The Online Library of Liberty

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• A Collection of Tracts.
• The Sense of the People Concerning the Present State of Affairs, With Remarks Upon Some Passages of Our Own and the Roman History. In a Letter to a Member of Parliament. Anno 1721.
• A Compleat History of the Late Septennial Parliament; Wherein All Their Proceedings Are Particularly Enquired Into, and Faithfully Related; With Proper Remarks, and Many Secret Memoirs Interspersed, Concerning the Late Times. to Which Is Prefixed, Hones
• An Essay On the Practice of Stock-jobbing, and Some Remarks On the Right Use, and Regular Improvement of Money. In a Letter to a Gentleman, and a Proprietor of South-sea Stock. Anno 1724.
• An Authentic Narrative of the Late Proceedings and Cruel Execution At Thorn; With Two Letters Written Upon That Occasion By Britannicus, In the London Journal. to Which Is Prefixed, an Account of the Rights and Privileges of the City of Thorn. a
• A Short View of the Conspiracy, With Some Reflections On the Present State of Affairs. In a Letter to an Old Whig In the Country. By Cato. Anno 1723.
• Royal Gallantry: Or, the Amours of a Certain K—g of a Certain Country, Who Kept His C—rt At a Certain Place, Much In the Same Latitude With That of W-st-m-nst-r, Related In the Unhappy Adventures of Palmiris and Lindamira; In Which the Characters
• A Letter to a Gentleman At Edinburgh, Concerning the Busy and Assuming Spirit of the Ecclesiastics, and Their Extravagant Demands Upon the Laity. Anno 1725.
• The Craftsmen: a Sermon, Or Paraphrase Upon Several Verses of the Xix Th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Composed In the Style of the Late Daniel Burgess. Anno 1723.
• A Serious Expostulation With the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of London, On His Letter to the Clergy and People of London and Westminster. Anno 1750.
• Seasonable Advice to the Electors of Great Britain; With a Word Or Two Relating to the Influence of the Clergy In Elections. Anno 1722.
• The True Picture of a Modern Tory; Or a High-churchman Painted to the Life. Anno 1722.
• A Sermon Preached Before the Learned Society of Lincoln’s-inn, On January 30, 1732, From Job XXXIV. 30. That the Hypocrite Reign Not, Lest the People Be Insnared. Anno 1733.
• A Supplement to the Sermon Preached At Lincoln’s-inn, On January 30. 1732. Addressed to a Very Important and Most Solemn Churchman, Sollicitor-general For Causes Ecclesiastical. Anno 1733.
• A Letter to the Reverend Dr. Codex, On the Subject of His Modest Instruction to the Crown, Inserted In the Daily Journal of February 27 Th, 1733. From the Second Volume of Burnet’ S History. Anno 1734.
• The Preface to the Fourth Collection of Cato’ S Letters.
• The Preface to the Sixth Collection of Cato’s Letters.
• The Creed of an Independent Whig; With an Orthodox Introduction, Concerning Canons, Councils, Mysteries, Miracles, and Church Authority. Anno 1720.
• Priestianity: Or, a View of the Disparity Between the Apostles and the Modern Inferior Clergy. Anno 1720.

The Preface to the Sixth Collection of Cato’s Letters.

ByThomas Gordon,Esq;

I Have said so much by way of Preface to the other Collections of these Papers, that little is left for me to say in This. The present is a Collection of all the Papers written last Winter and till now upon Government, ex proposito, and in a System; and those about Caesar being near a-kin to the Design, and containing a good Part of the Argument, I have joined them to the rest, as I have done two late ones about Elections, for the same Reason; and to the Whole I have prefixed one written last October, concerning the general ill Condition of Mankind.

I leave the Argument handled in these Letters to justify itself, as it is stated there, I cannot help thinking it is supported by the united Consent of Experience, Reason, and Nature; and is not like to be shaken by any thing that can be said against it. The Sum of the Question is, Whether Mankind have a Right to be happy? or, whether any Man has a Right to make them miserable?

I am not so much surprized, that many of the Tories should assent to the Lawfulness of killing Cæsar, because Men out of Power are naturally in the Interest of Liberty; as I am sorry that any of the Whigs should deny it. Is the Unlawfulness of killing Tyrants maintained at last by the Whigs, whose very Spirit and Character is founded upon the very opposite Principle? I wish they would define and explain this modern Whigism, especially upon the Principles of the old, and distinguish it from the most obnoxious Part of Toryism. I doubt I have set them a hard Task.

They who wildly apply to the Court what has been said about Cæsar, make the Court but an ill Compliment, whatever they may intend. How can any Court, which does not do what Cæsar did, be affected with what was done to Cæsar, or with what is said about him?

CATO.