The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-01-27 00:00:00

PAINE'S.' RIGHTS OF M;IN."

[From TA. Frenesan'a JournaLl

About five-and-twenty years ago the following
apnlogue appeared in our piper; and the present
seems no inopportune moment for its re-insertion.
When the lifeless remains of the wild Reformist
are brought from their obscurity, we may with
some propriety evoke the sober spirit by which his
ertravagatice was encountered. %Ve trust we shall
be pardoned for observing, that what we are about
to re-insert was, soon after its appearance, known
to have come from the lieu of Baron Smith—a sale-
ment which we would not make, if we thought this
effusion of his youth calculated to detract from the
reputation of his maturer age. But such is nut
our opinion; and we are, moreover, pleased at dis-
covering in this sportive production, one of the
many proofs which are to be found. that the friend
of constitutional freedom not only may be, hut is
most likely to be, the strong advocate of subordi-
nation and of social order :

RIGHTS OF WATERS,
♦ 111111. E

Intended as a companion ioPaiue's Fable of " The Rights
of Man."
/lamina: via rides' "Wale vsoludoe, de ft
Fabada narroger.—Hon.
Frans that famed well my watery precepts glide,
Where Naiad Troth is stand to unite.
laugh not, ye wild Rtformists: those who riesir
My 'beans, with cart, will wee refleeterl—yens.

In I know not what century after the flood (the reader can
look into Btair's tables of chrouislogy), a spirit of Insult and
philosophy is said to have moved upon the face of the waters.
[Liver. which (could it be fens want of all reflection?) had
been quietly gliding within their banks for ages, now disco.
'reed themselves to be in such • state of depravity, as re-
qnired a recurrence tam first principles for it• cure; and Rights
of Walters were making a rapid progress through She globe.
It was argued, that this confinenseut within banks was •
restraint winch they had heedlessly imposed upon them-
selves, contrary to the liberal intentions of Nature. They
were created fountain', with equal natural rights; anal
deemed is expedient to go back to their sources, as the only
means of accurate investigation. They (villa not see why
some particles of water should be thrust down by others
DO better thau themselves. Their forerunners, it was true,
had been subsnitling to t'd. coercion lime out of mired. But
what was this to them? The rights of living waters must
not be thiss controlled and spotted away (I). Divisions of
water, lain lake" and risers, springs and puddles, they una.
nimously decried, los mere artificial sold aristocratical din.
sanctions; sod fan‘so.l their researches to that early period,
rhea water came frost Ike hands of ile Maker. Olaf seas
it Vets! Wafer. Water was ire lapis and only tale (2).

Now, a runtime went, that in the days of Noah, • great
aquatic revolution hail lake place ; when •11 things were
redecerl to a philosophic level; beneath the •auction' of
which precedent, it was agreed on by the rivers, that they
world out any longer be imprisoned within banks, nor
drives headlong in one direction, at the arbitrary will of
fountains, bet would shed their last drop in asserting the
rights of waters.
Obscure as to his origin (3), ungovernable in his temper,
and a leveller is principles, Name led the way, and Egypt
was covers.l with an inundation. Every cultivated inrqu•-
lity was overwhelmed, and all distinctions levelled to uni-
formity. Nature was sopposed to have resumed her rights,
and Philosophy admired the grand simplicity of rain ! When,
lo! the tide of tumult ebbed, and eminences were seen to gel
their beads above water. The party was dilly contioning to
gain ground, and all things tended to a counter revolution.
What had tiro been deemed the effort of enlightened virter,
was now looked on as the rash of vulgar and isconsidcrete
violence. What originally seemed calculated to promote
the views of Notate, was eon seen to be directed in oppo-
sition to her will; while events had, in the mean time, been
suggesting her omnipotence—that to combat her was dam-
geroas, tool to conquer her impossible (4).
Suck was the result, and the moral of this enterprise. His
forces all stilicheed—impoverisbed and languid, the belied
Nile retreated to Ins ebtanarl, after having, by his hostile
descent, rekociantty served and strengthened the landed in-
terests of Egypt; though, like the commotions •f the
Seine (5), this also produced monsters (t 3).
(II See Paine's Fable of the Rights of Nan.
(2) " If we proceed on, we shall at last route out right.
We shall come to the lime when man came from the hawk
of his Maker. What was he then! Man. Man was his high
and only title."— Paine's "Nigh/. o, Nan."
(3) Arcanum Nature comet non prodidit nth;
Nre broil popuhis primal te, Nile, videre...-Locktr.
(4) Exprllas licet—usque recnrrit.
(b) AN allrsioa to the coast quences of the then recent
French Revolution.

Ali) The mud deposited by the Nile was supposed to en
rader monsters.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCR.

PORTSMOUTH, AA AA RY 15.
Arrived the liars, L'Esayer, from Havre fur St. Dinaiugo;
aad William, Spence, from Trieste.
Sailed Ike Caledonia, Roberts, for London ; and Viper cut-
ter, ua a cruise.
PLYMOUTH, JANUARY !4.

Arrived the Si. Olof, Wiklune, from Fitru ; DU bringing np
in Catoster she gut foul of the smack Gettig?, Gibbs, from
Maoists, and broke off the arm of her anchor, and stove is
her *larboard bulwark..

The lestigrity, Barker, of Yarmouth, which was on shore
in Mount Batten Bay, was Boated off on Saturday

Jl/lIJ-ARY 25.

Arrived the Braufny packet, with a mail frost Hulliad.
The Caplan' reports that yesterday whew he kft, he was
toostile to get in, mini that the river cootioses to be stopped
by the ice, so that sto vessel can enter.
BRISTOL. JANVART 2.
The Piston, Morris, of sod frost this purl to B■rbadoes,
was lust off Lyaiouth, afar Ilfrarowiti, on the 20th lust.
tise wan and a boy drowsed.

TAKYOUTiIs JANUARY n.
The Isabella, Wealhe►bead, of Suede Shields., from Same
fur H.il,ia w tbe Home bawl, and in esasseiderable danger.
VALMoUTII, JANVAIIIir 23.

. -
Arrived the Camden packer, with a moil irons the Leeward
!gaud., last from St. Tboasses, I. SS days • Derck ship
Batavia, from Baltimore, leaky, sad carps said to be drifted;
David, Robertson, frum (horsey ; Julie ovsal
Dumb, from Oporto; Augustus, Taylor, from Galipoli,with
loss of bowsprit; and United Friends, Dale, from istul,
for H b, wish loss of Womack add boils, *ad bul-
warks damaged.
Put back, the Norio. packet.
Dial, JANUARY 25.
Arrived and sailed for the River,lbe Slaty, Scott, frum Ben-
gal and Madras; I)iligessce Cant, from Sons;
Cowper;Mainisa,
sod Blase, Blow 'from Tampon; Vittorio, from
Galipoli ; sod Victor, Jui:ason, from St. Thomas's, fur Am-
sterdam.

lIIRWRY,JAIIVART rt.

Leaded here yesterday from the brig Mary At m, Aids,
fists-Loaduct, the crew of the sloop Dwattries, Folios, of
and for %Isadore, from Cardiff, silo were takes off the
vessel ea the 19018 hod, about asid.ehassel, the vessel mak-
ing so mush water that they 'sported as would Cousder
immediately.

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