of men were foured by the interpofition of undue influence, the laws had not loft their force. The forty-fifth number of the North Briton, that poor milk and water paper, is an undeniable proof. What then has wrought fo fudden a change in the temper and difpofition of the people, that they now countenance the most audacious and wicked libels? Are the courts of justice depraved and impure; and do they, out of spite and malice, contradict and oppose them? Where fhall we look for the origin of this relaxation of the laws, and of all government? How comes. this JUNIUS to have broke through the cobwebs of the law, and to range uncontrouled, unpunished, through the land? The myrmidons of the court have been long, and are still, pursuing him in vain. They will not spend their time upon me, or you, or you. No; they disdain fuch vermin, when the mighty boar of the foreft, that has broke through all their toils, is before them.. But what will all their efforts avail? No fooner has he wounded one, than he lays down another dead at his feet. For my part, when I saw his attack upon the King, I own my blood ran cold. I thought he had ventured too far, and that there was an end of his triumphs. Not that he had not afferted many bold truths. Yes, there are in that compofition many bold truths, by which a wife prince might profit. It was the rancour and venom with which I was ftruck. In these respects the North Briton is as much inferior to him, as in ftrength, wit, and judgment. But while I expected from this daring flight his final ruin and fall, behold him still foaring higher, and coming down souse upon bothe houfes of parliament. Yes, he did make you his quarry, and

ftill bleed from the wounds of his talons. You crouched, and you still crouch, beneath his rage. Nor has he dreaded the terrors of your brow, Sir," [the expreffion could not have been more hap

pily used than in addreffing fir FLETCHER NORTON, then fpeaker] "--he has attacked even you---he has---and I believe you have no reason to triumph in the encounter. In short, after carrying away our royal eagle in his pounces, and dashing him against a rock, he has laid you proftrate. King, lords, and commons, are but the fport of his fury. Were he a member of this house, what might not be expected from his knowledge, his firmness, and integrity! He would be easily known by his contempt. of all danger, by his penetration, by his vigour. Nothing could efcape his vigilance and activity. Bad minifters could conceal nothing from his fagacity, nor could promises, or threats, induce him to conceal any thing from the public."

Mr. BURKE returns from these digreffive remarks on JUNIUS to his leading point, the relaxation of the laws and of government.. "What is the cause," he asks, "of this general aversion to law, this univerfal confpiracy against government? It does not arise from the natural depravity of the people, nor from the accidental misbehaviour of our courts of law. The whole is chargeable upon. administration. The minifters are the grand criminals. It is their malverfation and unconstitutional encroachments, that have roused. up in the nation this spirit of oppofition, which tramples under foot all law, order, and decorum. Till they are removed and punished, the kingdom will be a scene of anarchy and confusion.”

On the fourteenth of December in the same feffion, Mr. BURKE gave the warmest encouragement and moft ftrenous fupport to governor PoWNALL'S intimation of his defign to fubinit to the committee on the mutiny bill a clause for restraining the difcretionary power of magiftrates to call out the military. Such a power was then looked upon by Mr. BURKE as tending to annihilate the civil authority; to deftroy the liberty and perfonal.

fecurity

fecurity of the fubject; and to expofe the officers and soldiers of his majesty's forces to the most dangerous fnares. Mr. BURKE lived to fee fome extraordinary regulations of that power; but in order to be fatisfied of their falutary effects, we must wait the result of a judicial inquiry into the late proceedings at Pancras. We fhall then know whether the office now held by his royal highness the duke of York is merely nominal; or whether Mr. ADDINGTON, Mr. CONANT, or any Bow-ftreet runner, is not in reality commander in chief of the military forces of Great Britain.

After the Christmas recefs, on the twenty-fifth of January 1771, when the Spanish ambaffador's declaration concerning Falkland's Ifland, and lord ROCHFORD's acceptance of it, were dif cuffed, Mr. BURKE commented upon thofe papers with much irony and ridicule. "I own," faid he, " that the fatisfaction from the Spaniards is very adequate to the injury, in respect to the crown, as they took a barren, defolate rock, and have reftored as barren, defolate a rock. But what satisfaction have the people received for all the treasure which has been expended? The minister promised we should have some recompence for our expences; but he has provided none-no recompence but this declaration, which is the joint produce of three kings; two plenipotentiaries; five fecretaries of ftate; one firft lord of the treafury; two first lords of the admiralty; two lords privy feal; (the old privy feal, I fuppofe, was worn out, and it was therefore necessary to have the convention ftamped by the virgin intaglia of a new statesman ;) five hundred meffengers; forty thousand feamen; thirteen thousand landmen; forty fail of the line; and three millions of money! I say this declaration, this wisdom, this Spirit of the miniftry, this vindication of the honour of the crown,

this fecurity of the rights of the subject, which all lies in a nutfhell, has cost the nation above three millions of money! The land-tax was prematurely voted; or rather, the country gentlemen have been duped out of five hundred thousand pounds. The trade of this country has been greatly diftreffed and injured; and all this for what? Why to procure that scandalous, base, and dishonourable declaration, which lies upon the table. I admit, however, that it is made on the true principles of trade and manufacture. It puts me in mind of a Birmingham button, which has paffed through an hundred hands, and, after all, is not worth three halfpence a dozen."

For the fatisfaction of fuch readers as may have forgotten, or may be unacquainted with the affair of Falkland's Island, and who, on that account, may not feel the full force of Mr. BURKE'S ironical and sarcastic remarks, it may be proper to ftate, that, in the month of June 1770, a Spanish commodore, having five frigates and fome fmaller veffels under his command, with all the apparatus necessary for a regular fiege, appeared off Port Egmont, an English settlement on one of Falkland's iflands; and, under the frivolous old pretence of the king of Spain's exclusive right to all the Magellanic regions, obliged captain FARMER and the garrifon to evacuate the place; but to prevent any very early intelligence of the outrage from being conveyed to England, the Spanish. commodore caufed the rudder of the only English floop then upon the station to be taken off and kept on fhore for twenty days,. when she was permitted to depart. On the arrival of this intelligence, the whole kingdom was inflamed at fo daring an infult on the British flag, and fuch a flagrant act of open hoftility. Parliament readily voted fupplies, advanced the land-tax, and applauded every measure that seemed calculated to obtain proper

atonement.

atonement for the injury. But after a mighty fhew and bustle of expenfive preparations, the British miniftry were content with a fort of equivocal declaration on the part of the king of Spain, faintly difavowing the enterprize, though the conductor of it was loaded with honours; engaging to restore Port Egmont; but at the fame time expressly ftating, that this restoration could not, and ought not, in any wise to affect the question of the Spanish king's prior right of fovereignty. It is impoffible rationally to account for the daftardliness of our cabinet on that occafion, without adopting, in a certain degree at leaft, the fentiments of JUNIUS. "Violence and oppreffion at home," fays that animated writer, "can only be fupported by treachery and fubmiffion abroad. When the civil rights of the people are daringly invaded on one fide, what have we to expect, but that their political rights fhould be deferted and betrayed in the fame proportion on the other? The plan of domestic policy which has been invariably purfued from the moment of his present majesty's acceffion, engroffes all the attention of his fervants. They know that the fecurity of their places depends upon their maintaining, at any hazard, the secret system of the closet. A foreign war might embarrass, an unfavorable event might ruin the minister, and defeat the deep-laid scheme of policy, to which he and his associates owe their employments. Rather than suffer the execution of that scheme to be delayed or interrupted, the king has been advised to make a public furrender, a folemn facrifice, in the face of all Europe, not only of the interests of his subjects, but of his own personal reputation, and of the dignity of that crown which his predeceffors have worn with honour." By comparing this with the extracts we have given from Mr. BURKE's expofition of the intrigues of the cabal, the reader will be enabled to judge

what