1 Houfe of Lords, on the 7th of December 1778 [19.], when administration was accused of deficiency in not procuring early intelligence, was heard with admiration by the crowd of ftrangers below the bar: and moft affuredly his Lordship upon that occafion, and upon several others fince, has fet an example of politenefs, cool temper, and moderation towards his adverfaries, highly becoming the dignity of the House of Peers. friendship for Great Britain, in oppofi. him to become a powerful friendly medi ator. His Lordship lived upon terms of great amity with the late Lord Cathcart, the British Ambaffador at the court of Pe tersburg while his Lordship was at Vienna; and upon the appointment of other minifters to those departments, their friendship was cemented by the ties of affinity, Lord Stormont marrying, in 1776, the Lady Louifa Cathcart, his Lordship's third daughter. His Lordfhip's laft embaffy was to the court of Verfailles, upon the recal of Lord Rochford, who was appointed Secretary of State; and in this ftation he continued till the rupture with France obliged him to quit that perfidious court. So many years refidence abroad has made Lord Stormont almoft a stranger at home; and though he may have performed very effential fervices for his country, yet they have been in fuch a line as from their very nature cannot be known to the public at large. Great expectations, however, may be formed in his prefent ftation of Secretary of State for the Northern department, if the prejudices entertained against him merely as a North Briton do not occafion his removal. In the humble opinion of the writer of these imperfect memoirs, it should be an invariable rule, to appoint thofe perfons who have been long employed in embaffies abroad to the office of Secretary of State; the very title and the principal functions of this officer pointing out the propriety of such a choice. Lord Stormont's firft fpeech in the To a graceful perfon and genteel addrefs, his Lordship adds an elegance of diction rarely to be met with, and nature has fupplied him with an harmonious voice. Is it neceffary to add, that this account is penned by an Englishman, a native of London, and one who has no connection whatever with administra SIR, City-road, Jan. 21. 1780. Some time ago a pamphlet was fent me, intitled, An appeal from the Proteftant affociation to the people of G. Britain [89.]. A day or two fince, a kind of anfwer to this was put into my hand, which pronounces "its ftyle contemptible, its reafoning futile, and its object malicious [89]." On the contrary, I think the tyle of it is clear, eafy, and natural; the reafoning (in general) ftrong and conclufive; the object or defign, kind and benevolent. And in purfuance of the fame kind and benevolent defign, namely, to preferve our happy conftitution, I fhall endeavour to confirm the fubftance of that tract, by a few plain arguments. do. I perfecute no man for his religious With perfecution I have nothing to lefs a freedom in religion" as any man principles. Let there be as "boundcan conceive. But this does not touch the point: I will fet religion, true or falfe, utterly out of the queftion. Suppofe the Bible, if you pleafe, to be a fable, and the Koran to be the word of God. I confider not, whether the Romifh religion be true or false; I build nothing on one or the other fuppofitions. Therefore away with all your commonplace declamation about intolerance and perfecution for religion! Suppose every word of Pope Pius's creed to be true; fuppofe the council of Trent to have been infallible: yet I infift upon it, that no to tolerate men of the Roman-Catholic government, not Roman-Catholic, ought perfuafion. I prove this by a plain argument, (let him answer it that can). That no Roman-Catholic does or can give fecu rity rity for his allegiance or peaceable behaviour, I prove thus. It is a RomanCatholic maxim, established, not by private men, but by a public council, That "no faith is to be kept with heretics." This has been openly avowed by the council of Conftance: but it never was openly difclaimed (whether private perfons avow or difavow it). It is a fixed maxim of the church of Rome. But as long as it is so, nothing can be more plain, than that the members of that church can give no reasonable fecurity to any government of their allegiance, or peaceable behaviour. Therefore they ought not to be tolerated by any government, Proteftant, Mahometan, or Pagan. You may fay, "Nay, but you will take an oath of allegiance." True, five hundred oaths; but the maxim, "No faith is to be kept with heretics," fweeps them all away as a spider's web. So that, ftill, no governors that are not RomanCatholics, can have any fecurity of their allegiance. Again. Thofe who acknowledged the fpiritual power of the Pope, can give no fecurity of their allegiance to any government; but all Roman-Catholics acknowledge this: therefore they can give no fecurity for their allegiance. The power of granting pardons for all fins, paft, prefent, and to come, is, and has been for many centuries one branch of his fpiritual power. But thofe who acknowledge him to have this fpiritual power, can give no fecurity for their allegiance; fince they believe the Pope can pardon rebellions, high treason, and all other fins whatso ever. The power of difpenfing with any promife, oath, or vow, is another branch of the fpiritual power of the Pope. And all who acknowledge his fpiritual power, muft acknowledge this. But whoever acknowledges the difpenfing power of the Pope, can give no fecurity of his allegiance to any government. Oaths and promifes are none: they are light as air; a difpenfation makes them all null and void. Nay, not only the Pope, but even a prieft, has power to pardon fins! This is an effential doctrine of the church of Rome. But they that acknowledge this, cannot poffibly give any fecurity for their allegiance to any government. Oaths are no fecurity at all; for the priest can pardon both perjury and high treafon. Setting then religion afide, it is plain, that upon principles of reafon, no go. vernment ought to tolerate men who cannot give any fecurity to that government for their allegiance and peaceable behaviour. But this no Romanift can do, not only while he holds, That "no faith is to be kept with heretics," but fo long as he acknowledges either priestly abfolution, or the spiritual power of the Pope. But the late act, you fay, does not either tolerate or encourage Roman-Catholics." I appeal to matter of fact. Do not the Romanists themselves understand it as a toleration? You know they do. And does it not already (let alone what it may do by and by) encourage them to preach openly, to build chapels (at Bath and elsewhere), to raise feminaries, and to make numerous converts, day by day, to their intolerant perfecuting principles? I can point out, if need be, feveral of the perfons. And they are increafing daily. But nothing dangerous to English liberty is to be apprehended from them." I am not certain of that. Some time fince a Romish prieft came to one I knew; and after talking with her largely, broke out, "You are no Heretic! You have the experience of a real Christian ?” "And would you, (she asked), burn me alive?" He faid," God forbid !-unlefs it were for the good of the church." Now what fecurity could fhe have had for her life, if it had depended on that man? The good of the church would have burft all the ties of truth, justice, and mercy: efpecially when feconded by the absolution of a priest; or, if need were, a Papal pardon. If any one please to answer this, and to fet his name, I fhall probably reply.— But the productions of anonymous writers I do not promife to take any notice of. I am, &c. [Lond. Chron.] JOHN WESLEY. The chaste and sober principles of rational love and connubial duty, exemplified in Lady Harriet Ackland, in her paffage through Canada to attend her husband. From Aftate of the expedition from Canada, laid before the Houfe of Commons by Gen. Burgoyne. THis lady had accompanied her huf band to Canada in the beginning of the year 1776. In the courfe of that campaign fhe had traverfed a vaft fpace of country, in different extremities of feafon, season, and with difficulties that an European traveller will not eafily conceive, to attend, in a poor hut at Chamblee, her husband, upon his fick-bed. In the opening of the campaign of 1777, fhe was reftrained from offering herself to a share of the fatigue and hazard expected before Ticonderoga, by the pofitive injunctions of her husband. The day after the conqueft of that place, he was badly wounded, and the croffed the Lake Champlain to join him. time the action began, the found herself near a fmall uninhabited hut, where the alighted. When it was found the action was becoming general and bloody, the furgeons of the hofpital took poffelfion of the fame place, as the moft convenient for the first care of the wounded. Thus was this lady in hearing of one continued fire of cannon and mufketry for four hours together, with the prefumption, from the poft of her hus band at the head of the grenadiers, that he was in the moft expofed part of the action. She had three female companions, the Baronefs of Reidefel, and the wives of two British officers, Major Harnage and Lieut. Reynell; but in the event their prefence ferved but little for comfort. Maj. Harnage was foon brought to the furgeons, very badly wounded; and a little time after came intelligence that Lieut. Reynell was fhot dead. magination will want no helps to figure the state of the whole groupe. I As foon as he recovered, Lady Harriet proceeded to follow his fortunes through the campaign; and at Fort Edward, or at the next camp, the acquired a twowheel tumbril, which had been conftructed by the artificers of the artillery, fomething fimilar to the carriage ufed for the mail upon the great roads of England. Major Ackland commanded the British grenadiers, which were attached to Gen. Frafer's corps, and confequently were always the moft advanced poft of the army. Their fituations were oft- From the date of that action to the en fo alert, that no perfon flept out of 7th of October, Lady Harriet, with her their cloaths. In one of these fituations ufual ferenity, ftood prepared for new a tent, in which the Major and Lady trials; and it was her lot that their feHarriet were asleep, fuddenly took fire. verity increafed with their numbers. She An orderly ferjeant of grenadiers, with was again exposed to the hearing of the great hazard of fuffocation, dragged out whole action, and at laft received the the first perfon he caught hold of. It fhock of her individual misfortune, mixproved to be the Major. It happened with the intelligence of the general ed, that in the fame inftant, fhe had, unknowing what he did, and perhaps not perfectly awake, providentially made her escape, by creeping under the walls of the back part of the tent. The first object fhe faw, upon the recovery of her fenfes, was the Major on the other fide, and in the fame inftant again in the fire, in search of her. The ferjeant again faved him, but not without the Major being feverely burnt in his face and different parts of the body. Every thing they had with them in the tent was confumed. This accident happened a little time before the army paffed the Hudfon's river. It neither altered the refolution nor the chearfulness of Lady Harriet; and the continued her progress, a partaker of the fatigues of the advanced corps. The next call upon her fortitude was of a different nature, and more diftrefsful, as of longer fufpenfe. On the march of the 19th 39. 654.], the grenadiers being liable to action at every step, fhe had been directed by the Major to follow the route of the artillery and baggage, which was not expostd. At the calamity; the troops were defeated; and Major Ackland, defperately wounded, was a prifoner. The day of the 8th was paffed by Lady Harriet and her companions in common anxiety; not a tent nor a fhed being ftanding, except what belonged to the hofpital, their refuge was among the wounded and the dying. When the army was upon the point of moving after the halt described, I received a message from Lady Harriet, submitting to my decifion a propofal, (and expreffing an earneft folicitude to execute it, if not interfering with my defigns), of paffing to the camp of the enemy, and requefting Gen. Gates's permiffion to attend her husband. Though I was ready to believe (for I had experienced) that patience and fortitude, in a fupreme degree, were to be found, as well as every other virtue, under the most tender forms, I was aftonifhed at this propofal. After fo long an agitation of the fpirits, exhaufted not only for want of reft, but absolutely for want of food, drenched in rains for twelve hours together, that a woman fhould fhould be capable of fuch an undertaking, as delivering herself to the enemy, probably in the night, and uncertain of what hands the might fall into, appeared an effort above human nature. The affiftance I was enabled to give was fmall indeed; I had not even cup of wine to offer her; but I was told she had found, from fome kind and fortunate hand, a little rum and dirty water. All I could formafh to her was an open boat, and a few lines, written upon dirty and wet paper, to Gen. Gates, recommending her to his protection. Mr Brudenell, the chaplain of the artillery, readily undertook to accompany her; and with one female fervant, and the Major's valet-de-chambre, (who had a ball which he had received in the late action then in his fhoulder), the rowed down the river to meet the enemy. But her diftreffes were not yet to end. The night was advanced before the boat reach ed the enemy's outpofts, and the centinel would not let it pafs, nor even come on fhore. In vain Mr Brudenell offered the flag of truce, and reprefented the ftate of the extraordinary paffenger. The guard, apprehenfive of treachery, and punctilious to their orders, threatened to fire into the boat if it ftirred before daylight. Her anxiety and fuffering were thus protracted through feven or eight dark and cold hours; and her reflections upon that firft reception could not give her very encouraging ideas of the treatment fhe was afterwards to expect. But it is due juftice, at the clofe of this adventure, to fay, that he was received and accommodated by Gen. Gates with all the humanity and refpect that her rank, her merits, and her fortunes deferved. [39.650.] Let fuch as are affected by these circumftances of alarm, hardship, and danger, recollect, that the subject of them was a woman, of the moft tender and delicate frame, of the gentleft manners, Labituated to all the foft elegancies and refined enjoyments that attend high birth and fortune, and far advanced in a state in which the tender cares, always due to the fex, become indifpenfably necefHary. Her mind alone was formed for fuch trials. On the formation of Hills. From Abbé Fortis's Travels into Dalmatia. THE attentive confideration of the internal ftructure of the ifland [Cherfo] has confirmed me ftill more in the opinion which I had before, through the frequent ufe of obferving the mountains and hills of the continent, concerning the falient and re-entrant angles of Bourquet. A celebrated naturalist has brought them in vogue on the faith of their author; and many more of leffer fame adopted them as a demonftrated truth. I however conftantly believe, and dare affert, that this fyftem of falient and re-entrant angles cannot be adopted universally to the mountains, and much less to the seafhore. It is very true, that the correfpondence of the angles is feen very well expreffed in the fides of fome vallies; but there are few vallies among the mountains that do not owe their excavation to the waters of rivers, or torrents, the conftant nature of which is to form an angle, or a falient curvature oppofite to every new corrofion. But where the waters have not been able to work in their ufual way, and where the vallies were formed by little hills, or vulcanic hills produced in various times, and with little order, there no, mark of the pretended univerfal correfpondence is feen. To fet ftill in a clearer light the error of this hypothefis given out as a conftant obfervation, it is proper to repeat, that the horizontal or inclined ftrata, which are the most common, and nearest to their ancient natural ftate, correfpond together from one chain of hills to an other; though they may be divided by very broad vallies, which manifeftly demonftrates an ancient continuity, as well as the diffolution of the large portion of mountain that existed before thofe great hollows. And hence it may easily be perceived, how little probability there is, that the hills, in their firft foundation, have been formed by the great Architect at corre. sponding angles, leaving, as it were, the dentelli of the strata fuspended round the vallies; for according to all appearance it may be reasonably concluded, after the moft diligent obfervations, that no vcftige, or clear proof, remains, in our days, of primitive hills, or that may with propriety be called fo. Those which we know, are manifeftly produced either by volcano's *, which have burnt in almoft every In the celebrated mountain of Bolea, fituated in the Veronefe territory, the co-exiftence of the fea and of ancient volcanos is manifeftly feen. In our times, that is in the beginning of this century, the island or rock of every region of our globe; or by the Concerning the other ideas of Bourquet, who, after having established obfervations by no means exact, imagined by way of corollaries the paft ftate of the earth, and found the precife time of the deluge, (as if there had been but one), and then pretended to foresee the fubfequent alterations and transformations that are to happen in it, I think it needless to take any further notice. Syftems and theories resemble hitherto, and are like to resemble in time coming, (till a fufficient number of good obfervations are made), unripe fruit, which spoils in a fhort time. That of Bourquet feems to have found more partisans than it deferved, and several of them have gained themfelves no honour by adopting it. It was fufficient, indeed, to ftay in their chambers, and to theorife at their eafe on good geographical maps, concerning the truth of the propofition, That the fides of the large vallies, as well as thofe of the fbores of the fea, correfpond with one another; and I who have taken the trouble to examine many of them, am perfuaded, that neither the fides of the fea-fbores, nor thofe of the large vallies, conftantly correSpond with one another. The ftrata of the islands of Cherfo and Ofero are very regularly formed. They pafs from one hill to another with a kind of undulation, which probably has been, nay doubtless has been, the work of a valt ocean. The island is too old, and has undergone too great a number of changes, as well as the reft of the globe, for us to form any certain judgement concerning its fuperficies. It is certain, however, that no veftige now remains of the ancient fuperficies, as even the order of the organization is altered in the inof Santerini was raifed out of the bottom of land parts, as well as on the fea-coaft. The rain waters, the fubterraneous cavities, the abforptions, and fometimes more, fubitaneous agents, have made great ruins. The waves wash away and deftroy fome of the littoral hills; and hence the obfervation of the ftrata that remain expofed to the eye on the exterior part of the island, are enough to embarrafs any hafty fabricator of systems. Some of them are inclined towards the fea, and, from root to root of the hills, defcribe arches bending outwards: but this direction is not conftant. Here and there, contiguous to the arches bending outwards, other arches are feen, which bend, in a contrary sense, inwards, manifeftly oppofing themselves to the waves with a kind of pride. The explanation of this fact is, however, not difficult, though it might feem contradictory. The littoral hills in thofe parts, particularly thofe of Ofero, are formed of marble ftrata, the one difpofed above the other in fuch a manner, as resembles in large, the ftructure of the Bexoar ftone; but they are not so disposed in a right line, that the fea waters can do equal damage to each in difcompofing the roots, and confequently in deftroying the fides and tops. Hence the ftrata of thofe hills that were more exposed to the force of the waves, muft have been more eafily, and in a fhorter space of time, corroded, difconnected, and overturned beyond their common centre, which is the perpendicular let fall from the top of the hill where the inclination towards the fea ends, and the declivity towards the internal part of the island begins. In the courfe of ages, these hills, the roots and interior parts whereof were inclined towards the destroying fea, are reduced to lefs than the half, and therefore now appear outwardly inclined towards the land. And those hills that in our days are thus half worn away, will, in the courfe of years, be quite deftroyed; their roots will become quick-fands; and the fea continuing its encroachments, and daily gaining on the dry land, will once more by degrees fwallow up that tract of coun the fea by a volcano. In the valley of Rotry, which, perhaps, it has by degrees ca, between Vicenza and Verona, the fides of the hill fhew the ftrata alternately formed of the fpoils of the fea, and of vulcanic eructations; and the petrified fhells that are found there, are often tinged with black, and drenched in bitumen, and the largest oftracites lie involved in the lava, and are #ull of it, abandoned and re-inundated already, who knows how often. This kind of prophecy is not founded on ideal chimeras, but on vifible facts, which correfpond together, and reciprocally enforce one another from one end of the earth to the other. [22.69.] HI |