confound the queftion in all the inextricable ambiguity of language, the more eafily to lead aftray the judgment of the House, which the framers of the refolution defpaired of convincing.

"To represent that the rights of men in fociety do not depend on words, however artfully and logically difpofed in elaborate phrafeology; but on principles of civil fociety and government. Government,

your reprefenters have ever been taught, was for the happiness of the governed, for the maintenance of the liberty and property of those who lend to rulers their confidence. Reprefentative government is a fyftem for the conservation of the rights and properties of the reprefented; the guardian and regulator, not proprietor either for ufe or dominion. To this end no man can take his feat in your honourable House who is not qualified by property; this is one of the important bafes which give you this important fituation: our conftitution then prefumes that to this principle you will for ever advert; and as men of property, legiflators by virtue of that property, you will not be, cannot be, the violators of property.

"Your oaths too, that facred appeal to the Searcher of all hearts, whofe fcrutiny of them never relaxes, bind you in every act of, in every thought on, your duty, as great trustees of the rights and properties of the people, to adhere to the principle above ftated, confervation of property. If you ever blink this principle, and look to that of power, make this the polar flar of your policy, and lofe fight of that; all confideration of duty, of character, and of relative fituation will be fubordinate and merged; and those facred ties of confcience, the ftrongeft holds that can be taken on man, to keep paffion and iniquity in fubjection to reafon and juftice, will be hooted at as the dotages of the bigot, or the prejudices of the unenlightened. " But

B 3

"But though your reprefenters will not flay critically to examine the refolution laid on the table of the laft House of Representatives, because they infist that the Legislature hath no right, not in any exigency, nor under any neceffity, even if any exifted, which is not now pretended, to confifcate the property of our fociety, unless they mean to diffolve all the ligaments by which civil fociety is held together, they cannot forbear to notice the glaring parallogifin contained in the fixth : That the fovereignty of the State refiding in the people, they fucceeded to this benefit, as reprefenting the ancient grantees of Virginia; the King, the focial compact previous to the revolution, and private donees, in all cafes wherein an heir fhould not appear.' Here is erected the fiction, which was introduced into England by the feudal fyftem, that all landed property is derived from royal grants, for a purpose different from the adoption of any fiction that ever was countenanced in law or equity. Fiction has been defined by an able jurifprudift*, to be a fuppofition in law, for a good reafon, against the real truth of a fact, in a matter poffible to have been actually performed according to that fuppofition. Judge Blackftone defcribes its utility and force in his 3d vol. p. 43, in the following words: No fiction fhall extend to work an injury, its proper operation being to prevent a mifchief, or remedy an inconvenience that might refult from the general rule of law; so true it is, in fictione juris femper fubfiftit equitas.' The fiction introduced into the above refolve is on the principle of the feudal fyftem, that the State is the fovereign and granter of lands; a purpofe diametrically oppofite to the principles of this beneficent invention, which has for its object the convenience and accom

* COKE.

modation

modation of the citizen or fubject, not his vexation and ruin. It is fuppofed to be for a good reafon, not for the confifcation of the properties of men who have committed no crime. So cautious have our anceftors been in all poffible cafes, by the creation of fiction, to prevent mischiefs, and remedy inconvenience; so active the malignity of our enemies in extending one to work an injury contrary to its proper operation and its benevolent origin.

"The whole of these refolutions are grounded on the petitio principii, taking for granted that which has never been proved, that the church property is the property of the public. To this your reprefentants offer the moft direct contradiction. It not only is not, but never was, a property of this nature. On this affumption, as iniquitous in principle as falfe in reafoning, the claim to confifcate it is fupported. Whether it be of this defcription or not, may be a queftion of law fit for another tribunal: to that let it be carried; to that your reprefenters are amenable; and by the decifion of the dernier expounders of the law of the land, they are willing to abide. In their minds no doctrine can be more perilous to the right of all property, than this which is now affumed. Power will then be substituted to right in all cafes, when this facred right, which is decidable only by a judiciary tribunal, is held at the pleasure and mercy of legislative discretion. Then will be broken down all the facred barriers of property, and the best and faireft titles to eftates be done away, by that compendious inftrument of speedy alienation, a curt act of Affembly'."

How uniform in their courfe are baseness and robbery, whether perpetrated in an eastern or a western hemifphere! Except their horrid murders and profcriptions, no meafure attendant on the French revolution, hath brought on it more merited reprobation, than the confifcation, by the outstretch

ed arm of ruthlefs power, of the church property One, who is, alas! no more*, who was as great a statesman as he was a moralist, hath condemned this act of the National Affembly, as the confummation of tyranny: "Who," exclaims he, "but a tyrant (a name expreffive of every thing which can irritate and degrade human nature), could think of feizing on the property of men, unaccused, unheard, untried, by whole defcriptions ?"-He proceeds: "Ecclefiaftics, they fay, are fictitious perfons, creatures of the State, whom at pleasure they may deftroy, and, of course, limit and modify in every particular; that the goods they poffefs are not properly theirs, but belong to the State, which created the fictions; and therefore they are not, to trouble themselves with what these men may fuffer in their natural feelings and natural perfons, on account of what is done towards them in their conftructive character." Of what import is it, under what names you injure men, and deprive them of the juft emoluments of a profesfion? To this, fome flippant fophifter will reply, It is not in the contemplation of the enemies of the church to deprive the prefent incumbents of their freeholds.-O fhameful and fhallow artifice! Can it be supposed, that these reverend perfons will relax, in every conftitutional and legal mode, their oppofition to this iniquitous meafure, from fuch a fordid and felfish confideration as their retention of the. glebes for their lives? Were fuch a contemptible motive to influence them, they would justly merit the fcoffs and indignation of every worthy man.-No, Sir; this has no operation on their minds or conduct. They well know, they feel, this measure has its root in intolerance. The enemies of our church are not to be taught, that it cannot be fupported by voluntary contributions. Relying, as our paftors do,

* BURKE.

on

on the excellency of the inftitution, on the purity of its rites, on the fimple elegance of its liturgy, and ou its unoftentatious mode of adminiftering its fervice and its facraments, they do not addrefs themselves to the paffions of their auditors: their difcourfes do not aim at such infidious objects; they may be delivered with warmth and piety; but furious gefticulations and more furious exertions of lungs and voice, would have no other tendency than to bring on them the derifion of their congregations, and an expulfion from the altar. Our religious focicty has lefs of the intriguing fpirit of profelytifm than any other; and the profane practices that too many of the fectaries adopt for the accomplishment of this end, our clergy reject with diftain." What argument will this inftance afford to the fupporters of the test and corporation acts in England! The hand that writes this paper, by the grace of God, will narrate to fome of the dignified prelates of that church, the proceedings on this bufinefs; it will be a leffon to them, and an inftructive one, to show, that, if ever they concede one point to the enemies of the establishment, it will only encourage them in their main purfuit, the overthrow of it. All things eftablifhed, facred and profane, it is the unccafing endeavour of these men to fubvert and tread under foot; be it your object then, Sir, as it has ever been, to counteract them-proceed as you have begun; I bone, quò virtus tua te vocat: i pede faufto, Grandia laturus meritorum præmia:

Then may the fons of order and friends of America fay, your walk will not be circumfcribed, nor your reward a pittance.

A LAYMAN.

Beware of Deception.-The following articles from Brown's paper feem to me intended for no other purpose than that of deceiving the public.

"We