falls to meet the Fate, which attends Injuftice in all its Steps; it feldom ends, but in the Ruin of the Projectors, and in the utter Defeat of what they project.

As long as Men, by legal Ways alone, endeavour to procure Laws, which appear good to them, and quietly fit down under their Difappointment, if a Majority cannot be prevailed upon to come into their Opinions, and do not infolently think themselves entitled to model the Conftitution of their Country to their own fantastic Whim, such Endeavours deferve no Cenfure, they may in time produce good Laws, and good Effects. -But when Men pretend to dictate to the Legislature, and impudently preach and juftify Rebellion, if they meet with Contradiction, Government muft anfwer fternly to fuch importunate Demands:-While fuch a Temper continues, it is dangerous to grant any thing, one fuch Precedent will beget a thousand, and is fufficient to overthrow the best established Conftitution upon Earth: When it fhall fubfide fo far, that the People seem to be capable of Contentment, upon moderate Conceffions, that Man is difhoneft, who will not exert himself to procure for them all that is fair, juft, and prudent.—But till then, he must be mad, or worse, who will yield one fingle Point, which they never receive with Gratitude, but attribute always to themselves, and confider, as extorted by Force, an Evidence of their own Power, an Imbecillity in Government, and an Encouragement to all Intemperance.

When fuch was the Cafe of this Country,when Men of the moft infamous and factious Views, began to unmask, and fhew themselves without the leaft Referve, when Treafon was become a public Topic of Difcourfe, when all Decency, Order, and Subordination, was in a manner destroyed, and the Populace indifcriminately treated every Character of Dignity, Worth, and Honour with an outragious Infolence and Contempt.Had it been the Part of Patriotifm to have stood out longer, to have further aggravated and inflamed this Extravagance, which threatened the Diffolution of Government itfelf in all its Parts?

When it was manifeft, that there was a Party, whom nothing could content but the Ruin of the prefent Family upon the Throne, and who would have ftill continued to oppose, let what Changes foever have been made.-When by the most. flagrant Inftances of Paffion, Faction, wicked Principles, both Republican and Jacobite, private Corruption, and an utter Difregard of the Publick, were become thus manifeft: when even popular Laws, as the Place-Bill, and the Rectification of all our Foreign Meafures were oppofed; when nothing but tearing the Government down, the Conftitution up

by.

B

by the Roots, putting the Adminiftration of all purAffairs into the Hands of the moft violent and dangerous Men, when no Time was given to effect any thing; but in the very firftWeek of the Change, a few Men disappointed of Places, which they had carved out for themselves, had raised the Inflammation to a higher Point than ever, when the Effect of their Labours upon the People had discovered what a defperate Temper they were in, when, in order to gain them to their Side, they had pawned, as it were, their Honour, if they acquired Power to yield every thing that the most violent defired,→→→ when, if this Compromife with them had been afterwards broken, the Nation must have fallen into worfe Confufion; and if the Compromife were kept, the Government and Conftitution must have been fubverted,-when they had openly drawn the Sword, and avowed Revenge, against thofe Leaders who had wrought the Change, could thofe Leaders have stood out till these Men were fatisfied, could they have refigned their Station, relied again upon thefe People, or entertained any Hopes, that the Union broken, by the Violence of these Men, could have been restored again, or could they have had any Profpect with this difunited Body, to have prevented the Return of the former Minister ?

When by this mad, inconfiftent and wretched Conduct the honeft Leaders of the former Oppofition were in fo great a degree difarmed of Power to do all the Good they wished to the Publick, or the Service they intended to their Friends; was it not wife and honeft to make the best Ufe, that they could of this Conjuncture? When the Madness of others prevented their making it better, was it not for the Intereft of their Country to act in fuch a way; as to keep out the former Minifter, and to employ the Influence of their new Stations equally to prevent the Continuance of the old Measures, and to prevent the pernicious Designs of a dangerous Faction in this unworthy Manner labouring to come in? --Were they not justified to join with thofe, who (upon various Motives, fome from Error, fome from Shame, fome from the Difficulty of quitting the Party, with which they had been fo long engaged, fome from a mistaken Principle of Gratitude, and falfe Notion of Honour, nay, fuppofe fome from Corruption itfelf,) though they had done wrong before, were now ready and willing to change their Conduct, to rectify Miftakes, and to pursue thofe very Measures, which were abfolutely neceffary, right in themfelves, which had been the declared View of all honeft Men till that Moment, and had been loudly called for fo many Years by the whole People? No worthy Man will deny that they

were

were not justified in this Conduct; no Man of Senfe can deny but that they did both honeftly and greatly in what they did; Cunetando reftituerunt rem, non enim ponebant rumores ante falutem: And by this temperate and fteady Behaviour under all thefe galling Difficulties, of Infult, Clamour and unjust Reproach, they maintained so much Credit in defpight of thofe, who laboured to destroy it, that they changed the whole Spirit and Conduct of the Adminiftration.

The Confequences of their vigorous Proceeding, quickly fhewed itself in a wonderful degree; the Face of Affairs turned in a moft merciful and happy Manner, beyond the most fanguine Hope and Expectation of Mankind: The King of Prussia and the Queen of Hungary were brought to Terms; the one to quit his Confederacy with France; the other to yield a Part of her Rights to induce him to it; the firft manifeftly from an Apprehenfion of the Iffue of the Conteft, which grew precarious upon the Exertion of the British Power; the other in a Confidence of future Support from this Nation, in Return for an extraordinary Conceffion. The Auftrian Armies ravaged, plundered and became entirely Mafters of Bavaria, carrying the War into the Countries, and fuftaining themfelves at the Expence of the Enemy: Animated by the Prospect of further Affistance from Great Britain, and depending in confequence upon that of the Dutch, (whofe Armies were actually augmented by 30,000 Men, and who begun in proportion as they faw they could confide in our Councils, to withdraw their Deference from France) they exerted themselves with a Bravery and Spirit, which carried every thing before it ; the Supplies we had given the Court of Vienna enabled her, befides leaving 20,000 regular Troops in Flanders, to take the Field with three Armies; one in Bohemia, another in Bavaria, and a third in Italy; which laft, in Conjunction with a Body of Sardinian Forces, were fufficient to make Head against a numerous Army of Spaniards in that Country; the farther Supply given the King of Sardinia enabled him not only to form that Army last mentioned, but to compofe another; at the Head of which, with infinite Hazard to his Perfon, infinite Hardfhip and Fatigue, he defended his Dutchy of Savoy during the whole Summer, and the greater Part of a long Winter's Campaign against another great and well-appointed Army of Spaniards headed by a Prince of Spain, and in fpight of all their Efforts, in which their beft Troops and immenfe Sums were wafted, has to this Hour barr'd their Paffage into Italy; nor was this all, for by a ftrong Fleet of Men of War in the Mediterranean and a proper Ufe of it, we ftruck fuch Ter

ror, that the Court of Naples was obliged to agree to a Neutrality, and prevented an Army of 40,000 Men from fuccouring the Troops of Spain, which in the firft Place, faved the Lofs of the Ballance in Italy; in the fecond, proved the Ruin of the Spanish Army there: in the third, laid thofe Seeds of Difcontent between the Spanish Court and that of Naples, (the former thinking it the strongest Inftance of Ingratitude, to be deferted in this Extremity, by their own Son, who was fo lately raised to that Dignity folely by the Expence of the Blood and Treasure of the Spanish Monarchy) as will probably never be removed, and may be the Foundation of great Advantage to us hereafter; in the fourth Place, it has discoverd to us, of what Weight we may hereafter be in that Part of Europe in a higher degree than ever we knew it; in the fifth, it has been the most severe Revenge, and was the most complete Method to diftrefs the Court of Spain: For in a War with that Power, we could not have wafted her Treafure, and ruined her Reputation, in an equal Degree, or deftroyed fo many of her Troops in twenty Years, by any other Means, with this farther Advantage, that we rendered the Adminiftration of the Queen intolerable to her Subjects, who were thus oppreffed with Taxes, and drained of all their Men and Money to gratify ambitious Views, attended with thefe aggravating Circumftances, that they brought not only Ruin, but Difgrace and Scandal upon their Arms in every Inftance: To this was joined an almoft total Interruption of their Trade, and their Returns of Money from the Indies, which, as faft as their inexpreffible Neceffities obliged them to be made, were, in very many Inftances, intercepted by the Vigour and Diligence of the Navy ftationed, commanded and directed by the new Admiralty; which Gains, if fairly accounted for, not only ballanced all the Loffes, that our Merchants have fuftained (notwithstanding the Number of their Privateers and the Extent of our Commerce) fince the Time of the late Change, but have gone far to wipe off thofe Scores, which had been run up against them, by the Neglect and imprudent Conduct of the former Adminiftration.

It could now be faid no longer, that our Hands were tied by Fear, by Corruption, or by neutral Engagements.-We rode triumphant on the Ocean, our proper Element,-we confined the whole French and Spanish Fleets, who, tho' combined, dared not venture to oppofe us, while we employed but a Part of ours to do not only this, but to keep Naples to its Neutrality, to infult their Ports, and barr their Privateers from iffuing in any Numbers from the reft.-We restored the Honour of our Flag, and now returged the Infolence of France, whom we

treated

treated with the fame Contempt, with which fhe, for many Years, had treated us.-We burnt the Ships of her Allies, and our Enemies, in her very Ports, we fearched and rummaged almost every Veffel fhe put to Sea.-Our Fleets failed from Jamaica with an avowed Defign to attack, fink, burn, and deftroy the Squadrons fhe fent into thofe Parts; and fhe knows the Orders of our Admirals, to fink, burn, and destroy, any other Fleet she shall venture to fend out again; yet fhe has been obliged to pocket every one of thefe Affronts: If our Naval Dignity is not reftored by these Actions, what can reftore it and if these Things cannot be denied to be true, as they cannot be, what Impudence, and what Wickedness must it be to villify the present Government, to poifon and deceive the ignorant and unwary Multitude, with a perpetual Din, of the low contemptible Condition to which we are faid to be reduced? It is a Shame to fuffer ourselves to be abused in this grofs Manner; the Leaders of the Faction themselves laugh at the Folly and Delufion of the People, that they have fooled to fuch a Point. They even now despise those Wretches who are thus feduced, they themselves loath and deteft the feditious Tools of which they now make their Ufe, and when they have ferved their Turn, will affuredly turn their Backs upon them: But let me return to say one Word more upon our Conduct with Regard to France-Let any Man look back upon the infolent and imperious Treatment, which towards the Clofe of the last Administration we received from that Power. Let him then confider what we have fince done, and let him anfwer, if he can, whether this Nation has received no Benefit by the late Change.-France has found, and proclaims it by her Conduct, whatever we may ftupidly and ungratefully do at Home, that the trembles at the Power and the Measures of this Nation. If publick Contempt be publick Weakness, as it is with Nations known to be; what Applaufe is due to thofe, who have fhifted that Contempt from themselves, and caft it upon the Enemy, and who have confequently procured that Weakness to France, which the former Minifter had by twenty Years tame Administration with Pains procured for us; if there be any Senfe left in this Nation, they muft fee all this if there be any Honefty, they will confefs it, let their private Views or Difappointments be what they will; if there be any Warmth of Heart, Love, or Regard, for the Honour, the Dignity, the Safety and Well-being of our Country, they will proclaim it in defpight of Faction, popular Ferment, or any private Danger. The Maxim of Tacitus, however applied by him, will hold true with every State, Majus famâ potentia

quam