598 



ANNUAL REGISTER, iW* 



but has at last so far accommodated 

 himself to the cionditions of the 

 society, as to be counted a valuable 

 member. Having made a great 

 pfogi-ess in the science of self-,;or- 

 rection, his Understanding has ob- 

 tained its proper poise $ his reason 

 has had room to exet't itself, and 

 has given life and energy to a mass 

 of mach good meaning, that lay 

 buried at the bottom of his mind. 



The fame of this mighty cure hath 

 brought us u great accumulation of 

 crtdit and po^-er ; and it hath ac- 

 tually been iii speculation among 

 tha freeholders and other voters in 

 the county, to elect their repn'sen- 

 tatives in future from our society : 

 a rule that would ensure to them 

 men of npe understandings, and re- 

 gular habits. We are subject (as 

 evfry good i^3^itutioll h) to ridi- 

 rule from without ^ the young g<'n' 

 tlemen are very pleasant upon i:o,j 

 and we pass under a variety of names 

 among them, as, the ' voma- 

 tons, the Quiet;:-! s, the M-c-i-in^, 

 tlu" Dinnmifs, the Whig Club, 

 the Roiip;b Riders' Company, the 

 Bearded Iviagdalens, the Grey Fri- 

 ars, the Court of Deatli, and the 

 House of Corrf^ction. Such as have 

 rot quite turned the corner of fifty, 

 ;ind want a few months of being cle- 

 gible, are very severe upon our age, 

 call us the Antediluvians, and talk 

 much of an opposition rlubof young 

 fellows. Whilv! wehave daily proofs, 

 however, of the good effects of our 

 institutions, we are indifferent to at- 

 tacks of every kind. We have the 

 sensible pleasure of finding that tlie 

 operation of our system is spread- 

 ing ; our married men return with 

 sober 'spirits to their homes and 

 liearths ; and adopt, ift part, our 

 iicaceful regulations mt'i th.e bosom 

 of their families ; and it is not un- 



common to see one of our old ba- 

 chelors preferred by the ladies t» 

 beaux of five and twenty. 



But the advantages resulting from 

 these our institutions are not merely 

 of a moral kind ; topics of litera- 

 ture and criticism come fretjuently 

 under our consideration, which will 

 necessarily flourish Under circum- 

 stances of peace and good order. 



On points of religion and politics 

 it is but rare that we allow our- 

 selves to expatiate : Religion being 

 throuj^hout a connected and analo- 

 gous system, is never fairly viewed 

 but when we take in the whole, and 

 therefore can never properly become 

 the object of broken and desultory 

 conversation : Politics being a ques- 

 tion that produces much heat, and 

 little satisfactiort, where obliquity 

 of views and attractions of interest 

 are sure to falsify the balance of 

 our Hiinds, we have almost entirely 

 proscribed it ; and, if it be by acci- 

 dent introduced, it is presently con- 

 demned by the spiritual censures of 

 tlie infallible echo. 



But although wc place great de- 

 pendance on the efficacy of this re- 

 gimen ef tranquillity and order, for 

 the cure of a great many com- 

 plaints in our social system, yet 

 there are some which we are obliged 

 to abandon to sevei'er modes of 

 chastisement. 



An avowed party-man is utterly 

 inadmissible, whatever may be his 

 other pretensions: — we seta higher 

 value upon truth and temper, than 

 upon the finest philippic in the 

 world. 



We have no room for atheists, or 

 idiots, or any such enemies to rule, 

 especially as we hear that they have 

 a club of their own, which meets 

 sometimes in one place, sometimes 

 in another, as chance directs, but 



verjr 



