Can the British annals, in the compass of seventeen hundred years, produce a period more favourable to liberty, peace, profperity, commerce, and religion? In this happy reign, the prerogative meditated no invafions upon the rights of the people; nor attempted to exalt itself above the law. George the Great, but unambitious, confulted the rights of the people as well as of the crown; and claimed no powers but fuch as were granted to him by the conftitution: and what is the conftitution but the voluntary compact of fovereign and fubject? and is not this the foundation of their mutual obligations? The commons who, from their fituation in the various parts of the kingdom, are prefumed to be beft acquainted with its ftate, always found majefty condefcending to leave the interefts of the country to their deliberations; and ready to affent to all their falutary proposals. The times when parliaments were a troublesome re ftraint are forgotten, or remembered with patriotindignation. The monarch himself frowned upon the principles of arbitrary power; and was an advocate for the liberties of the people. His parliament were his faithful counsellors; to whom he communicated his measures, with all the frankness and confidence natural to confcious integrity. In an ariftocracy the House of Lords could hardly enjoy more authority and independence, nor the Houfe of Commons in a democracy more freedom of fpeech and determination, but far lefs dignity and unanimity, than under the monarchy of George the Second. In his were united the advantages of all forms of government; free from the inconveniences peculiar to each in a state of feparation. Happy! thrice happy, to live under a reign fo gentle and aufpicious! How different would have been our fituation under the baleful influence of the ill-boding name of Stuart! Fond of peace, and tender of the life and blood of man, our late moft gracious fovereign never engaged in war, but with compaffionate reluctance, and with the the unanimous approbation of his people. He drew the fword, not to gratify his own ambition or avarice, or to revenge a perfonal injury; but to defend the rights of his fubjects, to relieve the oppreffed, and to restrain and chastise the disturbers and tyrants of the world. He always aimed the thunder of Bris tain against the guilty head: but innocence had nothing to fear from the terrors of his hands. French perfidy and Auftrian ingratitude roused his generous refentment but the merit of Frederic, the Pruffian hero, the fecond champion of liberty and the protef tant religion, when oppreffed by confederate kingdoms and empires, erased the memory of past differences, and made him his friend and ally. What a vigilant, fatherly care did he extend to the infant colonies of Britain, exposed in this favage wilderness! Hence the fafety our once defenceless frontiers now enjoy. Hence the reduction of that mongrel race of French and Indian favages, who would have been the eternal enemies of humanity, peace, religion, and Britons. And hence the glory of Amherft and Wolfe; and the addition of Canada to the British empire in America. Surely the name of George the Second must be dear in these rescued provinces, and particularly in Naffau-Hall, while peace and fafety are esteemed bleffings, while the terrors of a barbarous war are fhocking to humanity, and while gratitude lives in an American breast. And George the Third will be dearer to us, as he bears the ever memorable name of our great deli verer. He never ufurped the prerogative of heaven, by affuming the fovereignty of confcience, or the conduct of the human understanding, in matters of faith and religious fpeculation. He had deeply imbibed the principles of liberty; and could well diftinguish between the civil rights of fociety and the facred rights of religion. He knew the nature of man and of Chriftianity too well, to imagine that the deter minations minations of human authority, or the fanctions of penal laws, could convince the mind of one divine truth or duty; or that the impofition of uniformity in minute points of faith, or in the forms of worship and ecclefiaftical government, was confiftent with free inquiry and the rights of private judgment; without which, genuine christianity cannot, though the external grandeur of the church may flourish. In his reign the ftate was not the dupe of afpiring churchmen, but the guardian of Chriftians in general; nor was the fecular arm the engine of ecclefiaftical vengeance, but the defence of the Diffenter as well as the Conformist; of the toleration, as well as the establishment. His reign was not stained with blood, fhed by the ferocious hand of blind bigotry : but the thoughts, the tongue, and the pen were free; and truth was armed only with her own gentle and harmless weapons; thofe weapons with which she has always fpread her conquefts, in oppofition to fires and racks; to the tortures of death, and to the powers of earth and hell. Long may Britons continue free in a world of flaves! And long may a George adorn the throne, and guard the facred rights of confcience! Was ever king more beloved by his people? Was ever government more deeply founded in the hearts of its fubjects? Whatever factions have embroiled the nation; whatever clamours have been raised against the miniftry; whatever popular fufpicions of the abilities or integrity of his fervants; ftill the king was the favourite of all; he was the center in which all parties were united. Rebellion indeed (to the horror and furprife of pofterity let it be known!) the moft unnatural, unprovoked rebellion prefumed to lift up its head even under his gracious reign, and attempted to transfer to a despicable pretender the crown conferred upon him by a free people. But how gently, and yet how effectually was the monfter quelled! And how hapVOL. III. Z z ру py have been the confequences to thoufands; particularly to the brave mifguided Highlanders; who by the munificence of that very king they risked their lives to depofe, now tafte the fweets of liberty and property; and need no farther argument in favour of the illuftrious houfe of Hanover.* The evening of his life was the meridian of his glory; and death feized him on the fummit of human greatnefs. What illuftrious victories have attended his arms in every quarter of the globe? Asia and Africa, as well as Europe and America, have trembled at his name; and felt the force of British revenge, executed by his righteous hand. What a fhining figure will the three laft years, the era of British glory, make in the history of the world! And how will they at once eternize and endear the name of George the Second! How bloody and extenfive has been the present war! And how important the interests at stake! It has fpread over both the old and new continent, like an all-devouring conflagration. Nations have bled in a thousand veins; and the precious blood of man has ftreamed by fea and land, shed by the favage hand of man. The balance of power, the liberty, the peace, and religion of Europe, as well as the independency, the freedom, the commerce, and the territories of Britain and her colonies, have been the prize in difpute; a prize equal to the whole world to us. And how gloomy and ill-boding was the af pect *The diffolution of the Highland Clans, thofe petty tyrannies, upon terms not difadvantageous to the Chiefs themfelves, and highly agreeable to their vaffals: the opening a communication into those once inacceffible regions by public roads; the establishment of proteftant miffionaries and English schools; and the introduction of manufactories, fupported by the royal bounty, and particularly by the income of the eftates confifcated in the last rebellion ;-thefe have been the gentle but effectual expedients to extirpate popery and rebellion, under the administration of George the Second.-Thefe were agreeable to fo mild a reign; and these have already done infinitely more to accomplish this patriotic and chriftian defign, than all the fevere, prepofterous measures of former ages. pect of our affairs in the first years of this war! The people factious, clamorous, and exafperated! The ministry divided, improvident, and dilatory! Commanders imprudently brave and fool-hardy, or weak and daftardly! What abortive schemes and blafted expeditions! What fanguine hopes and mortifying difappointments! What pompous undertaking and inglorious results! What British, un-British gafconade and cowardice, boafting and timidity! And what Gallic bravery and fuccefs! (Prob curia! inverfique mores!) What depredations and barbarities, what defertion and confternation upon our frontiers, through a length of above a thousand miles! What downcaft airs on every countenance! What trembling expectations in every heart! But in that anxious, dubious crifis, George was alive! (Let both fides the Atlantic refound with praifes, let every British heart glow with gratitude to the Sovereign of the univerfe, who prolonged the royal life, and preferved his capacities. unimpaired in the decline of nature!-George was alive!) And with a steady, skilful hand managed the helm in the threatning ftorm, and conducted the finking ftate, in which our All was embarked, within fight of the harbour of peace, fafety, and glory, before he refigned the charge. His gracious ear was open to the voice of the people, when he received the illuftrious Pitt to fo great a fhare of the administration. And what a happy and glorious revolution have we fince feen in the fchemes of policy and the events of war! Had heaven punifhed a guilty nation, by removing their guardian in that period of difcord,languor, dejection, and mortification, while the heir of the crown was in his minority, how dif mal might have been the confequences! Indeed we could have fincerely paid to fo good a king that eaftern compliment, O king, live for ever! for never, O lamented George! never could thy fubjects be weary of thee. But fince the mighty muft fail, as well as the feeble; fince George, the auguft and well-beloved, muft |