242 political progrefs of Britain. | ‘Fume tee ’ 
All my friend Tumbledown’s predictions as to Bo- 
‘tany Bay *, are fast approaching to their completion. 
A boat full of convicts Ras already escaped, as he fore- 
told, and has landed at Batavia! The colony is star- 
ving, and the expences, exceed even our ‘‘ heaven~ 
“*« born minister’s” talents for calculation. 
I have this moment received the candid and judi- 
‘cious observations of your correspondent Alcibiades. 
‘His objections to my letters are few and slight; and, 
chad they been more specific, it would not have been dif- 
ficult to give them a satisfactory answer. He charges 
me with indirect innuendoes ; on the contrary, I have 
-crowded together a profusion of facts, which neither 
Alcibiades, nor any body else can deny; and, instead. 
of innuendoes, | have uniformly advanced accusations in 
the plainest stile consistent with decency. If these 
are ill founded, I fhall be happy to learn, and proud 
to atknowledge my errors. But this point can only 
be gained by advancing one fact, or one argument, in 
close and logical opposition to another. He charges 
me witha design to depreciate the constitution of this | 
country. \have-censured particular acts of folly and 
corruption, and the individuals who committed them, 
but I have not said a single word about altering the 
constitution. In a future letter I may perhaps give a 
fuller detail of the abuses in parliament, but if Alci- 
biades imagines that I am a Jacobite, he has not read 
my letters with attention; or if he supposes that [ 
wilh to introduce a mob government, he does me the 
sitmost injustice. 
© Wide vol. v.p.135, &c. 
