the unavoidable infufficiency of the laws, and keep within their refpective bounds all thofe perfons who enjoy any fhare of public authority.

As they are thereby made fenfible that all their actions are expofed to public view, they dare not venture upon thefe acts of partiality, thofe fecret connivances at the iniquities of particular perfons, or thofe vexatious practices, which the Man in office is but too apt to be guilty of, when, exercifing his office at a distance from the public eye, and as it were in a corner, he is fatisfied that, provided he be cautious, he may dispense with being juft. Whatever may be the kind of abuse in which perfons in power may, in fuch a ftate of things, be tempted to indulge themselves, they are convinced that their irregularities will be immediately divulged. The Juryman, for example, knows that his verdict, the Judge, that his direction to the Jury, will presently be laid before the Public: and there is no Man in office, but who thus finds himself compelled, in almost every inftance, to choose between his duty, and the furrender of all his former reputation.

It will, I am aware, be thought that I speak in too high terms of the effects produced by the public news-papers. I indeed confefs that all the pieces contained in them are not patterns of good reafoning, or of the trueft Attic wit; but, on the

other hand, it scarcely ever happens that a fubject in which the laws, or in general the public welfare, are really concerned, fails to call forth fome able writer, who, under fome form or other, communicates to the public his observations and complaints. I shall add here, that, though an upright Man, labouring for a while under a strong popular prejudice, may, fupported by the confcioufness of his innocence, endure with patience the feverest imputations, the guilty Man, hearing nothing in the reproaches of the public, but what he knows to be true, and already upbraids himself with, is very far from enjoying any fuch comfort; and that, when a man's own confcience takes part against him, the most despicable weais fufficient to wound him to the quick *.

pon

* I fhall take this occafion to observe, that the liberty of the prefs is so far from being injurious to the reputation of individuals (as fome perfons have complained), that it is, on the contrary, its fureft guard. When there exifts no means of communication with the Public, every one is expofed, without defence, to the fecret fhafts of malignity and envy. The Man in office lofes his reputation, the Merchant his credit, the private individual his character, without so much as knowing, either who are his enemies, or which way they carry on their attacks. But when there exits a free press, an innocent Man immediately brings the matter into open day, and crushes his adversaries, at once, by a public challenge to lay before the public the grounds of their several imputations.

Even those perfons whofe greatness seems moft to fet them above the reach of public cenfure, are not those who leaft feel its effects. They have need of the fuffrages of that vulgar whom they affect to defpife, and who are, after all, the dispensers of that glory which is the real object of their ambitious cares. Though all have not fo much fincerity as Alexander, they have equal reason to exclaim, O People! what toils do we not undergo, in order to gain your applause!

I confefs that in a State where the People dare not speak their fentiments, but with a view to please the ears of their rulers, it is poffible that either the Prince, or thofe to whom he has trufted his authority, may fometimes mistake the nature of the public fentiments, or that, for want of that affection of which they are denied all poffible marks, they may reft contented with infpiring terror, and make themselves amends in beholding the over-awed multitude fmother their complaints.

But when the laws give a full scope to the People for the expreffion of their fentiments, those who govern cannot conceal from themfelves the disagreeable truths which refound from all fides. They are obliged to put up even with ridicule; and the coarseft jefts are not always U 4 thofe

those which give them the leaft uneafinefs. Like the lion in the fable, they must bear the blows of thofe enemies whom they defpife the moft; and they are, at length, ftopped fhort in their career, and compelled to give up thofe unjust purfuits which they find to draw upon them, instead of that admiration which is the propofed end and reward of their labours, nothing but mortification and difguft.

In fhort, whoever confiders what it is that conftitutes the moving principle of what we call great affairs, and the invincible fenfibility of Man to the opinion of his fellow-creatures, will not hefitate to affirm that, if it were poffible for the liberty of the prefs to exift in a defpotic government, and (what is not lefs difficult) for it to exift without changing the conftitution, this liberty of the prefs would alone form a counterpoife to the power of the Prince, If, for example, in an empire of the Eaft, a fanctuary could be found, which, rendered refpectable by the ancient religion of the people, might infure fafety to those who should bring thither their obfervations of any kind, and that from thence printed papers fhould iffue, which, under a certain feal, might be equally refpected, and which in their daily appearance fhould examine and freely difcufs the conduct of

the

the Cadis, the Bafhaws, the Vizir, the Divan, and the Sultan himself,-that would introduce immediately fome degree of liberty,

CHA P. XIII.

The Subject continued.

ANOTHER effect, and a very confiderable one, of the liberty of the prefs, is, that it enables the People effectually to exert thofe means which the Conftitution has bestowed on them, of influencing the motions of the Government.

It has been obferved in a former place, how it came to be a matter of impoffibility for any large number of men, when obliged to act in a body, and upon the spot, to take any well-weighed refolution. But this inconvenience, which is the inevitable confequence of their fituation, does in no wife argue a personal inferiority in them, with respect to the: few who, from fome accidental advantages, are enabled to influence their determinations. It is not Fortune, it is Nature, that has made the effential differences between Men; and whatever appellation a small number of perfons who speak without fufficient reflection, may affix to the general body of their fellow-creatures, the whole dif

ference