1814.] Of Aristocracy, Despotism, and Mixed Governments. pable of exercising it: the lowest of the people cannot exert power but to their own injury. The distinctions of political rights founded on birth are culpable, since the field should always be left open to the exertions of fair and laudable ambition. Every man ought to have a reasonable prospect of elevating himself by his talents and virtues to the highest situations; but those certainly should be excluded from power, whose constant labour is incompatible with the talents required for its exercise. In their general conduct an aristrocacy should avoid all invidious distinctions of dress, of manners, and whatever relates to taxation-distinctions, which introduce haughtiness into the manners of one order, and servility or disgust into those of the other. The most favourable view of aristocracy is in the public manners of the higher orders, in their generosity, their courage, and that frankness which is connected with high birth and elevated rank: on the contrary, the most unfavourable view of it is in their intercourse with their inferiors. But it should be recollected at what price these distinctions are purchased, by the degradation of the more numerous classes of society, as in Sparta. Nothing is more absurd than distinctions of rank that do not some political purpose. (See Montesquieu, &c.) serve Of DESPOTISM. The next species of government is despotism, where the people have no rights in opposition to those of the master. Despots having no concern about their subjects' welfare, and being in general miserably educated, find it necessary to employ some chief minister in the character of vizier. (For a character of Despots, see Helvetius.) As no established law exists under a despot, every subordinate magistrate exercises a despotic authority over bis dependants; and the worst of all servitudes is that of serving under a slave. The extreme of despotism is where the despot is proprietor of all the lands and heir to the effects of all his subjects, as among the Siainese. This kind of go vernment defeats its own purpose. Without some degree of liberty, men will never exert industry, nor acquire those riches, which it is one of the objects of despotism to amass by rapine. We e cannot help feeling astonishment that such a government exists: it is founded on general ignorance, on a foolish and absurd admiration of the splendour of rank, and on general timi 11 dity and distrust. Spies and informers, mingling with every private society, render the multitu le a rope of sand: and have been deservedly styled by Tiberins, the guardians of the state. Nor is the condition of the despot less deplorable than that of his subjects; for his teigu commences generally with a civil war, and ends in premature death. Of MIXED GOVERNMENTŠ, Simple governments, such as have been described, do not in reality exist; they" are mere abstraccions contrived by politicians. All governments are mixed, partaking in ɔre or less of one or other of the simple forms. In practice, governments frequently differ from what they appear to be in theory. From the inde finite nature of the words employed to express political notions, and the complicated and numerous institutions which ̈ ̈ mutually influence each other, it is fiticult to comprehend the precise nature of modern governments, of which the mistakes of the French respecting our constitution are a sufficient proof. The despotism of the East differed in many respects from that of ancient Rome. The former had forgotten even the name of freedom, but the latter continued for ages to feel and recollect, and exercise the virtues of their ancestors. In modern Europe, also, despotism is restrained greatly by the freedom of public opinion resulting from the operation of the press, by the inultitude of states into which it is divided, and by the subordination of ranks arising from feudal institutions. Honour is said to be the principle of this kind of government. Every man is taught from his infancy to respect the adventitious rights of others, to maintain his own rights, and to seek, as the great object of his life, the advancement of his own rank. Montesquieu's description of a limited monarchy, by which he means a monarchy restrained by opinion, but not by law, is partial, and too fa vourable to this kind of government. Perhaps he was swayed by a partiality for that in which he was educated, or perhaps by pru ience; frequently his praises appear ironical, as if he meant indirectly to intim te to his countrymen to seek a better system. Thus we see that all governments are in real ty mixed, but some are so expressly by their constitution, as the English. A natural aristocracy in every country, formed from the men of birth, opulence, talents, and virtues, distinctions which naturally draw the respect of mankind, so disposed as to obtain all the good of 12 Character of the late C. J. Fox. which it is capable, and avoid all the evil, seems best calculated to accomplish the ends of government, provided it be sufficiently restrained from exercising oppression. In the English constitution it is kept in check by a single magistrate on the one hand, and by a popular assembly on the other; and makes up in dignity what it wants in consequence. To the king the whole executive is entrusted, and all subordinate agents are of his appointment. He can do no wrong, and no guilt can be imputed to him; but no act of his contrary to the good of the people is valid. Judiciary power is in the name of the king, but exercised independently of him; and the checks upon these two branches which form the security of the people, reside in the le gislative power of the commons, and their privileges of granting the supplies. For the New Monthly Magazine. [Aug. 1, have set the seal of approbation on his virtues and opinions, all that I can do is to present you with another sketch of the character of your friend, which you may insert in a future edition of your work if it shall be deemed worthy a place in that curious collection. This delineation was drawn up, not long after the demise of Mr. Fox, and formed part of a tract which was intended to exhibit a view of the country at that eventful crisis, but for some reasons which I am not at liberty to mention, the piece, though printed, was not published. The author of the pamphlet after giving some general observations upon political parties, and their efforts in producing the dismemberment of the British empire, proceeds in the following man ner: "America is indebted for her sovereignty neither to her own exertions, though directed by the energy and wisdom of SKETCH of the CHARACTER of the late Washington, nor to the interference of CHARLES JAMES FOX. In a LETTER addressed to PHILOPATRIS VARVICENSIS. Irregular speech hath commonly divers more advantages for it, and fewer checks upon it, than other bad practice hath.- BARROW. SIR, TO adimit that the perusal of your motley volumes purporting to be a monument of friendshi, and patriotism, commemorative of the splendid talents and private virtues of Mr. Fox, afforded me some amusement, is no more than what is due to the importance of the subject, and to the abilities displayed in the illustration of the character. But I could not help wishing that the work had been more matured, and that the learned compiler had waited some time longer for the purpose of marking, by the sure test of experience, the claim of his hero to the title of a sound politician, and an enlightened statesman. It was generally known, that this great inan had hazarded many bold opinions respecting the French Revolution, and that, in fact, he stood at the head of a party radically hostile to the war, on the ground that it was injurious to the cause of liberty, and the rights of mankind. Considering what extraordinary changes have taken place, it were to have been wished, with submission to Providence, that Mr. Fox had lived to see the counter-revolution which has been brought about on the continent, and to have told his followers what impressions these wonderful scenes had made on his mind. But as this regret is now unavailing, and as you France, with the auxiliary aids of Spain and Holland. She owes it primarily to the English opposition, headed by a man of mischievously splendid talents, who regulating the affairs of a kingdom. He was more capable of ruining than of could infuse a tone and vigour into the most feeble party, and lead on his warriors in debate, with extraordinary effect. His versatile abilities were always ready to catch at those points which, by his ingenuity, he knew how to turn to his advantage, by fixing upon them the general attention; and with the magic of words at his command, poured forth a stream of cloquence, which 1olled with such rapidity, that his hearers were at least confounded, if they were not convinced, and this passed with the multitude, as the triumph of truth, when it was nothing more than the influence of art over the passions. Knowing well how to captivate the understanding by the power of oratory, he cast a broad glare of colour around the objects which he was sensible were most likely to arrest the observation of those whom he wanted to deceive; while, with equal dexterity, he contrived to throw into sharie, or made ridiculous and contemptible, the facts and principles which in their proper position and a fair light, would have exposed his errors, and destroyed the delusion. More solicitous to distress his adversary than to elicit truth, or to promote utility, he was always devising methods to perplex government, and to distress the public tranquillity. "With little aptitude for business, and too indolent, as well as dissipated, to 1814.1 Character of the late C. J. Fox. make himself master of that information which is essential to qualify a man for an office of high duty in the state, or to cnticize justly those who are employed in the discharge of that duty; he had yet sufficient quickness of discernment, and knowledge of mankind, to see where the charge of a fault or weakness could be fastened with the greatest chance of producing an extensive effect. Having an uncommon flow of language, with an equal fel city of invention, he made all subjects by his management, appear forcible and persuasive, though the premises were often absurd, the reasoning vague, and the conclusions dangerous. It was one of his prominent and worst fai ings, that as he little regarded the solidity of the principles which he advocated, so he was utterly careless of the consequences to which they led, or of the practical application that wicked and designing men might be disposed to make of them. He seemed, indeed, to have but one object in his public capacity as the director of a party, and that was to wound the feelings of those whom he wished to displace; and this disposition he manifested by constantly opposing all their schemes, and by attempting to defeat every purpose, without either knowing or caring whether the same was good or bad. "Like most men of eccentric genius, whose minds are not under the guidance of moral discipline, and trained to the exercise of serious inquiry, he was an enthusiast upon topics where the imagination had more room for play than the judgment. In other words, he had that rhetoric at his command which enabled him to wield the fierce democracies at his will, to electrify popular assemblies by the bardihood of assertion, clothed with the graces of attraction, or armed with the terrors of denunciation, covering the deformity of error by the amplitude of description, and the poverty of sense by variety of illustration. But with all this address and confidence, though supported by a widely extended reputation, he was after all a mere theorist in the important branches of political science, where deep research and matured experience are needful to give any value to a man's opinions, or to stamp authority upon his reasonings. This powerful declaimer could, indeed, diffuse a specious clegauce over the most pestilential sophisms; but while he effected to be the champion of the people, be contributed more than any man to injure them, by raising in their minds false hopes, or sinking them into a de 13 The better reason, to perplex and dash You may ask, perhaps, how it was possible for a man with so little sterling merit in his public character, or real virtue in his private life, to have succeeded as he did in obtaining numerous admirers, and collecting a train of fol lowers? The answer is by no means difficult. He had all that suavity of manners which is a thousand times more likely to please mankind than the strongest sense, the most inflexible integrity, and the vastest compass of mental acquirements. He had the happy art of endearing himself, alike to his equals and inferiors, while those in the highest stations were delighted with his address, and fascinated by his conversation. His very vices were forgotten in his urbanity, and the sweetness of his private demeanour made the most rigid observer of his moral and political obliquities relax from the severity of censure. This charm, like the wand of Calypso, enchanted all who were drawn within the circle of his familiarity; so that the violence of his conduct, and the intemperance of his speeches, seemed to be considered as mere trivial defects in a character otherwise deserving to be held in general estimation. The lower classes idolized him, because he flattered their prejudices, and ministered to their discontents, by inflaming their minds against the constituted anthorities, for as Hooker observes, "He that goeth about to persuade a people that they are not so well governed as they ought to be, shall never want attentive and favourable hearers, because they know the manifold defects whereunto every kind of regiment is subject; but the secret letts and difficulties which in public proceedings are inevitable, they have not ordinarily the judgment to consider." Those restless spirits who were for pursuing innovation to the utmost, interpreted the ardent zeal of Mr. Fox and his intense love of popularity into an approbation of designs, which, though he might sincerely abhor; he was too timid to disavow. Such indeed is the invariable condition of those men who set themselves up for leaders of 14 Character of the late C. J. For. parties; since however bold and vehement they may appear against public measures and the corruptions of government, no tools of administration can be more under the restraint of prescription and influence than they are under that of caprice and ambition, Themselves not free, but to themselves enthrall'd. By the circle of rank and fashion in which this eminent person moved, he was regarded as a luminary of the first magnitude, and as peculiarly fitted to contend with the illustrious statesman then at the head of affairs, and who neither courted the support of the aristocracy, nor stooped to gain the applauses of the multitude. "It may at first sight appear very extraordinary, that the same man who affected to be the leader of the democracy, should at the same time stand so closely connected with a domineering oligarchy, as to be entirely dependent upon the party, and to become even a pensioner on them for his support. "But the wonder will cease when we consider that the former character was necessary to the furtherance of the ob jects entrusted to his management as the prime minister of opposition. Iscruple not to fix this apell tion upon him, because he uniformly acted as the organ of a combined force, made up of the principal great families, who considered themselves as baving an hereditary right to take the lead in the government of the country. To strengthen their interest, the influence of an association, with an old but popular name tacked to it, was called in; and thus the concerns of the country were to be managed by a club; but when the doctrines professcd and circulated by this society obtained a dreadful elucidation in the revolution which spread ruin and death over half the civilized world, the institution sunk into contempt. But how the head of the Whig Club deported himself during the progress of that awful portent, which, Like a comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge needs neither detail nor comment. His [Aug. 1, posed sovereignty of the people. This: bastard doctrine, which is subversive of nature in all her relations, was gendered during a bloody and successful rebellion, but when that contest ended, as all such violations of order do, in usurpation and tyranny, the monster sunk in obscurity, where it remained till it was drawn forth, to serve the vile purposes of factious ambition. "It was left, to the disgrace of our times, to stamp a sort of character upon what has no analogy in the universe: but which, if suffered to gain a settlement among us, will, and that at no very distant period, destroy all the respect; hitherto paid to distinctions and establishments, which give lustre to virtue and strength to the laws. "In adopting the revolutionary principle of the origin of government, the leaders of political associations were actuated by no other motive than that of gaining power by po, ularity; but they strangely overlooked the direct tendency of the argument, that if the doctrine be true and the people should ever take it into their heads to act on the alleged right, government must inevitably fall beneatli the sway of the sovereign mob. The danger of abstract propositions and metaphysical subtleties in politics, was never more apparent than in this very instance: for what the original broachers perhaps considered merely in a philosophical point of view, their disciples, little used to the refinements of logical explication, take in the plain and gross sense as a rule for practice and a plea for resistance. "It is painful to dwell so much upon this topic, and the only excuse that can be offered for it is this; that the eminent person whose political career is here sketched, gave a new turn to the spirit of party, by directing its operations in a channel the most dangerous to the foundations of social order and national safety. Securities, the accumulation of ages, and the result of deliberative wisdom, have been wantonly hazarded by appeals to those who may be fitted to destroy the best, but who have neither hest constitution in the world, nor wis the virtue to appreciate the value of the dom sufficient to mend the worst. thing, indeed, can be more repugnant to common sense, than the supposition that mixed assemblies and associations are competent to judge of the intricacies which unavoidably occur in directing the affairs of every great state. .10 1 s... Nothing can be more injurious to the " No 1814.] On the Art of Healing by Divination. peace and welfare of the men so prace tised upon and deluded, than the call which is inade upon them by the factious and ambitious, to interfere in the concerns of government. What requires deliberate counsel and patient investigation, an enlarged knowledge of the world, and au intimate acquaintance with human vature in its various relations, is most preposterously recoinmended to the prompt decision of men, drawn together by artifice, inisled by falsehood, and influenced by noisy orators to a state of passion. By such means as these, a new school of politics has been formed in this country; the founder of which institution was never more in his clement, than when he was engaged in addressing groups of willing disciples, whose plan its he secured by flattering their vanity, and whose intemperance he excited by misrepresentations. When these men were wrong and violent, he justified their honest zeal; and proceedings which approach ed very near to sedition, found in hin and bis coadjutors ardent apologists, if not downright advocates. "It is very observable, that neither any change of circumstances, nor the fullest refutation of his bold predictions, ever drew from the lips of this singular man an ingenuous retractation of us crrors, or a manly submission to the conviction of truth. He seemed to think himself placed in a situation which privi leged him above the ordinary forms and regulations of political warfare; and to have thought, that as he had once taken his side as the leader of a party, he must of course resist administration in I every thing. It was this, probably, that induced him to adopt a measure which in other days would have brought down a heavy judginent upon his head. allude to his sending a confidential agent to a foreign court, for the purpose of thwarting the designs of his own government. It certainly would have been fortunate for the reputation of Mr. Fox, if he had been called off in the full blaze of his popularity; but Providence permitted him, for better purposes, to form another coalition, and to enjoy that sent of power which had been for so many years the object of his ambition. The rest of his remarkable story may be told by those who have learned the art of reconciling political contradictions; who are, in short, profoundly conversant in that branch of knowledge, to which a French writer acutely gives the term of "Part de chicaner avec N 15 Dieu;" which consists in justifying that practice in themselves which they most severely condemu in others; and in adopting with aggravating circumstances, the very measures against which, when out of place, they most bitterly inveigher ed, as being founded in wicked motives, and replete with nothing but muschief and ruin to the community," Such is the picture which this anonymous writer has drawn of the distinguished statesman, for whose memory you cherish a tender esteem, and to cultivate whose merits you have condescended to glean panegyricks from newspapers aud magazines, public speeches, and funeral sermons. I wish your learning and eloquence had been more worthily employed, and that instead of devoting your powers to the praise of a doubtful character, you had spent the fraginent of life in the illu tration of the more important cause of religion, and in the real service of your king and country. I am, &c. PHILANAX ANGLICUS.* For the New Monthly Magazine. VISIONALY LIVINATION. doubtedly ranks among the most ancient. OF all buman sciences, medicine unIn the early ages of the world, when simplicity was the characteristic of man's cal aids; but when his nature degene earthly career, he had no need of medirated, and vice and luxury corrupted his diseases sprung up, which those aids habits of innocence and temperance, alone could assuage or eradicate. The knowledge of them could not fail at first to be empirical and precarious. The sick were placed in the highways, that passers-by might assist them with their appropriated this office exclusively to counsel; and, at length, the priesthood dotal dignity which rendered them obthemselves. It was not merely the sacerjects of awe and reverence to the illiterate multitude; they were regarded as the depositories of learning and science; and they proved themselves as skil ful, as they were successful, in cementing their influence by those arts, which The Editor complies with the request of above sketch a place in this number, but a respectable correspondent, in giving the without offering any opinion of his own on the truth or propriety of the delineation, which is open to the examination and correction of every intelligent and dispassionate personat sun |