Country and their Church; put Kings and Queens in Prison; and then fing Ca Ira, for joy that Hell is broke loose!

I have nothing more to fay (till my next Letter) but that the Government which is most wicked, be the form of it what it will, is generally the weakeft in itself, and the most expenfive to the people: and fo, after all that can be faid, Honesty is the beft Policy, and the Honeft man is the best Subject. Keep this in your mind, Brother John; and farewell.

From your loving Brother,

THOMAS BULL.

P. S. Perhaps they may tell thee, John, that thou hast Nothing to lose, and that any change may be to thy advantage; but thou haft a Body and Soul; and if the Body goes to the Gallows, and thy Soul to the Devil, won't that be a Lofs, John ?

TEN MINUTES CAUTION,

FROM

A PLAIN MAN TO HIS FELLOW-CITIZENS.

IT

T is in general of very little importance to the reader to know who, or what fort of perfon, the writer of any thing is. But to you, fellow Citizens, I think it is material to confider who the men are whofe writings on public matters are recommended to your perufal. In this view you will permit me to tell you fomething of myself. First, then, I will tell you who I am not. I am not a Foreigner, who would gratify refentment as well as pride by throwing this country into confufion. I am not a defperate Incendiary, whofe circumftances cannot be made worfe by any change, who will take the chance of fetting the house on fire, that he may pilfer the furniture while it is burning. I am not a furious Enthufiaft in Religion or Politics, who, under pretence of Toleration in the one, or Liberty in the other, would overturn the established Church or the established Constitution. I am none of those, my brethren. I am a plain man, a tradefman, who, having acquired a competency by his honest industry, is now winding up his bufinefs in order to enjoy that competency in eafe and quiet, in his old age, in the

A 3

midft

midst of a virtuous family of his own rearing. I know nothing of great Men or Minifters, and concern myself no farther about them than as I think their measures are for the intereft of my country. I care not who fits at the Helm, provided the Veffel be well fteered.-But though I am perfectly independent as to my own circumftances, yet I am dependent as far as this goes, that the happinefs, or the profpect of the happiness, of my Fellow Citizens makes me happy; their unhappinefs, or the fear of their unhappiness, makes me unhappy.

In this character, and with thefe feelings, I am tempted to ufe my pen, for the first time in public, to caution my countrymen against the mifchief which fome men would wish to do among you; to beg of you not to endanger the peace and profperity of yourfelves and your Country to gratify their Malice, their Ambition, or their hopes of Gain.

Confider, my Friends, at what time, and in what circumstances, thofe men would perfuade us to make a change in our fituation. Would any of us think it prudent, in the way of trade, if our bufinefs were good, our fhop well frequented, our customers increasing, in fhort every thing about us in a thriving condition, all at once to alter our Firm, to change our Agents abroad, to difmifs our Clerks and Servants at home, and to tell our customers that we were to deal with them quite in a different way for the future? Would any of us do this? Or would not our relations take out a commiffion of lunacy against us if we did?-Juft as madly, my Friends, it appears to me, fhould we act, if, in the present fituation of our public affairs, we should think of altering that Constitution, under which, by the bleffing of God, we have attained, and enjoy our present National Security and Prof perity.

I thould be glad to know what advantage we are to get by the Levelling of Ranks, which those writers would perfuade us to wish for, by regaining what they call the Rights of Man. If they have a mind to go back to the woods again, and live as they fay men lived in this country two thousand years ago, let them, in God's name; but I, who am fitting in a good fnug parlour with all my family comforts around me, will rather chufe to keep as I am. If there is to be any fociety at all, I prefume fome muft neceffarily be richer and more powerful than others: but if those who have little are secure of it, I fay, as I faid before, they may be as happy as those who have the moft. As things are at prefent, I find great advantages in the riches and grandeur of fome of my country

men.

men.

I have a fet of wealthy customers who put a great deal of money into my pocket in the year, whofe expences, fuitable to their rank and fituation in life, enable me to enjoy all the folid comforts fuitable to mine,

I received, fome time ago, a letter from an old friend and correfpondent at Manchefter, full of hard words, and in a high flown ftyle, complaining of the extravagance and luxury of Dukes and Lords, who were no better flesh and blood than he or I, and asking me to put down my name to a set of Resolu tions for correcting that abufe. I thought at firft my old friend had been playing upon me, as it was about the fooling time of the year; but when I was told that there were seriously fuck Refolutions propofed at Manchester, I wrote a ferious answer. I defired him to recollect how much of my money had gone through his hands fince our firft dealings with one another, and that I believed in my confcience there was scarce a fingle Neceffary in all our accounts; fo that if Luxury was to be put down, he muft fhut up fhop. I believe my good friend was afhamed of himself, for he answered next order, and faid nothing more of the Refolutions.

my

The modern Levellers tell us what we are to gain by their plan; but, my Friends, it is neceffary for us to think what we fhould loofe by it. Every man in a decent fituation in life, even if he earns his bread by the fweat of his brow, has fomething he can call his own, fomething he feels comfortable in, and which his way of life has made more fuitable to him than the fine things of other people in a higher sphere, which is generally a fituation of more care than comfort.

Every man who has fomething to preserve for himself, and too honeft to encroach on his neighbours, will tremble at the effects of throwing loofe every bond of peace and good order. My Manchefter friends fome time ago had a tafte of the confe quences in the burning of their cotton mills.-This is a strong inftance of what are the principles lately attempted to be introduced among us. The truth is, I believe, that if this new fyftem was to take place, the effect would be, that the next day all the rich would be ruined, above half the induftrious would be foon put out of employ, and in a little time all the poor would be ftarved.

We hear a great deal about the Americans and the French, and the excellent Governments they have established; and one of the great Apoftles of the new Doctrines tells us how much we fhould profit by adopting the like Governments. In the first place, I am ftrongly inclined to fufpect the friendship of this gentleman's advice. He tells us himself,

A 4

that

that he began by doing this country all the harm in his power in favour of America; that he formed the fcheme, during the war with that country, of coming to England for the purpose of broaching his principles; and feems to have thought, that if people were mad enough to liften to him, we should foon have been in fuch a fituation, that neither America nor any other Country would have had any thing to fear from us. I am told he has fince refided principally in France, where he has probably found new reafons for making this attempt; and yet this impoftor now gravely tells you, that this is done from his great regard for your welfare: as far as himself is concerned he rifks little, as, by all accounts, he has neither property nor reputation to lofe.

This gentleman tells us we have no conftitution, and that what we have is wretchedly bad, and that therefore we should overturn it, and get the American or the French Constitution as faft as we can. I do not imagine any of my countrymen know what these Americans or French Constitutions are; and I confefs, I hardly think it worth their enquiry, while they are happy under our own. I believe, however, the fact is, that the Americans, after they left us, were under great difficulty how to go on at all. Luckily for them, Mr. Paine was not at hand to preach confufion; they had ftill fome notion left of the British Conftitution under which they had fo long lived, and they had fenfe enough to conform to it as nearly as they could. As to France, their old Government was bad enough; what it is now, it is difficult to fay: I am told that, in fact, they have no government at all; and what it will end in, he must be very wife or very bold that will guefs.

Mr. Paine tells us we are oppreffed and ruined by taxes; and he proposes, if we let him make a new Conftitution for us, to fave us a world of expence, by turning adrift all the present fervants of Government, and having only a certain number of officers by whom all the bufinefs of the Nation is to be done. Our taxes (one half of which were laid on to pay the debt of the American war, in which Mr. Paine was fo active against us), to be fure, are heavy, and I am glad to find that our prefent managers have begun to take off fome of them; but I don't find we have been ruined even by these taxes; on the contrary, we have been thriving apace under the prefent Government. But what is the reafon we pay these expences? Because the bufinefs of a nation, like that of an individual, cannot be done without paying the fervants it neceffarily employs, Mr. Paine indeed has made this wonderful discovery, that if you have fewer fervants at lefs wages, it would coft

you

you lefs. This may be very true: but if a farmer were to part with his labourers, or a manufacturer with his workmen, under pretence of diminishing his expences, and it appeared that he did this without coufidering the extent and manner of cultivating the farm, or the nature and profit of the manufacture, do you think that either would be foolish enough to take his advice? If they did, the confequence would be, that at the end of the year the farmer would be turned out of his bargain for not paying his rent, and the manufacturer would become a bankrupt.

My friends I am no philofopher, nor fine writer, though I got a tolerable education at the Charter-Houfe, and remember a little of my grammar as well as Mr. Paine. But without philofophy or fine writing, I may venture to befeech you, not to throw away all the bleffings you poffefs on a wild experiment to find something better, and that too on the authority of people who have an intereft in mifleading you. For my own part, I am come to an age that cannot look for living long to enjoy our prefent national profperity; but I have child dren and grand children; and I cannot bear to think, that folly or wickednefs fhould endanger the happiness which I hope they will inherit, by having the good fortune to be born under the British Conftitution.

A COUNTRY CURATE's ADVICE

1

то

MANUFACTURERS,

Recommended to the serious Confideration of every Workman in the various Manufacturing Towns of England and Scotland.

S every one is interested in what is going on in this country, and as at one time I was a great tickler for Equality, I am willing to communicate to my Brother Mechanics the reasons that have made me change my mind on that head; but as they will wonder how a journeyman can be fo great a Scholar, I must tell them that I was bred up at a Charity School, and took fuch a liking to learning, that before I was married, many a fhilling of my hard earnings I laid out in