dued the influence of favouritism; infomuch, that it is become no uncommon spectacle in this country, to fee men promoted by the king to the highest offices, and richest preferments, which he has in power to beftow, who have been diftinguished by their oppofition to his perfonal inclinations.

By the balance of intereft, which accompanies and gives efficacy to the balance of power, is meant this, that the respective interefts of the three eftates of the empire are so disposed and adjusted, that whichever of the three fhall attempt any encroachment, the other two will unite in refifting it. If the king should endeavour to extend his authority, by contracting the power and privileges of the commons, the house of lords would fee their own dignity endangered by every advance which the crown made to independency upon the refolutions of parliament. The admiffion of arbitrary power is no lefs formidable to the grandeur of the ariftocracy, than it is fatal to the liberty of the republic; that is, it would reduce the nobility from the hereditary share they poffefs in the national councils, in which their real greatnefs confifts, to the being made a part of the empty pageantry of a defpotic court. On the other hand, if the

houfe of commons fhould intrench upon the diftinct province, or ufurp the established prerogative of the crown, the house of lords would receive an instant alarm from every new stretch of popular power. In every contest in which the king may be engaged with the representative body, in defence of his eftablished share of authority, he will find a fure ally in the collective power of the nobility. An attachment to the monarchy, from which they derive their own diftinction; the allurements of a court, in the habits and with the fentiments of which they have been brought up; their hatred of equality, and of all levelling pretenfions, which may ultimately affect the privileges, or even the existence of their order; in fhort, every principle and every prejudice which are wont to actuate human conduct, will determine their choice, to the fide and fupport of the crown. Laftly, if the nobles themfelves fhould attempt to revive the fuperiorities, which their ancestors exercised under the feudal conftitution, the king and the people would alike remember, how the one had been infulted, and the other enflaved, by that barbarous tyranny. They would forget the natural oppofition of their views and inclinations, when: they faw themfelves threatened with the return

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of a domination, which was odious and intolerable to both.

The reader will have obferved, that in defcribing the British conftitution little notice has been taken of the house of lords. The proper use and defign of this part of the conftitution, are the following: Firft, to enable the king, by his right of bestowing the peerage, to reward the fervants of the public, in a manner most grateful to them, and at a fmall expence to the nation; fecondly, to fortify the power and to fecure the ftability of regal government, by an order of men naturally allied to its interests; and, thirdly, to answer a purpose, which though of superior importance to the other two, does not occur fo readily to our obfervation; namely, to ftem the progrefs of popular fury. Large bodies of men are fubject to fudden phrenzies. Opinions are. fometimes circulated amongst a multitude without proof or examination, acquiring confidence and reputation merely by being repeated from one to another; and paffions founded upon thefe opinions, diffufing themselves with a rapidity which can neither be accounted for nor refifted, may

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may agitate a country with the most violent commotions. Now the only way to ftop the fermentation, is to divide the mafs; that is, to erect different orders in the community, with separate prejudices and interefts. And this may occafionally become the ufe of an hereditary nobility, invested with a share of legislation. Averse to those prejudices which actuate the minds of the vulgar; accustomed to condemn the clamour of the populace; difdaining to receive laws and opinions from their inferiors in rank, they will oppose refolutions, which are founded in the folly and violence of the lower part of the community. Was the voice of the people always dictated by reflection; did every man, or even one man in an hundred think for himself, or actually confider the measure he was about to approve or cenfure; or even were the common people tolerably steadfast in the judgment which they formed, I fhould hold the interference of fuperior order, not only fuperfluous, but wrong: for, when every thing is allowed to difference of rank and education, which the actual state of these advantages deferves, that, after all, is most likely to be right and expedient, which appears to be fo to the separate judgment and decifion of a great majority of the nation; at leaft, that,

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in general, is right for them, which is agreeable to their fixed opinions and defires. But when we observe what is urged as the public opinion, to be, in truth, the opinion only, or perhaps the feigned profeffions of a few crafty leaders; that the numbers who join in the cry, ferve only to fwell and multiply the found, without any acceffion of judgment, or exercise of underftanding; and that oftentimes the wisest counsels have been thus overborne by tumult and uproar,

we may conceive occafions to arife, in which the commonwealth may be faved by the reluctance of the nobility to adopt the caprices, or to yield to the vehemence of the common people. In expecting this advantage from an order of nobles, we do not suppose the nobility to be more unprejudiced than others; we only suppose that their prejudices will be different from, and may occasionally counteract those of others.

If the perfonal privileges of the peerage, which are ufually fo many injuries to the rest of the community, be reftrained, I fee little inconveniency in the increase of its number; for it is only dividing the fame quantity of power amongst more hands, which is rather favourable to public freedom, than otherwife,

The admiffion of a small number of ecclefiaftics