to continue till it might be debated fairly, and with lefs Heat and Partiality, than it could poffibly be at this Period, whether the present Establishment of Parliaments should stand; and, if that should appear improper, whether we should fix upon an Annual or a Triennial Election ;-that a Triennial was ob jected to with ftrong Reason, and that many thought an annual would be lefs dangerous; but that it was difficult to fettle either in the present diverfity of Opinions upon it :-At the fame time, fome of the principal Leaders of the Faction voted against it themselves, and that without giving any Reafon at all; so that the People were deferted in it, by thofe very Men, upon whom they depended to carry it through, and who with a bafe Concealment of this Fact, make no fcruple to lay the Miscarriage of this Bill, in which they had, at leaft, an equal Share, folely to the new Adminiftration.-We now come to the Place- Bill, in which their Conduct was deteftable, for jealous of the Honour and the Popularity, which the new Administration naturally ought to have acquired by it, they not only falfely misreprefented it in the most outragious manner, but even openly oppofed it: The new Adminiftration had acted in this with the utmost Prudence and Sincerity, and had done much more than could have been expected of them.-The Crown and the Lords are known to be jealous of the Growth of the popular Intereft, and it is by mutual Jealoufies of this kind, that our Conftitution can alone fubfift; the Violence and Extravagance of the Leaders of the Faction did not diminish this Jealoufy; the Course of the late Elections, and the Temper of the People, not only fhewed it less neceffary than it had been conceived before by many well-meaning Men, but their Demands were fo unlimited, and fo little Contentment fhewn with former Compliances, that there was in truth very little Profpect of regaining the good old Temper of the Nation by any thing that could be done ;-this rendered it the more difficult to obtain any thing; for it was well known, that no Bill brought in by these Incendiaries, would be moderate enough to gain the Affent of the three Eftates; it was therefore the only Method that could be taken to enter into a tacit Treaty with the Lords, to agree upon fome Bill of this nature, which they should previously engage not to reject.-It was furely better to procure fomething, than by pushing for more to get nothing. The Lords agreed to this :-They confented not to oppose a Law, that fhould exclude above thirteen confiderable Employments then actually enjoyed by Members of Parliament, and above two hundred smaller Offices; which, by conferring three or four upon one Perfon, might have made a vaft Number Number of additional Preferments, a Thing ftill in the Power of the Crown, notwithstanding any former Laws, to have done. But at the fame time, they abfolutely declared they would go no further at that time, till they had feen how far this would operate upon the Conftitution:-This Difficulty removed, it was neceffary to gain the Confent of the House of Commons too; but the Oppofition, by their Breach with the new Adminiftration, had been fo weakened, and the Friends of the old had now rallied to fuch a degree, that there was no carrying any Point by Force against them. Thirteen or fourteen of that Party, who were more than fufficient to have turned the Scale against the Bill, were, as we have before obferved, of the Number to be excluded by it; it could not be expected that they would abandon their Employments instantly, to pleasure their Antagonists; the only way poffible to gain their Confent, was to poftpone the Execution of this Law to the End of the prefent Parliament: The deferring its Execution for fix Years was not material to the Conftitution, and it was thought by all moderate Men, a great Sacrifice in his Majefty, a Condefcenfion in the Lords, and an honeft Acquiefcence in the Perfons poffeffed of thefe Employments; in the one to refign fo much of his Prerogative, in the other to ftrengthen the oppofite Side of the Balance, and in the third to part with their Employments, which they had a Prospect to preferve much longer than that Term. The Impoffibility therefore of gaining more, if more had been palpably neceffa ry, muft have juftified the new Adminiftration for getting this: But what made it more infamous to reproach them upon this Head was, that it was actually more than was ever gained by the People, at any one Time, or by any one Bill before:-The other Acts for limiting the Number of Place men in the House of Commons were all of them obtained one after the other, and at different Periods; though more therefore had been ftill wanting, they ought to have contented themselves for a Time with this, as their Predecessors had done in the like Conjunctures :--But the popular Spirit difgraced itfelf upon this Occafion, and fuffering itfelf to be led away by Men, who ftudied nothing but their private Ends, gave too juft handle for that Infinuation, which muft be moft fatal to all its Views, and for a Charge upon the People of England, which has been too juftly laid againft all others, that give them one Thing it only leads them to expect more, and that nothing but a total Tranflation of all Power to their Scale will put a Period to their Clamour: What therefore was done by the Faction in this Inftance, was vifibly done only with a View to destroy the good Opinion of a Law, the most truly popular, that that was ever obtained by this Nation; if they could effect this, they did not care what the People loft by it, either in their real Security, or in the Sufpicions, that would arife with thinking Men, of their dangerous Views against the Conftitution; they knew (which is abfolutely the Cafe to this Day) that not one Man in 500, whom they should enflame upon this Subject, would ever read, or confider the real Extent, of this Law; they fuggefted to the People, that the new Gentlemen in the Adminiftration had formerly contended for a total Exclu fion of all Employments; and thence imputed an Inconsistency to them, because they had now excluded what they falsely called a few, whereas this never had been the View, nor ever was intended by thofe Gentlemen at any time: They never contended for a Place-Bill much mor extenfive than the prefent is, and yet it may be justly fuppofed, that they did, and might honestly infift upon mor han they thought fufficient, as the only way to obtain a Compromise at last, for that which was. This Plan of creating Confufion was purfued in many other Refpects, and by many other Mifrepresentations equally grofs and wicked; which are too tedious to be mentioned here:The laft I fhall mention in this Place, is that with regard to the Enquiry into the Adminiftration of the Earl of Orford. We have fhewn already how juft Offence his Conduct had given to the Whigs, and how by a fatal Series of pacifick Meafures he had brought almoft the fame Catastrophe upon his Country, which some day or other will too probably be effected by another Set of Men:-The Whigs avowed their Oppofition to be levelled at this Man, not out of any perfonal Averfion to him, but because he was irreclaimable in this fatal Point; the Whigs had levelled at this Man for another Reason, which was, during the Course of this neceffary Oppofition, to prevent the Discontents from taking a Turn to the Prejudice of the Royal Family, and had confined themselves in their Attack to his Perfon, that by the Removal of one Man they might leave it in the power of the Government to restore the publick Tranquillity again whenever they should think proper-It was therefore upon an honeft, though political Principle, that their Oppofition was thus perfonal; not out of thofe vindictive and fanguinary Views, which in the Course of the Oppofition the Tories, who had allied themselves with them, treacherously in private Discourse accused them of, and which now they upbraid them with having departed from.Yet allowing that fome Men in their firft Engagements in the late Oppofition, had embarked upon perfonal Motives, and had ! been been heated to this Degree by their Refentments, or the Difappointment of their Ambition, fhall it be forbidden to Age, Experience, Reason, Virtue and Reflection, to take their happy Effect, and moderate those Paffions, which are in themselves wicked and unwarrantable; and shall it be imputed as a Crime to any Man to have facrificed his private Views and his Refentments, as some have greatly done upon this late Change, to the Peace and Tranquillity of their Country: But it is the Nature of these Men in their Alliances, to expofe the Faults of thofe, with whom they act, and in their Enmity to traduce the Virtue of those they act against. However, though the Whigs in the late Oppofition did not mean to pursue the engeance to the Head of this Minifter, they certainly did mean to deprive him of all his Power, and to fet fome Mark upon him a might prevent his Return into it again, and if poffible deter a future Minister from the fame unhappy Conduct.-One Part of this they have been able to effect, and it is the most immediately neceffary, and the moft material; and we fhall honeftly fhew the Reasons why they did not compass the reft,-Reasons very fufficient to fupport them against all the infamous Suggeftions of the Faction.-I shall speak with Freedom and with Candour. Whoever duly confiders the Courfe of the Mifmanagements of this Man, of which I have purposely given a large Deduction, will evidently fee, that the infamous Peace of Utrecht, in which it is well known he had no hand, naturally laid their firft Foundation ;-the Disorders arifing afterwards from the unfettled State of Europe, brought on the Quadruple Alliance, that, in Process of Time, begot the Treaty of Hanover, and from the Treaty of Hanover, by the fatal Blunder of joining France against the Houfe of Auftria, he became involved in fuch Difficulties, as he could never recover.-But ruinous as, to fpeak fairly, all his future Measures were, they were of fuch a Nature, as could not be imputed to any corrupt Engagements with any foreign Power, upon which Ground alone the Publick think it warrantable to pursue him to Destruction. I must repeat it, the very Nature of his imprudent Conduct clears him from a Sufpicion of this; he proceeded round the Globe, obliging and disobliging every Power of Euin its Turn. This he reiterated fo often, and provoked rope them all fo much, that it is morally impoffible, the Refentments of these Powers, fhould not have produced a Discovery of this Treafon, if any fuch there had been. This is palpably the Fact, this is honeftly the Truth, with regard to his Foreign Tranfactions, and every Domeftick Subject of Complaint naturally flowed from the fame Spring. For - For Oppofition grew infenfibly fo ftrong upon this untowar Step, that it drove him to practife any Art, to defend not only his Power, but his Perfon,-his pacifick Obftinacy became at length in a manner neceffary both to himself and to his Country; he dreaded the Confufion which he apprehended from a Change, the Event hath fhewn he had fome Reason, tho' he blended his private Fears too much with his Apprehenfions for the Publick-an.Error which every Man's Tenderness to himfelf expofes him to,-he forefaw what has fince happened, that even a just, a neceffary, and a fuccefsful War, nay, a War demanded by the whole Nation, would fecure no Minifter, who engaged in it, from the Difcontents, which the bare Expences, and much more the various Accidents that attended it, would infallibly create.-That private Views, and corrupt Principles, influence fo great a Majority in every Oppofition, that though the Points were complied with, upon which they then infifted, they would ftill, in general perfevere; that they would even mifrepresent the Conduct of their own Plan, and that however fcandalous it is for a Nation to prefs its Government into Measures, and to defert them when engaged, yet that in the heated Multitude, the Majority are compofed of Men, in whom fuch Scruples are not found.-He foretold, what has been fo well verified, that the Enemies of their Country, however low and dead they may appear in Times of Quiet, revive in the Heat of War, like Flies and noxious Infects in the Sun. He therefore thought that in attempting to appease the publick Difcontents, by complying with their Demands for War, he should only furnish Fuel for their farther Nourishment. He knew, that by the fatal Confequences of Party, National Diffatisfaction is, in this Country, very nearly allied to Difaffection,-as much as he at firft defpifed the Tories, he dreaded them as much at laft, he justly feared that the Succefs of the Party that oppofed, though led by Whig Leaders, and founded upon Whig Principles, would infallibly end in the Formation of a Tory Faction; and he dreaded, from that Faction, what every wife and honeft Man dreads from it in this Conjuncture, and what we should have already fatally experienced, if fome, from whom perhaps he least expected this Moderation, had not gallantly oppofed themselves to the Torrent, thinking it the more incumbent upon them to reftrain its Fury, and confine it within juft Bounds, as they, (though honeftly and neceffarily compelled to it,) had been the Men who raised it, preferring the folid Satisfaction of having twice faved their Country, to all the Noife of giddy Popularity, refigning it when they could no longer keep it by virtuous I Means, |