these islanders swear they will not lay down their arms, till the French fhall accept a government of their making!

They fay, indeed, as an excufe for the inactivity of their magiftrates, that the windows broken belong to those who are diffatisfied with the abufes that exist in the country. Now, ought they not rather to have broken the windows of thofe degenerate men who are fatisfied with abuses? But every thing in this country runs counter to the current of plain fenfe and reafon. In China, as thou knoweft, when any difcontent arifes, the Emperor enquires into its caufe, and orders the Mandarins to be punished, who have oppreffed his children, or infringed their rights. Here, when a great part of the nation complains that the Mandarins of ftate have affumed more power than belongs to them, and encroached upon the rights of the people, what means doft thou think that they take to cure the difcontent?-Why, the great Mandarins affume more powers, and encroach ftill further upon the rights of the people! Now, is not this very ftrange, Ling-ching-fing, my friend?

When I left Pekin, thou defiredft me to make enquiry into the nature of the religion profeffed by these islanders. My finall acquaintance with their barbarous idiom has not yet permitted me to inveftigate this matter so profoundly as I could wifh; but I much fear that they are addicted to the groffeft Polytheifm. It is true, I have not heard them pofitively admit the existence of more than two or three gods; but I have found, by my own obfervation, that they have a great number of deities, whom they invoke upon any sudden emergency or difafter: fuch as their god Cur-fit, and their god Sin-kit. Their most favourite deity, however, feems to be the god Dam-mee; and, if their having him for ever in their mouths be a fign of devotion, the English are the most pious people in the universe.

May the one and only God, the great Tien, preferve thee, and fend thee male children, Ling-ching-fing, my friend!-(Gazetteer.) FI-TI-LI

A VINDICATION

OF THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN FROM AN ODIOUS COMPARISON WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SEMPER ego auditor tantum numquamne reponam!

Swelling with indignation, I have read, in a late paper, letters from a dangerous and wicked correfpondent, ftating our glorious conftitution to be the fame-with a few deviations, as he expreffes it as a fanatical transatlantic republic, which, he fays, has tranfplanted every ufeful root-and, among the reft, the Habeas Corpusof our conftitution; leaving us, of courfe, nothing but the branches. This fcholaftic perfon I muft refute, after the Socratic mode, by a few plain fhort interrogatories, fuch as true loyalty fuggeft to me: for, with refpect to his " New People"-" Growing Governments"-" Permanent Eftates"-"Standing Councils" "Hereditary Effences"-and fuch like perfumery and haberdashery, I leave him to retail them to his own cuftomers, who are probably more intelligent in such wares than I pretend or defire to be.

I will begin with what they call a Prefident; whom, this correfpondent ftates to be within one step of the throne. How impudent the very idea!

Is their Prefident the fovereign Lord of America Are the lands his gift, and the people his fubjects?

Do we there hear of the Prefident's highway? the Prefident's peace? or has he homage, fealty, and allegiance, fworn to him?

Is he not deprived of the glory of quelling fedition; putting down treafon; and annihilating infurrectionbecause none exift? Why do they not exist in America, as well as here? Has not America been chiefly peopled by the dregs of our community-the convicts, and the factious Diffenters?

What wholesome restraint has he over the licentioufnefs of the prefs? What fort of a poltroon is his Attorney General, if he has one?

Has he the right of bringing in Heffians, Swifs, or

British

British troops, and of hiring 120,000 Auftrians, and 62,000 Pruffians, to fupport rational liberty-i. e. his own authority?

Has he Exchequer-bills, mitres, and coronets, at his difpofal?

Would any young Washington get 100,000l. per annum, for marrying, and his debts paid, over and over, and every time the last?

Has he the power to diffolve the congress, and create hereditary fenators without end?

Does he nominate fheriffs, and of courfe juries, to try thofe who murmur against his infallibility?

Is he head of the church? or, indeed, is there any eftablished church? and, if not, can there be any religion in that ill-fated country?

Has he a parliament of his own to fupplicate him for liberty of fpeech?

Can he make war or peace, even with the most despicable horde upon the frontier of that degraded nation?

Where are the monuments of his magnificent patronage? who has he raised to immenfe opulence, by means of multiplying places? Which of his minifters enjoy 20 or 30,000l. per annum, for complying with his wifhes?

Could he make, in time of war, a firft Lord of the Admiralty of a man who does not know the jib-boom from the hen-coop, nor the South-Sea from Lough Lomond?

Has he royal fish? If a sturgeon comes upon the coaft, does he get the whole of it? If a whale, is it enough that he gets the head, and his wife the tail for whalebone? For with us

De fturgeone obfervet quoa rex illum habebit integrum : de balena vero fufficit, fi rex habeat caput et regina caudam.-Pryn. Aur. Reg. 127.

What has a Prefident to make him refpected by the vulgar mafs? How many millions of money does he get, to diftinguifh him from other men? How many

palaces has he? How many battle-axes, kettle-drummers, trumpeters, pages, equerries, &c. attend him on

ftate

ftate-days? Who carries the fword of ftate and cap of maintenance?

Is he not-so far from holding the fovereignty in contempt of the people-elected periodically on account of his capacity, employed to perform certain duties, and remunerated like a clerk?

Does he live for ever? Can he do no wrong? On the other hand, is he not refponfible to the loweft of the rabble for every act of his administration ?

Is not the Prefident fubject to be tried before the Senate, which may turn him out of his office, and difqualify him from ever holding any place of honour, truft, or profit, and may he not afterwards be indicted and punished according to law for the very fame offence? Can he get a bill of attainder paffed, or can he by any means work a corruption of blood?

Can all his influence, in or out of his mock Parlia ment, extend fo far as to protect our holy religion from Atheifts, Deifts, Pagans, Mahometans, Papifts, or Prefbyterians, by the impofition of a falutary teft?

Inftead of being fovereign lord of all, is he not the fervant of all?

Has he a fenate compofed of members who trace their honours to the conqueft of their country, to the holy crufades, and to the bounty of ancient fovereign lords, his royal predeceffors? Has he a royal magic to communicate the fame hereditary virtues to the ignoble but rich?

Has he a fenate, with "eccentric privileges," to be hereditary counsellors and judges? Has he any holy. men in that fenate, with long fleeves and mitres, to represent tithes as the fine qua non of true religion? Has he any gentleman-ufhers of the back-ftairs, lords in waiting, black-rods, and gold-sticks, deliverers of greens, and grooms of the ftole, legiflating in that fe

nate ?

What fort of Houfe of Commons has he? Can he influence elections? Has he any close and pot-wallopping boroughs, where no property is the qualification,

to

to oppose to county elections, where property is requifite?

What does a feat in his Reprefentative House fell for at the market?Is it not fo defpicable, that instead of paying four thousand pounds, the members of it, as well as of the Senate, are so beggarly as to receive daily wages from the people for drudging through the bufinefs?

Are their privileges undefined, and only to be known by an intricate debate among themfelves, and not to be mentioned with impunity by any other?

Does that fcurvy people receive any money or preferment for their votes at elections? Is there any glory in fuch unbought votes?

Did not our glorious conftitution grow from beneath the throne of William the Conqueror, except fome deviations adopted from the Saxons; and was not the clumfy pile of American republicanism, built by the hard hands of the fanatical rabble? And is it not at the mercy of the giddy people, as often as they chufe, o alter or abolish, as they may think proper; whereas, our conftitution is not only perfect, but immortal and unperishable?

Finally, is not Washington a republican, and is not America a republic? Who then is he, that will dare to compare that vile fyftem, unhallowed by the pyrimidical orders of civilized fociety, and unfanctified by time, with our firm, but mild-fimple, but mixed-ancient, once perfect, but ftill improving, and now full-grown limited Monarchy ?

Now, Mr. Editor, I take my leave of you for the prefent; but let me warn your infidious correfpondent (whom I plainly difcover to be a concealed Jacobin) not to vilify our King and his kingdom, under the thin veil of love for a conftitution, of which he appears grofsly ignorant, by comparing it to an unfledged Republic. After this caution, fhould he ftill perfevere, let the law take its courfe; and although there is no danger of his dying a "Martyr to Liberty," he may

yet