Means, defpifing the Rage and Malice of a Faction, fincerely pitying, but determined not to follow an honeft, but deluded' People, who after paffing many Dangers, and perhaps fmarting for their Folly, will live to do Juftice to the great Characters, they now licentioufly and injuriously defame.

Thefe were the Principles upon which the Earl of Orford went, and this was the whole Myftery of his unfortunate Adminiftration. It is easy to point out both his Follies and his Faults.-His Folly was to lay down for this Country, a System prudent for a petty State, but very improper for a Country, which bears fo great a Sway, and ought to take the Lead in Europe. It is for a little State to pursue little Measures, to temporize, to truft to Expedients and Events, to wait for Accidents, and the Activity of other Powers. But this is a Policy ill becoming us, and fatal ever in its Confequence, both to ourselves and to our natural Allies, whofe Rank and Condition of Power compels them to confider an immediate Security, and can never admit them to exert their Force against that State, whofe conftant Aim is Univerfal Monarchy, till we raise the Standard firft, and convince them, that under that Protection they may do it fafely. His Folly appeared in another Inftance, in not yielding fooner to what he could not hope long to prevent, an Evil which gathered Strength, and became more dangerous by Delay, and by the Means he was obliged to use in order to delay it.-His Fault lay in his Fondness to continue in his Power, which induced him, or misled him, to overlook the true Intereft of his Royal Mafter, and his Country, and to purfue the Maxim of Peace to a ridiculous Extravagance. By this France was raifed,-by this our Allies were ruined,-by this the Safety of Britain was reduced into the utmost Hazard,

and by this his Country became contemptible abroad, and hateful at home; till, to fupport his System, and to preferve his Perfon, he was at length driven to make use of every Means of Minifterial Influence, to ftrain every Nerve of Power, allotted by the Wisdom of our Ancestors for the Security of Government, and to apply that Force to his own Defence. -By all this he has brought the neceffary Guards of our Conftitution into Difrepute, and has established an Opinion in many, and a Sufpicion in more, that our Constitution is impaired; whereas, in truth, it has only been abufed,-a Difference extremely great, and fuch, as if not attended juftly to, may hurry us into the Ufe of Remedies much worse than the Difeafe. In this Light does the Conduct of this Minifter appear to every moderate Man, and no doubt in a yet more favourable Light to those who were his Friends, who had concurred in his Meafures many Years, who owed him many Obligations.-Never

was

was a Man in private Life more beloved, and his worst Enemies allow, no Man did ever in private Life deserve it more: He was humane and grateful, and a generous Friend, to all whom he did not think would abufe that Friendship.That he was falfe, and determined to the Prejudice of those, whom he confidered in this Light, is no more than will be found in any Minifter or Man,-and that he should be deceived in fome Cafes, by unjuft Sufpicions, is but human too. -Many therefore have been unjustly treated by him, though but few confidering the Manner in which he was preffed, and the great Length of his Administration.-This Character naturally procured that Attachment to his Perfon, which has been falfely attributed folely to a corrupt Influence, and to private Intereft; but this fhewed itself at a time when these Principles were very faint in their Operation, and when his Ruin feemed inevitable.-The Violence with which he was pushed, the Ferment of the People, who would content themselves with nothing but his Life, made these Men exert themfelves in the extraordinary manner they have done to preferve him.-Many, who condemned his Conduct, and would have gone fo far as to have deprived him of a Poffibility of exerting the fame again, did not think it warrantable to take that fevere Revenge, upon an obftinate mistaken Man, who had indeed violated the Interefts of his Country, and trefpaffed upon the Power in his Hands, but who had not expofed himself to the Penalty of any one known Law.-This Summum Jus, appeared to them to be Summa Injuria, and the Laws must have been more tortured to have reached him capitally, than he had ftrained his Power to maintain himfelf:-Yet had he not been defended in the manner in which he was, (offenfive enough to those who confider the Manner, and not the End) fuch a Sentence, in the Rage of that Time, had been, in all Probability, his Fate.-Few were in their Hearts inclined to this Extremity, though many, by the fatal Attraction of Party, might have been drawn to have figned his Warrant, who would have afterwards heartily lamented what they had done.-Had it been even neceffary to have taken this violent Step, there is in Englifhmen, as fure a Seafon for Compaffion as for Fury:To the latter, they are easily raised-from the former, when the Deed is done, they never can be diverted. An Admini ftration founded in, or a Party cemented by Blood, would have been the Loathing of this Nation, and in this cafe would have been fo juftly. If this be truly confidered, was it not more honeft, was it not more juft, to ftop short, without even that Punishment, which perhaps very many think was due, than

to

to have carried that Punishment fo far, as to have fixed the Guilt of Murther upon this Nation.---And lefs than Murther it can hardly be, to take the Life of any Man, which no Law of this Land could have taken from him.---Thefe Confiderations operated with fo many, that had it been ever so just, it was not practicable to have gone farther with him ;---the other Members of the Legiflature reafoned firmly upon the Reflections I have mentioned, the Majority of the Houfe of Commons thought fo too.---The farther Purfuit might have therefore been an Amusement to the Multitude; but it was not for that alone reasonable to perfift in it, as no good End could fallow from it, the Effect could have only been Confufion, and a Handle to blacken and reproach the Characters of Men, whom Gratitude, Principle, and juft Scruple with-held, and who were fixed to with-hold for ever.---All that I have here obferved is, not out of any affected Tenderness or Complaifance to him, or to his Friends, but only to fhew how natural it was to have met the Obstruction in this Point that has been found, and how impoffible it was to have proceeded farther with this Minifter, than was done by the new Administration.---We have seen, that the very Men, who reflect upon them for it, had been by their intemperate Behaviour the great Caufe why the Party of the late Minifter had rallied. Their Violence in this Particular, was the finishing Stroke ;---no other Point could have united his Friends in the fame Degree.---It was obvious, after the first Experiment, that this must have been the Cafe; opiniatring this Matter further, therefore manifeftly proves, that they meant nothing, but to make this Man's Cause an Engine of Sedition, by which they laboured, to render a Perfon, who in Power had done great Prejudice to his Country, the total Ruin of it in his Fall. I fhall conclude, with regard to this Particular, with only one Obfervation, That of all Men living, the Tories have the leaft Reafon to vilify his Conduct.---First, becaufe it was the Disorders caufed by their wicked Conduct in the Peace of Utrecht, that first laid the Foundation of all the Errors of this Minifter.---Secondly, Because the Whigs had not proceeded in this fanguinary Way, against a Minister of their Faction, whofe Conduct had been directly levelled against his Country, and who had affifted in a Plan for effecting that which at least appears, to every Whig, the greatest of all Crimes, the advancing a Popish Prince upon the Throne, and facrificing every Thing to France, to compass this pernicious View. And, Thirdly, Because they had themselves ftopt fhort but the Year before, upon a Motion which tended only to remove the Minifter from Power ;---their Behaviour therefore against

F

against the Minifter in the prefent Time, fhews, firft, That
they are without Shame; fecondly, That they are void of Gra-
titude; thirdly, That they are false in their pretended Zeal,
and confequently, that their Behaviour upon this Head ought
to be odious to every Man, who has any Sense of Virtue, Ho-
nesty, or Honour; but their Point was to mifrepresent the
new Administration, and the fame Defire of Mifrepresentation,
led them to fall foon after, without Mercy, on the Cha-
racters of the Members of the Secret Committee, fome of whom,
not long after, obtained Employments, which they thirsted after
themselves, and the View of which was fo apparently one of
the Grounds of their own Oppofition.---This they pretended
to be a Proof of Treachery and Corruption, in the Perfons up-
on whom they were conferred; whereas the juft Reflection to
be made upon it, was most pleasing to all well-meaning Men,
fince it was a convincing Evidence, that the Prince upon the
Throne bore no Refentment even to thofe of his Subjects, who
were engaged in the deepeft manner against his late Minifter, when
he was once fatisfied, that they were not tainted in their Prin-
ciples, either to himself, or to the Conftitution of their Country.

Thus it was, that the Faction proceeded as foon as they loft
fight of their private Advantages, and the Profpect of a Tory
Adminiftration. Every one of their Proceedings vifibly appeared
to tally with the Conduct of the fame Faction in all former
Times: They could not be miftaken, and there wanted no-
thing to fix it upon them, but direct Attempts to poison the
People, with regard to the Prince upon the Throne, and to the
Royal Family. This farther Evidence was not long deficient,
for even before that Seffions was over, the Publick fwarmed
with fuch Seditious and Treasonable Libels, and impudent Pro-
ductions, both in Verfe and Profe, as never had been endured
in any Age or Nation, which, encouraged by Impunity, have
fince rifen to a Point that calls aloud for fignal Punishment.-
But to what it arrived at last, is not yet Time to relate; it was
not till the next Seffions, that the Mask was compleatly taken off,
and the Method I have laid down obliges me, firft, to obferve the
Conduct of the new Adminiftration during the Interval of Parliament,
the Succefs of their Meafures, and the Difference that appeared in
the Situation of our Affairs at the Second Meeting of the Parliament.
Now, as to the Conduct of thefe Gentlemen in the Admi-
niftration, and those who have acted with them, it appears un-
deniably, from what we have already fhewn with regard to the
Faction, that they could act no other Part than to fupport the
Measures of the Government.-Firft, Because these Measures
were their own, they were directed by themfelves, and it is

a palbable Abfurdity for an Adminiftration to oppose itself. Secondly, Because nothing but Ruin could have enfued, either at Home or Abroad, if they had not defifted when they did.

For if they had not defifted when the Minifter was removed, and when the Direction of the Measures was left to them,one Month's Continuance of the former Administration, must have deftroyed the House of Austria without Redemption,-and they had been much more criminal even than the late Minifter himself, if they had neglected this Opportunity to fave it, and refused when it was in their power to do it ;-again, if they had declined the Acceptance of this Power when it was thus offered to them, what equal, or what other Benefit could have accrued to their Country by it?

It is obvious that nothing but Confufion at home could have been effected by it.-Their Party had been broken wilfully by the intemperate Conduct of the Faction; and it is abfurd to imagine that Parties thus broken can be ever reunited :-By the Effects of their Madness, the Minifterial Party, which had never been vanquifhed, and had only retreated, were now rallied, and as they were before equal, were now as vifibly fuperior in the Houfe of Commons, as they had been all the Time before in the Houfe of Lords, and in another Place;-the reasonable and the moderate Men had already, or certainly would have left them; and if a civil War had happened, every Man of Family and Fortune had been driven from them by it. Now that a civil War had been the Confequence, is the Opinion of every Man of Experience in this Country: The Symptoms of it never appeared fo ftrong in any Period of our Hiftory; many knew this who concealed it, and ridiculed the Apprehenfion, refolving to run all Rifques for their private Advantage, and many more be cause it was the only probable Way of fucceeding in the great View peculiar to their Faction.-Convulfions of this kind are never forefeen by the Generality of Men; for if they were, they could not poffibly happen, becaufe Faction would be deferted before it could proceed fo far: The People of England were drawn on to the great Rebellion by the very fame Pretences, with which they were now encouraged to perfift; they were told that the oppofite Side would yield if they continued firm: None or very few of the Parliament of 1641 thought that the King either would or could have refifted: Sir Benjamin Rudyard, a very leading Man in the Oppofition of that Time, upon his Death-Bed grievously lamented that he had been deceived by Pymm and Hamden into this Opinion; Whitlocke, another of that Stamp, ftrongly obferves this Management in the Facsion of that Age; both Lord Clarendon and Whitlocke, and indeed

all