And mirth diffembled drown'd the hated cry
Of jealous defpotifm, refounding ever
In tones fevere and hollow, to the fears,
Freezing the heart's warm currents as they flow'd.-
But why fhould Louis expiate the crimes
Of tyrants that preceded -We are witness
He meekly bore his faculties, and lean'd
To wholesome counfels.

SIEYES.-I know it--but the common herd retain
A favage mem'ry of the paft oppreffions;
Hence their exceffes, hence the mournful wafte
Of noble blood.-Ye rulers of mankind,
Oh, never drive the people to defpair:

Feed them with hope and they will much endure,
Still teach them to look upward to their king
For cure of evils; let them not be taught

To right themselves and know their dangerous ftrength,
A fatal fecret for the governor,

And for the crowd themselves; for that once known,
Firft they remove their wrongs and grievances,
They next fecure their rights; but this perform'd,
Good in itself, injurious in the means,

They reft not here content, but, flush'd with conquest,
From bond-flaves, they commence infulting tyrants,
And ufe their pow'r with infolence, proportion'd
To their past abject ftate.

KERSAINT.-The death of Louis

Would blot the Gallic fame to latest times.—
May we not hope by timely oppofition

To ftem the people's rage? Will they not feel
His peaceful virtues? will they not recall

His large conceffions to the public voice?

SIEYES.-Marat prevails, and all attempts are vain

To fave his deftin'd life; ruin to us,

Perdition to our country, waits th' attempt.
The crowd demand a victim; we shall perish
After a vain attempt to ftem the torrent
With him we should preferve. We must retain
The public confidence, our only hope
In this conjuncture; better yield a while
To wind and tide, and deviate from the course
That brings the veffel to her deftin'd port,
Than by impatience drive her on the rocks
Where certain shipwrecks wait her; better join
The people ev'n in wrong, that we may turn them
From wrongs yet greater, and their own perdition,
Than by desertion in the fatal hour

Hazard the lofs of all. To guide the people
We must not only feem to follow them,
But yield in part to do fo. Confidence,

If by complacence won, and confidence.
Confirm'd by use, becomes authority.

KERSAINT.-Miftaken hope, to rule the populace
By yielding to their rage! This fatal act
Will fcatter wide the feeds of civil war.-
And fhall this land, the feat of polish'd arts,
And mild philofophy, and focial joys,
Become the refidence of brutal rage,
Devouring anarchy, and deadly carnage? -

SIEYES. Defpond not thus ;-our civic bands fublim'd By bright enthufiaftic fire, will brave

Danger, and want, and raging elements,

With daring more than human.

KERSAINT.-Surrounded as we are by puiffant foes

We need the rule of one; the times demand

A fummary and vig'rous promptitude,

A brief and dextrous fecrecy in council,
A calm and rapid concert in the field;
Such as we may not hope from loud debate,
Manag'd by theorifts and demagogues
In mix'd tumultuous meetings,

SIEYES. We must own.

If ancient maxims are receiv'd on truft,
That wide extended ftates by monarchy.
Are beft adminiiter'd;-but future times
Shall fee th' example of our common-weal
Refute the prejudice, and give an inftance
Of vigour, fecrecy, and promptitude,
Surpaing all belief.

KERSAINT.-I would preferve

The kingly pow'r as true fupport of freedom;
Calm, fober freedom, not licentious rage,
Verging to tyranny in the worst form.
Our Maker tells us that fupremacy
Should be concenter'd in a narrow space,
And rais'd aloft confpicuous; thus we fee
The ruling head furmounts the graceful fabric
Of man, divinely form'd within itself,
Comprising fenfe and life; imperial fource
Of thought, velition, reafon, fantafy;
Sovereign to fway, and provident to guide
Bach vital function with unquestion'd pow'r
And kingly promptitude, it fends abroad
Its mighty mandates thro' th' obedient limbs,

* SIEYES.-If thou would't argue from the works of nature,
They speak more firongly for a common-weal.-
Nature's great author in his works hath taught us
That elements fhouid mix, and adverfe pow'rs
Temper each other; in all kinds that breathe
And live, and ev'n in things unorganiz'd

And

And lifelefs, various elements combine,

Earth, water, air, and fire, to form a mass;
Nay, elements themselves that fimple seem,
Are all compounded, and within them hold
Difcordant principles; thus earth combines
Air, water, fire;-and water, earth and air.
Thus, air, a gen'ral thief, collects from all things
Difcordant particles, and blends them all
In one fair tiffue of tranfparent blue;
And from the plunder of creation forms

Her curtains thin around this earthly ball.'

[Scene clafes.

If Mr. Preston, while writing this fcene, were not, in the language of the day, a rank democrat, we renounce all pretenfion to fagacity. Let us not be misunderstood however. The Poet's great object is to imprefs us with horror, and to fire us with refentment, on account of the King's execution; the final confummation of which is intimated, [it could not be reprefented,] in the conclufion of the piece; previously to which melancholy catastrophe, we have a truly pathetic scene-the parting interview between the unfortunate monarch and his familywhich is certainly well imagined.

Of the poetry, our readers will judge by the above quotation, which is perhaps a favourable fpecimen. The grammar and conftruction are fometimes defective: but beauties of paffion, character, language, and even of an enlarged and philofophic mind, occafionally prevail.

ART. XV. The Alteration of the Conftitution of the House of Commons, and the Inequality of the Land-Tax, confidered conjointly. By J. Brand, Cl. M. A. 8vo. pp. 176. 3s. Boards. Evans. 1793.

T HIS performance is undoubtedly one of the most profound, moft ingenious, and at the fame time the most artful, that ever came under our confideration. It would feem, at times, as if the author were not an enemy to a parliamentary reform, provided it were to be preceded by an equalization of the land-tax :-but the reader is not fuffered to remain long in this opinion; for it appears that Mr. Brand's object is to throw as many obstacles as poffible in the way of reform; and the main battery which he directs against it is a plan for equalizing the land-tax. This plan we confider as nothing more than a bug-bear to frighten the reformers, and to make them defift from their pursuits; yet the author has treated the fubject ably, and has enforced the juftice and propriety of his ideas with fuch cogent arguments that, we doubt not, he would obtain ftrong fupport, were he feriously to prefs his plan on the public, and to folicit their aid. to carry it through both houfes of parliament:-but he is not ferious.

ferious. If the reform be fet at reft, he will not be the first to disturb its repofe; we think that, on the contrary, he would very readily confent to give his equalizing project an opiate, which would make it fleep until the former fhould be roufed from its flumber.

Mr. B. obferves that an alteration in the conftitution of the Third Eftate is a measure of such importance, that it ought to be examined in every point of view before it is carried into execution. He then confiders it as to its general and its local confequences; the former as affecting the whole kingdom; the fecond, the larger diftricts of it.

Such a measure, he remarks, would affect the kingdom in general, by producing a change in the prefent proportion of power in the executive and legislative departments of the state. The object of those who call for reform is to diminish confiderably the power of the Crown and of the Peers, and to give additional ftrength to the popular branch of the legislature. Here Mr. B. obferves that power is not to be taken in an equal degree from the King and from the House of Peers: but that the greatest conceffions are to be exacted from the Crown; fo that the House of Lords would become relatively weaker when compared with the increafed power of the Commons, but relatively greater when compared with the diminifhed power of the Crown. What might be the effect of such a change in the whole kingdom, Mr. B. does not pretend to determine; he confines himself to the confideration of this fingle point, What might be its confequence to a particular diftrict of great magnitude and importance, the southern and eaftern counties, and folely with refpect to the tax on land." He divides the kingdom of England (for Scotland is not included in this confideration,) into two diftricts; one which, refpecting the metropolis, he calls the home diftrict, including the counties of Middlefex, Surry, Hertford, Bedford, Cambridge, Kent, Effex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Berks, Buckingham, and Oxford; the other, the remote district, taking in the remainder of England, and the principality of Wales.

He thinks that a reformation in the reprefentation of the people in parliament would be attended with very great injury to the home diftrict, because he is of opinion that, either before the end of this century or very foon after the beginning of the next, it will be found abfolutely neceffary to increase the landtax, nay, to double it. The burthen of this tax he proves to be much heavier on the home than on the remote district: the inequality he fhews to be greatly in favour of the latter; and, as it has at prefent a confiderable majority in parliament, a reform, which would add to it, muft of courfe render the relief

to

to the home district from the exifting difproportion abfolutely impracticable: the prefent affeffment would be made the basis of the additions to the charges of this tax which must in future take place; and the difference of the actual and proportional payment of the remote diftrict, already very great, would of course receive a farther augmentation.-He obferves that, though it should be fuppofed that a change in the conftitution of the House of Commons was expedient, (a fuppofition which he expressly fays he does not admit, though he does not attack it,) ftill, he contends, it ought not to take place until we have guarded against its dangerous confequences; which are, he fays, not only that of perpetuating an old fyftem of the groffeft inequality of the public burthens of the two divifions of the kingdom, but also that of aggravating its oppreffive disparity by new augmentations. He infifts that, until measures be taken for preventing fuch confequences, it would be madnefs to trust the remote counties with double their present majority of members in the House of Commons; and that, until fuch steps be taken, prudential justice, and a regard for fair equality, if justice and equality have any existence more than in name, demand that the measure of reform ought to be poftponed.

It is evident, from this fhort sketch of the author's argument, that the prefent is not, in his opinion, the proper season for effecting this change in the formation of the reprefentative body: but he does not stop here; he goes ftill farther, and roundly afferts that a proper feafon for it has not occurred fince the revolution, and that it is a happy circumstance that no attempt to carry it into execution has hitherto fucceeded.

Mr. B. ranges his arguments under five different heads: ift. He gives an account of the cause of the inequality of the land-tax.

2d. He states the arguments in favour of its continuance, and refutes them.

3d. He fhews on what ground he builds his opinion that the time is not far diftant when it will be found necessary to increase the prefent amount of the land-tax.

4th. He determines the measure of the difproportion of the charge on the two diftricts, and points out what are its effects. 5th. He mentions the number of county members to be added to thofe of the home and remote divifions, according to the plans brought forward by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Flood in 1785 and 1790; and he thence proves the great addition of power which would be fo acquired by the remote diftrict, in the lower house,

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