l68 ON THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. Oct. 12, 



of their prejudices, made them tolerate at the time aa 

 a fort of indulgence, in V/hich they were well pleaf- 

 ed to acquiefce. It is not by violent fteps, but by im- 

 perceptible gradations that defpotifm has ever been 

 cftablifhed among a free people. It is by corruption, 

 often cloathed in the moft patriotic pretexts, by cajol- 

 inor the people with fpecious arguments, by allaying 

 the fears, and foothing the vain propenfities of the vul- 

 gar, that defigning men have eftablifhed their power, 

 and not by openly attacking the previlegcs of the people. 

 It is the finooth and the crafty politician, and not the 

 outrageous tyrant whofe operations ought to be chiefly 

 regarded by thofe who are the guardians of national free- 

 dom. 



For the Bee. 

 HINTS TO THE LEARNED. 



1 N the famous convent near Chalons in France, where 

 the unhappy Abelard fell a facrifice to the love of the 

 fair Heloife, there is a folio containing reprefer.tations 

 of the Britifh monafteries about the middle of the 15th 

 century, or about 1450, wherein a gentleman informed 

 me he had feen fome of our Scottifti convents repre- 

 fented as they were when entire. 



The prefent Hate of France is favourable to the dif- 

 perfion of thefe curious monuments of antiquity, which 

 ought to be bought, if they {hall come to fale, for pub- 

 lic libraries in other parts of Europe, that they may not 

 run the rifle of going to the cartridge pouch. 



Thefe conventual libraries may contain remains of 

 the Greek and Roman claffics, hitherto inedited, and 

 they ought to be looked for. Monf. de Peirefe of Aix, 

 in Provence, was the lafl; of the fucceflbrs of Petrarcha 

 who diligently fought for the inedited claflics in con- 

 ventual libraries, and he was fuccefsful in obtaining 

 fome of them in Germany. 



