and to justify my conduct. I expected that friendfhip, or if that principle failed, curiofity at leaft would move the party to fend over fome perfon, from whofe report they might have both fides of the queftion laid before them. Though this expectation be founded in reafon, and you want to be informed at least as much as I do to be juftified, yet I have hitherto flattered myself with it in vain. To repair this misfortune, therefore, as far as lies in my power, I refolve to put into writing the fum of what I fhould have faid in that cafe: thefe papers fhall lie by me till time and accidents produce fome occafion of communicating them to you. The true occafion of doing it, with advantage to the party, will probably be loft: but they will remain a monument of my juftification to pofterity. At worst, if even this fails me, I am fure of one fatisfaction in writing them; the fatisfaction of unburdening my mind to a friend, and of stating before an equitable judge the account, as I apprehend it to stand, between the tories and myself, "Quantam humano "concilio efficere potui, circumfpectis rebus meis " omnibus, rationibufque fubductis, fummam feci "cogitationum mearum omnium, quam tibi fi po"tero breviter exponam."

It is neceffary to my defign that I call to your mind the state of affairs in Britain from the latter part of the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, to the beginning of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifteen, about which time we parted. I go no farther back, because the part which I acted before that time, in the firft effays I made in public affairs, was the part of a tory, and fo far of a piece with that which I acted afterwards. Befides, the things which preceded this fpace of time had no immediate influence on thofe which happened fince that time; whereas the ftrange events which we have feen fall out in the king's reign were owing, in a great mea

fure,

fure to what was done, or neglected to be done, in the last four years of the queen's. The memory of thefe events being fresh, I fhall dwell as little as poffible upon them. It will be fufficient that I make a rough sketch of the face of the court, and of the conduct of the several parties during that time. Your memory will foon furnifh the colors which I fhall omit to lay, and finish up the picture.

From the time at which I left Britain I had not the advantage of acting under the eyes of the party which I ferved, nor of being able from time to time to appeal to their judgment. The grofs of what happened has appeared, but the particular steps which led to thofe events have been either concealed or mifreprefented. Concealed from the nature of them, or mifrepresented by thofe with whom I never agreed perfectly, except in thinking that they and I were extremely unfit to continue embarked in the fame bottom together. It will, therefore, be proper to defcend, under this head, to a more particular relation.

In the fummer of the year one thousand seven hundred and ten, the queen was prevailed upon to change her parliament and her miniftry. The intrigue of the Earl of Oxford might facilitate the means, the violent profecution of Sacheverel, and other unpopular measures might create the occafion, and encourage her in the refolution: but the true original caufe was the perfonal ill ufage which fhe received in her private life, and in fome trifling inftances of the exercife of her power; for indulgence in which fhe would certainly have left the reins of government in thofe hands, which had held them ever fince her acceflion to the throne.

I am afraid that we came to court in the fame difpofitions as all parties have done; that the principal fpring of our actions was to have the government of the ftate in our hands; that our principal

views were the confervation of this power, great employments to ourfelves, and great opportunities of rewarding those who had helped to raise us, and of hurting those who stood in oppofition to us. It is however true, that with these confiderations of private and party interest, there were others intermingled which had for their object the public good of the nation, at least what we took to be such.

We looked on the political principles which had generally prevailed in our government from the revolution, in one thousand fix hundred and eightyeight, to be destructive of our true intereft, to have mingled us too much in the affairs of the continent, to tend to the impoverishing our people, and to the loofening the bands of our conftitution in church and state. We fuppofed the tory party to be the bulk of the landed intereft, and to have no contrary influence blended into its compofition. We fuppofed the whigs to be the remains of a party, formed against the ill defigns of the court under King Charles the Second, nurfed up into ftrength and applied to contrary uses by King William the Third, and yet ftill fo weak as to lean for fupport on the Prefbyterians and the other fectaries, on the bank and the other corporations, on the Dutch and the other allies. From hence we judged it to follow, that they had been forced, and must continue fo, to render the national interest subservient to the interest of those who lent them an additional strength, without which they could never be the prevalent party. The view, therefore, of thofe amongst us who thought in this manner, was to improve the queen's favor, to break the body of the whigs, to render their supports useless to them, and to fill the employments of the kingdom down to the meanest with tories. We imagined that fuch measures, joined to the advantages of our numbers and our property, would fecure us against all attempts dur

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ing her reign; and that we fhould foon become too confiderable, not to make our terms in all events which might happen afterwards: concerning which, to fpeak truly, I believe few or none of us had any very fettled refolution.

In order to bring thefe purpofes about, I verily think that the perfecution of Diffenters entered into no man's head. By the bills for preventing occafional conformity and the growth of fchifm, it was hoped that their fting would be taken away. Thefe bills were thought neceffary for our party intereft, and befides were deemed neither unreafonable nor unjuft. The good of fociety may require that no perfon fhould be deprived of the protection of the government on account of his opinions in religious matters, but it does not follow from hence that men ought to be trusted in any degree with the preservation of the establishment, who muft, to be confiftent with their principles, endeavor the fubverfion of what is eftablifhed. An indulgence to confciences, which the prejudice of education and long habits have rendered fcrupulous, may be agreeable to the rules of good policy and of humanity: yet will it hardly follow from hence, that a government is under any obligation to indulge a tenderness of confcience to come; or to connive at the propagating of these prejudices, and at the forming of these habits. The evil effect is without remedy, and may therefore deferve indulgence; but the evil caufe is to be prevented, and can therefore be intitled to none. Befides this, the bills I am fpeaking of, rather than to enact any thing new, feemed only to enforce the obfervation of antient laws; which had been judged neceffary for the fecurity of the church and ftate, at a time when the memory of the ruin of both, and of the hands by which that ruin had been wrought, was fresh in the minds of men.

The bank, the Eaft-India Company, and in general the monied intereft, had certainly nothing to

appre

apprehend like what they feared, or affected to fear, from the tories, an entire fubverfion of their property. Multitudes of our own party would have been wounded by fuch a blow. The intention of those, who were the warmeft, feemed to me to go no farther than reftraining their influence on the legislature, and on matters of state; and finding at a proper feason means to make them contribute to the fupport and eafe of a government, under which they enjoyed advantages fo much greater than the reft of their fellow-fubjects. The mifchievous confequence which had been foreseen and foretold too, at the establishment of those corporations, appeared vifibly. The country gentlemen were vexed, put to great expences, and even baffled by them in their elections: and among the members of every parliament numbers were immediately or indirectly under their influence. The bank had been extravagant enough to pull off the mask, and when the queen feemed to intend a change in her ministry, they had deputed some of their members to reprefent against it. But that which touched fenfibly, even thofe who were but little affected by other confiderations, was the prodigious inequality between the condition of the monied men and of the reft of the nation. The proprietor of the land, and the merchant who brought riches home by the returns of foreign trade, had during two wars bore the whole immenfe load of the national expences; whilft the lender of money, who added nothing to the common stock, throve by the public calamity, and contributed not a mite to the public charge.

As to the allies, I faw no difference of opinion among all those who came to the head of affairs at this time. Such of the tories as were in the fyftem above-mentioned, fuch of them as deferted foon after from us, and fuch of the whigs as had upon this occafion deferted to us, feemed equally convinced of the unreasonablenefs and even of the impoffibility of