But, though no man can draw a ftroke between the confines of day and night, yet light and darkness are upon the whole tolerably diftinguishable. Nor will it be impoffible for a Prince to find out fuch a mode of Government, and fuch perfons to adminifter it, as will give a great degree of content to his people; without any curious and anxious research for that abftract, univerfal, perfect harmony, which while he is seeking, he abandons thofe means of ordinary tranquillity which are in his power without any research at all.

It is not more the duty than it is the interest of a Prince, to aim at giving tranquillity to his Government. But those who advise him may have an interest in disorder and confufion. If the opinion of the people is against them, they will naturally wish that it fhould have no prevalence. Here it is that the people must on their part fhew themfelves fenfible of their own value. Their whole importance, in the first inftance, and afterwards their whole freedom, is at stake. Their freedom cannot long furvive. their importance. Here it is that the natural ftrength of the kingdom, the great peers, the leading landed gentlemen, the opulent merchants and manufacturers, the fubftantiaľ yeomanry, muft interpofe, to rescue their Prince, themselves, and their posterity.

We are at prefent at iffue upon this point. We are in the great crifis of this contention; and the part which men take one way or other, will ferve to discriminate their characters and their prin

ciples.

ciples. Until the matter is decided, the country will remain in its prefent confufion. For while a fyftem of Administration is attempted, entirely repugnant to the genius of the people, and not conformable to the plan of their Government, every thing muft neceffarily be disordered for a time, until this fyftem deftroys the conftitution, or the conftitution gets the better of this system.

There is, in my opinion, a peculiar venom and malignity in this political distemper beyond any that I have heard or read of. In former times the projectors of arbitrary Government attacked only the liberties of their country; a defign furely mischievous enough to have fatisfied a mind of the most unruly ambition. But a fyftem unfavourable to freedom may be fo formed, as confiderably to exalt the grandeur of the State; and men may find in the pride and fplendor of that profperity fome fort of confolation for the lofs of their folid privileges. Indeed the increase of the power of the State has often been urged by artful men, as a pretext for fome abridgement of the public liberty. But the scheme of the junto under confideration, not only strikes a palfy into every nerve of our free conftitution, but in the fame degree benumbs and stupifies the whole executive power; rendering Government in all its grand operations languid, uncertain, ineffective; making Minifters fearful of attempting, and incapable of executing, any useful plan of domeftic arrangement, or of foreign politicks. It tends to produce neither

E 2

the

the fecurity of a free Government, nor the energy of a Monarchy that is abfolute. Accordingly the Crown has dwindled away, in proportion to the unnatural and turgid growth of this excrescence on the Court.

The interior Miniftry are fenfible, that war is a fituation which fets in its full light the value of the hearts of a people; and they well know, that the beginning of the importance of the people must be the end of theirs. For this reafon they discover upon all occafions the utmost fear of every thing, which by poffibility may lead to fuch an event. I do not mean that they manifeft any of that pious fear which is backward to commit the fafety of the country to the dubious experiment of war. Such a fear, being the tender sensation of virtue, excited, as it is regulated, by reason, frequently fhews itself in a seasonable boldness, which keeps danger at a distance, by feeming to defpife it. Their fear betrays to the first glance of the eye, its true cause, and its real object. Foreign powers, confident in the knowledge of their character, have not fcrupled to violate the moft folemn treaties; and, in defiance of them, to make conquests in the midft of a general peace, and in the heart of Europe. Such was the conqueft of Corfica, by the profeffed enemies of the freedom of mankind, in defiance of those who were formerly its profeffed defenders. We have had just claims upon the fame powers; rights which ought to have been facred to them as well as to us, as they had their origin in our lenity and

generofity

generofity towards France and Spain in the day of their great humiliation. Such I call the ranfom of Manilla, and the demand on France for the East India prifoners. But these powers put a juft confidence in their resource of the double Cabinet. Thefe demands (one of them at least) are haftening fast towards an acquittal by prefcription. Oblivion begins to fpread her cobwebs over all our spirited remonftrances. Some of the most valuable branches of our trade are alfo on the point of perishing from the fame caufe. I do not mean thofe branches which bear without the hand of the vine-dreffer; I mean those which the policy of treaties had formerly fecured to us; I mean to mark and diftinguish the trade of Portugal, the loss of which, and the power of the Cabal, have one and the fame æra.

If, by any chance, the Minifters who stand before the curtain poffefs or affect any spirit, it makes little or no impreffion. Foreign Courts and Minifters, who were among the first to dif cover and to profit by this invention of the double Cabinet, attend very little to their remonftrances. They know that thofe fhadows of Ministers have nothing to do in the ultimate disposal of things. Jealoufies and animofities are fedulously nourished in the outward Administration, and have been even confidered as a caufa fine qua non in its conftitution: thence foreign Courts have a certainty, that nothing can be done by common counfel in this nation. If one of thofe Minifters officially takes up a bufinefs

E 3

business with spirit, it ferves only the better to fignalize the meanness of the reft, and the dif cord of them all. His collegues in office are in hafte to shake him off, and to disclaim the whole of his proceedings. Of this nature was that aftonishing tranfaction, in which Lord Rochford, our Ambaffador at Paris, remonftrated against the attempt upon Corfica, in confequence of a direct authority from Lord Shelburne. This remonftrance the French Minifter treated with the contempt that was natural; as he was affured, from the Ambaffador of his Court to ours, that these orders of Lord Shelburne were not fupported by the reft of the (I had like to have faid British) Adminiftration. Lord Rochford, a man of fpirit, could not endure this fituation. The confequences were, however, curious. He returns from Paris, and comes home full of anger. Lord Shelburne, who gave the orders, is obliged to give up the feals. Lord Rochford, who obeyed thefe orders, receives them. He He goes, however, into another department of the fame office, that he might not be obliged officially to acquiefce in one fituation under what he had officially remonstrated against in another. At Paris, the Duke of Choifeul confidered this office arrangement as a compliment to him: here it was fpoke of as an attention to the delicacy of Lord Rochford. But whether the compliment was to one or both, to this nation it was the fame. By this tranfaction the condition of our Court lay exposed in all its naked

io

nefs.