ditary Government or hereditary succession, that it must, from the nature of it, throw Government into the hands of men totally unworthy of it, from want of principle, or unfitted for it from want of capacity.-James II. is recorded as an instance of the first of these cases; and instances are to be found almost all over Europe to prove the truth of the latter.

To shew the absurdity of the hereditary system_still more strongly, I will now put the following case:-Take any fifty men promiscuously, and it will be very extraordinary, if out of that number, one man should be found, whose principles and talents taken together (for some might have principles, and others might have talents) would render him a person truly fitted to fill any very extraordinary office of national trust. If, then, such a fitness of character could not be expected to be found in more than one person out of fifty, it would happen but once in a thousand years to the eldest son of any one family, admitting each, on an average, to hold the office twenty years. Mr Adam talks of something in the constitution which he calls most sacred; but I hope he does not mean hereditary succession, a thing which appears to me a violation of every order of nature, and of common sense.

When I look into history, and see the multitudes of men, otherwise virtuous, who have died, and their families been ruined, in the defence of knaves and fools, and which they would not have done, had they reasoned at all upon the system; I do not know a greater good that an individual can render to mankind, than to endeavour to break the chains of political superstition. Those chains are now dissolving fast, and proclamations and prosecutions will serve but to hasten that dissolution.

Having thus spoken of the hereditary system as a bad system and subject to every possible defect, I now come to the representative system, and this Mr. Adam will find stated in the Second Part of Rights of Man, not only as the best, but as the only theory of Government under which the liberties of the people can be permanently secure.

But it is needless now to talk of mere theory, since there is already a Government in full practice, established upon that theory; or, in other words, upon the Rights of Man, and has been so for almost twenty years. Mr. Pitt, in a speech of his, some short time since, said, "that there never did, and never could exist a Government established upon those Rights, and that if it began at noon, it would end

at night." Mr. Pitt is not yet arrived at the degree of a school-boy in this species of knowledge; his practice has been confined to the means of extorting revenue, and his boast has been-how much? Whereas, the boast of the system of Government that I am speaking of, is not how much, but how little.

The system of Government purely representative, unmixed with any thing of hereditary nonsense, began in America. I will now compare the effects of that system of Government with the system of Government in England, both during, and since the close of the war.

So powerful is the representative system, first, by combining and consolidating all the parts of a country together, however great the extent; and secondly, by admitting of none but men properly qualified into the Government, or dismissing them if they prove to be otherwise, that America was enabled thereby totally to defeat and overthrow all the schemes and projects of the hereditary Government of England against her. As the establishment of the Revolution and Independence of America is a proof of this fact, it is needless to enlarge upon it.

I now come to the comparative effect of the two systems since the close of the war, and I request Mr. Adam to attend to it.

America bad internally sustained the ravage of upwards of seven years of war, which England had not. England sustained only the expence of the war; whereas America sustained, not only the expence, but the destruction of property committed by both armies. Not a house was built during that period, and many thousands were destroyed. The farms and plantations along the coast of the country, for more than a thousand miles, were laid waste. Her commerce was annihilated. Her ships were either taken, or had rotted within her own harbours. The credit of her funds had fallen upwards of ninety per cent. that is, an original hundred pounds would not sell for ten pounds. In fine, she was apparently put back an hundred years when the war closed, which was not the case with England.

But such was the event, that the same representative system of Government, though since better organized, which enabled her to conquer, enabled her also to recover, and she now presents a more flourishing condition, and a more happy and harmonized society, under that system of Government, than any country in the world can boast under any other. Her towns are rebuilt, much better than before; her farms

and plantations are in higher improvement than ever; her commerce is spread over the world, and her funds have risen from less than ten pounds the hundred to upwards of one hundred and twenty. Mr. Pitt, and his colleagues, talk of the things that have happened in his boyish administration, without knowing what greater things have happened elsewhere, and under other systems of Government.

I next come to state the expence of the two systems, as they now stand in each of the countries; but it may first be proper to observe, that Government in America is what it ought to be, a matter of honour and trust, and not made a trade for the purpose of lucre.

The whole amount of the nett taxes in England (exclusive of the expence of collection, of drawbacks, of seizures and condemnation, of fines and penalties, of fees of office, of litigations and informers, which are some of the blessed means of enforcing them) is, seventeen millions. Of this sum, about nine millions go for the payment of the interest of the national debt, and the remainder being about eight millions, is for the current annual expences. Thus much for one side of the case. I now come to the other.

The expence of all the several departments of the general Representative Government of the United States of America, extending over a space of country nearly ten times larger than England, is two hundred and ninety-four thousand, five hundred and fifty-eight dollars, which at 4s. 6d. per dollar, is £.66,275 11s. sterling, and is thus apportioned.

Expence of the Executive Department.

The office of the Presidency, at which the President receives nothing for himself....

£. 8.

5,625 0

Legislative Department.

Members of Congress, at six dollars (£1. 78.) per day, their Secretaries, Clerks, Chaplains, Messengers, Door-keepers, &c.

25,515 0

Carried forward...... £. 43,976 5

Brought forward

.......... £.43,976 5

Treasury Department.

Secretary Assistant, Comptroller, Auditor, Treasurer, Register, and Loan-office-keeper, in each State, together with all necessary Clerks, Office-keeper, &c. ....

12,825 0

Department of State, including Foreign Affairs. Secretary, Clerks, &c. &c. ....

1,406 5

For Fire-wood, Stationary, Printing, &c. ........... 4,006 16

Total................ £.66,275 11

On account of the incursions of the Indians on the back settlements, Congress is, at this time, obliged to keep six thousand militia in pay, in addition to a regiment of foot, and a battalion of artillery, which it always keeps; and this increases the expence of the War Department to 390,000 dollars, which is, £. 87,795 sterling; but when peace shall be concluded with the Indians, the greatest part of this expence will cease, and the total amount of the expence of Government, including that of the army, will not amount to one hundred thousand pounds sterling, which, as has been already stated, is but an eightieth part of the expences of the English Government.

I request Mr. Adam and Mr. Dundas, and all those who are talking of Constitutions, and blessings, and Kings, and Lords, and the Lord knows what, to look at this statement. Here is a form and system of Government, that is better organized and better administered than any Government in the world, and that for less than one hundred thousand pounds per annum, and every member of Congress receives, as a

compensation for his time and attendance on public business, one pound seven shillings a day, which is at the rate of nearly five hundred pounds a year.

This is a Government that has nothing to fear. It needs no proclamations to deter people from writing and reading. It needs no political superstition to support it; it was by encouraging discussion, and rendering the press free upon all subjects of Government, that the principles of Government became understood in America, and the people are now enjoying the present blessings under it. You hear of no riots, tumults, and disorders in that country; because there exists no cause to produce them. Those things are never the effect of freedom, but of restraint, oppression and excessive taxation.

In America there is not that class of poor and wretched people that are so numerously dispersed all over England, and who are to be told by a proclamation that they are happy; and this is in a great measure to be accounted for, not by the difference of proclamations, but by the difference of Governments and the difference of taxes between that country and this. What the labouring people of that country earn they apply to their own use, and to the education of their children, and do not pay it away in taxes as fast as they earn it, to support court extravagance, and a long enormous list of place-men and pensioners; and besides this, they have learnt the manly doctrine of reverencing themselves, and consequently of respecting each other; and they laugh at those imaginary beings called Kings and Lords, and all the fraudulent trumpery of Courts.

When place-men, pensioners, or those who expect to be such, are lavish in praise of a Government, it is not a sign of its being a good one. The pension list, alone in England, (see Sir John Sinclair's History of the Revenue, page 6, of the Appendix) is one hundred and seven thousand four hundred and four pounds, which is more than the expences of the whole Government of America amount to. And I am now more convinced than before, that the offer that was made to me of a thousand pounds, for the copy-right of the Second Part of Rights of Man, together with the remaining copyright of the first part, was to have effected, by a quick suppression, what is now attempted to be done by a prosecution. The connection which the person, who made that offer, has with the King's Printing-Office, may furnish part of the means of enquiring into this affair, when