"mark the purpose, and limitations of the pur

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pose, I lay before you. Let them, the ca"lumniators of Thomas Paine, now attend to "his preface, where, to leave no excuse for ignorance or misrepresentation, he expresses "himself thus: I have differed from some "professional gentlemen on the subject of pro

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secutions, and I since find they are falling "into my opinion, which I will here state as fully but as concisely as I can. I will first

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put a case with respect to my law, and then 66 compare it with a government, or with what "in England is, or has been called, a consti"tution.'

"It would be an act of despotism, or what "in England is called arbitrary power, to "make a law to prevent investigating the "principles, good or bad, on which such a law "or any other is founded. If a law be bad, "it is one thing to oppose the practice of it, "but it is quite a different thing to expose its

errors, to reason on its defects, and to show

cause why it should be repealed, or why

"another ought to

"place.

be substituted in its

"I have always held it an opinion (making "it also my practice) that it is better to obey a bad law, making use at the same time of every argument to show its errors and pro"duce its repeal, than forcibly to violate it;

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because the precedent of breaking a bad law

might weaken the force, and lead to a dis66 cretionary violation, of those which are

"The case is the same with principles and "forms of a government, or of what are called "constitutions, and the parts of which they "are composed.

"It is for the good of nations, and not for "the emolument or aggrandisement of parti "cular individuals, that government ought to "be established, and that mankind are at the expence of supporting it. The defects of

every government and constitution, both as

"to principle and form, must, on a parity of

reasoning, be as open to discussion as the "defects of a law; and it is a duty every man

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owes to society to point them out: When "those defects and the means of remedying "them are generally seen by a nation, that "nation will reform its government or its "constitution in the one case, as the govern"ment repealed or reformed the law in the "other."

Mr. Erskine further says, "In that great "and calamitous conflict, the American war, "Mr. Burke and Mr. Paine fought on the same "field of reason together, but with very diffe"rent success. Mr. Burke spoke to a parlia "ment in England such as Sir G. Saville de"scribes it, that had no ears but for sounds "that flattered its corruptions; Mr. Paine, on "the other hand, spoke to a people, reasoned "with them, that they were bound by no subjection to any sovereignty further than their "own benefits connected them; and by these

"the American people for their glorious, just, "and happy revolution,"

After this he very properly replies to those silly, heated people, who object to Mr. Paine's discussing the subject he so ably handles.

"A subject which, if dangerous to be dis"cussed, he, Mr. Burke, should not have led 66 to the discussion: for surely it is not to be "endured that any private man is to publish “ a creed for a whole nation, to tell us we are

not to think for ourselves, to impose his own "fetters on the human mind, to dogmatise at "discretion, and that no man shall sit down "to answer him without being guilty of a "libel; I assert, that, if it be a libel to mistake

our constitution, to support it by means that "tend to destroy it, and to choose the most

dangerous season for the interference, Mr. "Burke is that libeller, but not therefore the

object of a criminal prosecution; for whilst "I am defending the motives of one man I "have neither right nor disposition to crimi

"nate the motives of others. All I contend for "is a fact that cannot be controverted, viz. "that this officious interference was the origin "of Mr. Paine's book. I put my cause upon "its being the origin of it, the avowed origin "of it, as will abundantly appear from the "introduction and preface to both parts, and "throughout the whole body of the work; nay "from the work of Mr. Burke himself, to "which both of them are answers."

Even Mr. Burke, writing on one of Mr. Paine's works, 'Common Sense,' says, "that ce"lebrated pamphlet, which prepared the minds "of the people for independence."

The following extract is from Mrs. Charlotte Smith's Desmond,' a novel, for matter and manner, equalled by few, and which for the excellent sentiments it inculcates is worthy the reader's attention.

"In reading the book you sent me, which "I have yet had only time to do superficially,