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Show (44) (45) vantage, upon forn'e ruinous and dellruéiiVe meafure, every prudent ruler ought to lhun and avoid the one, what would they choofe before this very one, which We are now of ourfelves {o fatally and fo madly running upon ? C ' It is fometimes faid, that Providence blinds the un- derllanding of thofe, whom it del'tines to defiruétion. When things are ripe for that end, men often provoke and hallen their own late, But God forbid, that any one being at the helm of this Rate, lhould ever net fully and repeatedly confider, or that he fliould, from any unhappy impulie, {crople or hefitate to Hay and to llOp inch meafures, as may in their confequences make his mafier to fit uneafy on his throne, nor fuiihr him himfelf to lay down his head upon his pillow, without hearing on it the caries of his country, but which may throw all the parts of the Britilh empire into fuch diforder and confulion, that neither he nor any man {hall be able to guide, or hold the reins of its; government. ' " ‘ ' {cannot guefs into whole hands thefe {heets may fall, or how they may be received. It is not a Prince alone, who may in thefe abject times be furrounded With flattery ; a minifler may not want his (bare of it. It IS withal but a poor fatisfac'tion for a private perfon to with, in the wal‘te and havock of his country, that it may be remembered, that there was not Wanting one who laid freely and plainly before the public, and thofe governing it, the rillt and likelihood of thefe fatal events and circumi‘tances. But it is to be hoped, that better and more fubl'tantial effec‘ts will follow, fllould thefe things be truth and reafon, which are here advanced. " it is at the fame time the furthefl from my meaning, that l‘uturity can be forefeen, or that it is permitted to look into the book of the time to come. {here IS nothing certain in human affairs. But in in- cidents of this prodigious importance, in the fate of flatesnand of kingdoms, in dangers of this tranfcend ent magnitude, probability takes the place of certainty and ‘ ‘ every with almofl as much caution, as he would the other, nor can I finifh this fubjeét, without once more repeating, that our prefent debt puts us into a fituation, in which no nation ever was befOre. I know that fome people affect to magnify the debts of France, but they are hardly Worth {peaking of in comparifon of ours. {don't believe, that they ex- ceeded, at the utmolt, fifteen millions flerliug, when the Regent Duke of Orleans took the method of the Miflifippi, to cancel and annihilate them. The wants of Lewis the fourteenth had been great, but his credit Was as fmall. What can the preient King have contracted fince, to be compared to the debt of Great Brio rain? Where is the credit? Does any one believe the Dutch concerns of that kind, to be equal in France to what they are in England, or has France itt'elf fupplied the reli? However I will only obferve more, that the French debt confilis in great ineafure of arrears of penfions, places, pol‘ts, and other grants, which the fame hand withholds, as conferred; but that our debt was all received in millions l'terling. As to what has been faid that great men moving in a public fphere, are above the rules of right and wrong. He muli be unworthy to hold the helm of any govern- ment, who is {0 ignorant oi'the facts and incidents be. fore histime, or fo blind to thofe about him, as not to obferve and perceive, that good and virtuous actions, I mean, fuch as are really {0, without the falfe colours of flattery and obfequioul‘nefs, produce in general and national matters, their proper and correfpondcnt eiFefis. We have not, indeed, before our eyes, in that cafe, the formalities of a trial and a fentence, the judge In his robes, or the apparatus of an execution 7,. but due confequences do from the general and original law given to the world, follow a good or CVll-(‘Ollfllla In public concerns, with much more certainty, Juliice, and impartiality, than they do by the means of mumclipal aws |
