be neceffary for the government of mankind not to tell them the whole truth; fomething may be proper to be hid behind the veil of policy; but it is feldom neceffary to tell them lyes. "Thefe pious frauds are the inventions of very impious men; they are the tricks of thole who make the publick good a pretence for ferving their private vices. Let us confider how mankind was governed in those ages and Rates where they are known to have been the happieft. How was it in Athens, while the laws of Solon preferved their force? Was it then thought neceffary to lye for the good of the · commonwealth? No, the people were truly informed of every thing that 'concerned them; and as they judged by their natural understanding, their determinations were right, and their actions glorious: but when the orators had got the dominion over them, and they were deceived upon the principle you establish, what was the confequence? Their leaders became factious and corrupt, their government venal, their publick councils uncertain and 'fluctuating, either too weakly fearful,

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or too rafhl; bold; till at last, from generous, high-spirited freemen, they funk into prating, contemptible slaves. In Rome, the cafe was much the fame; as long as they were a great and free people, they understood not these political refinements. All governments in their first inftitution were founded in truth and juftice, and the first rulers of them were generally honest men; but, by length of time, corruption is introduced, and men come to look upon thofe frauds as necellary to government, which their forefathers ab'horred as deftru&tive to it.'-' It does not,' 'faid I, belong to me to decide in this difpute: but it seems to be high ly important, that this power of deceiving for the publick good should be lodged in fafe hands. And I fuppose that fuch among you as are trusted with it, are very conflant and uniform • in their principles. Though the colours may vary, the ground of their conduct is ftill the fame. What with them is the effential and fundamental intereft of the nation now, will certainly be fo next year: difgrace or fa

vour can inake no difference,

Was the other day in company with a clergyman, who has the education of feveral young noblemen committed to his care, A trust of this importance made me regard him as one of the moft confiderable men in England. This fage, faid I to myself, has much to answer for: the virtue and happine's of the next age will in a great measure depend on his capacity. I was very defitous to enter into difcourfe with him, that I might know if he was equal to his office, and tried all the coinmon topicks of converfation; but on none of thefe was I able to draw a word from him. At last, upon fome point being ftarted, which gave him occafion to quote a Latin poet, he opened all at once, and poured forth fuch a deluge of hard words, compofed out of all the learned languages, that though I understood but little of his meaning, I could not help admiring his elocution.

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As his fcholars were many of them born to an hereditary hare in the legiflature, I concluded he must be thoroughly acquainted with the English conftitution, and able to inftruct them in the knowledge of it: but, upon afk ing him fome questions on that subject, I found, to my very great forprize, that he was more a tranger to it than myfelf, and had no notions of government but what he drew from the imaginary republick of a Greck philofopher. 'Well, faid 1, you at lealt inftruct your (cho

lars in Grecian and Roman virtues you light up in them a fpirit of liberty; you exercife them in juftice and magnanimity; you form them to a refemblance of the great characters they meet with in ancient a thors.'-'Far from it, faid a gentleman in company; they are accustomed to tremble at a rod, to tell yes in excufe of trifling faults, to betray their compa

nions, to be fpies and cowards: the natural vigour of their fpirits is broke, the natural ingenuity of their tempers varnished over, the natural bent of their genius curbed and thwarted; the whole purpofe of their education is to acquire fome Greek and Latin words; by this only they are allowed to try their parts; if they are backward in this, they are pronounced dunces, and often made fo from difcouragement ⚫ and defpair.'

I fhould think,' faid I, if words only are to be taught them, they should learn to fpeak English with grace and elegance, which is particularly necef. fary in a government where eloquence has obtained fo great a fway.'-That article is never thought of,' answered he: I came myself from the college a perfect master of one or two dead languages; but could neither write nor read my own, till it was taught me by the letters and converfation of a

lady about the court, whom, luckily for my education, I fell in love with.

I have heard,' faid I, that it is ufual for young gentlemen to finish their ftudies in other countries; and ⚫ indeed it feems neceffary enough by the account you have given me of them here: but if I may judge by the 'greatest part of thofe whom I have feen at their return, the foreign masters are no better than the English, and the "foreign miftreffes not fo good. Were I to go back to Perfia with an English coat, an English footman, and an English cough, it would amount to just the improvement made in France by one half of the youth who travel thi ther. Add to thefe, a tafte for mu'fick,' replied the gentleman, with two or three terms of building and of painting. and you would want but one tafle more to be as accomplished as fome of the finest gentlemen that Italy fends us back.'

ROM confidering the education of

difcourfe to that of English ladies. I afked a married man that was in company, to inftruct me a little in the course of it, being particularly curious to know the methods which could render a woman in this country fo different a creature from one in Perfia. Indeed, Sir,' faid he, you must ask my wife, not me, that question: these are mysteries I am not allowed to pry into; when I prefume to give my advice about it, the tells me the education of a lady is above the capacity of a man, let him be ever fo wife in his own affairs. I should think,' faid I, that as the purpose of womens breeding is nothing else but to teach them to please men, a man thould be a better judge of that than any woman in the world. But pray, Sir, what in general have you obferved of this myfterious inflitution? I do not enquire into the fecrets behind the altar, but only the outward forms of difcipline which are expofed to the eyes of all the world. Why, Sir,' replied he, the first great point which

'Yes,' faid he; you have none of them in the eaft; but here we have 'five or fix in every street: there never were more divinities in Egypt than there are at this time in the town of • London. In order therefore to fit them for that character, they are made to throw off human nature as much as poffible in their looks, geftures, words, actions, drefs, &c. But

is it not apt to return again?' faid I. Yes,' replied he; it returns indeed again, but ftrangely diftorted and deformed. The fame thing happens to • their minds as to their shapes; both are cramped by a violent confinement, which makes them fwell out in the wrong place. You cannot conceive the wild tricks that women play from this habitual perverfion of their faculties; there is not a fingle quality belonging to them which they do not apply to other purposes than Providence defigned it for: hence it is that they are vain of being cowards, and 'afbamed

bearts, that they may be equal to the part they have to act. Where great ⚫ temptations must occur, great virtues are required; and the giddy fituations in which they are placed, or love to place themselves, demand a more than ordinary strength of brain. In Perfia a woman has no occafion for any thing 'but beauty, because of the confinement which the lives under, and therefore that only is attended to: but here, 'methinks, good fenfe is fo very neceffary, that it is the business of a lady to improve and adorn her understanding with as much application as the other fex, and, generally speaking, by me•thods much the fame.

art.

I told them, that policy had more part than religion in that affair; that the prefs was a very dangerous engine, and the abuses of it made us justly apprehend ill confequences from it.

You are in the right, faid one of the company; for this fingle reafon, because your government is a defpotick 4 one. But in a free country the prefs may be very useful, as long as it is ⚫ under no partial reftraint: for it is of great confequence that the people Thould be informed of every thing that concerns them; and, without printing, fuch knowledge could not circulate either fo eafily or fo falt. And to argue against any branch of liberty from the ill ufe that may be made of it, is to argue against liberty itself, fince all is capable of being abufed. Nor can any part of freedom be more important, or better ⚫ worth contending for, than that by which the fpirit of it is preferved, Supported, and diffused. By this appeal to the judgment of the people,

• though the best administration may be attacked by calumny, I can hardly believe it would be hurt by it, becaufe I have known a great deal of it employed to very little purpose against gentlemen in oppofition to minifters who had nothing to defend them but the force of truth. I do not mean by this to justify any fcurrilities upon the perfonal characters either of magiitrates or private men, or any libel properly fo called. Against fuch abufes of the prefs the laws have provided a remedy; and let the laws. 'take their courfe; it is for the interest of liberty they should do fo, as well as for the fecurity and honour of govern 4 ment: but let them not be trained into oppreffion by forced conftructions, or extraordinary acts of pozver, alike repugnant to natural juftice, and to the fpirit of a free ftate. Such arbitrary practices no provocation can juftify, no precedents warrant, no dan ger excule.'

The gentleman who fpoke thus was contradicted by another of the company, who, with great warmth, and many

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arguiments,

manner.

If we have fo much reafon to be unwilling, that what we print fhould be under the infpection of the court, how much more may we complain of a new power affumed within these laft fifty years by all the courts in Europe, of inspecting private letters, and invading the iberty of the poft? The fecrecy and fafety of correfpondence is a point of fuch confequence to mankind that the leaft interruption of it would be criminal, without an evident neceffity; but that of course, from one year to another, there fhould be a conftant breach of it publickly avowed, is fuch a violation of the rights of fociety, as one cannot but wonder at even in this age.'

You may well wonder,' faid I to him, when I myself am quite amazed • to hear of fu h a thing; the like of which was never practifed among us, whom you English reproach with being faves. But I beg you to inform me what it was that could in• duce a free people to give up all the fecrets of their bufinefs, and private thoughts, to the curiofity and difcretion of a minifter, or his inferior tools in office?'

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They never gave them up,' anfwered he; but thofe gentlemen have exerci ed this power by their own authority, under pretence of discovering plots against the state.- No doubt," faid one of the company, it is a great

advantage and eafe to the government, to be acquainted at all times with the fentiments of confiderable perfons, because it is poffible they may have • fome ill intent. It is very true," replied the other; and it might be ftill a greater ease and advantage to the government to have a licenfed fpy in every houfe, who fhould report the moft private converfations, and let the minifter thoroughly into the fe crets of every family in the kingdom. This would effectually detect and prevent confpiracies: but would any body come into it on that account?

Is it not making a bad compliment to a government, to fuppofe that it could not be fecured without fuch measures as are inconfiftent with the end for which it is defigned?

But fuch in general is the wretched turn of modern policy; the most fa'cred ties of fociety are often infringed to promote fome prefent intereft, without confidering how fatal it may prove in it's remoter confequences, and how greatly we may want thofe useful barriers we have fo lightly broken 'down.'

I Had lately the pleasure of feeing a fight which filled my mind beyond all the magnificence that our eattern

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monarchs can fhew; I faw a British fleet under full fail. Nothing can be imagined more pompous, or more au

guft! The vaft fize of the ships, and the fkill of the failors, exceed any others now in the univerfe; nor are they lefs renowned for their intrepidity. The whole fpectacle gave me the highest ideas of the Itrength of this nation; a strength not confined to their own coafts, but equally formidable to the most distant parts of the globe.

Were I a king of England, I would never receive an ambaffador with any folemnity but in the cabin of a firft-rate man of war. There is the true feat of his empire; and from that throne he might awe the whole world, if he understood how to exert his maritime perw er in it's full ftrength, ani was wife enough to aim at no other. But, by an unaccountable mistake in their policy, many kings of England have feemed to forget that their dominions had the advantage of being an island: they have been as deeply engaged in the affairs of the continent as the most expofed of the ftates there; and neglected the fea, to give all their attention to expenfive and ruinous wars undertaken at land. Nay,

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what is ftranger ftill, they have been fond of acquifitions made upon the continent; not confidering that all fuck acquifitions, instead of encreasing their real shength, are only so many weak and vulnerable parts, in which they are liable to be hurt by thofe enemies who could not poffibly hurt them in their natural ftate, as the fovereigns of a powerful fland. Their cafe is the reverfe of that expreffed by the poets of Greece in the fable of Antæus. He was (fay thofe poets) the fon of the earth; and as long as he fought upon her furface, even Hercules, the ftrongeft of heroes, could not overcome him but being drawn from thence, he was eafily vanquished: the English (in the fame poetical style) are the fons of the fea, and while they adhere to their mo ther, they are invincible; but if they can once be drawn out of that fituation, their ftrength forfakes them, and they are not only in danger of being crushed by their enemies, but may be bugged to death even by their friends.

Am returned to this city, from which I have made a long excurfion, and am going to give thee an account how I have paffed my time. A friend of mine, who lives in a part of England diftant from the capital, invited me to spend the fummer at his houfe: my curiofity to fee fomething new, and a natural love to fields and groves at this feafon of the year, made me glad to accept of his propofal.

The first thing that ftruck me in leaving London, was to find all the country cultivated like one great garden. This is the genuine effect of that happy liberty which the English enjoy: where property is fecure, induftry will exert itself; and fuch is the force of induftry, that, without any particular advantages of foil or climate, the lands about this city are of a hundred times greater profit to their owners, than the belt tempered and most fertile fpots of Afia to the subjects of the Sophi or the Turk.

Another circumstance, which engaged my attention throughout all my

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journey, was the vaft number of fine feats that adorned the way as I travelled along, and seemed to express a certain rural greatness extremely becoming a free people. It looked to me as if men who were poffeffed of fuch magnificent retreats were above depending on a court, and had wifely fixed the fcene of their pride and pleasure in the centre of their own eftates, where they could really make themselves moft confiderable. And, indeed, this notion is true in fact, for it has always been the policy of princes that wanted to be abiolute, to draw gentlemen away from their country-feats, and place them about a court, as well to deprive them of the popularity which hofpitality might acquire, as to render them cold to the intereft of the country, and wholly devoted to themfelves. Thus we have often been told by our friend Ufbec, that the court and capital of France is crouded with nobility, while in the provinces there is fcarce a manfion-house that is not falling to ruin; an infallible fign of the