Thus you see, my good friend, the wretched state of our village in consequence of the arrival of this precious pair. We have a schism in the Church joined to confusion and agitation in affairs of State. What is to become of the old sober morality and rational faith between the radical reformer, who has no religion at all, and the Methodist divine, who has so much of a spurious and bastard nature? Unhappily, the two worthies do not counteract the efforts of each other: they seem rather to go hand in hand without their own knowledge or premeditation. Nothing can appear at first sight more totally at variance than their whole principles and course of proceeding: but as extremes meet, atheists are not far removed from fanatics: and moreover the poor people of the place, insensible or careless of the incongruity, are quite ready to receive their opinions in temporal concerns from the one, and in spiritual matters from the other. Yet what can be worse than this preposterous mixture of jacobinism in politics, and puritanism in religion?

You are now in full possession of my grievances. The circumstances which I have mentioned, have caused me more vexation than I can express to you. I fear that my authority is on the wane; that I may soon have nothing left but that wretched influence, which arises from the power of doing mischief, and receive from my tenantry only that forced deference and respect, which results from the fear of being ejected or oppressed. Yet it has ever been my ambition, to be not merely the landlord over them, but their protector, friend, and father.

In the mean time, the distress still continues without diminution or alleviation. It was my intention at the beginning of this letter to have entered into some details with regard to the present state of things, the causes and the remedies. But I must now delay it to a future opportunity. It is better, perhaps, to wait for a short time, and observe the operation of the late legislative enactments; nor am I at all certain, that I could throw any new light over a subject, upon which the ablest men of all parties have employed their talents and delivered their opinions.

Moreover, I am half ashamed to say, that the effect pro

duced by the two fresh performers on our little stage has almost driven the sufferings of the nation from my mind. You will judge of the impression by the quantity, which I have written. How am I to get rid of them, or to destroy their influence? Give me your advice without delay, and believe me your sincere friend, and anxious fellow-labourer,

THE PRESIDENT'S ANSWER.

MY DEAR SQUIRE,

We have taken your Letter into our serious consideration; and lose no time in giving you our opinion, and communicating-whether for your benefit, or not, we hardly know-such reflections, as have occurred to us upon its perusal.

In the first place, we have deeply to regret the dismal state of things which you have represented: but must also express our hope, that your mingled feelings of fear, dissatisfaction, and disgust have drawn a darker shade over your picture, than the occasion in reality demanded. When your reception was cordial and enthusiastic, your influence and popularity can hardly be on the decline so much as you imagine; and as long as you continue the easy landlord, and impartial magistrate, you will never lose the esteem and regard of a single tenant, whose affection is worth retaining.

But we have no intention of paying you compliments, or flattering your self-love. We mean rather to read you a sort of lecture:-happy indeed, if there are no other proprietors of estates, to whom it is more applicable than to yourself.

To begin with the old story, we think the mischief of which you complain mainly attributable to your absence from your seat. Country-gentlemen are the natural guardians of the country-people: it is therefore a matter of difficulty to estrange from them the attachment of their tenants. There is on both sides an hereditary connexion. As the landlord inherits from his ancestors a kind of

patronage and dominion over those who live upon, or around, his estate; the tenants also inherit a feeling of love, obedience, and honour for the representative of that family, which has for ages stood foremost in the neighbourhood for wealth, influence, and respectability. The former, too, have a thousand opportunities of being of service to the latter, and thus extending their own sway in daily acts and expressions of urbanity and kindness-in the cheap gifts of advice, sympathy, or consolation-in relieving their petty difficulties, and arbitrating their foolish disputes-in spending money liberally and judiciously among them, and augmenting the little profits of their trade-in considering their grievances, and forwarding their complaints to the proper authorities-in making their petitions known-in mediating, and, as it were, forming a link of connexion between them and the rulers of the country-in obtaining situations of emolument, however trifling, for their sons, nephews, or friends-in short, there are many and close ties between landlord and tenant, which can only be snapped asunder by some forcible rent; which has almost always been occasioned, if it happens at all, by the neglect or misconduct of the landlord. On the contrary, his influence is confirmed, and a respect for his person deeply rooted in those around him by habitual feelings, by ancient and honest prejudices, by the concurrence of circumstances, by the very constitution of the human mind. If their hearts are alienated from him, it is, either directly or indirectly, his own fault. They will never throw themselves into the arms of a stranger, until their natural protector has deserted or betrayed them.

But by the absence of the landlord, the prejudices are weakened, the links are dissolved, the circumstances are changed. Absence is a dereliction of his duty: a forfeiture of his claims; a scornful rejection of that certain method, by which he might make himself reverenced and beloved. The tenants and small dealers of the village feel themselves slighted, when they ought to be encouraged; and forgotten by him who is most imperatively called upon to assist and support them. They contrast the absolute loss,

which they sustain by his living at a distance, with the benefits which would result from his residence among them. His absence is a real evil to them and to himself. And, in addition to this positive mischief, it affords the best opportunities to any meddling interlopers of speaking and acting to his detriment. It is insinuated, with much plausibility, to the tradesmen and shop-keepers of the place where his estate lies, that he is altogether indifferent to their persons, and regardless of their interests: and to those who hold farms under him, that he exacts high rents from them without mercy, which he consumes on the expensive luxuries and profligate pleasures of the metropolis; or upon follies and debaucheries in other lands, among strangers and enemies. These charges are too often true: or, if a real necessity exists, either in the want of health, and the recommendation of a warmer climate; or indispensable engagements in the capital; or many other accidental causes which may arise; still his absence is a disadvantage to him: the insinuations will still be made, and how shall he refute the accusations which he does not hear; or defend himself from the calumniators with whose existence he is unacquainted?

Look to your own case, my dear Squire. You have been playing into the hands of this very jacobin, who is, justly enough, the object of your detestation. The mischief could not have happened in the same degree, if you had remained upon the spot. You would have made, probably, a more early discovery of his intentions, and might have employed some oblique method of warning your tenants against his first attempts, and thus rendering them ineffectual and nugatory. He could not have opened the trenches, or commenced his attack, or effected any lodgment in the vicinity of the fort. And if this inconvenience can happen to you, who are in fact so little of an absentee, how much more lamentable must be the evil in the case of those who hardly reside upon their estates one month out of the twelve?

We are also of opinion, that you are rather too fierce in your anger, and too precipitate in your fears. Where there are no real grievances, there cannot be much danger

in the machinations of such a man as you describe. We do not advise you to relax in your vigilance; or permit him to have the whole field to himself without opposition or molestation; or desist in your endeavours to expose him by every method which is consistent with your character, or worthy of your station. But you must not enter the lists too openly against him; you must appear at least to hold his person and his designs in dignified contempt, rather than that sensitive abhorrence which always partakes of the nature of alarm. Besides, as the old proverb says, "give him rope enough, and he will hang himself." He will throw off the mask too soon, and too entirely: he will be weary of playing the consoling friend, and the disinterested patriot: he will exhibit in their proper and repulsive shape the whole extent and flagitiousness of his schemes and wishes; and, in the end, instead of deluding and converting, will unquestionably irritate and disgust every individual of the tenants and shop-keepers on your domains, who is endued either with right feelings, or common sense. Probably, too, he will betray his utter want of moral principle, and the depravity of his private character; or abscond, without giving notice, when he has run sufficiently in debt with every body in the village. And if such an occurrence should take place, his appearance amongst you may be-come matter rather of congratulation than condolence: for the misguided politicians of the place will take warning from their past error: and having the benefit of experience, like burnt children, will not only pursue with honest execration the memory of the one impostor, who has disappointed and deceived them; but lend no countenance to the intrusion, and no ear to the harangues, of any future adventurer of the same description.

Moreover, we would just ask you, whether it is not possible that your tenant, almost without meaning to deceive you, has overcharged the picture, and represented in too glaring colours the mischievous actions and orations of this arch-enemy of order, with a view of enhancing the merit of his own sturdy opposition. You may, perhaps, be surprised and angry at our doubts: but we can hardly