tion. Measures that could never have been approved of by a british parliament, if the eyes of fome gentlemen's understandings had not been blinded by the lucrative places they expected, or those they were afraid to lofe. The fatal confequence of thofe meafures were then foretold, and are now fo plainly feen, that those who approved of them, if they speak ingenuously, muft confefs their having been milled. I am far from saying, Sir, that any gentleman who had the honour to reprefent his country in parliament, voted against the dictates of his confcience; but it is a failing of human nature to judge weakly, in cases where our private intereft is concerned, which we may be daily convinced of by many law-fuits, that are obftinately carried on by men even of the best sense in the kingdom. We must therefore banish, as much as poffible, all private intereft from this house, otherwife we can never expect to have the questions that cone before us impartially confidered, or rightly determined. For this purpose, Sir, I hope every gentleman is now convinced, that fome new bills are neceffary, and if we are refolved to frame any fuch in this feffion, why should we not say so in our address upon this occafion? I can fuggeft to myself no reafon against it, and I am very fure it will give great fatisfaction without doors. From hence, I muft fuppose that my honoured friends motion will meet with no oppofition, and therefore I fhall add no more, but conclude with heartily feconding it.' A bill was brought in A. D. 1659, under the commonwealth, that no man fhould fit in the house of commons, who was loose in his morals, or profane in his behaviour.' One would imagine, that, at all times, those who have the weight of government upon their fhoulders, fhould be particularly anxious about the public favour, with a view to the cheerful obedience of the tubjects. But in modern times (the prefent always excepted) courts, ministers, and parliaments feem to have given up the esteem of the people, as an object of no confequence; for every body knows, the efteem of the people can only be kept by keeping incorrupt characters. At the fame time our governors (the present always excepted) affect to wonder at the difobedience of the people. 'In bad times, men of bad morals have ever been picked out, as the fittest instruments of enflaving others; and in free ftates the men of virtue have been the known prefervers of the public liberty a.' Thofe who are guilty of fraud or oppreffion in their private capacity, are never to be depended on in a public b.' The Marquis of Halifax fays, great drinkers ought not to ferve in parliament.' When men have intereft to get themselves chosen to places and employments, for which they are totally unfi, there is reafon to fear the government, under which that happens, is corrupt. Cafar had intereft to get himself chosen pontifex maximus. A hopeful archbishop! Strongly accufed of the most shameful of vices, and notoriously guilty of every kind of injustice, rapine, and violence. Pompey used to call him the Roman Egyfthus. And we know, that Ægyftbus, after debauching Agamemnon's queen, procured him to be murdered d. Abilities are undoubtedly of great confequence in a public character. But virtue is infinitely more important. An honeft man of moderate abilities may fill a moderate a SERIOUS ADDRESS, &C. 10. b Ibid. c Ibid. 11. moderate station with advantage. A knave confounds whatever he meddles with, and therefore cannot fafely be employed. But in a corrupt ftate, that which should give a man the greatest confequence, I mean integrity, gives him the leaft. Both abilities and integrity are eclipsed by riches. For want of the proper abilities, the fame perfon may be a good man, and a bad king, magiftrate, or general. But it is a horrid reproach to a public man, to fay, he has a bad private character; because his example will produce infinite mischief, and because the man who as an individual is wicked, is not likely to be good as a prince, a minifter, a magiftrate, &c. Employing in ftations of power and truft men of notorious bad characters, is difgracing the age in which it was done; for it fupposes a want of better men, and endangers the ftate. The great and good Sertorius would not fuffer Mithridates king of Pontus to re-conquer those parts of Afia, which, in virtue of his treaty with Sylla, he had been forced to give up to the Romans. Sertorius would have been a great gainer, by only conniving at this injury to his country, which he might have done in fuch a manner, as to avoid fufpicion. But that brave Roman would not know himself to be false to his country, for any confideration whatever. The employers of worthless men are disgraced; and bad men advanced to high ftations, are pilloried, that they may be the more effectually pelted. "Men will never [if they be wife] truft the important concerns of fociety to one, who they know will do what is hurtful to fociety for his own pleasure:" A fentiment of Mr. Bofwell's, in his Account of Corfica, p. 302. N. B. Mr. Boswell, when he wrote that book, was but just of age, and was employed in improving himself by ftudy and travel, while many of VOL. III. I his his equals in years and fortune were in pursuit of debauchery. Let no bad man be trufted. Aurelian gave up Heraclammon, who had betrayed his country to him, to be cut to pieces, faying, It was vain to expect fidelity in the man who had betrayed his own country a. He gave the traitor's eftate to his family, left it should be alledged, that he ordered him to be made away with for the fake of his money. It was enacted in the time of Henry VI, that no keepers of public ftews in Southwark fhould be impannelled upon juries, because fuppofed to be unconfciencious perfons b. I do not pretend to support the character of the perfons who kept thofe famous houses of reception, which, by the bye, are faid to have been under the government of the good bishops of Winchefter; but thus far I will venture to say, that it would be a very difficult task for a worthy lord, or an illuftrious patriot, who, for the fake of pleasure merely, keeps a wh-in open violation of the moft folemn vows a man can make, and in direct defiance of damnation, to fhew that he is more worthy of being impannelled on a jury, as being a more confciencious perfon than the poor keeper of a bawdy-houfe, who may be faithful to his own spouse, who never had taken a vow upon him at the altar never to keep a bawdy-house, and who keeps it merely for the fake of getting a livelihood. See King's very judicious and learned ESSAY ON THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT, printed for White, in which the author fhews, by obfervations on a number of states, antient and modern, that a ANT. UNIV. HIST. xv. 456. b PARL. HIST. 11. 235. that freedom or flavery will prevail in a country according as the difpofitions and manners of the inhabitants render them fit for one or the other. And to the fame purpose, Hurd's DIALOGUES, Hume, Montefquieu, Rollin, &c. CHA P. II. Luxury burtful to Manners, and dangerous to States. T HE wife antients thought luxury more dangerous to ftates, than the attacks of foreign enemies. -fævior armis Luxuria incubuit. LUCAN. For that a brave people will find that in themselves which will repel foreign force; whilft a people enervated by luxury are but a nation of women and chil-. dren. The hardy Spartans, a handful of men, but those true men, baffled the attacks of Xerxes's world in arms. The Romans, while they kept up their martial spirit and difcipline, were too hard for all the nations around them, and conquered almoft as often as they fought. Afterwards, being debauched by the Emperors, they fell an eafy prey to the hardy Goths, Alans, Hunns, &c. The inconfiderable states of Holland, a handful of people living in a marsh, refifted for seventy years, and at laft baffled the mighty Spanib monarchy, and forced them to give up all claim to fuperiority over the Netherlands; which was, in fact, conquering Spain, and ftripping her of part of her former dominion. Spain was enervated by luxury, the effect of the introduction of gold from the mines f |