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"hands." Yet for fourteen years, with little interruption, he has governed all their affairs, of every defcription, with an abfolute fway. He has had himself the means of heaping up immenfe wealth; and, during that whole period, the fortunes of hundreds have depended on his fmiles and frowns. He himself tells you he is incumbered with two hundred and fifty young gentlemen, fome of them of the best families in England, all of whom aim at returning with vaft fortunes to Europe in the prime of life. He has then two hundred and fifty of your children as his hoftages for your good behaviour; and loaded for years, as he has been, with the execrations of the natives, with the cenfures of the Court of Directors, and ftruck and blafted with refolutions of this Houfe, he ftill maintains the most defpotic power ever known in India. He domineers with an overbearing fway in the affemblies of his pretended mafters; and it is thought in a degree rafh to venture to name his offences in this Houfe, even as grounds of a legiflative remedy.-Speech on Mr. Fox's EaftIndia Bill.

WILKES, (JOHN) ESQ.

I WILL not believe, what no other man living believes, that Mr. Wilkes was punished for the indecency of his publications, or the impiety of his ranfacked clofet. If he had fallen in a common flaughter of libellers and blafphemers, I could well believe that nothing more was meant than was pretended. But when I fee that, for years together, full as impious, and perhaps more dangerous writings to religion, and virtue, and order, have not been punifhed, nor their authors discountenanced; that the moft audacious libels on royal majefty have paffed without notice; that the most treasonable invectives against the laws, liberties, and conftitution of the country, have not met with the flightest animadver

fion; I must confider this as a shocking and fhameless pretence. Never did an envenomed fcurrility against every thing facred and civil, public and private, rage through the kingdom with fuch a furious and unbridled licence. All this while the peace of the nation must be fhaken, to ruin one libeller, and to tear from the populace a fingle favourite.

Nor is it that vice merely fkulks in an obfcure and contemptible impunity. Does not the public behold with indignation, perfons not only generally fcandalous in their lives, but the identical perfons who, by their fociety, their inftruction, their example, their encouragement, have drawn this man into the very faults which have furnished the cabal with a pretence for his perfecution, loaded with every kind of favour, honour, and distinction, which a court can bestow? Add but the crime of fervility (the fadum crimen fervitutis) to every other crime, and the whole mafs is immediately tranfmuted into virtue, and becomes the juft fubject of reward and honour. When therefore I reflect upon this method purfued by the cabal in diftributing rewards and punishments, I muft conclude that Mr. Wilkes is the object of perfecution, not on account of what he has done in common with others who are the objects of reward, but for that in which he differs from many of them: that he is purfued for the fpirited difpofitions which are blended with his vices; for his unconquerable firmnefs, for his refolute, indefatigable, ftrenuous refiftance against oppreffion.-Thoughts on the Caufe of the prefent Dif

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Addreffers (character of) in the American war

Adminiftration (confequences of an exterior administration)

Age (character of)

Agriculture (American)

Algerine republic compared with the French republic

Ally

Ambaffadors

Ambition obfervations on)

America (effect of the victory in Long Island)

-

(propofition of peace with)

rapid population of its colonies

ftrength of its population

our commerce with

imports from

(feelings of its colonies)

(falfe ftatements concerning)

lenity to

remoteness of its fituation from the first mover of

government

plan to check the population of its colonies

the ocean a natural difficulty in its subjection

American war (effects of)

minifters who conducted it
(partizans of the)

(ftate of England at its commencement)
its effects on our national character

American cowardice not to be despised

American government, highly popular

American religion favourable to liberty
American education, effects of

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American stamp-act (conduct of minifters with refpect to

the repeal of the)

American tax on tea

Americans (their love of freedom)

Angles (prejudicial to the grandeur of buildings)
Animals cries of) obfervations concerning
Arbitrary power, how it fteals upon the people
Aristocracy and defpotifm, differ but in name

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Cabinet (the double) its corrupt influence described
Carnatic (eaftern) hiftory of Hyder Ally's irruption into
defcription of

Caufes (phyfical) fearch into, opens and enlarges the mind
Caution (great) to be used in the confideration of any com-
plex matter

Character

Charters, when kept, and when violated

Christendom. Obfervations refpecting the ftates of the
Chriftian world

Church establishment, involves in it profound and extenfive
wifdom

Church and ftate (connexion of) juftified
Clergy (indulgence to be granted to)

(convocation of)

Colours moft appropriate to beauty

Commons of Great Britain (obfervations on the nature and
character of)

Connexion and faction.

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Ibid.

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43

65

60

Confcience (tribunal of) deftroyed by the regicides of France

Conftitution (fpirit of the British)

Conftitution and commerce

Constitutions (voluntary)

292

71.

59

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54

64

49.

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