To thefe emcluments I repeat (and backed by the authority of Blackstone I am not much atraid of contradi&ion) the Patron himself neither bas, nor in any poble cafe as patron can have, any right.

"The payment of tithes to the Clergy is a practice to antient, that the time cannot be precifely afcertained when it was first introduced into this country. It is probably coæval with the planting of Christianity among the Saxons by Augutin the Monk, about the end of the fixth century. But it is traced with certainty as far back as the year 786, when by a conftitutional decree of a Synod then held, the payment of tithes is ftrongly enjoined, and by a fublequent law of King Alfred, anno 900, a penalty, was added upon the non-obtervance; which law of Alfred was again enforced by King Athelftan, about the year 930. Every man therefore was, by the law of the land, bound to pay tithes to the Clergy at that time; though, before the divifion of parishes, he might pay them to what Prieit he pleafed, which was called arbitrary confecration. But after dioceles were divided into parishes, the tithe of each parish was allotted to its particular Minifter. This divifion of parishes, and even of mother-churches, is exprefsly mentioned in a law of King Edgar, anno 970;" dentur omnes decime, mariæ ecclefiæ ad quam parochia pertinet."-BLACKSTONE.

The right of the Clergy therefore to tithes-I mean the right they can claim by human laws, is, I prefume, prior to the right which any man at this day hath to his eftate. The property of every eftate, in all probability, hath been often changed fince the first, or indeed the laft, of thefe periods. Now every man that purchaseth an eftate fubject to tithes, as every man mult that hath purchafed land (not excmpt) fince the year 786, takes it fubject to that incumbiance, and pays fo much the lefs for it on that account; as, on the other hand, he that purchaleth land which more modern laws (with what reafon I fall not now enquire) have exempted from tithes, pays to much the more for it, for a fimilar reaion. So likewife, every farmer who rents land fubject to tithes, pays fo much the lets rent for it on that account; and if he rent land which is tithe-free, he pays the landlord as much additional rent for it as the tithe is worth. Thefe principles ad

mitted will lead to an undeniable inference, which is, that by the payment of tithes, no layman, whether landlord or tenant, contributes any thing, out of bis own property, towards the maintenance of the Clergy; but they are maintained. principally, though not entirely, by that quit-rent which God hath referved out of all lands almoft from the creation, and which hath been recognised and eftablifhed by the municipal laws of this kingdom for more than a thousand years. If this be the cafe, no layman can fhew the fainteft fhadow of right to tithes, thofe inftances perhaps excepted, in which the unguided zeal of Reformation placed them in lay hands, at the diffolution of the Abbeys in the time of King Henry the Eighth; and, of confequence, the Patron who fells a Prefentation to a Benefice, which is the right only of the Clergy, fells that which, both by law and reafon, belongs not to him. The right to tithes belongs to the Clergy in general; the right of patronage is only to determine what particular Clerk fhall enjoy fuch a particular portion of them. "If the Patron fhould take poffeffion of the church, church-yard, glebe, or tithe, he intrudes on another man's property; for to these the Parfon hath an exclufive right." But where this practice of felling prefentations prevails, the Patron evidently takes the emolument of the tithes to himself; the Clerk is only his tenant or leffee, just as if he had purchased a fingle life on fo much temporal estate.

That this practice is contrary to reafon is, I fuppofe, fufficiently evident ;how far it is confonant to the principles of law, the following particulars may affilt us to determine: Simony is not punishable in a criminal way at the common law; it being thought fufficient to leave the Clerk to ecclefiaflical cenfures. But as thefe did not affect the Simoniacal Patron, nor were efficacious enough to repel the notorious practice of the thing, divers Acts of Parliament have been made to reftrain it by civil tortentures, which the modern prevailing ulage with regard to fpiritual preferments, as Blackftone with juft indignation obferves, call aloud to be put in execution.

By the ftatute 31. Eliz. ch. 6. it is, for avoiding of Simony, enacted, “That if any Patron, for money, or any other corrupt confideration or promife, directly or indirectly given, fall pretent any perfon to an eccieliattical Benefice, both

the

the giver and taker shall forfeit two years value of fuch Benefice, one moiety to the King, and the other to any one that will fue for the fame; and fuch prefentation fhall be void, and the Prefentee be rendered incapable for ever of enjoying the fame Benefice, and the Crown fhall present to it pro hac vice." And by a fubfequent ftatute, 12. Ann. ft. z. ch. 12. 66 If any perion, for money or profit, fhall procure in his own name, or the name of any other, the next prefentation to any living ecclefiaftical, and fhall be prefented thereupon, it is declared to be a Simoniacal contract, and the party is fubjected to all the ecclefiaftical penalties of Simony; is difabled from holding the Benefice; and the prefentation devolves to the Crown."

So that by the 31. Eliz. both the corrupt Giver and the corrupt Taker forfeit each two years value of the Benefice; the Giver's Prefentee is for ever excluded from enjoying that Benefice, and the Taker lofes his prefentation for that turn. And by 12. Anne, if a Clerh purchase a next prefentation (in whofe name the purchafe is made it fignifies not), and be thereupon prefented at any future time, it is Simony by the letter of the law, as well as by the spirit of it and though he may perhaps contrive to avoid the ecclefiaftical penalties of Simony, I doubt he muft till carry about him the guilt of wilful and corrupt perjury.

t;

Thefe laws then feem fufficiently clear and exprefs; but a fubterfuge hath been invented to evade the force of the latter of them. A Clerk purchases an advowfon, and fells it again, referving the next prefentation; or perhaps waits for a vacancy, and is inftituted before he fells the advowson. I call this by the difgraceful name of fubterfuge, because every man who does it must be confcious that the next prefentation was the exprefs object of his purchase; and with that confcioufnefs, whoever can abfolve himfelf from direct and palpable perjury, I hold to be not meanly qualified for the office of Commentator on a new Edition of the Jefuit's Morals,

But I am inadvertently recurring to the fubject of my former letter; let me return to the Simoniacal Patron. To make pecuniary advantage of that which is the exclufive right of another, is such manifeft injuftice that one may well wonder that men of liberal fentiments in other points fhould not be ashamed of it. But fay they, we take no oaths against Simony, let the Parfons look to that, whilft we pocket the money. To this I have one reply to make: valeat quantum, valere debet. The Patron is a principal in the fuppofed tranfaction tranfaction which could not poffibly have exifted without his being a party in it; a tranfaction which he is fully aware muft inevitably caufe another perfon to incur the guilt of perjury! How far a Patron, under thefe circumftances, is a partaker of his clerical affociate's guilt, is a queftion that furely merits fome confideration, and I leave it for the confcience of every ferious perfon to refolve it for himself.

; a

A remedy adequate to the evil here complained of is a thing much to be defired; and until a better is fuggefted, I submit the following to the judgment of your readers:-By the penalties laid on the corrupt Patron, as well as on the Simoniacal Clerk, in the ftatutes abovementioned, I think it clearly appears to be the intention of the law, that Benekices fhould not be bought or fold upon any occafion whatever. If I am wrong in this interpretation, fome of your Correfpondents will doubtlefs have the goodness to fet me right. On the fup. pofition that my interpretation of thefe ftatutes is right, and finding by expe rience that the penalties are infufficient for the purpose intended, I humbly propofe that the Legislature fhould amend the law, and enact, That as an oath against having given any Simoniacal confideration precedes the Clerk's inftitution, fo one againft having received any, fhall follow the Patron's prefentation.

Νου. 21, 1797•

O.D.

ACCOUNT

HIS Gentleman, at one period of

very

influence over the minds of the people; his name was fufficient to blow up the flames of fedition, and excite the lower crders of the community to acts of violence against his opponents in a manner fomething allied to madness. After great viciffitudes of fortune he found himfelf placed in a ftate of independance and affluence; gradually declined from the popularity he had acquired, and at laft terminated a turbulent life in a state et neglected quiet. Reviewing the prefent ftate of the country, and comparing it with that in which he began his exertions, though fome advantages may be placed to his account, we helitate in giving him credit for thofe beneficial confequences which his admirers are apt to aicribe to him. We believe he was a patriot chiefly from accident, a fucceistul one it must be owned, but not originating in principle.

He was born the 28th of October 1727: his father was a diftiller, who had raised himself from a low fituation to affluence by his bufinefs, which he carried on in the neighbourhood of St. John Street, near the Ilington Road, where this his eldett fon firit drew his breath. Mr. Wilkes the elder was a chinchman, but Mrs. Wilkes a diffenter; and the perfon employed about the education of their fon was a Prefbyterian divine. His early commexions were theretore amongit the diffenters, and thefe were in fome measure confirmed by an early marriage, before the year 1750, with Mils Meade, a lady who with her family held the fame religious tenets. This union was not a happy one: after the birth of one daughter, a lady ftill living, both parties by confent agreed to live leparate, and a re-union never took place. It is needlels to enquire into the cufe of domeftic discontent. Something in cates of this kind is generally to be blamed on each fide. A zealous defender of Mr. Wilkes (if not Mr. Wilkes him

thus defends him :--"I now will take an opportunity of faying a word or two of Mr. Wilkes's wife. I have heard fome of his friends remark that he is perhaps the woman in the world the most unfit for him, and the only one to whom he would not have been even an uxorious hufband, for he loves a domeftic life; but

Sic vifum veneri, cui placet impares
Formas atque animos fub juga ahenia
Sævo mittere cum joco

She was certainly a large fortune, but
unhappily half as old again as Mr.
Wilkes, when he married her. I have
often dined with them together in town
and country.
He was admired as an
extremely civil and complaifant husband,
rather cold, but exactly well bred, and
fet an example of polite and obliging
behaviour in his family, which many of
thofe who find fault with him would do
well to imitate. Her reputation is un-
fpotted, and the ftill pofleffes Mr.
Wilkes's efteem, though I believe no
great fhare of his tenderness." This
lady died the 4th of April 1784, and
the new papers of the day faid that a
conciliatory interview had taken place
between her and her husband a fhort time
before her death. Mrs. Meade her mother
died the 14th of January 1769.

Before Mr. Wilkes's marriage he had travelled abroad with great advantage, and in the courfe of his travels became intimate with the celebrated Andrew Baxter, "whofe admirabic metaphytics, eftablished on the phyfics of Newton, neglected as they are, will (fays Warburton) be deemed as great a difhonour to the wildom of this age, as the negle of Milton's poetry was to the wit of the pait." With this author he established a friendship which laited during Mr. Baxter's life +, and on the publication of the Appendix to the Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul, was

I was forty the O&tober preceding."—Mr.

honoured

here uncorrupting, and I promife you I fhall ever be uncorrupted. As I never will take a bribe, To I never will offer one. I fhould think myfelf totally unworthy of the great and important truft I am now foliciting, if I fought to obtain it by the violation of the laws of my country. I hold them facred; and I think the happiness and fecurity of every man depends on the obfervation of them. Gentlemen, I have no private views: my fole ambition is to ferve my country, and to contribute to the prefervation of the invaluable privileges this Nation enjoys beyond any in the world. I fhall act fteadily on thefe principles, and therefore I hope for the honour of your protection and encouragement, and fhall endeavour to convince you of my fincereft regards and warmeft gratitude."

He was not fuccefsful in the conteft; the numbers at the clofe of the poll being for Thomas Watfon, 374; John Delaval, 307; and John Wilkes, 192.

The publication of Johnfon's Dictio. nary the next year (1755) gave Mr. Wilkes an opportunity of amuling a few of his friends at the expence of our learned Lexicographer, who had afferted in the Grammar of the English Tongue, prefixed to that work, that " H feldom,

perhaps never, begins any but the first fyllable." His opponent, with fome pleafantry, produced a few fcore inftances to prove that the remark was unfounded. It began, "The Author of this obfervation must be a man of quick apprehenfion, and of a molt compre-benfive genius," &c. We fhould be glad to print the whole of this jeu d'esprit, if any of our correfpondents would favour us with a copy.

At this period a feries of diffipation had much deranged Mr. Wilkes's affairs, but his extravagance ftill continued. On the railing the militia in 1757, he obtained a commiflion in the corps belonging to his own county of Buckingham; he indulged himicit in many excelles which his then mature age furnished no apology for; he became a member of a celebrated fociety which held its orgies at Mednemham in Buckinghamshire *; and before the year 1760 had become fo involved, that he had practifed many expedients to obtain money, which we are afraid would not bear examination †. Still, however, his agreeable qualities remained; he was carefled by fome, pitied by others, and admired by all.

[To be continued.]

THUANUS

WAS called the French Cato; and not undefervedly; for in his integrity and intrepidity he very much refumbled the Roman Patriot, no lefs than in the love he bore to his Country. He thus concludes the Preface to his celebrated History of his own Times,' which is dedicated to Henry the Fourth :"O God! preferve his Makity the King, and the Dauphin; for in their fafety are included the peace, the concord, the security, and every thing that can be ufe

ful and falutary to France. Direct the councils of him (who has faved his Country from ruin, and who now flourithes like a flourishing tree near a gentle ftream) to the promotion of peace, to the encouragement of good learning, and of all thofe arts that render a kingdom great and refpectable. Permit good order, fo agreeable to good minds, to bear the fupreme fway. May ancient faith and religion, ancient manners, the inftitutes of our ancestors, and the laws of the country, be restored. Difperfe all new and