cerned in the death of Cefar, by the rewards and the honors which they beftowed upon them; and they are now become a prey to affaffins and murderers; they bleed in the streets, in the temples, in the most secret retreats, and in the arms of their families; or they are difperfed, and fly wherever they hope to efcape the fury of their enemies.

Many are now prefent before you, happy in your protection, happy in witneffing the zeal which you entertain for the commonwealth, for the rights of your fellow-citizens, and for your own. Thefe refpectable citizens, we truft, will foon, by your means, be restored to a condition in which they can enjoy, together with you, all the honors of a free people; concur with you, in bestowing, and partake with you in receiving, the rewards which are due to fuch eminent fervices as you are now engaged to perform.

PART OF MR. ERSKINE'S SPEECH AGAINST MR. PITT, 1784.

MR. SPEAKER,

IT

T becomes us to learn, not from the minifter, but from the Throne itself, whether this country is to be governed by men, in whom the Houfe of Commons can confide, or whether we, the people of England's Reprefentatives, are to be the sport and football of any junto that may hope to rule over us, by an unfeen and unexplorable principle of government, utterly unknown to the Constitution. This is the great question, to which every public-fpirited citizen of this country fhould direct his view. A question which goes very wide of the policy to be adopted concerning India, about which very wife and very honeft men, not only might, but have, and did materially differ.

The total removal of all the executive fervants of the crown, while they are in the full enjoyment of the

confidence of that House, and indeed, without any other visible or avowed cause of removal, than because they do enjoy that confidence; and the appointment of others in their room, without any other apparent ground of felection than because they enjoy it not, is in my mind, a most alarming and portentous attack on the public freedom; because, though no outward form of the government is relaxed or violated by it, so as inftantly to supply the conftitutional remedy of oppofition, the whole fpirit and energy of the government is annihilated by it.

If the Right Honorable Gentleman retain his own. opinions, and if the House likewise retain its own, is it not evident that he came into office without the most diftant profpect of ferving the public? Is it not evident that he has brought on a struggle between executive and legislative authority, at a time when they are pointing with equal vigor, unity, and effect, to the common interefts of the nation?

The Right Honorable Gentleman may imagine that I take pleasure in making these obfervations. If fo, I can affure him, upon my honor, that it is far from being the cafe. So very far the contrary, that the inconveniencies which the country fuffers at this moment, from the want of a fettled government, are greatly heightened to my feelings, from the reflection that they are increased by his unguided ambition.

Our fathers were friends; and I was taught, from my infancy, to reverence the name of Pitt; an original partiality, which, inftead of being diminished, was ftrongly confirmed by an acquaintance with the Right Honorable Gentleman himself, which I was cultivating with pleasure, when he was taken from his profeffion into a different fcene. Let him not think that I am the lefs his friend, or the mean envier of his talents, because they have been too much the topic of panegyric here aiready, and both I and the public are now reaping the bitter fruits of thefe intemperate praifes

N

"It is good," faid Jeremiah, "for a man to bear the yoke in his youth;" and if the Right Honorable Gentleman had attended to this maxim, he would not, at fo early a period, have declared against a fubordinate fituation; but would have lent the aid of his faculties to carry on the affairs of this country, which wanted nothing but stability to render them glorious, instead of setting up at once for himself to be the first.

How very different has been the progrefs of my honorable friend who fits near me; who was not hatched at once into a minister, by the heat of his own ambition; but who, as it was good for him to do, in the words of the prophet, "bore the yoke in his youth;" paffed through the fubordinate offices, and matured his talents, in long and laborious oppofitions; arriving by the natural progrefs of his powerful mind, to a superiority of political wisdom and comprehenfion, which this House had long, with delight and fatisfaction, acknowledged.

To pluck fuch a man from the councils of his country in the hour of her diftreffes, while he enjoyed the full confidence of the Houfe, to give effect to vigorous plans for her intereft; and to throw every thing into confufion, by the introduction of other men, introduced, as it fhould feem, for no other purpofe than tọ beget that confufion, is an evil, which, if we cannot rectify, we may at leaft have leave to lament.

These evils are, however, imputed, by the Right Honorable Gentleman and his colleagues, to another fource; to the bill for the regulation of the Eaft Indies; from the mifchiefs of which they had stepped forth to fave the country; a language moft indecent in this House of Commons, which thought it their duty to the public to pafs it by a majority of above one hundred; but which was, however, to be taken to be deftructive and dangerous, notwithstanding that authority; because it had been difapproved by a majority of eighteen votes in the Houfe of Lords. Some of whofe opinions I reverence as confcientious and independent;

but the majority of that fmall majority voted upon principles which the forms of the Houfe will not permit me to allude to, farther than to fay, that individual Noblemen are not always Gentlemen.

EXTRACT FROM PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPT. 17, 1796.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,

THH

HE period for a new election of a citizen to adminifter the executive government of the United States, being not far diftant; and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must be employed in defignating the perfon, who is to be clothed with that important truft, it appears to me proper, efpecially as it may conduce to a more diftinct expreffion of the public voice, that I fhould now apprife you of the refolution I have formed, to decline being confidered among the number of thofe, out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the fame time, to do me the justice to be affured, that this refolution has not been taken, without a strict regard to all the confiderations appertaining to the relation, which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that, in withdrawing the tender of fervice which filence in my fituation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future intereft; no deficiency of grateful refpect for your past kindness; but am fupported by a full conviction that the ftep is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in the office to which your fuffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform facrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a deference for what appeared to be your defire. I conftantly hoped, that it would have been much earlier in my power, confiftently with mo

tives, which I was not at liberty to difregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The ftrength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the prep aration of an addrefs to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of perfons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.

I rejoice, that the ftate of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the purfuit of inclination incompatible with. the fentiment of duty, or propriety; and am perfuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my fervices, that in the present circumftances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.

The impreflions, with which I first undertook the arduous truft, were explained on the proper occafion. In the difcharge of this truft, I will only fay that I have with good intentions contributed towards the organization and adminiftration of the government, the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconfcious, in the outfet, of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps ftill more in the eyes of others, has ftrengthened the motives to diffidence of myfelf: and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the fhade of retirement is as neceffary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my fervices, they were temporary, I have the confolation to believe, that while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political fcene, patriotifm does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to fufpend the deep acknowledgement of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country, for the many honors it has conferred upon me; ftill more for the stedfast confidence with