cavalierly as the Court of Verfailles, or the Efcurial? Lycurgus anfwers, I will neither deny nor affirm that at prefent. But, as for ourselves, we have this Advantage, from the mixt Form of the 1 English Government, that each Part of it is a Check upon the Faults and - Extravagancies of the others. The Power of the Crown is at hand to = interpofe its Influence, and, in many A B Cafes, to ftem the Fury of a wilful I and unreasonable People; tho' perhaps it is not (as indeed it ought not to be) able to divert them from any juft and well founded Refolution for their own Security. On the other Side, the Strength and natural Importance of the Commons is the best Security from any Incroachments of the Crown, without interrupting C him that wears it in thofe Offices and generous Prerogatives of Sovereignty which juitly recommend a Kingly Government; and on which the Encouragement of Arts, and the Growth of National Greatness, so much depend. And in cafe of any Difference between the Prince and his People, it is a peculiar Happiness of England to have a third Body in the Legislature. who, as they derive a great deal from the Crown, fo in a more ample Manner do they enjoy the Liberties, Privileges, and Properties of Subjects, and have therefore the jufteft Reason to watch against the Violences of either. And thus are the People of England not only for the prefent freer than the rest of the World, but more fecured (as far as human Policy can do it) against the Lofs of their Liberty for the future. us a great deal, to preferve it in its prefent Perfection; but we have not yet paid more for it than it is really worth; nor do we at all repine at the Millions we have spent, nor those which we yet owe, in Maintenance of this great Anniversary (of the Revolution.) A People who, in the Time of Danger, were all ready to rifque their Lives, may very well venture their Money, to make good a Revolution, which, as it faved them. from certain prefent Ruin, so has it given them the best Security of Happiness this World can afford for the future. If there are any Diftempers to which our Conftitution is liable, fuch perhaps as are common alike to political and natural Bodies, and owing to their florid Health and fanguine Complexion; thefe Evils may be very well born, fince no one did ever wish himself in a fickly confumptive State, to be rid of thofe little Heats, Eruptions, and feverish Fits, which ever attend the Richness and Excess of Health. Till we can fee PerfecDtion juftly infcrib'd upon any human Invention, we ought not to be angry that we do not meet it in any of the Syftems of Politicks, or the elaborate Models of State Philofophers. 'Tis enough that we know our own Confiitution (the Acquifition of our wife and gallant Ancellors) to be as free from great Inconveniencies, as it is the Office of all wife and good Men, to watch over the little incident ones that remain, with that exact Balance of Zeal and Moderation which is neceflary to perpetuate to happy a Conflitution of Government to the End of Time. E F Timon then objects the Millions of Money that the preferving this Conftitution has coft us, whence proceeds that Load of Debt, fays he, G under which we now groan, and our Children will groan after us. To which Lycurgus replies: Our Conititution has indeed coft of Body: But if it be ask'd, How a ons. Before the Chriftian Era, fome Meffages from the other World might be of Ufe, if not neceffary, in fome Cafes, and on fome extraordinary Occafions; but fince that Time we want no new, nor can have any furer Informations. B Existence to a timorous or diftempered Imagination, in the Midft of a dark and gloomy Interval; others take their Rife from the reciprocal Pleasure of Deluding, and of being deluded: And for the reft, we muft impute them to the early Errors of Infancy, and a motly Mixture of the low and vulgar Education: Mothers and Grandmothers, Aunts and Nurfes, begin the Cheat, and from little Horrors and hideous Stories of Bugbears, Mormoes and Fairies, Rat-head and Bloody Bones, Walking Lights, Willa Whips and Hobgoblings, they train us up by Degrees to the Belief of a more fubftantial Ghoft and Apparition. Thus inftructed, or thus impofed up. on, we begin to liften to the old leCgendary and traditional Accounts of local Ghofts, which, like the Genii of the Antients, have been reported, Time immemorial, to haunt certain particular Family-Seats, and Cities, famous for their Antiquity and Decays. Of this Sort are the Apparitions that are Natives and Denizons D of Verulam, Silchefter, Reculver, and Rachefter; the Demon of Tedworth, the Black Dog of Winchester, and the From hence we Barr Gueft of York. proceed to many other Extravagancies of the fame Kind, and give fome Share of Credit to the out-lying NightWalkers and Suburbian Ghofts, rais'd by petty Printers, and Half-Penny Pamphleteers. As for the great Evil Spirit, 'tis his Intereft to be mask'd or invifible. Among his own fworn Vaffals, and upon certain Days of State and Solemnity, he may allow himfelf to ap pear in Dilgnife at a publick Patuwatuing (which is attefted by a whole Cloud of Travellers) with all the Terrors neceffary to confirm his Worfhippers in their abject and implicit Slavery: But there is no Inftance of his Appe ring among us, except what is produc'd by the learned Echard, at a Time when our Country was hardly Chritian, and to a Man in such a close Alli nce with him, that it was reafon.ble to fuppofe, two fuch dear and in to Friends fhould every 】w and then contrive to have a perng and Conference. fo. M Some Chs and Spectres owe their E many The Apparition of Madam Veal, because it recommends the Original Author, Monf. Drelincourt, and his elaborate Difcourfe upon Death, to all Readers, must therefore be of fingular Ule to the Tranflator as well as the Editor: And there are others, of which no Account can be given but from Trick and Design, to promote fome Temporal Interelt; as, to bring a hard-mouth'd Malefalır to Confeffion; to oblige an unrelent ing Parent to be reconcil'd to a Son or Daughter; or to fink the Rents of a Houfe: And fome Houles are faid to to be haunted just as fome old Women are fed to be Witches, only becaue they are fquallid and uncouth, dilapidated and out of Repair. But when we come to read of the Gbat of Sir George Villers, of the Piper of Hammell, the Demon of Moje w or of the famous German CoLone mention'd by the Sieur Ponti, and fee the great Names of Clarendon, Boye, &c. affix'd to thefe Accounts, we begin to find Reasons for our Credulity, til at last we are convinc'd by a whole Conclave of Gholls, met together in the Works of a Glanvill or a Moreton. Various Methods are propofed by the Learned for the Laying of Ghots. Artificial ones are eafily quicted, if we only take them for real and fubftential Beings, and proceed accordingly. Thus, when a Fryar, perfonating an Apparition, haunted the Apartment of the late Emperor Jofeph, the prefent King Auguftus, then at the Imperial Court, flung him out of the Window, and laid him upon the Pavement fo effectually, that he never rofe or appear'd again. A B Pil pray, Sir, How went this Affair? I befeech you, let me know the whole Story. My Lord, (anfwers the Justice) as I lay one Night in my Bed, and had gone thro' the better Half of my first Sleep, it being about Twelve; on a fudden I was wak'd by a very firange and uncommon Noife, and beard fomething coming up Stairs, and stalking directly towards my Room. I had the Courage to rouze myself upon my low, and to draw the Curtain juft as I heard my Chamber Door open, and faw a faint glimmering Light enter my Chamber. Of a blue Colour, no doubt, (fays the Bishop). Of a pale Blue (anfwers the Justice). But give me your Favour, my good Lord! the Light was followed by a tall, meagre, and fern Perfonage, who seem'd to be of C the Age of Seventy, in a long dangling Rug Gown, bound round his Loins with a broad Leathern Girdle: His Beard was thick and grizly; he bad a large Fur Cap on his Head, and a long Staff in his Hand; his Face was full of Wrinkles, and feem'd to be D of a dark and fable Hue. I was struck with the Appearance of fo furprising a Figure, and felt Jome Shocks which I had never before been acquainted with. Soon after the Spectre had entered my Room, with a bafty, but somewhat a Estately Pace, it drew near my Bed, and Star'd me full in the Face. And did you not speak to it? (interrupted the Bishop, with a good deal of Emotion). With Submiffion, my Lord (ays the Justice) and pleafe to indulge me only in a few Words more. But Mr. Justice! Mr. Justice! (replies the Bishop ftill more haftily) you should bave spoken to it: There was Money hid, or a Murder committed; and give me Leave to obferve, that Murder is a Matter cognizable by Law, and this came regularly into Judgment before Gyou. Well, my Lord, you will have your Way; but in fort I did speak to it. And what Answer, Mr. Juftice, I pray you, What Answer did it make you? My Lord, the Anwer was, not The Writer concludes with a memorable Conference between the late Dr. Fowler, Bishop of Gloucefter, and the late Mr. Juftice Powell; the former a zealous Defender of Ghosts, and the latter fomewhat fceptical about them. They had had feveral Altercations upon the Subject; and once when the Bp. made a Vifit to the Juftice, the latter contracting the Muscles of his Face into an Air of more than ufual Severity, affur'd the Bp. that F fince their laft Difputation, befides his Lordship's ftrong Reafons, he had met with no lefs Proof than ocular Demonftration to convince him of the real Existence of Ghosts. How! (lays the Bishop) ocular Demonßration? Well! I have preach'd, I bave printed upon the Subject; but nothing will convince you Scepticks but ocular Demonftration. I am glad, Mr. Juftice, you are become a Convert: But without without a Thump with the Staff, and a Shake of the Lanthorn, That he was the Watchman of the Night, and came to give me Notice, that he had found the Street Door open; and that unless I rofe and fhut it, I might chance to be robb'd before Break of Day. The Moment thefe Words were out of the good Judge's Mouth, the Bishop vanifh'd with much more Haste than did the fuppos'd Ghoft, and in as great a Surprize at the Justice's Scepticism, as the Justice was in at the Bijnop's Credulity. London Journal, Oct. 7. N°. 693. A Vindication of the Character Pericles. (See p. 300.) T of modern Cleons, as well as modern Pericles's. He got and preferv'd his Power by the Force of fuperior Abilities, by his matchlefs Eloquence, his Liberality, Humanity, and unbiafs'd A Regard to the Happiness of the People. Thefe Virtues enabled him for 40 Years together to keep his Power, against the Struggles of fuch great Statesmen as Ephialtes, Leocrates, Myronides, Cimon, Tolmides and Thucydides; and, after the Banifhment of B Thucydides, to hold his Ground 15 Years longer. For the Truth of all this, fee Plutarch. HE Craftsman, to abuse a prefent great Man, has collected C a few Scraps from the inveterate Enemies of Pericles, and from the Comic Poets, and then added to his Charge Actions infinitely worse than the most malicious of his Adverfaries ever dreamt of; neglecting the general Hiftory of the Man, and all the great Things faid of him by impartial Hif torians; and then calls this the Character of Pericles. Mr. D'Anvers has done by Pericles, what an Engliman. 100 Years hence, (if the Craft man lives fo long) would do by taking the Character of Sir R W -from his Papers; he would find 100 Falfhoods to one Truth. The Power of Pericles (tho' obtain'd by Juperior Wifdom, and great Abilities boneftly apply'd) made him envied and hated: Hence his Enemies invented 1000 falfe Stories against him; his Miftakes were rais'd into Crimes, and his Virtues turn'd into Vices. His Courage was call'd in Quation, becaule for the Good of his Country, he preferr'd Peace to War: For this, Cleon, at the Head of the Malecontents, got him lampoon'd in Songs and Ballads. And we have Cicero bears Testimony to the Power of his Eloquence; he fays, it charmed by its Sweetness, was admir'd for it Copioufnefs, and fear'd for its Force, and that it thunder'd and lighten'd when he spoke. And Thucydides confeffes, like a generous Adverfary, that 'twas not his Eloquence alone, but the high Opinion the People had of him, from his Integrity, and Freedom from Bribery and Cor Druption, which made him fo power E F G ful. As a full Proof of this, he was earnestly invited by the Citizens, after Age and fome Misfortunes had made him weary of Power, to come to the Tribunal or Pleading-Place, and was there ftrongly defir'd to rejume it. The Areopagus, which he put an End to, was a Court of Juftice, once venerable indeed for its Wisdom and Virtue, but, then bafely degenerated, and become infamous by its Tyranny and Vices. 'Twas his Misfortune to live in the Dregs of the Athenian Commonwealth, when their Vices had made them ripe for Destruction: None but a Man of his fuperior Talents, as Plutarch obferves, could have kept it off fo long; for he alone, kept their Paffions within fome Bounds, and hindred them from breaking out into those Extremities, which, foon after his Death diffolved the Commonwealth, and ། and ended in the final Destruction of Athens. This is the Truth relating to Pericles: But Mr. D'Anvers wanted a Parallel to fling at the Head of a Minifter. Such Corrupting of antient Hiftory, to ferve the vile Purpofe of A Defamation, is one of the bajeft Proftitutions of a Pen that a publick Writer can be guilty of. Fog's Journal, O&. 7. N° 205. In fhort, if fuch as reprefent the People are uncorrupt, unbiass'd, and difinterested; if they diligently attend the Nation's Service; if they carefully watch Encroachments upon the Conftitution; if they make Provifion against future Evils; if they look narrowly into the Debts and Expences of the Nation; if they hold a Arong Hand over the Men of Bufinefs; and if in this Matter private Perfons perform their Duty to the Publick; we fhall not fail to fee Ba fteady Courfe of Honefty and Wif dom in fuch as are trufted with the Administration of Affairs: For it may be laid down for a certain Maxim, That Statefmen will hardly be negligent, corrupt, or arbitrary, when they are overlook'd with careful CEyes, by fo confiderable a Part of the Conftitution. He lays it down likewife, That D Monarchies as well as Commonwealths have often Occafion to be reduc'd to their firft Principles; which, he fays, was done in France by the Parliaments, who revived the antient Government as often as they oppos'd the King in his Arrets, and call'd great Delinquents to an Account, whofe Crimes, if they are fuffer'd to grow, cannot be reform'd but with Disorder of the whole Government. For Want of continuing and pur E F And where Things are well administer'd, that Country will always increase in Wealth and Power. Have we not before our Eyes the Example of Spain, labouring under publick and private Wants, occafion'd by nothing but a long Series of Mifgovernment? What has preferv'd the Venetians for 13 Centuries against the most potent Leagues, but that the Goodness of their Conftitution has enabled them to do great Things with a very little? Would People under a Tyrant, or indeed under a good Form of Government ill-managed, have defended themselves with fuch Courage as Venice and Holland have done? Craftsman, Oct. 7. N° 327. fuing the like Courfes, the French Worthy and Mr. Freeman; the have loft their old Constitution, and are now under the abfolute Sway of a fingle Perfon; And that we in England continue ftill to be a free People, is chiefly owing to that Power, which our Ancestors have from Time to Time exerted, of impeaching fuch of the great ones, as they faw entring upon Measures plainly tending to introduce arbitrary Power. G latter begins thus: Pray, Sir, What could be the Reafon of fitting out a Fleet in fuch an Hurry to rendezvous at the Nore? Sir G. Why every Body thought the Government under fome Apprehenfions from the Spaniards; but when the Craftsman ask'd the fame Question, Mr. Walfingham made a Jeft |