418 
That, call'd to fecond life, here laid alone, 
No friend and heshould quarrel for a bone, 
_ Thinkiag, that were fome old lame grannam 
Higbee sh 
To get to heav’n, fhe’d fteal his leg or thigh. 
Lam, fir, yeur very obedient fervant, 
Warriugton, 16th Dec. 1797 Cike 

_ athe Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SU'SIR, : 
a DO not mean to attempt to  difprove 
the principles laid down by your cor- 
reipondent ***, in your laft- Month’s 
Magazine, relative to the claims of the 
national creditor, however exceptionable 
fome of them may be—but now only to 
correct an error he has certainly run into, 
in his fratement of the number of ftock- 
holders, which he thinks to be about 
60,000. [I believe it is pretty certain, 
and I have good authority for aflerting, 
that there are much nearer 20c,coo in 
the whole amount, and doubt not in the 
leaf; there are"360,000, or 180,000. I 
have been affured, by gentlemen at the 
bank, there are as many as 60,000 in 
the 3 percents. only; -which he makes 
the amount of the whole. And withal, 
at fhould be confidered, there are two or 
three times the number of families that 
have perhaps their chief, or great depend- 
ance on the property of their parents or 
near relatives, wihich lies in the different 
fpecies of funds, er public fecurities. I 
am, yours, &c. S. E. 
Bucks, 19th Apri. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magaxine. 
Send. you a few loofe reéfieétions on 
fubjects defcanted upon in the laft 
number of your entertaining and initruc- 
tive Mifcellany. 
Mr. Erfkine on the Houfe of Commons.—- 
Your readers will undoubtedly feel them- 
telves much obliged to you for the pub- 
lication of this paper; which at once 
throws fo much light upon an interefting 
branch of our political antiquities, and 
places in fo fair a point of view the con- 
iiftency and character of a man whofe 
Virtues (notwithftanding a few foibles, 
and ove unfortunate prejudice) are fearcely 
inferior to his talents. We fee, by this 
collegiate exercife, that the patriotifm and 
love of liberty which have diftinguifhed 
his forenfic and parliamentary exertions, 
are not- to’ be confidered as the cant of 
the +pleader and the partizan, but as the 
genuine effufions of a noble principle early: 
imbibed and well digefted.- That the 
rights of mankind are: prior and. para- 
§ tock holders.—Mifcellancous Objervations. 
mount to all conftitutions, and that ¢¢ there 
is no ftatute of limitation to bar the claims: 
of nature,”’-are truths beyond the narrow 
‘pals of technical {cience ‘and authority ; 
and that “« freedom upon Englith princi< 
ples? includes the right of ** albwho are 
the objects: of the law, to be perfonally, 
or, by reprefentation, the makers/of the 
laws,” is a principle too broad and gene- 
ral to anfwer the mere purpofes ‘of any 
perfonal faétion. It is, perhaps, on ac- 
count of the energy with which Mr. Es 
has enforced the convictions: refulting 
from the former of thefe principles, that 
the mere lawyers, the dull detailers of. 
cafes and precedents, have endeavoured 
to depreciate his legal knowledge. » Be. 
caufe he was capable of looking beyond 
their ftumbling blocks, they imagined 
that he did not know where they were 
placed. With refpect to the latter, it is 
worth Mr. E.’s while to confider whe- 
ther it does not eftablith a national claim 
to reprefentation on a much broader bafis 
than that to which, in concert with a re= 
{peftable knot of political charaters, he 
has lately pledged himfelf. It makes (as 
all juft principle neceflarily mit makey 
perfons not propcrty the firft obje&: of 
government, and the bafis of all juftle- 
giflation. | 
That, in the hiftorical reafonings of 
this differtation, Mr. E. is ftri€tly cor- 
rect, I have no fort of doubt; and his 
expolition of the fource of that unmerited 
idolatry that has been paid to Saxon in- 
{titutions, is equally acute and candéd. 
If it were not tor the frequent detection 
of thofe miferable fhifts and fophiftical 
fubterfuges to which the advocates of li- 
berty are driven, when they* want the - 
boldnefs to face. firft principles, ene fhould 
be really aftonithed to hear the champions 
of human ‘rights fo loud im their com. 
mendations of thefe Saxons, among whom 
private con{piracies furnifhed the perfonal 
protection which ought to have been de- 
rived from public juftice ; and theomafs 
of the people were eid in a vaflalage as 
abject as that of a Spartan helote, ora: 
Weft India flave. - Topi 
When I was young in inquiries of this: 
nature, and fired with enthutfiafm by the 
panegyric which every where prefented: © 
themielves upon thefe wonderful Saxons, 
who, in the midft of barbarifm and igno=. > 
rance, feemed to have furpaffed in praéti- » 
cal and fyftematic liberty all that had ex- - 
ifted in the times of Grecian fcience and 
philofophy, I-inquired of a perfon: well 
known in the political work for the zeal -- 
with which he has circulated thefe panes: 
4 ZyTics, 
