If, instead of difowning with Lord Shelburne, the British court had interpofed with dignity and firmness, you know, my Lord, that Corfica would never have been invaded. The French faw the weakness of a diftracted ministry, and were juftified in treating you with contempt: they would probably have yielded in the first inftance, rather than hazard a rupture with this country; but being once engaged, they cannot retreat without difhonour. Common fenfe foresees confequences which have escaped your Grace's penetration. Either we fuffer the French to make an acquifition, the importance of which you have probably no conception of, or we oppose them by an underhand management, which only difgraces us in the eyes of Europe, without answering any purpose of policy or prudence. From fecret indifcreet affiftance, a tranfition to fome more open decifive measures becomes unavoidable, till at laft we find ourselves principles in the war, and are obliged to hazard every thing for an object which might have originally been obtained without expence or danger. I am not verfed in the politics of the north; but this I believe is certain, that half the money you have diftributed to carry the expulfion of Mr. Wilkes, or even your fecretary's fhare in the laft fubfcription, would have kept the Turks as your devotion. Was it œconomy, my Lord?

Lord? or did the coy refiftance you have constantly met with in the British fenate, make you despair of corrupting the Divan? Your friends indeed have the first claim upon your bounty, but if five hundred pounds a year can be fpared in penfion to Sir John Moore, it would not have difgraced you to have allowed fomething to the fecret service to the public.

You will fay perhaps that the fituation of affairs at home demanded and engrossed the whole of your attention. Here, I confefs, you have been active. An amiable accomplished prince afcends to the throne under the happiest of all aufpices, the acclamations and united affections of his subjects. The first measures of his reign, and even the odium of a favourite, were not able to fhake their attachments. Your services, my Lord, have been more successful. Since you were permitted to take the lead, we have feen the natural effects of a fyftem of government at once both odious and contemptible. We have seen the laws fometimes fcandaloufly relaxed, fometimes violently ftretched beyond their tone. We have seen the perfon of the Sovereign infulted; and in profound peace, and with an undisputed title, the fidelity of his fubjects brought by his own fervants into public queftion. Without abilities, refolution,

or intereft, you have done more than Lord Bute could accomplish with all Scotland at his heels.

your

Your Grace, little anxious perhaps either for prefent or future reputation, will not defire to be handed down in these colours to pofterity. You have reafon to flatter yourfelf that the memory of administration will furvive even the forms of a conflitution, which our ancestors vainly hoped would be immortal; and as for your personal character, I will not, for the honour of human nature, fuppofe that you can wish to have it remembered. The condition of the present times is desperate indeed; but there is a debt due to those who come after us, and it is the hiftorian's office to punish, though he cannot correct. I do not give you to pofterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example to deter; and as your conduct comprehends every thing that a wife or honeft minifter fhould avoid, I mean to make you a negative inftruction to your fucceffors for ever.

If nature had given you an understanding qualified to keep pace with the wishes and principles

of

of your heart, she would have made you, perhaps, the moft formidable minifter that ever was employed, under a limited monarch, to accomplish th eruin of a free people. When neither the feelings of fhame, the reproaches of conscience, nor the dread of punishment, form any bar to the defigns of a minifter, the people would have too much reason to lament their condition, if they did not find fome refource in the weakness of his understanding. We owe it to the bounty of Providence, that the completeft depravity of the heart is fometimes ftrangely united with a confufion of the mind, which counteracts the most favourite principles, and makes the fame man treacherous without art, and a hypocrite without deceiving. The measures, for inftance, in which your Grace's activity has been chiefly exerted, as they were adopted without skill, should have been conducted with more than common dexterity. But truly, my Lord, the execution has been as gross as the defign. By one decifive ftep, you have defeated all the arts of writing. You have fairly confounded the intrigues of oppofition, and filenced the clamours of faction. A dark ambiguous fyftem might require and furnish the materials of ingenious illuftration, and, in doubtful measures, the virulent exaggeration of party must be employed, to rouze and engage the paffions of the

people.

people. You have now brought the merits of your administration to an issue, on which every Englishman, of the narroweft capacity, may determine for himself. It is not an alarm to the paffions, but a calm appeal to the judgment of the people upon their own most effential interests. A more experienced minister would not have hazarded a direct invafion of the first principles of the conftitution, before he had made fome progrefs in fubduing the spirit of the people. With fuch a cause as yours, my Lord, it is not sufficient that you have the court at your devotion, unless you can find means to corrupt or intimidate the jury, The collective body of the people form that jury, and from their decifion there is but one appeal.

Whether you have talents to fupport you, at a crisis of fuch difficulty and danger, fhould long fince have been confidered. Judging truly of your difpofition, you have perhaps mistaken the extent of our capacity. Good faith and folly have fo long been received as fynonimous terms, that the reverse of the propofition has grown into credit, and every villain fancies himself a man of abilities. It is the apprehenfion of your friends, my Lord, that you have drawn some hafty conclufion of this fort, and that a partial reliance upon your moral character has betrayed you beyond the depth of your understanding. You have

now