We It is very rare indeed for men to be wrong in their feelings concerning publick mifconduct; as rare to be right in their speculation upon the cause of it. I have conftantly obferved, that the generality of people are fifty years, at leaft, behindhand in their politicks. There are but very few, who are capable of comparing and digefting what paffes before their eyes at different times and occafions, fo as to form the whole into a diftinct fyftem. But in books every thing is fettled for them, without the exertion of any confiderable diligence or fagacity. For which reafon men are wife with but little reflection, and good with little self-denial, in the business of all times except their own. are very uncorrupt and tolerably enlightened judges of the tranfactions of paft ages; where no paffions deceive, and where the whole train of circumftances, from the trifling caufe to the tragical event, is fet in an orderly feries before us. Few are the partifans of departed tyranny; and to be a Whig on the business of an hundred years ago, is very confiftent with every advantage of prefent fervility. This retrospective wifdom, and historical patriotifm, are things of wonderful convenience: and ferve admirably to reconcile the old quarrel between fpeculation and practice. Many a ftern republican, after gorging himself with a full feast of admiration of the Grecian commonwealths and of our true Saxon conftitution, and difcharging all the fplendid bile of his virtuous indignation on King John and King James, fits down perfectly fatisfied to the coarseft work and homelieft job of the day he lives in. I believe there was no profeffed admirer of Henry the Eighth among the inftruments of the laft King James; nor in the court of Henry the Eighth, was there, I dare fay, to be found a fingle advocate for the favourites of Richard the Second. No complaifance to our court, or to our age, can make me believe nature to be fo changed, but that publick liberty will be among us, as among our ancestors, obnoxious to fome perfon or other; and that opportunities will be furnished for attempting at least, fome alteration to the prejudice of our conftitution. Thefe attempts will naturally vary in their mode according to times and circumftances. For ambition, though it has ever the fame general views, has not at all times the fame. means, nor the fame particular objects. A great deal of the furniture of antient tyranny is worn to rags; the reft is entirely out of fashion. Befides, there are few ftatefmen fo very clumsy and awkward in their bufinefs, as to fall into the identical fnare which has proved fatal to their predeceffors. When an arbitrary impofition is attempted upon the subject, undoubtedly it will not bear on its forehead the name of Ship-money. There is no danger that an extenfion of the Foreft laws Q 2 fhould fhould be the chofen mode of oppreffion in this age. And when we hear any inftance of minifterial rapacity, to the prejudice of the rights of private life, it will certainly not be the exaction of two hundred pullets, from a woman of fashion, for leave to lie with her own husband *. Every age has its own manners, and its politicks dependent upon them; and the fame attempts will not be made against a constitution fully formed and matured, that were used to destroy it in the cradle, or to refift its growth during its infancy. Against the being of parliament, I am satisfied, no designs have ever been entertained fince the revolution. Every one muft perceive, that it is ftrongly the intereft of the court, to have fome fecond caufe interpofed between the minifters and the people. The gentlemen of the house of commons have an intereft equally ftrong, in fuftaining the part of that intermediate caufe. However they may hire out the ufufruct of their voices, they never will part with the fee and inheritance. Accordingly thofe who have been of the most known devotion to the will and pleafure of a court, have at the fame time been moft forward "Uxor Hugonis de Nevill dat Domino Regi ducentas Gallinas, eo quod poffit jacere una nocte cum Domino fuo Hugone de Nevill." Maddox, Hift. Exch. c. xiii. p. 326. mons. in afferting a high authority in the houfe of comWhen they knew who were to use that authority, and how it was to be employed, they thought it never could be carried too far. It must be always the wish of an unconftitutional statefman, that a house of commons who are entirely dependent upon him, fhould have every right of the people entirely dependent upon their pleasure. It was foon discovered, that the forms of a free, and the ends of an arbitrary government, were things not altogether incompatible. The power of the crown, almoft dead and rotten as Prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength, and far less odium, under the name of Influence. An influence, which operated without noife and without violence; an influence which converted the very antagonist, into the inftrument, of power; which contained in itself a perpetual principle of growth and renovation; and which the diftreffes and the profperity of the country equally tended to augment, was an admirable fubftitute for a prerogative, that, being only the offspring of antiquated prejudices, had moulded in its original stamina irresistible principles of decay and diffolution. The ignorance of the people is a bottom but for a temporary fyftem; the intereft of active men in the ftate is a foundation perpetual and infallible. However, fome circumftances, arifing, it must be confeffed, in a great de૨૩. gree gree from accident, prevented the effects of thi influence for a long time from breaking out in a manner capable of exciting any ferious apprehen fions. Although government was ftrong and flou rifhed exceedingly, the court had drawn far lefs ad vantage than one would imagine from this grea fource of power. At the revolution, the crown, deprived, for the ends of the revolution itself, of many prerogatives was found too weak to ftruggle againft all the dif ficulties which preffed fo new and unfettled a go vernment. The court was obliged therefore to delegate a part of its powers to men of fuch in tereft as could fupport, and of fuch fidelity as would adhere to, its establishment. Such men were able to draw in a greater number to a concurrence in the common defence. This connexion, neceffary at firft, continued long after convenient; and properly conducted might indeed, in all fituations, be an useful inftrument of government. At the fame time, through the intervention of men of popu lar weight and character, the people poffeffed a fecurity for their juft portion of importance in the ftate. But as the title to the crown grew ftronger by long poffeffion, and by the conftant increase of its influence, these helps have of late feemed to certain perfons no better than incumbrances. The powerful managers for government were not fufficiently fubmiffive to the pleafure of the poffeffors |