expelling that other counfels would take place; and were flow to be perfuaded, that all which had been done by the Cabal, was the effed: not of humour, but of fyftem. It was more llrongly and evidently the interCi^ of the new Court Fadion, to get rid of the great Whig conncxioiis, than to dcflroy Mr. Pitt. The power of that gentleman was vaft indeed and merited; but it was in a great degree perfonal, and therefore tranficnt. Theirs was rooted in the country. For, with a good deal lefs of popularity, they polTefied a far more natural and fixed influence. Long polTeflion ot Government; vafl: property; obligations of favours given and received; connexion of office; ties of blood, of alliance, of friendfhip (things at that time fuppofcd of fome force); the name of Whig, dear to the majority of the people; the zeal early b.gun and fteadily continued to the Royal Family: all thefe together formed a body of power in the nation, which, was criminal and devoted. The great ruling principle of the Cabal, and that which animated and harmonized all their proceedings, how various foever they may have been, was to lignify to the world, that the Court would proceed upon its own proper forces only; and that the pretence of bringing any other into its fervicc was an alfront to it, and not a fupnort. Therefore, when the chiefs were removed, in order to go to the root, the whole party v/as put undtr aprofcription, fo general and fevere as to take their hard-earned bread from the lowelt piiicersj in a manner which had never been ^ 3 known -t THOUGHTS ON THK CAUSE OF known before, even in general revolutions/ But it was thought neceflary effcdlually to deftroy all clependencies hut one; and to iLew an exnniple of the firmnefs and rigour with which the new fyftein was to be hipported.
Thus for the time were pulled down, in the perfons of the Whig leaders and of Mr. Pitt (in fpite of the fervices of the one at the acceihon of the Royal Family, and the recent fervices of the other in the war), the tixo only Jlcurities for the importance of the people; power arijing from popularity j a7jd power arifng from connexion. Here and there indeed a few individuals were left ftanding, who gave fecurity for their total ellrangement from the odious principles of party connexion and perfonal attachment; and it muft be confefled that moft of them have religioully kept their faith. Such a change could not however be made without a inighty fliock to Government.
To reconcile the minds of the people to all thefe movements, principles correfpondent to tliem had been preached up with great zeal. Every one muii remember that the Cabal fer out with the moil: aftonifhing prudery, both moral and political. Thofc who in a fev/ months after fouled over head and ears into the deepcll and dirtied: pits cf corruption, cried out violently agalnfl the indlredl: pradices in the electing and managing of Pailiaments, which had formerlv prevailed. This marvellous abhorrence which the Court had fuddenly taken to all influence, was not orJv circulated in converfation through the the kingdom, but pompoufly announced to the publick, with many other extraordinary things, in a pamphlf-t * which had all the appearance of a manifefto preparatory to fome conddcrable enterprize. Hiroughout, it was a latire, though in terms managed and decent enough, on the politicks of the fornier Reign. It was indeed written with no fm.ill art and addrefs.
In this piece appeared the firft dawning of the new fyftem; there firrt: appeared the idea (then only in fpecnlation) o^feparating the Court from the Adminijlraticn; of carrying every thing ironi national connexion to perfonnl regards; and of forming a regular party for that purpofe, under the name of King's men.
To recommend this fyftem to the people, a perfpe(5live view of the Court gorgeoufly 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 Ate was from Heaven. Power was thenceforward to be the chofen refidence of public fpiritj and no one was to be fuppofed under any Unifier influence, except thofe who had the miffortune to be in difgrace at Court, which was to Aand in lieu of all vices and all corruptions. A fcheme of perfedion 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 treafure to crafty '''• Sentiments of an honefl Man.
C 4 politicians.
politicians. Indeed there was wherewithal! to charm every body, except thoic few who are not much plenfed with profefllons of fupernatural virtue, who know of what fluiTfuch profclTions are made, for what purpofcs they aredefigned, and in what they are fure conflantly to end. IVIany innocent gentlemen, who had been talking prcfe all their lives without knowing any tiling of the matter, began at 1 all: to open their eyes upon their own m.erits, and to attribute their not having been Lords of the Treafury and Lords of Trade many years before, merely to the prevalence of p:H-ty, and to the Miniderial power, whichhad fruflrated the good intentions of the Court in favour of their abilities. Now was the tim-e to unlock the fealed fountain of Poyal bounty, which had been infamoufly monopolized and huckftered, and to let it flow at large upon the whole people. The time was come, to leflore Royalty to its original fplendour. Mctire le Roy bors de page, became a fort of watch-word. And it u-as conllantly in the mouths of all the runners of the Court, that nothing could preferve the balance of the conftitution from being overturned by the rabble, or by a faction of the nobility, but to free the Sovereign effeilually from that Minifterial tyranny under which the Royal dignity had been oppreiTed in the perfon of his M.ijelly's grai^.dfaiher.
I'hefe were fome of the many artifices ufed to reconcile the people to the great change \vhich was made in the pcrfons who compofcd the the Minidry, and the ftill greater which was made and avowed in its conftitution. As to individuals, other methods were employed with them J in order fo thoroughly to difunite every party, and even every family, that no cojicert^ order, cr cffeB, might appear in any future opp'^jition. And in 'this manner an Adminldration without connexion with the people, or with one another, was firlt put in poffeflion of Government. What good confequences followed from if, we have all iecn j whetlier with regard to virtue, public or privates to the eafe and happinefs of the Sovereign 3 or to the real ftrength of Government. But as fo much ftrefs was then laid on the necelTity of this new projed, it will not be amJfs to take a view of the effefts of this Royal fervitude and vile durance, which was fo deplored in the reign of the late Monarch, and was io carefully to be avoided in the reign of hi? Succellbr. The effects were thefe.
In times full of doubt and danger to his perfon and family, George the Second maintained the dignity of his Crown conneifced with the liberty of his people, not only unimpaired, but improved, for the Ipace of thirty three years. He overcame a dangerous rebellion, abetted by foreign force, and raging in the heart of his kingdoms j and thereby deftroyed the feeds of all future rebellion that could arife upon the lame principle. He carried 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 fucccffion fucceffion relling on the true and only true founddiions of all national and all regal greatnefs; affection at home, reputation abroad, trud in allies, terror in rival nations. The moll; ardent lover of his country cannot vvi{h for Great Britain an happier fate than to continue as {he was then left. A people emulous as we are in affection to our prefent Sovereign, know not how to form a prayer to Heaven for a greater bleffing upon his virtues, or an higher flatc of felicity and glory, than that he flicuid live, and fliould reign, and, when Providence ordains it, fhould die, exactly like his illullrious Predecelfor.
A great Prince may be obliged (though fuch a thing cannot happen very often) to facrifice his private inclination to his public intereil. A wife Prince will not think that fuch a reftraint implies a condition of fervility; and truly, if fuch was the condition of the laft reign, and the effects were alfo fuch as we have del'cribed, we ought, no lefs for the fake of the Sovereign 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 c^ieat bodv of ftrong and recent experience.
One of the principal topicks \^hich was then, and has been fmce, much employed by that political * fchool, is an affcded terror of the growth of an ariltocratic power, prejudicial to * See the Political Writings oi" the lute Dr. Erov.n, and v.\:.r.w others.
the the rights of the Crown, and the balance of the conilitution. Any new powers exercifed in the Houfc of Lords, or in the Moufe of Commons, or by the Crown, ought CLTlainly to excite the vigilant and anxious jealoufy of a free people. Even a new and unprecedented courfe of ad:ioa in the whole Legillature, without great and evident reafon, may be a fubjed: of juft: unealinefs. I will not affirm, that there may not have lately appeared in the Floufe of Lords a difpofition to fome attempts derogatory to the legal rights of the fubjedt. If any fuch have really appeared, they have arifen, not from a power properly ariftocratic, but from the;fame influence which is charged with having excited attempts of a fimilar nature in the Houfe of Commons; which Houfe, if itfliould have been betrayed into an unfortunate quarrel with its conliituents, and involved in a charge of the very fame nature, could have neither power nor inclination to repell fuch attempts in others. Thofe attempts in the Houfe of Lords can no more be called ariflocratic proceedings, 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 public concerns. While they are men of property, it is impoiiible to prevent it, except by fuch means as mull pi^event all property from its natural operation; an event not eafily to be compalfed, \\hile property is power; nor by any means to be wiilied.
2S THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF wlilied, while the Icaft notion exifts of the method by which the fpirit of liberty ads, and of the means by which it is prefervcd. If any particular Peers, by their uniform, upright, conftitutional conduvli, by their pubhc and their private virtues, have acquired an intiuence in the country; the people, on whofe favour that influence depends, and from whom itarofe, will never be duped into an opinion, that fuch greetnefs in a Peer is the defpotifm of an arirtocracy, when they know and feel it to be the eiFcdt and pledge of their own importance.
I am no friend to arifiocracy, in the fenfe at leall in which that word is ufually underftood. If it were not a bad habit to moot cafes on the fuppofed ruin of the conftitution, I fliould be free to declare, that if it mull peri(h, I would rather by far fee it refolved into any other form, than loH: in that auftere and infolent domination. But, whatever my diflikes may be, my fears are not upon that quarter. The queflion, on the intluence of a Court, and of a Peerage, is not, which of the two dangers is the moil eligible, but which is the mofl imminent. He is but a poor obferver, who has not feen, that the generality of Peers, far from fupporti ng themielves in a (late 'of independent greatnefs, are but too apt to fall into an oblivion of their proper dignity, and to run headlong into an abiecTi fervitude. Would to God it were true, that the fault of cur Peers were too much fpirit! It is worthy of Ibme obfervation, that thefe gentlemen, fo jealous of arillocracy, make no complaints complaints complaints of the power of thofe Peers (neither few nor inconfiderable) who are always in the train of a Court, and whofe whole weight muft be confidered as a portion of the fettled influence of the Crown. This Is all fafe and right: but if fome Peers (I am very forry they are not as many as they ought to be) fet themfelves, in the great concern of Peers and Commons, againfl: a back-flairs influence and clandefl:ine government, then the alarm begins; then the confl:itution is in danger of being forced into an arifl:ocracy.
I refl: a little the longer on this Court topick, becaufe it was much infifled upon at the time of the great change, and has been flnce frequently revived by many of the agents of that party: for, whilfl: they are terrifying the great and opulent with the horrors of mob-government, they are by other managers attempting (though hitherto with little fuccefs) to alarm the people with aphantom of tyranny in the Nobles. All this is done upon their favourite principle of difunion, of fov^ing jealoulies amongft the different orders of the State, and of disjointing the natural fl:rength of the kingdom; that it may be rendered incapable of refifting the finifl:er defigns of wicked men, who have engrcfled the Royal power.
Thus much of the topicks chofen by the Courtiers to recommend their fvftem: it will be neceflary to open a little more at large the nature of that party which was formed for its fupport. Withtut this, the whob v.ould have 5 teen been no better tban a vifionary amufement, like the fcheme of Harrington's political club, and not a builnefs in which the nation had a real concern. As a powerful party, and a party conftrudled on a new principle, it is a very inviting objedl of curiofitv.
It mufl be remembered, that fince the Revolution, until the period we are fpeaking of, the influence of the Crown had been always employed in fupporting the Minifters of State, and in carrying on the public bufinefs according to their opinions. But the party now in queftion is formed upon a very different idea. It is to intercept the favour, prote£lion and confldence of the Crown in the paffage to its Minill:ers j it is to come between them and their importance in Parliament; it is to feparate them from all their natural and acquired dependencies; it is intended as the controul, not the fupport, of Adminiflration. The machinery of this fyftem is perplexed in its movements, and falfe in its principle. It is formed on a fuppofition that the King is fomething external to his government; and that he may be honoured and aggrandized, even by its debility and difgrace. Tlie plan proceeds exprefbly on the idea of enfeebling the regular executory power. It proceeds on the idea of weakening the State in order to strengthen the Court. The fcheme depending intirely on diftruft, on difconnexion, on mutability by principle, on fyllematic weaknefs in every particular member; it is impoflible that that that the total refult fhould be fubftantial ftrength of any kind.
As a foundation of their fchcme, the Cab.il have eftablifhed a fort of Rota \n the Court. All forts of parties, by this means, have been brought into Adminiftration, from whence fewhave had the good fortune to efcape without difgrace; none at all without confiderable lofTcs. In the beginning of each arrangement no profefiions of confidence and fupport are wanting, to induce the leading men to engage. But while the Minifters of the day appear in all the pomp and pride of power, while they have all their canvas fpread out to the wind, and everv fail filled with the fair and profperous gale of Royal favour, in a fliort time they find, they know not how, a current, which f^ts diredly agriinft them; which prevents all progrefs; and even drives them backwards. They grow afhamed and mortified in a fituation, which, by its vicinity to power, only ferves to remind them the more ftrongly of their infignificance. They are obliged either to execute the orders of their inferiors, or to fee themfelves oppofed by the natural inftruments of their office. With the lofs of their dignity, they lofe their temper. In their turn they grow troublefome to that Cabal, which, whether it fupports or oppofes, equally difgraces and equally betrays them. It is foon found necefiary to get rid of the heads of Ad-Biiniftration; but it is of the heads only. As there always are many rotten members belonging to the beft connexions, it is not hard to pcrfujde fuade feveral to continue in office without their leaders. By this means the party goes out much thinner than it came in; and is only reduced in flrength bv its temporary poflefiion of power. Befides, if by accident, or in courfe of changes, that power fliould be recovered, the Junto have thrown up a retrenchment of thefe carcafes, which may ferve to cover themfelves in a day of danger. They conclude, not unwifely, that fuch rotten members will become the firfl objeds of difgufb and ref^ntment to their antient connexions.
They contrive to form in the outward Adminiflration two parties at the leal}; which, whilfl they are tearing one another to pieces, are both competitors for the favour and protection of the Cabal; and, by their emulation, contribute to throw every thing more and more into the hands of the interior managers.
A Minifter of State will fometimes keephimfelf totally eftranged from all his coUegues; will differ from them in their councils, will privately traverie, and publicly oppofe, their mcafures. He will, however, continue in his employment. Inllead offuffering any mark of difpleafure, he will be diftinguiilied by an unbounded profufion of Court rewards and carelfes; becaufe he does what is expected, and all that is expeded, from men in ofiice. He helps to keep Ibme form of Adminirtration in being, and keeps it at the fame time as weak and divided as poflible.
However, we mull take care not to be miltckcn,- or to imagine that fuch perfons have any any weight in their oppofition. When, by them, Adminiftration is convinced of its infignihcancy, they are loon to be convinced of their own. They never are fufFered to fucceed in their oppoiition. They and the world are to be fatisfied, that, neither office, nor authority, nor property, nor abihty, eloquence, council, fkill, or union, are of the leall importance; but that the mere influence of the Court, naked of all fupport, and defUtute of all management, is abundantly fufficient for all its own purpofes.
When any adverfe connexion is to be deflroyed, the Cabal feldom appear in the work themfelves. They find out fome perfon of whom the party entertains an high opinion. Such a perfon they endeavour to delude with various pretences. They teach him firft to diftruft, and then to quarrel with his friends; among whom, by the fame arts, they excite a limilar diffidence of him 3 fo that, in this mutual fear and diftruO:,; he may fuffer himfelf to be employed as the inftrument in the change which is brought about. Afterwards they are fure to deflroy him in his turn; by letting up in his place fome person in whom he had himfelf repofed the greateft confidence, and who ferves to carry off a confiderable part of his adherents.
When fuch a perfon has broke in this manner with his connexions, he is foon compelled to commit fome flagrant adl of iniquitous perfonal hoftility agaiiift fome of them (fuch as an attempt to ftrip a particular friend of his family eftate), by which the Cabal hope tcf D render render the parties utterly irreconcilable. In truth, they have To contrived matters, that people have a greater hatred to the fubordinate inftruments than to the principal movers.
As in deftroying their enemies they make ufe of inftruments not immediately belonging to their corps, fo, in advancing their own friends, they purfue exa(5lly the fame method. To promote any of them to confiderable rank or emolument, they commonly take care that the recommendation (hall pafs through the hands of the oftenfible Miniftry: fuch a recommendation might however appear to the world, as fome proof of the credit of Minifters, and fome means of increafing their ftrength. To prevent this, the perfons fo advanced are direfted, in all companies, induftrioufly to declare, that they are under no obligations whatfoever to Adminiftration; that they have received their office from another quarter; that they are totally free and independent.
When the Fa6lion has any job of lucre to obtain, or of vengeance to perpetrate, their way is, to feleft, for the execution, thofe very perfons to whofe habits, friendfhips, principles, and declarations, fuch proceedings are publicly known to be the moft adverfe; at once to render the inftruments the more odious, and therefore the more dependent, and to prevent the people from ever repofing a confidence in any appearance of private friendlhip, or public principle.
If If the Adminiflration feem now and then, from remiirncfs, or from fear of making themfelves difagreeable, to fuffer any popular excefles to go unpunirticd, the Cabal immediately fets up fome creature of theirs to raife a clamour againft the Minifters, as having fhametully betrayed the dignity of Government. Then they compel the Miniftry to become adtive in conferring rewards and honours on the perfons who have been the inrtruments of their difgrace; and, after having firfl: vilified them with the higher orders for fuffering the laws to fleep over the licentioufnefs of the populace, they drive them (in order to make amends for their former inactivity) to fome adt of atrocious violence, which renders them completely abhorred by the people. They who remember the riots which attended the Middlefex Eledion; the opening of the prefent Parliament j and the tranfadions relative to Saint George's Fields, will not be at a lofs for an application of thefe remarks.
That this body may be enabled to compafs all the ends of its inftitution, its members are icarcely ever to aim at the high and reiponfible offices of the State. They are diitributed with art and judgement through all the fecondary, but efficient, departments of office, and through the houfeholds of all the branches of the Royal Family: fo as on one hand to occupy all th^ avenues to the Throne; and on the other to forward or truftrate the execution of any meafure, according to their own interelts. For D 2 with with the credit and fupport which they are known to have, though for the greater part in places which are only a genteel excnfe for falary, they poflcfs all the influence of the higheft ports; and they dictate publicly in ahnofl: every thing, even with a p;irade of fuperiority. Whenever they diflent (as it often happens) from their nominal leaders, the trained part of the Senate, inftindlivcly in the fccret, is fare to follow them; provided the leaders, fenfible of their fituation, do not of themfelves recede in time from their mod declared opinions. This latter is generally the cafe. It will not he conceivable to any one who has not feen it, what pleafure is taken by the Cabal in rendering thefe heads of office throughly contemptible and ridiculous. And when they are become fo, they have then the befl: chance for being well fupported.
The members of the Court Facflion are fuHy indemnified for not holding places on the flippery heights of the kingdr^m, not only by the lead in all affairs, but alfo by the perfect fecurity in which they enjoy lefs confpicuous, but very advantageous fituations. Their places are, in exprefs legal tenure, or in etfecl:, all of them for life. Whilil: the firfl: and moft refpedlable perfons in the kingdom are tolled about like tennis balls, the fport of a blind and infolent caprice, no Vlinifter dares even to call: an oblique glance at the loweft of their body. If an attempt be made upon one of this corps, immediately he flies to fajK^lnary, and pretends to the moft inviolable of all prcmiks. No conveniency of public public arrangement is available to remove any one of them from the fpecific lituation he holds; and the flightell: attempt upon one of them, by the moll powerful Minifter, is a certain preliminary to his own deftrud:ion.
Confcious of their independence, they bear themfelves with a lofty air to the exterior Tvlinirters. Like Janiilaries, they derive a kind of freedom from the very condition of their fervitude. They may a(fl juft as they pleafe; provided they are true to the great ruling principle of their inftitution. It is, therefore, not at all wonderful, that people (hould be fo defirous of adding themfelves to that body, in which they may polTefs and reconcile fatisfadtions the moft alluring, and feemingly the moft contradictory; enjoying at once all the fpirited pleafure of independence, and all the grofs lucre and fat emoluments of fervitude.
Here is a fketch, though a flight one, of the conftitution, laws, and policy, of this new Court corporation. The name by which they chufe to difl'inguifh themfelves, is that of Kings fnen, or the King s friendsy by an invidious exclufion of the reft of his Majelly's moft loyal and affectionate fubje(5ls. The whole fyftem, comprehending the exterior and interior Adminillrations, is commonly called, in the technical language of the Court, Double Cabinet -, in French or Englifh, as you choofe to pronounce it.
Whether all this be a vifion of a diftradied brain, or the invention of a malicious heart, or a real Fadion in the country, muft be judged D3 by 3S THOUGHTS ON THE C A tJ S E CF by the appearances which things have worn for eight years part. Thus far I am certain, that there is not a fingle public man, in or out of office, who has not, at lome time or other, born teftimony to the truth of what I have now related. In particular, no perfons have been more flrong in their afiertions, and louder and more indecent in their complaints, than thofe who compofe all the exterior part of the prefent Admin iflration; in whofe time that Faction has arrived at fuch an height of power, and of boldnefs in the ufe of it, as may, in the end, perhaps bring about its total deftruftion.
It is true, that about four years ago, during the adminiftration of the Marquis of Rockingham, an attempt was made to carry on Government without their concurrence. However, this was only a tranfient cloudy they were hid but for a moment; and their conftellation blazed out with greater brightneu-, and a far more vigorous influence, fome time after it was blown over. An attempt was at that time made (but without any idea of profcription) to break their corps, to difcountenance their dodlrines, to revive connexions of a different kind, to rcfiore the principles and policy of the Whigs, to reanimate the caufe of Liberty by Minifterial countenance j and then for the fir ft time were men fecn attached in office to every principle tliey had maintained in oppoiition. No one will doubt, that fuch men were abhorred and violently oppofed by the Court Faction, and that fuch a iyftcm could have but a fhort duration.
It It It may appear fomewhat affeded, that in fo much difcourfe upon this extraordinary Party, I Should fay fo little of the Earl of Bute, who is the fuppofed head of it. But this was neither owing to affedation nor* inadvertence. I have carefully avoided the introducflion of perfonal reflexions of any kind. Much the greater part of the topicks which have been ufed to blacken this Nobleman, are either unjuft or frivolous.. At!^eft, they have a tendency to give the refentment of this bitter calamity a wrong dirediion, and to turn a public grievance into ^ mean perfonal, or a dangerous national, quarrel. Where there is a regular fcheme of operations carried on, it is the fyftem, and not any individual perfon who a6ts in it, that is truly dangerous. This fyftem has not rifen folely from the ambition of Lord Bute, but from the circumftances which favoured it, and from an indifference to the conftitution which had been for fome time growing among our gentry. We (hould have been tried with it, if the Earl of Bute had never exifted; and it will want neither a contriving head nor adlive members, when the Earl of Bute exifts no longer. It is not, therefore, to rail at Lord Bute, but firmly to embody againft this Court Party and its practices, which can afford us any profped: of relief in our prefent condition.
Another motive induces me to put the perfonal conlideration of Lord Bute wholly out of the queftion. He communicates very little in a dire£t manner with the greater part of our men of bufinefs. This has never been his cuftom. It encugh for him that he furrounds the m with his creatures. Several imagine, therefore, that they have a very good excufe for doing all the work of this Faction, when they have no perfonal connexion with Lord Bute. But whoever becomes a party to an Admiuillmt'on, compofed of infiilated individuals, without faith pli[fhted, tie, or common principle; an Adminiftration conftitutionally impotent, becaufe fupported by no party in the nation; he who contributes to deftroy the connexions of men and their iruft in one another, or in any fort to throw the dependence of public counfels upon private will and favour, poflibly may have nothing to do with the Earl of Bute. It matters little whether he be the friend or the enemy of that particular perfon. But let him be who or what he will, he abets a Faction that is driving hard to the ruin of his country. He is f?pping the foundation of its liberty, diflurbing the fources of its domeflic tranquillity, weakening its government over its dependencies, degrading it from all its importance in the fyilem of Europe.
It is this unnatural infulion of a Jyfiem of Favouritifm into a Government which in a great part of its conftitution is popular, that has raifed the prefent ferment in the nation. The people, without entering deeply into its principles, could plainly perceive its effeds, in much violence, in a great fpirit of innovation, and a general diforder in all the fundions of CjQvernmeiU. I keep my eye folely on this fyftem; if I fpeak of thofe meafures which have arifen from it, it will bs fo far only as they illuftrate the general fcheme. This is the fountain of all thofe hitter waters of which, through an hundred different conduits, we have drunk until we are ready to burft. The difcretionary power of the Crown in the formation of Miniiiry, abufed by bad or weak men, » has given rife to a fyftem, which, without diredly violating the letter of any law, operates againft the fpirit of the whole conftitution. A plan of Favouritifm for our executory Government is effentially at variance with the