one trained up in the school of corruption a fpawn of that minifter, who preferred any fort of peace to a neceffary war; who established a ministerial tyranny by corrupting the representatives of the people, and by an undue influence in both houses of parliament, contrary to the real intereft of the king and subject.

BUT, if we are rightly informed by the ch-r of the ex-r in the laft feffions of parliament, that the government by the year 1757, would be able to raise four millions per annum, without any new tax, except two fhillings more on the land; and that this would be a fufficient fum for the maintenance of a fea-war; there can be no want of money, nor any new debts contracted. Oh! may we hope that the time is come, when the miniftry and people fhall be fo united in one intereft, as to cleanse the Augean ftable of corruption! when it fhall be faid by the deliverers of the people to a pack of place-men, who in idleness and luxury eat out the vitals of the nation by their large falaries, and execute their offices by deputies; and to the gang of penfioners, Away with you! we want no fuch flender fupports! we depend on our own integrity, and the voice of the people! and by applying the immense fums paid you in falaries and penfions, to the fupport of a juft and neceffary war, for maintaining the honour and dignity of the crown, and protecting the trade of the nation, we shall relieve their taxes, we fhall convince them by

our

our actions, that it is their intereft to aid and affift us; and shall efteem it a greater honour to be thus immortalized with the title of good and faithful stewards to our king and country, than to be idolized at our levees by that crawling vermin of a free state, who fuck the choicest and most nourishing parts of that blood, every drop of which ought to circulate to give due warmth and energy to the whole constitution.

No. 6. SATURDAY, September 13th, 1755.

Equam memento rebus in arduis

Servare mentem

Mr. MONITOR!

You

HOR.

cannot do your honeft countrymen a greater piece of fervice, at such a time as this, than by ftrongly inculcating that firmnefs of mind, which is here recommended. I am not one of thofe, who give into all the extravagancies of the ftoic philofophy. In fpite of a thousand Zeno's, I profefs myfelf (because I feel myself) but too often mere flesh and blood. I avow pain to be an evil; and when a boy at Westminster school, I foon found my old mafter, Dr. Friend, a much better reafoner than the fage Epictetus. But though I had much rather

rather be well than fick, and am not sturdy enough to keep my temper in Phalaris's bull, I have gone through fome very fevere trials with becoming patience and refignation. This I take to be as far as human nature can go; and in a fcene fo chequer'd as life is, with numberless evils, croffes, and disappointments, happy the man who can encounter them with a proper degree of firmness and resolution.

BUT while I am indulging these reflections upon perfonal misfortunes, I am infenfibly deviating from my principal aim, which is, to animadvert a little upon our behaviour under national disasters; and to cheer up the fpirits of my drooping countrymen, who feem much more depreffed with the melancholy news they have lately received from America, than Britons ought to be: I wish, Mr. MONITOR, I could fay, than they usually are. Nothing is more remarkable than the damp with which we are ftruck at the news of fome unexpected defeat, unless it be our extravagant exultations at every little fuccefs. Whether this is wrought into our very natures, and is fome how or other the characteristic of an Englishman, I know not; but fure I am, 'tis our difgrace, and argues a littleness of mind that ill becomes the defcendants of those, who triumphed at Blenheim and Ramilies; whofe ancestors reaped the bloody harvest of Cressy and Agincourt. I have heard of a gentleman, who I am fatisfied wishes as well to his country, as any man in it, that was fo

exafperated at the infamous behaviour of our troops in the Weft Indies, as to threaten to fell his eftate, (which it seems is a very confiderable one) and settle himself in France. A worthy friend of mine, who used to carry his notions of British courage as high as any-body, fwears that the English fpirit is quite funk, and that we shall never look our enemy in the face When I remind him of Dettingen any more.

and Culloden, and the rapid conquests of John Duke of Marlborough, he shakes his head and talks of nothing but Preston-Pans, Falkirk, and Fort Duquesne. Upon the whole; for I would not engross too much of your paper, what I would have you imprefs upon my countrymen is this; That we may reap advantages, if rightly improved, even from our misfortunes: That it is equally abfurd to conclude, that because in fome late inftances we have proved ourselves not to be invincible, we are never more to gain a victory; as it would have been to infer from a ten years uninterrupted fuccefs in Queen Anne's time, that we were never to lofe a battle. Inftead of flackening our diligence, after fo ignominious a defeat, what have we to do, but to ftand our ground with the more firmnefs another time, and face our enemy with redoubled ardor. Non fi male nunc, & olim fic erit Nil defperandum, was the Roman motto, and ought to be ours. The mistress of the world was once ftopp'd in her career of glory, and fubmitted her neck to the yoke in the

Caudian

Caudian forks; but Romans were Romans ftill; and fhe foon made her enemies pay very dear for this difgrace. Thank God, we have infinite refources, both at home and abroad: nurtured in principles of liberty, and fenfible of our happinefs, beyond that of any other people; what have we to fear? long, very long muft it be, e're French policy or force can reduce us to our ne plus ultra. We have been, we are a brave people; and if I may venture to prophefy, fhall foon recover that reproach we at prefent labour under, from the daftardly behaviour of a handful of miscreants, who have bafely betrayed their country, and rendered themselves infamous to all posterity.

Auguft 30, 1755

I am,

Sir, Yours,

BRITANNICUS.

I fhall make no apology for inferting the above letter, as I believe my readers will agree with me, that there never was a time when the exertion of that noble and manly virtue, fo ingeniously and feasonably recommended by Britannicus, was fo loudly called for from Britons.

To what malevolent caufe can we afcribe the decay of British courage; and the increase of Gallic bravery? We value ourselves upon high notions of freedom, to which we are justly intitled by our national conftitution. They are born flaves, and fight under a false and fictitious paf