T H E R IS I S. NUMBER XXVI. To be continued Weekly SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1775. [ Price Two- pence Half- penny. Molle Pecus, mutumque Metu. VIRG. Mansfield derides and George such Suppliants Scorns ; You're a tame Herd ; why don't you use your* Horns. ADMINISTRATION dare not, as yet ( or else lIBErtas they the subjects rjght of petI_ TIONING the King ; but Bute and Mansfield, will not suffer even the Petition of the firat City in the Kingdom, to be received upon the Throne. Can their supreme Lordships give a Reason why ? I mean a solid Reason. It is an undoubted, and till now has been an undiluted Right, which this grateful City claims, a Right, which no ROYAL TYRANT in past Ages has controuled. This late , politic Display of Sovereign Insolence, has broke out, to dignify the present Reign; our Kings are still ready to re- ceive a Petition from the greatest City in the Universe, but they . are the Judges WHERE— at their Levee— or in their Water Closet ?— Be it ordained henceforth, that all Petitions for Redress * Immediately after the Remonstrances in Mr. Beckfords Mayoralty, Lord Mansfield made the King; in his Speech mention the Distemper which raged among the Horned Cattle, this was Cabinet- Wit, and a standing Joke at Court. of 166 THE CRISIS. ( No. XXVI. of National Grievances, shall be received WHERE they may be most useful to the Sovereign, and lead likely to rise in Judge- ment against the Minister. Is it come to this at last, that one of the most essential Rights of a British Subject is to be treated with Indignity ? Is it become a Farce that may be acted at a Sycophantic Levee, and attended to with as much affected Indifference as a Birth Day Ode ? Is the Ground and Reason of this invaluable Right forgot ? Or are the Rights of the Grown alone to be maintained, and those of the Subject trampled under Foot ? Let us enquire into the Founda- tion of the Subject's Right to address the Throne; we shall then see with what Propriety, Policy, Of decency, this Satisfaction is refused now. Whilst the Sovereign has a Right to Allegiance, the Subject has an equal Claim to Protection. These Essentials form the Bond of Union, the reciprocal Rela- tion, between the Governor and the Governed ; that the State; may enjoy the Benefits arising from this Union, the King be- comes the Head of the Body Politic, by the Suffrage of a Free People ; the People remain Members of this Body Politic, giving up their Natural Rights,, by Compact, with the Sovereign, for the Sake of Protection and good Government. These are the two great End ? which every Subject has in View. A King of Eng- land, on the other Hand has not a single Prerogative which is not, conducive to theae, two great Ends. This is the true State of an english Sovereign, and an English Subject : In consequence, a good Sovereign may well expect to be obeyed without Reluct- . ance; a loyal Subject to be heard without Contempt; if the Sovereign's Dignity must be maintained, the Subjedls Grievances must be redressed ; the one is lessened by an insolent Deport- ment, and the other aggrivated by cold Indifference. The Prince who will not hear Information, is a FOOL ; he who persists in Spite of it, is a TYRANT. It is a Maxim with us, " that the King can do no Wrong ;" the Result of every political Evil, is imputed to his Ministersy but the unthinking Prince who checks Petitions to the Throne, rashly. takes every impolitic Transgression upon himself. To this inju- dicious Conduct that weak Tyrant Charles the First, deluded- by his ministerial Sycophants, owed his Ruin, he foresaw the Storm approaching, when it was too late to take Shelter from its-- Fury his Sufferings; ( and just they were) should be a perpetual. Lesson for Crowned Heads, but alas! they are kept ( if possible) in In- fancy all their Lives, at their hazard their infamous Dependants are to rise, a wise King would not only( open his Ears, but his Arms, to the information of his Subjects,. they are his Creators, and they ought to be his Guides, they are in Truth his only Friends. are No. XXVI.] THE CRISIS. 167 Till Subjects commence Slaves, neither weak Kings, nor wicked Ministers, can stand before them, no Army is sufficient in a free Country, to encounter civil Indignation and Resentment, Iniquity never can prevail till Men have lost their Reason, those who dare to think, will dare to act. To injured Subjects the sharpest of all Incentives is Contempt, the happiest expedient is Redress, the sole Right of exercising this lenient Measure, lies in the Breast of the Sovereign; if Ministers are wicked he can discard them, if venal Parliaments, at the Back of a Minister, attempt to undermine the Constitution, he can dissolve them ; without proceeding to this extremity, he can, and it is his Duty to withold his Assent whenever any Act has improvidently passed the two Houses, which is likely to be pernicious to the Nation. In such Times of Corruption and Iniquity, every Member of the Body Politic has a Right to inform the Head ( the King) of the approaching Danger, in such Times, shall a great City be re- pulsed? if they are to be received with unusual Indignity, such an intended Reception is equal to an actual Repulse. That Prince wants Wisdom, who is not capable of reflecting that opu- lent Cities are the vital Parts of his Dominions, yet what Treat- ment has the City of London lately met with ? have they not been charged with encouraging his Majesty's rebellious Subject's ( as they are called) in America ? Is it not TREASON to encou- rage TRAYTORS? Yet my Lord Mansfield knows that the Word ( Encourage) is the Word used by his Majesty, in his An- swer to the City- Petition. Now if Subjects have a Right, ( and who dare deny it?) to Petition the Sovereign, they are intituled , to some Degree of Decency, when they approach the Throne with a Remonstrance; because these Remonstrants are a most important Part, of those People to whom the Sovereign owes his Existence and Continuance. The Majesty of a People resides in the collective Body, not in a packed Majority of smuggled Representatives in a venal House of Commons, it is not from the Luxurious and Corrupt, but from the Industrious and Commer- . cial Parts of the Kingdom, that this collective Body will take its Tone, they are the Sinews of the State. The rotten Commons, . and still more rotten Peers, are but as Straws floating lightly upon the Surface of this great Community, these are the " Bees that make the Honey, and those the idle Drones, that rob the public Hives ; yet these alone are the Persons whom the " King delighteth to Honour," they alone are received with Smiles. The incense of Flattery is grateful, the Voice ofTruth an abo- mination, to the Throne, the Sovereign ( tho' not to be forfeited with supplies) is grown sick of information ; Petitions are there- fore to be received at LEVEES, there they will be handed to : L Lord in waiting, one of the corrupt Gang) and neither opened nor heard of, afterwards, but when Petitions are received upon the Throne, a King cannot stop his Ears; their Contents, their Reception, and the Answer, are notorious, the whole World may ,68 THE CRISIS. [ No. XXVI may then look on, and either applaud the Wisdom, or be asto- nished at the Justice of the Sovereign. Can TYRANTS who violate the Laws of God, fear the sentence of this earthly Forum? Is it for this pusillanimous Reason, Public Remonstrances are to be treated like, private Petitions, presented by indignant Individuals? Are the City of London to be received like Paupers in the Corner of a Levee ? Do they come' for Alms, or for Redress ? Do they come to solicit a Pension, or to claim a Right? Do they sue for the Performance of a jobbing Contract made with a perfidious Minister, or for an Establishment and due Observence in future, of that Compact made between the Crown and the Subject, at the Revolution ? If they come in the latter Shape, the Importance of their Suit demands all the Dignity and Attention of the Sovereign. If Petitions of such a serious Nature, can be baffled by a care- less, light Reception at a Levee of Idolatrous Placemen, and needy Mendicants, every Avenue of Honest Information is shut up by the false FRIENDS of deluded MAJESTY; the Sovereign is still kept in a State of Darkness and dangerous Per- severance, for the Sake of a Ministerial GANG of Public ROB- BERS, at the Hazard of the Property, Lives, and Liberties of a whole Empire. The iniquitous Proceedings of this atrocious GANG in the last, and present Parliament, which they packed, fully justify me in branding them with the Name of PUBLIC ROBBERS. Let them look into the Black Journals of their Guilty HOUSES There they will find that Individuals, Corporations, Electing, Counties in Great Britain ( not to mention the vast Continent of America and the Colonies, Merchants, and Manufacturers, de- pendent on it) have been deprived of their Rights, their Liberties, and Lives, by that Banditti, who call themselves the KING's FRIENDS, yet act like ENEMIES to him, and to their - Country. Let me ask these National RAVAGERS, have no Royal Assents been given by their Procurement, to Bills most pernici- ous in their consequences to the whole British Empire? If so, are those Remonstrances, which seek a Repeal of these destruc- tive Acts, to be smothered in Oblivion ? Are they to be stilied by those Guilty Parents to whom they owe their Birth ? Are they to be crushed in the Pocket of some Lordly Lacquey, who at- : tends a PRIVATE LEVEE ? Shall those wicked Counsellors, who have brought on the Ruin of an Empire, stand for ever be- fore the King ? Shall Bute and Mansfield, with their dependent Shadows, North. and Apsley, still be suffered to whisper. at the Ear . of Majesty ? Whilst the Nation is justly alarmed for her Liber- ties, shall these domestic Spoilers be suffered to pursue their ' Triumph in Defiance of Great Britain and America ? They have long trembled, and are now in hourly Fear of popular Petitions. These No. XXVI] THE CRISIS. 369 These would open the Way should they at last meet with due Attention) first to their Removal from the King's PresenCe, and then to fatal Enquiries— To the Salvation of Great Britain and America, and to the Punishment of an Infernal GANG of National Parrisidesk They on the other Hand, fearing only for ' themselves, wish to stop all Access to the Sovereign's Ear, and . every Appeal to his Understanding, or his Heart. England can- not look with Unconcern upon the Sufferings of America. Her Claim is just, she sayS, and she says truely, that Taxation ( when it is for the single Purpose of taking Money out of her Pocket) and Representation are, and must necessarily be, reciprocal. In - every other Respect She submits ( as a Colony) to the Legislature of her Mother Country; She submits to all those Laws of Eng- . land, which affect the general System of Policy throughout the Empire of Great Britain; but She says wisely, that the Money which She acquires by the Sweat of her own Brow, is not the Money of the People of England; and therefore cannot be given away by such Persons as represent the People of England only. It is no Objection, that all the People of England are not repre- sented themselves ; because it is well known, that they were once represented to a Man ; but some of the poorer Counties petition- ed the King ( in the Infancy of Parliaments) that they might be excused from sending up Representatives to appear for them in the Great Council of the Nation, as they could not afford to pay their Expences and they were excused accordingly. Thus Hands the Case of America, whom Administration are labouring to bring under the absolute Yoke of their corrupt Par- liamentary Majority : Unless they can compass this, they know that neither America, nor Great Britain ( whom they keep like an Apple in their Jaw, as Hamlet says, first mouthed to be last swal- lOwed) canbe effectually enslaved. Unless America can be mas- sacred, and her refractory Numbers reduced, by Sword and Fa- mine, within a Possibility of Controul, She will set a terrible Ex ample of SPIRIT to her MOTHER COUNTRY, for whom a Net is likewise already spread. Till America is totally subdued, the Liberties of Great Britain, cannot be finally extinguished. The Aim of the present despotic Administration, and their servile MAJORITY, is plain : They wish to bring America not only un- der the Yoke of our Legislature, but of their standing Army, with which they will keep, them under Foot for ever should they con- quer noW. Should they fail in this Diabolical design; America rising from her Ruins, will erect an Empirpof her own; an Asylum for the distressed Subjects of her MOTHER COUNTRY; who, as they seem at present careless, about the RIgHTS, will at last Retain the Name of ENGLISHMEN. But should our Parricides succeed, and America be once subdued, the whole British Empire will in due Time be Slaves.—- Then will the Patriotic Scheme of our present Virtuous Administration be compleat; their Friend- ship to their KING,- their Affection for their COUNTRY ; the vain - r/ o THE CRISIS. [ No. XXVL vain Confidence of the one, the well grounded distrust of the other, will appear. The secret Machinations of the Cabinet, the superior Wisdom of the Great ' Council of the Nation, will be dis- closed, to the eternal Shame and Infamy of those, who must nei- ther presume to call themselves Britons nor Men, if they long continue thus tamely to PETITION when they ought to ACt. Then shall We all deserve the Ridicule of the Sarcastic Mansfield., and be, in very deed, a tame Herd of Animals, among whom the worst of all Distempers ( Slavery) may be said to rage; whilst we dare not avail ourselves either of our HOOFS, or HORNS. C A S C A. N. B. The Authors of the CRISIS acknowledge with gratitude, the various Favours received from their able. judiciou", and sensible, Correspondent CASCA, whiich will be carefully attended to. The Authors of the CRISIS present their respectful Compliments to CATO, and return him Thanks for his Spirited Address to the KING, which shall be made the Subject of our next Number; the Authors fear no TYRANT, nor the Instru- ments of TYRANY, and they will always pay particular attention to the future Correspondence of CATO, who breaths the Godlike Sentiments' of FREEDOM. They embrace this Opportunitty of contradicting a most Infamous Report, no less INDUSTRIOUS- LY than FALSELY Propagated by the Emissartes of the present infernal Administration. " That the CRISIS was set on Foot, and is countenanced by the Ministry as a Pretence for laying a Restraint on the Press." The Authors beg Leave to declare in the most solemn Manner, before God and Man, that such Assertions have not the least Foundation in Truth, and that they are circulated bv a Tribe of PENSIONED RASCALS, who are employed to write down Truth, and establish Falshood, only with a View to DECEIVE and MISLEAD the People, and to draw their Atten- tion from the true Channel of FAITHFUL Information, and from that DESTRUCTION with which they are now threaten- ed, The CRISIS was set on Foot with a Design to support and defend the CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS and PRIVI- LEGES of England and America, which the Authors hold equally dear with their LIVES. It was set on Foot at a Time when the LIBERTY of the PRESS was nearly destroyed, or rendered useless, by Ministerial Prosecutions; a scotch CHIEF JUSTICE, and the Dastardly Souls of narrow minded Printers, who were afraid to give a TYRANT his true Appellation. The Authors are determined to Write like ENGLISHMEN unawed by FEAR, or Prosecution, to SPEAK bold Truths, such Truths as some would fear to THINK. Freedom of Speech and Writ- ing is one of the FIRST, and most Glorious PRIVILEGES of a FREE People ; this the Authors Claim as a rIGHT, and this they are firmly Resolved; to use and Defend , for to this Privi- lege we may again stand indebted, for another REVOLUTION. • 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 received.