TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. MY LORD DUKE, It is very difficult to write on the subject of the French Revolution without being accused of partiality. I endeavoured to avoid that imputation in my Journal; but a very near connection of yours told me, that, when she was abroad, those who are called Democrates, and had read the book, declared that, with other faults, it had an intolerable leaning towards aristocracy. Those, on the other hand, who are denominated Aristocrates, were of opinion, that its greatest fault was a strong bias to democracy. In the writer's mind, however, there is no more inclination to either than is to be found in the Constitution of Great Britain, as it was established by the efforts of your Grace's ancestor, in conjunction with those of other patriots, at the Revolution in the year 1688. The present work has been executed in the same disposition, and will be exposed to the same censure. At a period when prejudices operate with unusual acrimony; when, merely from viewing a particular object in different lights, two sets of men in this country reciprocally accuse each other of designs, of which, I am convinced, neither are capable; when that spirit of hatred which alienated the minds of men from their countrymen, and even relations, on account of a difference of religious opinions, about the middle of the sixteenth century, seems to revive on account of political ones at the end of the eighteenth; at such a time, the qualities of moderation, of candour, and benevolence, under the direction of a good understanding and scrupulous integrity, derive uncommon lustre from their uncommon rarity. This consideration induced me to address the following Work to your Grace. I remain, my Lord Duke, your most obedient and obliged humble servant, CLIFFORD STREET, J. MOORE. |