THE POLITICAL REGISTER For JULY, 1770. NUMBER XL. I To the Printer of the POLITICAL REGISTER. SIR, Imagine you cannot do the nation a greater fervice in your department, during the calm which now fucceeds the political ftorms and hurricanes of laft winter, than by laying before the public, fuch candid and difpaffionate writings on the adminiftration of government, as have a tendency to moderate the warmth of party zeal on the one hand; and on the other, to correct the foibles and vices of high characters in office. Perhaps no better method can be devifed, to answer these valuable purposes, than to try if the virtues and abilities of our rulers will ftand the teit of thofe fixed, invariable principles, which in all ages and countries have been deemed the ground-work, or bafis of great and worthy characters, by this method we may be enabled to carry conviction and amendment home to the breafts of kings, without incurring the cenfure of being impertinent, infolent, or even difrepectful. Such is the defign of the piece I have the honour to fend you it exhibits a faithfull portrait of A GOOD KING. If it meets with the approbation of your readers, I will finifh the picture of A WISE KING; and I will be refponfible to the nation, if the fame favour is fhewn to thefe two performances, as has been granted to fome of the productions of the Royal Academy in Pall Mall, that they will be the means of restoring tranquility and harmony at home; and of recovering the credit and influence of the British crown in foreign courts. Vol. VII. B I I defire only an advantageous light, and a permanent place for them in the Royal Cabinet at the Queen's houfe; and my life for it! they will be found to furpafs in excellence, every other work of human art, treasured up in that repofitory of the Virtû. P. S. I have an English family-piece by me containing a large groupe of figures: it was the chef d'oeuvre of an ancient malter who entitled it, The GOOD SUBJECTS,-unfortunately, it lately met with an accident, for ftanding too much expofed, it was piffed upon by fome courtly curs ;-Such ftains, all good artists know, it is a difficult matter to remove however, Sir, I fhall use my best kill in repairing it, and as foon as I know my other capital pieces are received, and fecurely fixed up in the Royal Cabinet, I will fend it to keep them company; but if contrary to my expectation, they should be rejected, I fhall have it transported in its prefent condition to Guildhall, where the value of the piece, notwithstanding its modern blemishes, will be acknowledged, and the ancient mafter be venerated to latest posterity. THE GOOD KING. Rex datur propter regnum, et non regnum propter regem. TH eft nifi ad bonum. Potentia non HE falfe ideas we generally form of all external objects, are the fource of all our errors: this equally holds good in the political as in the moral world; and our irregular paffions and affections are commonly no more than the natural confequences of thofe falfe ideas prefented to us with life and fpirit. We cannot therefore be too circumfpect in fraining just ideas, not only that we may not be betrayed into a falfe judgement of things, but also, that we may not be feduced to fet our affections upon any objects, however dignified and important in appearance, which do not merit our regard by their intrinfic worth. Of all the virtues that adorn the human mind, that generally termed goodness is perhaps the leaft underflood. And from our mifapprehenfions of this accomplishment arifes a variety of falfe conceptions concerning the moft exalted ftations in life: few people conceiving, that the vulgar idea of goodness attached to fome characters renders them truly contemptible. Thus if we define it to be the effect of an eafy, indolent temper, of a genius devoid of tafte, of a weak, pufillanimous foul, eafy to be entreated, and foon won over to the purposes of others, -goodness with thefe alloys is fo unbecoming a great King, that it neceffarily incurs, firit our pity, and then cur averfion. We must therefore be extremely careful not to apply the quality of goodness to any foibles or vices, fpecies virtutibus fimilis. True goodacts being a benign propenfity in our difpofitions to beneficence, which delights in the exercife of every virtue that is beneficial to mankind. It is of a communicative, and diffufive nature, but always enlightened and replete with inexhauftible energy-rejects neverthelets infallibly, every petition which virtue does not folicit. Penetrate 1 Penetrate we ever fo little into the reafon, why the vulgar form an idea of goodness, fo indecorous to a great king, we fhall find it is because they confider it of courfe as accompanied by fome concomitant vice or defect, in which view it ceases to be a virtue, and degenerates into indolence, imbecility or timidity, and often becomes a real crime. Thus to bear with injuftice is not barely deviating from the character of being good, but it is becoming bad. To fuffer an atrocious crime to pafs unpunished, is to permit it, and to permit or to authorize in a prince, is nearly the fame. To connive at or tolerate abules, without being constrained by necefity, is indolence, and to comply when duty requires a firm denial, is not goodness, but want of refolution. A king therefore who fails in any one of thefe inftances can pretend to no more than the title of a good-natured, which ignorant people confound with that of a good king, though they are almost as different as vice from virtue. A good king is convinced of the truth of this political maxim : that it is no less inconvenient to live under the empire of a prince who is too eafy, than under one who is too fevere. He learns from it, that to purfue iniquity without referve; to be inflexible to the moft flattering and urgent folicitations of the wicked, to be vigilant in the fuppreffion of evil, and to proceed fteadily in the course of ftrict juftice, is to be truly good, because it is to reduce into practice that moft amiable virtue for the common benefit of fociety. But when confiftent with the public welfare, a good king finds an inexpreffible fatisfaction in complying with the defires of his fubjects. Confcious that men are fenfibly affected by every thing which foothes and flatters their inclinations, when these are lawful, it is his care to prevent their earliest wishes, to outftrip their warmeft defires. Such condefcenfion ravishes all hearts; and his fubjects, as one man, are difpofedto facrifice all they hold dear in the fervice of fuch a prince. The interests of a good king, and those of his fubjects are not only infeparable, but they are really one and the fame. The father and the children are too closely united to admit of a feparation of their joint concerns. A king who separates his intereft from that of his fubjects, no longer acts in the capacity of a king, he becomes in that cafe a private man, because he has his own particular views like a fimple fubject. He confiders himself then, as diffociated and divided from his people. He is a chief who does not regard himself, as united with the other members of the body politic, nor will he concur to maintain a perfect harmony with them. A good king diftributes the tendereft, moft fenfible marks of his bounty to every perfon of diftinguished merit. Thofe who are ufeful to the fate he honours with esteem, and gratifies them with riches and dignities, proportioning their advancement to their public virtue. To difcover and draw forth from its bashful retirement, concealed worth, is his moft favourite paftime. Confious that favourable circumftances and commodious fituations in life are neceffary to put fome virtues in practice, he raifes B2 the the defpondent, chears the difconfolate, and animates the timid, where he difcerns latent talents nipped only by the untimely froft of adverfity, but which cherished by his foftering hand will adorn and support the weight of government. In a word, all who are virtuous and emulous of fair fame he encourages without partiality, or other predilection than that of tranfcendent merit. To none of his fubjects will he ever put on an affuming air of fiercenefs when they are admitted into his prefence, as that would betray a character inferior to his dignity. The foul of a good king is above the pageantry of all the titles in the univerfe. Superior to his dignity he employs it always to the best purpose, and makes it fubfervient to his virtues. He never therefore endeavours to put on a ftern air before his good fubjects, his fiercenefs is reserved only for his enemies; before whom it is fometimes becoming. His afpect is truly majeftic, but then it is a majefty fo tempered with affability that it captivates mens hearts. In his perfon all is anguft and noble, but the rays of goodness which imile in his eyes, qualify that awful fplendour which furrounds the throne, and infpire the most delicious confidence. When he goes forth among his people, acclamation and tranfport accompany him, he diffufes univerfal joy, and excites the tenderest emotions of affection in their hearts. I will not add of fear, unless it be that which refults from efteem, for a good king is formidable only to bad men, on account of his jutt and wholfome laws. What could fear produce in the minds of good fubjects, which love and veneration do not much better effect? Awe diffufes an inexpreffible confcioufnefs of guilt over men's actions. A good king therefore infpires his worthy fubjects with no other than that of difobliging, or of lofing him: but perhaps it will be faid, that the complete character we are here delipeating, cannot be attained but with the utmost difficulty, and only by purfuing a thoufand different maxims which the mind. must be a long time accustomed to and trained up in. It is indeed a great happiness where the feeds of true magnanimity and virtue are early fown in the minds of princes, and a nation cannot confer too great rewards on thofe who thus educate the king that is to reign over them; but as this good fortune but rarely falls to the lot of the happiest kingdom, it may be neceffary here to affirm, that it is in every prince's power however he may have been misled by thofe who have had the care of his education, or by his own youthful paffions and caprices, to affume the character of a good king by adopting only one fimple, uncompounded principle, which rightly understood, will of itfelf complete the amiable portrait' we have drawn. It is briefly this, to look upon himself as the man of his people, or in other words, that he fhould reign as if he was born for the fake of his fubjects, Nihil aliud eft imperiam nifi cura falutis aliena: Dominion is nothing more than the guardianship of the fafe:y and happiness of others. To give full credit to this maxim, and to carry it into practice constitutes the character of a good king; whereas an erroneous and |