there are few Free-Holders on this fide the Forth who will engage in it: And we verily believe that you will fuddenly take a Refolution in your Cabinet of Highlanders to fcamper off with your new Crown, which we are told the Ladies of those Parts have fo generously clubbed for. And you may affure yourself, that it is the only One you are like to get by this notable Expedition. And fo we bid you heartily Farewel. Dated Jan. 19, in the N° 10 Monday, January 23. Potior vifa eft periculofa Libertas quieto Servitio. Saluft. Fragm. 1. 1. Liberty with Danger is preferable to Servitude with Security. NE may venture to affirm, that all honeft and difinterested Britons of what Party foever, if they understood one another, are of the fame Opinion in Points of Government: And that the Grofs of the People, who are impofed upon by Terms which they do not comprehend, are Whigs in their Hearts. They are made to believe, that Paffive-Obedience and Non-Refiftance, Unlimited Power and Indefeafible Right, have. fomething of a venerable and religious Meaning in them; whereas in reality they only imply that a King of Great-Britain has a Right to be a Tyrant, D 5 Tyrant, and that his Subjects are obliged in Confcience to be Slaves. Were the Cafe truly and fairly laid before them, they would know, that, when they make a Profeffion of fuch Principles, they renounce their legal Claim to Liberty and Property, and unwarily fubmit to what they really abhor. It is our Happiness, under the prefent Reign, to hear our King from the Throne exhorting us to be zealous Affertors of the Liberties of our Country; which exclude all Pretenfions to an arbitrary, tyrannick, or defpotick Power. Thofe, who have the Misfortune to live under fuch a Power, have no other Law but the Will of their Prince, and confequently no Privileges, but what are precarious. For though in fome arbitrary Governments there may be a Body of Laws obferved in the ordinary Forms of Juftice, they are not fufficient to fecure any Rights to the People; because they may be dispensed with, or laid aside, at the Pleasure of the Sovereign. And here it very much imports us to confider, that Arbitrary Power naturally tends to make a Man a bad Sovereign, who might poffibly have been a good One, had he been invested with an Authority limited and circumfcrib'd by Laws. None can doubt of this Tendency in Arbitrary Power, who confider, that it fills the Mind of Man with great and unreasonable Conceits of Himfelf; raifes Him into a Belief, that He is of a Superior Species to His Subjects; extinguishes in Him the Principle of Fear, which is one of the greatest Motives to all Duties; and creates an Ambition of magnifying Himfelf, by the Exertion of fuch a Power in all its Inftances. So great is the Danger, that, when a Sovereign can do what He will, He will do what He can. Ояс One of the moft Arbitrary Princes in our Age was Muley Ifhmael, Emperor of Morocco, who, after a long Reign, dy'd about a Twelvemonth ago. This Prince was a Man of much Wit and natural Senfe, of an active Temper, undaunted Courage, and great Application. He was a Defcendent of Mahomet; and fo exemplary for his Adherence to the Law of his Prophet, that he abstained all his Life from the Tafte of Wine; began the annual Feaft, or Lent, of Ramadan, two Months before his Subjects; was frequent in his Prayers; and that he might not want Opportunities of Kneeling, had fixed in all the spacious Courts of his Palace large Confecrated Stones pointing towards the Eaft, for any occafional Exercife of his Devotion. What might not have been hoped from a Prince of thefe Endowments, had they not all been rendered useless and ineffectual to the Good of his People by the Notion of that Power which they afcribed to him! This will appear, if we confider how he exercifed it towards his Subjects in those three great Points, which are the chief Ends of Government, the Prefervation of their Lives, the Security of their Fortunes, and the Determinations of Justice between Man and Man. Foreign Envoys, who have given an Account of their Audiences, defcribe this holy Man mounted on horseback in an open Court, with feveral of his Alcyades, or Governors of Provinces, about him, ftanding barefoot, trembling, bowing to the Earth, and, at every Word he fpoke, breaking out into paffionate Exclama+ tions of Praife, as, Great is the Wisdom of our Lord the King; Our Lord the King Speaks as an Angel from Heaven. Happy was the Man among them, who was fo much a Favourite as to be fent fent on an Errand to the moft remote Street in his Capital; which he performed with the greatest Alacrity, ran through every Puddle that lay in his Way, and took care to return out of Breath and cover'd with Dirt, that he might fhew himself a diligent and faithful Minifter. His Majefty at the fame time, to exhibit the Greatness of his Power, and fhew his Horsemanship, feldom difmifs'd the Foreigner from his Prefence, 'till he had entertain'd him with the Slaughter of two or three of his Liege Subjects, whom he very dexterously put to Death with the Tilt of his Lance. St Olon, the French Envoy, tells us, that, when he had his laft Audience of him, he receiv'd him in Robes juft ftain'd with an Execution; and that he was blooded up to his Elbows by a couple of Moors, whom he had been butchering with his own Imperial Hands. By the Calculation of that Author, and many Others, who have fince given an Account of his Exploits, we may reckon that by his own Arm he killed above Forty Thousand of his People. To render himself the more awful, he chose to wear a Garb of a particular Colour when he was bent upon Execution; fo that, when he appear'd in Yellow, his Great Men hid themselves in Corners, and durft not pay their Court to him, till he had fatiated his Thirst of Blood by the Death of fome of his loyal Commoners, or of fuch unwary Officers of State as chanc'd to come in his Way. Upon this Account we are told, that the firft News enquir'd after every Morning at Mequinez, was, Whether the Emperor were ftirring, and in a good or bad Humour? As this Prince was a great Admirer of Architecture, and employ'd many Thousands in Works of that that kind, if he did not approve the Plan or the Performance, it was ufual for him to fhew the Delicacy of his Tafte by demolishing the Building, and putting to Death all that had a Hand in it. I have heard but of one Inftance of his Mercy; which was fhewn to the Mafter of an English Veffel. This our Countryman prefented him with a curious Hatchet, which he receiv'd very gracioufly; and asking him whether it had a good Edge, try'd is upon the Donor, who, flipping afide from the Blow, efcap'd with the Lofs only of his right Ear; for Old Muley, upon fecond Thoughts, confidering that it was not one of his own Subjects, ftop'd his Hand, and would not fend him to Paradise. I cannot quit this Article of his Tenderness for the Lives of his People, without mentioning one of his Queens whom he was remarkably fond of; as alfo a Favourite Prime Minister, who was very dear to him. The first dy'd by a Kick of her Lord the King, when fhe was big with Child, for having gather'd a Flower as the was walking with him in his Pleafure Garden. The other was baftinado'd to Death by his Majefty; who, repenting of the Drubs he had given him when it was too late, to manifeft his Efteem for the Memory of fo Worthy a Man, executed the Surgeon that could not cure him. This Abfolute Monarch was as notable a Guar dian of the Fortunes, as of the Lives of his Subjects. When any Man among his People grew rich, in order to keep him from being dangerous to the State, he used to fend for all his Goods and Chattels. His Governors of Towns and Provinces, who form'd themselves upon the Example of their Grand Monarque, practifed Rapine, Violence, Extortion, and all the Arts of Despotick Government |