fpective view of the court gorgeously painted, and finely illuminated from within, was exhibited to the gaping multitude. Party was to be totally done. away, with all its evil works. Corruption was to be caft down from court, as Atè was from heaven. Power was thenceforward to be the chofen refidence of publick spirit; and no one was to be fuppofed under any finifter influence, except those who had the misfortune to be in difgrace at court, which was to ftand in lieu of all vices and all corruptions. A fcheme of perfection to be realized in a monarchy far beyond the vifionary republick of Plato. The whole fcenery was exactly difpofed to captivate thofe good fouls, whofe credulous morality is fo invaluable a treasure to crafty politicians. Indeed there was wherewithal to charm every body, except thofe few who are not much pleased with profeffions of fupernatural virtue, who know, of what stuff fuch profeffions are made, for what purposes they are defigned, and in what they are fure conftantly to end. Many innocent gentlemen, who had been talking profe all their lives without knowing any thing of the matter, began at laft to open their eyes upon their own merits, and to attribute their not having been lords of the treasury and lords of trade many years before, merely to the prevalence of party, and to the minifterial power, which had frustrated the good intentions of the court in favour of their abilities. VOL. II. Now

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Now was the time to unlock the fealed fountain of royal bounty, which had been infamoufly monopolized and huckstered, and to let it flow at large upon the whole people. The time was come, to reftore royalty to its original fplendour. Mettre le Roy hors de page, became a fort of watch-word. And it was conftantly in the mouths of all the runners of the court, that nothing could preserve the balance of the 'conftitution from being overturned by the rabble, or by a faction of the nobility, but to free the fovereign effectually from that minifterial tyranny under which the royal dignity had been oppreffed in the perfon of his majefty's grandfather.

Thefe were fome of the many artifices ufed to reconcile the people to the great change which was made in the perfons who compofed 'the miniftry, and the still greater which was made and avowed in its conftitution. As to individuals, other methods were employed with them; in order fo thoroughly to difunite every party, and even every family, that no concert, order, or effect, might appear in any future oppofition. And in this manner an administration without connexion with the people, or with one another, was first put in poffeffion of government. What good confequences followed from it, we have all feen; whether with regard to virtue, publick of private; to the cafe and happinefs of the fovereign; or to the real ftrength of

government.

government. But as fo much ftrefs was then laid on the neceffity of this new project, it will not be amiss to take a view of the effects of this royal fer vitude and vile durance, which was fo déplored in the reign of the late monarch, and was fo carefully to be avoided in, the reign of his fucceffor. The effects were these. 97179

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In times full of doubt and danger to his perfon and family, George the Second maintained the dignity of his crown connected with the liberty of his people, not only unimpaired, but improved, for the space of thirty-three years. He overcame a dangerous rebellion, abetted by foreign force, and raging in the heart of his kingdoms; and thereby deftroyed the feeds of all future rebellion that could arife upon the fame principle. He earried the glory, the power, the commerce of England, to an height unknown even to this renowned nation in the times of its greateft profperity: and he left his fucceffion refting on the true and only true foundations of all national and all regal greatness;. affection at home, reputation abroad, trust in allies, terrour in rival nations. The moft ardent lover of his country cannot wifh for Great Britain á happier fate than to continue as fhe was then left. A people emulous as we are in affection to our pre fent fovereign, know not how to form a prayer to heaven for a greater bleffing upon his virtues, or a higher state of felicity and glory, than that he fhould

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fhould live, and should reign, and, when Providence ordains it, fhould die, exactly like his illuftrious predeceffor.

A great prince may be obliged (though fuch a thing cannot happen very often) to facrifice his private inclination to his publick intereft. A wife prince will not think that such a restraint implies a condition of fervility; and truly, if fuch was the condition of the last reign, and the effects were alfo fuch as we have defcribed, we ought, no lefs for the fake of the fovereign whom we love, than. for our own, to hear arguments convincing indeed, before we depart from the maxims of that reign, or fly in the face of this great body of strong and recent experience.

One of the principal topicks which was then, and has been fince, much employed by that political * fchool, is an affected terrour of the growth of an aristocratick power, prejudicial to the rights of the crown, and the balance of the conftitution. Any new powers exercised in the house of lords, or in the house of commons, or by the crown, ought certainly to excite the vigilant and anxious jealousy of a free people. Even a new and unprecedented courfe of action in the whole legislature, without great and evident reafon, may be a fubject

See the political writings of the late Dr. Brown, and many others.

of

of just uneafinefs. I will not affirm, that there may not have lately appeared in the house of lords a difpofition to fome attempts derogatory to the legal rights of the fubject. If any fuch have really appeared, they have arifen, not from a power properly ariftocratick, but from the fame influence which is charged with having excited attempts of a fimilar nature in the houfe of commons; which house, if it should have been betrayed into an unfortunate quarrel with its conftituents, and involv ed in a charge of the very fame nature, could have neither power nor inclination to repel fuch attempts in others. Those attempts in the house of lords can no more be called ariftocratick proceed. ings, than the proceedings with regard to the county of Middlefex in the houfe of commons can with any fenfe be called democratical.

It is true, that the peers have a great influence in the kingdom, and in every part of the publick concerns. While they are men of property, it is impoffible to prevent it, except by fuch means as muft prevent all property from its natural operation: an event not easily to be compaffed, while property is power; nor by any means to be wifhed, while the leaft notion exifts of the method by which the fpirit of liberty acts, and of the means by which it is preferved. If any particular peers, by their uniform, upright, conftitutional conduct, by their publick and their private virtues, have ac R 3

quired