and the Society of United Britons; and of both, with the United Irishmen and United Scotfmen, are clearly afcertained. In short, fo complete and extensive a fyftem of rebellion never before existed in any country; not even in France, until after the revolution had been atchieved. The fociety of United Irifhmen, etablished in England, appears to be the most formidable, at this time," whether confidered with a view to their combination, their actual numbers, or the atrocious nature of the defigns of which they are preparing, in a very short time, to attempt the execution in direct co-operation with France." Numbers of the lower claffes of Irish, ufually refident in this country, have become members of this fociety; and they appear to be under "the directions of fome perfons of a higher clafs, who fometimes furnish pecuniary aid, and form the committee, by means of which a conftant correfpondence is carried on, through Hamburgh, with France." "Among these plans, there is good reafon to believe that, early in 1793, it was ferioufly in agitation among the confpirators in Ireland, to convey, in fmall veffels, from Ireland to England, a great number of United Irishmen; and to land them on different parts of the coaft, with inftructions to divide themselves into small bodies, and to endeavour to make their way to the capital in the manner leaft liable to fufpicion, under the disguise of those trades and occupations in which the Irish, commonly reforting hither, are principally engaged. Their object is represented to have been that of co-operating with the Corresponding Society, in effecting an infurrection in London, at the time of the rebellion breaking out in Ireland, for the purpose of distracting the military force, and preventing reinforcements being fent to that country; and the plan is faid to have failed from the Corresponding Society fhrinking from the execution of it. About the fame period, another pro ject was fecretly formed (of which your committee have received more distinct information) for collecting, at one point, a chofen body of the most determined from among the United Irish employed on the river Thames, to whom a new oath of fecrefy, obedience, and fidelity, was to be adminiftered. Large rewards were to be promised. They were to be kept wholly ignorant of the precise service they were intended to perform, till the moment of its execution, which was to take place as foon as an attack on fome part of the coaft was announced on the part of the French. They were then to be privately armed with daggers, to be put under leaders of known talents and courage, and formed into three divifions, and were to make an attack, by furprize, at the fame moment, on both Houses of Parliament, on the Tower, and on the Bank." P. 30. Neither the checks which they have received in Ireland, nor the discoveries of their defigns, which have been made in both countries, nor yet the little profpect which they can have of fucceeding against the formidable force prepared to refift them, have induced them to lay afide their deftructive plans :-The "Committee have received undoubted proof, that plans of this nature are now, more than ever, in agitation." Such is the true fpirit of JACOBINISM, ever active, ever restlefs, ever turbulent! The communication with France is regularly maintained, and the fcheme for a new invafion of the country on the point of being carried into execution. "The real objects of the inftigators of thefe proceedings, in both kingdoms, were no other than the entire overthrow of the British Constitution, the general confifcation of property, and the erection of a democratic republic. founded on the ruins of all religion, and of all political and civil fociety, and framed after the model of France."— "The The principles and views of the conspirators remain unchanged. Their reliance upon the afliitance and co-operation of France, by which they expect ultimately to effect their purposes, continues undiminished; and the fyftem of those secret focieties, which are at once the inftruments of feditious confpiracy at home, and the channel of treasonable correfpondence with France, though in many parts broken and interrupted, is by no means destroyed." The limits which we are neceffarily obliged to prefcribe to ourfelves, render it impoffible to make farther extracts from this most important document. But thofe which we have made, will, we truft, be fufficient to imprefs the whole country with a due fenfe of the danger to which they have been expofed, and of the dreadful calamities with which they are ftill threatened; and we rely, with confidence, on the wisdom of the Legislature, to enact fuch laws as shall strike at the root of the evil, and effectually defeat all the defperate machinations of foreign enemies and domeftic traitors. For our own part, we feel fome fatisfaction in having given a timely warning to our countrymen; in having early called upon them to be on their guard against the fecret manoeuvres of Jacobinifm; and in having, long fince, pointed out the neceffity of unufual vigilance and exertion. They have now received, from the higheft authority, a full confirmation of all our affertions refpecting the progrefs of difaffection, and the defigns of the feditious ::-even our enemies muft acknowledge, that our earnest endeavours to create a general alarm was no artifice of party, no attempt at delufion, no ebullition of intemperate zeal; but an effort of pure patriotifm, influenced by an ardent love of our country, and originating in a close attention to, and an adequate knowledge of, the object of apprehenfion. This alarm once excited; the fpirit of the nation once rouzed ;- -we have nothing to fear. A blind confidence is as hoftile to real fecurity as an illfounded jealoufy is deftructive of rational freedom. It is much to be wished, that Lords Lieutenants of Counties, Sheriffs, Clergymen, Commanders of Volunteer Corps, and all other friends to their country, in public fituations, would avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by the low price at which this Report is published, to circulate it as extenfively as poffible. ART. XXIX. Inftructions for the Drill, and the Method of performing the Eighteen Manoeuvres, as ordered for His Majefty's Forces. By John Ruffell, Brevet Captain and Paymaster, and late Adjutant in the Weft London Militia. 8vo. Pp. 207. Egerton, London. 1799. THE great, the unprecedented occafion, which has rouzed the martial fpirit of this country, and which has, as it were, in the twinkling of an eye, covered the island with almost countless bands, impelled by ardent loyalty and genuine patriotifm, and determined to defend the throne of their Prince, and the bleffings of their Conftitution, against all affaults of foreign enemies and domeftie traitors -fuch an occafion ftamps a peculiar value on every well-executed attempt attempt to render the military art familiar. Of this nature is the performance before us, which is well worth the ftudious attention of every individual engaged in the volunteer corps, whether as an officer, or which, in such a caufe, is no less honourable a station, in the ranks. In the preface, Captain Ruffell obferves, that— "The book was written for the inftruction of the corps to which it is dedi cated, with no wifh for public applaufe, and, confequently, little apprehenfior of public criticifm; it was intended more to awaken that spirit for military knowledge, which the exertions of an individual, whom we know and efteem, are fometimes well calculated to excite, than to hurry its author into the field of ambition, or to add his name to the lift of thofe able men who have fo effentially advanced the military feience of England, and fecured, by the confidence of the public, its independence and fafety." In explaining the manner in which this laudable defign is executed, Capt. Ruffell obferves, that he has "Availed himself of every advantage he could reap from the toils of those who have gone before him, well knowing that it was not his office to point out new regulations, but rather to fimplify, and render more cafy in practice, thofe which already conftitute an approved fyftem of military tactics." We fhall not, for obvious reafons, enter into a minute inveftigation of a work of this defcription; but juftice requires us to fay, that it is accurate in its detail, and happy in its arrangement. We underftand, from good authority, that it is fanctioned by the approbation of fome of the first military characters in the kingdom. ART. XXX. A Charge delivered to the Grand Jury, at the Affizes holden at Ely, on Wednesday, March 27, 1799, by Henry Gwillim, Efq. Chief Justice of the Isle of Ely. Publifhed at the Requeft of the Magiftrates and Grand Jury. 4to. Pp. 20. Price is. 6d. Butterworth, Fleet Street. 1799. MR. GWILLIM is already known to the public by his edition of Bacon's Abridgement, a work much efteemed by lawyers, and rendered much more useful to the profeffion by the valuable additions made by Mr. G. The reputation gained by Mr. G. by that literary performance, is well fupported by the prefent publication, no lefs as a lawyer than a magiftrate. Mr. G. like many others in a like fituation, has taken the opportunity of a periodical address to a Grand Jury, to deliver his fentiments on the great national question that has engaged the attention of all thinking men for the laft fix years. He begins with fome very fenfible reflections on the hazard of making and changing conftitutions. To hazard, in his opinion, what we have, in the expectation of gaining fome poffible advantage, is an act, not of wifdom, but of defperation. Government is a work of time; it must be built upon, and moulded into the temper, the difpofition, the habits, the circumstances of the people, for whofe The Guildhall Volunteer Affociation. ufe : ufe it is intended. Laws must be made for men, not men for laws. All abstract notions of government are abfurd, and to attempt to enforce them is an act equally of violence and temerity. He reminds his hearers of the wife anfwer returned by Solon, when queftioned upon the goodness of the laws he had given the Athenians "They are the beft," faid he, "which the Athenians are able to bear."If a pure republic can only be fupported by a difinterested regard for the commonwealth, and an invariable confent in the whole people, (who, in fuch a polity, are the fovereign power,) to poftpone all private confiderations to the public good, he fubmits, whether in the prefent ftate of morals and fociety in this country we are able to bear fuch a fyftem. He reminds us of the vain and ruinous attempt made in the last century to establish a republic; and gives us a famous declaration of Sir Bulitrode Whitelocke, who knew thofe times, and had been a principal actor in them, that nothing but Monarchy is fuited to the characters and prejudices of Englishmen: he follows up thefe remarks with an inftructive paffage on the form and genius of the English conftitution, which we cannot forbear extracting, as highly deferving the reader's attention :— "Our prefent fcheme of government, gentlemen, is not only moft happily adapted to the genius of this country, is not only admirable relatively confidered, but is in itself, perhaps, the moft ftupendous fyftem of polity that ever was devifed by human wit. A fyftem like ours, that should combine in itself the benefits of the three regular forms of government, which mankind have acknow-' ledged; of monarchy, ariftocracy, and democracy; of the one, the few, and the many; was treated by the most philofophical hiftorian of ancient Rome as vifionary; as what we could never hope to fee realized; or, if by accident it fhould be brought into being, what could never be of any long duration. A fyftem that should unite with the vigour and energy of a monarchy, the wifdom, the temper, the moderation of an ariftocracy, and that generous concern for the common intereft, that difinterested regard for the general welfare, the virtue of a republic; that, by combining the benefits [ef.] should exclude the evils generally confequent to, each form of government; is a state which certainly feems rather to be defired, than expected; Gentlemen, I have faid, a fyftem that should combine the benefits of the three forms of government; for it is a political error leading to very dangerous confequences, to fuppofe that our fyitem actually combines the three forms of government themfelves: had it been fo, it certainly could not have been lafting: three jarring interefts, three powers co ordinate and co-equal in the ftate, muft foon have terminated in anarchy and confufion. No; the beauty of our form of government, the ingenuity of the contrivance, is, that whilft it unites the benefits of each, it is, in itfelt, one and fimple: it is a monarchy; the power, and dominion, and fovereignty are lodged in one only: the King reigns, the King is fupreme, the whole fcheme of government is carried on by the King only, and in the King's name: the King only acts in al! cafes; not indeed arbitrarily and without controul, but under certain checks and limitations. Thefe checks are, that he must act, in all cafes, with the advice of his fubjects; in fome cafes with their confent as well as advice. His power in matters of legiflation is qualified by the conjent of his Parliament, the conftitutional reprefentatives of the three eftates of the realm, of the whole people of his kingdom: he can make no law which they have not previously agreed upon as * Cunas nationes et urbes populus, aut primores, aut finguli regunt: delecta ex his et conjoiata reipublicæ forma laudari facilius, quam evenirez vel, fi evenit, haud diuturna effe poteft. Tacit. Annal, lib. 4. U03 prope. proper to be propounded to him, which they do not authorize him to make. His power in the executive part of his government is qualified by the advice of certain counsellors, whom the laws have affigned to him, and who are refponfible to their country for every act which he does. Thus, while a complex effect is produced, the machine itself is perfectly fimple; while the interelts of all are provided for, the unity and entierty of the monarchy are preferved: the States affect no equality or co-ordination with the Sovereign; though they limit his power, they acknowledge his fupremacy: the fubject is not distracted where to pay his allegiance: he findeth the whole power of the ftate concentrated in one only: he hopeth for protection from the Crown;' to use the words of Sir Michael Fofter, and he payeth his allegiance to it in the perfon of him whom he feeth in full and peaceable poffeffion of it. He feeth the fountain whence the bleffings of government, liberty, peace, and plenty flow to him; and there he payeth his allegiance. +' Beware, then, gentlemen, of all attempts to make any alteration in this most stupendous machine; beware how you affect to vary its direction, or to abridge it of any of its parts as useless. The attempt to reform will end, moft probably, as it is moft commonly intended it fhould end, in its ruin. - Depend upon it, the fyftem is fo complete, fo perfect within itself, that you cannot strip it of any of its parts without endangering the whole," Pp. 9-11. This scheme of our conftitution is conceived upon genuine and found principles, which, however, we are forry to find, are not fo generally known as truth ought to be. They are the fame that were Thortly laid down in the pamphlet afcribed to Mr. Reeves, which was principally cenfured on that account; though fome figurative expreffions, of no real moment, were made the pretence; and they are fuch as cannot be comprehended by those who talk of the King as the third eftate. We agree with Mr. G. in thinking, that while we are con tending for our conftitution, we ought, at leaft, to know for what it is we fight, and fo qualify ourselves to render a reason of the faith that is in us. We entirely agree with the learned Chief Juftice in repro. bating the falle notion of our government being a mixed one, with a balance of the three different forms; and we agree with him, that our constitution is diftinguished from all others, by producing, in a peculiar manner, the benefits of those three forms, without fuch fup. pofed mixture, or balance. There is, in our poffeffion, and in that of feveral other gentlemen, a fecond Letter of "Thoughts on the English Government," where fuch falfe notions are expofed at length, and the English conftitution is placed on its true grounds; with a full vindication of the firft Letter, against all the mifconftruction and afperfion that attended it. We hope to fee this piece made public. Mr. G. fubjoins fome very interefting obfervations, by way of anfwer, to the objections raifed to the aristocratical part of our Legislature: these are too long to be repeated here, as well as fome other points equally interefting; whether confidered in a fpeculative or practical view. Among the latter, we are glad to fee the worthy magiftrate explicitly lay down the opinion, that Juftices of the Peace would be fully juftified in withholding a licence from any publican who admits into his house certain inflammatory and difaf + Cr. Law, 8vo. edit. r. 399. fected |