parliament in the last Oxfordshire election; for by this means the electors are altered, without the confent, and contrary to the common intereft of the people: and confequently, if this takes place, the legiflative will be altered alfo. Is there any one that wants to be told, when the constitution is altered, that the diffolution of it is near? Nay, that the diffolution of it is come? That it is finished? What is this alteration, but cutting up government by the roots, and poisoning the very foundation of public fecurity?

I am a Freeholder of this kingdom; by the laws in being no-body has a right to vote for representatives in parliament for this county, in which I live, but a Freeholder: thofe reprefentatives are sworn to be obedient to the laws in being; and their bufinefs is to alter old laws, or frame new ones, for the prefervation of my property, and for the defence of the kingdom.

IF any other perfon by any other tenure, than that of a freehold, is to vote in the election of county members, let there be produced an old law for it, or let a new one be enacted; or the representative, who admits and supports such an innovation in the conftitution, betrays the truft reposed in him, and depreciates the value of my right; though bound by the most facred oaths to preserve it; by allowing the fame right to another, to whom the conftitution has never given it. My life and my eftate are both dear to me, but my liberty is dearer: with

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with the two first I am ready when called upon to defend my king and country; and as I think myself neither born nor fitted for flavery, I am determined to preferve the laft. Let me fuppofe I am writing to one, who has fcreened a bafe returning officer, and voted in favour of copyhold electors. Who can give authority to violate the laws and conftitution of the government? who can give authority to change the legiflative power, and thereby diffolve the conftitution? who can give authority to make new legiflators who can give the reprefentatives the authority to trample upon my li berty, and to make an acknowledged vaffal my equal? Does the power put into their hands by the people, juftify their turning the dagger into the bowels of the conftitution? wha is the rebel then? who lifts up his hand againft authority? who violates the laws of his country? and who is the friend of the conftitution? You or I? foften me down then, palliate the wound, footh me, comfort me, tell me that I am too warm, that fuch a trifle is not worth my notice; that tho' you did act a little against the conftitution? yet your main defign was the publick good; and that you could not have fupported your rank in the administration without acting as you did; and confequently not have been fo ferviceable to your friends. Represent to me at the fame time, the immenfe authority of that house, which is the reprefentative of the whole kingdom; that as individuals, indeed, you are of

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no great confequence; but connected together, like the bundle of fticks in the fable, your ftrength is fuch, that it would be the highest folly to refift it. I answer then, Doft thou call it a trifle, to fap the very foundation of the conftitution? are you to chufe the reprefentatives of the people; or I, and my brethren the freeholders? Is thy rank in the administration, thy capacity of ferving thy fordid tools, thy profli gate minions, to be fet in competition with the public welfare? Am I then, that fear not one, to be intimidated with a neft of bivering tyrants? No, I will guard my brood from hawks and buzzards, which I fee hovering over me: if I am to be destroyed, let me pounced by the talons of an eagle, not peck'd to death by fparrow-hawks and cuckows.

I doubt not but that by this time I am stigmatized with fome odious name, and reprefented by the minifterial faction to be a difaffected perfon, and ready to join with the enemies of my country. This is always their laft refort, when palliatives can no longer cover their attempts upon our liberties. But call me Jacobite, and I will defpife thee; call me rebel; and I will answer thee. Remember! rebellion is an oppofition, not to perfons, but, to the authority in being. And let me add, that the only way to destroy difaffection and to prevent rebellions and revolutions, the woeful effects of evil councils and mal-practices on the public, is, by a juft and wife administration, to convince

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the fubjects, that they fhall find their account in obeying and maintaining the prefent establishment; for, without regard to any party or family, it may be experimentally afferted, that a people harraffed by the inftruments of tyranny, always fufpect them; will be defirous to get clear of them, that obstruct their ease and content; and, as it was in King James the IId's days, they in like circumftances will be ready to make an intereft with a new government, by betraying the old: and yet fhall no more deferve to be branded with the name of difaffected, than they who fought for the liberties of England in 1641, or placed King William on the throne in 1688.

LET us then join heartily in preferving our conftitution in church and state, upon its true and folid bafis. Let us unite in the fupport of the juft rights of the crown, and at the fame time defend the liberties of the people; oppofe all ufurpations, and endeavour in the most legal manner, to detect and punifh all, who dare interpofe between the king and the subject, fo as to interrupt the harmony, on which alone the happiness of both depend. And let this be done while there is wealth and power in being; while our country abounds with men of courage and understanding, and that want neither integrity nor public fpirit; while there is an ardent defire and diffufive love of liberty among the people; and at a juncture, when they, who have heretofore been artfully managed to yield

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unto, fcreen, and promote deftructive meafures, are tired and ashamed of party animofities, and of quarrelling with their friends to gratify the pride and rapine of thofe, who ignorantly or wickedly would betray and fell their liberties. I am of opinion, that now is the time when all diftinctions about government are expired. But fhould there ftill exist a remnant of whig and tory; they are fo greatly altered in their principles, that it will be found, our modern whigs are fallen into the old arbitrary principles, of which the tories are now really ashamed. Who were they in the late Queen's time, that were fo warm and zealous against oppreffions and mifcarriages; against exorbitant penfions, outrageous taxes, wild and expenfive expeditions; against increasing the public debt; against a tanding army; against monopolizing oppreffive companies; against private mens raifing immenfe eftates out of the public money; and against bribery and corrupting the reprefentatives of the nation? Did not the whigs value themselves for their fteadiness and zeal against those measures? and can a whig ever renounce that liberty, or ftand dumb, much less abet the contrary principles, when the tory rifes up to defend our king and country, against men, whofe hands are dipped in the public spoils, and whose hearts would triumph in the ruin of our liberties.

THUS I would remind the whigs of their old principles, and call them to an account for

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