15 Duarte Nunes de Leao; curious in its differ

ent parts, but often extravagant.

16 Historia de Faria; written in the time of the

Philips, and therefore partial.

17 Discursos varios de Gaspar Severem de Faria; excellent in its parts and kind.

18 Europa, Asia, e Africa, de Med. de Faria; the same as the above, it being so as to history. 19 America Portugueza de Sebastian da Rocha; a very indifferent book.

20 Deduaço Chronologica; to be read with caution, having some false afsertions.

21 Todas as Memorias d'Academia Real da historia; some excellent, and many bad.

22 Provas da historia genealogica; good, and ta

(

ken from principal archives.

23 Collecsao des Leis de D.Alfonso ve.; manuscript. 24 Collecção de D. Manoel; the same. 25 Nobiliarchia Portugueza; a curious book. 26 Historia de Gangerie; good and well written. 27 de Ceuta; I believe very rare. 28 Sistima dos regimentos reais; a necefsary book. 29 Ordenaçoens do Reina; this is the principal code of printed statute laws.

30 Viagems de Fernao Mendes Pi nto.

BOOKS OF LITERATURE.

31 Camoens; well known.

32 Poesias de Bernardes; excellent in language, and a good poet in what is not divine.

33

de Ferreira; most pure in language, but a rough poet.

34 Poesias de Francisca de Sà e Miranda; our first

poet, and for that esteemed.

35 Malaca conquistada; has good passages, but much inferior to Camoens.

36 Francisco Rodrigues Lebo; pure in language, and has some good verses, except in his poem of the Constables.

37 Obras de Garçao; the best modern poet in his odes.

38 Palmerin d'Anglaterra,; a well written romance in the two first parts.

39 Novo Metodo d'estudar; a good book for the time it was written in.

40 Metodo d'estudar a Historia Portugueza; so so. 41 Obras de Pe. Vieira; excellent, only for the study of the language.

42 Obras de Pedro Nunez; one of the best mathematicians of his time.

43 Roteiro de D. Joao de Castro ao Mar Rôxo; a work worthy of its author.

44 Poesias de Fernao Alr. da Orienti; esteemed, although they have only some passages deserving of praise.

Sound philosophy, nor much knowledge, must not be hoped for in those books; as it is well known in what darkness the nation has almost al ways lain involved; and that its best times were in the age in which light began to break forth.

[To be continued.]

THE INFORMER,

No. I.

For the Bee.

Give unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's. THERE is not to be found in the annals of jurisprudence, a juster sentence than that which I have adopted as the motto to this paper. To government alone, man owes all the blessings he derives from society; under its protection he can rest in peace, afsured that he can suffer no material injury. To insure to him that tranquillity, many persons must be continually employed to reprehend and to punish offenders; and all these must be paid;—“ The labourer is worthy of his hire;" but if money be not provided to pay for that hire, where fhall he find it? Nothing, therefore, can be more just and expedient, than that the taxes imposed on the people, by an enlightened legislature, onght to be chearfully paid: Every one ought to " give unto Cæsar the things that be Cæsar's."

It does not however, follow, that all the demands of Cæsar ought to be implicitly acquiesced in, "The labourer is worthy of his hire" only when he is engaged in useful and beneficial employments. It were a great absurdity indeed, to insist that every sturdy fellow who shall be employed to annoy instead of protecting me, should have a title to claim payment for this his destructive labour. Some discrimination is neccfsary before

we can agree to comply with the injunction.

The king can do no wrong," so say our legislators, and as our king is in a continual state of pupilage, being able to do nothing without the concurrence and consent of his ministers, who may be called his guardians, it has been wisely decreed that they and not he should be answerable for his deeds. He may be weak, and incapable of judging, nor can he see any objects but through their eyes; it were therefore, cruel to make him answerable for faults that were perhaps the inevitable consequences of ignorance. The same excuse cannot be pleaded for the ministers: No necefsity compels them to accept of that station. If they feel themselves ignorant or ill informed, they commit a crime in accepting an office that requires a degree of knowledge, which no one, so well as themselves, can know, whether they possess it or not. If they are required to sanction measures that their own judgement disapproves of, they have it in their power to remonstrate against them, and if that shall not do, to resign, and thus to free themselves from the danger they might have run by carrying them into effect. If they neglect to do this, and commit crimes in office that deserve punishment, surely they are to blame, and ought to suffer for their own faults.

"The Parliament is said to be omnipotent ;" and in a political, though not in a physical sense, this may perhaps be admitted. The decrees of Parliament. are, by the constitution of this country, binding on all the people. But parliament though in this

sense it be all powerfull, consists of men who are not infallible. The decrees of this afsembly, are often weak, contradictory, unjust, and destructive to the people, for whose service the members of it were created. These decrees ought therefore to be canvassed with freedom, their tendency examined, and whenever they are plainly pernicious, their faults ought to be exposed, their baneful influence be held up to view, that the people may be enabled to unite and demand that they fhould be repealed. The minister may be impeached at the bar of the House of Lords, and punished for his crimes, the parliament may be tried by the dictates of reason, when arraigned before the tribunal of the people; and if, by their acts, they shall be convicted of ignorance or neglect of duty, they ought to be required either to correct their errors, or to give place to others who are better qualified than themselves to discharge the important functions of that office.

On these principles, I, who am a friend to government, stand up for the supremacy of reason, and lay claim to the privilege of investigating, with unlimited freedom, the tendency of decrees which have obtained the sanction of the legislature. In doing so I act the part of a friend to good government, to the king, and to my country.

The excise laws fhall be the subject of the present discussion. And here I wish to lay it down as a principle, that whatever law fhall be found to be well adapted for raising a considerable revenue to the crown; or in other words for obtainVOL, Vii,

D