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24 A Quixote Scheme for fubjugating the Moors.

All his rarities, fecret manuscripts, of what quality foever, Dr. Napper of Lindford in Buckinghamshire had, who had been a long time his scholar; and of whom Forman was used to fay he would be a dunce: yet in continuance of time he proved a fingular aftrologer and physician. Sir Richard,

Jan.

were

now living, I believe has all thofe
rarities in poffeffion, which
Forman's, being kinfman and heir
unto Dr. Napper. [His fon Thomas
Napper, Efq; moft generously gave
moft of thefe manufcripts to Elias
Afhmole, Efq;]

To the EDITOR of the LONDON MAGAZINE.
SIR,

ALLING the other day on an old

Cfriend, a Spaniard, I found him
at his desk, with an old manufcript
fheet before him, which he said was
intended as a chapter in the firft edi-
tion of Don Quixote, but was fup-
preffed on account of the reflection it
might caft on the unfortunate expedi-
tion of Charles the Fifth. The title
of it is,

Of Don Quixote's famous Scheme for fub-
jugating the Moors of Barbary, with
Sancho's Remarks thereon.
"Sancho, fays Don Quixote, my
rather
converfation last night was
founded upon crude materials, but
the meditation I made thereon, when
in my bed, has produced a plan which
I have thoroughly digefted. It is no
long-winded complicated fyftem of po-
litical military arrangements; but at
first fight, one may perceive the uti-
lity of the undertaking, the moral
certainty of fuccefs, and the lasting
glory redounding therefrom. In few
words here it is.

First, the Moors have no fhips of
war, except a few Corfairs; but Spain
has a mighty navy, the greatest of
any nation; therefore we can go to
them, and they cannot come to us.

Secondly, the infidels have no difciplined troops. Their officers have not ftudied the arts of war; but we have a numerous body of difciplined veterans; our officers are knowing in all the arts of war; difcipline, artillery, attack and defence of places, &c. I have known one regiment of guards drive ten thoufand of the rabble before them in the streets of Toledo. We have only to land thirty or forty thousand men, with a proportion of cavalry, and a large quantity of artillery on the coaft of Africa. We will then lay fiege to Algiers or Tunis; of one or both, we will make military garrifons; from

whence we will fend our generals to

right and left, and straight forward, to burn and deftroy all refifting, and to receive the allegiance of those who fubmit. As faft as we conquer, we fhall eftablish a proper fyftem of government, that Spain may be repaid all the expences of her armaments; that he may retain the Moors in a ftate of dependence, and that they may pay in future a certain annual tribute.

No fooner faid than done, cries Sancho; and what part will your pray honour take in this important bufinefs? Why, Sancho, replied the knight, it is the very quinteffence of chivalry to attack infidels; and I shall offer my poor abilities to be employed in the further reduction of the great continent of Africa. I make no doubt of penetrating to the court of the great Prefter John of Ethiopia, and receiving his fubmiffion to our auguft fovereign.

Why truly, Sir, faid Sancho, nothing would redound more to the honour of our Catholic king, than to fubdue that circumcifed race of Moors; which I, like a good old Christian, have always abhorred; and no matter whether it were done by fire and fword, or by halters and axes, or even by caftration; the intention is good and praife-worthy; but I muft own I have my doubts. They cannot fight us at fea you fay; but the fea may fight for them; and it is a terrible enemy, and full of its tricks ; a Chriftian has no better chance there than an infidel. But you fay, Sir, that they are like our rabble of Toledo. Nothing more likely, or rather grant me, Sir, that Moors in Africa are like Moors in Spain, and if they get weapons in hand can do mifchief; and why not? when it is well known that most foldiers are originally rab

ble:

1776. Explanation of Berkeley's Dorine of Ideas.

ble infomuch that we may say a mob is an undifciplined army, and an army is a difciplined mob. tend, like the cobler, to go beyond I do not premy last. I am no military man, and the devil take him who invented fighting; but I have fenfe enough to fee and know, that both men and beats fight their battles in their own way, and Moors will not fight us just as we would have them do it, but in their own way. I never loved to push even a cat up into a corner, and if we invade Barbary, there is no fort of cunning stratagems but will be practifed against us. They are very expert at your on and off work; and when we hall aim at the right, they will be on the left, and contrariwife, if we push forward, they will retreat, and prefently be feen behind us. But we all know how long the fiege of Granada lafted; and thould Algiers prove as obftinate, your honour would not dine with Prefter John for two leap years to come: nay, inftead of fumptuous fare, and receiving tributes, between the Moors on one fide, and the fea on the other, we fhouid run the risk of being ftarved, and of all miferable deaths I dread it as the worst.

Here the chapter ended, and I then afked my friend, whether he intended

25

Don Quixote, as a hint to his prefent to get it put into a new edition of made feveral reflections on the preCatholic majefty? At the fame time, I dern crufades against the Moors: I fent rage of his countrymen for mocalled it Quixotifimm and I know not what.

with great patience, and then replied, Like a true Spaniard he heard me perience thews the excellency, of the My good friend, how every day's exmaxim, know thyself? How readily purfued by your neighbours the you could reprobate the meafures Spaniards! But what will you fay, you who have unthinkingly figned what is called a Tory addreis, of your own people, the English; that nation them? of philofophers, as Voltaire tiles

Read but the chapter over again, and take this key to it. and Africa read America; for Spain, For Barbary for Algiers and Grenada, Bolton, &c. England; for Moors, Americans';

gave my friend a grateful embrace, Finding myfelf caught in a trap, I and ran hone immediately to communicate this to the prefs for the benefit of all imitators of Don Quixote; of which no doubt England has its share as well as other nations.

To the EDITOR of the LONDON MAGAZINE.

SIR,

F your correfpondent G. C. from Cumberland has read the Principles of Human Knowledge, and the Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, it is plain he has not understood them. It is not the doctrine of Berkeley that ideas exist not when they are not feen, but when they are Every object of fight, of touch, of not perceived. tafte, of feiling, of hearing, is, ac. cording to Berkeley, an idea; and all ideas, whether of fenfation orreflection, whether fimple or compound, are perceptions, of which it is nonfenfe to fay that they can exift without being perceived. According to the opponents of Berkeley, thele objects of fente are not ideas, but only the cause of ideas. This diftinction obliges them to maintain the existence of fomething which is not perceived. From ideas, which are perceptions of Jan. 1776.

M.

which is not a perception of the mind.
the mind, they infer an external caufe.

then can the mind know or reafon
But it will justly be asked how
twofold existence of ideas which are
about it? This doctrine eftablishes a
perceived, and of objects which are
favourably of it, is unintelligible.
not perceived, which, to fpeak molt
When your correfpondent refects that
ther, and what ferves for food to fome
what pleases one man will difguft ano-
and abhorred by others, he will no
animals, for inftance, a fly, is loathed
longer be able to retain his opinion,
ly inherent in the cherry, independ
that the flavour of a cherry is abfolute-
ently of the perception arifing from
the tafte. I would not indeed recom-
mend your correfpondent to perplex
of this kind, which requlie particular
Limfeif any farther with speculations

E

patience

26 Declarations of the American Congress

patience of thought and diligence of attention. If however he should unfortunately be determined to perfist, I would advife him in the first place at all events to make himself perfectly mafter of what Mr. Locke has deliver

Jan.

ed on the fubject of fecondary quali ties, and in the fecond place to take care that his matter be thoroughly digefted, and understood by himself, before he ventures to expofe it to the public eye.

GENERAL CONGRESS.

E the delegates of the thirteen

0.

Philadelphia, December 6.

On which has the breach been made

Wthe denies of North Ame- Is it objected against us by the moft

rica, have taken into our most ferious confideration a proclamation iffued from the court at St James's, on the 23d day of Auguft laft. The name of his Majesty is used to give it a fanction and influence; and, on that account, it becomes a matter of importance to wipe off, in the name of thefe united colonies, the afperfions which it is calculated to throw upon our caufe, and to prevent, as far as poffible, the undeferved punishments which it is defigned to prepare for our friends.

We are accufed of "forgetting the allegiance which we owe to the power that has protected and fuftained us." Why all this ambiguity and obfcurity in what ought to be fo plain and ob vious, as that he who runs may read it? What allegiance is it that we for get? Allegiance to parliament? We never owed-we never owned it. Allegiance to our king? Our words have ever avowed it-our conduct has ever been consistent with it. We condemn, and with arms in our hands-a refource which freemen will never part with--we oppofe the claim and exercife of unconstitutional powers, to which neither the crown nor parliament were ever entitled. By the Britif conftitution, our beft inheritance, rights, as well as duties, defcend upon us; we cannot violate the latter by defending the former: we fhould act in diametrical oppofition to both, if we permitted the claims of the Britih parliament to be established, and the measures purfued in confequence of thofe claims to be carried into execution among us. Our fagacious anceftors provided bounds against the inundation of tyranny and lawless power on one fide, as well as againft that of faction and licentioufnels on the other.

inveterate, or the most candid of our enemies, that we have oppofed any of the juft prerogatives of the crown, or any legal exertion of thofe prerogatives? Why, then, are we accused of forgetting our allegiance ?---We have performed our duty: we have refifted in thofe cafes in which the right to refift is ftipulated as exprefly on our part, as the right to govern is, in other cafes, ftipulated on the part of the crown. The breach of allegiance is removed from our refiftance as far as tyranny is removed from legal government.

It is alledged that "we have pro- · ceeded to an open and avowed rebellion." In what does this rebellion confift? It is thus defcribed..." arraying ourfelves in hoftile manner to withftand the execution of the law, and traitorously preparing, ordering and levying war against the king." We know of no laws binding upon us, but fuch as have been tranfmitted to us by our ancestors, and fuch as have been confented to by ourselves or our reprefentatives elected for that purpose. What laws, ftamped with thofe characters, have we withstood? We have indeed defended them; and we will rifque every thing, do every thing, and fuffer every thing in their defence. To fupport our laws, and our liberties established by our laws, we have prepared, ordered, and levied war: But is this traitorously, or against the king? We view him as the conftitution reprefents him that tells us he can do no wrong. The cruel and illegal attacks, which we oppofe, have no foundation in the royal authority. We will not, on our part, lofe the diftinction between the king and his minifters: happy it would have been for

*See London Magazine for loft Year, p. 435.

fome

1776.

In Anfwer to the late Royal Proclamation.

fome former princes, had it been always preferved on the part of the

crown!

Befides all this we obferve, on this part of the proclamation, that "rebellion" is a term undefined and unknown in the law. It might have been expected, that a proclamation, which by the conftitution has no other operation than merely that of enforcing what is already law, would have had a known legal bafis to have refted upon. A correspondence between the inhabitants of Great Britain and their brethren in America, produced, in better times, much fatisfaction to individuals, and much advantage to the public. By what criterion fhall one, who is unwilling to break off this correfpondence, and is, at the fame time, anxious not to expofe himself to the dreadful confequences threatened in this proclamation---by what criterion fhall he regulate his conduct? He is admonished not to carry on correfpondence with the perfons now in rebellion in the colonies: How fhall he afcertain who are in rebellion, and who are not? He confults the law to learn the nature of the fuppofed crime. The law is filent upon the fubject. This, in a country where it has been often faid, and formerly with juftice, that the government is regulated by law and not by men, might render him perfectly eafy. But proclamations have been fometimes dangerous engines in the hands of those in power. Information is commanded to be given to one of the fecretaries of ftate, of all perfons whatsoever," who fhall be found carrying on correfpondence with the perfons in rebellion, in order to bring to condign punishment the authors, perpetrators, or abettors of fuch dangerous defign." Let us fuppofe, for a moment, that fome perfons in the colonies are in rebellion, and that thofe, who carry on correfpondence with them, might learn, by fome rule, which Britons are bound to know how to difcriminate them: does it follow that all correfpondence with them de

27

ferves to be punished? It might have been intended to apprife them of their danger, and to reclaim them from their crimes. By what law does a correfpondence with a criminal transfer or communicate his guilt? We know that thofe who aid and adhere to the king's enemies, and those who corre fpond with them in order to enable them to carry their defigns into effect, are criminal in the eye of the law. But the law goes no further. Can proclamations according to the principles of reason and justice, and the conftitution, go further than the law?

But, perhaps, the principle of reafon and juftice, and the conftitution, will not prevail: experience fuggefts to us the doubt: if they should not, we muft refort to arguments drawn from a very different fource. We, therefore, in the name of the people of thefe united colonies, and by authority, according to the pureft maxims of reprefentation derived from them, declare, that whatever punishment fhall be inflicted upon any perfons in the power of our enemies, for favouring, aiding, or abetting, the cause of American liberty, shall be retaliated in the fame kind and the fame degree upon thofe, in our power, who have favoured, aided or abetted, or thall favour, aid, or abet the fyftem of ministerial oppreffion. The effential difference between our cause and that of our enemies might justify a feverer punishment: the law of retaliation will unquestionably warrant one equally fevere.

We mean not, however, by this declaration, to occafion or to multiply punishments: our fole view is to prevent them. In this unhappy and unnatural controverfy, in which Britons fight against Britons, and the defcendants of Britons, let the calamities immediately incident to a civil war fuffice. We hope additions will not, from wantonnefs, be made to them on one fide: we fhall regret the neceffity, if laid under the neceflity, of making them on the other.

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Jan.

LORDS PROTEST.

HOUSE OF LORD S.

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Diffentient, ft, Becaufe this bill, by confidering the colonies in America as a foreign nation, and declaring war on them in that character, has a direct tendency to effect an entire, and, we fear, permanent feparation between the two capital parts of this empire. It is new to behold a nation -making a feparation of its parts by a law, in hopes of re uniting them by a treaty. The fovereign power has hitherto always regarded rebellion as the criminal act of individuals, and not the hoftility of any great collective body of the community. The framers of this bill admit the principle in its full force, although by all the provifions they every where contradict it; for whit the claufes of the bill confign all to punishment, the preamble only declares, that many are guilty, the legislature chufing to be confidered rather as unjuft to particulars, than confef itself to be univerfally odious. The English on both fides of the ocean are now taught by act of parliament to look on themfelves as feparate nations; nations fufceptible of general hotility, and proper parties for mutual declarations of war, and treaties of peace. We are by this act preparing their minds for that indepen

Die Veneris, 15 Decembris. dence, which we charge them with affecting, whilst we drive them to the neceffity of it by repeated injuries.

2dly, Because this bill enables and encourages the navy of England to make an indifcriminate prey of the property of English fubjects trading to or from the colonies (even of the hips which lie quiet in the American ports) without regarding whether that property belongs to friends or enemies, to the dutiful or to the dif obedient. This plan of promifcuous rapine (unworthy of the wifdom and decorum of the government) mult compleat what yet remains to be compleated, of the union in North America against the authority of parlia ment. Parliament in this bill feems much more inclined to diftrefs, than able or willing to protect. In NorthAmerica the refractory and fubmiffive may be blended together. In the Weft Indies all are innocent; but all are doomed to a much more fevere, and much more certain punishment, than falls upon the moft guilty in North America. The whole accommodation, if not the immediate fubfiftence of the Weft-India iflands, depends on a commercial connection with the continent, from which by this bill they are expressly reftrained. One of the chief, and much the mott plaufible of the complaints made last year against the North-American colonies, was a refolution on their part to withhold fupply from the fugar plantations. But this year we have made ourselves to adopt and fanctify that very conduct which we had painted to the world in fuch odious colours. It muft appear as if this bill was purpofly made against the Weft-Indies, and left the people of the united colonies might return to fentiments of fraternal affection, or from motives of felf interelt, or from impatience of fo hard a restraint, fhould difobey or elude the orders of the congrefs, and afford re

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