1797-] 
better performer than hundreds who 
have written voluminous fpeculations 
upon the fubje€&t. The art of govern- 
ment, therefore, is the fecond Jeflon that 
may be learned in a man’s family ; and, 
4d humbly conceive that its rules are few 
and fimple. 
Itis only neceffary that the laws fhouid 
be fo few as to be eafily remembered, 
and fo fimple as to be eafily underttood , 
that puniihments. are neceffary only > 
where advice is negleétcd, and, even 
then, to be proportioned to the crime ; 
that all tyrannical condu@ is abhorrible 
and deftruétive ; that our fubjeéts are to 
be confidered as our equals, in all quef- 
tions of right and jaftice, and that we 
are not to allow them to be oppreffed 
or robbed by thofe in authority over 
us. Such are the out-lines of domettic 
government, which prevails in all civil- 
tized families, and which would likewife 
be oftner pra&tifed upon the great fcale, 
if it were there accompanied with the 
fame provifo, namely, that he who vio- 
lates it has a good chance to be hanged 
by the neck, 
A third political leffon that a man may 
Jearn, withour going very far from home, 
is, how to regulate his finances. 1 knoav 
not any fubjeét upon which men in ge- 
neral think themfelves better capable of 
deciding than the public finances, nor 
any, refpeéiing which they make a 
greater number of miftakes. This would 
not be the cafe if every man was pre- 
cifely fuch a Chancellorof the Exchequer 
at home as he expeéts to find abroad, or, 
as he thinks he would make, were his 
majefty to call him to that high office. 
he rules to be obferved here are, as 
in the former cafe, very few and fim- 
ple. The only duty is to raife money 
honeftly and fairly, and to ufe it econo- 
mically and difcretely ; and, while he is 
benefiting himfelf, to remember that he 
Ought not to impoverifh others. He 
ought alfo to embark in no {peculation 
that is not, upon the very face of ir, 
Probable, nor to borrow money which he 
has no profpeét of repaying. 
A man who has praétifed thefe rules 
for a feries of years would, in my hum- 
ble opinion, be better qualified to fpeak 
upon matters of public finance, than 
many who talk upon nothing elfe, and 
would be able to deteét error and impof- 
‘ture at aglance of the eye. And, why > 
For this plain reafon, that, being fubs 
je to proper laws, he would know that 
4 man who borrowed money without the 
‘Similitude of Dometic nd National Politics, 
275 
profpect of repayiny,isthe mot unparden- 
able of all rogues, while he who engages 
in f{peculations that are unintellivibie, is 
the vileft of all fools ; and, that a war 
Who pretends to' manage the finances of 
another, with both thele defects, would, 
in juftice, be fent to Newgate, ifhe w 
not, in mercy, fent to Bedlam. 
Were 1 to purfue this train of reafon - 
ing, by applyiny it to all the fabordinate 
branches of good government, [ might 
probably carry anthis letter too far, sy ope 
{ have, however, faid enouxh to prove, 
that all the virtues of political, may be 
learned in private, life, where only it is 
much to be regretted, its vices are pu- 
nithed as they deferve. [ know not'b 
what fatality it happens, tha: the poffet- 
fions of power fhould- be a licenfe to dag 
wrong, and that to be in cffice and in 
fecurity are fynony mous. 
We have lately got into a kind 
gen abcut a diftinétion between private 
Virtues and public virtucs. 7] hus, while 
one fet of philofophers are endeavourips 
iO prove, that man has nota foul, ano. 
ther fet are taking equal pains to prove 
that he has tog Joel, one of which he 
employs at home, and the other abroad, 
in {chemes which are diametrically op- 
Pofite.. OF what ufe this do@rine ma 
be we cannot yet be certain, as it has 
not been pufhed as far as it can go3 but, 
in the mean time, jt may not be amifs tq 
confider, that the qualictes of a highway- 
man are no great recommendations to 
Public favour, and that he who has not 
been “ faithful over a few things,” will 
require to be carefully watched when he 
is “ruler over many.” 
' Tam, fir, your’s, 
ere 
of jar- 
OG. 10. shay eat ce 
EE TE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
«¢ Si_le grand nombre gouverné étoit com- 
polé de boeufs (dit Voltaire) & le ‘petit 
Nombre gouvernant de bouviers, le petit 
Nombre feroit trés bien de tenir: le gtand 
nombre dans J'ignorance. Mais. il a‘en 
eff pas ainfi, plufieurs nations qui, long-tems 
Mont eu qui des cornes, & qui ont ruminé, 
Commencent a parler. Quand une fois 
le terns de parler eft venu, i! eft impofibls 
ddter aux eforits” la force quwils ent’ ac- 
quife ; ils faut trairer en étres penfans ceux 
qui penfent, comme on traite en brutes les 
brutes,”’ 
A BOUT ten months ago T addrefled a 
letcer tothe Editor of an Edinburch 
; eros TES: Minas s. 
newlpaper (the Scots’ Chronicle), giving 
: aR 


