quefts, but would only prevent their neighbours from conquering. They are not only jealous of their own Liberty, but even of that of other nations. The Englifh were exafperated against Lewis the Fourteenth, for no other reafon but because he was ambitious; and declar'd war ́against him merely out of levity, not from any interested motives.

THE English have doubtless purchas’d their Liberties at a very high price, and waded thro' feas of blood to drown the Idol of arbitrary power. Other nations have been involv'd in as great calamities, and have fhed as much blood; but then the blood they fpilt in defence of their Liberties, only enslav'd them the more.

THAT which rifes to a Revolution in England, is no more than a Sedition in other countries. A city in Spain, in Barbary, or in Turkey, takes up arms in defence of its Privileges, when immediately it is ftorm'd by mercenary Troops, it is punish'd by Executioners, and the rest of the Nation kifs the chains they are loaded with. The French are of opinion, that the government of this Island is more tem--peftuous than the fea which furrounds it; which indeed is true; but then it is never fo but when the King raises the storm; when he attempts to feize the Ship of which he is only the chief pilot. The ci

vil

vil wars of France lafted longer; were more cruel, and productive of greater evils than thofe of England: But none of these civil wars had a wife and prudent Liberty for their object.

IN the deteftable Reigns of Charles the ninth, and Henry the third, the whole affair was only whether the people should be flaves to the Guifes. With regard to the laft war of Paris, it deferves only to be hooted at. Methinks I fee a croud of School-boys rifing up in arms against their Master, and afterwards whip'd for it. Cardinal de Retz, who was witty and brave, but to no purpofe; rebellious without a caufe; factious without defign, and head of a defenceless party, cabal'd for caballing fake, and feem'd to foment the civil War merely out of diverfion. The Parliament did not know what he intended, nor what he did not intend He levied troops by act of Parliament, and the next moment cafhier'd them. He threatned, he beg'd pardon; he fet a price upon Cardinal Mazarine's head, and afterwards congratulated him in a public manner. Our civil wars under Charles the fixth were bloody and cruel, thofe of the League execrable, and that of the † Frondeurs ridiculous.

THAT

Frondeurs, in its proper fenfe Slingers, and figuratively Cavillers, or lovers of contradiction; was a

name

THAT for which the French chiefly reproach the English Nation, is, the murther of King Charles the Firft, whom his fubjects treated exactly as he wou'd have treated them, had his Reign been profperous. After all, confider on one fide, Charles the First defeated in a pitch'd battle, imprifon'd, try'd, fentenc'd to die in Westminfter-ball, and then beheaded: And on the other, the Emperor Henry the feventh, poifon'd by his chaplain at his receiving the facrament; Henry the third ftab'd by a Monk; thirty affaffinations projected against Henry the fourth; feveral of them put in execution, and the last bereaving that great Monarch of his life. Weigh, I fay, all these wicked attempts, and then judge.

name given to a league or party that oppos'd the French miniftry, i. e. Cardinal Mazarine in 1648. See Rochefocault's Memoirs.

LE T

LETTER IX.

ΟΝ ΤΗ Ε

GOVERNMENT.

T

HAT mixture in the English government, that harmony between King, Lords and Commons, did not always fubfift. England was enflav'd for a long feries of years by the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes, and the French, fucceffively. William the conqueror particularly ruled them with a rod of iron. He difpos'd as abfolutely of the lives and fortunes of his conquer'd fubjects as an eaftern Monarch; and forbid, upon pain of death, the English both fire or candle in their houfes after eight o'clock. Whether he did this to prevent their nocturnal meetings, or only to try, by this odd and whim--fical prohibition, how far it was poffible for one Man to extend his power over his fellow Creatures. 'Tis true indeed that the English had Parliaments before and after William the Conqueror; and they boast of them, as tho' these affemblies then call'd Parliaments, compos'd of ecclefiaftical Tyrants, and of plunderers entitled

Barons

Barons, had been the guardians of the public liberty and happiness.

THE Barbarians who came from the fhores of the Baltick, and fettled in the reft of Europe, brought with them the form of government called States or Parliaments, about which fo much noife is made, and which are fo little understood. Kings indeed were not abfolute in thofe days, but then the people were more wretched upon that very account, and more completely-enflav'd. The Chiefs of thefe favages, who had laid wafte France, Italy, Spain, and England, made themfelves Monarchs. Their generals divided among themselves the feveral countries they had conquer'd, whence fprung thofe Margraves, thofe Peers, thofe Barons, thofe petty Tyrants, who often contested with their Sovereigns for the fpoils of whole nations. Thefe were birds of prey, fighting with an Eagle for Doves, whofe blood the Victorious was to fuck. Every nation, inftead of being govern'd by one Master, was trampled upon by an hundred Tyrants. The priests foon play'd a part among them. Before this, it had been the fate of the Gauls, the Germans, and the Britons, to be always govern'd by their Druids, and the Chiefs of their villages, an ancient kind of Barons, not fo tyrannical as their fucceffors. Thefe

D

Druids