MR NORTH,

ENCOURAGED by the flattering reception you have given to my late rambling comments upon the fashionable vice of exaggeration, I shall venture to throw together the substance of some further reflections in the same strain, without more of method or connection than they may assume, in passing through my mind as I utter them; premising, however, that though you appear to distrust my pretensions to the character of a whig in polities, I do not the less maintain my right to the honours of that illustrious, though often abused, and now generally stigmatized, appellation. What is it, indeed, but the prevalence of that very vice, against which these strictures are directed, that has unhappily fixed upon a name, associated by our ancestors with every thing sacred and venerable in our free constitution, the mark of opprobrium by which those in all other respects of the most opposite and adverse principles alone agree in distinguishing it? Do not suppose, that, forgetting already the duties of the censorial character which I have thus boldly assumed, I am now thinking to screen my friends from the share of blame which belongs to them. My Thesis is the vice of exaggeration; and my belief is, that all classes and all descriptions of men are alike, and almost in the same degree, infected by it. It is by exaggeration, that the whigs themselves have lost, (and have almost deserved to lose) the confidence of the nation-but it is by a yet grosser exaggeration that they are represented on one side, as more dangerous to order and good government, than the most factious Democrats; and on the other, as more hostile to liberty than the most sordid of the whole train of placemen and pensioners. Yet, in one or other of these absurd strains of language must every man speak, who designs to find favour with the great majority of his audience, howsoever composed; while he who merely regrets the eccentricities and aberrations of those, whom, with all their faults, he cannot but still consider as having, amidst the conflict of parties, kept nearest to the standard which he venerates, and who therefore

-Quel cattivo choro

Degli Angeli, che non furon ribelli, Ne fur Fedeli a Dio; ma per se foro: Nor is my assumed moderation of that timid or affected character, such as not to permit acknowledging that there may be a crisis of public affairs at which no honest citizen can persist in neutrality, but the Falkland and the Hampden of the day must alike draw the unwilling sword of tardy defiance not the less resolutely for having so long delayed making the final appeal. That day is not yet arrived among us-and long may it be before our eyes are doomed to witness its terrible dawning! But it is only by the moderation and forbearance of the few who yet retain the power of exercising these cheap and ill-esteemed virtues, that we may yet hope to retard its appearance; and to those few, I address myself in the character which you have been pleased to assign to me, (and of which I should be proud to think myself deserving) of a liberal whigof one who views with an habitually watchful and jealous eye, every proceeding of men in power-not because he hates or distrusts them individually, or is unable to discern in them good motives and intentions, or refuses them the homage of respect which is due to their virtues or their talents, or wishes to impede the regular and constitutional course of government, or to magnify every misfortune and every fault, for the purpose of deriving from it some undue advantage, or enjoying in consequence of it some ungenerous triumph-but because he is impressed with the conviction, founded on his knowledge of human nature, that the possession of power is accompanied by an invariable and almost ir

resistible tendency to the abuse of it; because he judges, from the examples of history, that no advance is ever made in a free state towards despotism, and afterwards retracted; because he feels how great is the temptation to apply to a pressing evil, even though it be merely temporary, the easiest and most obvious remedy, at the expense of future and permanent strength and security; and because he understands the vital principle of liberty to reside in the well-poised balance of the constitution, himself being a component part of the weight by which it is adjusted. He is averse from war, not merely because it is in itself an evil, but because the increase of patronage and influence which attends it weighs down the scale of government, and facilitates the encroachments of arbitrary power; but, when war is unavoidable, he not the less zealously bends his thoughts and wishes towards the attainment of a favourable issue. He deprecates interference with the domestic concerns of foreign states as sincerely as he would vigorously resist the interference of foreign states with our own; yet is neither a worshipper of Napoleon, nor a traducer of the Britons who bled for their country at Waterloo. He is fearful of monarchical innovations, and feels some jealous doubts as to the design and tendency of Christian leagues and Holy Alliances; but this without being actuated by a superstitious dread, or affected abhorrence, of legitimacy, which he reverences as a constitutional principle, while he reprobates the use of it on either side as a watch-word of party. He clings with the most devoted attachment to the rights of the people; never forgetting, however, that their preservation is full as much endangered by popular excess, as by court intrigue or aristocratic ambition; that the enjoyment is not only distinct from, but absolutely incompati ble with the abuse of them; that (for instance) that sacred privilege, (of which we have lately heard a great deal more than is good)-the right of petitioning-is of absolute necessity, restricted within certain bounds, which are prescribed, in every case, and under every possible variety of circumstances, by the paramount right of public security-a principle which, if admitted, and pursued to its just consequences, would not only render un

necessary, but be found utterly to prohibit any legislative interference with that which is already subject to the control of the executive power; since the same mode of exercising the right in question which would at one time be attended with the most imminent danger to the public peace, might, at another, be beneficially adopted and safely permitted; and every restraint upon it is unconstitutional, which is not demanded by the exigency of the occasion. At least, Mr North, this is the view which I have myself taken of the most interesting and important of the various subjects of late political discussion; and under that view alone, it seems to me that the principle of the measures proposed by Government, and now passed into a law, could in any shape be resisted. My friends, (the Whigs) thought otherwise; and, by pursuing the contrary course of argument, have opened the flood gates to an irresistible and overwhelming torrent of legislation, which threatens to sweep away all our remaining liberties. For it will very soon be discovered that these new enactments are inadequate to the purpose of checking the evil which they are intended to meet. New and more binding laws must be devised to arrest the still growing mischief, and, by degrees, every other consideration will give way to the purpose of immediate necessity. The guardians of our freedom-(permit me still to use the language in which I first addressed you)

-those to whose interference alone we can turn for refuge in time of ministerial oppression and popular insolence, have taken a position which they cannot maintain, and have compromised themselves and their country in the fruitless attempt to defend it. Yet, even in the midst of this their imputed error, they have asserted the rights and liberties of their countrymen, with a voice the sound of which is still sufficient to deter from any gross and wanton infringement of them, and to suspend at least, if not to avert, the hour of their dissolution.

I have trespassed as much on the design with which I commenced this letter, as I fear I have done on your patience and forbearance. Indeed, I feel that some apology is requisite for my addressing you at all in a language which (at least in some respects) I must conclude, is very foreign from

nions chance to differ from our own By the insertion of my former letter, you have proved your own exemption from this narrow species of prejudice, and you will allow me to claim a similar merit in thus addressing you. am Sir, &c. METRODORUS.

I

THE Marquis D'Esfiat de Cinq-Mars had been introduced at an early age to the favour of Louis 13th, by the Cardinal de Richelieu, in the hope that he might always have a creature of his own near the monarch's person. This young man, having been early preferred to the post of master of the horse, was desirous of becoming also a member of the council; but the Cardinal having opposed it, Cinq-mars became his implacable enemy, and was the more encouraged to form plots against him, from having often heard the king, in hours of familiar and unreserved conversation, complain with great acrimony of de Richelieu's pride and ostentation. Having however also to endure the capricious humours of the monarch himself, who would frequently, from the pinnacle of favour, banish him from his presence, &c. the high spirited Cinq-Mars soon felt equally disgusted with the monarch and the minister, and succeeded in establishing a correspondence with the Duke de Bouillon, who had before, (from hatred to Richelieu,) conspired against his sovereign, and been forgiven, and with Gaston Duke of Orleans, the king's brother, who from the same cause was always ready to take a part in any conspiracy which had for its object the removal of that powerful minister. In the name of this Duke of Orleans, a treaty was concluded with the Spanish Count-Duke D'Olivarez, which in its consequences, would have proved fatal to the existing monarchy of France; but the Cardinal, always sagacious in discovering plots against himself or the state, succeeded in procuring a copy of the treaty, which he

immediately laid before the king. The Duke of Orleans got out of the scrape, as he had repeatedly done before, under similar circumstances, by accusing his accomplices. Monsieur de Cinq-mars underwent the same punishment, was beheaded, and Monsieur de Thou, merely for having known of the conspiracy, and not revealing it. The Duke de Bouillon preserved his life by giving up the fortress of Sedan, which was of importance to the state, as in times of insurrection it frequently afforded a retreat to its disaffected and rebellious subjects.

We have this week been spectators of the last act of a mournful tragedy, in which two persons suffered an ignominious death, whose lives might have been longer preserved with honour, had not their crime precipitated them into inevitable destruction.We saw the favourite of the greatest and most just of kings lose his head on a scaffold, at the age of twenty-two, with a degree of fortitude which can scarcely find its parallel in any of our histories::-we also beheld a counsellor of state die like a saint, after the commission of a crime which men cannot justly pardon. All who knew of their conspiracy against the state, must have thought them deserving of death, but there were few who were acquainted with their rank in life, and the fine qualities with which nature had endowed them, who did not sincerely pity their misfortune. The following is an undisguised and faithful narrative of their last words and actions, as related by those who saw and heard them, of many of which I was myself a near and ocular witness-we may

without offence to justice, applaud their penitence, while we detest their crime.

On Friday, 12th September, 1642the chancellor entered the presidial court at Lyons, about seven in the morning, accompanied by the commissioners, deputed by the king, (in number fourteen,) for the trial of Messieurs de Cinq-Mars and de Thou. When they had entered the council chamber, the commander of the patrol was sent with his company to the Chateau de Pierre-Cize, to bring up Monsieur de Cinq-Mars, who was conveyed to the court about eight o'clock in a hired carriage. On his entrance, he said, "whither have you brought me?" and being told, he asked no further question, but ascend ed the stairs with a good deal of resolution. He was then called into the council chamber before the judges, where he remained about an hour and quarter; and on coming out, shewed some agitation of mind, while he look ed around him, saluting all whom he met on his way. He walked two or three times from the great hall of audience, to the chamber opposite to it, which looks out upon the river. The lieutenant of the Guards du Corps, who had charge of his person, having desired him not to go out of the great hall, he answered, "well then, here I will remain," and he continued to walk up and down with quick steps, sighing sometimes, and lifting up his eyes to heaven.

About nine o'clock, the chancellor sent the captain of the patrole to convey Monsieur de Thou in like manner from the Chateau de Pierre Cize, in the same hired coach-in the meantime, Monsieur le Grand, being a second time called to appear before his judges, said, on entering, "will these examinations never be over?" but when he came out, he shewed much greater firmness of mind than before. Some time after, Monsieur de Thou being arrived, desired to have some wine brought to him, and then entered into the chamber.-'Tis said, that on his being interrogated whether he knew of the conspiracy of Monsieur Desfiat, he answered as follows: "Gentlemen, I might absolutely deny having known of it, and it is not in your power to convict me of falsehood, Monsieur de Cinq-Mars alone being able to give any information on

this subject, as I have never either spoken or written concerning it to any other man in the world; now Monsieur de Cinq-Mars being accused as an accomplice, cannot have it in his power as a witness to convict me, since by our laws, two irreproachable witnesses must be found to affect my condemnation-you must therefore be sensible that my life or death, my conviction or acquittal, depend solely upon myself; nevertheless, gentlemen, I have resolved for two reasons to confess that I knew of this conspiracy, and that I am therefore guilty :-my first reason is, that during the three months of my imprisonment, I have studied the nature of death, and have closely considered the possible advantages of life, and am clearly convinced, that whatever might be my future term of mortal existence, it must necessarily be unhappy. Death appears to me much more desirable, and under this conviction, which I embrace as a proof of my predestination to glory, and a token of the divine favour, I should perhaps hereafter regret the having lost so favourable an opportunity of effecting my salvation. The second reason which leads me to condemn myself, is, that if my crime be considered under a certain point of view, it will neither be found so black or so enormous as it at first appears to be it is true, I knew of this conspiracy, but I did my utmost to prevent it, by dissuading Monsieur de Cinq-Mars from carrying it into execution. He. thought me his faithful and perhaps his only friend, and as such, having trusted all to me, I would not betray him-for this I deserve death, and meet it self-condemned."

Monsieur le Grand was then called in to be confronted with Monsieur de Thou, and they remained in the chamber more than an hour; after which, Monsieur de Laubardemont, counsellor of state, and Monsieur Robert de St Germain, counsellor of the parliament of Grenoble, were sent to prepare the prisoners to receive their sentence, and they found them firm and resolute, acknowledging their guilt, and the justice of their condemnation. Monsieur de Thou, turning to Monsieur de Cinq-Mars, said with a smile,

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according to the common judgment of mankind, I might, Sir, complain of you; you have accused me, and are the cause of my death, but God is witness