all were attached to the same form of government, and contended only for the highest offices in it; a prudent and an honest man might look upon the struggle with indifference, and be in no great pain for the success of either side, But, at present, the contest is not in reality between Whigs and Tories, but between loyalists and rebels. Our country is now divided into two parties, who propose the same end by different means, but into such as would preserve, and such as would destroy it. Whatever denominations we might range ourselves under in former times, men, who have any natural love to their country, or sense of their duty, should exert their united strength in a cause that is common to all parties, as they are Protestants and Britons. In such a case, an avowed indifference is treachery to our fellow-subjects; and a lukewarm allegiance may prove as pernicious in its consequences as treason.

I need not repeat here what I have proved at large in a former paper, that we are obliged to an active obedience by the solemn oaths we have taken to his majesty; and that the neutral kind of indifference, which is the subject of this paper, falls short of that obligation they lie under, who have taken such oaths; as will easily appear to any one who considers the form of those sacred and religious engagements.

How then can any man answer it to himself, if, for the sake of managing his interest or character among a party, or out of any personal pique to those who are the most conspicuous for their zeal in his majesty's service, or from any other private and self-interested motive, he stands as a looker-on when the govern-. ment is attacked by an open rebellion? especially, when those engaged it, cannot have the least prospect of success, but by the assistance of the ancient and hereditary enemies to the British nation. It is strange that these lukewarm friends to the government, whose zeal for their sovereign rises and falls with their credit at court, do not consider, before it be too late, that as they strengthen the rebels by their present indifference,

they at the same time establish the interest of those who are their rivals and competitors for public posts of honour. When there is an end put to this rebellion, these gentlemen cannot pretend to have had any merit in so good a work: and they may well believe the nation will never care to see those men in the highest offices of trust, who, when they are out of them, will not stir a finger in its defence.

No, 14. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6.

Periculosum est credere, et non credere:
Utriusque exemplum breviter exponam rei.
Hippolitus obiit, quia noverca creditum est:
Cassandra quia non creditum, ruit Ilium.
Ergo exploranda est veritas multùm priùs,
Quàm stulta pravè judicet sententia.

PHÆDR.

of

HAVING, in the seventh paper, considered many those falsehoods, by which the cause of our malecontents is supported; I shall here speak of that extravagant credulity which disposes each particular member of their party to believe them. This strange alacrity in believing absurdity and inconsistence, may be called the Political Faith of a Tory.

A person who is thoroughly endowed with this political faith, like a man in a dream, is entertained from one end of his life to the other with objects that have no reality or existence. He is daily nourished and kept in humour by fiction and delusion; and may be compared to the old, obstinate knight in Rabelais, that every morning swallowed a chimera for his breakfast.

This political faith of a malecontent is altogether founded on hope. He does not give credit to any thing because it is probable, but because it is pleasing. His wishes serve him instead of reasons, to confirm the truth of what he hears. There is no report so incre

dible or contradictory in itself which he doth not cheerfully believe, if it tends to the advancement of the cause. In short, a malecontent, who is a good believer, has generally reason to repeat the celebrated rant of an ancient father, Credo quia impossibile est: which is as much as to say, It must be true, because it is impossible.

It has been very well observed, that the most credulous man in the world is the atheist, who believes the universe to be the production of chance. In the same manner, a Tory, who is the greatest believer in what is improbable, is the greatest infidel in what is certain, Let a friend to the government relate to him a matter of fact, he turns away his ear from him, and gives him the lie in every look. But if one of his own stamp should tell him that the king of Sweden would be suddenly at Perth, and that his army is now actually marching thither upon the ice; he hugs himself at the good news, and gets drunk upon it before he goes to bed. This sort of people puts one in mind of several towns in Europe that are inaccessible on the one side, while they lie open and unguarded on the other. The minds of our malecontents are indeed so depraved with those falsehoods which they are perpetually im→ bibing, that they have a natural relish for error, and have quite lost the taste of truth in political matters. I shall therefore dismiss this head with a saying of King Charles the Second. This monarch, when he was at Windsor, used to amuse himself with the conversation of the famous Vossius, who was full of stories relating to the antiquity, learning, and manners of the Chinese; and at the same time a free-thinker in points of religion. The king, upon hearing him repeat some incredible accounts of these eastern people, turning to those who were about him, This learned divine,' said he, is a very strange man: he believes every thing but the Bible."

Having thus far considered the political faith of the party, as it regards matters of fact, let us in the next

place take a view of it with respect to those doctrines which it embraces, and which are the fundamental points whereby they are distinguished from those, whom they used to represent as enemies to the constitution in church and state. How far their great articles of political faith, with respect to our ecclesiastical and civil government, are consistent with themselves, and agreeable to reason and truth, may be seen in the following paradoxes, which are the essentials of a Tory's creed, with relation to political matters. Under the name of Tories, I do not here comprehend multitudes of well-designing men, who were formerly included under that denomination, but are now in the interest of his majesty and the present government. These have already seen the evil tendency of such principles, which are the credenda of the party, as it is opposite to that of the Whigs.

ARTICLE I.

That the church of England will be always in danger, till it has a Popish king for its defender.

II.

That, for the safety of the church, no subject should be tolerated in any religion different from the established; but that the head of our church may be of that religion which is most repugnant to it.

III.

That the Protestant interest in this nation, and in all Europe, could not but flourish under the protection of one, who thinks himself obliged, on pain of damnation, to do all that lies in his power for the extirpation of it.

IV.

That we may safely rely upon the promises of one, whose religion allows him to make them, and at the same time obliges him to break them.

V.

That a good man should have a greater abhorrence

of Presbyterianism, which is perverseness, than of popery, which is, but idolatry.

VI.

That a person who hopes to be king of England, by the assistance of France, would naturally adhere to the British interest, which is always opposite to that of the French.

VII.

That a man has no opportunities of learning how to govern the people of England in any foreign country, so well as in France.

VIII.

That ten millions of people should rather chuse to fall into slavery, than not acknowledge their prince to be invested, with a hereditary and indefeisable right of oppression.

IX.

That we are obliged in conscience to become subjects of a duke of Savoy, or of a French king, rather than enjoy, for our sovereign, a prince who is the first of the royal blood in the Protestant line.

X.

That nonresistance is the duty of every Christian, whilst he is in a good place.

XI.

That we ought to profess the doctrine of passive obedience until such time as nature rebels against principle, that is, until we are put to the necessity of practising it.

XII.

That the Papists have taken up arms to defend the church of England, with the utmost hazard of their lives and fortunes.

XIII.

That there is an unwarrantable faction in this island, consisting of king, lords, and commons.

XIV.

That the legislature, when there is a majority of Whigs in it, has not power to make laws.