C l°4 3 



exalt modern gardening, by comparing it 

 to our glorious conftitution. That the 

 Englifh conftitution is the happy medium 

 between the liberty of favages, and the 

 reftraint of defpotic government, I do not 

 merely acknowledge— I feel it with pride 

 and exultation ; but that pride and exulta- 

 tion would fink into fhame and defpon- 

 dency, fhould the parallel you have made, 

 ever become juft: mould the freedom, ener- 

 gy, and variety of our minds, give place 

 to tamenefs and monotony; fhquld our 

 opinions be prefcribed to us, and, like our 

 places, be moulded into one form. A much 

 apter and more inftruclive parallel might 

 have been drawn between our conftitution, 

 and the art you have fo much wronged. 

 That art, like the old feudal government, 

 meagre, hard, and gothic in its beginning, 

 was mellowed and foftened by long expe- 

 rience and fucceftive trials; and not lefs 



improved 



