Addrefs of the Students at the new college, Huckny, to Dr. Prifty, in confequence of the birmingham riots. Rev. Sir, W WHEN various focieties are expreffing their fenfe of your great merit, and forrow for your late fufferings, we hope that, without any violation of modefty, we too may appear among the number; and young as we are, yt dearly loving truth and liberty, avow our warm attachment to their diftinguished, their perfecuted, advocate. The lofs which the world' of fcience and of letters muft fuftain, in the destruction of your MSS, and interruption of your Rudies, we deeply feel, and deeply lament; for how can we be lovers of our brethren, or even of our ownselves, without deploring every hindrance of labours, excited by no fordid views, but intended to enlighten and improve mankind? we prefume not to appreciate thefe labours; whatever be their value they are fanctified by their object; and our indignation must be roufed when any daring hand violates the retirement of a perfon thus employed. Yet we are fure that your ftudies, though for a while interrupted, will be foon refumed; we are confident that your future publications will difplay the fame manly fpirit, will contain the fame open avowal of what you deem important truth, which has ever characterifed your productions; for you fought not the applaufe of the multitude, you cannot then be difappointed at finding them ignorant of your value; and is not the hatred of all the hireling advocates of corruption a proof that your labours have · been fuccefsful? why fhould they with to extinguifh the light, if it did not exhibit their own deformity? your friends have long acknowledged the juftice of your reafonings-but their judgments might be partial; this teftimony of your ene mies, however difagreeably expreffed, is liable to no exception; they would not hate you if they did not fear you. Another circumftance which muft have alleviated your fufferings, is the fteady attachment which fo many of your friends have displayed; not a few have publicly expreffed it, and doubtless there are many others who, formerly content with admiring your writings, will now extend their admiration to your character, and, powerful as those arguments may be by which certain of your philofophical opinions are fupported, will acknowledge that their practical influence, difplayed in your conduct, affords an argument fiill more forcible. You have, fir, one farther confolation. Though lawless violence may defroy your writings, may deftroy yourself, it cannot extinguith that fpirit of enquiry; it cannot eradicate thofe generous fentiments which you and the other enlighteners of Europe have excited; we truft that multitudes have, that multitudes will, imbibe them; we truft that our love of truth and liberty flows not from the wild and irregular enthusiasm of youth but is the effect of conviction and principle. Our bofoms glow with the idea of one day pursuing, with however unequal fteps, the courfe which you have pointed out; of entering, even in the lowest capacity, that glorious phalanx which, in contending for the rights, contends for the happiness, of man; we earneftly hope, that neither the blandithments of pleafure, nor the frowns of power, will be able to retard our progrefs; we earneftly pray that nothing this world can offer may draw us from the path of duty-for that path, we are convinced, leads to heaven. Hackney College, Sept. 20, 1791. private intereft, or of that of any particular portion of the human race. As good citizens, ftudy the welfare of your country; but look beyond that, to thofe great principles, which will infure the happinefs of all Europe and of all mankind. Such principles as thefe now excite general attention, and your tutors will give you every affittance that you can want in the Dr. Priestley's Answer to the Addrefs difcuffion of them. Shew then by of the Students. GENTLEMEN, YOUR address, as that of young with justnefs, as well as to feel with ardour, gives me peculiar pleasure, as it holds out a certain profpect, that the cause of truth and liberty will not want fupporters when all thofe of my age thall have finithed their courfe. You fee in the riots at Firmingham how naturally a failure in argument leads to violence, and alio how certainly that violence defeats its own end.-A hierarchy, equally the bane of chriftianity and of rational liberty, now confcffes its weakness; and be affured, that you will fee either its compleat reformation or its fall. Be it your ambition, my young friends, to join the fmall but noble band of thofe, who by action, or what is more honourable as well as more effectual, by fuffering, maintain the rights of all men, civil and religious. Whether you be destined for ipeculative or active life, you will not want opportunities of diftinguithing yourfelves in this glorious caufe ;, and of youth we naturally expect a generous ardour in favour of whatever is true and right, independent of your fuperior intelligence and ac tivity the fuperiority of your ad vantages over thofe of other inftitutions, which, inftead of expand dom of enquiry, effectually fetter its powers, by a fworn attachment to a particular fyftem, formed in an age of univerfal and acknowledged barbarifim. Where the fons of thofe inftitutions are dillufing their darkness, do you bring your light; affured that the fame grand luminary which has ariten on Ame rica, France, and Poland, and which has taught them all univer fal toleration in matters of religiou, will illuminate the whole world, and that, in confequence of it, all mankind will be free, peaceable, and happy. Give me leave to close this ad drefs with reminding you, how much the credit ot, the college depends upon the diligence and good behaviour of you who are ftudents, in it, and of the connexion which the good of your country and of the world has with the credit of that inititution. With fingere affection, and c good with, I am, gentlemer, · your very humbie fervaut, J. PESTLEY. London, Sept. 22 1791. New Conftitution of the Government of Poland, as eftablished by the Revo lution, May 3, 191. IN THE NAME OF GOD, ONE IN THE HOLY TRINITY, Stanislaus Auguftus, by the grace of God, and the will of the Nation, King of Poland, &c. &c. together with the Confederate States affembled in double number to represent the Polish nation. CONVI ONVINCED by a long train of experience of many defects in our government; and willing to profit by the favourable moment which has restored us to ourselves; free from the disgraceful fhackles of foreign influence; prizing more than life the external independence and internal liberty of the nation; in order to exert our natural rights with zeal and firmness, we do foJemnly establish the prefent conftitution, which we declare wholly inviolable in every part, till fuch period as fhall be prefcribed by law; when the nation, if it fhould think fit, may alter by its exprefs will fuch articles therein as hall be found inadequate. Art. I. The dominant national religion. The holy roman catholic faith, with all its privileges and immunities, fhall be the dominant national religion: but, as the fame holy religion commands us to love our neighbours, we therefore owe to all people, of whatever perfuafion, peace in matters of faith, and the protection of government; confequently, we affure to all perfuafions and religions, freedom and liberty, according to the laws of the country, and in all dominions of the republic. Art. II. Nobility, or the equeftrian order.-Revering the memory of our ancestors with gratitude, as the first founders of our. liberties, it is but just to acknowledge, in a moft folemn manner, that all the pre-eminence and prerogatives of liberty, granted to this order by Cafimir the Great, &c. &c. &c. are by the prefent act renewed, confirmed, and declared to be inviolable. We acknowledge the rank of the noble equeftrian order in Poland to be equal to all degrees of nobility-all perfons of that order to be equal among themselves, not only in the eigibility to all posts of honour, truft, or emolument, but in the enjoyment of all privileges and prerogatives; perfonal liberty, and fecurity of territorial and moveable property; nor fhall we even fuffer the leaft incroachment on either by the fupreme national power (on which the prefent form of government is eftablithed), under any pretext whatsoever; confequently we regard the prefervation of perfonal fecurity and property, as by law afcertained, to be a tie of fociety, and the very effence of civil liberty, which ought to be confidered and refpected for ever. Art. II. Towns and citizens.— The law made by the present diet, intituled, "Our royal free towns within the dominions of the republic," we mean to confider as a part of the prefent conftitution, and promife to maintain it as a new, additional, true, and effe&ual fupport, of our common liberties, and our mutual defence. Art. IV. Peasants and villagers. This agricultural class of people, the moft numerous in the nation, confequently the moft confiderable part 21 government of the Polish nation, according to the prefent conftitution: 1. Legislative power in the ftates affembled. 2. Executive power in the king and the council of inspection. And, 3. Judicial power in jurifdictions exiting, or to be established. Art. VI. The diet, or the legiflative power. The diet, or the affembly of ftates, thall be divided, into two houses, the houfe of nuncios, or deputies; and the house of fenate, where the king is to prefide. The former being the reprefentative and central point of fupreme national authority, fhall poffefs the pre-eminence in the legiflature; therefore all bills are to be decided first in this house. part of its force, we receive under the protection of national law and government; enacting, that whatever liberties, grants, and conventions, between the proprietors and villagers, either individually or collectively, may be entered authentically into in future; fuch agreements hall import mutual and reciprocal obligations, binding not only the prefent contracting parties, but even their fucceffors by inheritance or acquifition. Thus having infured to the proprietors every advantage they have a right to from their villagers, and willing to encourage most effectually the population of our country, we publish and proclaim a perfect and entire liberty to all people, either who may be newly coming to fettle, or those who, having emigrated, would 1. All general laws, conftitureturn to their native country: and tional, civil, criminal, and perpewe declare moft folemnly, that any tual taxes; concerning which matperfon coming into Poland, from ters the king is to iffae his propowhatever part of the world, or re- fitions by the circular letters fent turning from abroad, as foon as he before the dietines to every palatifets his foot on the territory of the nate and to every district for delirepublic, becomes free, and at liberation, which coming before the berty to exercife his induftry, wherever and in whatever manner he pleafes, to fettle either in towns or villages, to farm and rent lands and houles, on tenures and contracts, for as long a term as may be agreed on; with liberty to remain, or to remove, after having fulfilled the obligations he may have voluntarily entered into. Art. V. Form of government. All power in civil fociety fhould be derived from the will of the people, its end and object being the prefervation and integrity of the ftate, the civil liberty, and the good order of fociety, on an equal icale, and on a laiting foundation. Three diftin& powers thall compofe the house with the opinion expreffed in the inftructions given to their reprefentatives, fhall be taken the firft for decifion. 2. Particular laws: temporal taxes; regulations of the mint; contracting public debts; creating nobles, and other cafual recompences; reparation of public expences, both ordinary and extraordinary; concerning war; peace; ratification of treaties, political and commercial; all diplomatic acts and conventions relative to the laws of nations; examining and acquitting different executive departments, and fimilar fubjects arifing from the accidental exigencies and circumftances of the state, in which the propofitions, 1. Every general law that paffes formally through the house of nuncios, is to be fent immediately to this, which is either accepted, or fufpended till farther national deliberation. If accepted, it becomes a law in all its force; if fufpended, it fhall be refumed at the next diet; and, if it is then agreed to again by the house of nuncios, the fenate muft fubmit to it. 3. Every particular law, as foon as it has been determined by the houfe of nuncios, and fent up to the fenate, the votes of both houfes shall be jointly computed, and the majority, as defcribed by law, fhall be confidered as a decree and the will of the nation. Thofe fenators and minifters who, from their thare in executive power, are accountable to the republic, cannot have an active voice in the diet, but may be present in order to give neceffary explanations to the ftates. Thefe ordinary legislative diets fhall have their uninterrupted exiftence, and be always ready to meet; renewable every two years. The length of feflions fhall be determined by the law concerning diets. If convened out of ordinary feflion upon fome urgent occafion, they fhall only deliberate on the fubject which occafioned fuch a call, or on circumftances which may arife out of it. The law concerning the Dietines, or primary elections, as established by the prefent diet, thall be regarded as a moft effential foundation of civil liberty. The majority of votes 'fhall decide every thing, and every where; therefore we abolith, and utterly annihilate, all forts of confederacies, and confederate diets, as ruinous to fociety. Willing to prevent, on one hand, violent and frequent changes in the national conttitution. yet, confidering on the other, the neceffity of perfecting it, after experiencing its effects on public profperity, we determine the period of every twenty-five years for an extraordinary conftitutional diet, to be held purposely for the revision and fuch alterations of the conftitution as may be found requifite. Art. VII. The king, or executive power. The most perfec government cannot exist without an effectual executive power. Experience has taught us, that the neglecting this effential part of government has overwhelmed Poland with difafters. Having, therefore, fecured to the free Polith nation the right of enacting laws for themselves, the fupreme infpection over the executive power, and the choice of their magiftrates, we intrutt to the king, and his council, the higheft power of executing the laws. This council fhall be called Straz, or the council of infpection. The duty of fuch executive pow er thall be to watch over the laws, and to fee them firictly executed according to their import, even by the |