which opened our troubles in the time of Charles the Firft. A fpecies of men to whom a ftate of order would become a fentence of obfcurity, are nourished into a dangerous magnitude by the heat of inteftine disturbances; and it is no wonder that, by a fort of finifter piety, they cherifh, in their turn, the diforders which are the parents of all their confequence. Superficial obfervers confider fuch perfons as the cause of the public uneafinefs, when, in truth, they are nothing more than the effect of it. Good men look upon this diftracted fcene with forrow and indignation. Their hands are tied behind them. They are defpoiled of all the power which might enable them to reconcile the ftrength of government with the rights of the people. They ftand in a most diftreffing alternative. But in the election among evils they hope better things from temporary confufion, than from established fervitude. In the mean time, the voice of law is not to be heard. Fierce licentioufnefs begets violent reftraints. The military arm is the fole reliance; and then, call your conftitution what you please, it is the fword that governs. The civil power, like every other that calls in the aid of an ally stronger than itself, perishes by the affiftance it recieves. But the contrivers of this fcheme of government will not truft folely to the military power; because they are cunning men. Their reftlefs and crooked spirit drives them to rake in the dirt of every kind of expedient. Unable to rule the multitude, they endeavour to raise divisions amongst them. One mob is hired to deftroy another; a procedure which at once encourages the boldness of the populace, and juftly increases their difcontent. Men become penfioners of ftate on account of their abilities in the array of riot, and the difcipline of confufion. Government is put under the difgraceful neceffity of protecting from the feverity of the laws that very licentioufnefs, which the laws had been before violated to reprefs. Every thing partakes of

the original diforder. Anarchy predominates without freedom, and fervitude without fubmiffion or fubordination. These are the confequences inevitable to our public peace, from the fcheme of rendering the executory government at once odious and feeble; of freeing adminiftråtion from the conftitutional and falutary controul of parliament, and inventing for it a new controul, unknown to the conftitution, an interior cabinet; which brings the whole body of government into confufion and contempt.

After having ftated, as fhortly as I am able, the effects of this fyftem on our foreign affairs, on the policy of our government with regard to our dependencies, and on the interior economy of the commonwealth; there remains only, in this part of my defign, to fay fomething of the grand principle which firft recommended this fyftem at court. The pretence was, to prevent the king from being enflaved by a faction, and made a prifoner in his clofet. This scheme might have been expected to answer at least its own end, and to indemnify the king, in his perfonal capacity, for all the confufion into which it has thrown his government. But has it in reality anfwered this purpofe? I am fure, if it had, every affectionate fubject would have one motive for enduring with patience all the evils which attend it.

In order to come at the truth in this matter, it may not be amifs to confider it fomewhat in detail. I fpeak here of the king, and not of the crown; the interefts of which we have already touched. Independent of that greatnefs which a king poffeffes merely by being a reprefentative of the national dignity, the things in which he may have an individual intereft feem to be thefe: wealth accumulated; wealth spent in magnificence, pleasure, or beneficence; perfonal respect and attention; and above all, private cafe and repose of mind. These compofe the inventory of profperous circumftances, whether they regard a prince or a subject; their enjoyments differing only in the fcales upon which they are formed.

Suppofe then we were to afk, whether the king has been richer than his predeceffors in accumulated wealth, fince the eftablishment of the plan of favouritifm? I believe it will be found that the picture of royal indigence which our court has prefented until this year, has been truly humiliating. Nor has it been relieved from this unfeemly diftreis, but by means which have hazarded the affection of the people, and fhaken their confidence in parlia ment. If the public treasures had been exhaufted in magnificence and fplendour, this diftrefs would have been accounted for, and in fome meafure juftified. Nothing would be more unworthy of this nation, than with a mean and mechanical rule, to mete out the fplendour of the crown. Indeed I have found very few perfons difpofed to fo ungenerous a procedure. But the generality of people, it must be confeffed, do feel a good deal mortified, when they compare the wants of the court with its expences. They do not behold the cause of this distress in any part of the apparatus of royal magnificence. In all this, they fee nothing but the operations of parfimony, attended with all the confequences of profufion. Nothing expended, nothing faved.

Their wonder is encreased by their knowledge, that befides the revenue fettled on his majesty's civil lift to the amount of 800,cool. a year, he has a farther aid, from a large penfion lift, near 90,000l. a year, in Ireland; from the produce of the dutchy of Lancafter (which we are told has been greatly improved); from the revenue of the dutchy of Cornwall; from the American quit-rents; from the four and a half per cent. duty in the Leeward Iflands; this laft worth to be fure confiderably more than 40,000l. a year. The whole is certainly not much fhort of a million annually.

Thefe are revenues within the knowledge and cognizance of our national councils. We have no direct right to examine into the receipts from his

majesty's German dominions, and the bishopric of Ofnabrug. This is unquestionably true. But that which is not within the province of parliament, is yet within the sphere of every man's own reflexion. If a foreign prince refided amongst us, the state of his revenues could not fail of becoming the fubject of our fpeculation. Filled with an anxious concern for whatever regards the welfare of our fovereign, it is impoffible, in confidering the milerable circumftances into which he has been brought, that this obvious topic fhould be entirely paffed over. There is an opinion univerfal, that these revenues produce fomething not inconfiderable, clear of all charges and eftablishments. This produce the people do not believe to be hoarded, nor perceive to be spent. It is accounted for in the only manner it can, by fuppofing that it is drawn away, for the fupport of that court faction, which, whilft it diftreffes the nation, impoverishes the prince in every one of his refources. I once more caution the reader, that I do not urge this confideration concerning the foreign revenue, as if I fuppofed we had a direct right to examine into the expenditure of any part of it; but folely for the purpofe of fhewing how little this fyftem of favouritifm has been advantageous to the monarch himfelf; which, without magnificence, has funk him into a ftate of unnatural poverty; at the fame time that he poffeffed every means of affluence, from ample revenues, both in this country, and in other parts of his dominions.

Has this fyftem provided better for the treatment becoming his high and facred character, and fecured the king from thofe difgufts attached to the neceffity of employing men who are not perfonally agreeable? This is a topic upon which for many reafons I could wifh to be filent; but the pretence of fecuring against fuch causes of uneafinefs, is the corner-ftone of the court party. It has, however, fo happened, that if I were to fix upon any one point, in which this fyl

tem has been more particularly and fhamefully blameable, the effects which it has produced would justify me in choofing for that point its tendency to degrade the perfonal dignity of the fovereign, and to expose him to a thousand contradictions and mortifications. It is but too evident in what manner these projectors of royal greatness have fulfilled all their magnificent promifes. Without recapitulating all the circumtances of the reign, every one of which is more or lefs a melancholy proof of the truth of what I have advanced, let us confider the language of the 'court but a few years ago, concerning moft of the perfons now in the external adminiftration: let me afk, whether any enemy to the perfonal feelings of the fovereign, could poffibly contrive a keener inftrument of mortification, and degradation of all dignity, than almoft every part and member of the present arrangement? nor, in the whole courfe of our hiftory, has any compliance with the will of the people ever been known to extort from any prince a greater contradiction to all his own declared affections and diflikes than that which is now adopted, in direct oppofition to every thing the people approve and defire.

An opinion prevails, that greatnefs has been more than once advifed to fubmit to certain condefcenfions towards individuals, which have been denied to the entreaties of a nation. For the meaneft and most dependent inftrument of this fyftem knows, that there are hours when its exiftence may depend upon his adherence to it; and he takes his advantage accordingly. Indeed it is a law of nature, that whoever is neceffary to what we have made our object, is fure, in fome way, or in fome time or other, to become our mafter. All this, however, is submitted to, in order to avoid that monftrous evil of governing in concurrence with the opinion of the people. For it seems to be laid down as a maxim,