250 Mr. Erskine on the House of Commons. and the idea of representation came forward by a neceffary confequence: parliament, from being fingly compofed of men who fat in their own rights to fave the great from the oppreffion of the crown, and not the fmall from the oppreffion of the great, now began to open its doors to the patriot citizen; the feodal and personal, changed into natural and corpcrate privileges; and the people, for the first time in the hiftory of the world, faw the root of their liberties fixed in the centre of the conftitution. As the multiplication of royal tenures from the enfranchifement of boroughs (but chiefly from the operation of this law) firft gave rife to popular reprefentation; fo it is only in the continued operation of thele principles, that we can trace the diftinct existence and growing power of the Houfe of Commons: we know that they affembled for a long time in the fame chamber with the peers; that the feparation was not preconceived by the founders of the conftitution, but arofe from neceffity, when their numbers became too great to form one affembly; and we know that they never thought of affuming popular legiflative privileges, till by this neceffary divifion they became a crown had not preferved it, by conferring on a few, by perfonal inveftiture, en hereditary right of legiflation in the room of that territorial peerage that had branched out and become a popular right. This produced a great change in the orders of the ftate, for the feodal baronage, after having produced the Houfe of Commons, continued to balance and ftruggle with the prerogative as a democracy, in the fame manner that it had refifted it before as an aristocratical body: whereas, the monarchical peerage, which sprung up on the decay of the feodal, is merely an emanation of the royal prerogative, interefted in the fupport of the crown, from which it derives it lufte and its power, and has no connection with the feodal fyftem which conferred no legiflative rights but by tenure in capite, which tenure diffufed among the multitude, conftituted the Houfe of Commons. It is very probable, that burgage tenure first gave the idea of a reprefentative of the fmaller barons: For when the king entranchifed a town, and gave it lands from the royal demeine, this inftantly made the corporation a tenant in capite; but, as the corpoLation could not fit in parliament, it elected a burgefs. It is in confequence of this burgage tenure of tenancy in capite, of a corporation, that we now fee fuch an infignificant village as Old Sarum, fending two members to parliament, while fuch a flourishing town as Manchefter fends none. diftinct body from the lords. This, though a political accident, brought the English Commons forth into action; their legislative exiftence was the natural birth of the feodal fyftem, compressed by the crown. To prove thefe truths, we have only to contemplate the hiftory of our fifter king. dom of Scotland (governed at that time by the fame laws), there being very little difference between the Regiam Majeftatem, the Scotch code of thofe days, and the work compiled by Glanville, chief justice to Henry II. The law of Edward I. which produced thefe great changes in England, was tranfcribed by the Scotch parliament into the ftatute bock of their Robert I. but the King of Scotland had not conquered that country as William had fubdued England, confequently he was rather a feodal chieftain than a mo It may be afked, what thefe changes were, which the act is faid to have produced, fince the burgeffes were called to parliament in the beginning of Edward's reign, before the act paired; and fince the leiler barons were fummoned by the theriffs, as early as the reign of King John. To this it may be anfwered, that these parliaments were entirely feodal; the burgeffes reprefenting thofe carporations that were tenants in capite, and the fummons of the leffer barons being by no means a popular election, but a proclamation for thofe who hold fufficient lands of the king in capite, to assemble in their own rights: but where the ftatute of quia emptores had fo generally diffufed the royal helding, that from being a feodal privilege confined to few, it came to be a popular and almost univerfal right, reprefentation of the multitude fucceeded upon feodal principles to a perfonal right of legislation; the territorial peerage funk altogether, or rather dilated itfelf into an House of Commons; and that power, which in other feodal countries, being condensed like the rays of the fun to a focus, confumed the rights of mankind, produced, when thus fcattered abroad, a plentiful harvest of liberty. In Scotland, where the a of quia emptores was never enforced, the feodal baronage diffufed itself, notwithstanding, so as at least to produce a reprefentation, but it continued to be a representation merely feodal; the knights of the thires were reprefentative barons, not reprefentatives of the people; and never formed a diftin&t order in the state: indeed, fuch a third power could never have poffibly fprung up from a feodal conftitution, or any other principle, than that which is here laid down. There was no reprefentation of the Scotch barons till the year 1427, when it was enacted by statute, that the fmaller barons needed not to come to parliament, provided they fent commiflioners. narchy Mr. Erfkine on the House of Commons. narch, and had no power to carry this law of Edward's into execution; for the Scotch barons, although they would not allow their vaffals to fubinfeud, yet when they fold their own lands, they would not fuffer the crown to appropriate the tenure, but obliged the purchafers to hold as vaffals to themfelves: by this weaknefs of the Scotch crown and power of the nobles, the tenancies in capite were not multiplied as in England; the right to fit in parliament was confequently not much extended beyond the original numbers; and Scotland never faw an Houfe of Commons, nor ever tafted the bleflings of equal government. When the boroughs, indeed, in latter days, were enfranchised, they fent their reprefentatives; but their numbers being inconfiderable, they affembled in the fame houfe with the king and the peers, were awed by the pride of the lords, and dazzled by the iplendour of the The reprefentative barons and burgeffes never formed, in Scotland, a third eftate (as has been obferved in the last note), they were confidered as the reprefentatives of royal tenants, and not of the people at large; and, therefore, naturally affembled with the peers, who fat by honorary creation: for tenures in chief being confined to a very fmall namber, when compared with other tenures, ftill continued to be the criterion of legiflation; and, though extended beyond the practicability of perfonal exercife, was highly feodal, even when expanded to a state of reprefentation. Whereas, in England, the ftatute of quia emptores made tenure in capite almost univerfal, or in other words, gave legislative privileges to the multitude, upon feodal principles; which confequently produced a reprefentation, not of royal tenants, according to the principles of the feodal fyftem, but of the people, according to the natural principles of human fociety. It is probably from this difference between thefe principles of legiflation, that the right of voting is fo different in the two countries: in Scotland, the common council, and not the body of the burgeffes, are the electors; because the corporation, as the tenant in capite, is reprefented, and not the individuals compofing it: and no forty fhilling freeholder can vote for a knight of the thire, unless he holds immediately of the king; for if his tenure be not royal, he must have four hundred pounds. Whereas, in England, the right of election (unless it has been other wife fixed by prefcription) is in the whole body of the burgeffes; and all forty fhilling freeholders vote for the knights of the fhire, whether the tenure be of the king or a fubject. 251 crown, they fat filent in parliament, reprefenting the flavery and not the freedom" of the people. But this diffemination of property, which in every country on earth is fooner or later creative of freedom, met with a fevere check in its early infancy from the ftatute of entails; in this inftance even the crown of England had not fufficient ftrength to ripen that liberty which had fprung up from the force of its rays; for if Edward I. ceuld have refifted this law, wrefted from him by his barons to perpetuate their eftates in their families, the English conftitution, from an earlier equilibrium of property, had fuddenly arifen to perfection, and the revolution in the reign of Charles I. had probably happened two centuries higher in our history, or, perhaps, from the gradual circulation of that power which broke in at last with a fudden and projectile force, had never happened at all; but the fame effects had been produced without the effusion of civil blood: for, no fooner was the statute of entails fhaken in the reign of + Henry VII. and finally deftroyed by his fucceffor, than we fee the popular tide which had ebbed fo long, begin to lift up its waves, till the mighty fabrics of prerogative and aristocracy paffed away in one ruin together. This crifis, which fhallow men then miftook, and still mistake for anarchy, was but the fermentation of the unconquerable fpirit of liberty, infused as early as Magna Charta, which in working itself free from the impurities that oppreffed it, was convulfing every thing around: when the fermentation ceafed, the ftream ran purer than before, after having, in the tumult, beat down every *By the diffemination of property, in this place, is not meant, that which gave the right of legiflation to the people on feodal principles, but that which is necefiary to give weight and confequence to a third eftate fo arifen. The ftatute of fines, paffed in the fourth year of Henry VII. was purpofely wrapped up in obfcure and covert expreflions, in order to induce the nobility to confent to it, who would otherwife have flung it out if they had thought it would have barred entails: but in the thirty-fecond year of Henry VIII. when the will of the prince was better obeyed, its real purpofe was avowed, and the ftatute then made had a retrofpective operation given to it, fo as to include all ehtails barred by fines fince the fourth year of the former reign. bank 252 Tenets of the Quakers explained. bank that obftructed its juft and natural courfe. The confummation of these great events is too recent and notorious to demand farther illuftration; their beft commentary is the happiness and freedom which we enjoy at this day. The fubject propofed is, therefore, brought to its conclufion; but it is a fubject too dear and important to be concluded without a reflection that arifes very strongly out of it. The English conftitution will probably never more be attacked in front, or its diffolution attempted, by ftriking at the authority of the laws; and, if fuch attack should ever be made, their foundations are too deeply laid, and their fuperftructure too firmly cemented to dread the event of the conteft: but the constitution is not therefore immortal, and the centinel must not fleep: the authority of the laws themfelves may be turned against the fpirit which gave them bith; and the English government may be diffolved with all the legal iclemnities which its outward form prescribes for its prefervation. This mode of attack is the more probable, as it affords refpect and fafety to the befiegers, and infinitely more dangerous to the people, as the confciences of good men are eninared by it: the virtuous citizen, looking up with confidence to the banners of authority, may believe he is defending the conftitution and the laws, while he is trampling down every principle of justice, on which both of them are founded. It is impoffible, therefore, to conclude, without expreffing a tervent with, that every member of the community (at the fame time that he bows with reverence to the fupremacy of the state and the majefty of the laws) may keep his eyes for ever fixed on the fpirit of the conftitution, manifelted by the revolution, as the pole-star of his political courfe; that while he pays the tribute of duty and obedience to government, he may know when the reciprocal duty is paid back to the public and to himself. This concluding with is, I truft, not mifplaced when delivered within thefe philofophical walls; the fciences ever Hourish in the train of liberty, the foul of a flave could never have expanded itfelf like Newton's over infinite space, and fighed in captivity at the remoteft bariers of creation: in no other country under heaven, could Locke have unfolded with dignity the operations of an immortal foul, or recorded with truth the duties and privileges of fociety. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. T SIR, behoves every one, who undertakes to declare to the world the religious faith and opinions of any fet of Christian profeflors, to qualify himself fo far as to obtain a correct knowledge of the subject, left he inadvertantly inftil thofe errors into the minds of his readers, which he may have imbibed. It was, no doubt, from negligence, that David Hume, in his "Moral and Political Fjays," has communicated fo grofs an error refpecting the Quakers. In his 12th Elay on Superftition and Enthufiafm, p. 111, he has the following paffage, "The Quakers are, perhaps, the only regular body of Deifts in the univerfe, except the Literati, and the difciples of Confufcius, in China." Guthrie, in his "Geographical Grammar," is far from giving a ju statement of their religious opinions: had either of thefe writers taken the pains to confult the productions of William Penn, the Apology of Barclay, or fome other authors among this respectable body of Chriftians, they might have efcaped the cenfure which they have incurred, in not fearching for information on these points from thofe refources where it was mot likely to be obtained. Now, Mr. Editor, I take the liberty of conveying, through the medium of your ufeful Mifcellany (and that in a fummary way), a true ftatement of the religious principles of this fociety, fo much mireprefented, or fo little understood out of their own pale. They believe in one eternal God, and in Jefus Christ his Son, the Messiah, and Mediator of the New Covenant; they ac knowledge the divinity of Chrift, who is the wisdom and power of God unto fal vation. To Chrift alone they give the title of the Word of God, and not to the Scriptures; they reverence the excellent precepts of the Gospel, and believe, that to enable mankind to put in practice thefe facred precepts, every man is endued with a measure of the light, grace, or good fpirit of Chrift, by which he is enabled to diftinguish good from evil, and to correct the diforderly patiens and corrupt propenfities of his nature, which mere reafon is infufficient to overcome. They believe, that the influence of the Spirit of Chrift is neceffary to enable them, acceptably, to worship the Father of light, and of fpirits, in fpirit and in truth; and are of opinion, that to wait in filence is mcft favourable to their On Oil, as a Cure of the Plague. having a true fight of their condition bestowed upon them. They believe, that all true miniftry is derived from the fame fource, and that it fprings from the influence of the Holy Spirit. They reject the ceremonies of baptifin and the Lord's fupper; the first, as belonging, according to St. John, to an inferior and decreafing difpenfation, it being merely typical of true spiritual baptifm: the latter rite they do not confider as maintaining the communion between Chrift and his church, which is only done by a real participation of his divine nature through faith; one is the fubftance, the other the fhadow. They refufe to take an oath, or to bear arms, as being repugnant to the principles of the Golpel. But their tenets inculcate fubmiffion to the laws of government in all cafes wherein confcience is not violated. 'N addition to the interefting account 253 fons afflicted with the plague, and adminiftering of comfort to those whom all the world rejected. With this view, he repaired to Smyrna, and attached himself to the hofpital eftablished there exclufively for thofe afflicted with the plague. His zeal and affiduity foon made him fpiritual rector of the establishment, a fituation which he so well deferved to fill. He has had three or four attacks of the plague, one of which totally deprived him of the fenfe of, fmell. This he confiders as a great bleffing, as it was the fenfe most offended in the courfe of his miniftry. Before he was deprived of fmell, he could generally judge pretty accurately by that means, whether a patient when brought into the hospital would live or die. He does not hefitate to perform every office about a perfon in every ftage of the peftilence, with no other precaution than to avoid inhaling their breath. No doubt, being habituated to the notion of contagion, and having a firm and unfhaken reliance on the protection of Providence, tend to guard him against infection. He has been in his prefent fituation near twenty years, IN to the the plague, and every friend to humanity muff with given in your Magazine for November Iaft, permit me to offer you an original treatife, from the Reverend Father LEWIS of Pomia, adminiftrator of the hofpital of St. Anthony, at Smyrna, given by him to a friend of mine while at that place, fome years ago, and containing an account of his ufe of oil in curing the plague. I understand that the idea of the ufe of oil, in this difeafe, was fuggefted to Mr. BALDWIN, by obferving that none of the porters conftantly employed in loading the vefiels with eil, in the various ports of the Mediterranean, and whofe cloaths and bodies were constantly swathed with that fluid, were ever attacked by the contagion, even when most prevalent. He communicated this obfervation to FatherLEWIS, and he could not have pitched upon a perfon better fitted to bring its truth to the teft of experiment. that he may long continue to fulfil his arduous duties. It is worthy of remark, that fome cafes have lately been published in this country, where inunction with oil, together with forcing fmall quantities of it down the throat, feem to have cured the dreadful contagion of hydrophobia, even after the difcale had begun. The Italian is in Father LEWIS'S OWN hand-writing, and in the tranflation more attention is paid to accuracy than elegance. Your's, London, Jan. 1798. A. P. B. TRANSLATION from the Italian of a Paper of Father LEWIS, of Smyrna, on the Ufe of Oil, as a Cure for the Plague. "The wonderful effects which have been in the prefent year 1792, in this our city of produced by the inunction with common oil, Smyrna, miferably afflicted with the peftilent contagion, muft neceffarily render ever renowned the celebrated Signior BALDWIN, ingenious inventor of it, and the first who practifed it during the last year, at Alexan Father LEWIS, I am informed, was originally a Frenchman, of noble birth and liberal education. From fome circum-dria. ftances, with which I am not acquainted, he was induced to dedicate himself to a religious life. And he concluded, that there was no way in which he could at. ence fo completely testify his conftant reliance on divine Providence, and, at the fame time, benefit his fellow-creatures, as by becoming a religious affiftant to an hofpital eftablished for the relief of per But it will alfa oblige every one that loves, according to the divine precepty to fuccour his neighbour in the most lamentable and wretched condition, to which any man can be reduced on earth, not to neglect Chriftian piety, and humane commiferation to bestow on him fo meritorious an act of and to thank God, that after fo many ages, in which thofe who were unfortunately afflicted with the plague have been abandoned, without hopes 254 Father Lewis on the Cure of the Plague. hopes of any probable remedy, to the confequence of their difeafe; he hath at laft vouchsafed, by the means of the faid Signior, to make known a fpecific, as eafily procured as it is ufeful to the relief and cafe of the affitted. The repeated trials made with my own hands, not as a physician, which perhaps would not be of fo much importance, but as the overfeer of an infirmary which is under my own management, perfuades me of what, without any exaggeration, I athrm; and notwithstanding thofe who acknowledge theory as the only guide of their medical operations, confidering, for my part, experience as the tale-bearer of facts, I freely fay, that the fmearing with oil, after the manner of Mr. BALDWIN, is the only medicament which practically feems to promife to turn out a real method, by which we may be enabled to cure this contagious difeafe, which difgracefully* and that all the other difcoveries, which during full twenty years that I have aflifted thofe afflicted with the plague, I have feen ufed in Smyr na, have in general appeared to be the productions of prefumptuous ignorance, or wretched oftentation; and, therefore, not only ufclefs, but prejudicial to fuch as, with a foolish enthufiafm, put their trust in them. "I fhall not attempt philofophically to account for the facts I am about to detail. But guided, as I have already faid, by experience alone, I fubmit the oblervations I have uninterruptedly made on the effects of the unction, during a period of five months, to the difpafionate judgment of those who are acquainted with fuch matters, hoping, that they will not attribute to impofture or deceit what is faid in the pure fpirit of doing good to my fellow men. I have feen, then, that the inunction with ail and acts rather by fhutting than by opening the pores but over the whole of the body, fo as to produce a most copious sweat, preferves for the most part from new foundation of buboes, and tends to bring thofe which have already appeared to a fuppuration, with the aliftance of emollient cataplafms, which, in general, are extinguished with the ceffation of the fweat. "Secondly, I have obferved that the inunction should be followed by a confiderable degree of friction of the limbs of the patient; and alfo, that thefe remedies fhould be applied as foon as poffible after the attack of the difcafe; for if four or five days are iuf fered to elapfe, as has happened in forne patients, they are no longer of any use. "Thirdly, That none have been benefited by the inunation, however accurately performed, whofe nervous fyftem has been attacked by the malady, or who were afilicted with diarrhea, both of which have Where blanks are left the originalis defecede always been confidered by me, as well as by others, as fatal fymptons in this complaint, imposible to remedy. "Fourthly, Exclufive of those already feized with thefe mortal fymptoms, I attri bute to the inunction with oil, in which I repofe the greatest confidence, the cure of fixty-four of my patients, whe amounted this year to the number of one hundred and fifteen; as well as fixty-five others, which either by me, or by Signior Ebazaro d'Etian, physician to the plague-hopital, were anointed in this manner; and I conclude, that if the inunction did not fucceed with thofe who died, it was either because the confultant phyficians refufed it a trial, or because it was not had recourfe to in time, or becaufe it was not followed up with the requifite attention." 66 To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, THY has the DIALOGUE-way W of writing gone into difufe? afford no dialogues, in which wit, huWhy do our dramas of the prefent day mour, and native character are displayed, in union with fenfe and fpirit?"-Thefe are questions to the one of which we may give a tolerably fatisfactory anfwer, by obferving, that men do not now, as in the days of Plato and Cicero, gain their knowledge in fo confiderable a proportion from viva voce inftruction, as to be naturally led to imitate the fame form, even when communicating science through the medium of books; but that, on the contrary, fo little are we now accustomed to receive intruction, otherwife than from books, that whenever we attempt to teach with the living voice, we are, from this circumftance, led to prefer the duil formal lecture, which imitates the reading of a book, to the lively and varied dialogue, which might make fcience wear the bewitching, unftudied air of cafual and careless converfation. The other I fhall, for the prefent, leave to be anfwered by Meffrs. REYNOLDS, MORTON, CUMBERLAND, or by whomfoever elfe it may concern. Nothing has lately contributed fo much to confirm a partiality which the writings of Plato and Cicero, and of Erafmus, that black fwan of Holland, long fince led me to conceive, in favour of the dialogue-form of compofitien; as the perufal of that fine work, "II Cortegiane," by Conte Baldafar Caftiglione. The defign of this work is, to explain what native qualities and acquirements of education are neceffary, to accomplish a gentleman and a lady for fhining with diftinction in a court. It was written after |