is scarce worth our inquiry. But I cannot help observing, that ftrange as this law may appear at first fight, yet if we reflect upon the reasons of it, as they are affigned by Plutarch and A. Gellius, it will not appear unworthy of that great legislator.

The opinion of Plutarch is, "That Solon intended no citizen, as foon as ever he had provided for the fecurity of his own private affairs, should be so unfeeling with respect to the public welfare as to affect a brutal infenfibility, and not fympathize with the diftrefs and calamities of his country: but that he should immediately join the honefter and jufter party; and rather risque his all in defence of the fide he had espoused, than keep aloof from danger till he faw which party proved the ftronger.

The reason given by A. Gellius is more ftriking, and less liable to objections than that of Plutarch. "If (fays that writer) all the

good men in in any state when they find

themselves too weak to ftem the torrent of a furious divided populace, and unable to fupprefs a fedition at its firft breaking out,

4 Μή συναλγεῖν, μηδὲ συννοσεῖν.

fhould immediately divide, and throw themfelves into the oppofite fides, the event in fuch a cafe would be, that each party, which they had differently espoused, would naturally begin to cool, and put themselves under their direc→ tion, as persons of the greatest weight and authority thus it would be greatly in the power of fuch men fo circumftanced, to reconcile all differences, and restore peace and union, while they mutually reftrained and moderated the fury of their own party, and convinced the oppofite fide, that they fincerely wifhed and labored for their fafety, not for their deftruction.

What effect this law had in the Athenian state is no where mentioned. However, as it is plainly founded upon that relation which every member bears to the body politic, and that interest which every individual is fuppofed to have in the good of the whole community; it is ftill, though not in exprefs terms, yet virtually received in every free country. For those who continue neuter in any civil diffenfion, under the deno mination of moderate men, who keep aloof and wait quietly in order to follow the fortune of the prevailing fide, are generally ftigmatized with the opprobrious name of Time-fervers, and confe

quently neither efteemed, nor trufted by either

party.

as

As our own country is blessed with the greatest fhare of liberty, fo is it more fubject to civil diffenfions than any other nation in Europe. Every man is a politician, and warmly attached to his respective party; and this law of Solon's feems to take place as ftrongly in Britain, ever it did in the most factious times at Athens. Freedom of thought, or the liberty of the mind, arifes naturally from the very essence of our conftitution; and the liberty of the prefs, that peculiar privilege of the British fubject, gives every man a continual opportunity of laying his fentiments before the Public. Would our political writers pursue the falutary intention of Solon, as delivered to us by A. Gellius in his explication of that extraordinary law, they might contribute greatly to the establishment of that harmony and union, which can alone preserve and perpetuate the duration of our conftitution. But the oppofite views and interefts of parties make the altercation endless; and the victory over an antagonist is generally the aim, whilft the investigation of truth only, ought ever to be the real end propofed in all controverfial inquiries. The points which have lately exercised fo many pens, turn

upon the present expediency, or absolute infignificancy, of a Militia; or, what principles conduce most to the power, the happiness, and the duration of a free people. The dispute has been carried on, not only with warmth, but even with virulence. The chicane of fophiftry has been employed, whilft indecent personal reflections, and the unfair charge of difaffection, have been too often made ufe of to fupply the defect of argument, and to prejudice the reader, where they despaired of confuting the writer. Historical facts have been either misrepresented, or ascribed to wrong principles; the history of ancient nations has been quoted in general terms, without marking the different periods diftinguished by fome memorable change in the manners or conftitution of the fame people, which will ever make a wide difference in the application.

- Anxious after truth, and unfatisfied with fo many bold affertions deftitute of all proof but the writer's word, which I daily met with, I determined coolly and impartially to examine the evidence arifing from ancient hiftory, which both fides fo frequently appealed to: for bare speculative reasoning is no more conclusive in political inquiries than in physical. Facts and experience alone

:

muft decide and political facts and experience must alone be learned from hiftory. Determined therefore to judge for myself, I carefully read over the hiftories of the most celebrated republics of antiquity in their original languages, unbiaffed either by comments or tranflations; a part of history of all others the most inftructive, and most interesting to an Englishman.

As inftruction was the fole end of my inquiries, Į here venture to offer the refult of them to the candor of the Public, fince my only motive for writing was a moft ardent concern for the welfare of my country. The defign therefore of these papers is, to warn my countrymen, by the example of others, of the fatal confequences which muft inevitably attend our inteftine divifions at this critical juncture; and to inculcate the ́neceffity of that national union, upon which the ftrength, the fecurity, and the duration of a free state must eternally depend. Happy, if my weak endeavours could in the leaft contribute to an end fo falutary, fo truly defirable!

In the numerous quotations from the Greek and Latin hiftorians, which are unavoidable in a treatise of this nature, I have endeavoured to give the genuine sense and meaning of the author, to the