XII. ON THE COMMENCEMENT OF A NEW PARLIAMENT: WITH An APPENDIX, CONTAINING REMARKS on the LETTER of the Right Hon. EDMUND BURKE, on the REVOLUTION IN FRANce. [FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1790.] A 3 [SOME time after this Tract was firft printed, an account of it was published in the MONTHLY REVIEW; and, in the course of it, the following remarks were made by the writers of that Literary Journal: The merits of "Dr. TOWERS, as a judicious and candid po"litical writer, are already well known to the public. His prefent performance discovers "the fame ardent and enlightened zeal for "liberty, undebased by any narrow party views or attachments; the fame liberal defire of extending to others, of every description, "that freedom of thought, fpeech, and action, which he claims for himfelf; the fame en larged, and truly patriotic, love of his country, "unaccompanied with any mean wish to depress "or injure: the country of his neighbours, the fame manly openness of fentiment, unmixed "with any rude perfonalities, or offenfive cen"fures; and the fame perfpicuity of ftyle; which have diftinguished his former publications."] MONTHLY REVIEW for February, 1791, Vol. IV. of the New Series, p. 226. THOUGHTS ON THE COMMENCEMENT OF A NEW PARLIAMENT. EW periods in the hif tory of mankind have been more diftinguifhed than the prefent, by great, important, and interefting events. The moft fignal, and the most unexpected revolutions have taken place. An ardent and enlightened zeal for the great interests of mankind has been manifefted, in dif ferent parts of the globe, and has produced the moft falutary confequences. It has been displayed even among thofe, who had long been enured to the galling chains of defpotifm, and who feemed to have almost totally forgotten their rights as men, and their claims as citizens. AMONG these events, the late revolution in France is one of the moft confpicuous and ftriking. The tranfition was so great, and fo extraordinary, from fuch a defpotic government as that which had long prevailed in that kingdom, to fo free a conftitution as that which is now established, that it could not, but arreft the attention of all, who were not wholly regardless of the tranfactions of foreign nations, or of the great interests of mankind. It afforded fublime pleasure to the friends of liberty, of 1 |