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outed, and that the Majority of the Nobility and Gentry of that Kingdom would, if they could, reftore it at this Day. But the Prefervation of the Kirk is at prefent a Condition without which no Union can be had; the Populace will not yet part with the Mefs Johns. That must be expected in a cooler Seafon, and then the fundamental Article will be a Cobweb. It is abfurd to attempt to make irrevocable Laws for Pofterity; every Generation muft of Neceffity have a Right to chufe for itfelf. This ridiculous Notion of immutable Laws, was however à Maxim in Law among the Medes and Perfians. Obferve the Confequence: Their Emperor To-day promulges an IMMUTABLE Edict to deftroy all the Jews, and on the Morrow fends forth another, that they may take Arms for their Defence, and that all his loving Subjects shall affift them. Can any common Lawyer or Civilian deny, that there will be in the united Legiflature of Great-Britain an unlimited Power over the whole Body, and every Part of it; or, that they will have fufficient Authority to repeal any Law which either of the divided Kingdoms made. What the Sultan is in Turkey, and the Mogul in India, the Parliament of Great-Britain muft neceffarily be, in the Plenitude of its Power.

Another Complaint among us is, that the Members which Scotland furnishes to both Houses, amount to a tenth or twelfth of the Parliament, tho' they are not to pay above a Thirtieth of the Taxes of the united Kingdom: I do not fear being fufpected as a Partizan for the Scots, when I declare that I believe this to be ftill very equal; for tho' we leave them an open Trade, yet the Profits of that will be fwallowed in the Rents of all their best Estates, and must center in London and Middlefex. It C 6

will

will be well enough if the publick Money raifed among them fuffices to answer all the publick Demands there: Their great Men will live here, and in a Generation or two will become mere English

men.

There is one Omiffion in the Articles of this Union, with regard to the Perpetuity of the Scots Peerage. There are no new Peers to be made there, and they are always to fend Sixteen to Parliament by Election. I believe their Number is pretty large at prefent, fuppofe one hundred and fifty; but thefe will gradually decrease, and be extinguished by one Accident or other; for there are no perpetual Succeffions, no Bishops among them. I lately obferved this to a very intelligent Gentleman of that Nation: He looked on it as a remote Evil, For, fays he, most of the Peerages there, are inheritable by the Daughters, when Sons fail; I allowed this for a Reason why Peerages fhould not easily be extinguished: But I am convinced, that thus they will more readily decrease by Unity of Poffeffion, occafioned by Marriages both among their own Nobility and ours, which will have a quicker Effect than the Extinction of the Male-Lines by the Courfe of Nature, feparate Maintenance, and Venery. Almost as often as a Scots Coronet devolves upon a Female, it will confolidate that Peerage with some other; fo that, in Effect, there is a Scots Peerage merged for ever.

There is another Way left open to diminish their Number; for tho' a Scots Peer muft not be made an English one, yet his Son or Brother may; and thus upon the Fall of one Life, there will be one Peer lefs on their Lift. So it is likely they will hardly have fixteen Lords left in an hundred Years. I have not been informed whether this

Omiffion

Omiffion was by Mistake, but it is really of little or no Confequence. Since Scots are capable of being made Peers of Great-Britain, it matters not from what Castles, Towns or Villages, they take their Titles, nor whether North or South of Tweed: It will only found a little abfurd to Pofterity, that the fame Perfon, who may be called to Parliament as Lord of Hammersmith, shall be refufed Admittance as Duke of Edinburgh. For the reft, the Locality of Titles happens not to be material; for if this Kingdom preferves its Conftitution, Pofterity fhall always find most of its largest Fortunes and greatest Men, in the Houfe of Peers of GreatBritain: But if, for our Sins or theirs, our Pofterity shall bow the Knee before a Tyrant, after the Manner of the Nations round about us, and the Houses of Parliament in a Venal Generation concur to murder the Conftitution, it is a Matter of no Sort of Importance, who shall be the Parricides.

on.

We might be content that the Numbers, both of their Lords and Commons to fit in the United Parliament were to be double or treble those agreed Thus we fhould have more of their Wealth drawn hither, and our Constitution would be fafer from the Attempts of the Crown, as it would be harder to manage or gratify fo great a Number. This is what we ought to attend to on all Occafions. I defign to make my Grandfons learn it along with their Prayers and their Creed, That the Liberties of England can only be destroy'd by a Standing Army of her own Sons; and that Parliamentary Bribery is the most proper Method to obtain fuch an Army.

And yet it is ftrange, that Men can fell themfelves and Pofterities for an Estate at Will! You

fhall

fhall find in fome foreign Countries a Man of Two Thousand Pounds a Year of Inheritance, who for fo small a Bribe as an Office or Penfion of Five Hundred Pounds a Year, during Pleasure, fhall give his Vote for a Law, which in its Confequence renders his Inheritance as precarious as the Penfion. Is this being wife in our Generation? Is this to be juftified even by the Wisdom of the Children of this World?

What Age, what Kingdom can fhew an immediate Succeffion of three good abfolute Monarchs ? Or, in what Country have Liberty, Corruption, and a Standing Army, gone Hand in Hand for forty Years together? It is an idle Imagination to fuppofe, that when a King defigns to rule by his Will, he muft do as the Danes did, difcard his States, and rely upon his Troops. That is indeed the shortest Way, but not the fafeft. When Auguftus had established himself against all Oppofers, he did not covet a great Army, he chose to keep a packed Senate in Pay; he gulled the People with an Appearance of Liberty, and the Adminiftration of his Government was gentle: But Rome was ruined, it loft its Liberty, and was as effectually enflaved under him, as under Nero or Domitian.

Mollia vincla pati juffit, at vincula passa eft;
Purpureum cultu infolito venerata Tyrannum.
Thus while with Clemency Auguftus reign'd,
The Monarch was ador'd, the City chain'd.

But tho' this be the fafeft Method for a Prince to take, who defires to be abfolute, yet it is the moft burthenfome to the People. Their Penfion-Senate is a more extravagant Charge upon them,

than

than a great Army would be. If I were to live in an Age and Country where the Representatives of the People had fold them to the Prince for Places and Penfions, and given him a military Force to enfure the Purchase; I would concur in and promote a Petition, that the Prince might affume the Legislative Authority, exclufive of fuch proftitute Representatives; and I think it is evident, that in fuch a Cafe, whether a Prince were good or bad, a wife Man or a Fool, the People could more eafily pay for the Wants or the Wantonnefs of the Monarch alone, than for those and the Wages of feveral Hundreds of Parricides into the Bargain.

Nor is a People the fafer from fuch Attempts, for having a Ruler of their own chufing. The ambitious Man, when he has climbed all the Rounds of the Ladder of Authority, turns his Back to it, and scorns the bafe Degrees by which he rofe. In all mixed Governments, each conftituent Part must be eternally on its Guard. The Prince can easily take Care of his Prerogative, because, being but one, he can always be true to, and confiftent with himself. His Individuality gives him thofe Advantages, and the pre-exiftent Temptation of Ambition, that Spur to make Ufe of them, that he ought never to be trufted with more than his own Rights, if the Subjects would hold theirs. I tranfcribe for you the Picture of a vigorous Prince, riding a Nation after he had defeated its Enemies.

Cervus, equum, pugnâ melior communibus herbis
Pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo
Imploravit opes hominis; frenumque recepit:
Sed poftquam victor violens difceffit ab hofte,
Non equitem dorfo, non frenum depulit ore.

Since

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