "the legislative authority for this new con"struction. One precedent of a decision in "a court of justice may establish the sense "of the law, and this once decided, the vital principle of the Revolution of 1688 is de❝stroyed, and therewith all it's active ener

t

gies, which preserve the sacred treasure of "a limited and well-tempered government. "Mr. Reeves has pronounced the existence "of dissenters to be a national curse, and "that their utter extermination would be a

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great blessing. The whole kingdom knows "Mr. Reeves's connections and patrons, "and this bill appears to be the opening and ❝ commencement of the great blessing, the "extermination of dissenters. Dissent is "founded in dislike of the doctrines and go"vernment of the church, and in dislike and "renunciation on the part of every dissenter of all establishment of religion what"ever. A dissenter cannot repel any scur"rilous publication against his religious principle and conduct; a dissenting minister 66 cannot from his pulpit discharge his duty

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"to his people, and to the rising generation, "in inculcating and defending the principles "of their common religion; a parent do his' "first and most serious duty to his children; "nor last of all, in any incidental occurrence "of social debate, can a dissenter reply to an attack upon himself and his religion: "all these acts, springing out of the very na"ture of dissent, and involved in the duty of every dissenter, cannot be done without 66 tending to excite a dislike to the church as "established by law, and incorporated in the government of these kingdoms. A dis66 senter may be as innocent as a babe of all 'hostility to the church, he commits her "with the most pleasant mind to all the sup

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port she can derive from argument, and "the protection of the state, but as a dis

senter he cannot think, he cannot speak, "he cannot act, without tending to excite a "dislike against the doctrines, œconomy, es"tablishment, and being of the church. By "this law his unavoidable duty is adjudged "to be a crime of the most awful magnitude. "This

VOL. I.

"This rod may not be immediately brought "forward in all it's terrour; the many may "be spared, not as an act of mercy but of "policy, and the few be selected as the sub"jects of vengeance; and when a favourable " moment occurs, the operation of this law may be let loose so as completely to effect "the wish of the virtuous Mr. Reeves, the "blessed deliverance of this kingdom by the 66 utter extermination of dissenters. The prosecutions, imprisonments, and executions necessary to this end, will shock the "humane and good less and less with every "progressive exhibition, and the whole be "conciliated under the plea of it's being a "wholesome though severe discipline for the general welfare.

"Thus, my dear sir, I have given you my "sentiments of these alarming bills. They 66 may not be executed to the full extent of "their malignancy; but the bare idea that "they may, that they are capable of this ex tent, that they are conceived in the spirit, "and are vested with all the power of ty66 ranny

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ranny by law, is enough to strike terrour "into every thinking mind. I behold in "them all the apparatus of the tyranny of

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imperial Rome, sanctioned by the forms "of popular and aristocratic orders of the state, executed by the medium of a regular "magistracy, and the whole enforced by a military establishment, which enchained "the whole empire. Such, and in some respects worse, is the spectacle presented to 60 us in these kingdoms. Whither can all "this tend, to what is it directed? Assu"redly to the same ends, for which the same "means and instruments have been applied

in every nation under Heaven, where li"berty has been destroyed. The peace of "the nation is a flimsy and stale pretence. "It is the peace of it's rulers, the ridding "them of every restraint, the suppressing

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every murmur, and preventing every effort "of a virtuous will, which may be opposed "to their views and measures. It is the lust "of unlimited power in a few, aided by a "weak and ill-founded panic of the wealthy, "who, instead of one generous concession, • 2

one