which happens to be the first ac- I from different points of view, their fears fubfide, and they become reconciled by degrees:-Nay, it is not an uncommon thing for them to adopt thofe falutary measures afterwards with as much zeal and ardor as they had rejected them before with anger and indignation, An ESSAY on the CHARACTER of the PRESENT AGE. T has been common, in all ages, for interefted writers to give fuch a colouring to their reprefentations as they juded would be most agreeable to the eye of their Patron, while the uninfluenced part of mankind have generally concurred in condemning the prefent times and extollingthe past. If we, however, turn over the annals of antiquity, we fhall find that they who exifted, at the feveral diftant periods daily recommended to our admiration, have been no less fevere in cenfuring those times than our modern Patriots are in ftigmatifing the prefent. Human nature has undoubtedly been the fame in all ages; a mixture of vices and virtues has always compofed the characters of mankind, though they have appeared, at different times, under various modes; but the general character of particular nations has been conftantly determined by the example of the great and ruling men of the State: If they have been wife and virtuous, the people have been good and honeft; if they have been vigilant and brave, the peohave been bold and enterprifing. That the character of the prefent age is neither glorious, nor amiable, is a melancholy truth which feems to be univerfally admitted: Yet, with out doubt, there is as much fpirit and virtue in individuals now as in the days of heroifm. There is, however, reason to think that the diftinguishing characteristic of the prefent age has not yet been March, 1774. determined. It has, indeed, been affrmed, by a late writer to be that of a luxurious effeminacy; and perhaps fome appearances concur which feemingly juftify this peremptory conclufion. But, if we extend our views, it will, perhaps, appear to be at once both hafty and erroneous: And we ought to be careful how we judge of a national character from a few particular circumftances, too inconfiderable to warrant a general determination. It is true, indeed, as he obferves, that we too often fee warriors decorated with all the delicacies of dress, with all the trappings of effeminacy, fwimming in fedan-chairs, and exhibiting the appearance of a hero in an Italian opera; but it is alfo as true that we frequently behold men of the firft rank and fortune wading through the dirt of London, difguifed in a garb almoft too mean for the apparet of a porter. If we attend them into the country, we may fee them, in the heat of a dangerous fox chace, fly over fivebarred gates with intrepidity, and run, with furious speed, down a dangerous fteep at the hazard of their necks: At other times we may view them, from the rifing to the setting. of the fun, flaving over hedge and ditch in queft of feathered prey: Sometimes we may behold them ride their own horfes at Newmarket, and pant round the courfe with Olympic fpirit, emulous to feize the noble prize of X jockeyfhip. Thoughts on the Liberty of the Press. 158 jockeyfhip. Thefe robuft exercifes are not the criterions of effeminacy: Nor does that appear to be the reigning quality to which we are to prefer the feeming want of spirit and the abfence of other virtues. Effeminacy is refined in its pleafures, gentle in its manners, and paffive in its obedience. But, what ever progrefs fome individuals may have made towards this foft refinement, yet, as a nation, we are still indelicate in our enjoyments, uncurteous in our behaviour, and daring in difobedience. Might the Writer of this little Effay prefume to determine the real characters of the age, he would not hefitate to declare that SELFISHNESS is the ruling principle. However men are attached to different vices and follies, yet the majority concur in this, that they are all actuated by this fordid and pernicious quality. It has taken fuch deep root in Britain that it is become a part of modern wisdom, and included under that fashionable summary of all accomplishments, called knowledge of the world.' A man who is faid to know the world is one who makes his own private advantage the rule of all his actions; one who laughs at the zeal of patriotifin, and the care of pofterity, as the ridiculous reveries of idle fpeculation, only calculated to amufe confcientious fools, while free-thinking knaves are sharing the plunder of the common-wealth. This is modern wisdom, that lefthanded wisdom which has long held the rudder of the ftate, and debafed the spirit of the nation; this has March, taught every man to act as if he lived for himself alone without any confideration of the duty he owes to fociety; this has been the bane of honour, and has destroyed all thofe noble sentiments which teach us to facrifice our own pleasure and convenience, nay even to hazard our lives, for the good of the Public. teftable selfishness, we fhall find that If we trace the fource of this deit owes its rife to the fatal adminiftraintroduced that abominable system of tion of former Minifters, who have deftroyed, will, at laft, inevitably corruption which, unless it is utterly prove the ruin of this kingdom. By this men have been thought to that, if we do but mention the love ridicule public virtue to that degree, of our country, every one is ready to fneer at the expreffion: Seeming Patriots have often had it in their mouths, but the event of their conduct has fufficiently proved that hypocrify lurked all the while in their hearts. Minifters with unremitting vengeance, we deftructive influence: Men in inferiThefe examples have fpread their or ftations find that the Great regard only themselves, and make a jeft of principle: Therefore they are readitheir Superiors, whom they conceive ly inclined to imitate the conduct of than themselves. to be better judges of moral rectitude THOUGHTS on the LIBERTY of the PRESS. Addreffed to. Lord Mansfield. A S to any formed defign against the liberty of the prefs, I cannot fuffer myself to be at all apprehenfive of it: it is of more ufe and importance to a king of Great Brifubjects; and this alone fuffices with tain, than (if poffible) to any of his me to ftifle and keep down every rif ing jealoufy. In abfolute defpotic governments, where the will of the prince is the law of the country, where all things are administered by force and arms, and where the glory of the grand monarque is the fole end and object of the monarchy, it matters not much for him to know, what the condition of his fubjects is, and what they fay or think about him: but in a qualified and limited monarchy, like ours, where the king is no more than the first magiftrate appointed by the people, where he is as bound to obey the laws as the meaneft of his fubjects, and where the well-being of thefe fubjects is the fole end of his appointment-furely to fuch a prince it must be of the laft confequence to know, as minutely as he can, what is doing in every corner of his kingdom; what the ftate and condition of his fubjects; whether they enjoy plenty, proportioned to their induftry; and whether, in fhort, the end of his kingly government be in every refpect anfwered. All this, 1 fay, and more, a king of Great Britain muft know as he can: but how muft he know it? A king, let his difcernment of fpirits be what it will, let him pry ever fo acutely into the heads and hearts of thofe about him, will never be able to pierce through the manifold difguifes, which courtiers always know how to wrap themselves in By courtiers are not meant thofe gaudy painted images which flutter about a palace, and are really nothing more than the moving furniture of it; but thofe, who are entrusted with the great offices, to whom the adminiftration of affairs is committed, and who for the most part manage and direct the reins of government as they pleafe. And as he cannot difcover, by any natural fagacity in himself, the latent principles of things, any more than the real characters of perfons; fo he must not expect to receive any effectual infor mation from others. For, I fuppofe, it will be no fatire upon any particular court, that now is, or ever was, to fay, that there never was a prince who was told by any of his fervants all thofe truths, which it concerned him to know. At least this is a propofition 1 take to be fo well grounded, that I do not think the fevere plain dealing of a Clarendon or the honeft bluntnefs of a Sully, fufficient to form an exception to it. The emperor Diocletian made the difficulty of reigning well, to confit chiefly in the difficulty of arriving at the real knowledge of affairs. Four or five courtiers, fays he, form themfelves into a cabal, and unite in their counfels to deceive the emperor. They fay what will pleafe their mafter: who, being fhut up in his palace, is a perfect ftranger to the real truth; and is forced to know only, what they are pleafed to tell him." Now this great hindrance to goodgovernment, as Diocletian justly thought it, is almoft, if not altogether, removed by the glorious privilege of the British conftitution, of which we are speaking, the liberty of the prefs. By means of this, the loweft fubject may find accefs to the throne; and by means of this, the king has a key, if I may fo call it, to all manner of intelligence: nor is there any thing, of the leaft importance to government, of which his majefty can long remain uninformed and ignorant. It is not meant, that he should suddenly adopt as real truth and matter of fact every thing, which may be read in the public prints; and many perhaps may think, that amidst fo much nifreprefentation and error, fo much partiality and difguife, fo much indifcriminate fcurrility and abufe, he can hardly depend upon any thing at all, or take any meafures from fuch a chaos of truth and falfehood. But of this chacs, were it ten times more fo, it is indisputably certain, that very much use and X 2 very many advantages may be made. The king may be directed to find things, which he would never have thought of looking for: more than glimmerings will ever and anon appcar, which will enable him to push his difcoveries far, and to trace many things to their fource, which would otherwife have lain hid from him. In short, from thefe public intelligencers, fome things will be hinted, others spoken out more freely, and others prefented in their full glare; and thus, upon the whole, all concerns of moment, relating either to perfons or things, will be fufficiently unfolded, and laid open before him. Wicked and felfifh minifters know all this fo well, that we have often heard of great management, in cor C rupt courts, to ftop up these channels of intelligence to the prince, They know that by them a com merce, correfpondence, and union as it were, are maintained between the prince and his people. They know, that while these are so maintained, they vainly attempt to cabal, and to impofe upon their mafter; and if notwithstanding they will not tell him all the truth they should, yet they dare not abufe him grofsly with mif reprefentation and lies. Why? Becaufe a difcovery is inftantly at hand, and likewife because difgrace and ruin will tread upon the heels of it. So that, all things laid together, the advantage to the fovereign from the liberty of the prefs is my great fecurity for the continuance and prefervation of it, CORALY: A PORTRAIT. ORALY is no Beauty; nay, in the vulgar eye, fhe is just the reverse, but he has every mental grace in perfection, and beauties of the mind feldom fail to diffuse beauties indefinable beauties over the perfon. Coraly has few of thofe charms that conftitute perfonal excellence - her cheek is pallid her eye no brilliant; but when the latter beams benevolence, or fparkles with mirth-when the former is fuffufed with the captivating blush of modefty, or vermilioned with the glow of the tender paffion, there are none more pleafing. Nothing is more natural than for Diftrefs to command attention, and excite the tributary tear. In general, this attention has few attractions there is little in the tear to admire. But when Coraly liftens to the tale of the mourner, her paflions rife and fall in fuch perfect unifon with those of the narrator, that were you to truft the evidence of fight alone, it would pose you to determine whofe grief was the greater of the two. When her eye gliftens with pity, and her cheek burns with indignation, she has a manner fo irrefiftably attractive, fo peculiarly her own, that admiration follows it, as naturally as effect its cause. With a native propensity to raillery, and an intuitive perception of the ludicrous, Coraly is ever ftudious to avoid offence, and is generally fuccefsful. A nice obferver will perceive how often she curbs this propenfity, and fuppreffes the rifing ridicule, and will give her credit for the fuppreffion. Her face is a never failing index to her heart; and whenever the means to indulge, is fure to afford previous intimation. The fmile of complacency quivers on her lip, and a certain wanton archnefs is feen playing in her eye that eludes defcription. She lets fly the pointed arrows of her wit; and even where they are directed, they commonly extort applaufe. The lines, Curs'd be the verse, how well-foe'er it flow, "Which tends to make one worthy man my foe," the often repeats delighted; and ra ther ther than give even the fhadow of offence to any well meaning perfon, would forego (hard task for a Female!) every opportunity of being admired. Her ear is ever open to the prayer of the unfortunate, and ever clofed to the fuggeftions of calumny; her feet are ever winged to vifit the afflicted; her tongue is ever prompt to adminifter the vivifying balın of confolation; and her hand " open "as day to melting charity." Such is Coraly! There are many who poffefs more of the outward and vifible fignof beauty, but in the inward and spiritual Grace the has few rivals. A DISCOURSE on the different Kinds of AIR, delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society, Nov. 30, 1773. By Sir John Pringie, Bart. Prefident. T an HIS difcourfe chiefly relates to the fubject for which the nual prize-medal of 1773 was confered on the Rev. Dr. Priestley, namely, the many curious and useful experiments contained in his Observations on different Kinds of Air, read at the Tociety in March, 1772, and inferted in the last volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions. In this difcourfe the learned Prefident has traced the progrefs of the moft important difcoveries of the properties of air from the time of Bacon and Galileo to the prefent time; and has comprized in a few pages the result of innumerable experiments. In fact, the difcourfe may be confidered as a compendious history of common and factitious air, To far as the effential properties of either have yet been discovered. To Lord Bacon the Prefident afcribes the difcovery of faditious or artificial air. To Sir Ifaac Newton, that true permanent air arifing from fixed bodies by heat and fermentation. To Dr. Hales, the air abounding in the Pyrmont waters. To Dr. Brownrig, the qualityofthat air which is of the mephitic or deadly kind, fuch as is found in damps, deep wells, caverns, and coal-pits, so often fatal to miners. To Dr. Black, that of fixed air. And to Mr. Lane, the difcovery of the chalybeate principle in the Spa and Pyrmont waters, in confequence of a converfation with Dr. Watson, jun. on an experiment of Mr. Cavendith's, by which that gentleman had found the mephitic air fufficient to diffolve any calcareous earths, "Nothing," fays the Prefident, feemed now to be wanting to the triumph of art, but an easy method of joining, as there fhould be occafion, one or both of those principles to common water, in order to improve upon nature in the more ex tenfive ufe of her medicine: and this was effected by Dr. Priestley, after fome other important discoveries had been made in this part of pneumatics, firft by Dr. Black, profeffor of Chymiftry at Edinburgh, and then by Mr. Cavendish, a member of the Royal Society." Of all thefe facts, and others which the Prefident enumerated, Dr. Priestley carefully availed himfelf; and conceiving that common water impregnated with this mephitic fluid alone, might be useful in medicine, particularly for failors on long voyages, for curing or preventing the fea-fcurvy, for this purpose he made a fimple apparatus for geperating this fpecies of air from chalk, and mixing it with water, in fuch quantities, and in fo fpeedy a manner, that having exhibited the experiment before the Royal Society and the college of physicians, it mes with fo much approbation, that, in order the public might the fooner reap the benefit of it, he was induced to detach this part of his labours, and, in a feparate paper, to prefent it to the Admiralty. To the discovery of the different kinds |