is ftipulated upon the evangelical terms of Give, and it shall be given unto you?

In the common eftimation of the world individuals are impoverished by their debts; and it would be strange if national debt should have no tendency to national poverty; and it would be still stranger, if, when the account of our own debts come to be audited, no part of them fhould appear to have been contracted by the expence of a court.

Dr. Johnson is afraid that Milton's republicanism was founded "in an envious "hatred of greatness, and a fullen defire "of independence; in petulance, im"patient of controul; and pride, dif"dainful of fuperiority. He hated monarchs in the ftate, and prelates in the "church;

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church; for he hated all whom he was *required to obey. It is to be fufpected, "that his predominant defire was to de* ftroy, rather than to eftablifh, and that he felt not fo much the love of liberty, as repugnance to authority." Great is the witchcraft of words, and it prevaileth! How many readers will be impofed upon by this unmanly abuse of Milton, who will never confider that the following character is at least equally true of his calumniator!

It is to be feared that

's loyalty

was founded on an idolatrous venera

*tion of greatnefs, and an abject fond« nefs for dependence; in fycophantry,

"impatient of hunger and philofophy,

and in a meannefs difdainful of no lu

"crative drudgery. He loved Kings "in the state, because he loved all who "paid him for his fervices; and Bishops "in the church, from a consciousness of "wanting, abfolution. It is to be fuf"pected, that his predominant defire

was, to destroy public liberty, rather

than to establish legal authority, and "that he felt not fo much anxiety for "the real honour of princes, as delight "in the flavish humiliation of their fubjects."

Of all the writers upon political subjects, Milton left the least room for fears and fufpicions. He is open and explicit in all his reproofs of lawless power and oppreffion, civil and ecclefiaftical. Envy at greatnefs and fuperiority in Milton's

fituation,

fituation, would neceffarily have implied his conftant endeavour to attain the greatnefs and fuperiority he envied. His addreffes to the Parliament are undeniable teftimonies of his readiness to submit to every ordinance of man which was not a terror to good works; and the only difference between Milton's fyftem of government and Dr. Johnson's is, that the former feated the laws above the King; and the latter enthrones the monarch above the laws.

Some portions of common fenfe however are yet left among us. Witness the following remark, tranfcribed from the above cited.

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"With what emphafis do minifters and men in power pronounce the words

SER

SERVICE and OBEY! and how great and *refpectable do they think themfelves *when they fay, THE KING MY MASTER! "They defpife the republicans, who "only are free, and who are certainly "more noble than they."

In conclufion, the good Doctor turns evefdropper; and, to warn the public against the principles of the mifcreant Milton, condefcends to inform us of what paffed in the domeftic privacies of his family. "Milton's character, in his "domeftic relations, was fevere and ar"bitrary." How does he know this? His family confifted of women," he "and there appears, in his

tells you,

books, fomething like a Turkish con

tempt of females, as fubordinate and