"I begin by ftrengthening paternal authority, the first and the moft facred of all. It is derived from God; it governed before there were any kings; it was the foundation and the model of the Chinese government for many ages, when the reft of the earth was at the mercy of tyrants. Rom! who perhaps firetched it too far, placed it at the head of his laws; be allowed a father, not only to put his children in prifon, to load them with chains, to order them to be publicly beaten with rods, to condemn them to labour, to disinherit them, but even to fell them, or put them to death. I would give fathers all this power, excepting that of felling their children, and putting them to death. When we confider, that it is a father who punithes, there is little reafon to be afraid of feverity. Romulus perhaps extended the duration of paternal authority too far; it was exercifed over children of whatever age or dignity. It may continue till the age of five-and-twenty. When a child has been properly trained till this time, if he is guilty of any irregularity afterwards, let him be fubject to the laws.—Ą father, to whem fuch power is committed, muft not be surprised if, after the example of China, he is obliged to anfwer for the conduct of his children, under the pain of being punished for their crimes. The law fuppofes, that if the father had educated his fon properly, the crime would not have been committed. And, at the worft, the punishment of an innocent perfon, which is fometimes unavoidable, under the best form of government, would prevent a hundred other fathers from being guilty. ufeful ones in contempt; that a varnisher, a toy-man, or a dancing-mafter, gets more in one day, than all the labourers of a province in a month; that modefty is banished from it; that young women only wish for hufbands, in order to have a cloak for licentioufnefs; that the faith of marriage is openly violated by both fexes; that virtuous wives, if any fuch are to be found, mourn, while courte zans triumph; that debauchery poifons the very fource of the human fpecies; that old men retain the vices of youth, and that young men are old in conftitution, before they arrive at the years of maturity; that in this city there is always money enough for theatrical entertainments, table, and drefs; none for the payment of debts, or the relief of the indigent; that public affemblies fhine in filk, gold, and jewels, whilft the ftreets and temples are filled with beggars; that every one finds his account in the ruin of his neighbour; that agreeable men are preferred to men of worth; that vice is a fubject only for mirth and pleafantry; that a man may have even every vice that difgraces humanity, provided he can only be witty upon himfelf; that all places are difpofed of by favour, or purchafed by money; that the very right of judging and being judged is fold; that the public treatury is plundered; that the fanctuary is polluted; that the great are mean, and that the vulgar, worthy of thofe above them, are a nursery of rogues, thieves, affaffins. What a city! what a capital! I undertake, however, to give it morals, and if I fucceed, the provinces, always lefs corrupt, will foon be reformed. My " My next step fould be, to reeftablish the authority of hufbands. It is well known what this was in the days of the patriarchs. The great ftudy of Sarah and Rachael was to please their husbands. This tender refpect for the head of the family would have kept them in their duty, even if they had been void of virtue. The fair fex, throughout all the east, was long faithful to this falutary fubordination; and those nations of the weft, which gave any attention to morals, placed it among their inftitutions. Under the first laws of Rome, a wife that was guilty of any crime, had no other judge but her husband, who called her relations together, and, with them, fat in judgment upon her. It was owing to the wildom of this law, that, during several ages, there was no complaint against wives before any of the tribunals; no action for adultery, no divorce.The, Athenians had a particular magiftrate who watched over the conduct of wives; the true magiftrate, the magiftrate of nature, is the huf. band. A philofopher of our times, who is reproached with many paradoxes, has mixed fome truth with them which we overlook: The fair fex, fays he, incapable of taking our manner of living, which is too labo rious for them, obliges us to take theirs, which is too effeminate for us. This perversion of order, this afcendant of the fair fex, which is formed to be guided, begins in families, and extends itself to the public, which it corrupts. It is women who form the characters of men. Hence it is, that in what is called good company, we meet with fo many agreeable and fo few virtuous per fons -A wife conftantly under the eye of a husband, who is her mfter, and who has power to punish her, would endeavour to gain his affections, by confining herself within her family; and then the education of children, domeftic business and œconomy, harmony, &c. would flour.fh. "A third step should be, to increafe the authority of matters over their fervants. It is very furprifing that the Greeks and Romans, with fo much knowledge and humanity, had flaves like the barbarians, inftead of domeftics. It is ftill more furprifing, perhaps, that Chriftian nations, with the gofpel before their eyes, fhould condemn their brethren in the colonies to all the horrors of flavery, because they are black. The first man, who faid to another, You shall be my flave, for I am fronger than you, must have had the heart of a tyger. But the first man, who faid to another, I fee you are poor; if you will receive your fubfifience from me, you shall be my domepic, made a contract useful for both. But this contract, by a relaxation of domestic discipline, is become more grievous to mafters than to fervants, &c. ་་ After pointing out a remedy for this evil, our author now proceeds to that part of his plan which relates to mafters of families, the nobility, &c. and here he is of opinion, that a number of cenfors fhould be appointed, under certain regulations. "The inftitution of cenfors," he fays, " has been of fingular service in every govern ment, where virtue and good morals have been the principal objects. "The plan, which I lay down," N 4 conti continues he," in order to facilitate the execution of it, prefuppofes a good public education. This fhall not be that of Emilius, which, were it practicable and unexceptionable, can only be a private one. Nor fhall it be that which is eftablifhed in our colleges, which is condemn ed by the voice of the public. It fhall be that which arifes from the ideas of Locke, Montaigne, Plutarch, Xenophon, and Piato; that, wherein things fhall be taught be'fore languages, which are often ufelefs to thole who learn them; that which, inftead of being the fame for all, fhall have feparate claffes according to the wants of the ftate, and by exercifes appropriated to each clafs, fhall form fit fubjects for commerce, for jurifprudence, for war, for the church, for the arts, &c. that where there fall be nothing in common but religion and virtue. We have pens enough, that only wait for the fignal of the prince to draw up a plan of this kind; but the advantages which would arife from it, would be foon loft, without the attention of government, and efpecially of the public cenfors.” The remainder of the work relates to the infiitution of cenfors, and the advantages arifing from fuch an inftitution. What the ingenious author advances, upon this fubject, appears to us to be as judicious as his manner is agreeable, and we make no doubt, but every good citizen will read it with pleature. name; as with the Brittains Brute, the Jewes Adam, the Egyptians Anubis, the Chaldeans Ninas, the Medians Aftyages, the Romans Romulus, the Gaules Litavicus, the Germans Arioviftus, the Saxons Hengift; and fo of all other nations, except the favages of Mount Atlas and Barbary, which were reported to be namelesse and dreamlefle. Afterwards, with us, they came they came to two names, the Chrif tian-name and the Sir-name, as it now continues; though fome have given two Chriftian names with us, as Charles James, &c. which is more in requeft in France and Spayne, efpecially in Italy and Sweden. "Our British ancestors had their peculiar names for the moft part taken from colours, they ufing to paint themfelves; and fome of thofe yett continue with the Welch; afterwards they took Roman names when they were a province, which became corrupted or extinguished after the entry of the Saxons, who brought in the German names, and the Danes fome of theirs; and the Normans, who originally (faith Cambden) ufed the German tongue, brought in other German names. After that we began to use the Hebrew names, and fuch as we tooke out of the holy feripture. "For fir-names or cognomina, the Brittains ufed to fay Owen ap Harry, the fou of Harry, &c. and the Irish Donald Mac Neale, the fon of Neale; the Saxons ufed Eadgaring, the fon of Edgar, &c. after the manner of the Hebrewes, who, keeping memory of their tribes, ufed in their genealogies the name of their fathers with Ben, that is the fon of, added to it; as Melchi Ben Addi, the fon of Addi, th te E b 1 Ri Addi, and the like. So the Græcians used to fay, Icarus the fon of Dedalus, &c. The Arabians also used the names of their fathers, as Avenpace, the fon of Pace, &c. And to this day we have fome names amongst us, of the Norman appellation, by the like ufe of Fitz; as John Fitz Walter, Fitz William, the fon of Walter, the fon of William, &c. Some had fir-names given them, as Sobriquettes; or nick names, as William Rufus, and the like. About the time of the Norman invasion, some doe hold, was the beginning of fir-names; before that time they ufed but fingle names, as appears in their fubfcriptions to charters, and the names of Ap Rice, Fitz Roger, chardton, and the like, fome of which continue to this day as fir'names; and that commonly they were not ufed till about the time of E. 2. Some tooke their names of places, as Windfor difcended from Walter Caftellan of Windfor. By the booke of Domefday many fir-names are exprefled from places, as Adam de Gray, Robert de Oily; and this grew much in cuftome to name men from the places of their feigniories or habitations, and fome of this fort are yett continuing; fo are names from officers, as fteward, conftable, and many more. Divers of our fir-names are from places beyond feas, as Mortimer, Warren, Piercy, Nevill, Montfort, &c. So Courtenay, St. Leger, Fiennes, &c. So Bruges, Odingels, and others, from places in Normandy, France, Flanders, &c. from whence fome who left thefe names came in with W. 1. Some are of mere English extraction, as Clifford, Willoughby, Went worth, Moftyn, Trevor, &c. Butt although the original of names with us, and elsewhere, be dubious and various, yett generally the ufe of them is certaine to de. note the perfon named, and is of neceffity for that end; and where members are chofen to ferve in publique councells, there is no meanes butt by returning of their names, (as this writ commaunds), to know who are the perfons impowered by this choice, to execute a truft, which none elfe, butt the perfons fo chofen and named, can doe." To this we hall fubjoin what he fays upon the community, which is to be observed in the hole of Commons. Commenting upon the terms of knights, citizens, and burgeffes, of which that honourable body is compofed, "Thefe (lays he) are the reprefentatives of the commons of the whole kingdome, and are all of them of the range of commons; yett fome have collected, that formerly there feemes to have bin a diftinction among them. and that the knights did act fome matters by themfelves, and the citizens and burgeffes by themfelves; which they doe ground upon an antient act of parliament to be found in the old book of our printed statutes, in Edward the Third's time, which pardons to the knights, and to all other, all fines made to the king for not attending him into Gafcoigne; and the graunt made by the knights for every towne an armed man, and the graunt made by the citizens and burgeffes for the cities and burghs, att the parlement att Winchefter: by which act they underftand a diftinct graunt then made by the knights for the townes which fent fent no cittizens or burgeffes to parlement; and another graunt by itfelfe from the cittizens and bur geffes for thofe places for which they ferved. And this is further noted from a record in parlement fhortly after, wherein it is fayd, that to the king's propofitions the knights by themselves gave advice, &c. Butt thefe are conjectures of" what doth wholly differ from the prefent ufage and conftitution of the houfe of Commons at this day, and for many ages paft; wherein there is no fuperiority or inferiority, butt in that house all are equall Whatsoever their respective rankes and degrees may be in other places, when they enter into the house they muft leave their precedence att the dore, and all other their titles butt members of the houfe of Commons. In appellations they have their titles given them there, as when a lord by cortefey finds up to fpeake, they ufe to call uppon bim by the name of my lor i fuch a one, and fo to a knight or gentleman; but in their fitting or fuffrage there is a parity; they all fit as they come; no lord or privy cour fellor, or keight, or offier, hath of right any fet there, butt as he takes it when he comes in, and finds it convenient for him. Tho' it is true that of later times fome privy-counsellors, being members of that houfe, uf d commonly to fit neare the fpeaker's chayre, and to have cushions, which in refpect to their perfons and qualities was connived att, yet fometimes other members would take the boldnefs to fitt in thofe places; and fome would reflect upon itt in their fpeeches as an innovation, and reprove it. There is alfo an equality in eye their fuffrages. If a burges fland upp to fpe.ke, and att the fame time a lord or knight stand up alle, he who was first up in the fpeaker's fhall have the priviledge of be ing fieft heard, without regard to the quality or title of the other: and every citizen and burges hath an equall vote with the knights, and the knights with them; the major part refolves the queftion, without diftinction of quality. And every knight, citizen, and burges is not only a repr fentative of that county, citty, or borough which elec'd him, but of the whole king tome; and their votes bind all other people as well as thofe of the particular counties, citties, and borroughs where they were e'eded. Bu in the proceedings of the lords houre there is fome difference: every lord hath his place according to his ranke and title, and in that order they paffe their votes; but the vote of a baron is of equal force with the vote of a duke; and the majority of votes with them alfo makes the refolution, as it did in the Jewish fanhedrim, and in the fenates of all nations. The prefbyters or elders of the fanhedrim were all equally filed fapientes, and had alike the tile and priviledge of prefbyters: no man's vote was of more force than anothers; butt their feats in the court were in a certaine ranke or forme, and every one's place on each fide of the prince and father of the fanhedrim (who fate in the middle) was certainly knowne; and the prince or father of the fenate had noe negative voe, or more binding than the votes of every one of the elders had befides. "In all the Roman affemblies for the publique elections of magiftrates, |