be awarded in their favor. Nor does it feem equitable, provided no perjury has been practifed, nor malignant intention manifefted, that, when the plaintiff is non-fuited, the officer of revenue fhould recover treble cofts. Thefe alterations in the statutes of excife would not occafion any delay, of confequence, to the revenue; and they might obviate abuses, which, by creating murmurs and difcontent, diminish the veneration due to the laws. (G)

In the Highlands of Scotland, it is faid by Lord Kaims, that the excife upon ale and fpirits defrays not the falaries of the officers, who levy it. The people, therefore, are burthened with a contribution, which adds to the expence of government, and withdraws from ufeful labor many induftrious hands. This laft confideration feldom enters into the estimate of the financier: Yet the magnitude of it will be apparent from the late obfervations of M. Necker, who computes that the tax-gatherers in France amount to two hundred and fifty thousand perfons; thirty-five thousand of whom devote their whole time to the bufinefs. The enforcement of impofts by oaths may be fuppofed rather to increafe, than to diminish their moral validity. Yet it is a practice that, on trivial occafions, feems to participate of impiety; and, on all occafions, is conducted with fo much carelefnefs and irreverence, as tends to the moft pernicious confequences. A million

of

of perjuries are supposed, by a very able calculator, to be annually committed in this kingdom.* (H)

In the definition of a tax, which has the full force of a moral obligation, it has been laid down, as its ultimate and most important conftituent, that it is a levy made for the PUBLIC GOOD. And it is the fpecial duty of the fupreme power to keep this facred end in view, in the exaction of every fubfidy. The confidence and veneration of the people would thus be fecured; and a respectful fubmiffion would be paid even to the errors of government, as unavoidable confequences of human frailty; and as only temporary grievances, which better information would redrefs. In the application alfo of the national funds, the like rigid attention to wisdom and rectitude should be uniformly maintained. How often has it been urged to me, fays M. Necker, can you refuse to afk the king for a thoufand crowns, to relieve fuch a person whofe misfortunes are known to you. Will the royal exchequer be the poorer for it? Forget, I have replied, this royal exchequer, which you confider only as an accumulated mafs of money, without having examined its fource: A thousand crowns are the amount of the land-tax of two villages; and I leave you to judge whether the perfon for whom you folicit has a juft claim to the labor and contributions of their inhabitants.

• Price on the American revolution, p. 82.

It is a violation (obferves the fame honeft financier, in another part of his work, with which I fhall now conclude)-It is a violation of the most facred of all depofits, to employ the facrifices of a whole nation in inconfiderate prodigalities, ufelefs expences, and undertakings foreign to the good of the state.

N. B. The enlargement of this essay, bas occafioned fupernumerary pages, which the printer has diftinguished by crotchets. An Appendix, containing notes and illuftrations, is inferted at the end of the volume.

Of POPULAR ILLUSIONS, and particularly of MEDICAL DEMONOLOGY. BY JOHN FERRIAR, M.D.

The earth has bubbles, as the water has,

And there are of them.

SHAKESPEARE.

READ MAY 12, 1786.

HERE are two claffes of readers, who will probably expect little entertainment from the fubject of this effay; thofe who are not acquainted with it as a branch of literature, will think it an idle

tafk

talk to attack the forgotten follies of the nursery; those who know the number, the ingenuity and importance of writers in this controverfy, may suppose that little can be added to their labours. To the first I acknowledge, that we should hardly expect that extravagant conceptions, frequently originating in the imbecility of obfcure and frantic individuals, fhould intereft political as well as literary bodies, should be defended and fupported with the most turbulent clamours, and fhould fometimes endanger the safety and order of fociety; yet fuch have been the effects of popular illusions; some of them indeed fo extraordinary, that nothing but the occurrence of fimilar events in our own times could gain them belief. These facts conftitute a curious part of the hiftory of human reafon, and every where obtrude themselves in medical researches, yet I believe the fubject is in general mifapprehended, and errors are imputed to ignorance, which, however they arofe, were fupported in the most enlightened times, and by writers of the greatest knowledge and acuteness. A proper attention to fome facts feparated from the great mafs (for I dare not undertake a complete hiftory) will convince us, that fuch infatuations are not always to be ascribed to the occafional workings of diftempered minds, but to the general perfuafion of the most intelligent; and that they derive their origin from the abuse of tendencies imparted for better purposes.

Ignorance

Ignorance and fear are generally faid to produce the first fuperftitions of uncivilized men; and they indeed affift each other powerfully. The mind feems to magnify the object of its terror in proportion to its ignorance of the properties of that object. But a caufe equally active with thefe, which operates both in the rude and polished states of fociety, is the restless curiofity we derive from our conftitution respecting the causes of natural phænomena. Man, in the favage ftate, is melancholy and reserved; conftantly exposed to toils, and frequently to dangers, he affociates the ideas of hoftility or protection even with inanimate objects; unacquainted with the relations of caufe and effect, he judges chiefly from thofe of refemblance; every storm is fuppofed to be directed by an enemy, fimilar to the human adversary, but fuperior both in powers of oppofition and concealment: the rock, or the tree which shelters him from the weather, or faves him from the pursuit of a wild beast, becomes first a patron, and then a divinity. Accordingly, the delufion of incantation was long fupported in Germany, because the peasants could not account for the appearance of hail-storms in fummer, but from the operations of witches; and the deification of ancient heroes and legiflators can only be explained on the principles of gratitude and veneration, which led their people to hope that their benefactors continued to

Wier. Lib. Apologet.

behold