; ly contrary in fome or all of thefe qualities. I have been frequently affured by great minifters, that politics were nothing but common sense which, as it was the only true thing they spoke, so it was the only thing they could have wished I fhould not believe. God hath given the bulk of mankind a capacity to understand reafon when it is fairly offered; and by reafon they would easily be governed, if it were left to their choice. Thofe princes in all ages, who were most distinguished for their mysterious fkill in government, found by the event, that they had ill confulted their own quiet, or the eafe and happinefs of their people: nor hath.pofterity remembered them with honour; fuch as Lyfander and Philip among the Greeks, Tiberius in Rome, Pope Alexander the fixth and his fon Cæfar Borgia, Queen Catherine de Medicis, Philip the fecond of Spain, with many others. Nor are examples lefs frequent of minifters, famed for men of deep intrigue, whofe politics have produced little more than murmurings, factions, and dif contents, which usually terminated in the disgrace and ruin of the authors. I can recollect but three occafions in a state, where the talents of fuch men may be thought neceffary; I mean in a state where the prince is obey. ed and loved by his fubjects: firft, in the nego ciation of a peace; fecondly, in adjufting the interefts of our own country with those of the nations round us, watching the feveral motions of our neighbours and allies, and preferving a due balance among them: laftly, in the management of parties and factions at home. In the first of thefe cafes I have often heard it obferved, that plain good fenfe and a firm adherence to the point, have proved more effectual than all thofe arts, which I remember a great foreign minifter used in contempt to call the fpirit of negociating. In the fecond cafe much wifdom and a thorough knowledge knowledge in affairs, both foreign and domeftic, are certainly required: after which I know no talents neceffary befides method and skill in the common forms of bufinefs. In the last cafe, which is that of managing parties, there feems indeed to be more occafion for employing this gift of the lower politics, whenever the tide runs high against the court and miniftry, which feldom happens under any tolerable administration, while the true intereft of the nation is purfued. But, here in England (for I do not pretend to eftablish maxims of government in general) while the prince and miniftry, the clergy, the majority of landed-men, and bulk of the people, appear to have the fame views and the fame principles, it is not obvious to me, how thofe at the helm can have many oppor. tunities of fhewing their fkill in mystery and refinement, befides what themselves think fit to create. I have been affured by men long practifed in bufinefs, that the fecrets of court are much fewer than we generally fuppofe; and I hold it for the greatest fecret of court, that they are fo: becaufe the firft fprings of great events, like thofe of great rivers, are often fo mean and fo little, that in de cency they ought to be hid: and therefore minifters are fo wife to leave their proceedings to be ac counted for by reafoners at a diftance, who often mould them into fyftems, that do not only go down very well in the coffee-houfe, but are fupplies for pamphlets in the prefent age, and may probably furnish materials for memoirs and hiftories in the next. It is true indeed, that even thofe who are very near the court; and are fuppofed to have a large fare in the management of public matters, are apt to deduct wrong confequences, by reafoning upon the caufes and motives of those actions wherein themselves are employed. A great minifter puts you you a cafe, and afks your opinion, but conceals an effential circumftance, upon which the whole weight of the matter turns; then he despiseth your understanding for counselling him no beiter, and concludes he ought to truft entirely to his own wifdom. Thus he grows to abound in fecrets and referves, even towards thofe, with whom he ought to act in the greatest confidence and concert: and thus the world is brought to judge, that whatever be the iffue and event, it was all forefeen, contrived, and brought to pafs by fome mafter ftroke of his politics. I could produce innumerable inftances, from my own memory and observation, of events imputed to the profound skill and addrefs of a minifter, which in reality were either the mere effect of negligence, weakness, humour, paffion, or pride, or, at best, but the natural course of things left to themselves. During this very feffion of parliament, a moft ingenious gentleman, who bath much credit with thofe in power, would needs have it, that in the date diffenfions at court, which grew too high to be any longer a fecret, the whole matter was car ried with the utmost dexterity on one fide, and with manifeft ill conduct on the other. To prove this, he made ufe of the moft plaufible topies,. drawn from the nature and difpofition of the feveral perfons concerned, as well as of her majesty; all which he knows as much of as any man: and gave me a detail of the whole, with fuch an appearance of probability, as committed to writing would pafs for an admirable piece of fecret hiftory. Yet I am at the fame time convinced by the strongeft reafons, that the iffue of those diffenfions, as to the part they had in the court and house of lards, was partly owing to very different caufes, and partly to the fituation of affairs, from whence in that conjuncture they could not eafily terminate other wife wife than they did, whatever unhappy confequences they may have for the future. In like manner I have heard a phyfician pronounce with great gravity, that he had cured fo many patients of malignant fevers, and as many more of the finall pox; whereas in truth nine parts in ten of those who recovered, owed their lives to the ftrength of nature and a good conftitution, while fuch a one happened to be their doctor. But, while it is fo difficult to learn the fprings and motives of fome facts, aed fo eafy to forget the circumftances of others, it is no wonder they should be fo grofsly mifrepresented to the public, by curious inquifitive heads, who proceed altogether upon conjectures, and in reasoning upon affairs of state, are fure to be mistaken, by fearching too deep. And as I have known this to be the frequent error of many others, fo I am fure it hath been perpetually mine, whenever I have attempted to difcover the caufe of political events by refinement and conjecture; which I must acknowledge hath very much abated my veneration for what they call arcana imperii whereof I dare pronounce, that the fewer there are in any administration, it is just so much the better. What I have hitherto faid, hath by no means been intended to detract from the qualities requifite in thofe, who are trufted with the adminiftration of public affairs; on the contrary, I know no ftation of life, where great abilities and virtues of all kinds are fo highly neceffary, and where the want of any is fo quickly or univerfally felt. A great minifter hath no virtue for which the public may not be the better, nor any defect by which the public is not certainly a fufferer. I have known more than once or twice, within four years past, an omiffion, in appearance very fmall, prove almost fatal to a whole fcheme, and very hardly reretrieved. It is not always fufficient for the per fon fon at the helm, that he is intrepid in his nature, free from any tincture of avarice or corruption, and that he hath great natural and acquired abilities. I never thought the reputation of much fecrecy was a character of any advantage to a minifter, because it put all other men upon their guard to be as fecret as he, and was confequently the occafion that perfons and things were always mifreprefented to him because likewife, too great an affectation of fecrecy is ufually thought to be attended with thofe little intrigues and refinements, which among the vulgar denominate a man a great politician; but among others is apt, whether deservedly or no, to acquire the opinion of cunning: a talent, which differs as much from the true knowledge of government, as that of an attorney from an able lawyer. Neither indeed am I altogether convinced, that this habit of multiplying fecrets may not be carried on, fo far as to ftop that communication which is neceffary, in fome degree, among all who have any confiderable part in the management of public affairs becaufe I have obferved the inconveniencies arifing from a want of love between those who were to give directions, to have been of as ill confequence as any that could happen from the difcovery of fe crets. I fuppofe, when a building is to be erected, the model may be the contrivance only of one head; and it is fufficient that the under-workmen be ordered to cut ftones into certain fhapes, and place them in certain pofitions: but the feveral mafterbuilders must have fome general knowledge of the defign, without which they can give no orders at all. And, indeed, I do not know a greater mark. of an able minifter, than that of rightly adapting the feveral faculties of men ; nor is any thing more to be lamented than the impracticableness of doing this in any great degree under our prefent circumftances, while fo many fhut themselves out by adhering to a faction, and while the court is inflaved VOL. V. F f to |