FROM the nature of the transactions in which Barillon was employed, we have little reason to fuppofe him a man of very rigid virtue. We have known foreign minifters, as well as thofe of our own country, capable of very base actions: and is it not more probable, that Barillon might charge money in his accounts as paid to SYDNEY, which in fact never was paid to him, but put into his own pocket, than that a man of SYDNEY'S noble birth, high fpirit, and inflexibility of temper, fhould be prevailed on to take money from the court of France, at least for any unworthy purpose ? THE fentiments advanced by SYDNEY, in his celebrated" Difcourfes concerning Government," are fuch as muft naturally render him odious to a defpotic court like that of France. He was the de 2 termined affertor of the rights of human nature, • confidered as a libel upon the French government, and upon fuch as was then ⚫ fetting up in Denmark by French affist⚫ance or example.' Ir one French minifter's hatred to the person and principles of SYDNEY, could lead him to testify his animolity against him in this open and indecent manner, what reafon have we to fuppofe, that another French minifter might not be capable, of inferting SYDNEY's name in the lift of French penfioners, and of introducing a paffage or two in his letters to countenance the imposition, with a view of injuring his memory and character ? THAT SYDNEY poffeffed a warm, an & ardent attachment to the liberties of his country, is evident from the whole tenor of his life, and of his writings; and hard must it be if the reputation of fuch a man could be blasted, by the unproved affertions affertions of a foreign minifter. Surely fuch a life as that of SYDNEY, fupported by his admirable writings", and fealed with his blood, are more than fufficient to counterbalance fuch evidence against him, as that contained in the papers of Barillon, as published by Sir John Dal rymple! A great part of the life of this illustrious man was spent in defending the caufe of public liberty, by his pen, and by his sword; and when his fteady adherence to the fame principles at length 22 The writer of the "Memoirs of ALGERNON "SYDNEY," prefixed to the 4to edition of his works, obferves, that " his DISCOURSES CONCERNING GO"VERNMENT alone will immortalize his name, and "are fufficient to fupply the lofs of Cicero's fix "books DE REPUBLICA, which has been fo much "regretted by men of fenfe and probity. In fhort, "it is one of the noblest books that ever the mind " of man produced; and we cannot wish a greater, "or more extenfive bleffing to the world, than that "it may be every where read, and its principles "universally received and propagated." 4 7 brought |