cover a whole people with eternal reproach. Those who persecute them have, by this one act, done more injury to their country in depriving it of their services, than a million of men of their own standard can ever repair, even when they shall be disposed to build upon the ruins they have made.

et Maintain, sir, the courage which you have hitherto shown; and be persuaded, that though the world is not worthy of you and your colleagues, we are not insensible of the honour which you do to our common nature.

I have the honour to be, very truly, &c.

EDMUND BURKE,

This letter was answered by the archbishop in another, equally eloquent and expressive of liberal sentiments.

YOU have been pleased to address to me, an opinion that does me honour, and I cannot conceal the impression, that the suffrage of the man, the most celebrated for talents, virtues, and success, has made on my heart. Give me leave, above all, to acknowledge with an interest infinitely superior to all personal consideration, the eulogy which you have made on the respectable order of which I have the honour to partake the misfortunes. The first orator of England has become the defender of the clergy of France. Yours is the voice that has so long directed, and balanced the opinion of a nation, of which France ought rather to be the rival by its progress in intelligence, than by its political interests. Oh! that the dark clouds which overhang my country, may not for ever obscure the rays of light which the sciences, letters, and the arts bestow! We are in a time of trouble; we attend only to the noise of

our discussions; we read only the productions of party; and how many wise men and enlightened citizens remain in silence! We can no longer judge for ourselves, and a foreign observer only can decide for us, what ought to be the judgment of posterity.

When my colleagues, in addressing themselves to you, chose me for their organ, 1 was penetrated with their sentiments, and with those of the ministers of all ranks, whom nothing can separate from their consciences. spoke for them with the feeling which they gave me; and the noble thoughts, the touching expressions, I can boldly say, were only the daily impressions which the knowledge of their virtues inspires. It is wanting to their glory that you should see them, as I have seen them, simple in their conduct, tranquil in their adversity, and content with having fulfilled their duty. The church of France is the stranded bark which the waters have left after the tempest, and every one of us in the shipwreck contemplates with astonishment those new heavens, and this new earth, which were unknown before. By what destiny must it be, that after having supported, all my life, those maxims of Christian charity, of which the first ages of the church gave us both lessons and examples, I see myself the victim of intolerance and persecution! It is in the eighteenth century—it is in a nation that boasts of its philosophy-it is even in the moment that they announce the Revolution of Liberty, that they persecute those who practise what they believe in religion, and who wish to preserve the worship of their fathers! We read in the Constitution, that "No one ought to be disturbed for his religious opinions;"-We read in the laws concerning religion, oaths, deprivations, infamous penalties, and exile; and it is on the overthrow of their new Constitution that they found the civil Constitution of the clergy. What has become of all those natural laws, which were to serve for the basis of all their laws? We are the men whom they wish to accuse with prejudices, who plead this

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day the rights of liberty. The cause, sir, , sir, that we have defended, is the noble, just, and holy cause of liberty, humanity, and religion. The clergy of France have demonstrated what it was-persuasion without fanaticism courage without excess-and resistance without trouble, and without insurrection. We have suffered all kinds of loss; we have endured all sorts of rigor; and we remain tranquil and firm, because nothing is so unconquerable as the probity which supports itself on religion. Behold that of which they cannot judge in the world! They conceive that honour is the only sentiment which influences men of all conditions to the accomplishment of the most sacred duties. God forbid that I should weaken this noble instinct, which comes to the aid of reason, which rallies the warrior in the day of combat, and which can animate to the love of the public weal when it does not mislead us in the pursuit! But you have better defined this simple and true sentiment," which consists in the habitual impression of our duty, of right and of piety." This sentiment ought to be in general that of good citizens, and there are no morals in a country where it is not acted upon. If they wish to destroy religion in France, it will be the first example of an empire without religion; and no one has proved, sir, with more eloquence than yourself, how much it imports to attach the principles of human society to something too high for man to outrage or destroy. They must consecrate by religion, respect for the laws; for what must the laws be, which an entire people obey only through constraint, and not by inclination? They will soon perceive that the force to which they yield, is only the force which they give; this force will weaken of itself by general corruption, and the state is no more!

You have reason, sir, to encourage us in the laborious career to which we are doomed. It is the writings of such men as you, which maintain in all nations a wholesome morality. We cannot help believing that our fellow-citizens

will sooner or later, do us the justice, which we receive from foreigners; and that we shall revive, in more peaceable times, the principles of religion and humanity.

I do not speak to you, sir, of those other writings, in which I am desirous of showing how useful would be the lights of a long and peaceable administration. It does not belong to me to judge of the use which may be made of them, and it must not astonish us, that men are ungrateful for truths which come from us, who have no passion for Revolutions.

Accept, sir, the testimonies of the veneration and attachment, which well-intentioned men ought to feel for the enlightened and virtuous of all countries. I cannot tell you how sensible we have been to the attention, which the clergy of England have shown towards one of our most virtuous and respectable colleagues. You are equally just to his character in society, as to his principles and courage; and such are the regrets of his diocese, that they consider his absence as a public calamity.

On the 23rd of February 1792, died sir Joshua Reynolds, the old and constant friend of EDMUND BURKE, who on the impulse of the moment, drew up a beautiful sketch of his character, for the public papers. This eulogium, which has been compared to that of Apelles, by Pericles, we here insert, as alike honourable to the merits of the deceased, and the feelings of the survivor:

Last night, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, died, at his house in Leicester Fields, sir Joshua Reynolds.

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His illness was long, but borne with a mild and cheerful fortitude, without the least mixture of any thing irritable or querulous, agreeably to the placid and even tenour of his whole life. He had from the beginning of his malady a distinct view of his dissolution, which he contemplated with that entire composure, that nothing but the innocence, integrity, and usefulness of his life, and an unaffected submission to the will of Providence, could bestow. In this situation he had every consolation from family tenderness, which his own kindness to his family had indeed well deserved.

Sir Joshua Reynolds was, on very many accounts, ope of the most memorable men of his time. He was the first Englishman who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his country. In taste, in grace, in facility, in happy invention, and in the richness and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the greatest masters of the renowned ages. In portrait he went beyond them; for he communicated to that description of the art, in which English artists are the most engaged, a variety, a fancy, and a dignity derived from the higher branches, which even those who professed them in a superior manner, did not always preserve when they delineated individual nature. His portraits remind the spectator of the invention of history, and the amenity of landscape. In painting portraits, he appeared not to be raised upon that platform, but to descend upon it from a higher sphere. His paintings illustrate his lessons, and his lessons seem to be derived from his paintings.

He possessed the theory as perfectly as the practice of his art. To be such a painter, he was a profound and penetrating philosopher.

In full happiness of foreign and domestic fame, admired by the expert in art, and by the learned in science, courted by the great, caressed by sovereign powers, and celebrated by distinguished poets, his native humility, modesty, and