In this contemptuous censure, I mean not to include every single man.  In all lead, says the chymist, there is silver; and in all copper there is gold.  But mingled masses are justly denominated by the greater quantity, and when the precious particles are not worth extraction, a faction and a pig must be melted down together to the forms and offices that chance allots them: 

  “Fiunt urceoli, pelves, sartago, patellae.”

A few weeks will now show, whether the government can be shaken by empty noise, and whether the faction, which depends upon its influence, has not deceived, alike, the publick and itself.  That it should have continued till now, is sufficiently shameful.  None can, indeed, wonder that it has been supported by the sectaries, the natural fomenters of sedition, and confederates of the rabble, of whose religion little now remains but hatred of establishments, and who are angry to find separation now only tolerated, which was once rewarded; but every honest man must lament, that it has been regarded with frigid neutrality by the tories, who, being long accustomed to signalize their principles by opposition to the court, do not yet consider, that they have, at last, a king, who knows not the name of party, and who wishes to be the common father of all his people.

As a man inebriated only by vapours soon recovers in the open air; a nation discontented to madness, without any adequate cause, will return to its wits and its allegiance, when a little pause has cooled it to reflection.  Nothing, therefore, is necessary, at this alarming crisis, but to consider the alarm as false.  To make concessions is to encourage encroachment.  Let the court despise the faction, and the disappointed people will soon deride it.

PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS ON FALKLAND’S ISLANDS.

The following thoughts were published in 1771; from materials furnished to the author by the ministry.  His description of the miseries of war is most eloquently persuasive, and his invectives against the opposition, and their mysterious champion, abound with the most forcible and poignant satire.  In a letter to Mr. Langton, from Johnson, we find that lord North stopped the sale, before many copies had been dispersed.  Johnson avowed to his friend, that he did not distinctly know the reason of the minister’s conduct; but, in all probability, it was dictated by a dread of the effects of unqualified asperity, and, accordingly, in the second edition, many of the more violent expressions were softened down or expunged.  It has been thought, by some, that Dr. Johnson rated the value of the Falkland islands to England too low.—­ED.

THOUGHTS ON THE LATE TRANSACTIONS RESPECTING FALKLAND’S ISLANDS. 1771.

To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom.  The pride of wit has kept ages busy in the discussion of useless questions, and the pride of power has destroyed armies, to gain or to keep unprofitable possessions.