AN ADDRESS TO THE LATELY FORMED SOCIETY OF THE FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE, By JOHN WILDE, ESQ. ADVOCATE, UNIVERSITY, OF EDINBURGH. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, AND PETER HILL, EDINBURGH. LA. To WILLIAM CARLYLE, Efq. You remember, my dear friend, my having faid, in the days of our earlier intimacy, that the first work I should publish, and with my name, I fhould dedicate to you. This declaration was made at a time of life, when my future years danced before me in all the gay colours of the element; when youthful hope felt every obstacle only as the young eagle feels the opposing breeze, and when even the utmost horizon of mental enjoyment was skirted with the richeft livery of fancy. Some years (not very many) have paffed over us fince; and they have brought their changes along with them. Yet they have not much altered me; and you, perhaps, they have altered ftill lefs. With a mind averfe to buftle, and with a heart whose strings were never tuned to any high ftrains of ambition, your wifhes were always far beneath your talents; perhaps, and for that very reafon, beneath your duties alfo. You have relinquifhed a profeffion for which you were early destined and highly qualified; qualified in every way except the inclination. In the retirement of a country life, and occupied in your favourite country a 2 |