fhall remain firmly perfuaded, that all the moral vices, I may be occafionally guilty of in fo good a course, will be exalted into political virtues. After this plain and honeft account, which I have given of myself, it may be allowed me to fay, that you cannot find a perfon better qualified for your fervice, or more worthy to be lifted, among those who draw their pens in your caufe, and of whom I am willing to hope that you have a greater and an abler body in referve, than you have hitherto judged proper to bring into the field. It is evident that a minifter, in every circumftance of life, ftands in as much need of us public writers, as we of him. In his profperity he can no more fubfift without daily praise, than we without daily bread, and the farther he extends his views the more neceffary are we to his fupport. Let him fpeak as contemptuoufly of us as he pleafes, for that is frequently the manner of thofe who employ us moft, and pay us beft; yet will it fare with his ambition as with a lofty tree, which cannot fhoot its branches into the clouds, unless its root work into the dirt, from which it rofe, on which it ftands, and by which it is nourished. If a minifter falls into adverfity, fhall he take up the pen in his own defence? would not the cafe be as deplorable for him to be left to write, as for a prince to be left to fight in his own quarrel? Believe me, Sir, whenever fortune abandons you, and who knows how foon that may happen, you will find yourself in a very forlorn ftate. At the name of your fucceffor, those crowds, that attend your levee, will vanish like fpirits at the dawn of day. None will remain about you, but fuch as no other adminiftration will condefcend to employ: and we may therefore very probably behold you, which would be a pitiful fight indeed, endeavoring to fecure a fafe retreat with H***** on one fide of you, and L****** L****** on the other, two grotefque perfonages, exactly paired and nearly allied, but furely as little fit to fupport a minifter in his decline, as to adorn his triumph. In fuch a turn as this, you may depend on my utmost efforts to keep up a spirit for you and I can make no doubt of being feconded by feveral of my fellow-writers, fince I am certain you will not fcruple to fhare fome part of that fortune, which your industry and parfimony have raifed, with thofe who unite to fave the whole; and fince we fhall be reasonable enough not to expect above fixpence in the pound out of it, which cannot well amount to more than fifteen or twenty thoufand pounds. A trifling fum for fo great a fervice and fo weighty a purfe! You may perhaps, after all I have faid, be ftill apt to think that thefe are wild difcourfes, which · have no other foundation but my defire to render myfelf neceffary. You may refine too much in your reflections on my conduct, and too little in thofe you make on your prefent fituation; or if you judge rightly of this, it is not impoffible but you may depend too much on your own vigilance and dexterity. Should any of thofe flatterers, who often betray their patrons into a fatal fecurity, speak to you much in the fame manner, as fleep addresses himself to Palinurus in the fifth book of the Æneis. Palinure, ferunt ipfa æquora claffem, You would anfwer, I am perfuaded, as this Pilot did: Mene falis placidi vultum, fluctufque quietos But Palinurus flept, and you know the confequence. Be Be not therefore difpleafed if a fincere and zealous fervant roufes you, admonishes you not to truft too much to appearances, and fhews you danger when perhaps you least expect it. You have failed long in a'fmooth fea with gentle and favorable gales. We believe your courage and your abilities extremely great, but we believe it implicitly; for you have not had foul weather enough to give any confiderable proofs of either. Thefe circumftances, which might be abufed to infpire fecurity, I urge as reafons why you fhould be alarmed; for the element you have to deal with is by the laws of nature inconftant and therefore the longer you have been without a form, the more reafon you have to expect one. There is no furer prefage of an hurricane than juft fuch a dead calm as I have obferved for fome time. To fpeak without a figure: I would not have you flatter yourself, that the undisturbed quiet you have fo long enjoyed is merely owing to your own integrity and political merit, or to the uncommon profecution of hawkers and pamphleteers, which has been carried on by the direction of one of your principal inftruments, and indeed a moft vigorous ftatefman. This quiet, Sir, is owing to deep and inveterate defigns, which it becomes me to lay before you, without any regard to the cenfure I may incur, of revealing private converfation, and of breach of truft. Know then, that from the time you came into a fulness of power, many were fhocked at the manner in which you feized it, and at the ufe you made of it. They faid, that both were hurtful, indecent, and even fhamelefs. They went ftill farther, and affirmed, that your conduct was foolish with regard to your own intereft, fince it was foolish for a man to trust to one fingle expedient of govern ment, who had feveral in his power; and especially to fuch an expedient as that of money, which would equally equally ferve to fupport him or to hang him. These perfons however, notwithstanding their difcontent, refolved to lie quiet, till your mal-administration fhould become fo glaring as to juftify their oppofition, even in his majefty's fight: they faid they would not follow your example; and upon that occafion they remembered, with fome sharpness, how you did your utmost to diftrefs the king's affairs, upon the firft difguft you received; nay, they were malicious enough to call to mind fome perfonal reflections, which the heat of your imagination, and your familiarity with majefty, betrayed you into, and for which they faucily wished what I dare not name. These feditious fpirits flattered themfelves that you would do your own business when you had the full fwing of your power. They were acquainted, they faid, with the prefumption and diftruft, with the boldness and pufillanimity, with the indiscretion and cunning, and with fifty other contradictions, which made up your character: and upon these they depended for puting a speedy end to your adminiftration. This end they imagine to be now at hand; for thus they reafon :-A minifter, who is attacked on his management of the public revenue, and has all the advantages of money and authority on his fide, may efcape though he is guilty; but if he is innocent, the proceedings against him in fuch a cafe muft neceffarily confirm his power, and establish his reputation: nothing more defirable than fuch an attack can happen to him. But our prefent minifter, fay thefe malignants, directly ftops all enquiry: in public he evades giving fuch accounts as the reprefentatives of the people have a right to demand; in private he is + Sce a pamphlet called, An Anfwer to an infamous Libel, intitled, Sedition and Defamation difplayed. Printed for R、 Franchlin. modeft and difcreet enough to laugh at thofe who think him fuch a fool as to furnish proofs against himself. Can a minister keep his ground long, who has no other defence than an implied confeffion of his guilt? Will fuch a behaviour be endured in a nation hitherto free, and where there remain at least fome fparks of honor and of love of the country? These and many other reflections, which, for brevity fake, I omit, upon your particular conduct, and upon our domeftic affairs, are frequently thrown out. But, Sir, I confefs to you, that I tremble when I hear the fame perfons difcourfe concerning the state of the nation, with regard to her foreign interests. They affirm, and they offer to demonftrate, that the affairs of Europe never were in greater confufion, and that the part we take upon ourselves is fuch an one, as no nation ever acted which was not betrayed, or whofe minifters were not infatuated. That you are fo, they say, is past dispute, whether you have conducted thefe affairs yourself, or have left them to thofe men of eminent talents, who are concerned in this part of your adminiftration: they infift that nothing could have happened to us, if you had entirely neglected our foreign interests, worse than what you have brought upon us, by running into the other extreme. For they ask, what is the fruit of your continual negotiations, fupported by a vaft expence, and carried on as bufily as if the welfare of Great Britain had been at ftake in every dispute which has happened on the' Continent? They anfwer for you, and they defy you to contradict them, that we have made the quarrels of other people our own; and that we find ourfelves engaged as principals, in fome cafes where we have but a very remote concern, and in others where we have no concern at all. That our commerce fuffers, and runs the rifque of being loft, not for a time, but for ever, in feveral branches, much more |