haps, the whole village may be perfuaded to procure arms, and learn their exercise.

G. It cannot be expected, that the villagers should purchase arms, but they might easily be supplied, if the gentry of the nation would spare a little from their vices and luxury.

F. May they turn to fome fense of honour and virtue !

G. Farewell, at prefent; and remember, "that a free state is only a more numerous and "more powerful club, and that he only is a free man, who is member of fuch a state."

F. Good morning, Sir! You have made me wifer and better than I was yesterday; and yet, methinks, I had fome knowledge in my own mind of this great fubject, and have been a politician all my life without perceiving it.

THE CHARACTER

OF

JOHN LORD ASHBURTON.

THE publick are here presented not with a fine picture, but a faithful portrait, with the character of a memorable and illuftrious man, not in the ftyle of panegyrick on a monument, but in the language of fober truth, which friendship itfelf could not induce the writer to violate.

JOHN DUNNING (a name to which no title could add luftre) poffeffed profeffional talents which may truly be called inimitable; for, befides their fuperlative excellence, they were peculiarly his own; and as it would scarcely be poffible to copy them, so it is hardly probable that nature or education will give them to another. His language was always pure, always elegant; and the best words dropped eafily from his lips into the best places with a fluency at all times astonishing, and, when he had perfect health, really melodious: his style of speaking consisted of all the turns, oppofitions, and figures, which

the old Rhetoricians taught, and which Cicero frequently practifed, but which the auftere and folemn spirit of Demofthenes refused to adopt from his first master, and feldom admitted into his orations, political or forenfick.

Many at the bar and on the bench thought this a vitiated style; but, though diffatisfied as criticks, yet, to the confufion of all criticism, they were transported as hearers. That faculty, however, in which no mortal ever furpaffed him, and which all found irrefiftible, was his wit. This relieved the weary, calmed the resentful, and animated the drowsy: this drew fmiles even from fuch as were the objects of it; fcattered flowers over a defert; and, like fun-beams fparkling on a lake, gave spirit and vivacity to the dulleft and least interesting caufe. Not that his accomplishments, as an advocate, confisted principally in volubility of fpeech or liveliness of raillery. He was endued with an intellect, fedate, yet penetrating; clear, yet profound; fubtle, yet strong. His knowledge too was equal to his imagination, and his memory to his knowledge. He was no less deeply learned in the sublime principles of jurifprudence and the particular laws of his country, than accurately skilled in the minute, but ufeful, practice of all our different courts. In the nice conduct of a complicated

cause, no particle of evidence could escape his vigilant attention, no attention, no fhade of fhade of argument could elude his comprehenfive reason. Perhaps the vivacity of his imagination fometimes prompted him to fport where it would have been wiser to argue; and, perhaps, the exactness of his memory fometimes induced him to answer fuch remarks as hardly deferved notice, and to enlarge on small circumstances which added little to the weight of his argument: but those only who have experienced can, in any degree, conceive the difficulty of exerting all the mental faculties in one inftant, when the least deliberation might lose the tide of action irrecoverably. The people seldom err in appreciating the character of speakers; and those clients who were too late to engage DUNNING on their fide, never thought themselves fecure of fuccefs, while those against whom he was engaged were always apprehenfive of a defeat.

As a lawyer, he knew that Britain could only be happily governed on the principles of her conftitution, or publick law; that the regal power was limited, and popular rights ascertained by it; but that the ariftocracy had no other power than that which too naturally refults from property, and which laws ought rather to weaken than fortify: he was, therefore, an equal supporter of

juft prerogative, and of national freedom, weighing both in the noble balance of our recorded conftitution. An able and aspiring statesman, who professed the fame principles, had the wifdom to folicit, and the merit to obtain, the friendfhip of this great man; and a connection, planted originally on the firm ground of fimilarity in political fentiments, ripened into perfonal affection which nothing but death could have diffolved or impaired. Whether in his minifterial station he might not fuffer a few prejudices infenfibly to creep on his mind, as the best men have fuffered because they were men, may admit of a doubt; but, if even prejudiced, he was never uncandid, and though pertinacious in all his opinions, he had great indulgence for fuch as differed from him.

His fenfe of honour was lofty and heroick; his integrity ftern and inflexible; and though he had a strong inclination to fplendour of life, with a tafte for all the elegancies of fociety, yet no love of dignity, of wealth, or of pleasure, could have tempted him to deviate, in a single inftance, from the ftraight line of truth and honefty. He carried his democratical principles even into focial life, where he claimed no more of the conversation than his juft fhare, and was always candidly attentive, when it was his turn to be a hearer. His enmities were strong, yet placable;