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themselves they term it by a kind of cant-phrafe, A RE

GARD FOR POSTERITY.

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This paffion feems to predominate in all their conduct, to regulate every action of their lives, and fenti→ ment of their minds; I have heard L and Pwhen they have made a vigorous oppofition, or blasted the bloffom of fome minifterial fcheme, cry out, in the height of their exultations, This will deferve the thanks of pofterity! And when their adverfaries, as it much more frequently falls out, have out-numbered and overthrown them, they will fay with an air of revenge, and a kind of gloomy triumph, Pofterity will curse you for this.

It is common among men under the influence of any kind of phrenzy, to believe that all the world has the fame odd notions that diforder their own imaginations, Did thefe unhappy men, thefe deluded patriots, know how little we are concerned about pofterity, they would never attempt to fright us with their curfes, or tempt us to a neglect of our own intereft by a profpect of their gratitude.

But fo ftrong is their infatuation, that they seem to have forgotten even the primary law of felf-prefervation; for they facrifice without fcruple every flattering hope, every darling enjoyment, and every fatisfaction of life, to this ruling paffion, and appear in every step to confult not fo much their own advantage, as that of pofterity.

Strange delufion! that can confine all their thoughts to a race of men whom they neither know, nor can know; from whom nothing is to be feared, nor any

Lyttelton and Pitt. E.

thing expected; who cannot even bribe a fpecial jury, nor have fo much as a single ribband to bestow.

This fondness for pofterity is a kind of madnefs which at Rome was once almoft epidemical, and infected even the women and the children. It reigned there till the entire destruction of Carthage; after which it began to be lefs general, and in a few years afterwards a remedy was discovered, by which it was almost entirely extinguished.

In England it never prevailed in any fuch degree: fome few of the ancient Barons feem indeed to have been difordered by it; but the contagion has been for the most part timely checked, and our ladies have been generally free.

But there has been in every age a fet of men much admired and reverenced, who have affected to be always talking of pofterity, and have laid out their lives upon the compofition of poems, for the fake of being applauded by this imaginary generation.

The prefent poets I reckon amongst the most inexorable enemies of our moft excellent miniftry, and much doubt whether any method will effect the cure of a distemper, which in this class of men may be termed not an accidental disease, but a defect in their original frame and conftitution,

Mr. Brooke, a name I mention with all the deteftation fuitable to my character, could not forbear discovering this depravity of his mind in his very prologue, which is filled with fentiments fo wild, and fo much unheard of among those who frequent levees and courts, that I

much

much doubt, whether the zealous licenfer proceeded any further in his examination of his performance.

He might easily perceive that a man,

Who bade bis moral beam through every age,

was too much a bigot to exploded notions, to compose a play which he could licenfe without manifeft hazard of his office, a hazard which no man would incur untainted. with the love of pofterity.

We cannot therefore wonder that an author, wholly poffeffed by this passion, should vent his refentment for the licenser's just refufal, in virulent advertisements, infolent complaints, and fcurrilous affertions of his rights and privileges, and proceed in defiance of authority to folicit a fubfcription.

This temper, which I have been describing, is almost always complicated with ideas of the high prerogatives of human nature, of a facred unalienable birthright, which no man has conferred upon us, and which neither Kings can take, nor Senates give away; which we may juftly affert whenever and by whomsoever it is attacked, and which, if ever it should happen to be loft, we may take the first opportunity to recover.

The natural confequence of these chimeras is contempt of authority, and an irreverence for any fuperiority but what is founded upon merit; and their notions of merit are very peculiar, for it is among them no great proof of merit to be wealthy and powerful, to wear a garter or a ftar, to command a regiment or a fenate, to have the ear of the minister or of the king,

or

or to poffefs any of thofe virtues and excellencies, which among us entitle a man to little lefs than worship and proftration.

We may therefore eafily conceive that Mr. Brooke thought himself entitled to be importunate for a license, because, in his own opinion, he deferved one, and to complain thus loudly at the repulfe he met with.

His complaints will have, I hope, but little weight with the public; fince the opinions of the fect in which he is enlifted are expofed, and fhewn to be evidently and demonftrably oppofite to that fyftem of fubordination and dependence, to which we are indebted for the prefent tranquillity of the nation, and that chearfulness and readiness with which the two Houfes concur in all our defigns.

I fhall, however, to filence him entirely, or at least to fhew thofe of our party that he ought to be filent, confider fingly every instance of hardship and oppreffion which he has dared to publish in the papers, and to publish in fuch a manner, that I hope no man will condemn me for want of candour in becoming an advocate for the miniftry, if I can confider his advertisements as nothing less than AN APPEAL TO HIS COUNTRY.

Let me be forgiven if I cannot fpeak with temper of fuch infolence as this is a man without title, penfion, or place, to fufpect the impartiality or the judgment of those who are entrusted with the adminiftration of public affairs? Is he, when the law is not ftrictly obferved in regard to him, to think himself aggrieved, to tell his fentiments in print, affert his claim to better ufage, and fly for redrefs to another tribunal?

If

If fuch practices are permitted, I will not venture to foretel the effects of them; the miniftry may foon be convinced, that fuch fufferers will find compaffion, and that it is fafer not to bear hard upon them, than to allow them to complain.

The power of licenfing in general being firmly established by an Act of Parliament, our poet has not attempted to call in queftion, but contents himself with cenfuring the manner in which it has been executed; fo that I am not now engaged to affert the licenser's authority, but to defend his conduct.

The poet feems to think himself aggrieved, because the licenser kept his tragedy in his hands one and twenty days, whereas the law allows him to detain it only fourteen.

Where will the infolence of the malecontents end? Or how are fuch unreasonable expectations poffibly to be fatisfied? Was it ever known that a man exalted into a high station, difmiffed a fuppliant in the time limited by law? Ought not Mr. Brooke to think himfelf happy that his play was not detained longer? If he had been kept a year in fufpence, what redrefs could he have obtained? Let the poets remember, when they appear before the licenser, or his deputy, that they stand at the tribunal from which there is no appeal permitted, and where nothing will fo well become them as reverence and fubmiffion.

Mr. Brooke mentions in his preface his knowledge of the laws of his own country: had he extended his enquiries to the civil law, he could have found a full justi

fication

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