1797+] 
From that great principle of liberty 
thefe ftatutes havé originated which have 
confirmed and ratified that eftabliihment 
from which your majefty derives your 
might to rule ovcr us. Thefe flatutes 
have not given us our liberties; our li- 
berties have produced thetn. Every hour 
of your majefty’s reign, your title ftands 
upon the very fame foundation on which 
it was at firft laid,,and we do not know 
a better on which it can polfibly be 
placed. Convinced that you cannot have 
different rights, and a different fecurity. 
in diderence parts of your dominions, we 
with to lay an’ even platform for your 
throne, and to give it an immoveable 
ftability,.by laying it on the general free- 
dom of your people, and by fecuring 
equally to your majetty, that confidence 
and affection in all parts of your domit- 
nions, which makes your beft fecurity 
and deareft title in this chief feat of your 
empire. 
Such, Sire, being amongtft us the foun- 
dation of the monarchy itielf, much more 
clearly and peculiarly is it the ground of 
all parliamentary power. Parliament is 
a security provided for the proteétion of 
freedom, and not a fubtle fiction con- 
trived to amufe the people in its place ; 
and the authority of both houfes can fill 
Jefs than that of the crown be fup- 
ported upon different principles, or dif- 
ferent places, foas to be for one part of 
your {ubjeéts a protector of libercy, and 
for another a fund of defpotifm, by which 
prerogative is extended by occafional 
powers, whenever an arbitrary will finds 
itfelf ftreightened by the reftrictions of 
law. 
to confider itfelf as the indulgent guar 
dian and ftrong protector of the frecdom 
ef the fubordinate popular affembties, 
inftead of exercifing its powers to their 
utter annihilation, there is no doubt that 
it never could be their inclination, becaufe 
not their intereft, to have raifed captious 
gueftions on its extent, or to have enfee- 
ble! privileges which were the fecurity of 
their own. Powers evident from necef- 
fity, and not fufpicions from an alarming 
mode or purpofe of application, wud, 
as formerly they were, be cheerfully fub- 
mitted to; and thefe would have been ful- 
ly fufficient for confervation of unity ia 
the empire, and for directing its wealth 
to one common centre. Another ufe has 
_- produced other confequences; and a 
power which refufes to be limited by its 
own moderation muft either be loft, or 
find other more -diftinét and fatisfactory 
Montuny Mac. No. XX. 
Zo the Seceffion of Oppofition. 
Had it feemed good to parliament — 
fiant 
25 
limitations. As for us, a participation in 
arbitrary power would never reconcile 
our minds tojt. We fhouldibe alhamed 
to ftand before your majefty boldly affert- 
ing inherent rights which bind and regu- 
Jate the crown itfelfy and yet infifting on 
the exercife in our own perfons of a more 
arbitrary {way over our fellow citizens 
and tellow freemen. . 5 
Thefe, moft gracious fovereign, are 
our fentiments on this moft important 
fubjeét, on this moft critical of all occa- 
fions.. Whenever the day {hall arrive 
which promifes the leaft di{pofition to aét 
on thefe principles; we fhall attend to 
fupport and perfect correfpondent mea- 
fures, with the fame clear intentions 
with which we formerly attended to 
oppefe thofe of a contrary tendency, or 
as we now relax our attendance from 
a dread of countenancing, by a falfe ap- 
pearance of a free difcuflion, proceedings 
tatal to the liberty and unity of the em- 
pire, which exhauft the ftrength of all 
your majefty’s dominions, and leave us 
expofed to the fufpicious mercy and un- 
certain politics of our neighbour and ri- 
val powers. If this fhould not happen; 
we have the fatisfaétion at leaft to give 
a faithful warning to your, majefty of 
thofe evils; and, however few in num- 
ber, or overborne by the prevalence of 
corrupt practices, or the mifguided zeal 
of arbitrary faétions, to ftand forth and 
rear our names in affertion of thofe prin< 
ciples whofe operations haye in better 
times made ef your majefty a great prince, 
or the Britifh dominions a mighty eme- 
pire. 
~. aE 
Io the Editor of the Monthly Magazine: 
SIR, 
PROM the natute of aneleétrical appa- 
ratus, it is impoflible for me to guefs 
at the immediate reafon why your Con- 
Reader did not fucceed in the 
prime-conductor which he conftruéted 
upon my plan. I with he had altogether 
followed my dire¢tions, and had fuipend- 
ed his upper plate by chains from the 
ceiling, which chains he might have 
continued from the wall to the ground. 
It is fo obvious, on the fmalleti reflec- 
tion, that every prime conductor does 

nothing more than charge a plate of air,~_ 
and that a condu¢tor is more perfect and 
powerful, in propottion as its pfare of 
air is more completely charged, that it 
would be a watte of words to fay moré 
upon the fubjeé. Your’s, &c. 
Loniton, Fune$, 1797s — 
A. Do- 

