PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. June that 256 The last that spoke in this Debate was A I looked upon as a confiderable point gained in favour of our religion, as many Jews may become naturalized by means of the Ameri can act, and as feveral confiderable lawyers have given it as their opinion, that a Jew born here is to all intents and purposes a natural-born fubject, and intitled to all thofe rights and privileges which any other fubject, who is not of the established church, is by his birth intitled to. This, my lords, was then my B opinion, and I have not yet met with any good reafon for altering my opinion; but as the act has given offence to fo many of our Chriftian brethren, and as I do not think it a matter of very great importance either to religion or the flate, I fhall in this caie be ready, as I fhall always be in cafes which I do not think of the utmost importance, to facrifice my opinion to the fatisfaction of my Christian brethren. For this reafon I fhall be ready to confent to the repeal of that part of the late act which permits Jews to be naturalized, but I cannot confent to the repeal of that part of it which difables any Jew to purchase advowsons, or any thing that may give him a right to intermeddle in affairs relating to the church; and therefore 1 can E S there is no precept of chrif. tianity that forbids us to allow C the Jews to live amongst us, I thought religion very little concerned in the question, whether they fhould be permitted to be naturalized, without being under any neceffity to do what even they cannot think right for them to do; for tho' D they may not think it a profanation of any religious inftitution to partake of the holy facrament of the Lord's Supper, yet they must think it immoral to diffemble fo far as to pretend to be Chriftians, which they muft do before the most profligate clergyman will adminifter it to them. Therefore if religion was any way concerned, it was in favour of the bill brought in laft feffion, and from daily experience I was convinced, that the most fuccefsful, and I am fure, the best way of making con- F verts, is to treat thofe who differ from us with that mildness and univerfal benevolence which our holy religion fo ftrongly recommends. This induced me to give my confent to the paffing of that bill into a law, especially as care had been G taken to prevent any Jew naturalized by that ad, or by any other method, from intermedling in any affairs relating to the church, which B of O not agree to the leaving out the exception or provifo contained in the bill now before us; for tho' no Jew fhould ever be naturalized by parliament, yet many of them will certainly be naturalized by means of the American act, and if all Jews born here are to be deemed naturalborn fubjects, we can make no doubt but that many of them will purchase land eftates with advowfons annexed, and they may purchase prefentations, with a view to prefent fuch clerks as will underhand favour their religion, or fuch as they think will by their conduct bring a fcandal upon Christianity. The noble lord who spoke laft was pleafed to fay, that this may be pre 1754. PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. 257 vented by the bifhop, who has a power to enquire into the character and qualifications of every clerk prefented to him, and to reject fuch as are deficient either in character or learning. 'Tis true, my lords, the bifhop has fuch a power; but as to character we are often impofed on by falfe teftimonials which are gene rally too easily obtained; and a bad character in general will not be a good plea upon a quare impedit. Some particular vice or crime muft not only be fet forth but proved, otherwife the bishop will be caft in the fuit, and obliged not only to pay cofts but to accept of the clerk to be prefented. Now a clergyman may be a very vicious man, and even a man of bad character, tho' it be not poffible to prove any particular crime, or any immoral behaviour against him, as all men, efpecially gentlemen, are unwilling to become informers; therefore the bishop may be forced to accept of the clerk prefented, tho' he knows him to be a man of a bad character; and fuch clergymen the Jews will probably chufe to prefent, in order to bring the more scandal upon Chriftianity. Then, my lords, as to the qualifications of the clerk prefented, the bishop may, and indeed ought to examine him, and if he finds him very ignorant he may and ought to reject him; but in this cafe likewife a quare impedit may be brought against the bishop, and tho' it has been decided, that illiterature is a good plea to fuch an action, yet whether it is fo or not is a queftion in law that is not yet abfolutely fettled, and may perhaps be determined against the bishop. Thus your lordThips muft fee, that bishops are now liable to great vexation upon their refufing fuch clerks as are prefented to them, and they would become liable to a great deal more, fhould Jews get themselves poffeffed of many advowsons. The bishop, for the fake June, 1754: of his character, would be obliged to refufe every clerk prefented by a Jew, if there were the least appear ance of an objection to his character or qualification, otherwile the people would accufe him of combining A with Jews to bring a reproach upon Chriftianity; and in every cafe the Jew would certainly bring his action of quare impedit. But now, my lords, fuppofe that every Jew patron fhould take care to prelent a clergyman of the most B undoubted qualification and unblemished character; yet his being prefented to the living by a Jew would be a derogation to his character among the people, as we may cer tainly fuppofe from the popular clamour raised against the act now proCpofed to be repealed; and this would prevent his having that weight and authority among the people of his parish, which every clergyman ought to have. Then, my lords, let us confider, that in this kingdom there are many donatives over which, if Dthey have not been augmented, the bishop has no power, either as to the presentation or as to vifitation : Nay, he cannot fo much as compel the patron to present or fill up the vacancy, any other way than by ecclefiaftical cenfures, which are now but too little regarded by Chriftians, E and would certainly be held in contempt by Jews; therefore we may fuppofe, that if they fhould acquire a right to fuch donatives, they would never fill up the vacancies, but apply the income to the support of their own Rabbi's. F I fhall admit, my lords, that in Turkey all the dignitaries of the Christian church are appointed by the grand feignior or his bafhaws. This all Chriftians, I hope, lament, tho' thofe under the Ottoman power are forced to fubmit to it; but none of G the Turkish bafhaws ever trouble their heads with the nomination or appointment of parish priefts; and if the Chriftians in Turkey were Kk forced 258 Antient Opinion and modern Account of the Stork. June forced to fubmit to this likewife, I hope, A Uranus from the outrage of that unnatural fon, he perished by a wound from the inftrument with which the brother was about to execute his purpose on their father, and that Fate (that fomething which they made to prefide over their very deities) transformed him to a ftork, a bird that for ever preferves the fame filial reverence and virtue. From that time, which, if we fubscribe to the opinion of Eufebius, who calls the Il of Sanchoniathon the Jacob of Mofes, carries us back more than 3000 years, we find the opinion delivered down in fables, emblems, and metamorphofes to every generation. Among those who [This JOURNAL to be continued in our next.] B have given their relation without the or !! The INSPECTOR, No. 171. PLATO LATO has made the fine difciple of his master, convinced at length of the obligations he had to his affiduity, and the advantages he should receive from his C advice, tell him they would hereafter change parts; and that he will follow the philofopher, and court his converfation with the fame earnestnefs and eager delight, with which he had hitherto folicited his. "If it shall be so, replies Socrates, what is reported of the ftork, my dear Alcibiades, may be faid of the affection which I bear to you; for after it has produced and nourished a little winged love in its bofom, that little love hall take its turn to cherith, and fupport the parent in its old age." Extravagant as this paffage may have appeared to fome, and idle as it may have Teemed to others, It gives the credit of a confiderable antiquity, and of received opinion in that time, to a relation which has travelled down thro' all the fucceeding ages, and is one of the moft remarkable that refpe&t the animal world. naments or the exaggerations of poetry or fable, the moft candid is Burcherodde, a Dane: His account is the most full and particular of all that have been written, and he appears a perfon of gravity and of fidelity. He tells us, he relates what he has feen. "Storks build, fays he, in the Préfecture of Eyderstede, in the fouthern part looking upon them. They are large birds of Juitland: And men may be taught by wings and red feet. In a retired part of like herons, of a white colour, with black Eyderftede, fome leagues from Tonningen, toward the German fea, there are Dand if any creature comes near them in clusters of trees: Among these they build; the nesting season, which lafts near three months, they go out in a body to attack it. The peasants never hurt them, and they are in no fear of them. F It would not be difficult to trace this account of the affection, the piety, 'as it has been called, of the ftork to its parents, to a much earlier period' than that. of the 'e philofophers. Those who are acquainted with the oriental languages will afily perceive, that the name by which this bird is called in the Old Testament (Hafida) fignifies the bird of filial affection; and among the fabulous writers of the Greeks, we find the very earliest reprefenting the matter as well known, or at least perfectly believed, according to G the cuftoin of that time, by a metamorphofis. They fay, when Coeus, a brother of that Saturn who is the Il of Sanchoniathon, would have preferved his father The two parents feed and guard each' brood: One always remaining on it while Eyoung ones much longer in the neft than the other goes for food: They keep the any other bird; and after they have led them out of it by day, they bring them back at night; preferving it as their natural and proper home. When they firt take out the young, they practise them to fly ; and they lead them to the marshes, and to the hedge pents, and lizards or newts, which are fide, pointing them out the frogs and fertheir proper food: And they will feek out toads which they never eat, and take great pains to make the young diftinguish them." This circumftance is countenanced by Linnæus, who, mentioning the food of the stork, exprefsly fays, “that tho' they eat frogs, they avoid toads." "In the end of autumn, not being able to bear the winter of Denmark, they gather in a great body, about the fea coafts, as we fee fwallows do, and go off together; the old ones leading, the young brood in the center, and a fecond body of 1754. Ridiculous Tafte for Novels and Romances. eld behind, They return in fpring, and they betake themselves in families to their feveral nefts: The people of Tonningen, and the leffer towns upon the coaft, gather together to obferve them come; for they are fuperftitious, and form certain prefages from the manner of their flight: At this time it is not uncommon to fee feveral of the old birds, which are feeble and tired with the long flight, fupported at times upon the backs of the young ones And the peasants fpeak it as a certainty, that many of thefe are, when they return to their home, laid carefully in the old nefts, and fed and cherished by the young ones, which they reared with fo much care the fpring before." These are the little winged loves of Socrates, which repay with piety and gratitude the obligation they received; not knowing at that time what or how great it was. A B If Ariftotle in his wonders, or Pliny in his hiftory, contradict this relation in any part; or if the fabulifts, to make it C more ftrange, carry it out of nature, men would do well to laugh at their wildnesses, not to difcredit what is delivered foberly. If in Italy, where they are strangers, none, as Pliny affirms, ever faw them coming or going, but they were always found or miffed at once; it is not to be doubted from that circumstance, that in Denmark, where they are native and fa-D miliar, they may do both openly; nor is there any caufe why they who rightly laugh at the prognosticks of their refidence to ftates and kingdoms, should doubt the rest. They were of old held facred in Theffaly, as they are now in the Low-Countries; but with fomewhat better reason. The people of this time make E it criminal to kill them, because they think them guardians to their liberty; antients, because they deftroyed ferpents, If the account this gentleman gives be fingular, it is in no part unnatural. We fee innumerable inftances of what we call instinct; and who hall fay this is 200 great for credit? Who hall lay down The laws to determine where the gifts of a Creator to his creatures fhall stop; or how they shall be limited ? To the AUTHOR of the LONDON SIR, Accidentally took up, the other day, a little book in a bookfeller's fhop, infitled, Remarks on the advantages and difadvantages of France and of Great Britain quiab respect to commerce, &c. This book had been advertised, and is published, as trandation from the French original, 259 which was perhaps pretended as a recommendation to its being read by the Beau Monde of this country, but with me was a good reafon for my not being at the pains to read it, and much more for my not being at the expence, fmall as it is, to purchafe it, as I am no great admirer of the French authors upon any fubject which requires deep penetration, and a folid judgment, becaufe upon fuch fubjects they are generally either skimmers or phantaftical. But before I had read three pages, I faw, that it was a book that ought not only to be read but seriously confidered by every Englishman, therefore I paid for it, and have fince perused it with attention. Whatever truth there may be in its be ing a tranflation, it raised in me a very melancholy reflection; for if true, I was forry to find any Frenchman, especially one in employment at court, fo well acquainted with the forts and foibles of this nation, and with the most effectual means for increafing the wealth and power of a ftate; and if a pretence only, it gives me a moft contemptible opinion of our prefent generation, that a gentleman who writes any thing really ferious, useful and instructive, fhould be obliged to publish it as a tranflation from the French, in order to recommend it to the perufal of people of fashion in this country, at a time when filly novels and romances are read with avidity, not by little mafters and miffes, but by dignified fenators and noble matrons, and have fo much ingroffed the converfation in every polite affembly, that I have heard fome ladies of good fenfe excufe their reading them, by faying, lord! If one had not read fuch a thing, one should have nothing to fay in company. This may be an excufe for ladies; but can it be an excufe for a gentleman? For my part, I should he more ashamed of beating a part in fuch a converfation, than of hearing a part in a converfation among boys talking about their marbles, or entertaining one another with accounts of Robin Hood and Little John, the Seven wife nien of Gotham, or the Old wife of Bath. But whatever be the reigning taste in town, I hope, there is more felidity and common fenfe in the tafte of your country readers; and that they may judge for themselves, I have fent you two extracts from this little book, for their perufal, Gone of which relates to the difadvantages France now labours under, and the other to the advantages which England naturally enjoys, in both of which i most heartily agree with this author, tho' I do not in every thing agree with him, particularly in 260 Of a too unequal Diftribution of Property. in what he fays about the naturalization of foreigners, on which subject I may perhaps hereafter fend you fome remarks. The first extract is by the author intitled, Difadvantage to France in the difributive Oeconomy of Property; and is as follows: A "The unequal diftribution of property thro' the different conditions of life, is one of the principal tyes of fociety, and the most powerful caufe of the subordi. nation between the members of it, from the fovereign down to the lowest subject. Luxury is the neceffary effect of it, and at the fame time a remedy to it; it is by this means, if right managed, that money circulates, and carries life through all the B parts of the body-politick. June account of the greatnefs, and honours, which can be attained no where else, and which are for none but those who live at it; to Paris, in which are not only all the treasures of the state, but where all thofe fubjects of the state refide who are rich, either through the publick, or their own private revenue: So that all the wealthy have fixed their habitation in this town, from a preference owing to the neighbourhood of the court. A portion fo confiderable of the riches of the ftate, as well as of the subject, permanently fixed in one spot, cannot diffufe its influence but to a certain diftance. The neighbouring lands, and fuch as could fend their produce to that market, might feel the benefit of it, refpectively in proportion to their distance. The fame may be faid of the manufactures neceffary to the demands of life, or of luxury. The lands and the manufactures which want the convenience of carriage thither, have been neglected, or deferted, for want of a fufficient confumption on the spot, or at proper diftances. Neceffity has drawn to town the inhabitants of the country, and luxury has employed them to excefs, in all the neceffary as well as fuperfluous profeffions. Thence an enormous number of footmen, and fervants of all ranks, perukemakers, artifi cers, and profeffors of the most frivolous Darts, pettyfoggers, and other sharpers, a number which goes on encreasing every day, to fuch a degree, that to restore that œconomy which should be obferved in the well-peopling of a nation, Paris ought to fend colonies to all the parts of the kingdom, which have been dispeopled for its fake. But this unequal distribution of property may be fo exceffive, or faulty, as that exceffive wealth in one clafs of the ftate, may cause in the other part an exceffive poverty. As there is nothing but the land, or trade, that can produce in the ftate a value that did not before exift in C it, all exceffive fortunes, which do not proceed from thofe fpring-heads, cannot but be formed at the expence of the trader, or the land improver : which must be a fort of impofition on those two claffes, prejudicial to cultivation, and induftry. Besides, the exceffive proportion of overgrown fortunes, is, in its nature, little favourable to the confumption of provifions and merchandize. The head of a family of twenty thousand pounds fterling a year will not confume so much wine, for example, as twenty families of a thousand a year each. The diffipation and waste in fuch an houfe of the neceffaries of life, will not balance the deficiency of confumption by the mechanicks, E and peafants, deprived of the means of it. If a number of fuch enormous fortunes should start up, and not be distributed, in due proportion, over all the parts of the kingdom, the effect of them will be yet more pernicious. There will neceffarily refult from it a mif-ordered distribution of fubjects: The inhabitants will be F drawn from all parts of the kingdom to- France concenters in Verfailles, and Paris, as in a fingle point, all the powers which can attract mankind; to court, on It may also be averred, that the distribution of property is ill-regulated, when one fees the land-owners, occupying, in town, fumptuous palaces, whilft their family-feats, their farms, their villages are going to ruin: When the produce of the provinces has no demand, or confumption, because they live no longer on their eftates, than ferves them to rack wherewith to live in town; when a fertile kingdom is reduced to want grain, becaufe the labourer is forced by his poverty to come to town to ferve the wants or fancies of the rich: In short, when the rich have no other way of luxury left than consuming without measure, in furniture of all forts, that gold and filver, of which the cultivation of land stands in need. Luxury well ordered breeds a beneficial confumption: Exceffive luxury is a destructive abufe. It is the luxury of Cleopatra," |