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bled you so much, and fo often, that you can bear it no longer. In fuch a fituation, would not the patient probably exclaim against his doctor, and fay, Sir, you have always pretended to be a regular phyfician, but I have found you an arrant quack; I had an excellent conftitution when I first came into your hands, but you have quite destroyed it; and now I find I have no other choice for faving my life, but by calling for the help of fome regular phyfician.

Mr. W. Pulteney, Jan. 25, 1734

The reasoning of the honourable gentleman who spoke laft (Mr. Pelham) is not unlike that of a phyfician who was called to vifit an acquaintance of mine. Two or three other members of the faculty were called at the fame time, and all of them, except this phyfician, agreed in their confultations, that the nature of the patient's disease required lenitives. The reafon which the fingular doctor gave for differing from his brethren was, "that corrofives were only to be cured by corrofives." Sir, we have long had corrofives applied, to correct the fharp humours of a people whofe conftitution has been vitiated by a course of fevere exactions and taxes, without any apparent advantage to the kingdom; and it was reasonable to expect, Sir, that by this time fome lenitives fhould have been applied: but this, Sir, it seems, is not agreeable to the maxims of the honourable gentleman, who laft feffion entertained us with the ever-memorable fpeech which concluded by telling us from a Roman poet, Immedicabile vulnus enfe recidendum. I am afraid that this, Sir, may, indeed, be the only remedy that can be applied, if we should proceed in exafperating the people, by not only continuing but increafing the principal grievance they have.

Walter Plumer, Efq. Feb. 3, 1738.

I fhall not pretend, Sir, to be a competent judge of our conduct for feveral years paft. I fhall not pretend to fay pofi

tively,

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tively, what we have done, or what we might have done; but, in my opinion, we have had feveral opportunities for inducing if not compelling the Spaniards, and likewife fome other of our neighbours, to give us full fatisfaction for injuries past, which would have been the beft fecurity against any fuch for the future; nay, I am of opinion we might have prevented moft of the indignities put upon us, without involving the nation in a war. If my information be right, our neighbours, the Dutch, have fallen upon a way of preventing fuch indignities, without involving themselves in a war. I fhall not af firm it for a truth, but we have been told, that they have lately taken a method with the Spanish guarda coftas, which will make them a little more cautious, at leaft, with respect to them, in time to come: they have fitted out fhips proper for the purpose; and when they have found guarda coftas not properly commiffioned, or fuch as had feized or plundered any of their fhips, contrary to the law of nations, and to the inftructions they had from thofe who gave them their commiffions, they have treated them as pirates, and have hung them up at the yard's arm as foon as taken. This is what has been commonly reported; and it calls to my mind a story I have heard of a gentleman who received a box on the ear from a famous bully at a coffee houfe. The gentleman, it seems, had not fo much courage as a gentleman ought to have, and therefore took it patiently; he thought only of obtaining fatisfaction in a peaceable manner; but foon after he heard, that the fame bully, for fuch another piece of behaviour, had been caned and kicked out of the coffee houfe by another gentleman. Gods fo! fays the poltroon, if I had known that fellow would have been treated in fuch a manner, I fhould not have taken the blow he gave me fo patiently,

Sir John Barnard, Feb. 3, 1738.

For my part, Sir, I am furprised that fuch an open and avowed infult upon the flag of the Crown of Great Britain

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was not pursued with immediate vengeance; and I am furprifed we had the patience to fend to the Court of Spain to demand fatisfaction and reparation; and yet, Sir, I don't find that we have hitherto received any fatisfaction for the affront, nor any reparation for the damages done; nay, the Spanish Court seems to mind it so little, that they have not so much as once mentioned it in their last memorial. This affair, I muft fay, Sir, puts me in mind of the story of a gentleman, who, upon receiving a box on the ear, asked him that gave it, if he was in jeft or in earnest; and upon the other's answering, he was in great earnest, the honeft gentleman replied only, I am glad you are, Sir, for I do not like fuch a jeft. Whether we had our joke upon this occafion, I do not know; but I hope the nation will not content itself with returning a joke for such a ferious blow.

Mr. Pulteney, March 30, 1738.

I must think, that thofe gentlemen who are for fecuring the people's loyalty by a numerous mercenary army, are exactly in the cafe of a jealous husband, who, to fecure his wife's chastity, locks her up. She will certainly, fome time or other, get an opportunity; and the firft fhe gets, fhe will certainly make the proper ufe of; fuch a use as fuch a husband deferves. Sir, the English padlock is certainly the best. Clap the padlock upon the minds of the people; this can no ways be done but by trufting to themselves the defence of their king and country.

Mr. Carew, April 25, 1742.

The fear of an invasion, or an infurrection in favour of the Pretender, is fuch a threadbare argument, that I am surprised to hear it again seriously made use of in this House. What the honourable gentleman faid of the redress of grievances, may much more juftly be applied to the fear of the Pretender; for this argument is never made use of lately, but you may

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fee a general finile fpread itself over the whole House: nay, in the countenance of every gentleman who makes use of it,

you may fee fuch a contraft, as is generally obferved in the countenance of a young widow upon the lofs of an old husband;— fhe affects a forrow, but, in spite of all she can do, her inward joy breaks forth in the difpofition of some of her features. Mr. Carew, April 25, 1742.

The Oppofition, they raise a hue and cry about fomething, but they know not what, in order to make the world ftare and gape, and look amazed and confounded. Their conduct puts me in mind of an old Greek story, which I read when I was a boy at school. It is a well-known ftory; you have all read it. It is the ftory of Ulyffes. This good old Grecian, wife as he was, happened to be fhipwrecked on an island inhabited by a race of giants. It was his misfortune to take shelter in the cave of Polyphemus, the moft formidable of the whole tribe. This Polyphemus used, after the manner of the giants, I fuppofe, to stay his stomach with some of these wretched Greeks, whom he had caught on his premifes. Out of revenge, as well as for his own fecurity, Ulyffes watches his opportunity, and with a firebrand put out the eye of the Cyclops as he lay asleep, in the fame manner, as our giants alledge, that Lord Mansfield has put out the eye of the law. The pain, as you may easily perceive, waked the giant. It did; and after groping his way out of the cave in the dark, for neither he, nor of his nation, had more than one eye, which, by the bye, was in the middle of their forehead, he raifed a terrible outcry, you may be fure. I queftion much, whether it was not more frightful than the Indian war-whoop, or the Irish howl.Well, be that as it will, his dolorous lamentations brought together a large poffe of his one-eyed brethren, and they found him, I dare fay, in as bad a pickle as our patriotic Cyclopfes have found the conftitution: but ftill it remained for Polyphemus, who had raised all this noife and hubbub, to refolve

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the grand question, Who did it? The Greeks having ftole away in the bustle, he could produce nobody; and all the answer that his brothers could get was, that nobody did it. Thus are we alarmed with terrible encroachments on our liberty and property; but when we demand the authors, they are not to be found. There are fad doings, but nobody did them.

Lord Clare, Dec. 6, 1770.

The paffion of gain is as ftrong as the paffion of love. I will fuppofe that two intimate friends have lived long together; that one of them has married a beautiful woman; that the friend ftill continues to live in the houfe; and that this beautiful woman, forgetting her duty to her husband, attempts to feduce the friend; who, though in the vigour of his youth, may, from a high principle of honour, at first resist the temptation, and even rebuke the lady: but if he ftill continues to live under the fame roof, and fhe ftill continues to throw out her allurements, he must be feduced at laft, or fly. Now the Banyan of Bengal is the fair lady to the Company's fervant. He lays his bag of filver before him to-day; his gold to-morrow; jewels the next day; and if thefe fail, he then tempts him in the way of his profeffion, which is trade. He affures him that goods may be had cheap, and fold to great advantage up the country. In this manner is the attack carried on; and the Company's fervant has no resource, for he cannot fly. In fhort, flesh and blood cannot bear it.

Lord Clive, March 30, 1772.

The learned Counsel has fo ably gone through the Company's right of appointing Supervisors, and fo ably stated to the Houfe, the urgent neceffity of such an appointment, that I will not follow them through one inch of ground they have gone over; perfuaded as I am, that they have left conviction on the mind of every gentleman who retains the least particle of parliamentary independence, and the leaft regard to national

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