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The Crisis

01/07/1775

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The Crisis

Date of Article: 01/07/1775
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Volume Number:     Issue Number: XXIV
No Pages: 6
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THE CRISIS. NUMBER XXIV. To be continued Weekly. SATURDAY, JULY I, 1775.- [ Price Two- pence Half- penny. Immedicabile Vulnus Ense reddendum., ne pars sincera trahatur. OVID. The prudent Surgeon, of a Gangrene sure, By Amputation keeps the Vitals pure ; State Dissolutions thus effect a Cure. A Disease of a venal Majority in the great Council of the Nation, may be truly called a Mortifica- tion in the Body politic. This desperate Case requires a desperate Remedy. A Patriot King would neither delay, nor fear the application. It's Succefs depends upon the Hand that ope- rates. The Operation of a wholesome and salutary Desolution has been wisely intruded by our considerate Ancestors to the Sovereign. The Exertion of this great Prero- gative was petitioned for, with the greatest Reason, during the Tyranny and Iniquities of the last venal Parliament, by the first, the i54 THE CRISIS. [ No XXIV. the most loyal, and respectable Metropolis in the Universe, the City of London.. It was twice Petitioned for, and twice refused. Several other Cities and Corporations in thisKingdom were not silent, they likewise supplicated the Throne, and met with the like Repulse. This Prerogative ( a glorious one it is) is intrusted with the Sovereign by the People, to be by him exerted in the nicest and most critical Emergencies . of State. Of all the Prerogatives of the Crown, the most essential to the Constitution, the most salutary to the People, the most Honou- rable to a Patriot King, is that of dissolving Parliaments. In this respect a King of England is wiaely invested by the People, with the Power of a temporary Dictator. Ne quid detriment i Respublic a capiat. It is his Duty when either the two other Estates ( the Lords and Commons) preponderate, to interpose, as a constitutional Moderator, and to keep the Ballance even, that the Common Weal may not suffer by Democratical Passions, or Aristocratical Ambition. This Power, however, ( of Dissolution) never will be exercised by a Tyrant, and never can be exercised by a Fool, but for Purposes destructive of the Constitution; perhaps, to save a Minion, or to keep Corruption in the hopeful Channel pre- scribed for it by himself and his faithless ministers. but the People's Hopes, Addresses, and Petitions, will be vain. What can they hope from a Tyrant, or a Fool ? Either of these are equally unfit to Reign. The one will be duped by his Ministers and Favourites, the other biassed by his Lusts. Ambition fires the Tyrant, and Geugaws captivate the Fool; the one is subdued by false Glory, the other by Flattery and Show, Should the Majesty of Great Briton ever happen to be a com- pound of Fool and Tyrant, the National Misfortune will be equal. The Truth is, that so glorious a Prerogative cannot be justly exercised, or wisely conduced, without a discerning Judg- ment, No. XXIV. THE CRISIS. 155 ment, and a'good Heart; without Fortitude sufficient to throw off the Leadingstrings of presumptuous Favourites, and Sense enough to proceed without them; without Capacity to think, and Ability to act; without considering upon what Condition the Crown of England is now held, and by what Conduct alone it can be maintained; without adhering to Facts instead of Favou- rites; to Truth instead of ministerial Sophistry.-; to constitutiona[ Principles, instead of unconstitutional Councils. A smuggled, venal Parliament is more properly a great Majority, than a great Council; it is certainly not the Constitutional great Council of this Nation. A King of England is a parliamentary King; he is wisely placed at the Head of that Parliament, as having in his Breast, the executive Power of the Kingdom. The other two Estates consult and propound, but he must approve; they advise, but he confirms; they prepare Measures, but he enforces them. If those Meafures are salutary, his Assent promotes the Welfare; if pernicious, it may compleat the Ruin of his King- dom. No English King ought, no PATRIOT KING will, be the subservent Fool Of a corrupt, a wicked, or a bloody Parlia- ment. He will judiciously, and righteously, withold his Assent to such Acts, as muft inflict Dishonour and Infamy upon himself, and Destruction upon his People. The worst Consequence that can ensue, will be that this wicked, precipitate Parliament, must deliberate again upon their intended Measures. This wise Delay in a constitutional King, may be the saving of a great Nation. If a Tyrannic Parliament still persists,. a PATRIOT KING, like an honest Dictator) will dissolve such Miscreants. Thus Corruption will be extinguished, honest Representatives elected, and a good King enthroned in the Hearts of a grateful and affectionate People, whom he has thus constitutionally pro- tected from Slavery and Ruin. What? ( says some ministerial Scribler, a johnson perhaps) shall a King of England detach himself from his Parliament? I answer, Yes; if that Parliament is corrupt, wicked, and tyrannical; it is then no constitutional Parliament, but an illicit Gang; nor is he a constitutional King, but a daring and unthinking Tyrant, who adheres to them. : By So doing, he plainly shews that it is not his Intention to protect, is6 THE C R I S I S. [ No. XXIV but to enslave his People. That venerable Body alone can be called a Parliament, who are known, according . to the im jo . of the Word, ( parler le merit) to apeak their Mind, to be above all human Influence. , Can this be aaid of a aervile, deteatable, infidious, unconstitutional Majority, who come, to the great Council, with a mercenary Gagg in their Mouths, their perfidi- ous Names in the Court Calendar, and Lord Butts ( under the t Colour of Lord North's) Instractions in their Pockets? Our Kings, . it is true, are parliamentary Kings; but there is a wide difference between a Parliament and a Cabal; between Sages convened, and Voters hired, between free, constitutional States, and servile, : ministerial Dependents. When a Parliament is degenerated thus far, - they looae their ; Honour, they ought to loae their former Name; they deserve no farther Confidence. ' They would find none, in a wise and good King. No Prince who is not under the Ideocy, Insanity, , or the worst Passions, could adhere to such a Junto. Such Men are audacious in calling themselves a Parliament. They no longer Represent, but usurp; they are not faithful Servants, but assum- ing Tyrants, they are not Counsellors of the King, but Traytors to the People. A great Coundil ( or rather a great Majority) compoaed of such Monsters, such Pests of a Community, cannot be said either to regard, or to represent, a People; their Views and Interests are different. The People sue for Protection, they for Places; the People wish to support the Constitution, they to supply their . Luxury ; the People are affected by the decay of Commerce, they by the Largesses of the Minister. Can a PATRIOT KING confide in, or cooperate with such a Mock- Parliament? When we hear a . King, talk of steadily pursuing the Advice of the great Council of the Nation, it must be taken for granted, that he knows and beleves the Majority of that Council ( whose Votes are decesive of the Fate of this King- t dom) to be incorrupt. Can such Faith as this be found in Israel ? If not, a King of England may well be asked, even by the Meanest of his Subjects, why he is wicked enough, or weak enough No. XXIV.] T HE CRISIS. 157 enough, to approve, sanctify, and confirm, the despotic Acts, not of such a Parliament, but of such a traiterous Convention ? Is it his Duty in such a Case, to confide or to dissolve? In such a dangerous Crisis, the Constitution has given a judicial Power to Kings; they are Bound to exercise that Power, not for the De- struction, but for the Safety of the Commonwealth. They are not to consult the Views, the Wishes, the Interests, or Security of Ministers or Fauourices, but the Salvation of the Kingdom. - Our Laws, under which every King must submit to Reign, speaks plainly to the Sovereign,, in open, intelligible, rational Terms, when it says, " Cessa regnare, si non vis judicare" " If you will not exercise those judicial Powers, with which the " Constitution has entrusted you, resign your Crown, you are no longer fit to reign over a free People." The Word ( judicare) in the Maxim above mentioned, extends not merely to the Ex- ertion of a King's judicial Powers in civil, or criminal Cases, ( though this would be the false Interpretation of a Mansfield) but it must be taken in it's largest, and most important Sense. it is allowed by every honest, learned Interpreter, to extend to the whole System of the King's executive Powers. In that large Sense it has ever been considered by such political Writers as Locke, Sidney, Acherly, and Nathanial Bacon, who Writes so admirably on Government. This Maxim is strong, and pointed; it comes directly home to my present Purpose, and opens a large Field for no very favourable Inferences at the present Juncture. A King of Eng- land must not, cannot live for himself ( much less for his Minions) but only for his People. I speak an honeat, conftitu- tiorial Truth, when I say that he must not Indulge, but Toil. A King's Revenues, Magnificence, Splendor, Pomp, and Gran- deur, are not designed to emblazon him, but to do Honour to his Kingdom. All his glittering rays of Majesty are reflected from the People. An English Throne is not like a Turkish Sophia, to be made the idle Seat of Slumber and Repose. It is erected for the Exercise of Mercy, Truth, and Justice. Neither of these Princely attributes is concerned in maintaining Corruption, 158 THE CRISIS. [ No. XXIV. Corruption, or repelling just Suitors without Redress; nay, with ignominious Language and Contempt. It is a King of England's Duty to cleanse the Augean Stable. He is the Argus of the Commonwealth; his Eyes, his Ears, his mental Powers, must all be open to his People, whilst his royal Passions are sub- dued. He can acquire neither Honour nor Security by an inju- dicious Struggle with his Subjects. Truth and Liberty will pre- vail. Tyrants and Fools have been dethroned. Injured Sub- jects have triumphed and exulted in their turn. Minions, and abandoned Ministers have been guarded to the Scaffold; and Corruption itself, though not to be dissolved, may be, at last, extinguished, in another glorious and necessary REVOLU- TION. These are Lessons which English Princes should be Taught betimes in their Minority. By these, even King's themselves, may profit in riper Years. By these, the present obdurate, deluded Sovereign, whom Heaven has not been pleased to bless with any great share of natural Discernment, may be taught to avoid these Miseries, which must attend his rash and head- strong Perfeverance, his unjust and guilty Confidence; his Tyrannic Pride, and an infolent Contempt of that People, through whose Patience and Indulgence, he most unworthyly holds the Crown of England. y C A S C A. Printed and published for the Authors, by T. W. Shaw, in Fleet- Street, opposite Anderton's Coffee House, where Letters to the Publisher, will be thankfully received.
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