want the Embellishment of Rhetoric and Eloquence, will be received however in it's native Drefs, artlefs and undefigning, proceding freely from a Heart, wholely attached to the good of the Community, of which I am a Member, I KNOW there are popular Cries, raised both for and agains this Man. I am not moved by either. And the onely Effect they, have had on me was to awaken my Curiofity the more, and roufe me to a fearch after the Caufes, which have given Motion to the extolling or decrying him. I confefs he has a warmth in his Writings, which I can not applaud; and therefore I could wish he had kept free of it. But, I know Men's Tempers differ, as much as their Complexions. I think he takes fire too quickly, where he thinks any Incroachments are made on the Liberty of the People; but fure this is an Error on the right Side, and though I may condemn the Manner, I can not the Caufe, or the Motive. I HAVE heared it fayed, that this Man's Actions are counterfeit, that their main Spring is Ambition and private Interest. I own I can not think this a candid or humane Interpretation of the Conduct of any Man: Charity directs Us to think well of our Neighbour, until We have pregnant Proofs of Our Judgement being wrong and mif-placed. To confine this Obfervation to one Point then, and to the prefent Matter-If this Man has in every Truft, which has been committed to him, difcharged his Duty with clear Judgement and ftrict Integrity; has not wavered through Fear, or been drawn off by Influence; if he purfues the main Point, in the Front of Difficulties, which would difmay an other from the At tempt; it requires very little Judgement to look into fuch a Mind, and I think, he must have more than human Sight, who can take upon him to fay, he views Self-Intereft, Pride and Ambition at the Close of the Profpect, which this Man's Conduct presents to Us. I HAVE not yet, my Friends, confidered the Characters, or A. bilities of the other Candidates: I have not an Aversion to any one of them; nor is it from any Tincture of Oppofition that I find my Mind difpofed as it is: Nothing prevails with me, but a Confideration of the Abilities neceflary in the Perfons We should call to this Appointment; and though one may have the Pre-eminence, I do not mean to deduce from that, that there are no other of the Candidates qualified. I fhall for my felf endeavor to inform my Judgement by the Principles, on which I have fet out, with calm Candor and Impartiality; and I hope, before the Election, I shall fatisfy my Mind fo far, as to be able to give my fecond Voice hos nestly and reasonably, upon these Principles. I am, MY FRIENDS, Your affectionate Brother, Fellow-Citizen, Hay-Market, Sept. 17th, 1749. MODERATUS CENS CENSOR XVIII. SATURDAY Sept. 30th, 1749. SIR, W The FARMER to the CENSOR. HATEVER our literary Bickerings may be, I efteem the general Design and Tenor of your Writings. Pardon me, however, if I wish that you were lefs warm upon some public Topics, and lefs pointed upon fome perfonal Ones. I Do not mean, by any Abridgement of this your Spirit, to diminish your Zeal for your Country; I do not mean by lopping a fingle Twig, to touch that vital Sap, by which any Fruit of PATRIOTISM can be produced to this Kingdom. BUT, if you should be perfuaded, that fome little Check or Rein, will ferve rather to collect, than abate your Ardor, and keep to you a Referve of Strength and Speed for Occafion; you will then oblige fome Friends, who truly wish your whole Course to be compleat and unexceptionable. Ir is not, however, my Intention, by this manner of Address, to prescribe particular Terms to our future Correspondence. As I ftrole about my Farm, favourite Thoughts will occur, that yet can find no Place in a connected Subject; and if you will kindly take fuch Straglers from my Family to your Protection, you will do me a Favour and them an act of Charity, in introducing, to your generous Friend and Patron, the PUBLIC, an Offspring, which might perish without fuch Affiftance. WHEN I was lately in the Country, Five of my worthy and wealthy Neighbours, 'Squire Num, 'Squire Ranter, 'Squire Kickall, 'Squire Folly, and 'Squire Gentle did me the honour of a Vifit: They called for Refreshment, according to the good old Country Custom; and fuch as the House afforded, was lay'd before them; without adding a Farthing to the Riches of France, or giving a Penny in Return for Indian Importations. AFTER a hearty Meal; their Hounds were filenced, and their Masters began to open FARMER; fays 'Squire Jolly, what News? You are just come from Town; nothing I fuppofe but Liberty and Lucas; egad, I am no Party Man; but I love every Thing that will set a Toast about.. D-M me, Sir, cry'd Num, I drink no Toafts to reptilly Traders, I'd rather take a Dofe out of his Farmicopolum PEACE, Brother Num, fay'd Ranter, you speak like a Man of Learning; but I love that all Points fhould be argued with Sobriety. O-ns, -ns, what vexes me, is, that there fhould be fo much Rout about a Fellow that is'nt a Gentleman. WHY Oy, exclaimed Kickall, who the Devil, if he is chofen,. would ever fit in Parliament ? 'Sflefh, were I a Candidate, I'd make no more of kicking him and all his little Mechanics, than I would of kicking my Tenants round, of a bad Scenting Morning.INDEED, fay'd 'Squire Gentle, I fear that Mischief will happen, GOD grant it may all end in a Cup of mild Ale. MR. Gentle, I answered, I heartily wish as you do, and I have very good Hopes that nothing amifs will come to pafs. You are, fenfible, that, independent of any Faction or Party whatever, Elections naturally beget Revels, and Revel begets Riot; and I believe few Inftances can be given on the like Occafions, efpe-, cially in fo large a City as ours, where fome Heads have not been first heated, and afterwards defervedly broken. I WILL further own to you, that there is, at this Time, a very extraordinary Spirit among the Citizens of Dublin; but Sir, let me tell you, 'tis not a Flash from the Pan, none of your Gun-powder. Bufineffes. It has been long rifing, as you have seen the Sun in a foggy Morning; and the higher it has hitherto gotten, the more the Mift has been difperfed, and the calmer and clearer the People begin to fee every Thing about them. They will therefore no longer be led, they can obferve and judge for themselves; and their Spirit is no other than a joyous Determination, to walk for the future in the Light of Truth, and to act by the Dictates of Confcience and of Reason. WHEN the Hofter fells his Stockings, or the Butcher his Beef, he knows that he is difpofing of his own particular Property, to which no Man living but himself can pretend any Claim; he would otherwise have confulted the Proprietor on the Bargain. But with respect to the Vote with which he is intrufted by Society, he knows that it is the Property of his Country alone, and will therefore give it to the Use of the rightful Owner. He will not even be bound, by any Promife or Engagement, unduly to difpofe of that in which, fuch Numbers are interefted; he would rather bestow the Purfe or Watch in your Pocket; fince, for fuch private Injuries, he might make you fome future Reparation. But not the Indies can recal a Vote once iniquitoufly given, or recompence the wicked or imprudent Laws, that, by the Means of fuch Vote, may extend throughout this Nation, and defcend in heavy Judgements upon our Pofterity. WHILE a poor Tradesman of Dublin, acts, in the narrow Capacity of his Profeffion, he behaves himself, not only with Decency, but an humbled Complacence. But when he confiders himself as a free Voter, as a public Trustee, as a Patriot commiffion'd by his dear and confiding Country; he arifes in Stature, he is enlarged in Soul, he becomes extended through all the Claims and Interests of a Nation; he looks down on the Addreffes of Authority, he rejects the Allurements of the Great, he fands impregnable as a Rock to the Artillery Artillery of Influence, and Applications and Threats equally affail him in vain. In short, Gentlemen, thefe poor, but gallant People, have one and all moft gloriously determined, that they will not bafely and knaveifhly pocket up their Country; nor yet cruelly and weakly Jacrifice Her to a Cringe or a Compliment; nor drown Her in the prepared Bowl of Poifon and Enchantment. THIS they know to be their Duty, this is their Refolution; and in Patience and Perfeverance they expect the Event, In the Memory of Man there has not been known a Time of greater Security and Quiet in Dublin. No Rioting, no Mobbing, no Infult, or Reproach; the Voice of Licentioufnefs is not heared in their Streets; all Things keep the Order of Peace and good Government; nor has a fingle Window fuffered a Breach, or a Watchman a Blow; except in due Submiffion to the Privilege of -fome Gentleman. MANY Sages have foreboded, and many Prophets foretold, of the bloody Nofes and cracked Crowns that should be current in thefe Days; but the ill-natured Corporations of that extraordinary City have determined to mortify the fecond fight of those Soothfayers; and, rather than indulge their Divination, 'they malicioufly refolve to fuffer Injuries and Infults; for, affronted they cannot be, while they are peacefully confident in the Superiority of their Numbers, and armed in a Virtue that is fuperior to all Things. THEY are fenfible that LIBERTY is founded in Order alone; that as it enlarges the Soul, fo it fmooths the Manners; that, though it is firm to withstand the Shocks of Power, fince the World begun, it never was the Affailant, or Aggreffor: To Rudeness it returns Complacence, to Barbarifm, Humanity; it has polifhed whole Cities, it has refined whole Nations; it tempers all our Pasfions, gives Grace and Eafe to all our Actions; and thofe, who are left apt to offer Offence, have ever been the readiest to dispence with it in others. THEY themselves defire to vote freely, they will therefore leave all others free to vote. They declare themfelves the Enemies of Influence and Compulfion, no one therefore can fear from them, either Violence, or Constraint; and although they should be provoked, and even affaulted by their Adverfaries; they will fhew the Diftinction and Superiority of their Caufe, in the Superiority of their Manners, and a well-governed Conduct. THEY know, that a misguided Zeal, an unruled Rapture, even for Truth, disappoints the very End it attempted to compass. They are aware that Incentives will be prepared, and Baits hung out to their Paffions, but they themselves are alfo prepared to avoid the Lure and the Ambush. For were it poffible that Virtue should be betrayed into Violence, and the Sons of Freedom, to any Act that. tended to Licentiousness; how would the Enemies of our Ifrael rejoyce, and the Daughters of Philistines be inftructed to triumph! The great oft Foe of Liberty can not effect any Thing more pernicious, than to give it the left Appearance of Anarchy, or Riot. My Blood, Sir, fays 'Squire Num, you carry Things off finely; you make brave Heroes and Leanders of these fame Citizens of yours. But, Sir, I fay, that all fay, who are fay'd to have Senfe and Fortune, that, whoever pretends to be better than his Betters, is a Scoundrel. Why now, Mr. Farmer, We count you here, a good fenfible Kind of Man; I hear you can draw Indentures, and a poor Petition 'pon Occafion; and what the Devil, Sir, think you made me take the Peace upon me? to be plaguing my Noddle with What'icallum's, Country Juftice, and your Statutes for the Game? Why, to be fure, to keep the Place that wife Nature ordered for me; and hold your Understrappers and Infernals, under my Foot, as they fay. But, what magnifies this, Sir? For, though I say is, that should not say it, this is altogether as bad, as the good old cleanly Proverb, the Dirt to the Chamber, and the Broom to the Dunghill. It is, as it were, turning every Thing to an Arfiverfity. No Doubt, Mr. Farmer, you are a fine spoken Man, for one of your Volume. For, as I was faying, much may at all Times be gathered, where little is understood. HERE, 'Squire Ranter broke in upon the Thread of his Neighbour's Difcourfe. 'Squire Pliant juft then alighting, broke in upon his, which, for the prefent, breaks in upon that of, SIR, Your Servant, The FARMER. CENSOR XIX. SATURDAY October 7th, 1749. SIR, A To the CENSOR. MONG the many luxuriant Evils that deform the Face of the Government of this poor City, there is one, that, above all others, cries aloud for a speedy Reformation, and which has yet escaped public Cenfure: I mean the fcandalous Sale of Lord Mayor's Warrants, and the ufual Prostitution of Juftice in the City Court of Confcience. WHETHER this Enormity has been over-looked by that CITIZEN, who has, with unwearied Labor and Induftry, layed him felf out entirely for the Service of his City and his Country, or, whether, in the prefent preffing Pofture of his Affairs, for he feems to Aaaa adopt |