_The Day that makes a Free Born Man a Slave,_ _Robs him of half his Vertue._
It is observable, that _Boileau_ has no manner of remark on all this Passage; it wou'd not have agreed with his Pension, from his Master the _French_ King, to have said a Word in praise of it, nor with his Conscience to have condemn'd it; but _Dacier_, who had a _Hugonot_ Education, observes speaking of Liberty, shining in the Orations of Orators living in Free States, that as those _Men are their own Masters, their Mind us'd to this Independence, produces nothing but what has the Marks of that Liberty, which is the Principal Aim of all their Actions._
Now what a Friend the Letter writer, is to Liberty, we may see in the _Examiner_ of the 26th of _April_, 1711, which, tho', it may be he did not Write himself, whatever some People say to the contrary, he and his Party have sufficiently own'd to make them accountable for every Word in that and the rest of them. The reason why _Publick Injuries are so seldom redress'd is for want of Arbitrary Power_, he calls it _Discretionary_; 'tis true, and if I have wrong'd him, by putting Arbitrary in its Place; I ask his Pardon.--
Having said thus much of his Party in general, I might descend to Particulars, and examine the sufficiency of the Characters of his Academicians, a List of them being handed up and down, in which the Author is not forgot. It is set off with Names that must not be repeated, and amongst the rest are a Doctor or two, two or three Poets and Tell Tales, and that Learned and Facetious Person Mr. _D----ny_, whose very Name gives unspeakeable Hopes of the Progress of such a Society, in refining our Language, which he and most of his Brethren are so great Masters of, that if twenty of the List will oblige us with as many Lines of Common Sense and Common Grammar, I will be bound to read every thing that shall be publish'd by this Famous Academy, that is to be or under their Auspices, tho' I had much rather change that Pennance for _Ogilby_ and _Blome_. To give us the better _Idea_ of his _Scheme, he has consulted with very Judicious Persons_; we may judge of what truth there is in his _Panegyricks_, by that of the deceas'd _Examiner_ on himself; where he says, _he had written with so much Reputation, and so much to the Confusion of the Whigs, that they themselves have a Value for his Person and Abilities, tho they have an Aversion to his Cause_. Of the same size, I doubt not, are the able and judicious Persons he has consulted about his Design, which must be own'd to be very good in it self, and capable of such Improvement as wou'd make it one of the Glories of Her Majesty's most Glorious Reign. But alas, he will never have the Honour of it. A Noble Lord, on whom he has written _Libels_ and _Encomiums_, was the first that thought of such a thing, and some Years since nam'd forty Gentlemen to be Members of an Academy, on a Foundation refining on the _French_ of which Number I am very well satisfy'd, not a Man of his most Illustrious Band wou'd ever have been, and that tho' he is so generous as to promise the Whigs that they shall come in if they will, he must look 'em out better Company, or his Academy will have the Glory of this great Work to themselves. Indeed the way is prepar'd for them to _Immortality_, two _English_ Grammars having been publish'd within this Twelvemonth, and it remains to him and his Fraternity, to add a _Dictionary_ worthy those Immortal Labours; for which, there are not a Set of Men in _England_ better qualify'd, and so equal to so honourable a Task.