thousand times more to be feared than the bloody poniard of the affaffin: the latter is drawn on individuals only, the other is pointed at the human race. Happily for the people of Birmingham, these bleffings had no effect; there was no National Convention, Revolutionary Tribunal, or guillotine, in England. As I have already obferved, if the Doctor had been the best and most peaceable fubject in the kingdom, the government and laws could not have yielded him more perfect protection; his complaint would, therefore, be groundlefs, it he had given no provocation to the people, if he had in no wife contributed to the riots. If, then, he has received ample justice, confidered as an innocent man, and a good subject, what fhall we think of his complaint, when we find that he was himself the principal caufe of these riots; and that the rioters did nothing that was not perfectly confonant to the principles he had for many years been labouring to infufe into their minds? That he and his club were the caufe of the riots, will not be difputed; for, had they not given an infulting notice of their intention to celebrate the horrors of the 14th of July, accompanied with an. inflammatory hand-bill, intended to excite an infurrection against the Government*, no riot would ever have taken place, and confequently its difaftrous effects would have been avoided. But it has been faid, that there was nothing offenfive in this inflammatory hand-bill; becaufe, forfooth," the matter "of it (however indecent and untrue) was not "more virulent than Paine's Rights of Man, Mack *This hand-bill was difowned by the club, and they offered a reward for apprehending the author; but they took care to fend him to France before their advertisement appeared. "intosh's 66 "intofh's Answer to Burke, Remarks on the Conftitution of England, &c. &c. which had been, lately published without incurring the cenfure of Government. So, an inflammatory performance, acknowledged to be indecent and untrue, is not offenfive, because it is not more virulent than fome other performances, which have efcaped the cenfure of Government! If this is not a new manner of arguing, it is at leaft an odd one. But this hand-bill had fomething more malicious in it, if not more virulent, than even the inflammatory works above mentioned. They were more difficult to come at ; to have them, they must be bought *. They contained fomething like reafoning, the fallacy of which, the Government was very fure would be detected, by the good sense of those who took the pains to read them. A hand-bill was a more commodious inftrument of fedition: it was calculated to have immediate effect. Befides, if there had been nothing offenfive in it, why did the club think proper to difown it in fo ceremonious a manner? They difowned it with the most folemn affeverations, offered a reward for apprehending the author, and afterwards juftified it as an inoffenfive thing. Here is a palpable inconfiftency. The fact is, they perceived that this precious morfel of eloquence, in place of raifing a mob for them, was like to raise one against them they faw the ftorm gathering, and, in the moment of fear, difowned the writing. After the danger was over, seeing they could not exculpate themfelves from the charge of having published it, they defended it as an inoffenfive performance. The Doctor, in his juftificatory letter to the people of Birmingham, fays, that the company were affem They were, indeed, afterwards given away by the Correspond ing Society, and other feditious clubs. bled 86 bled on this occafion "to celebrate the emancipa "tion of a neighbouring nation from tyranny, "without intimating a defire of any thing more than an improvement of their own conftitution." Exceffive modefty! Nothing but an improvement? A LA FRANÇOISE, of courfe? However, with refpect to the church, as it was a point of confcience, the club do not feem to have been altogether fo moderate in their defigns. "Believe me," fays the Doctor, in the fame letter, "the Church of England, which you think you are fupporting, has received a "greater blow by this conduct of yours, than I and "all my friends have ever aimed at it." They had then, it feems, aimed a blow at the established church, and were forming a plan for improving the conftitution; and yet the Doctor, in the fame letter, twice expreffes his aftonishment at their being treated as the enemies of church and ftate. In a letter to the ftudents of the College of Hackney, he fays, "a hierarchy, equally the bane of Chriftianity and ra 66 tional liberty, now confeffes its weakness; and be affured, that you will fee its complete re"formation, or its fall." And yet he has the affurance to tell the people of Birmingham, that their fuperiors have deceived them in reprefenting him and his fect as the enemies of church and ftate. But, fay they, we certainly exercifed the right of freemen in affembiing together; and even if our meeting had been unlawful, cognizance should have been taken of it by the magiftracy: there can be no liberty where a ferocious mob is fuffered to fuperfedė the law. Very true. This is what the Doctor has been told a thousand times, but he never would believe it. He fill continued to bawl out, "The fun"fhine of reafon will affuredly chafe away and diffipate the mists of darkness and error; and when "the majesty of the people is infulted, or they feel themselves VOL. I. M "themselves oppreffed by any fet of men, they "have the power to redrefs the grievance." So the people of Birmingham, feeling their majesty infulted by a fet of men (and a very impudent fet of men too), who audaciously attempted to perfuade them that they were "all flaves and idolaters," and to feduce them from their duty to God and their country, rofe" to redress the grievance." And yet he complains? Ah! fays he, but, my good townf men, -you mistake the matter: And therefore he fays to the people of Birmingham, "You have been misled." But had they fuffered themselves to be misled by himself into an infurrection against the Government; had they burnt the churches, cut the throats of the clergy, and hung the magiftrates, military officers, and nobility, to the lamp-pofts, would he not have said that they exercised a facred right? Nay, was not the very feftival, which was the immediate cause of the riots, held exprefsly to celebrate scenes like these? to celebrate the inglorious triumphs of a mob? The 14th of July was a day marked with the blood of the innocent, and eventually the deftruction of an empire. The events of that day must strike horror to every heart except that of a deistical philofopher, and would brand with eternal infamy any other nation but France; which, thanks to the benign influence of the Rights of Man, has made such a progress in ferocioufnefs, murder, facrilege, and every fpecies of infamy, that the horrors of the 14th of July are already forgotten. What we celebrate, we must approve; and does not the man, who approved of the events of the 14th of July, blush to complain of the Birming ham ham riots ? "" Happily," fays he to the people of Birmingham, "happily the minds of Englishmen have a horror for murder, and therefore you "did not, I hope, think of that; though, by your "clamorous demanding me at the hotel, it is pro"bable that, at that time, fome of you intended "me fome perfonal injury." Yes, Sir, happily the minds of Englishmen have a horror for murder; but who will fay that the minds of English men, or English women either, would have a horror for murder, if you had fucceeded in overturning their religion and conftitution, and introducing your Frenchified fyftem of liberty? The French were acknowledged to be the most polite and amiable people in all Europe: what are they now? Let La Fayette, Briffot, Anacharfis Cloots, or Thomas Paine himfelf, anfwer this question. Let us fee, a little, how mobs have acted under the famous government that the Doctor fo much admires. I fhall not attempt a detail of the horrors committed by the cut-throat Jourdan and his affociates in Provence, Avignon, Languedoc, and Roufillontowns and villages facked, gentlemen's feats and castles burnt, and their inhabitants maffacred; magiftrates infulted, beat, and imprisoned, fometimes killed; prifoners fet at liberty, to cut the throats of those they had already robbed. The exploits of this band of patriots would fill whole volumes. They reduced a great part of the inhabitants of the finest and moft fertile country in the whole world, to a degree of mifery and ruin that would never have been forgotten, had it not been fo far eclipfed fince, by the operation of what is, in " that devoted country," called the law. The amount of the damages sustained in property, was perhaps a hundred thoufand times as great as that fuftained by the revolutionists at Birmingham. When repeated accounts |