ESSAYS HISTORICAL AND LITERARY. r91

excellence of this conflitution by its conformity to that ideal plan of perfect liberty which a fpe- culative fiatefman may frame in his own clofet, would be romantic ablurdity. The grand en- quiry is this--Does that form of government un» der which we live, or does it not, {Secure t0 us the full and permanent enjoyment of thofe rights which we may juPtly claim in a {late of civil fo- ciety? Dr. Price, in the ardor of his zeal, will, without hefitation, anfwer in the negative: “ for the perfons to whom the trult of government is committed are chofen for long terms; they are chofen by a part of the people only; they are fubjeEt to no control from their confiituents; and there is an higher will on which even thefe mock reprefentatives depend. So that the very idea of liberty is loll; and it is an abufe of lan- guage to retain the term.”

Notwithftanding the animation and eloquence of this declaration, it {till remains an inconteflible fat} that, from the aera of the Revolution, when the key-Ptone was put to this “ Arch of Empire,” liberty, both civil and religious, has been en- joyed by the inhabitants of thefe kingdoms in a degree far fuperior to any thing known or even

and the Gallic and Cifalpine Republics had no exifience at all. Of the two latter it would be premature to form any decided opinion till the revolutionarycrifis is pa Pr. In theory they appear admirably jufi and equitable,

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