ratified it in all and fingular its articles has fhewn us, by the strongest reasoning, and claufes, as we do by thefe prefents will never fuffer, as much as in us lies, Dorfet. Winchelsea. WESTMINSTER JOURNAL, Jan. 7. Find, if you can, in what you cannot change. T HE famous Duke de Rochefoucaut was of opinion, that self-love or intereft is the true motive of all our actions. Upon this principle he builds moft of his moral reflections and fentences. Our virtues [fays he] are most commonly nothing but vices difguifed. What we take for virtue, is often only an affemblage of diverse actions and interefts, which fortune or our own industry difposes in a certain manner; fo that it is not always a fign of valour or chaftity, that men are valiant and women chafle. I know Mr Addifon, fomewhere in the Spectator, is very angry with thofe who espouse this doctrine, as tending too much to depretiate human nature. But the great poet from whom I have taken my motto, fed with all the graces that the mufes beftow, that to think too meanly of th felves, is not the fault of mankind. has fhewn us our connexion with o created beings; the true and only m of happiness thence refulting; and n us acquainted with the Springs and mo of our own hearts. Uniting the rea of a Plato with the mufick of an Orph he has unfolded the plan of that mi maze, our own order and duty. Acc ing to him, we cannot judge of man by nature, his actions, his passions in gene his manners, humours, or principles, w are all fubject to change. It only rema if we can, to find out his RULING SION: that will certainly influence all reft, and that only can reconcile the ing or real inconfiftency of his actions Now, if we make intereft or felf-love drift of this ruling paffion, as it certa is, we may eafily reconcile Pope and Ro foucaut. They mean the fame thing. affection to felf, or fomething that fe to us pleasant or defirable, in which th fore ftill we love ourselves, is the true fp and motive of human action, by what or character foever it has been diftingu may convince us how neceffary it is t ed, in morality, hiftory, or idea.-1 have it in their power to do either g the ruling paffion, especially in them v good or mighty mischief, fhould at first t a proper turn and direction. Some plunge in bus'ness, others have t Behold! if Fortune, or a miftrefs frow crowns: To eafe the foul of one oppreffive weight It is of great importance likewise, thofe who are about the perfons of prin and eminent men, to inform themfel of the ruling paffion that influences h whom they ferve. But to difcover this the great and difficult task; fome difg fing the motives of all their actions fo fully, that the niceft obferver cannot cover them; and others being even acquainted with their own principle action. In order therefore to form c racte raders, we have no other way, according to the fame poet and philofopher, than to take the frongest actions of a man's life, and frive to make them agree: for even thofe characters that are most plain, are in geten! confounded, dissembled, or inconfiftent; and the fame man is utterly differee different places and feasons. One coon he gives us, in judging of the ruby pain of other men, is, that we Euid not mistake fecond caufes for firft, the mans for the end; an error the wifeit may fall into. I must infert a few more of his vertes. When Cataline by rapine fwell'd his flore, When Cæfar made a noble dame a whore, h this the luft, in that the avarice, * Wert means, nat ends ; ambition was the vice. * That very Cæfar, born in Scipio's days, Had aim'd, like him, by chastity, at praise. Lacallus, when frugality could charm, Had reafed turnips in the Sabin farm. In vain th' observer eyes the builder's toil, But quite mistakes the scaffold for the pile. Happy it is when this ruling paffion turned towards points of real advantage the community, when the Lucullus's and Cafers of a people fee one common intereft between them and their fellow citizens ! Bat where abftrated felf, or the gratification of any low fordid appetite, is the ultimate view of thofe in power, miferable mat be the condition of all beneath, in proportion as they are poffeffed of any hare of the favourite morfel. If this morbe power, no means will be omitted to monopolize it; if riches, great property one thall be a capital crime; if fenfualit, it will be a fufficient misfortune to have a filter, a daughter, or even a wife of fuperior beauty; if increase of territory, the natural advantage of fituation, that should into a powerful protection, will always deprime of a protector; if all united, haPeck, devaftation and despair attend the Leps of this monfter of nature, this worth favarite of Fortune. It may be of ufe here to inquire a little why the ruling passion, in great perfons eecially, is fo very apt to take a wrong Erein, that can never procure either fatisfaction to itself, or cafe to any other affected by it; and this too notwithstand YOL. VI. ing it is ever true in fact, that the natural and folid intereft of the governors and governed must be the fame in every community. Now here seems to lie the great point in most cafes. The original defign of government appears to have been in general forgot, and the notion of millions being oppreffed for the pleasure of one, has fupplanted that of one being exalted for the fervice of millions. Kings, (I always except our own, who is under tutelage to the conftitution), inftead of looking on themselves as heads and fathers of a fociecherish, confider their elevation as a mark ty, whom they are in duty to protect and of natural, not merely political pre-eminence, into individuals of another fpecies. That and thus grow up, in their own opinion, which firft diftinguished and raised their glorious ruling paffion for the publick good, ancestors in all free communities, is dwindled into a little felfish appetite, that would the merchant, tho' he profeffedly makes ill become a merchant of reputation: for private intereft the great end of his negotiations, is ever rifking the prefent to procure the future, and therefore may bonourably own his whole purpofe; whereas, in the other cafe, nothing is done, but what the people perhaps had rather were undone ; nothing is hazarded but the publick love, and that is manifeftly despised. Were not this practice equally abfurd as it is unjust, we should have no occafion to wonder at it; because a man of great power, who lives only for himself, must be fuppofed to facrifice every other intereft to that felf. But when even that felf-intereft appears not to have been underftood, and yet that fomething in lieu of it has been greedily purfued, in contradiction to common fenfe, this can be owing to nothing but what I have mentioned, a falfe idea of what is good and defirable, and a wrong bent thereby given to the ruling paffion, which perhaps will never afterwards be controuled. Of two evils, to chufe the leaft, has been always thought prudent in common life; and of two goods, to chufe the great. eft, must be always right upon the fame principle. What fhall we think then of a man whofe ruling passion fhall lead him E ftill ftill contrary to this canon; who, of two evils, fhall chufe the greateft, and of two good things, that which is leaft defirable? With refpect to the firft, suppose a Gentleman in fuch a fituation between two parties of different interests, both his tenants, the one for five, the other for five hundred pounds a year, that by doing juftice he could please and oblige both, and by fhewing partiality, in a cafe where there was no right either to ask or expect it, to the five pounds tenant, he was fure of injuring and irritating him of five hundred pounds; fuppofing farther, that the little cottager was tied down by a very long leafe, and the great farmer was tenant only at pleasure: would not this Gentleman act very inconfiftently with his true intereft, if, of his own obftinate will, he chofe to do the unjuft favour to the former, and to incur the other's juft, perhaps ruinous displeasjure? A parallel cafe may happen to a prince, with this I have mentioned of a private Gentleman; and the injuftice here will be yet more notorious, becaufe more perfons must be affected by it; the imprudence more confpicuous, because more fatal confequences may refult from it. If his Danish Majefty, for inftance, should turn the whole current of his favour upon the little German county of Oldenburg, which was the ancient patrimony of his family, fhould we not look upon him as acting very injudiciously with regard to his own intereft; very unjustly, I might fay ungratefully, with regard to the nation who had called his pre deceffors to reign over them? Can we fuppofe, that if his prefent Imperial Highnefs of Ruffia, who is alfo Duke of Holftein, another German fovereignty, fhould, when his fucceffion takes place, remove the feat of empire to his Ducal palace at Kiel, and, like Tiberius in his Capræa, give laws to half the world from one of the most inconfiderable places in it; can we fuppofe, Ifay, that the Ruffians, tho' flaves by birth and defcent, would bear with patience the remote and insulting petty tyranny? Should we think his Czarish Majesty prudent, nay, fhould we think him in his true fenfes, if he attempted to take such a measure? The leffer intereft fhould always give way to the greater, or the greater, in time, will be apt to overbear it. Charles V. the great King of Spain, and the great Duke of B gundy, was but the little Emperor of G many. And what was the confequenc His brother Ferdinand, King of the mans, and Adminiftrator of the empi came into fo much authority in the d that Charles, in very chagrin it is thoug (and a line above quoted intimates as mu out of a palace threw himself into a vent; not with abated, tho' with mor ed pride. A man may transfer this scene to: place that occurs to him, the fact will ever remain true. Charles had ind fome excufe for this partiality to his reditary eftates, which other princes h wanted: The crown of Spain, with addition of the eftates of Burgundy, infinitely richer than the Imperial cro fupported by the revenue of the house Auftria, tho' the latter conferred the bi eft dignity: but then Charles, as I faid fore, was but a little Emperor, tho' a g King of Spain and Duke of Burgu We might in the fame manner, fuppo the other cafes I have put, fee a g Count of Oldenburg, and a great Duke Holftein; but a little King of Denmark, a very little Emperor of Ruffia. The kingdoms of Pruffia and Sardi are indeed quite of another rank: t confer the Royal title on their respect fovereigns, but are otherwife far lefs c fiderable than the duchies of Savoy : Piedmont, and the marquifate of Brand burg. Here then the manifeft intereft, b of the governors and governed, prep derates in behalf of the latter, tho' dignified dominions. But thefe, I belie are the only separate kingdoms in the wo I mean kingdoms independent of other ki doms, of which the fame may with tr be affirmed People are ready to blame Alexan for conforming to the customs and m ners of the Perfians, after he had ma himself matter of the Perfian empire; a the excess he ran to was undoubte blameable: but, abstracted from th the conformity itself was a proof of his gacity, and his refidence among them the way to conciliate to himself the mi of his myriads of new fubjects. To ha gone back over the Hellefpont, and, fr pe petty infertile Macedon, to have given laws as far as the Indus, over lands flow Cing with milk and honey, would, in all probability, even during his fort reign, have rendered contemptible the fon of Jupiter Amm, after all his victories. To conclude: A prince that reigns for Donly, will be in great danger of being left to himself at laft; and he that reigns with partiality to a few, and those the leaf confiderable of his fubjects, runs a nk of being deferted by the greater and more confiderable number. OLD ENGLAND, Jan. 14. The danger of court-adulation, and the plain language our parliaments formerly used to their Kings. SIR, Dulation is the poifon which the de could not be gratified, but at the expence of the people. We therefore find, upon the rolls of parliament, and in our oldeft, honefteft hiftorians, very plain language used by the parliaments to their princes; and the latter receiving the bitterest rebukes for their vanity and partiality to foreign interefts; not as defined affronts, but as wholfome chaftisements. Matthew Paris tells us, when Henry III. afked money to defray the expence of a foreign expedition, which his people thought did not at all concern OLD ENGLAND, that his parliament told him, it was very impudent in him to ask money for any fuch purpofes, and thereby impoverish his subjects at home, by his fquandering it in idle expeditions; and that they flatly refused to his teeth, Jupplying him on any such account. Upon his remonftrating, "that he had engaged Avil fly infinuated into the human his Royal word to go abroad in perion frame, juft as it came fair and faultlefs from the hands of the great creator; nor could the tooth of the ferpent have circulated fo fubtile a venom thro' the veins, as his tongue did thro' the hearts of our fr parents. Ye shall be as gods, has been the language that has ever fince intrapped the fons of Adam. The adulation paid to a prince is the mot dangerous fpecies of this vice. He never has his paffions flattered, without thinking at the fame time that they ought to be fed. And vanity has been known to be fo voracious, that it hath fucked the beft blood, and drained the laft penny from nations. This is the food on which verige vanity can alone fubfift. The wort of the first twelve Roman Emperors came to the Imperial purple with huinane, my virtuous fentiments; but adulation tened them into monsters. It found out their paffions; it flattered them; it ftrengthered them till they rofe into frenzy, and preyed upon all the human race. Te parliaments of Old England feem to have been exceeding fenfible of the y danger there might be in flattering even that the weakneffes of their prince: they knew, s that the fmalleft foible he poffefled, was Hot confined to his own perfon; that it ids might be ftrengthened, if not timely cabed; that if it was once ftrengthened, ron it would feek to be gratified; and that it that year, and that he must have a fupply," they ask him, what has become of all the money he had ab eady gulled them of, and how it comes to be lavished without THIS kingdom being one filling the better? But the freedom with which the people treated their Kings in those days, was not confined to remonftrances. We find them expelling foreigners, and Englishmen with foreign hearts, from about the perfons of their Kings, and reftraining the violence of their paffions for expofing themselves abroad, by acts of oppreffion. One of the greatest and most victorious of our princes, Edward I. had an inordinate defire of making, in perfon, a campaign in Flanders, that he might fupport a confederacy he had entered into to reduce the power of France, and had demanded an extraordinary fupply for that purpose. The people, conceiving that the quarrel was very indifferent to England, strongly oppofed his leaving the kingdom upon any fuch idle expedition: The people of England, [faid they] don't think it proper for you to go to Flanders, unless you can fecure, out of that country, fome equivalent which may indemnify us for the expence. [Walfingham.] We have a like inftance in the reign of that great and powerful King, Henry II. who had large foreign dominions near enough to England to have given great weight to whatever he fet his heart upon. E 2 This This prince being ftrongly tempted to make an expedition abroad, in perfon, became fo fond of the propofal, that he laid it before his parliament, with a moft ear neft request that they would confent to it; it being the fole and darling purpose of his heart. But his parliament thought that he had no bufinefs abroad, and that it was much better for him to keep the money at home. [Ingulp] Accordingly the question was put, and carried for an addrefs to the King, to keep within his own dominions, according to his DUTY. Edward III. likewife received feveral mortifications of the fame kind; and it appears from the whole stream of our history, that the great care of our ancestors was to root from the breafts of their Kings every principle of vain glory, which the more ridiculous it is, becomes the more expensive to the nation; and every partiality for foreign interefts, ever bootlefs, if not destructive to England. In what a condition can we suppose the liberties and wealth of the nation would have been at that time, had any of its princes rendered England dependent up on a barren, beggarly corner of his own inheritance? The quarrels of our Kings upon the continent, in those days, touched the honour of the King of England, and they were maintained by the regal patrimony; the people, excepting upon very extraordinary occafions, never contributed to the expence; yet they imagined they had an intereft in the perfon of their prince; they laid claim to his prefence; they thought his oath restrained him from leaving his regal dominions without their confent; and they profecuted, even to capital penalties, every man whom they fo much as fufpected of giving an advice that favoured the intereft of any foreign dominion, in prejudice to that of Old England. The act of limitation was propofed as a preventive of thofe confequences, which it was natural to fufpect might arife from that partiality which princes are prefumed to entertain for their native country. This partiality, when reftrained within the bounds of decency, is not only pardonable, but laudable: but if ever the fomenting and improving it into open, bare faced difregard of the honour of Englan fhall become the PRICE OF POWER ever the intereft of the leaft and the of the Getes fhould become ftandard, to the aggrandizing of whic at our expence, every m―r muft eith bid, or be ftripped of all his credit, may then pronounce, that nothing is us but one ftruggle, the violence of whi muft either shake off the difeafe, or cop plete our mifery. That no steps of t kind has been yet taken by any of our p fent R-1 fy, I am bound to belie and maintain; but I believe, at the far time, there is not a man in England, w doubts that the infolence of the H-s been great, and infupportable to the E lih army; that their cowardice, the pride, and their rapaciousness, were t caufes why we were, at this time, loft by all the advantages fo loudly boasted in the last campaign: and it is impoffit for the two nations ever to serve again the fame camp. If therefore, as Englishmen, we have t leaft fpark of loyalty to the King of En land, we should be free of all adulati upon this occafion; the m-r who uses ny, ought to be the object of every ma deteftation; and all of us fhould endeavo to fnatch our common father from the u grateful task, of fiding with the people whofe generous gift he is a great and powerful King, against another people f whom nature ought to plead strongly in h breaft. This more than Roman virt would infallibly be exerted, if ever t question with his M-y came to be b twixt the intereft of H- and the hond of E-d; but then we are to remembe that the hero is generally affumed at the e pence of the man; and that our duty is, endeavour to reconcile the exalted virtue the former, to the natural affections of t latter. The beft, the readieft, and m dutiful method of effecting this, is, by f lowing the examples of our brave and ftors, who had fuch a regard for the h nour of their Kings, in that of their cou try, that they never suffered any confid ration to come into competition with ther. As we are yet independent, it to be hoped that the great diftinction Englishmen and H-s will foon, like t |