In Sparta, the Helots, who were kept in a fhameful state of flavery, were much more numerous than the free Spartans. And the like obfervation may be made on the inhabitants of Rome, and the other Republican governments of antiquity.

In short, the truth is, first, that all just government is for the people, and ought to have their welfare and happiness in view as its grand object, and not the happiness of the governing few, otherwife than in common with the governed, or inferior members of the fociety; and, fecondly, all juft government is derived from the people, or founded on their confent, either expreffed or implied, fince no man, or body of men, have received an exprefs commiffion from the Supreme Being to govern their fellow-creatures; but, thirdly, it is equally true that all good government ought to be vested in a select part of the people, with the choice and confent of the reft, and not in the people at large, and that it fhould be administered by fuch felect part, and fhould be fubmitted-to by the reft of the people with chearful, respectful, and grateful, obedience, which is commonly called loyalty, till fome enormous abuses of the powers of government, by the governing part of the society, have been complained-of, and petitioned-againft, by the perfons who have fuffered from them, and yet have not been corrected and reformed, but infolently perfevered-in and repeated; in which cafe there lies in the people at large a moral right, not to govern themselves, but to diffolve the government which they had before adopted, difmifs their governours, and choose better men in their ftead, and, if neceffary, a better form of government than they had before; and then fubmit to fuch new governours and new form of government with the fame deference, refpect, and humility, with which they had before fubmitted to the former government, while it

had

had been justly adminiftered, and before the exiftence of the abuses which had given occafion to its overthrow.

Every interference of the people at large with government, beyond this, leads only to confufion and mifery.

THOUGHTS ON THE LATE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE.

To the PRINTER of the MORNING HERALD.

Mr. EDITOR,

Oct. 1, 1797.

ON reading in your Paper this morning, that the French Directory infifted, in the late negotiation at Lifle, on Great Britain's restoring all the conquests she has made both from the French and from the Dutch before they will consent to Peace with us, it occurred to me that such a demand would give us a just pretence for forming a counter-demand of fomewhat the fame nature, but much more moderate in its extent, upon them and their allies, the new Batavian Re public. This demand is, that the French Government would reftore to the Batavian Republic the town of Maestricht, and all the reft of what was called Dutch Brabant, and every thing elfe that the late Dutch Government poffeffed in the Low Countries before the French invafion; and would also cede to them the city and Marquifate of Antwerp, and the town of Oftend, with the district adjoining it; and that the Batavian Republic would restore to the prince of Orange all the eftates which have been taken from him, and which belonged to him as prince of Orange, independently of his office of Stadtholder. Such a propofal would, I fhould fuppofe, be agreeable to the Batavian Republic, as it would tend, in fome degree, to reftore them to a ftate of independence of France, of which they are at prefent little better then a province: and it would be but a fmall diminution of the large

and

and populous territories acquired by France in this unfortunate war, by the conqueft of the reft of the Auftrian Netherlands, which it is now in vain to think of wresting from them, though it is a great misfortune to us, as well as to the inhabitants of thofe provinces themselves, and to their late Sovereign, the Emperour of Germany, and to the Dutch, that those provinces have been conquered by them. For this unhappy event, we are to thank the arbitrary encroachments madeon the liberties of thofe inhabitants by the late Emperour Jofeph II. in breach of the oath he had taken to maintain those liberties, and of the Treaty of Utrecht, by which alone he had any right of fovereignty over those countries: perhaps alfo we may thank the fupineness and negligence of our own Government at that time, in not interfering with that rafh and tyrannical Emperour, in the best manner we could, to check his proceedings, and protect the liberties of those people, as being guarantees of the Treaty of Utrecht, by which thofe liberties were promised to be continued to them. These things, however, are now paft, and the mischiefs of various kinds produced by them are irreparable. But, though thofe provinces cannot now be recovered from France, yet, furely, we may hope to procure the small portions of them above mentioned to be reftored and ceded to the Batavian Republick, in order to procure it a moderate degree of independence: and this would be of great importance towards the preservation of our own independence. Perhaps, alfo, as great changes are now making over all Europe, it might be expedient for us to give up Gibraltar to the Spaniards, in exchange for the island of Minorca, which, though not quite fo ftrong as Gibraltar, could not have been taken from us, either in the year 1756, or the year 1781, if the garrison had been stronger than it was by only 1500 or 2000 men.

And, as the Weft-India Colonies will be of no ufe either to us or any other of the European States to which they belong

S 3

long, unless the negró flaves in them continue in a state of fubjection and induftry, I could wish that we should retain Martinico, and have all the other French Colonies there, fuch as Guadaloupe and St. Domingo, ceded to us, or ceded to the Spaniards, by the French; and, in confideration of such ceffions, we fhould be ready to pay to the French a fum of two or three millions of pounds fterling. This measure I fhould confider as expedient, not from an avaricious defire of monopolizing all the fugar-iflands in the Weft-Indies, but for the fake of preferving our own former fugar-iflands, which will foon be rendered useless to us, and even become a nuifance both to us and to all the commercial States in the world, if Martinico, Guadaloupe, and the other French iflands, fhall be brought into the miferable ftate of St. Domingo, by the fudden emancipation of the negro flaves. I would not, however, be fuppofed to be a friend to the Slave-trade: for I heartily with it were abolished, according to Mr. Wilberforce's benevolent, and, as I think, prudent, plan, and that without further delay. But this is quite a different queftion from that of the emancipation of the negroes already in the West-India islands; for fuch an emancipation, befides being an enormous injury to the Planters who own them, would throw every thing into confufion, and bringon the general mifery of all the inhabitants of thofe Colonies, the negroes themfelves, as well as the white men, their mafters.

It is only to avoid fuch general scenes of misery and defolation that I fhould wish to have the French islands ceded to us; and I should, therefore, be almost as well pleased to fee the whole island of St. Domingo ceded to the Spaniards (who are faid to be the mildeft and most judicious masters of flaves of any of the European nations that have fettled in America), as to the Crown of Great Britain. The prefervation of our own independance and of our property, and not the acquifition of more power, or wealth, or trade, ought now

to