1798.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, . 
SIR, 
T has at all times been fo common an 
artifice of party to ftigmatize its ad- 
verfaries by {ome opprobrious name, that 
particular examples of the faét may be 
deemed unworthy of notice. Yet, where 
individuals a€tually fuffer from the im- 
pudent licentioufnels with which this is~ 
done, and obnoxious ideas are affociated 
in the public mind which have not the 
Jeaft real connexion, fome appeal to truth 
and reafon, on the part of the injured, is 
natural, if not neceflary. I conceive this 
at prefent to be the cafe with refpect to 
the charge of Facobinijin, fo induftrioufly 
brought forward on all occafions, bY a 
certain fet of writers, againit all who dif- 
approve of the meafures of minifters, 
however differing from each other in po- 
litical principles, and however free the 
greater part may be from any defigns 
which can juftify fuch an imputation. 
Every one acquainted with the hiftory 
of the French Revolution mut know, that 
a club called the Facobins, from the place 
of their meeting in Paris, connected with 
a number of others throughout the king- 
dom, openly attempted to overcome the 
legal reprefentatives of the nation, to 
overturn a conftitution eftablifhed by ge- 
neral confent, and to involve every thing 
in anarchy and confufion, that no obftacle 
might exifttotheirfchemes. ‘The effence 
of Facobinifm, according to its true fig- 
nification, then is— 
To hold that a majority may lawfully 
be governed by a minority, upon the pre- 
text of the public good : 
To pay no regard to the will of the 
nation, as declared by thofe who have 
been fairly delegated for the purpofe : 
To {cruple no means, however bafe or 
violent, to compafs a political end: | 
To confider abfolute anarchy, and the 
deftruction of all natural and civil rights, 
as a cheap purchafe for f{peculative im- 
_ provements in a conftitution. 
I am fure I have no objeftion that 
every man in this kingdom, who avows, 
either in word or action, thefe principles, 
fhould by name be expofed as a Jacobin 
to the hatred and fufpicion of his fellow- 
citizens. 
But it is not Facobini/7: to maintain— 
That government was inftituted for 
the good of the many, not the emolument 
of the few: 
That ‘there at all times exifts, in the 
majority of a political fociety, 2 right of 
making fuch alterations in their form of 
government, as upon mature deliberation 
MontTuiy Mac. No. xxxvil. 
‘ 

{ 
Remarks on the Charge of facobinifm. 
aS 
they fhall think conducive to the public 
welfare : 
That privileged bodies derive all title 
to their privileges from the confent and _ 
advantage of the whole: 
That, therefore, wars and public bur- . 
dens for the particular intereft of thofe 
bodies are a public injuttice. Se ea 
- That a friend of mankind may with . 
well to the caufe of liberty all over the 
globe, without waiting for the permiffion | 
of his, own partial or prejudiced country- 
men. 
Finally, Repudlicanifm, the fpirit of 
which is, in fact, the very effence of every _ 
thing free in political conftitutions, is not 
Facobini{m, but the very reverie. 
Thele principles, in contempt and de- , 
fiance of all calumnious appellations, I 
thall ever be ready to avow, as 
. An ENGLISHMAN. 
Se 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE firft principle of every-good ge-. 
vernment, ought to be to prevent 
crimes; and thofe laws which are framed 
for this purpofe, are far more beneficial | 
than thoie which inflict punishment upon, 
the offenders. . , 
The great extent of the commerce of 
this country, and the facility with which 
it is carried on, gives great opportunities 
to thofe who have been guilty of theft te 
difpole of the property, and may in a de-. 
gree be confidered as a temptation to com-. 
mit it; whether this might in any confi- 
derable degree be removed without laying 
too great reftriétions upon trade, is a inat- 
ter that may admit of fome doubt.—Se- 
veral inftances have occurred within thefe 
few years, of clerks to merchants and 
bankers abfconding with confiderable pro- 
perty, particularly in Bills, many of which 
have been negotiated with different trade 
men for goods, before the account of the 
theft could be made public, or in places 
where the particulars of it had not reached:. 
in fome of thefe inftances the perfons lofiing 
the Bills have indemnified the drawers. 
and Acceptors of them on refuiing to pay 
them, in order to trace the Bills back to. 
the perfon who ftole them ; but they are 
feldom traced further than to fome trade{+ 
man or manufacturer who proves (or pre- 
tends to prove) that he gave value for 
them, to fome perfon he knew not; in 
thofe cafes where it has heen tried, it 
has always (unlefs fome fufpicious cir- 
cumftances have attended it) been given 
in fayour of the perfon fo taking the 
Bills. Ido not pretend te arraign thefa 
271 decifions, 
