are indulgent? Sir, the man who addresses C you in these terms is your best friend. He ⚫ would willingly hazard his life in defence • of your title to the crown; and, if power be your object, will still shew you how possible it is for a king of England, by the noblest means, to be the most absolute prince in Europe. You have no enemies, sir, but those who persuade you to aim at power without right, and who think it flat tery to tell you that the character of king dissolves the natural relation between guilt ' and punishment.' I cannot conceive that there is a heart so callous, or an understanding so depraved, as to attend to a discourse of this nature, and not to feel the force of it. But where is the man, among those who have access to the closet, resolute and honest enough to deliver it? The liberty of the press is our only resource. It will command an audience when every honest man in the kingdom is excluded. This glorious privilege may be a security to the king, as well as a resource to his people. Had there been no star-chamber, there would have been no rebellion against Charles the First. The constant censure and admonition of the press would have corrected his conduct, prevented a civil war, and saved him from an ignominious death. I am no friend to the doctrine of precedents exclusive of right, though lawyers often tell us, that whatever has been once done, may lawfully be done again. I shall conclude this preface with a quotation, applicable to the subject, from a foreign writer, whose essay on the English constitution I beg leave to recommend to the public as a performance deep, solid, and ingenious. In short, whoever considers what it is that constitutes the moving principle of 'what we call great affairs, and the invin cible sensibility of man to the opinion of 'his fellow-creatures, will not hesitate to af'firm, that, if it were possible for the liberty of the press to exist in a despotic govern ment, and (what is not less difficult) for it 'to exist without changing the constitution, 'this liberty of the press would alone form a counterpoise to the power of the prince. 'If, for example, in an empire of the east, ' a sanctuary could be found, which, ren'dered respectable by the ancient religion. of the people, might insure safety to those 'who should bring thither their observations • of any kind; and that from thence printed papers should issue which, under a certain 'seal, might be equally respected; and which, in their daily appearance, should examine, and freely discuss, the conduct of the cadis, the bashaws, the vizir, the divan, and the sultan himself, that would introduce immediately some degree of li'berty.' |