YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE PAMPHLET LIBEAEY
Edited by Abthuh Wauqh

POLITICAL PAMPHLETS

POLITICAL PAMPHLETS

SELECTED AND AEEANGED

By A. F. POLLARD

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND
EXPLANATORY NOTES

%

LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO.
1897

PREFATORY NOTE
TO
'THE PAMPHLET LIBRARY1
The object of The Pamphlet Library is to set
before readers who are interested in the literary
and constitutional history of our country the
text of those pamphlets or tractates which,
besides possessing the only saving qualities
of distinction and style, have also exercised
a striking influence upon the current of events.
At present four volumes are in contemplation,
dealing respectively with pamphlets of political,
literary, religious, and dramatic significance,
and the editors who have undertaken them
have regulated their choice primarily by two
considerations. Each pamphlet, it has been
held, should have high literary qualities, and
should also mark a distinct change or develop
ment of taste or standpoint. Unfortunately,
the pamphleteer of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries was not always as brief
as he was effective, and the restrictions of
space have obliged the omission of some

vi PREFATORY NOTE
polemical articles which might possibly have
been included with advantage. It is hoped,
however, that by means of excerpt and footnote
no pamphlet of the first importance has been
altogether neglected; and the editors of the
various volumes explain in their introductions
the reason and the Limit of their selections.
Concerning the value of the Pamphlet and
the expediency of its recension, Dr Johnson
himself will be found discoursing with preg
nancy and wit in Mr Ernest Rhys's Literary
Collection, and his strenuous sentences are
more than suflicient argument in favour of
the present enterprise. For, indeed, Reform
is the child of Controversy, and the most
effectual arrows in the quiver of Controversy
are those of a country's Press. Before the day
of the clamouring newspaper, the Pamphlet
was the leader of popular taste, so that in a
study of these fugitive pieces we may see the
features of an Age, as in a glass, may mark its
expression, and understand its tendency. As
some such footnote to history the following
papers have been collected. How far they
may prove of value it rests with others to
decide.
A. W.

CONTENTS
PAGE
introduction . .... 9
i. sexby's killing no murder . . 33
ii. halifax's rough puaft of a new
model at sea .... 37
iii. Halifax's cautions for choice of
members of parliament . . 58
iv. arbuthnot's art of political lying 105
v. Steele's crisis  124
VI. SWIFT'S THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT
STATE OF AFFAIRS . . . .133
VII. BOLINGBROKE'S STATE OF PARTIES AT
THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. . 170
VIII. SWIFT'S DRAPIER'S LETTERS NO IV. . 191
IX. JUNIUS'S LETTER NO 1  223
X. JUNIUS'S LETTER TO THE DUKE OF
BEDFORD  239
XI. JUNIUS'S LETTER TO THE KING . . 253
' XII. BURKE'S THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
PRESENT DISCONTENTS . . . 278
' Xni. BURKE' S LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE
no in  . 340

INTRODUCTION
The first difficulty that meets the editor of a
selection of political pamphlets is the need of
arriving at some definition of what a pamphlet,
and particularly a political pamphlet, is. The
word itself is of some antiquity ; it occurs in
the Philobiblon of Richard of Bury, Bishop
of Durham, who died in 1345. But its
etymology is involved in obscurity ; Myles
Davies, who published in 1715 a work called
Icon Libellorum: or, A Critical History of
Pamphlets, gives four different derivations,
none of which would satisfy the requirements
of modern philology. Indeed, the only thing
certain about the word seems to be that it
has always been considered equivalent to the
Latin 'libellus' and to have meant a 'little
book.' As to the contents of the political
pamphlet, a definition of their nature must,
like most definitions, be approximate rather
than exact. It is impossible, for instance, to
draw a hard and fast rule between the pam
phlet and the essay or treatise on political

io INTRODUCTION
philosophy. It is of the essence of a political
pamphlet that it should have an immediate
and specific political purpose; it seeks to in
fluence opinion and win votes in view of a
particular question; it appeals to the man in
the street rather than to the man in the study,
to the many rather than to the few ; it requires
an extensive and rapid circulation, and hence
it must be cheap in price and moderate in bulk.
To the treatise on political philosophy, popu
larity is a matter of comparative indifference ;
its nature is theoretical rather than practical,
and it seeks to influence thought rather than
action. Its object is in a sense political : Locke
furnished a philosophical basis for the political
dogmas of the Whigs, Hobbes and Filmer
attempted a similar service for the Tories, but
no one would call the Essay on Toleration,
Civil Government, the Leviathan or the De
Patriarcha a political pamphlet. The dis
tinction is not always so clear ; no treatise
on political philosophy is richer in that science
than Burke's Reflections on the French Revolu
tion; no book ever appealed more strongly
to the student of pohtics. Yet it is a political
pamphlet; it sought a single definite political
object— the overthrow of the French Revolu
tion; and if, incidentally, it lays down profound

INTRODUCTION 1 1
pohtical maxims, if, by way of illustration, it
appeals to the broadest political truths, it
proves not that it is not a political pamphlet,
but that it is a great one.
Still more blurred and indistinct are the lines
which separate the political from the ecclesi
astical or religious pamphlet on the one hand
and the literary pamphlet on the other. Some
of the greatest pamphlets are pohtical in one
aspect and literary in another ; others are at
the same time political and ecclesiastical.
Milton's Areopagitica deals with a great
pohtical question, the freedom of the press.
No less pohtical was the question of toleration
and the civil status of dissenters, which pro
duced some of the finest pamphlets in the
language ; such are Defoe's Shortest way with
Dissenters, Halifax's Letter to a Dissenter
and Anatomy of an Equivalent, and Swift's
Sentiments of a Church of England man.
But it is easy to carry this principle of
definition too far; almost every question has
a political aspect, and by a little ingenuity
the term 'political' can be made to cover
every pamphlet in the language. It belongs
more properly to those only in which the
political is the sole or at least the predominant
element.

12 INTRODUCTION
It will be at once apparent that the exist
ence of the political pamphlet is subject
to certain conditions which can only be ob
tained in certain stages of political, social,
and intellectual development. It is essentially
a means of popularising pohtical thought and
stimulating political action in masses of men,
and there is obviously no function for it in
a state where political power is engrossed in
the hands of one or of the few. Its existence
therefore presupposes a certain amount of
constitutional freedom. Intellectual progress
is no less indispensable; pamphlets could
be of little use until a certain proportion
of the people were able to read them, and
there could be few pamphlets at all before
the existence of a printing press. As we
have seen the word dates from a time when
the only means of popularising a work con
sisted in making numerous manuscript copies,
or in putting the idea in the form of political
songs which could easily be remembered.
Perhaps no pamphlet ever produced such
an effect as John Ball's rhymed couplet —
"When Adam delved and Eve span, who
was then the gentleman?" and the number
of manuscript copies made of Richard Rolle's
mystical works would probably be considered

INTRODUCTION 13
a fair circulation for a printed book to-day.
Yet such means can scarcely be said to have
adequately filled the place of a printing press.
Nor was Gutenberg's invention at once fol
lowed by a development of political pam
phleteering. The dominant interest in the
sixteenth century was anything rather than
political; and the printing press devoted
itself first to the revival of classical learning
and then to the religious discussions which
followed the Reformation. Pamphlets took
a religious, literary, and dramatic form before
they entered on the domain of politics; the
Marprelate tracts (1588), the Defence of
Poesie (1581), and Heywood's Apology for
Actors (1612) are all prior to the publication
of any political pamphlet of note. It was
not till the popular acquiescence in the
strong national government of the Tudors
was succeeded by revolt against the feeble
dynastic policy of the Stuarts, that interest
in politics became dominant in national
life. The long contest between king and
parliament drew hterature into its vortex,
and from it emerged the political pamphlet.
The floodgates of political writing were
now opened, but the volume of political
pamphlets that covered the country was

ia INTRODUCTION
remarkable for quantity rather than quality.
During the Civil War, news-sheets like the
Mercurius Politicus, Mercurius Aulicus and
Mercurius Britannicus made their appearance ;
of the number of pamphlets more strictly so-
called some idea may be gained by turning
over the collection of 'King's Pamphlets'
in the British Museum, by a glance through
the ten volumes of selections called the
'Somers Tracts' and the similar 'Harleian
Miscellany,' or even by consulting Maseres'
'Select Tracts relating to the Civil War.'
Prynne alone published two hundred books
and pamphlets, and a less known predecessor,
Thomas Scot, was fairly prolific ; few of his
pamphlets can be certainly traced to him, but
those few number between forty and fifty.
Most of these pamphlets are of a very
ephemeral character and there are few that
do not merit the oblivion that has enveloped
them. One or two like Prynne's Canterburies
Doome, Heylyn's Cyprianus Anglicus, Vicars's
Burning Bush and God's Ark, and Bishop
Gauden's ,~Eikwv fiao-iXiicr), which passed through
forty-seven editions, have a permanent his
torical interest, but it is not due to their
hterary value. Others, hke the tracts of Hugh
Peters, derive importance from the political

INTRODUCTION 15
part played by their authors. But the
majority of writers are, like Tobie Venner
and Marchamont Nedham, as obscure as their
works, though the latter was in 1649 paid
£50 by the Council of State for his Case
of the Commonwealth State. Even Andrew
Marvell's pamphlets are forgotten, though in
his own age his reputation rested mainly on
them, and Swift thought they entitled him
to be considered a great genius. One name
indeed, that of John Milton, stands out
from the herd of pamphleteers, and some of
his pamphlets have become permanent addi
tions to Enghsh literature. There is but one
other production of the commonwealth, Killing
No Mwder, that has escaped oblivion.
The Restoration and consequent suppression
of the freedom of the press caused a temporary
lull in political writing, but it was only the pre
lude to the golden age of pamphleteering which
extended from the Revolution to the close of
the eighteenth century. The final transference
of political power to the House of Commons,
and through it to the constituencies, corrupt
and hmited though they were, at once put a
high value on the pohtical writer, and the rise
of the two great parties, Whig and Tory, opened
a ready market for his wares. At the same

1 6 INTRODUCTION
time the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695
removed the greatest obstacle to the develop
ment of pamphleteering. Newspapers hke the
London Post, the Flying Post, the Postboy, the
Postman, and a host of others, made their ap
pearance, and side by side with newspapers,
pohtical pamphlets grew in importance. Pam
phleteers were no longer obscure hacks, ready
to sell their pen to the highest bidder, but the
foremost statesmen and greatest men of letters
in the land. Halifax was followed by Defoe,
Swift, Steele, Addison, Arbuthnot, Bolingbroke,
and Burke, and they carried on the line of great
pamphleteers till pamphleteering was supplanted
by. other forms of political hterature and other
methods of political warfare.
It is hard to understand the neglect that has
overtaken the Hterary productions of George
Savile, Marquis of Halifax. Ranke calls him
' one of the finest pamphleteers that have ever
lived,' and Mackintosh considered his Letter to
a Dissenter 'the finest specimen of occasional
literature extant.' No contemporary writing
illustrates better the politics of the time, and
few pamphleteers have made keener observations
on events passing around them or treated them
in so philosophic and scientific a spirit ; while
his terseness of expression and pointedness of

INTRODUCTION 17
phrase have rarely been excelled. Yet none of
his pamphlets seem to have been reprinted in
any selection of political tracts, and with the
exception of some extracts in Mr Henry
Craik's English Prose Selections they are in
accessible to the majority of readers. Defoe
has met with more worthy recognition, partly
because of his eminence in other branches
of literature and partly, perhaps, because his
Shortest Way with Dissenters gained him the
distinction of the pillory — a distinction which
he converted into a triumph by his Hymn to the
Pillory. He wrote two hundred and fifty-four
works, and his best known pohtical piece is
probably his True-born Englishman, pubhshed
in 1701. The other great Whig pamphleteer
of Queen Anne's reign was Steele, whose
Crisis is one of the best known pamphlets in
English hterature. But the genius of Defoe
and Steele paled their ineffectual fires before
that of their great antagonist Swift, ' without
exception the most effective political writer in
England at a time when political writing was
of transcendent importance.' x Brought up with
Whig prepossessions as secretary to Sir William
Temple, Swift as a high churchman naturally
gravitated towards the Tories during the reign
1 Leeky, Hist, of England, ed. 1892, i. 197.

18 INTRODUCTION
of Queen Anne. Never did publicist render
any party such yeoman service as Swift rendered
the Tories, and rarely did anyone meet with
such scant rewards. More than anything else,
his Conduct of the Allies made the peace of
Utrecht acceptable to the nation, and if any
thing could have saved his party from the fifty
years' exclusion from office which befell them
on the accession of George I., the loyal adop
tion ofthe advice he offered in his Free Thoughts
on the Present State of Affairs would have
done it. That advice was rejected ; the Whigs
monopolised office for half a century, and
Swift retired to his deanery in Dublin. There
he threw in his lot with his Irish countrymen,
and for the first time in history made the cause
of Ireland heard even in England in pamphlets
of unrivalled sarcasm, wit, and invective.
He left the field in England to Steele,
Defoe, Arbuthnot, Addison, and a host of
smaller fry like Oldmixon. Many of them are
great names in literature, but rather in the
character of essayists than of pamphleteers,
and they mainly confined their political writing
to periodicals like the Old Whig, the Plebeian,
the Whig Examiner, and others. With them
the generation of Queen Anne's pamphleteers
died out. They were succeeded by a group

INTRODUCTION 19
of writers who made the Craftsman a terror
to Walpole's government, but whose names
have been completely overshadowed by that
of Bolingbroke, one of the most extraordinary
characters in English history. Brilliant as a
statesman, he had overturned the ministry of
Godolphin and Marlborough when covered
with glory, and carried with unexampled
address the peace of Utrecht. Then, under
mining his rival Harley, he succeeded as first
minister of the crown, only to find his position
ruined and his schemes wrecked by the death
of the queen four days later. Dazzhng as
an orator, Chatham declared that he would
rather recover one of Bolingbroke's orations
than the lost books of Livy, or all the gaps
in Greek and Roman lore ; while as a
pamphleteer he has been declared by an
eminent living critic1 to rank only below the
three or four highest masters of English prose.
Driven into exile on the accession of George
I., he took office under the Pretender, but
when the rebeUion of 1715 failed, he sought to
make his peace with the king and secured it by
the gift of eleven thousand pounds to George's
mistress, the Duchess of Kendal. Returning
to England he organised the opposition to
1 John Morley, Walpole, p. 79.

20 INTRODUCTION
Walpole, and united under his leadership dis
contented Whigs like Carteret and Pulteney,
and honest Tories like Wyndham and Shippen.
He made the pages of the Craftsman the vehicle
for the bitter and effective attacks on Walpole
which gradually sapped the minister's power.
It was Walpole's cue to represent all Tories
as Jacobites; Bolingbroke retorted with his
State of Parties at the Accession of George I.,
in which he strove by skilful misrepresenta
tion to prove that he and his colleagues had
never entertained any idea of overturning the
Hanoverian succession. But his greatest pam
phlet was his Idea of a Patriot King, 'a
work important equally as a historical docu
ment and as a model of style. Chesterfield
said that until he read that tract he did not
know what the English language was capable
of.'1 His theory was that 'the power and
prerogative of the sovereign should be greatly
enlarged as the only efficient check upon the
corruption of Parliament.'2 It' set up an
ideal of a patriot king who would govern
independently of all parties and particularly of
the Whigs, by means of the ablest ministers,
especiaUy Bolingbroke and his friends. It
1 E. J. Payne, Select Works of Burke, vol. i. pp. xvi.,
xvii. 2 Lecky, Hist, of England, i. 272.

INTRODUCTION 21
was intended for the instruction of the heir
apparent, Frederick Lewis, who was in chronic
opposition to his father, and upon it were
modeUed to some extent the political ideas
of George III. To its influence has been
traced the loss of the American colonies, and
the postponement of Catholic Emancipation;
the affiliation is fanciful, but there is no doubt
that it tended to enhance George III.'s ideas
of the royal prerogative which had no small
share in producing the evils of his reign.
What those evils were is vividly pourtrayed
in the writings of that pseudonymous entity
whom Burke termed the ' prince of pamphlet
eers.' Whoever the writer may have been
who concealed his personahty under the name
of Junius — and the evidence points de
cisively in favour of Sh- Philip Francis — his
literary merits were of the highest order, and
his letters have become a classic in Enghsh
literature. 'No writer ever excelled Junius
in condensed and virulent invective, rendered
aU the more malignant by the studied and
controlled deliberation of the language, in
envenomed and highly elaborated sarcasm, in
clear and vivid statement; in the art of as
suming, though an unknown individual, an atti
tude of great moral and political superiority :

22 INTRODUCTION
in the art of evading difficulties, insinuating un
proved charges, imputing unworthy motives.
His letters are perfectly adapted to the pur
poses for which they were intended. There (is
nothing in them superfluous or obscure, and
nothing that fans to tell. He had to the
highest degree the gift of saying things that
are remembered, and his epigrams are often
barbed with the keenest wit.'1 They are the
work of a man who was a practical pohtician
first and a man of letters afterwards, and his
writings are distinguished by a political sa
gacity and precision of criticism which only a
close acquaintance with the practice of politics
can give. His motives indeed were not of a
high order ; personal spite entered largely into
them, and many of his letters were written
merely to revenge real or fancied wrongs.
He hated most of the ministers of his time,
and he stopped at nothmg in the 'measured
malignity of slander' with which he assailed
them. Above aU he hated the king, and he
did not hesitate to insinuate that the king was
a coward, not because it was true, but because
he knew that the king, who was unmoved by
any other charge, would not 'eat meat for a
week' after being taunted with lack of courage.
1 Lecky, Hist, of England, iii. 451.

INTRODUCTION 23
Nor is Junius in any way in advance of his
age: keen as his judgment is on many
immediate political issues, his letters ' contain
no original views, no large generalizations, no
proofs of political prescience, no great depth
or power of thought ; ' and the task of elabor
ating a rival political theory to that of the
Patriot King was left to his great contem
porary Burke.
In the whole scope of political literature there
is no writer so often read or so frequently
quoted in the present day, and none whose in
fluence has been so deep and lasting, as that
of Edmund Burke. It is not merely because
of his eloquence or literary style, nor because
of the theory of the constitution which he
opposed to that of the Patriot King, and
which was for a century the favourite dogma
of conservative statesmen. Nor is it because
of the insight with which he treated current
pohtical questions ; it is neither due to the
fact that he urged conciliation with America
nor to the fact that he preached war to the
death against Revolutionary France. It is
because he never touched a subject without
adorning it with reflections that go to the
root of the principles of government in aU
ages and aU nations. Many of these reflec-

24 INTRODUCTION
tions have become the commonplaces of
politics; though as common sense is one of
the rarest of qualities, so the commonplaces
of pohtics are often deemed those which may
be most safely neglected. / do not know the
method of drawing up an indictment against
a whole people is one of these maxims. The
people have no interest in disorder. When
they do wrong, it is tlieir error and not their
crime is another; whenever a separation is
made between liberty and justice neither is
in my opinion safe is a third; and they
abound in every pamphlet and every speech
from the Present Discontents to the Third
Letter on a Regicide Peace.
In Burke political writing reached its highest
development. His Reflections on the French
Revolution had perhaps a greater immediate
effect than any other pamphlet, for except the
execution of Louis XVI. nothmg did so much
to precipitate war between England and France;
and it caUed forth two famous answers —
Paine's Rights of Man and Mackintosh's
Vindiciae Gallicae. Erskine's ' Causes and
Consequences of the War with France,' which
appeared in 1797, and ran through forty-eight
editions, was a reply to Burke's Regicide Peace.
But from this time the art of political pam-

INTRODUCTION 25
phleteering progressively declined. Cobbett
was a prolific pamphleteer, and Carlyle wrote
Latter Day Pamphlets, but the vigorous style
of the former is httle justification for placing
him in the same class with the giants of the
eighteenth century, and the latter essays
scarcely come within the definition of a po
litical pamphlet. Such as they are they are
but exceptions to the general decay of pam
phleteering. The reasons for which are fairly
obvious. The function of the pamphlet as a
means of popularising political thought and
influencing pohtical opinion is now performed
by a multitude of quarterly, monthly, weekly,
and dafly periodicals. Colonel Sexby might
experience some difficulty in persuading an
editor to pubhsh his advocacy of pohtical
assassination, but a modern Halifax would
find a fitting medium for his counsels of politi
cal perfection in the pages of the Spectator.
A latter-day Swift would thunder against the
enemies of the church in the columns of the
Times; a Burke would denounce the infamy
of a regicide peace in monthly contributions
to the Nineteenth Century, whUe Junius's
Letters would be printed amid harmonious
surroundings as paragraphs in Truth. Through
the medium of the dafly press the politician

26 INTRODUCTION
from the front benches in parliament, or from
the most distant provincial platform, appeals
to a wider audience than ever did the pam
phleteer. But it would be idle to deny that
the presentation of political thought has suffered
by the change. It is almost a truism that
a speech to read well must be a bad one.
The tendency is all towards discouraging set
orations, and without elaborate preparation
there can be no hterary finish. EquaUy fatal
to political writing has been the pace at which
men live in the nineteenth century : the
quarterly review has been supplanted by the
monthly, the monthly by the weekly, and the
weekly by the daUy press, which, in its turn,
is threatened by the evening paper, which
pubhshes its second edition at ten o'clock in
the morning and prints another every hour
tiU late in the afternoon. Pohtical discussion
is sacrificed to the passion for news ; pamphlets
are superseded by paragraphs, and head lines
do duty for arguments. To parody the words
of the greatest and last of the great pam
phleteers, the age of the pamphlet is gone, that
of the stump-orator and writer of occasional
notes has succeeded, and the glory of political
writing is extinguished for ever.
In making a selection from the political

INTRODUCTION 27
literature thus roughly sketched, it is manifest
that difficulty arises rather from a wealth than
from a dearth of material. The choice must
be largely a matter of personal preference,
though to others individual taste is apt to
appear arbitrary and capricious, and the result
a thing of shreds and patches. Nevertheless
at least one canon may be laid down without
fear of contradiction; no pamphlet has been
included that does not possess a permanent
literary as weU as a permanent historical in
terest. It is not sufficient that a pamphlet
should record historical facts not otherwise
known, be they never so important; it must
also embody literary qualities of a high order.
It would have been easy to select a dozen or
a score of tracts from the Somers and Harleian
CoUections, but the result would not have
repaid perusal by any but minute historical
students. A more serious difficulty is presented
by the mechanical limits of space. Of the
greatest political pamphlets not a few would
severally occupy volumes far exceeding the
present in bulk ; such are Swift's Conduct of
the Allies, Bolingbroke's Idea of a Patriot
King, Burke's Reflections on the French Re
volution, and Tom Paine's Rights of Man,
while Halifax's Character of a Trimmer,

28 INTRODUCTION
Steele's Crisis and each of Burke's Letters on
a Regicide Peace would cover half the present
volume ; even the latter's Letter to a Noble
Lord — the most splendid repartee in the
language — would fill a quarter of its pages.
It thus becomes a question of omitting them
altogether and faUing back on shorter pamphlets
or offering merely extracts ; the former alterna
tive has with one or two exceptions, noted
below, been adopted.
The pamphlets have generally been arranged
in chronological order, and a short note has
been prefixed to each detailing the circum
stances of its publication. The first is the
dedication of Sexby's Killing No Murder, the
title of which has become a household word.
The pamphlet itself is an exercise on the well-
worn classical theme of tyrannicide eked out
by copious references to Aristotle ; its length
is considerable, and in literary distinction it
falls far below the dedication which is an
admirable specimen of ironical writing. Then
follow two pamphlets by Hahfax, and if the
space allotted to them is somewhat dispro
portionate, the excess may be forgiven in an
attempt to redress an unmerited neglect and
rescue from obscurity some of the works of a
most original and admirable political pam-

INTRODUCTION 29
phleteer. The fourth pamphlet here reprinted,
The Art of Political Lying, is somewhat
different in character, being satirical rather
than controversial in character. The next
three, Steele's Crisis, Swift's Thoughts upon
the Present State of Affairs, and Bohngbroke's
State of Parties at the Accession of George I.,
all deal with the question of the Hanoverian
Succession. Only the dedication of Steele's
Crisis has been reprinted partly because the
pamphlet itself is long and partly because it
consists largely in a recitation of acts of Par
liament, which do not illustrate Steele's style
and would probably be found wearisome by
the modern reader. The dedication is at once
a good example of Steele's literary art and an
illustration of his object and point of view.
The other two need no apology, as they are
among the best of the writings of their re
spective authors. The last has been printed
slightly out of chronological order because of
its intimate connection with the other two.
Swift's Fourth Drapier's Letter is the best of
his Irish pamphlets. The three letters of
Junius that follow are equally representative.
The first opens the series, the second is a
typical instance of the methods with which
he assaUed prominent men of the day, and

30 INTRODUCTION
the third addressed to the king created most
excitement of them all. Next comes the first
part of Burke's Thoughts on Present Discontents,
and the volume closes with the peroration of
his Third Letter on a Regicide Peace.
The decision to print extracts from Burke
has not been reached without a struggle and
a shudder at the Philistinism of such a pro
ceeding. A competent critic has affirmed that
the only specimen of Burke is 'ah that he
wrote.' 1 But the true lover of art wiU prefer
a torso of Pheidias to all the statues on the
Embankment, and no critic of taste wiU stig
matize the choice of a few fragments from
Burke before half a dozen complete tracts of
Nedham or Cobbett. Moreover, the design
of the present volume is to stimulate, not to
surfeit the appetite; to vary the metaphor,
it professes merely to offer a few samples with
a view to increasing the demand for more.
Thanks to the long enjoyment of a free con
stitution and to a liberty broadening down
through centuries from precedent to precedent,
the collection of English political pamphlets is
unique. No other nation can pretend to rival
us in that branch of literature ; and the object
of this volume will be more than fulfilled if
1 Hazlitt.

INTRODUCTION 31
it induces a reader here and there to dip more
deeply into this mine of wealth, and study
some of those political pamphlets which, written
with an immediate and even transitory politi
cal purpose, are yet, hke the immortal history
of Thucydides, KTVuaTa ec aei fiaXKov rj
ayoovLa-fJMTa ey to irapa~)(prjp.a aicoveiv.1
A. F. POLLARD.

1 ThuoydideS, bk. i. cp. 22 : ' everlasting possessions,
not prize compositions which are heard and forgotten.'
( Jowett's translation. )

KILLING NO MURDER
[This pamphlet, the authorship of which was
claimed by Colonel Silas Titus (1622-1704), was
written by Colonel Edward Sexby, an officer in
Cromwell's regiment during the Civil War, who,
after becoming a Fifth Monarchy man and op
posing Cromwell's Protectorate, was won over by
the Eoyalists, fled to Holland and entered into
various plots against the Protector's life. ' Killing
no Murder' was published at Amsterdam in 1657,
and was widely distributed in England. Sexby
soon afterwards returned to England with the
deliberate intention of assassinating Cromwell ; he
was arrested and died in the Tower in January
1658.] 1
TO
HIS HIGHNESS OLIVER CROMWELL.
May it please tour Highness,
How I have spent some hours of the
leisure your Highness hath been pleased to
give me this following paper wiU give your
Highness an account. How you will please
1 See Introduction, p. 28.

34 KILLING NO MURDER
to interpret it I cannot tell; but I can with
confidence say, my intention in it is to pro
cure your Highness that justice nobody yet
does you, and to let the people see the longer
they defer it the greater injury they do both
themselves and you. To your Highness justly
belongs the honour of dying for the people ;
and it cannot choose but be unspeakable con
solation to you in the last moments of your
hfe to consider with how much benefit to
the world you are like to leave ft. It is then
only, my Lord, the titles you now usurp wiU
be truly yours ; you wiU then be indeed the
deliverer of your country, and free it from
a bondage little inferior to that from which
Moses delivered his. You wiU then be that
true reformer which you would be thought.
Rehgion shall be then restored, liberty as
serted, and Parliaments have those privileges
they have fought for. We shaU then hope
that other laws will have place besides those
of the sword, and that justice shall be other
wise defined than the wiU and pleasure of
the strongest; and we shall then hope men
will keep oaths again, and not have the
necessity of being false and perfidious to
preserve themselves, and be like their rulers.
All this we hope from your Highness's happy

KILLING NO MURDER 35
expiration, who are the true father of your
country; for whUe you hve we can caU no
thing ours, and it is from your death that
we hope for om' inheritances. Let this con
sideration arm and fortify your Highness's
mind against the fears of death, and the
terrors of your evil conscience, that the good
you wiU do by your death will something
balance the evUs of your life. And if in the
black catalogue of high malefactors few can
be found that have lived more to the
affliction and disturbance of mankind than
your Highness hath done, yet your greatest
enemies will not deny but there are likewise
as few that have expired more to the universal
benefit of mankind than your Highness is like
to do. To hasten this great good is the chief
end of my writing this paper ; and if it have
the effects I hope it will, your Highness will
quickly be out of the reach of men's malice,
and your enemies will only be able to wound
you in your memory, which strokes you will
not feel. That your Highness may be speedily
in this security is the universal wishes of your
grateful country. This is the desire and
prayer of the good and of the bad, and it
may be is the only thing wherein aU sects
and factions do agree in their devotions, and

36 KILLING NO MURDER
is our only common prayer. But amongst all
that put in their requests and supplications
for your Highness's speedy deliverance from
aU earthly troubles, none is more assiduous
nor more fervent than he who, with the rest
of the nation, hath the honour to be,
May it please your Highness,
Your Highness's present slave and vassal,
W. A.1
2 I.e. William Allen the pseudonym Sexby assumed.

II

A ROUGH DRAFT OF A NEW MODEL
AT SEA
[This pamphlet by George Savile, Marquis of
Halifax, is said to have been written in the autumn
of 1667. The destruction of the ships of war at
Chatham by the Dutch in the previous June had
directed public attention to the scandalous con
dition of the navy. But though circulated in
manuscript the pamphlet was not published until
1694 on the occasion of the introduction of a bill for
the better discipline of the fleet, and it had cer
tainly been recast since its original composition.
It is remarkable as indicating the first essential
of England's naval policy, and the advice 'Look
to your Moat' is as pregnant to-day as in 1694.
But the method in which Halifax incidentally
deals with the broader questions of politics estab
lishes his claim to be considered a pioneer in
the scientific treatment of the subject.]1
I will make no other Introduction to the
following discourse, than that, as the import
ance of our being strong at Sea, was ever
very great, so in our present circumstances
it is grown to be much greater; because, as
1 See English Historical Review, Oct. 1896, pp. 704-5,
722-26. 37

38 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
formerly our force of shipping contributed
greatly to our Trade and safety, so, now it
is become indispensably necessary to our very
being. It may be said now to England, Martha,
Martha, thou art busy among many things,
but one thing is necessary to the question,
What shaU we do to be saved in this world ?
There is no other answer but this, Look to
your moat.
The first article of an English-mans Political
creed must be, That he believeth in the Sea
&c, without that, there needeth no General
Council to pronounce him incapable of Salva
tion here.
We are in an Island confin'd to it by God
Almighty, not as a penalty but a grace, and
one of the greatest that can be given to man
kind. Happy confinement that has made
us free, rich and quiet ; a fair portion in
this world, and very well worth preserving,
a figure that hath ever been envied, and
could never be imitated by our neighbours.
Our situation hath made Greatness abroad
by land - conquests unnatural things to us.
It is true, we made excursions, and glorious
ones too, which made our names great in
History, but they did not last.

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 39
Admit the English to be giants in courage,
yet they must not hope to succeed in making
war against Heaven, which seemeth to have
enjoined them to acquiesce in being happy
within their own Circle. It is no paradox
to say, that England hath its root in the
sea, and a deep one too, from whence it
sendeth its branches into both the Indies.
We may say further in our present case,
That if allegiance is due to protection, ours
to the sea is due from that rule, since by
that, and by that alone, we are to be pro
tected; and if we have of late suffered usur
pation of other methods, contrary to the
homage we owe to that which must preserve
us, it is time now to restore the sea to its
right ; and as there is no repentance effectual
without amendment, so there is not a moment
to be lost in the going about it.
It is not pretended to launch into such a
voluminous treatise, as to set down every
thing to which so comprehensive a subject
might lead me ; for as the sea hath httle
less variety in it than the land ; so the naval
force of England extendeth itself into a
great many branches, each of which are
important enough to require a discourse
apart, and peculiarly apphed to it : but

40 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
there must be preference to some considera
tion above others, when the weight of them
is so visibly superior that it cannot be con
tested. It is there, first that the foundations
are to be laid of our naval economy : amongst
these, there is one article which in its own
nature must be allowed to be the corner
stone of the buUding.
The choice of Officers, with the discipline
and encouragement belonging to them. Upon
this head only, I shall then take the liberty to
venture my Opinion into the world, with a real
submission to those, who may offer anything
better for the advantage of the public.
The first question then wUl be, out of what
sort of men the Officers of the fleet are to be
chosen ; and this immediately leadeth us to the
present controversy between the Gentlemen and
the Tarpaulins?
The usual objection on both sides are too
1 This term was applied to professional seamen risen
from the ranks, a class which practically came into
existence during the Commonwealth and contributed
materially to its naval successes. They were systemati
cally discouraged after the Restoration, when commands
were habitually given to courtiers who had never been to
sea in their lives. The natural result was defeat and
disaster ; and the question Halifax discusses which now
seems idle was then a very practical one. See English
Historical Review, January 1896.

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 41
general to be relied upon. Partiality and
common prejudices direct most men's opinions,
without entering into the particular reasons
which ought to be the ground of it. There is
so much ease in acquiescing in Generals, that
the ignorance of those who cannot distinguish,
and the laziness of those who will not, maketh
men very apt to decline the trouble of stricter
enquiries, which they think too great a price
for being in the right, let it be never so
valuable. This maketh them judge in the lump, and
either let their opinions swim along with the
stream of the world, or give them up whoUy to
be directed by success. The effect of this is,
that they change their minds upon every present
uneasiness, wanting a steady foundation upon
which their judgment should be formed. This
is a perching upon the twigs of things, and not
going to the root. But sure the matter in
question deserveth to be examined in another
manner, since so much dependeth upon it.
To state the thing impartially, it must be
owned that it seemeth to lie fairest for the
Tarpaulin : it giveth an impression that must
have so much weight as to make a man's
opinion lean very much on that side, it carrieth
so much authority with it, it seemeth to be so
0

42 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
unquestionable, that those are fittest to com
mand at sea, who have not only made it their
calling, but their element; that there must
naturally be a prejudice to anything there can
be said against it. There must therefore be
some reason extraordinary to support the
argument on the other side, or else the gentle
men could never enter the lists against such a
violent objection, which seemeth not to be
resisted. I will introduce my argument with
an assertion, which as I take it to be true al
most in aU cases, so it is necessary to be
explained and enforced in this. The assertion
is, that there is hardly a single proposition to
be made, which is not deceitful, and the tying
our reason too close to it, may in many cases
be destructive. Circumstances must come in,
and are to be made a part of the matter of
which we are to judge ; positive decisions are
always dangerous more especially in politics.
A man, who will be master of an argument,
must do like a skUful General, who sendeth
scouts on all sides, to see whether there may
not be an enemy. So he must look round to
see what objections can be made, and not go
in a straight Une, which is the ready way to
lead him into a mistake.
Before then, that we conclude what sort of

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 43
men are fitted to command at sea, a principle
is to be laid down, that there is a differing
consideration to be had of such a subject-
matter, as is in itself distinct and independent,
and of such a one as being a hmit of a body, or
a wheel of a frame, there is a necessity of suit
ing it to the rest and preserving the harmony
of the whole. A man must not in that case
restrain himself to the separate consideration of
that single part, but must take care it may fall
in and agree with the shape of the whole
creature, of which it is a member. According
to this proposition, which I take to be indis
putable, it wiU not I hope appear an affectation,
or an extravagant fit of unreasonable politics, if,
before I enter into the particular state of the
present question, I say something of the govern
ment of England, and make that the ground
work of what sort of men are most proper to
be made use of to command at sea.
The forms of government to which England
must be subjected, are either Absolute Monarchy,
a Commonwealth,1 or a Mixt Monarchy,2 as it is
now; with those natural alterations that the
exigency of affairs may from time to time
suggest. As to absolute monarchy, I wiU not
1 ' Republic ' would now be the usual term.
2 Limited Monarchy.

44 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
aUow myself to be transported into such in
vectives, as are generally made against it;1
neither am I ready to enter into the aggravat
ing style of calling everything slavery, that
restraineth men in any part of their freedom :
one may discern in this, as in most other things,
the good and bad of it. We see by too near
an instance, what France doth by it ; it doth
not only struggle with the rest of Christendom,
but is in a fair way of giving law to it.2
This is owing in great measure to a despotic
and undivided power ; the uncontrolable autho
rity of the directive councUs maketh everything
move without disorder or opposition, which
must give an advantage, that is plain enough
of itself,3 without being proved by the melan
choly experience we have of it at this time.
I see and admire this ; yet I consider at the
same time, that aU things of this kind are com
parative : that as on one side, without Govern
ment, men cannot enjoy what belongeth to
them in particular, nor can a nation be secure,
1 A singular illustration of the detachment with which
Halifax treated the burning political questions of his
day. 2 This passage alluding to the dangerous supremacy of
Louis XIV. must have been introduced in 1694.
3 An advantage which still creates a desire in certain
minds for the introduction of the Russian administrative
system into England.

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 45
or preserve itself in general ; so, on the other
side, the end of Government being that Man
kind should live in some competent state of
freedom, it is very unnatural to have the end
destroyed by the means that were originaUy
made use of to attain it. In this respect some
thing is to be ventured, rather than submit to
such a precarious state of hfe, as would make
it a burden to a reasonable creature ; and
therefore, after I have owned the advantages
in some kind of an unlimited government ; yet,
whUe they are attended with so many other
discouraging circumstances, I cannot think but
that they may be bought too dear ; and if it
should be so, that it is not possible for a state
to be great and glorious, unless the subjects
are wretchedly miserable. I am ashamed to
own my low-spirited frailty, in preferring such
a model of government, as may agree with the
reasonable enjoyment of a free people, before
such a one, by which empire is to be extended
at such an unnatural price. Besides, whatever
men's opinions may be one way or another, in
the general question, there is an argument in
our case that shutteth the door to any answer
to it (viz.), We cannot subsist under a despotic
power, our very being would be destroyed by
it ; for we are to consider, we are a very little

46 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
spot in the map of the world, and make a great
figure only by trade, which is the creature of
liberty ; one destroyed, the other falleth to the
ground by a natural consequence, that wiU not
admit a dispute. If we would be measured by
our acres, we are a poor inconsiderable people ;
we are exalted above our natural bounds, by
our good laws, and our exceUent constitution.
By this we are not only happy at home, but
considerable abroad. Our situation, our humour,
our trade, do all concur to strengthen this argu
ment. So that all other reasons must give
place to such a one as maketh it out, that
there is no mean between a Free Nation and
No Nation.
We are no more a people, nor England can
no longer keep its name from the moment that
our Uberties are extinguished ; the vital strength
that should support us being withdrawn, we
should then be no more than a carcass of a
nation, with no other security than that of
contempt; and to subsist on no other tenure,
than that we should be below the giving
temptation to our stronger neighbours to de
vour us. In my judgment, therefore, there is
such a short decision to be made upon this
subject, that in relation to England an Ab
solute Monarchy is as an unreasonable thing

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 47
to be wished, as I hope it will be impossible
to be obtained.
It must be considered in the next place,
whether England is likely to be turned into
a commonwealth. It is hard at any time to
determine what wUl be the shape of the next
Revolution, much more at this time would it
be inexcusably arrogant to undertake it. Who
can foresee whether it wiU be from without, or
from within, or from both ? Whether with
or without the concurrence of the people ?
Whether regularly produced, or violently im
posed? I shaU not therefore magisterially
declare it impossible that a Commonwealth
should be settled here; but I may give my
humble opinion, that according to aU appear
ances, it is very improbable.1
I wiU first lay it down for a principle, That
it is not a sound way of arguing to say, That if
it can be made out, that the form of a Com
monwealth will best suit with the interest of
the nation, it must for that reason of necessity
prevail. I will not deny but that Interest will not he,
is a right Maxim, where ever it is sure to be
1 This, again, was probably written after the Revolu
tion ; otherwise, taken with the assumption that there
would be another Revolution, it was a remarkable
prophecy.

48 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
understood ; else one had as good affirm, That
no man in particular, nor Mankind in general,
can ever be mistaken. A nation is a great
while before they can see, and generally they
must feel first before their sight is quite cleared.
This maketh it so long before they can see their
Interest, that for the most part it is too late for
them to pursue it : if men must be supposed
always to follow their true interest, it must be
meant of a new manufactory of Mankind by
God Almighty : there must be some new clay,
the old stuff never yet made any such infallible
creature. This being premised, it is to be inquired,
Whether instead of inclination, or a leaning
towards a Commonwealth, there is not in
England a general dislike to it ; if this be so
as I take it to be by a very great disparity in
numbers ; it wiU be in vain to dispute the
reason, whUst humour is against it, allowing
the weight that is due to the argument, which
may be alleged for it ; yet, if the herd is against
it, the going about to convince them, would
have no other effect than to show that nothing
can be more impertinent than good reasons,
when they are misplaced or Ul-timed.
I must observe, that there must be some
previous dispositions in all great changes to

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 49
facilitate and to make way for them : I think it
not at all absurd, I affirm, That such resolutions
are seldom made at all except by the general
preparations of men's minds they are half made
before, and it is plainly visible, that men go
about them.
Though it seemeth to me that the argument
alone maketh aU others unnecessary, yet I must
take notice that besides what hath been said
on this subject, there are certain preliminaries
to the first buUding a Commonwealth. Some
materials absolutely necessary for the carry
ing on such a fabric which at present are
wanting amongst us, I mean Virtue, Morality,
Diligence, or at least Hypocrisy. Now this
age is so plain dealing, as not to dissemble so
far as to an outward pretence of qualities which
seem at present so unfashionable, and under
so much discountenance.
From hence we may draw a plain and
natural inference, that a Commonwealth is not
fit for us, because we are not fit for a Common
wealth. This being granted, the supposition of this
form of government of England, with all
its consequences as to the present question,
must be excluded, and Absolute Monarchy
having been seen so far by the reasons at once

5<s A ROUGH DRAFT OF
aUeged, it wiU without further examinations
fall to a Mixt Government, as we now are.
I will not say, that there is never to be any
alteration ; the constitution of the several parts
that concur to make up the frame of the pre
sent Government, may be altered in many things,
in some for the better, and in others, perhaps
for the worse, according as circumstances shall
arise to induce a change ; and as passion and
interest shall have more or less influence upon
the public councils ; but still, if it remaineth
in the whole so far a mixt Monarchy, that
there shaU be a restraint upon the Prince, as
to the exercise of a despotic power, it is enough
to make a ground work for the present ques
tion. It appeareth then that a bounded Mon
archy is that kind of Government which will
most probably prevail and continue in England;
from whence it must foUow (as hath been
hinted before) that every considerable part
ought to be so composed, as the better to
conduce to the preserving the harmony of
the whole constitution.1 The navy is of so
great importance, that it would be disparaged
by calling it less than the Ufe and soul of
government. 1 An anticipation in some measure of Burke's favourite
dogma of the " balance of the constitution."

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 51
Therefore to apply the argument to the sub
ject we are upon ; in case the Officers be all
Tdrpaidins, it would be in reality too great a
tendency to a Commonwealth ; such a part of
the constitution being democratically disposed
may be suspected to endeavour to bring it into
that shape; where the influence must be so
strong, and the supposition wiU be the more justi
fiable. In short, if the Maritime Force, which
is the only thing that can defend us, should be
wholly directed by the lower sort of men, with
an entire exclusion of the nobility and gentry ;
it wiU not be so easy to answer the arguments
supported by so great a probability, that such a
scheme would not only lean toward a democracy,
but directly lead us into it.1
Let us now examine the contrary proposition,
(viz.) that all officers should be gentlemen.
Here the objection lieth so fair of its intro
ducing an arbitrary government, that it as little
to be answered in that respect, as the former is
in the other. Gentlemen, in a general definition,
will be suspected to lie more than other men,
under the temptations of being made instru
ments of unlimited power ; their relations, their
way of living, their taste of the entertainments
1 Halifax alludes to the fact that during the Civil War
the navy was preponderantly anti-royalist.

52 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
of the Court, inspire an Ambition that gener
aUy draweth their inclination towards it, be
sides the gratifying of their interests. Men of
quality are often taken with the ornaments of
government, the splendour dazzleth them so, as
that their judgments are surprised by it ; and
there will be always some that have so little
remorse for invading other men's liberties, that
it maketh them less solicitous to preserve their
own. These things throw them naturaUy into such
a dependance as might give a dangerous bias ;
if they alone were in command at sea, it would
make the great wheel turn by an irregular
motion, and instead of being the chief means
of preserving the whole frame, might come to
be the chief instruments to discompose and dis
solve it.
The two further exclusive propositions being
necessarily to be excluded in this question,
there remaineth no other expedient; neither
can any other conclusion be drawn from the
argument as it hath been stated, than that
there must be a mixture in the navy of Gentle
men and Tarpaulins, as there is in the constitu
tion of the government, of power and hberty.
This mixture is not to be so rigorously defined,
as to set down the exact proportion there is

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 53
to be of each ; the greater or lesser number
must be directed by circumstances, of which
the government is to judge, and which makes
it improper to set such bounds, as that on no
occasion it shaU on either side be lessened or
enlarged. It is possible the men of Wapping
may think they are injured, by giving them any
partners in the dominion of the sea ; they may
take it unkindly to be jostled in their own
element by men of such a different education,
that they may be said to be of another species ;
they wiU be apt to think it an usurpation upon
them, and notwithstanding the influences that
are against them, and which give a kind of pre
scription on the other side, they wiU not easily
acquiesce in what they conceive to be a hard
ship to them.
But I shall in a good measure reconcile my
self to them by what follows ; (viz.) The Gentle
men shall not be capable of bearing office at
sea, except they be Tarpaulins too ; that is to
say, except they are so trained up by a con
tinued habit of Uving at sea, that they may
have a right to be admitted free denizens of
Wapping. Upon this dependeth the whole
matter; and indeed here lieth the difficulty,
because the Gentlemen brought up under the
connivance of a looser discipline, and of an

54 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
easier admittance, will take it heavily to be
reduced within the Fetters of such a New
Model;1 and I conclude they will be extremely
averse to that which they caU an unreasonable
yoke upon them, that their original consent is
never to be expected. But if it appeareth to
be convenient, and which is more, that it is
necessary for the preservation of the whole
that it should be so, the Government must
be called upon in aid to suppress these first
boilings of discontent ; the rules must be im
posed with such authority, and the execution
of them must be so weU supported, that by
degrees their impatience wUl be subdued, and
they will concur in an estabhshment to which
they will every day be more reconciled.
They wiU find it will take away the objec
tions wliich are now thrown upon them, of
setting up for masters without having even
been apprentices ; or at least without having
served out their time.
Mankind naturally swelleth against favour
and partiality ; their belief of their own merit
maketh men object them to a prosperous com
petitor, even when there is no pretence for it ;
but when there is the least handle offered, to
be sure it will be taken. So, in this case,
1 An allusion of course to Cromwell's ' New Model.'

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 55
when a Gentleman is preferred at sea the Tar
paulin is very apt to impute it to friend or
favour ; but if that Gentleman hath before his
preferment passed through aU the steps which
lead to it, that he smelleth as much of pitch
and tar, as though that were swaddled in sail
cloth; his having an escutcheon will be so far
from doing him harm, that it wUl set him upon
the advantage ground : it will draw a real
respect to his quality when so supported, and
give him an influence, and authority infinitely
superior to that which the mere seaman can
never pretend to.
When a Gentleman hath learned how to obey,
he will grow very much fitter to command; his
own Memory will advise him not to command
too rigorous punishments. He wUl better resist
the temptations of authority (which are great)
when he reflecteth how much he hath at other
times wished it might be gently exercised, when
he was liable to the rigour of it.
When the undistinguished Discipline of a
ship hath tamed the young mastership, which
is apt to arise from a Gentleman's birth and
education, he then groweth proud in the
right place, and valueth himself first upon
knowing his duty, and then upon doing it.
In plain English, men of Quality in their

56 A ROUGH DRAFT OF
several degrees must either restore themselves
to a better opinion, both for Morality and
Diligence, or else Quality itself wUl be in
danger of being extinguished.
The original Gentleman is almost lost in
strictness, when posterity doth not stiU further
adorn by their virtue. The escutcheon their
ancestors first got for them by their merit,
they deserve the penalty of being deprived
of it.
To expect that Quality alone should waft
men up into Places and Employments, is as
unreasonable, as to think that a ship, because
it is carved and gilded, should be fit to go to
sea without sails or tackling. But when a
Gentleman maketh no other use of his quality,
than to incite him the more to his duty, it will
give such a true and settled superiority, as
must destroy all competition from those that
are below him.
It is time now to go to the probationary
quahfications of an officer at sea : and I have
some to offer, which I have digested in my
thoughts, I hope impartially, that they may not
be speculative notions, but things easy and
practicable, if the directing powers wiU give
due countenance and encouragement to the
execution of them: but whilst I am going

A NEW MODEL AT SEA 57
about to set them down, though this little
essay was made to no other end, than to in
troduce them, I am upon better recollection,
induced to put a restraint upon myself, and
rather retract the promise I made at the begin
ning than by advising the particular methods,
by which I conceive the good end that is aimed
at may be obtained, to incur the imputation of
the thing of the world, of which I would least
be guUty, which is of anticipating, by my pri
vate opinion, the judgment of the Parliament,
or seeming out of my slender stock of reason to
dictate to the supreme wisdom of the nation.
They wUl, no doubt, consider the present estab
lishments for discipline at sea, which are many
of them very good, and if well executed, might
go a great way in the present question. But I
will not say they are so perfect, but that other
may be added to make them more effectual, and
that some more supplemental expedients may
be necessary to complete what is yet defective :
and whenever the Parliament shaU think fit to
take this matter into their consideration, I am
sure they wUl not want for their direction, the
auxiliary reasons of any man without doors,
much less of one, whose thoughts are so entirely
and unaffectedly resigned to whatever they shall
determine in this, or any thing else relating to
the Public.

Ill
SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT
[This pamphlet was written by Halifax in 1695,
a short while before his death and soon after the
passing of the Triennial Act. It is full of polished
irony and illustrates Halifax's contempt for both
political parties ; at the same time it contains a
great deal of incidental information about politics
and manners of the time.]
I will make no other introduction, than that
it is hoped the Counties and Boroughs will
remember in general, that besides other conse
quences, they wUl have the credit of a good
choice, or the scandal that belongeth to an
ill one.
The creators will be thought like their
creatures ; and therefore an UI choice will either
be a disparagement of their understanding or
their morals.
There cannot be a fuller approbation of a
thing, than the choosing of it ; so that the
fault of the members chosen, if known before
hand, wiU be judged to be of the growth of
58

SOME CAUTIONS S9
that County or Borough, after such a solemn
approbation of them.
In short, those who send up their representa
tives to Westminster, should take care they
may be such as will do them right, and their
Country honour.
Now to the particulars.
I. A very extraordinary earnestness to be
chosen is no very good symptom : A desire to
serve the Nation in Parliament is an English
man's ambition : always to be encouraged, and
never to be disapproved.
A man may not only be willing to stand, but
he may declare that willingness to his friends,
that they may assist him, and by all the means
becoming a modest and prudent man, he may
endeavour to succeed, and prevent the being
disappointed in it.
But there is a wide difference between
this and the raising a kind of petty war in the
County or Corporation, entering the lists rather
for a combat than an election ; throwing fire
balls to put men into heat, and omitting to
spread no reports, whether true or false, which
may give an advantage by laying a blemish
upon a competitor.
These methods wUl ever be suspicious; it
wul never be thought a natural thing for men

60 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
to take such extravagant pains for the mere
sake of doing good to others.
To be content to suffer something for a good
end, is that which many would do without
any great repugnance : but where a man can
honestly propose nothing to himself except
troubles, change and loss by absence from his
own affairs, to be violent in the pursuit of so
ill a bargain is not at all suited to the languish
ing virtue of Mankind so corrupted.
Such a self-denying zeal in such a self-
seeking age, is so little to be imagined, that
it may without injury be suspected.
Therefore when these blustering pretenders
come upon the Stage, their natural temper and
other circumstances ought to be very well con
sidered, before men trust them with the disposal
of their money, or their liberty.
And I am apt to beheve, there could hardly
be found one single man whose other Quahfica
tions would over-balance the objections that lie
against such importunate suitors.
II. Recommending letters ought to have no
effect upon elections.
In this I must distinguish; for though in
strictness perhaps there should be no excep
tions ; yet in compliance with long practice,
and out of an Indulgence that is necessary in

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 61
a time when Mankind is too much loosened
from severe rules, to be kept close up to them,
letters sent only from equal men, doing good
men right by giving evidence in their behalf,
offering them as fitly qualified, when they
reaUy are so, and freeing them from unjust
aspersions, may stiU be aUowed.
The letters I mean, are from men of power,
where it may be beneficial to comply, and in
convenient to oppose.
Choice must not only be free from force, but
from Influence, which is a degree of force :
there must be no difficulty, no apprehension
that a refusal wiU be UI taken or resented.
The freeholders must be freemen too ; they
are to have no shackles upon their votes in an
election : and the men who stand, should carry
their own letters of recommendation about
them, which are their good character and
behaviour in the world, without borrowing
evidence, especially when it comes from sus
pected hands.
Those who make use of these epistles, ought
to have no more advantage from them, than
the Muscovites have from the letters put into
their hands, when they are buried, to recom
mend them to St Nicholas.
The first should get as little admittance for

62 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
men into the Parliament, as these letters can
introduce the bearers into Heaven.
The scandal of such letters Ueth first in the
arrogant imposing of those that write them,
and next in the wretched meanness of those
that need them.
Men must have fallen very low in their
credit, who upon such an occasion have a
recourse to power to support it : their enemies
could not give stronger evidence of their not
being fit for that which they pretend to. And
if the electors judge otherwise they will be
pretty sure in a little time to see their mistake,
and to repent it.
III. Non-attendance in former parliaments
ought to be a bar against the choice of men
who have been guilty of it.
It is one of the worst kinds of non-residence,
and the least to be excused: it is very hard
that men should despise a duty, which perhaps
is the only ground of the respect that is paid
to them.
It is such a piece of sauciness for any one to
press for the honour of serving in Parhament,
and then to be careless in attending it, that
in a House where there were so many officers,
the penalty had not been improper to have
cashiered them for not appearing at the general
muster.

/-

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 63
If men forbear to come out of laziness let
them be gratified by taking their ease at home
without interruption : if out of smaU cunning
to avoid difficulties, and to escape from the
inconvenience of voting in critical cases, let
them enjoy that despicable pitch of wisdom,
and never pretend to make a figure where the
public is to be served.
If it would be thought advisable to trust a
man immediately after he hath been drawn out
of gaol, it may be as reasonable to look upon
one who for his non-attendance in the House
hath been for in custody, as a kind of bankrupt,
which putteth him upon unequal terms with
those who have been assiduous in the discharge
of their duty.
They who thought fit in one session to neglect
the Public business, may be justly suspected
by their own standing, in the next to intend
their own.
Besides these more deliberate offenders, there
are some who do not attend even when they
are in the House; absent in their thoughts
for want of comprehending the business that is
doing, and therefore diverted from it by any
thing that is trivial.
Such men are nuisances to a serious assem
bly, and when they are numerous it amounteth

64 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
almost to a Dissolution, it being scarce possible
for good sense to be heard, whUst a noise is
made by the buzzing of these horse flies.
The Roman censors who degraded a senator
for yawning whilst there was a debate would
have much more abundant matter here upon
which they might exercise their jurisdiction.
To conclude this head, there are so few that
ever mended in these cases, that after the first
experiment it is not at aU reasonable to take
them upon a new trial.
IV. Men who are unquiet and busy in their
natures, are to give more than ordinary proofs
of their integrity, before the electing them into
a public trust can be justified. As a hot
summer breedeth greater swarms of flies, so an
active time breedeth a greater number of these
shining Gentlemen.
It is pretty sure, that men who cannot aUow
themselves to be at rest, will let nobody else be
quiet. Such a perpetual activity is apt by
degrees to be applied to the pursuit of their
private interest. And their thoughts being in
a continual motion, they have not time to dwell
long enough upon anything to entertain a scruple.
So that they are generaUy at full liberty to
do what is most convenient for them, without
being fettered by any restraints.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 65
Nay further ; whenever it happeneth that
there is an impunity for cheating, these nimble
gentlemen are apt to think it a disparagement
to their understandings not to go into it.
I doubt it is not a wrong to the present age,
to say, that a knave is a less unpopular calling
than it hath been in former times. And to say
truth, it would be ingratitude in some men to
turn honest when they owe all they have to
their knavery.
The people are in this respect unhappy ; they
are too many to do their own business ; their
numbers, which make their strength, are at the
same time the cause of their weakness ; they
are too unwieldy to moye ; and for this reason
nothing can ever redeem them from this incur
able impotency : so that they must have soli
citors to pursue and look after their interests ;
who are too often disposed to dispense with the
fidelity they owe to those that trust them ;
especially if the Government will pay their bUls
without abatement.
It is better these gentlemen's dexterity should
be employed anywhere than in Parliament,
where the ill consequences of their being
Members is too much diffused, and not re
strained to the County or Borough who shaU
be so unwary as to choose them.

66 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
V. Great drinkers are less fit to serve in Par
liament than is apprehended.
Men's virtue, as weU as their understanding,
is apt to be tainted by it.
The appearance of it is sociable and well-
natured, but it is by no means to be relied upon.
Nothing is more frail than a man too far
engaged in wet popularity.
The habit of it maketh men careless of their
business, and that naturaUy leadeth them into
circumstances, that make them liable to tempta
tion. It is seldom seen, that any principles have
such a root, as that they can be proof against
the continual droppings of a bottle.
As to the faculties of the mind, there is not
less objection ; the vapours of wine may some
times throw out sparks of Wit, but they are
like scattered pieces of ore, there is no vein to
work upon.
Such wit, even the best of it, is like pay
ing great fines ; in which case there must
of necessity be an abatement of the constant
rent. Nothing sure is a greater enemy to the brain,
than too much moisture; it can the least of
anything bear the being continuaUy steeped:
and it may be said, that thought may be re-

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 67
sembled to some creatures which can live only
in a dry country.
Yet so arrogant are some men, as to think
they are so much masters of business, as that
they can play with it ; they imagine they can
drown their reason once a day, and that it
shall not be the worse for it ; forgetting, that
by too often diving, the understanding at last
groweth too weak to rise up again.
I will suppose this fault was less frequent
when Solon made it one of his laws, that it
was lawful to kUl a magistrate if he was found
drunk. Such a liberty taken in this age, either
in Parliament or out of it, would do terrible
execution. I cannot but mention a Petition in the year
1647 from the County of Devon, to the House
of Commons, against the undue election of
Burgesses, who are strong in wine and weak
in wisdom.
The cause of such petitions is to be prevented
by choosing such as shall not give handle for
them. VI. Wanting-men1 give such cause of sus
picion wherever they deal, that surely the
choosers will be on their guard, as often as
such dangerous pretenders make their appli
cation to them.
1 I.e. men in want or of slender means.

68 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
Let the behaviour of such men be never so
plausible and untainted, yet they who are to
pitch upon those they are to trust with all
they have, may be excused, if they do not
consider what they are but what they may
be. As we pray ourselves we may not be led
into temptation, we ought not by any means
to thrust others into it ; even though our own
interest was not concerned ; and sure when it
is, the argument hath not less force.
If a man hath a small estate, and a numerous
famUy; where it happeneth that a man hath
as many children as he hath tenants, it is not
a recommending circumstance for his election.
When it cometh to be the question with
such a man, whether he shaU be just to the
public, or cruel to his family ? it is very possible
the decision may be on the side of corrupted
nature. It is a compUment to this age, which it doth
not deserve, to suppose men are so tied up to
MoraUty, as that they cannot be pinched out
of it ; especially now when it is called starving
not to be embroidered or served in plate.
The men chosen to serve their Country,
should not be loaded with suits that may
tempt them to assume privileges; much less

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 69
under such necessities as may more immedi
ately prepare them for corruption.
Men who need a Parliament for their own
particular interest, have more reason to offer
their service than others have to accept of it.
And though I do not doubt, but there are
some whose virtue would triumph over their
wants, let them be never so pressing, to expose
the public to the hazard of being deceived, is
that which can never be justified by those that
choose. And though it must be aUowed
possible for a wanting-man to be honest, yet
it is impossible for a man to be wise that will
depend on it.
VII. There is a sort of men that have a
tinsel-wit, which make them shine among those
who cannot judge.
Club and coffee house gentlemen, petty
merchants of small conceits, who have an
empty habit of prating without meaning ; they
always aim at wit and generaUy make false
fire. Their business is less to learn, than to set
themselves out ; which makes them choose to
be with such as can only be witnesses of their
smaU ingenuity, rather than with such as might
improve it.
There is a subordinate wit, as much inferior

70 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
to a wit of business, as a fiddler at a Wake
is to the lofty sound of the organ.
Men of this size are in no degree suited
to the business of redressing grievances and
making laws.
There is a Parliament wit to be distinguished
from all other kinds; those who have it, do
not stuff their heads only with cavUs and
objections. They have a deliberate and an observing
wit, a head turned to pubhc things ; men
who place greater pleasure in mending a fault
than in finding it out.
Their understanding directeth them to object
in the right place and not like those who go
by no other rule, than to conclude, that must
be the best counsel which was not taken.
These wholesale judges show such a gross
and peevish ignorance that it appeareth so
openly in all they say or do, that they give
loud warning to aU considering men, not to
choose them.
VIII. The dislike of slight airy men must
not go so far, as to recommend heaviness in
opposition to it, especially where men are
convicted of it by experience in former sessions.
As a lively coxcomb wiU seldom fail to lay
in his claim for wit ; so a blockhead is apt

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 71
to pretend, that his heaviness is a proof of
his judgement.
Some have a universal lethargy spread upon
their understanding without exception ; others
have an insufficiency quoad hoc, these last
can never so turn their thoughts to pubUc
business, as to give the attention that is neces
sary to comprehend it.
There are those who have such a thick shell
upon their brains, that their ignorance is im
penetrable, and maketh such a stout resistance
against common sense, that it will never be
subdued by it : true heart of oak, ignorance
that will never yield, let reason beat never
so hard upon it ; and though their kind neigh
bours have at several elections sent them up
to school again, they have still returned the
same incurable dunces.
There is a false gravity that is a very iU
symptom ; and it may be said, that as rivers,
which run very slowly, have always the most
mud at the bottom ; so a solid stiffness in
the constant course of a man's life, is a sign
of a thick bed of mud at the bottom of his
brain. A dull man is so near a dead man, that he
is hardly to be ranked in the list of the living ;
and as he is not to be buried whilst he is

72 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
half alive, so he is as httle to be employed
whilst he is half dead. I
Parliaments are now grown to be quite/other
things than they were formerly.
In ancient times they were little more than
great Assizes ; a roU of grievances Magna
Charta confirmed ; privileges of Holy Church
preserved ; so many sacks of wool given, and
away. Now there are traps and gins laid for the
well meaning Country - gentleman ; he is to
grapple with the cunning of Men in Town,
which is not a little improved by being re
warded and encouraged.
So that men whose good intentions are not
seconded and supported by some degree of
ability, are much the more dangerous, as they
are less criminal than cunning knaves. Their
honest mistakes, for want of distinguishing,
either give a countenance to, or at least lessen
the scandal of the injurious things that are
done to the public : and with leave asked
for so odd an expression, their innocent guilt
is as mischievous to the laws and liberties,
as the most dehberate malice of those that
would destroy them.1
1 It has since become a platitude that in politics
blunders are crimes: cf. Talleyrand's remark, "it was
worse than a crime, it was a blunder."

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 73-
IX. There is an abuse which daily increaseth,
of sending such to Parhament, as are scarce
old enough to be sent to the University.
I would not in this restrain the definition
of these boys to the age of twenty-one : if
my opinion might take place, I should wish
that none might be chosen into the House
of Commons under thirty ; and to make some
equahty, I should from the same motives think
it convenient, that no lord should have a vote
in judicature under that age.
But to leave this digression ; I cannot see
why the choosers should not at least make
it a rule among themselves ; not to send any
man to represent them under the age of
twenty -five, which is the time of majority
in most other places of the world. Surely
it is not that we are earlier plants than our
neighbours. Such supposition could neither
be justified by our climate, nor by the degree
of latitude in which we are placed; I must
therefore attribute it to the haste our An
cestors had (and not without reason) to free
themselves from the severity of wardships.
But whether this, or anything else, was the
cause of our earlier stepping into man's estate ;
so it is now, that according to our laws,
twenty-one is the age of discretion ; and the
E

74 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
young man is then vested with a legal, how
defective soever he may be in his natural,
understanding. With aU this, there ought to be a difference
made between coming out of pupUage, and
leaping into legislatorship.
It is perhaps inconvenient enough that a
man should be so soon let loose to destroy
his own estate; but it is yet worse, that he
should then have the power of giving away
other men's.
The law must make general rules, to which
there always wiU be some objections.
If there were tryers appointed to judge
when leading-strings should be left off, many
would wear them a very great while, and
some perhaps with their grey hairs; there
being no smaU number of old boys in all
times and especiaUy in this.
It is necessary therefore to make exceptions
to this general rule, where the case so much
requireth it, as it doth in the matter in
question. The ground of sending these Minors to
Parliament ought not to recommend the con
tinuance of it to those who are lovers of
liberty; since it was by the authority and
influence of great men, that their stripling

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 75
sons were first received by the humble de
pending Boroughs, or the complying Counties.
They called it, as many do still, the best
school for young men. Now experience hath
showed us, that it is hke a school only in this
respect, that these youngsters when they are
admitted deserve to be whipped in it.
If the House of Commons is a school, it
must be for men of riper age; these are too
young to learn there, and being elevated by
a mistaken smattering in smaU politics, they
grow too supercilious to learu anywhere else ;
so that instead of improving young promising
plants, they are destroyed by being misplaced.
If then they do themselves hurt by it, it is
surer yet that they do the House no good by
coming into it.1
They were not green geese that are said to
have saved the Capitol ; they were certainly
of full age, or else their cackling could not
have been heard, so as to give warning.
Indeed it looked of late, when the fashion
was to have long continued parliaments,2 as
1 Halifax's rule would have excluded the younger Pitt
from parliament for six years after he had become prime
minister. 2 The Long Parliament sat with various interruptions
from 1640 to 1659. Charles II. 's first parliament sat from
1660 to 1679.

76 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
if we might plant a boy in the House with
a prospect that he might continue there till
he had grey hairs : and that the same sapling
might have such a root, as that he might
grow up to be timber without being removed.
If these young men had skUl enough to
pitch upon somebody in the House, to whom
they might resign their opinion, and upon
whose judgment they might lean without re
serve, there might be less objection.
But to speak Truth, they know as httle
how to choose, as those did who elected them ;
so that there is no other expedient left, than
the letting them alone.
One may say, generaUy speaking, that a
young man being too soon qualified for the
serious business of Parliaments, would really
be no good symptom.
It is a sign of too much phlegm, and too
little fire in the beginning of age if men have
not a little more heat than is convenient;
for as they grow older they will run a hazard
of not having so much as is necessary.
The truth is, the vigour of youth is softened
and misapplyed, when it is not spent either
in war or close studies; aU other courses
have an idle mixture that cometh to nothing,
and maketh them like trees, which for want

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 77
of pruning run up to wood, and seldom or
never bear any fruit.
To conclude this head, it must be owned,
that there is no age of our life which doth
not carry arguments along with it to humble
us: and therefore it would be weU for the
business of the world, if young men would
stay longer before they went into it, and old
men not so long before they went out of it.
X. Next to these may be ranked a sort of
superfine gentlemen, carpet-knights, men whose
heads may be said to be only appurtenances
to their perukes, which entirely engross all
their care and application.
Their understanding is so strictly appropri
ated to their dress, that no part of it is upon
pain of their utmost displeasure to be diverted
to any other use.
It is not by this intended to recommend
an affected clown, or to make it a necessary
qualification for a member of Parliament, that
he must renounce clean linen or good manners ;
but surely a too earnest application to make
everything fit right about them, striketh too
deep into their smaU stock of thoughts to
allow it furniture for anything else.
To do right to these fine-spun gentlemen,
business is too coarse a thing for them, which

78 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
maketh it an unreasonable hardship upon them
to oppress them with it ; so that in tenderness
to them, no less than out of care to the public,
it is best to leave them to their taUors with
whom they wiU Uve in much better corre
spondence, when the danger is prevented of
their falling out about privileges.
XI. Men of injustice and violence, in their
private dealings, are not to be trusted by the
people with a commission to treat for them
in Parliament.
In the 4th of Edw. III. The king com
mandeth in his Writs not to choose any
Knights who had been guilty of crime, or
maintenance.1 These warm men seldom faU to run into
maintenance, taken in a larger extent.
It is an unnatural sound to come from a
man that is arbitrary in his neighbourhood,
to talk of laws and Uberties at Westminster;
he is not a proper vehicle for such words,
which ought never to be prophaned.
1 See Stubbs, Constitutional History, iii. 549 et seq.;
maintenance was the practice of great men taking up
the cause or quarrel of humbler persons on condition of
exercising over them the rights of patron, lt was open
to many abuses and legislation against it was frequent.
The most familiar effect of it was the gathering round
the nobles of large bands of retainers who were a fruitful
cause of disturbance.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 79
An habitual breaker of the laws, to be
made one of the law-makers, is as if the
benches in Westminster-hall should be fiUed
with men out of Newgate.
Those who are of this temper cannot change
their nature out of respect to their country.
Quite contrary, they will less scruple to do
wrong to a nation where nobody taketh it to
himself, than to particular men to whose re
sentments they are more immediately exposed.
In short they lie under such strong objec
tions, that the overbalance of better men
cannot altogether purify an assembly where
these unclean beasts are admitted.
XII. Excessive spenders and unreasonable
savers are to be excluded, being both greedy
from differing causes.
They are both of them diseases of infection,
and for that reason are not to be admitted
into public assemblies.
A prodigal man must be greedy because he
thinketh he can never spend enough.
The wretch1 must be so, because he will
never think he can hoard enough.
The world first admireth men's wisdom for
getting money and then raileth at them if
1 I.e. 'miser' : wretch is a literal translation of the
Latin word ' miser.'

80 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
they do not throw it away. So that the
prodigal man is only the less unpopular ex
treme ; he is every jot as weU prepared as
the miser to fall out with his morals, when
once a good temptation is offered him to lay
them aside.
On the other side, some rich men are as
eager to overtake those that are richer, as a
running-horse is to get to the race-post, before
the other that contendeth with him.
Men often desire to heap, rather because
others have more, than that they know what
to do with that which they covet with so
much impatience.
So that it is plain, the fancy hath as great
a share in this imaginary pleasure of gathering
as it hath in love, ambition, or any other
passion. It is pretty sure, that as no man was ever
the richer for having a good estate, if he did
not look after it, so neither wUl he be the
honester if he hath never so much.
Want of care wiU always create want of
money; so that whether a man is a beggar
because he never had any money, or because
he can never keep any, it is aU one to those
who are to trust him.
Upon this head of prodigahty, it may be no

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 81
unreasonable caution to be afraid of those who
in former service have been extravagantly liberal
of the public money.
Trusting is so hazardous a thing, that it
should never be done but where it is neces
sary; so that when Trustees are found upon
trial to be very lavish, even without examining
into the causes of it (which are generaUy very
suspicious), it is a reasonable part of preventing
wit to change hands, or else the choosers wUl
pay the penalty that belongeth to good nature
so misplaced, and the consequences will be at
tended with the aggravation of their being made
wiser by such a severe and costly warning.
XIII. It would be of very great use to take a
general resolution throughout the kingdom, that
none should be chosen for a county but such as
have either in possession, or reversion, a con
siderable estate in it ; nor for a Borough, except
he be resiant 1 or that he hath some estate in
the County, in present or expectancy.
There have been exceUent men of law who
1 Resident ; originally it was the rule that members
should be resident in the boroughs they represented.
In 1571 it was proposed to repeal the old law altogether.
In the debate that ensued it was asserted as a principle
that a member was not the mere delegate of his con
stituents, and that he served for the whole kingdom, and
not only for the body that chose him. The bill passed
the Commons by a large majority but was then suffered

82 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
were of opinion, that in case of a burgess of a
town not resiant, the court is to give judgment
according to the statute,1 notwithstanding
custom to the contrary.
But not to insist now upon that, the pru
dential part is argument enough to set up a
rule to abrogate an ill custom.
There is not, perhaps, a greater cause of the
corruption of Parhaments, than by adopting
Members, who may be said to have no title
by their births.
The juries are by the law to be Ex vicineto ;
and shaU there be less care that the representa
tives of the people be so too ?
Sure the interest of the County is best
placed in the hands of such as have some share
in it.
to drop. Nevertheless the old law ceased to be enforced.
And it was well that it did, for the non-resident lawyers
who beeame members rendered great service in the
struggle with the crown. The renewal of it would be
fatal, as it would exclude any man of ability from Parlia
ment if he chanced to reside in a constituency of per
manently hostile views to his own : e.g. no Liberal
residing in the west end of London would be able to sit
in Parliament.
1 1, e. the statute of 1413, 1 Henry V. cp. 1, whioh directs
that none be chosen knights, citizens, or burgesses, who
are not resident within the place for which they are re
turned on the day of the date of the writ : see Hallam's
Middle Ages, iii. 118, 119, and Stubbs's Const. Hist.,
iii. 438.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 83
The outhers are not so easily kept within the
pale of the laws.
They are often chosen without being known,
wliich is more Uke choosing valentines, than
Members of Parhament. The motive of their
standing is more justly to be supposed, that
they may redress their own grievances which
they know, than those of the Country to which
they are strangers.
They are chosen at London to serve in Corn
wall, &c, and are often Parties, before they
come to be representatives : one would think
the reproach it is for a County not to have men
within their own circle to serve them in Parlia
ment, should be argument enough to reject
these trespassers, without urging the ill con
sequences in other respects of their being
admitted. XIV. As in some cases it is advisable to give
a total exclusion to men not fitly qualified ; so
in others it is more proper to lay down a general
rule of caution, with allowance of some excep
tions, where men have given such proofs of
themselves, as create a right for them to be
distinguished. Of this nature is that which I shaU say con
cerning lawyers, who, by the same reason that
they may be useful, may be also very dangerous.

84 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
The negligence, and want of application in
gentlemen, hath made them1 to be thought
more necessary than naturally they are in
Parliament. They have not only engrossed the Chair of
the Speaker, but that of a Committee is hardly
thought to be well filled, except it be by a man
of the robe.
This maketh it worthy of the more serious
reflection of aU gentlemen, that it may be an
argument to them to qualify themselves in
Parliamentary learning, in such a manner, as
that they may rely upon their own abilities, in
order to the serving of their Country.
But to come to the point in question ; it is
not without precedent, that practising lawyers
have been excluded from serving in Parliament ;2
and, without following those patterns strictly, I
cannot but think it reasonable, that whilst a
Parhament sitteth, no Member of Parliament
should plead at the bar.
1 I.e. the lawyers.
2 E.g. in the Parliament summoned at Coventry in
October in 1404 Henry IV. directed that no lawyers
should be returned as members. This Parliament was
called the ' Unlearned Parliament,' not, the clergy main
tained, because of the absence of the lawyers, but because
it made a formidable attempt to appropriate the tem
poralities of the clergy for the financial exigencies of the
State. Lawyers had since 1372 been forbidden to serve
as knights of the Shire.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 85
The reason of it is in many respects strong in
itself, and is grown much stronger by the long
sitting of Parliaments of late ; but I wiU not
dweU upon this : the matter now in question
being concerning lawyers being elected, which
I conceive should be done with so much cir
cumspection, that probably it would not often
happen. If lawyers have great practice, that ought
to take them up; if not, it is no great sign of
their abihty ; and at the same time giveth
a suspicion, that they may be more liable
to be tempted.
If it should be so in fact, that no king ever
wanted judges to soften the stiffness of the
laws that were made, so as to make them suit
better with the reason of state, and the con
venience of the Government; it is no injury
now to suppose it possible for lawyers in the
House of Commons, so to behave themselves
in the making of new laws, as the better to
make way for the having their robes lined with
fur. They are men used to argue on both sides
of the question ; and if ordinary fees can
inspire them with very good reasons in a
very iU cause, that faculty exercised in Parlia
ments, where it may be better encouraged,

86 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
may prove ver^ inconvenient to those that
choose them.
And therefore, without arraigning a posses
sion, that it would be scandalous for a man
not to honour; one may, by a suspicion,
which is the more excusable when it is in
behalf of the people, imagine that the habit
of taking money for their opinion, may create
in some such a forgetfulness to distinguish,
that they may take it for their vote.
They are generaUy men who by a laborious
study hope to be advanced : they have it in
their eye as a reward for the toU they undergo.
This maketh them generaUy very slow, and
ill disposed (let the occasion never so much
require it) to wrestle with that soil where
preferment groweth.
Now if the supposition be in itself not un
reasonable, that it should happen to be
strengthened and confirmed by experience,
it wUl be very unnecessary to say any more
upon this Article, but leave it to the electors
to consider of it.
XV I cannot forbear to put in a caveat
against men tied to a Party.
There must in everybody be a leaning to
that sort of men who profess some principles,
more than to others who go upon a different

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 87
foundation ; but when a man is drowned in
a Party, plunged in it beyond his depth, he
runneth a great hazard of being upon ill
terms with good sense, or morality, if not with
both of them.
Such a man can hardly be called a free
agent, and for that reason is very unfit to
be trusted with the people's liberty, after
he hath given up his own.
It is said, that in some part of the Indies
they do so affect little feet, that they keep
them squeezed while they are children, so
that they stay at that small size after they
are grown men.
One may say something like this of men
locked up in a Party ; they put their thoughts
into such a narrow mould, that they can
never be enlarged nor released from their
first confinements.
Men in a party have liberty only for their
motto : in reality they are greater slaves than
anybody else would care to make them.
A party, even in times of peace, (though
against the original contract, and the BiU
of Rights) sets up and continues the exercise
cise of Martial law; once enrolled, the man
that quitteth, if they had their will, would
be hanged for a deserter.

88 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
They communicate anger to one another
by contagion and it may be said, that if too
much light dazzleth the eyesight, too much
heat doth not less weaken the judgment.
Heat reigneth in the fancy; and reason,
which is a colder faculty of the brain, taketh
more time to be heard, than the other will allow.
The heat of a party is like the burning of
a fever; and not a natural warmth, evenly
distributed to give life and vigor.
There was a time indeed when anger shewed
a good sign of honesty ; but that evidence
is very much weakened by instances we have
seen since the days of yore : and the pubhc
spirited choler hath been thrown off within
the time of memory, and lost almost all its
credit with some people, since they found
what governments thought fit to make their
so doing a step to their preferment.
A strong blustering wind seldom continues
long in one corner.
Some men knock loud only to be let in;
the bustle they make is animated by their
private interest. The outward blaze only is
for rehgion and liberty. The true lasting
fire, hke that of the vestals which never
went out, is an eagerness to get somewhat
for themselves.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 89
A House of Commons composed of such
men, would be more properly so many mer
chants incorporated in a regular company,
to make their particular adventures, than
men sent by the people to serve and repre
sent them.
There are some splenetic gentlemen who
confine their favourable opinion within so
narrow a compass, that they will not allow
it to any man that was not hanged in the
late reigns.1
Now by that rule one might expect they
should rescue themselves from the disadvan
tage of being now alive ; and by abdicating a
world so httle worthy of them, get a great
name to themselves, with the general satis
faction of all those they would leave behind
them. Amongst the many ill consequences of a
stated party, it is none of the least, that it
tempteth low and insignificant men to come
upon the stage, to expose themselves, and to
spoil business.
It turneth a cypher into a figure, such a one
as it is : a man in a party is able to make a
noise, let it be never so empty a sound.
1 I.e. the reigns of Charles II. and James II. ; the
' splenetic gentlemen ' are the Whigs. Halifax himself
studiously stood aloof from both parties.

90 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
A weak man is easily blown out of his small
senses, by being mustered into a Party ; he is
flattered tUl he liketh himself so weU, that
he taketh it extremely UI if he hath not an
employment. Nothing is more in fashion, than for men to
desire good places, and I doubt nothing is less
so than to deserve them.
From nobody to somebody is such a violent
stride, that nature, which hath the negative
voice, wiU not give its royal assent to it: so
that when insufficient men aim at being in
business, the worst of their enemies might
out of maUce to them pray for their prefer
ment. There could be no end, if one did not stop
tUl this theme had no more matter to furnish.
I wiU only say, nothing is more evident, than
that the good of the nation hath been sacrificed
to the animosities of the several contending
parties ; and without entering into the dispute
which of them are more or less in the right,
it is pretty sure, that whilst these opposite sets
of angry men are playing at foot-baU, they will
break aU the windows, and do more hurt than
their pretended zeal for the nation wiU ever
make amends for.
In short a man so engaged is retained before

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 91
the people take him for their Council ; he hath
such a reserve for his Party, that it is not ad
visable for those who choose him, to depend
upon his professions. AU Parties assuming
such a dispensing power, that by their sove
reign authority they cancel and dissolve any
act or promise that they do not afterwards
approve. These things considered, those who will
choose such men deserve whatever foUoweth.
XVI. Pretenders to exorbitant merit in the
late Revolution,1 are not without objections
against them, when they stand to serve in
Parliament. It would not only be a low, but
a criminal kind of envy, to deny a distinguish
ing justice to men who have been instrumental
and active, when the service of their country
required it. But there ought to be moderation
in men's claims, or else it is out of the power
of our poor island to satisfy them.
It is true, service of all kinds is grown much
dearer, like labourer's wages, which formerly
occasioned several statutes to regulate them.2
But now the men who only carry mortar to
1 Of 1688.
2 The Statute of Labourers, 1351, attempted to fix
wages which had risen after the Black Death; it was
followed by many others with a similar purpose, and all
were equally futile.

92 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
the building, when it is finished, think they are
iU dealt with if they are not made master-
workmen. They presently cry out, the original contract
is broken, if their merit is not rewarded, at
their own rate too.
Some wUl think there never ought to be an
end of their rewards ; when indifferent 1 judges
would perhaps be puzzled to find out the be
ginning of their merit.
They bring in such large biUs, that they must
be examined : some bounds must be put to
men's pretensions ; else the nation, which is to
pay the reckoning, wUl every way think it a
scurvy thing to be undone, whether it be by
being over-run by our enemies, or by the being
exhausted by our friends.
There ought therefore to be deductions where
they are reasonable, the better to justify the
paying what remaineth.
For example, if any of these passionate lovers
of the Protestant religion, should not think fit,
in their manner of hving, to give the least evi
dence of their morahty, their claims upon that
head might sure be struck off without any
injustice to them.
If there are any who set down great sums as
1 I.e. impartial.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 93
a reward due to their zeal for rescuing property
from the jaws of arbitrary power ; their preten
sions may fairly be rejected, if now they are so
far from shewing a care and tenderness of the
laws, that they look rather hke Council retained
on the other side.
It is no less strange, than I doubt it is true,
that some men should be so in love with their
dear mistress, Old England, with all her
wrinkles, as out of an heroic passion to swim
over to rescue her from being ravished ; and
when they have done the feat, the first thing
after enjoyment is, that they go about to
strangle her.
For the sake of true love, it is not fit that
such ungentle gallants should be too much
encouraged; and their arrogance for having
done weU at first, will have no right to be
excused, if their so doing ill at last doth not
make them a little more modest.
True merit, like a river, the deeper it is the
less noise it makes.
These loud proclaimers of their own deserts,
are not only to be suspected for their truth, but
the electors are to consider that such meri
torious men lay an assessment upon those that
choose them.
The public taxes are already heavy enough

without the addition of these private reckon
ings. It is therefore the safer way not to
employ men, who wUl expect more for their
wages than the mistaken Borough that sendeth
them up to Parliament could be sold for.
XVII.. With all due regard to the noblest of
callings, military officers are out of their true
element when they are misplaced in a House of
Commons. Things in this world ought to be weU suited.
There are some appearances so unnatural, that
men are convinced by them without any other
argument. The very habit in some cases, recommendeth
or giveth offence.
If the judges upon the bench should instead
of their furs, which signify gravity and bespeak
respect, be cloathed like the jockeys at New
market, or wear jack-boots and Steenkirks;
they would not in reality have less law, but
mankind would be so struck with this unusual
object, that it would be a great whUe before
they could think it possible to receive justice
from men so accoutered.
It is to some degree the same thing in this
case; such martial habits, Blue-coats, red
stockings, &c, make them look very unlike
grave senators. One would almost swear they

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 95
were creatures apart, and of a differing species
from the rest of the body.
In former times, when only the resiant shop
keeper was to represent his corporation (which
by the way is the law still at this day) the
military looks of one of these sons of Mars
would have stared the quaking Member down
again to his Borough.
Now the number of them is so increased,
that the peaceable part of the House may
lawfully swear they are in fear of their lives,
from such an awful appearance of men of war.
It maketh the room look like a Guardhouse
by such an ill-suited mixture. But this is only
the outside, the bark of the argument ; the root
goeth yet deeper against choosing such men,
whose talents ought to be otherwise appUed.
Their two capacities are so inconsistent, that
men's undertaking to serve both the cures,
wiU be the cause in a Uttle time that we
shaU neither have men of war, nor men of
business, good in their several kinds.
An officer is to give up his liberty to obey
orders ; and it is necessary to his caUing that
he should do so.
A member of ParUament is originaUy to be
tender of his own Uberty, that other men may
the better trust him with theirs.

96 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
An officer is to enable himself by his courage,
improved by skiU and experience, to support
the laws (if invaded) when they are made ; but
he is not supposed to be at leisure enough to
understand how they should be made.
A member of ParUament is to fiU his
thoughts with what may best conduce to the
CivU Administration ; which is enough to take
up the whole man, let him be never so much
raised above the ordinary level.
These two opposite qualifications, being
placed in one man, make him such an am
biguous divided creature, that he doth not
know how to move.
It is best to keep men within their proper
sphere ; few men have understanding enough
exactly to fill even one narrow circle, fewer are
able to fiU two ; especially when they are both
of so great compass and that they are so con
trary in their own natures.
The wages he hath as member,1 and those he
1 Originally the custom of paying members was uni
versal ; they were paid by their constituencies, not out of
the imperial exchequer, and towns not infrequently peti
tioned to be relieved of the duty of sending members to
Parliament on account of the burden which the necessity
of paying them involved ; the custom only rested on com
mon law, and was not enforced by statute. As member
ship of Parliament came to be regarded as an honour,
members were found willing to serve without payment,

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 97
receiveth as an officer, are paid for services that
are very differing; and in the doubt which of
them should be preferably performed, it is
likely the greater salary may direct him, without
the further inducements of complying most,
where he may expect most advantage by it.
In short, if his dependance is not very great,
it will make him a scurvy officer ; if it is great,
it wiU make him a scurvier member.
XVIII. Men under the scandal of being
thought private pensioners, are too fair a mark
to escape being considered, in reference to the
point in question.
In case of plain evidence, it is not to be sup
posed possible, that men convicted of such a
crime should ever again be elected.
The difficulty is in determining what is to be
done in case of suspicion.
There are suspicions so weU grounded, that
they may pretend to have the force of proofs,
provided the penalty goeth only to the forbearing
to trust, but not extending it so far as to punish.
There must be some things plain and express
to justify the latter, but circumstances may be
sufficient for the former: as where men have
and the custom became obsolete. Payment is usually
considered to have ceased in Elizabeth's reign, but
Halifax here implies that it was customary as late as
William III.'s reign.

98 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
had such sudden cures of their UI humours, and
opposition to the Court, that it is out of the
way of ordinary methods of recovery from such
distemper, which have a much slower progress;
it must naturally be imputed to some specific
that maketh such a quick alteration of the
whole mass of blood.1
Where men have raised their way of living,
without any visible means to support them in
it, a suspicion is justified, even by the example
of the law, which in cases of this kind, though
of an inferior nature, doth upon this foundation
not only raise inferences, but inflict punishments.
Where men are immoral, and scandalous in
their lives, and dispense familiarly with the
rules by which the world is governed, for the
better preserving the bonds of human society ;
it must be a confidence very iU placed, to con
clude it impossible for such men to yield to a
temptation weU offered and pursued; when,
the truth is, the habit of such Bons vivants,
1 The difficulty of dealing with ' placemen,' or those
who held pensions or offices at Court, of which much is
heard during the eighteenth century, was not satis
factorily settled until Rockingham's Act of 1782. The
acceptance of a place of profit under the Crown still
vacates a member's seat : indeed, two of these nominal
places of profit, the stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds
and Northstead Manor afford the only means of enabling
a member to resign his seat.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 99
which is the fashionable word, maketh a sus
picion so Ukely, that it is very hard not to
believe it to be true.
If there should be nothing but the general
report, even that is not to be neglected.
Common fame is the only liar that deserveth
to have some respect still reserved to it ; though
she teUeth many an untruth, she often hits
right, and most especially when she speaketh
ill of men.
Her credit hath sometimes been carried too
far, when it hath gone to the divesting men of
any thing of which they were possessed, with
out more express evidence to justify such a
proceeding. If there was a doubt whether there ever was
any corruption of this kind it would alter the
question ; but sure that will not bear the being
controverted. We are told, that Charles the fifth sent over
to England 1,200,000 crowns x to be distributed
amongst the leading men, to encourage them to
carry on elections.
Here was the Protestant rehgion to be
bought out for a valuable consideration accord-
1 Apparently the bullion estimated at £50,000, which
Philip brought over with him on his marriage to Mary in
1554.

loo SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
ing to law, though not according to Gospel,
which exalteth it above any price that can be
set on it.
Now, except we had reason to beheve that
the virtue of the world is improved since that
time, we can as little doubt that such tempta
tions may be offered, as that they wiU be
received. It will be owned, that there is to be a great
tenderness in suspecting ; but it must be aUowed
at the same time, that there ought not to be
less in trusting, where the people are so much
concerned ; especially, when the penalty on the
party suspected goeth no further than a sus
pension of that confidence, which it is necessary
to have in those who are to represent the nation
in Parliament.
I cannot omit the giving a caution against
admitting men to be chosen, who have places
of any value.
There needeth the less to be said on this
article, the truth of the proposition being sup
ported by such plain arguments.
Sure no man hath such a plentiful spring
of thought as that all that floweth from it
is too much to be appUed to the business of
Parliament. It is not less sure, that a Member of Parlia-

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT ior
ment, of aU others, ought not to be exempted
from the rule, that no man should serve two
masters. It doth so split a man's thoughts, that no
man can know how to make a fitting distribu
tion of them to two such differing capacities.
It exposeth men to be suspected, and tempted,
more than is convenient for the pubUc service,
or for the mutual good opinion of one another,
which there ought to be in such an assembly.
It either giveth a real dependance upon the
Government, which is inconsistent with the
necessity there is, that a member of Parliament
should be disengaged ; or at least it hath the
appearance of it, which maketh them not look
like freemen, though they should have virtue
enough to be so.
More reasons would lessen the weight of this
last, which is, that a bUl to this effect commonly
called the Self Denying Bill, passed even this
last House of Commons.1
1 I.e. the Place Bill, providing that no member should
accept any place of profit under the Crown on pain of
forfeiting his seat and being incapable of sitting again
in the same parliament, passed the Commons in 1693.
The Lords inserted the clause ' unless he be afterwards
again chosen to serve in the same parliament,' to which
the Commons agreed. The king, however, vetoed it, and
when it was re-introduced in 1694 it failed to pass the
Commons. — See Macaulay, ii. 4734, 497.

102 SOME CAUTIONS FOR CHOICE OF
A greater demonstration of the irresistible
strength of truth cannot possibly be given ; so
that a copy of that BUI in every County or
Borough, would hardly faU of discouraging
such pretenders from standing, or at least it
would prevent their success if their own
modesty should not restrain them from at
tempting it.
XX. If distinctions may be made upon
particular men, or remarks fixed upon their
votes in ParUament, they must be allowed
in relation to those gentlemen, who for reasons
best known to themselves thought fit to be
against the Triennial Bill.1
The liberty of opinion is the thing in the
world that ought least to be controUed, and
especiaUy in Parliament.
But as that is an undoubted assertion, it is
not less so, that when men sin against their own
hght, give a vote against their own thought,
they must not plead privilege of Parliament
against being arraigned for it by others, after
they are convicted of it by themselves.
There cannot be a man, who in his definition
of a House of Commons, will state it to be
1 Passed in 1694 : there was little opposition to it then,
but in the previous session it had been unexpectedly de
feated in the Commons. — Macaulay, ii. 473.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT 103
an assembly, that for the better redressing of
grievances the People feel, and for the better
furnishing such supplies as they can bear, is to
continue, if the King so pleaseth for his whole
reign. This could be as little intended, as to throw
aU into one hand, and to renounce the claim
to any liberty, but so much as the sovereign
authority would aUow.
It destroyeth the end of Parliaments, it
maketh use of the letter of the law to ex
tinguish the Ufe of it.
It is, in truth, some kind of disparagement
to so plain a thing, that so much has been said
and written upon it; and one may say, it is
such an affront to these gentlemen's under
standings to censure this vote only as a
mistake, that, as the Age goeth, it is less
discredit to them to caU it by its right
name; and if that is rightly understood by
those who are to choose them, I suppose they
will let them exercise their hberty of conscience
at home, and not make men their trustees, who
in this solemn instance have such an unwiUing-
ness to surrender.
It must be owned, that this Bill hath met
with very hard fortune, and yet that doth not
in the least diminish the value of it.

io4 SOME CAUTIONS
It had in it such a root of hfe, that it might
be said, it was not dead but sleeped ; and we
see that the last session, it was revived and
animated by the royal assent, when once fuUy
informed of the consequence, as weU as of the
justice of it.
In the mean time, after having told my
opinion, who ought not to be chosen :
If I should be asked, who ought to be, my
answer must be, choose EngUshmen; and when
I have said that, to deal honestly, I wUl not
undertake that they are easy to be found.1
1 A parting shot at the number of William III. Dutch
favourites.

IV
THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
[This pamphlet was written in 1712 by John
Arbuthnot (1667-1735), the doctor and wit of Queen
Anne's time and the friend of Swift, Pope, and
Gay. It has frequently been attributed to Swift,
and Scott printed it in his edition of Swift's works ;
it is possible that Swift had a hand in it, but Swift
himself1 says that Arbuthnot wrote it. It is one of
the most delightful pieces of ironical writing in the
language, and there are not wanting those who
maintain that it is as much d propos of politics to
day as it was nearly two centuries ago.]
There is now in the press, a curious piece,
entitled ¦^evSokoyla ttoXitikij ; or, The Art of
Political Lying : consisting of two volumes in
quarto. The proposals are, i. That, if the
author meets with suitable encouragement, he
intends to deliver the first volume to the sub
scribers by Hilary Term next. ii. The price of
both volumes wUl be, to the subscribers, four
teen shiUings, seven whereof are to be paid
down, and the other seven at the dehvery of
1 Journal to Stella. 12 Dec. 1712.
G I05

106 THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
the second volume, iii. Those that subscribe
for six, shaU have a seventh gratis; which
reduces the price to less than six shillings a
volume, iv. That the subscribers shall have
their names and places of abode printed at
length. For the encouragement of so useful
a work, it is thought fit the public should be
informed of the contents of the first volume,
by one who has with great care perused the
manuscript.
The Art op Political Lying.
The author, in his preface, makes some very
judicious reflections upon the original of arts
and sciences : that at first they consist of
scattered theorems and practices, which are
handed about among the masters, and only
revealed to the filii artis, tiU such time as
some great genius appears, who coUects these
disjointed propositions, and reduces them into
a regular system. That is the case of that
noble and useful art of Political Lying, which
in this last age having been enriched with
several new discoveries, ought not to he any
longer in rubbish and confusion, but may justly
claim a place in the Encyclopaedia, especiaUy
such as serves for a model of education for an

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING 107
able politician. That he proposes to himself
no smaU stock of fame in future ages, in being
the first who has undertaken this design ; and
for the same reason he hopes the imperfection
of his work will be excused. He invites all
persons who have any talents that way, or any
new discovery, to communicate their thoughts,
assuring them that honourable mention shaU be
made of them in his work.
The first Volume consists of Eleven Chapters.
In the first chapter of his exceUent treatise,
he reasons philosophicaUy concerning the nature
of the soul of man, and those quahties which
render it susceptible of lies. He supposes the
soul to be of the nature of a piano-cylindrical
speculum, or looking-glass ; that the plain side
was made by God Almighty, but that the devU
afterwards wrought the other into a cylindrical
figure. The plain side represents objects just
as they are ; and the cylindrical side, by the
rules of catoptrics, must needs represent true
objects false, and false objects true ; but the
cylindrical side being much the larger surface,
takes in a greater compass of visual rays. That
upon the cylindrical side of the soul of man
depends the whole art and success of pohtical
lying. The author, in this chapter, proceeds

108 THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
to reason upon the quahties of the mind: as
its pecuhar fondness of the malicious and mirac
ulous. The tendency of the soul toward the
malicious, springs from self-love, or a pleasure
to find mankind more wicked, base, or unfor
tunate, than ourselves. The design of the
miraculous proceeds from the inactivity of the
soul, or its incapacity to be moved or delighted
with anything that is vulgar or common.
The author having established the quahties
of the mind, upon which his art is founded,
he proceeds,
In his second chapter, to treat of the nature
of political lying ; which he defines to be, ' the
art of convincing the people of salutary false
hoods, for some good end.' He calls it an art
to distinguish it from that of teUing truth,
which does not seem to want art; but then
he would have this understood only as to the
invention, because there is indeed more art
necessary to convince the people of a salutary
truth, than a salutary falsehood. Then he
proceeds to prove, that there are salutary
falsehoods, of which he gives a great many
instances, both before and after the Revolu
tion ; and demonstrates plainly, that we could
not have carried on the war so long without
several of those salutary falsehoods. He gives

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING 109
rules to calculate the value of a political he, in
pounds, shiUings, and pence. By good, he
does not mean that which is absolutely so,
but what appears so to the artist, which is a
sufficient ground for him to proceed upon ; and
he distinguishes the good, as it commonly is,
into bonum utile, dulce, et honestum. He shows
you that there are political Ues of a mixed
nature, which include all the three in different
respects ; that the utile reigns generally about
the Exchange, the dulce and honestum at the
Westminster end of the town. One man
spreads a lie to sell or buy stock to greater
advantage ; a second, because it is honourable
to serve his party; and a third, because it is
sweet to gratify his revenge. Having explained
the several terms of his definition, he proceeds,
In his third chapter, to treat of the lawful
ness of political lying ; which he deduces from
its true and genuine principles, by inquiring
into the several rights, that mankind have to
truth. He shews that people have a right to
private truth from their neighbours, and eco
nomical truth from their own famUy ; that they
should not be abused by their wives, children,
and servants ; but that they have no right at
all to political truth ; that the people may as
well all pretend to be lords of manors, and

no THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
possess great estates, as to have truth told
them in matters of government. The author,
with great judgment, states the several shares
of mankind in this matter of truth, according
to their several capacities, dignities, and pro
fessions ; and shews you that chUdren have
hardly any share at aU; in consequence of
wliich, they have very seldom any truth told
them. It must be owned, that the author, in
this chapter, has some seeming difficulties to
answer, and texts of Scripture to explain.
The fourth chapter is whoUy employed in
this question, " Whether the right of coinage of
political lies be wholly in the government?"
The author, who is a true friend to Enghsh
Uberty, determines in the negative, and answers
all the arguments of the opposite party with
great acuteness : that as the government of
England has a mixture of democratical in it,
so the right of inventing and spreading pohtical
lies is partly in the people ; and their obstinate
adherence to this just privilege has been most
conspicuous, and shined with great lustre of
late years: that it happens very often, that
there are no other means left to the good
people of England to puU down a ministry
and government they are weary of, but by
exercising this their undoubted right : that

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING in
abundance of political lying is a sure sign of
true English liberty : that as ministers do some
times use tools to support their power, it is
but reasonable that the people should employ
the same weapon to defend themselves, and
puU them down.
In his fifth chapter, he divides pohtical lies
into several species and classes, and gives pre
cepts about the inventing, spreading, and pro
pagating the several sorts of them : he begins
with the rumores and libelli famosi, such as
concern the reputation of men in power ;
where he finds fault with the common mistake,
that takes notice only of one sort, viz. the
detractory or defamatory; whereas in truth
there are three sorts, the detractory, the addi-
tory, and the translatory. The additory gives
to a great man a larger share of reputation
than belongs to him, to enable him to serve
some good end or purpose. The detractory,
or defamatory, is a lie which takes from a
great man the reputation that justly belongs
to him, for fear he should use it to the detri
ment of the public. The translatory is a he,
that transfers the merit of a man's good action
to another, who is in himself more deserving;
or transfers the demerit of a bad action from
the true author to a person who is in himself

U2 THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
less deserving. He gives several instances of
very great strokes in aU the three kinds,
especially in the last, when it was necessary
for the good of the public, to bestow the
valour and conduct of one man upon another,
and that of many to one man : nay even, upon
a good occasion, a man may be robbed of his
victory by a person that did not command in
the action.1 The restoring and destroying the
pubUc may be ascribed to persons who had
no hand in either. The author exhorts all
gentlemen practitioners to exercise themselves
in the translatory, because the existence of the
things themselves being visible, and not de
manding any proof, there wants nothing to
be put upon the public, but a false author, or
a false cause; which is no great presumption
upon the credulity of mankind, to whom the
secret springs of things are for the most part
unknown. The author proceeds to give some precepts
as to the additory ; that when one ascribes any
thing to a person wliich does not belong to
him, the lie ought to be calculated not quite
1 Probably an allusion to General Webb's success at
Wynendal on 28 Sept. 1708. Webb's name was acci
dentally omitted in the gazette that described the action.
The Tories raised a great outcry over the matter, imput
ing the omission to Marlborough's jealousy.

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING 113
contradictory to his known qualities; for ex
ample one would not make the French King
present at a Protestant conventicle ; nor, like
Queen Elizabeth, restore the overplus of taxes
to his subjects. One would not bring in the
Emperor giving two months' pay in advance to
his troops; nor the Dutch paying more than
their quota. One would not make the same
person zealous for a standing army, and public
hberty ; x nor an atheist support the church,
nor a lewd fellow a reformer of manners ; nor
a hot-headed, crack-brained coxcomb forward
for a scheme of moderation. But, if it is
absolutely necessary that a person is to have
some good adventitious quality given him, the
author's precept is, that it should not be done
at first in extremo gradu. For example, they
should not make a covetous man give away aU
at once five thousand pounds in a charitable,
generous way; twenty or thirty pounds may
suffice at first. They should not introduce a
person of remarkable ingratitude to his bene
factors, rewarding a poor man for some good
office that was done him thirty years ago ; but
they may aUow him to acknowledge a service
1 A standing army was then thought to be incom
patible with public liberty, an idea fostered by Crom
well's rule and James II.'s endeavours to use the army to
render himself absolute.

114 THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
to a person, who is capable still to do him
another. A man, whose personal courage is
suspected, is not at first to drive whole squad
rons before him, but he may be aUowed the
merit of some squabble, or throwing a bottle at
his adversary's head.
It wiU not be allowed to make a great man,
that is a known despiser of religion, spend whole
days in his closet at his devotion ; but you may
with safety make him sit out public prayers
with decency. A great man, who has never
been known willingly to pay a just debt, ought
not all of a sudden, to be introduced making
restitutions of thousands he has cheated ; let it
suffice at first to pay twenty pounds to a friend,
who has lost his note.
He lays down the same rules in the detrac
tory or defamatory kind ; that they should not
be quite opposite to the qualities the persons are
supposed to have. Thus it will not be found
according to the sound rules of pseudology, to
report of a pious and reUgious Prince, that he
neglects his devotion, and would introduce
heresy; but you may report of a merciful
Prince, that he has pardoned a criminal, who
did not deserve it. You wiU be unsuccessful
if you give out of a great man, who is remark
able for his frugality for the pubUc, that he

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING u$
squanders away the nation's money; but you
may safely relate that he hoards it : you must
not affirm he took a bribe, but you may freely
censure him for being tardy in his payments;
because, though neither may be true, yet the
last is credible, the first not. Of an open-
hearted, generous minister, you are not to say,
that he was in an intrigue to betray his country ;
but you may affirm, with some probability, that
he was in an intrigue with a lady. He warns
all practitioners to take good heed to these pre
cepts ; for want of which, many of their Ues of
late have proved abortive or short-lived.
In the sixth chapter, he treats of the mirac
ulous ; by which he understands anything that
exceeds the common degrees of probabUity. In
respect to the people, it is divided into two
sorts, the to (poBepov or the to dv/moelSes, terri
fying lies, and animating or encouraging Ues;
both being extremely useful on their proper
occasions. Concerning the to <j>oBepov, he
gives several rules ; one of which is, that
terrible objects should not be too frequently
shewn to the people, lest they grow familiar.
He says, it is absolutely necessary that the
people of England should be frighted with the
French King and the Pretender once a-year;
but that the bears should be chained up again

1 1 6 THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
tiU that time twelvemonth. The want of observ
ing this so necessary a precept, in bringing out
the raw head and bloody bones upon every
trifling occasion, has produced great indifference
in the vulgar of late years. As to the animating
or encouraging lies, he gives the following rules
that they shall not far exceed the common
degrees of probability; that there should be
variety of them ; and the same lie not obsti
nately insisted upon : that the promissory or
prognosticating lies should not be on short days,
for fear the authors should have the shame and
confusion to see themselves speedily contra
dicted. He examines, by these rules, that well-
meant but unfortunate lie of the conquest of
France which continued near twenty years
together ; but at last, by being too obstinately
insisted upon, it was worn threadbare, and
became unsuccessful.
As to the to TepaTioSes, or the prodigious,
he has little to advise, but that their comets,
whales, and dragons should be sizeable; their
storms, tempests, and earth quakes without the
reach of a day's journey of a man and horse.
The seventh chapter is wholly taken up in
an inquiry, which of the two parties are the
greatest artists in pohtical lying. He owns,
that sometimes the one party, and sometimes

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING 117
the other is better beheved ; but that they have
both very good geniuses among them. He
attributes the ill success of either party to their
glutting the market, and retaihng too much of
a bad commodity at once : when there is too
great a quantity of worms, it is hard to catch
gudgeons. He proposes a scheme for the
recovery of the credit of any party, which
indeed seems to be somewhat chimerical, and
does not savour of that sound judgment the
author has shewn in the rest of the work. It
amounts to this, that the party should agree to
vent nothing but truth for three months to
gether, which wiU give them credit for six
months lying afterwards. He owns, that he
believes it almost impossible to find fit persons
to execute this scheme. Towards the end of
the chapter, he inveighs severely against the
foUy of parties retaining scoundrels, and men
of low genius, to retaU their lies ; such as most
of the present news-writers are ; who, except a
strong bent and inclination towards the profes
sion, seem to be wholly ignorant in the rules
of pseudology, and not at all qualified for so
weighty a trust.
In his next chapter, he treats of some extra
ordinary geniuses, who have appeared of late
years, especiaUy in their disposition towards

118 THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
the miraculous. He advises those hopeful
young men to turn their invention to the ser
vice of their country ; it being inglorious, at
this time, to employ their talent in prodigious
fox-chases, horse-courses, feats of activity in
driving of coaches, jumping, running, swaUow-
ing of peaches, pulhng out whole sets of teeth
to clean, etc., when their country stands in so
much need of their assistance.
The eighth chapter is a project for uniting
the several smaUer corporation of liars into
one society. It is too tedious to give a full
account of the whole scheme: what is most
remarkable is, that this society ought to
consist of the heads of each party; that no
lie is to pass current without their approba
tion, they being the best judges of the present
exigences, and what sorts of lies are de
manded ; that in such a corporation there
ought to be men of all professions, that
to -wpeirov, and the to evkoyov, that is,
decency and probability, may be observed as
much as possible; that, besides the persons
above mentioned, this society ought to consist
of the hopeful geniuses about the town (of
which there are great plenty to be picked
up in the several coffee houses,) traveUers,
virtuosoes, fox-hunters, jockeys, attorneys, old

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING rr9
seamen and soldiers out of the hospitals of
Greenwich and Chelsea; to this society so
constituted, ought to be committed the sole
management of lying ; that in their outer-
room there ought always to attend some
persons endowed with a great stock of cre
dulity, a generation that thrives mightily in
this soil and climate : he thinks a suflicient
number of them may be picked up anywhere
about the Exchange : these are to circulate
what the others coin ; for no man spreads
a lie with so good a grace as he that believes
it : that the rule of the society be, to invent
a lie, and sometimes two for every day ; in
the choice of which, great regard ought to
be had to the weather, and the season of
the year: your (j>oBepa, or terrifying lies, do
mighty well in November and December,
but not so weU in May and June, unless the
easterly winds reign : that it ought to be penal
for anybody to talk of anything but the he
of the day : that the Society is to maintain
a sufficient number of spies at Court, and
other places, to furnish hints and topics for
invention, and a general correspondence of
all the market-towns for circulating their
lies: that if anyone of the society were
observed to blush, or look out of coun-

120 THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
tenance, or want a necessary circumstance
in telling the Ue, he ought to be expeUed,
and declared incapable: besides the soaring
Ues, there ought to be a private committee
for whisperers, constituted of the ablest men
of the society. Here the author makes a
digression in praise of the Whig party, for
the right understanding and use of proof-
Ues. A proof-he is Uke a proof-charge for
a piece of ordnance, to try a standard cre-
duhty. Of such a nature he takes transub-
stantiation to be in the Church of Rome, a
proof article, which if anyone swaUows, they
are sure he wiU digest everything else ; there
fore the Whig party do wisely, to try the
creduhty of the people sometimes by swingers,
that they may be able to judge to what height
they may charge them afterwards. Towards
the end of this chapter, he warns the heads
of parties against believing their own hes,
which has proved of pernicious consequences
of late ; both a wise party, and a wise nation
having regulated their affairs upon lies of
their own invention. The causes of this he
supposes to be, too great a zeal and intense-
ness in the practice of this art, and a vehement
heat in mutual conversation, whereby they
persuade one another, that what they wish,

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING 121
and report to be true, is reaUy so : that all
parties have been subject to this misfortune.
The Jacobites have been constantly infested
with it; but the Whigs of late seemed even
to exceed them in this iU habit and weakness.
To this chapter the author subjoins a calendar
of lies proper for the several months of the
year. The ninth chapter treats of the celerity
and duration of Ues. As to the celerity of their
motion, the author says it is almost incredible :
he gives several instances of lies, that have
gone faster than a man can ride post: your
terrifying lies travel at a prodigious rate,
above ten mUes an hour : your whispers move
in a narrow vortex, but very swiftly. The
author says, it is impossible to explain several
phenomena in relation to the celerity of lies,
without the supposition of synchronism and
combination. As to the duration of Ues, he
says there are of all sorts, from hours and
days, to ages ; that there are some, which, like
insects, die and revive again in a different
form ; that good artists, like people who
build upon a short lease, will calculate the
duration of a lie surely to answer their pur
pose ; to last just as long, and no longer, than
the turn is served.

122 THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING
The tenth chapter treats of the character
istics of lies ; how to know when, where, and
by whom, invented. Your Dutch, English,
and French ware are amply distinguished
from one another ; an Exchange lie from one
coined at the other end of the town : great
judgment is to be shewn as to the place
where the species is intended to circulate:
very low and base coin wiU serve for Wapping :
there are several coffee-houses, that have
their particular stamps, which a judicious
practitioner may easily know. All your great
men have their proper phantateustics. The
author, says he, has attained, by study and
application, to so great a skiU in this matter,
that, bring him any lie, he can teU whose
image it bears so truly, as the great man
himself shaU not have the face to deny it.
The promissory lies of great men are known
by shouldering, hugging, squeezing, smiling,
bowing; and their lies in matter of fact, by
immoderate swearing.
He spends the whole eleventh chapter on
one simple question, Whether a lie is best
contradicted by truth, or by another lie ? The
author, says, that considering the large
extent of the cylindrical surface of the soul,
and the great propensity to beUeve lies in the

THE ART OF POLITICAL LYING 123
generality of mankind of late years, he thinks
the properest contradiction to a he, is another
he. For example; if it should be reported
that the Pretender was at London, one would
not contradict it by saying, he never was in
England ; but you must prove by eyewitnesses,
that he came no farther than Greenwich, and
then went back again. Thus if it be spread
about, that a great person were dying of
some disease, you must not say the truth,
that they are in health and never had such
a disease, but that they are slowly recovering
of it. So there was not long ago a gentleman,
who affirmed, that the treaty with France,
for bringing popery and slavery into England,
was signed the 15th of September ; to which
another answered very judiciously, not, by
opposing truth to his he, that there was no
such treaty ; but that, to his certain know
ledge, there were many things in that treaty
not yet adjusted.
[The account of the second volume of this
excellent treatise is reserved for another time.]

V
THE CRISIS
[This famous pamphlet was written by Richard
Steele in 1713, and on 18 March 1714 he was
expelled from the House of Commons, ostensibly
because he had written this pamphlet, really be
cause of his pronounced Whig views. The object
of the pamphlet was to show the dangers of the
Pretender succeeding to the throne, both to the
Protestant religion and pohtical liberty. Steele
knew that a serious attempt was preparing to
overthrow the Act of Succession. He addresses
the ' Crisis ' to the clergy of the church of England,
who were, as Swift said, almost Tory to a man.
But though Tory they hated Roman Catholicism
and the Pretender was known to be a bigoted
Catholic : thus though they had no love for the
house of Hanover they dreaded still more the
advent of a Roman Catholic prince.]
TO THE
CLERGY OF THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND.
Gentlemen,
It is with a just deference to your great
power and influence in this kingdom, that I
lay before you the following comment upon

THE CRISIS 125
the laws which regard the settlement of the
Imperial Crown of Great Britain. My pur
pose in addressing these matters to you, is
to conjure you, as Heaven has blessed you
with proper talents and opportunities, to
recommend them, in your writings and dis
courses, to your fellow-subjects.
In the character of pastors and teachers,
you have an almost irresistible power over
us of your congregations; and by the admir
able institution of our laws, the tenths of
our lands, now in your possession, are destined
to become the property of such others as
shaU by learning and virtue qualify themselves
to succeed you. These circumstances of
education and fortune place the minds of
the people, from age to age, under your
direction. As, therefore, it would be the
highest indiscretion in Ministers of State of
this kingdom to neglect the care of being
acceptable to you in their administration, so
it would be the greatest impiety in you to
inflame the people committed to your charge
with apprehensions of danger to you and
your constitution, from men innocent of any
such designs.
Give me leave, who have in all my words
and actions, from my youth upwards, main-

126 THE CRISIS
tained an inviolable respect to you and your
order, to observe to you that all the dissatis
factions which have been raised in the minds
of the people owe their rise to the cunning of
artful men, who have introduced the mention
of you and your interest, which are sacred
to all good men, to cover and sanctify their
own practices upon the affections of the people,
for ends very different from the promotion
of religion and virtue. Give me leave also
to take notice that these suggestions have
been favoured by some few unwary men
in holy orders, who have made the con
stitution of their own country a very little
part of their study, and yet made obedience
and government the frequent subjects of their
discourses. These men, from the pompous ideas of
imperial greatness, and submission] to absolute
emperors, which they imbibed in their earher
years, have from time to time inadvertently
uttered notions of power and obedience abhor
rent from the laws of this their native country.
I wiU take the further liberty to say, that
if the Acts of Parliament mentioned in the
foUowing treatise had been from time to time
put in a fair and clear light, and been carefully
recommended to the perusal of young gentle-

THE CRISIS 127
men in coUeges, with a preference to all other
civU institutions whatsoever, this kingdom
had not been in its present condition, but
the constitution would have had, in every
member the universities have sent into the
world ever since the Revolution, an advocate
for our rights and liberties.
There is one thing which deserves your most
serious consideration. You have bound your
selves, by the strongest engagements that
religion can lay upon men, to support that
succession which is the subject of the foUow
ing papers ; you have tied down your souls
by an oath to maintain it as it is settled in
the House of Hanover; nay, you have gone
much further than is usual in cases of this
nature, as you have personaUy abjured the
Pretender to this Crown, and that expressly,
without any equivocations or mental reserva
tions whatsoever, that is, without any possible
escapes, by which the subtlety of temporizing
casuists might hope to elude the force of
these solemn obligations. You know much
better than I do, whether the caUing God
to witness to the sincerity of our inten
tions in these cases, whether the swearing
upon the holy Evangelists in the most
solemn manner, whether the taking of

128 THE CRISIS
an oath before multitudes of feUow-subjects
and fellow-Christians in our pubUc courts of
justice, do not lay the greatest obUgations
that can be laid on the consciences of men.
This I am sure of, that if the body of a clergy
who considerately and voluntarily entered into
these engagements should be made use of as
instruments and examples to make the nation
break tlirough them, not only the succession to
our Crown, but the very essence of our religion,
is in danger. What a triumph would it furnish
to those evU men among us who are enemies
to your sacred order? What occasion would
it administer to atheists and unbelievers, to
say that Christianity is nothing else but an
outward show and pretence among the most
knowing of its professors? What could we
afterwards object to Jesuits? What would
be the scandal brought upon our holy
Church, which is at present the glory and
bulwark of the Reformation? How would
our present clergy appear in the eyes of their
posterity, and even to the successors of their
own order, under a Government introduced
md established by a conduct so directly oppo
site to aU the rules of honour and precepts
jf Christianity ?
As I always speak and think of your holy

THE CRISIS 129
order with the utmost deference and respect,
I do not insist upon this subject to insinuate
that there is such a disposition among your
venerable body, but to show how much your
own honour and the interest of religion is
concerned that there should be no cause given
for it.
Under colour of a zeal towards you, men
may sometimes act not only with impunity,
but popularity, what would render them, with
out that hypocrisy, insufferably odious to their
fellow-subjects. Under this pretence men may presume to
practise such arts for the destruction and dis
honour of their country as it would be impious
to make use of even for its glory and safety ;
men may do in the highest prosperity what it
would not be excusable to attempt under the
lowest necessity !
The laws of our country, the powers of the
legislature, the faith of nations, and the honour
of God may be too weak considerations to bear
up against the popular though groundless cry
of the Church. This fatal prepossession may
shelter men in raising the French name and
Roman Catholic interest in Great Britain, and
consequently in aU Europe.
It behoves you therefore, gentlemen, to con-

130 THE CRISIS
sider whether the cry of the Church's danger
may not at length become a truth ; and, as you
are men of sense and men of honour, to exert
yourselves in undeceiving the multitude, when
ever their affectionate concern for you may
prove fatal to themselves.
You are surrounded by a learned, wealthy,
and knowing gentry, who can distinguish your
merit, and do honour to your characters. They
know with what firmness as Englishmen, with
what self-denial as prelates, with what charity
as Christians, the Lords the Bishops, fathers of
the Church, have behaved themselves in the
public cause ; they know what contumelies the
rest of the clergy have undergone, what dis
countenance they have laboured under, what
prejudice they have suffered in their ministry,
who have adhered to the cause of truth ; but
it is certain that the face of things is now too
melancholy to bear any longer false appear
ances ; and common danger has united men,
who not long ago were artfully inflamed against
each other, into some regard of their common
safety. When the world is in this temper, those
of our pastors, whose exemplary lives and
charitable dispositions both adorn and advance
our holy religion, wiU be the objects of our

THE CRISIS 131
love and admiration; and those who pursue
the gratifications of pride, ambition and avarice,
under the sacred character of clergymen, wUl
not faU to be our contempt and derision.
Noise and wrath cannot always pass for
zeal; and if we see but little of the public
spirit of Englishmen or the charity of Chris
tians in others, it is certain we can feel but
little of the pleasure of love and gratitude, and
but faint emotions of respect and veneration in
ourselves. It will be an action worthy the ministers of
the Church of England to distinguish them
selves for the love of their country ; and, as we
have a religion that wants no assistance from
artifice or enlargement of secular power, but is
well supported by the wisdom and piety of its
preachers, and its own native truth, to let
mankind see that we have a clergy who are
of the people, obedient to the same laws, and
zealous not only of the supremacy and prero
gative of our princes, but of the liberties of
their fellow-subjects: this will make us who
are your flock burn with joy to see, and with
zeal to imitate, your hves and actions. It can
not be expected but that there will be, in so
great a body, light, superficial, vain, and am
bitious men, who, being untouched with the

132 ' THE CRISIS
sublime force of the Gospel, wiU think it then-
interest to insinuate jealousies between the
clergy and laity, in hopes to derive from their
order a veneration which they know they can
not deserve from their virtue. But while the
most worthy, conspicuous, learned, and power
ful of your sacred function are moved by the
noble and generous incentives of doing good to
the souls of men, we wUl not doubt of seeing
by your ministry the love of our country, due
regard for our laws and liberties, and resent
ment for the abuse of truth revive in the hearts
of men. And as there are no instruments
under heaven so capable of this great work,
that God would make you such to this divided
nation is the hearty prayer of,
Gentlemen,
Your most dutiful and most obedient
humble servant,
Richard Steele.

VI
SOME FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
[This tract was written by Swift in 1714; he
had come over from Ireland in order to reconcile
the differences between Harley and Bolingbroke
and to persuade his party to reconcile itself to
the Elector of Hanover. Himself no Jacobite he
had little sympathy with, and apparently no know
ledge of, the Jacobite intrigues of Bolingbroke and
his followers. Probably for this reason he failed
in his attempt, retired to Berkshire, where he
wrote this pamphlet. It should be read in connec
tion with Steele's ' Crisis ' on the one side and
Bolingbroke's ' State of Parties ' on the other.]
Whatever may be thought or practised by
profound politicians, they wiU hardly be able
to convince the reasonable part of mankind,
that the most plain, short, easy, safe, and law
ful way to any good end, is not more eligible,
than one directly contrary to some or all of
these qualities. I have been frequently assured
by great ministers, that politics were nothing
but common sense ; which, as it was the only
true thing they spoke, so it was the only
thing they could have wished I should not

134 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
believe. God has given the bulk of mankind
a capacity to understand reason, when it is
fairly offered ; and by reason they would easUy
be governed, if it were left to their choice.
Those princes in all ages, who were most dis
tinguished for their mysterious skiU in govern
ment, found by the event, that they had UI
consulted their own quiet, or the ease and
happiness of their people; nor has posterity
remembered them with honour: such as
Lysander and Philip among the Greeks,
Tiberius in Rome, Pope Alexander the
Sixth and his son Caesar Borgia, Queen
Catherine de Medicis, PhUip the Second of
Spain, with many others. Nor are examples
less frequent of ministers, famed for men of
great intrigue, whose politics have produced
little more than murmurings, factions, and dis
contents, which usually terminated in the dis
grace and ruin of the authors.
I can recoUect but three occasions in a
state, where the talents of such men may be
thought necessary; I mean in a state where
the prince is obeyed and loved by his subjects :
first, in the negotiation of the peace ; secondly,
in adjusting the interests of our own country,
with those of the nations round us, watching
the several motions of our neighbours and

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 135
allies, and preserving a due balance among
them : lastly, in the management of parties
and factions at home. In the first of these
cases I have often heard it observed, that
plain good sense, and a firm adherence to
the point, have proved more effectual than
aU those arts, which I remember a great
foreign minister used in contempt to caU the
spirit of negotiating. In the second case,
much wisdom, and a thorough knowledge
of affairs both foreign and domestic, are
certainly required: after which, I know no
talents necessary beside method and skUl in
the common forms of business. In the last
case, which is that of managing parties, there
seems indeed to be more occasion for employ
ing this gift of the lower politics, whenever
the tide runs high against the court and
ministry; which seldom happens under any
tolerable administration, whUe the true interest
of the nation is pursued. But, here in Eng
land, (for I do not pretend to establish maxims
of government in general,) while the prince
and ministry, the clergy, the majority of
landed men, and the bulk of the people,
appear to have the same views and the same
principles, it is not obvious to me, how those
at the helm can have many opportunities of

136 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
showing their skiU in mystery and refinement,
beside what themselves think fit to create.
I have been assured by men long practised
in business, that the secrets of court are
much fewer than we generaUy suppose; and
I hold it for the greatest secret of the court,
that they are so : because the first springs
of great events, Uke those of rivers, are so
often mean and so Uttle, that in decency they
ought to be hid : and therefore ministers are
so wise to leave their proceedings to be ac
counted for by reasoners at a distance, who
often mould them into systems, that do not
only go down very weU in the coffeehouse,
but are supplies for pamphlets in the present
age, and may probably furnish materials for
memoirs and histories in the next.
It is true, indeed, that even those who are
very near the court, and are supposed to have
a large share in the -management of public
matters, are apt to deduce wrong consequences,
by reasoning upon the causes and motives
of those actions, wherein themselves are em
ployed. A great minister puts you a case,
and asks your opinion, but conceals an essential
circumstance, upon which the whole weight
of the matter turns ; then he despises your
understanding for counselling him no better,

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 137
and concludes he ought to trust entirely to
his own wisdom. Thus he grows to abound
in secrets and reserves, even towards those
with whom he ought to act in the greatest
confidence and concert : and thus the world
is brought to judge, that whatever be the
issue and event, it was all foreseen, contrived,
and brought to pass by some masterstroke of
his poUtics.
I could produce innumerable instances, from
my own memory and observation, of events
imputed to the profound skUl and address
of a minister,1 which in reality were either
the mere effects of negUgence, weakness,
humour, passion, or pride ; or, at best, but
the natural course of things left to themselves.
During this very session of parhament, a
most ingenious gentleman, who has much
credit with those in power, would needs have
it, that, in the late dissensions at court,2 which
grew too high to be any longer a secret, the
whole matter was carried with the utmost
dexterity on one side, and with manifest ill
conduct on the other. To prove this, he made
use of the most plausible topics, drawn from
1 Probably a reference to Robert Harley, Lord Oxford,
who was practically prime minister from 1710 till Boling
broke procured his dismissal on 27 July 1714.
a I.e. between Oxford and Bolingbroke. I

138 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
the nature and disposition of the several persons
concerned, as weU as of her majesty ; aU whicli
he knows as much of as any man : and gave me
a detaU of the whole with such an appearance
of prohabiUty, as, committed to writing, would
pass for an admirable piece of secret history.
Yet I am at the same time convinced by the
strongest reasons, that the issue of those dis
sensions, as to the part they had in the court
and the House of Lords, was partly owing to
very different causes, and partly to the situation
of affairs, whence, in that conjuncture, they
could not easUy terminate otherwise than they
did, whatever unhappy consequences they may
have for the future.
In like manner, I have heard a physician
pronounce with great gravity, that he had
cured so many patients of maUgnant fevers, and
as many more of the small-pox; whereas, in
truth, nine parts in ten of those who recovered
owed their lives to the strength of nature and
a good constitution, while such a one happened
to be their doctor.
But, whUe it is so difficult to learn the
springs and motives of some facts, and so easy
to forget the circumstances of others, it is no
wonder they should be so grossly misrepresented
to the pubhc by curious inquisitive heads, who

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 139
proceed altogether upon conjectures, and, in
reasoning upon affairs of state, are sure to be
mistaken by searching too deep. And as I
have known this to be the frequent error of
many others, so I am sure it has been per
petually mine, whenever I have attempted to
discover the causes of political events by re
finement and conjecture; which, I must ac
knowledge, has very much abated my veneration
for what they call arcana imperii; whereof I
dare pronounce, that the fewer there are in any
administration, it is just so much the better.
What I have hitherto said has by no means
been intended to detract from the quahties
requisite in those who are trusted with the
admimstration of public affairs; on the con
trary, I know no station of life, where great
abilities and virtues of all kinds are so highly
necessary, and where the want of any is so
quickly or universaUy felt. A great minister
has no virtue, for which the pubUc may not be
the better ; nor any defect, by which the pubhc
is not certainly a sufferer. I have known more
than once or twice within four years past, an
omission, in appearance very small, prove al
most fatal to a whole scheme, and very hardly
retrieved. It is not always sufficient for the
person at the helm that he is intrepid in his

140 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
nature, free from any tincture of avarice or cor
ruption, and that he has great natural and
acquired abihties.
I never thought the reputation of much
secrecy was a character of any advantage to a
minister, because it put aU other men upon
their guard to be as secret as he, and was con
sequently the occasion that persons and things
were always misrepresented to him: because
Ukewise too great an affectation of secrecy is
usuaUy thought to be attended with those little
intrigues and refinements, which, among the
vulgar, denominate a man a great pohtician;
but among others, is apt, whether deservedly or
not, to acquire the opinion of cunning : a talent,
which differs as much from the true knowledge
of government, as that of an attorney from an
able lawyer. Neither indeed am I altogether
convinced, that this habit of multiplying secrets
may not be carried on so far as to stop that
communication which is necessary, in some
degree, among aU who have any considerable
part in the management of public affairs : be
cause I have observed the inconveniences aris
ing from a want of love between those who
were to give directions, to have been of as ill
consequence as any that could happen from the
discovery of secrets. I suppose, when a buUd-

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 141
ing is to be erected, the model may be the
contrivance only of one head; and it is suffi
cient that the under-workmen be ordered to
cut stones into certain shapes, and place them
in certain positions : but the several master-
buUders must have some general knowledge of
the design, without which they can give no
orders at all. And, indeed, I do not know a
greater mark of an able minister, than that of
rightly adapting the several faculties of men ;
nor is anything more to be lamented, than the
impracticableness of doing this in any great
degree, under our present circumstances ; while
so many shut themselves out by adhering to a
faction, and while the court is enslaved to the
impatience of others, who desire to sell their
vote or their interest as dear as they can. But
whether this has not been submitted to more
than was necessary, whether it has not been
dangerous in the example, and pernicious in
the practice, I will leave to the inquiry of those
who can better determine.
It may be matter of no little admiration to con
sider, in some lights, the state of affairs among
us for four years past. The queen, finding her
self and the majority of her kingdom grown
weary of the avarice and insolence, the mis
taken politics, and destructive principles of her

142 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
former ministers,1 calls to the service of the
public another set of men, who, by confession
of their enemies, had equal abUities at least
with their predecessors ; whose interest made it
necessary for them (although their inchnations
had been otherwise) to act upon those maxims
which were most agreeable to the constitution
in church and state : whose birth and patri
monies gave them weight in the nation; and
who (I speak of those who were to have the
chief part in affairs) had long lived under the
strictest bonds of friendship : with aU these
advantages, supported by a vast majority of the
landed interest, and the inferior clergy almost
( to a man, we have several times seen the
present administration in the greatest distress,
and very near the brink of ruin, together with
the cause of the church and monarchy com
mitted to their charge ; neither does it appear
to me at the minute I am now writing, that
their power or duration are upon any tolerable
foot of security : which I do not so much im
pute to the address and industry of their
enemies, as to some faUures among themselves,
which I think have been fuU as visible in then-
causes as their effects.
1 I.e. the Whigs : this is of course the view of a pro
nounced Tory.

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 143
Nothing has given me greater indignation
than to behold a ministry, who came in with
the advantages I have represented, acting ever
since upon the defensive in the House of Lords,
with a majority on their side ; and, instead of
calling others to account, as it was reasonably
expected, misspending their time, and losing
many opportunities of doing good, because a
strugghng faction kept them continuaUy in play.
This courage among the adversaries of the court
was inspired into them by various incidents, for
every one of which I think the ministers, or (if
that was the case) the minister1 alone is to
answer. For, first, that race of pohticians, who, in
the cant phrase, are caUed the whi/msicals,2 was
never so numerous, or at least so active, as it '
has been since the great change at court ; many
of those who pretended whoUy to be in with
the principles upon which her majesty and her
new servants proceeded, either absenting them
selves with the utmost indifference, in those con
junctures whereon the whole cause depended, or
siding directly with the enemy.
I very weU remember, when this ministry
1 Oxford.
2 The most moderate section of the Tories, who carried
their moderation so far as frequently to coalesce with the
Whigs.

144 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
was not above a year old, there was a Uttle
murmuring among such as are caUed the higher
Tories or churchmen, that quicker progress was
not made in removing those of the discontented
party out of employments. I remember, like
wise, the reasonings upon this matter were
various, even among many who were aUowed
to know a good deal of the inside of the court ;
some supposed the queen was at first prevailed
upon to make that great change, with no other
view than that of acting for the future upon
a moderating scheme, in order to reconcUe both
parties ; and I beheve there might possibly
have been some grounds for this supposition.
Others conceived the employments were left
undisposed of, in order to keep ahve the hopes
of many more impatient candidates than ever
could be gratified. This has since been looked
on as a very high strain of politics, and to have
succeeded accordingly ; because it is the opinion
of many, that the numerous pretenders to places
would never have been kept in order, if aU
expectation had been cut off. Others were
yet more refined ; and thought it neither wise
nor safe wholly to extinguish all opposition
from the other side ; because, in the nature of
things, it was absolutely necessary that there
^should be parties in an English parliament;

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 145
and a faction already odious to the people
might be suffered to continue with less danger
than any new one that could arise. To con
firm this, it was said, that the majority in the
House of Commons was too great on the side
of the high-church, and began to form them
selves into a body, (by the name of the October
Club,)1 in order to put the ministry under
subjection. Lastly, the danger of introducing
too great a number of unexperienced men at
once into office, was urged as an irrefragable
reason for making changes by slow degrees.
To discard an able officer from an employment,
or part of a commission, where the revenue
or trade were concerned, for no other reason
but differing in some principles of government,
might be of terrible consequence.
However, it is certain that none of these
excuses were able to pass among men, who
argued only from the principles of general reason.
For, first, they looked upon all schemes of
comprehension to be as visionary and impossible
in the state as in the church. Secondly, while
the spirit raised by the trial of Dr SachevereU 2
1 An association of the extreme Tories ; in 1711 Defoe
published a ' Secret History of the October Club.'
2 Henry SachevereU, who is described by Mr Lecky as
' an insolent and hot-headed man without learning,
literary ability, or real piety,' on 5 Nov. 1709 preached

146 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
continued in motion, men were not so keen
upon coming in themselves, as to see their
enemies out, and deprived of aU assistance to
do mischief: and it is urged farther, that this
general ambition of hunting after places grew
chiefly from seeing them so long undisposed
of, and from too general an encouragement
by promises to aU, who were thought capable
of doing either good or hurt. Thirdly^ the fear
of creating another party, in case the present
faction were whoUy subdued, was, in the
opinion of plain men, and in regard to the
situation of our affairs, too great a sacrifice of
the nation's safety to the genius of pohtics;
considering how much was to be done, and
how little time might probably be aUowed.
Besides, the division of a House of Commons
into court and country parties, which was the
evU they seemed to apprehend, could never be
dangerous to a good ministry, who had the
true interest and constitution of their country
at heart ; as for the apprehension of too great
a majority in the House of Commons, it ap-
in St Paul's before the Lord Mayor a sermon in which he
inveighed against toleration, insisted on the doctrine of
absolute non-resistance, and declared the church was in
danger. The House of Commons unwisely determined to
impeach SachevereU. The House of Lords voted him
guilty, but the prosecution raised a storm of opposition
which finally drove the Whigs from power.

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 147
peared to be so vain, that, upon some points
of importance, the court was hardly able to
procure one. And the October Club, which
appeared so formidable at first to some poli
ticians, proved in the sequel to be the chief
support of those who suspected them. It was
likewise very well known that the greatest
part of those men, whom the former ministry
left in possession of employments, were loudly
charged with insufficiency or corruption, over
and above their obnoxious tenets in religion
and government; so that it would have been
a matter of some difficulty to make a worse
choice : beside that the plea for keeping men
of factious principles in employment upon the
score of their abUities, was thought to be ex
tended a little too far, and construed to take
in all employments whatsoever, although many
of them required no more abUities than would
serve to qualify a gentleman-usher at court : x
so that this last excuse for the very slow steps
made in disarming the adversaries ofthe crown,
was allowed indeed to have more plausibihty,
but less truth, than any of the former.
I do not here pretend to condemn the counsels
1 The distinction between permanent and political
offices was not at that time established ; officials who are
now permanent then sometimes went out of office with
their party, and vice versA.

148 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
or actions of the present ministry : their safety
and interest are visibly united with those of
the public, they are persons of unquestionable
abilities, altogether unsuspected of avarice or
corruption, and have the advantage to be
farther recommended by the dread and hatred
of the opposite faction. However, it is mani
fest, that the zeal of their friends has been
cooling toward them for above two years past :
they been have frequently deserted or distressed
upon the most pressing occasions, and very
near giving up in despair : their characters
have often been treated with the utmost bar
barity and injustice, in both houses, by scurril
ous and enraged orators; while their nearest
friends, and even those who must have a share
in their disgrace, never offered a word in their
vindication. When I examine with myself what occasions
the ministry may have given for this coldness,
inconstancy, and discontent among their friends,
I at the same time recollect the various con
jectures, reasonings, and suspicions, which have
run so freely for three years past, concerning
the designs of the court : I do not only mean
such conjectures as are born in a coffeehouse,
or invented by the malice of a party ; but also
the conclusions (however mistaken) of wise and

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 149
good men, whose quality and station fitted
them to understand the reason of pubUc pro
ceedings, and in whose power it lay to recom
mend or disgrace an administration to the
people. I must therefore take the boldness to
assert, that all these discontents, how ruinous
soever they may prove in the consequences,
have most unnecessarUy arisen from the want
of a due communication and concert. Every
man must have a Ught sufficient for the length
of the way he is appointed to go : there is a
degree of confidence due to all stations : and a
petty constable wiU neither act cheerfully nor
wisely, without that share of it which properly
belongs to him : although the mainspring of
a watch be out of sight, there is an intermediate
communication between it and the smaUest
wheel, or else no useful motion could be per
formed. This reserved mysterious way of act
ing upon points, where there appeared not the
least occasion for it, and towards persons,
who, at least in right of their post, expected a
more open treatment, was imputed to some
hidden design, which every man conjectured to
be the very thing he was most afraid of. Those
who professed the height of what is called
the church principle, suspected that a compre
hension was intended wherein the moderate

150 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
men on both sides might be equaUy employed.
Others went farther, and dreaded such a com
prehension, as directly tending to bring the
old-exploded principles and persons once more
into play. Again, some affected to be uneasy
about the succession, and seemed to think
there was a view of introducing that person,
whatever he is, who pretends to claim the
crown by inheritance.1 Others, especially of
late, surmised, on the contrary, that the de
mands of the House of Hanover were indus
triously fomented by some in power, without
the privity of the  or  . Now,
although these accusations were too incon
sistent 2 to be aU of them true, yet they were
maUciously suffered to pass, and thereby took
off much of that popularity, of which those at
the helm stood in need, to support them under
the difficulties of a long perplexing negotia
tion, a daUy addition of public debts, and an
exhausted treasury.
But the effects of this mystical manner of

1 That there was such a design is beyond doubt,
though Swift was doubtless ignorant of it.
2 The accusations were inconsistent, but so was the
policy of the Government ; the extreme Tories suspected
Harley of some scheme of comprehension, while the
moderate Tories suspected Bolingbroke of Jacobite
intrigues.

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 151
proceeding did not end here : for the late dis
sensions between the great men at court (which
have been, for some time past, the public enter
tainment of every coffeehouse) are said to have
arisen from the same fountain; while, on one
side, very great reserve, and certainly very
great resentment on the other, if we may be
heve general report (for I pretend to know no
farther) have inflamed animosities to such a
height, as to make all reconcUement impractic
able. Supposing this to be true, it may serve
for a great lesson of hunuliation to mankind, to
behold the habits and passions of men, other
wise highly accomplished, triumphing over
interest, friendship, honour, and their own per
sonal safety, as well as that of their country,
and probably of a most gracious princess, who
has entrusted it to them. A ship's crew quar
reling in a storm, or while their enemies are
within gunshot, is but a faint idea of this fatal
infatuation : of which, although it be hard to
say enough, some people may think perhaps I
have already said too much.
Since this unhappy incident, the desertion of
friends, and loss of reputation, have been so
great, that I do not see how the ministers
could have continued many weeks in their
stations, if their opposers of aU kinds had

152 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
agreed about the methods by which they
should be ruined: and their preservation
hitherto seems to resemble his, who had
two poisons given him together of contrary
operations. It may seem very impertinent, in one of my
level, to point out to those, who sit at the
helm, what course they ought to steer. I
know enough of courts to be sensible how
mean an opinion great ministers have of most
men's understandings : to a degree, that, in
any other science, would be caUed the grossest
pedantry. However, unless I offer my senti
ments in this point, aU I have hitherto said
wUl be to no purpose.
The general wishes and desires of a people
are perhaps more obvious to other men than
to ministers of state. — There are two points of
the highest importance, wherein a very great
majority of the kingdom appear perfectly
hearty and unanimous. First, that the church
of England should be preserved entire in all
her rights, powers, and privUeges ; all doctrines
relating to government discouraged, wliich she
condemns ; aU schisms, sects, and heresies dis
countenanced, and kept under due subjection,
as far as consists with the lenity of our con
stitution ; her open enemies (among whom I

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 153
include at least dissenters of aU denominations)
not trusted with the smallest degree of civU
or military power ; and her secret adversaries,
under the names of Whigs, low church, repub
licans, moderation-men, and the like, receive
no marks of favour from the crown, but what
they should deserve by a sincere reformation.
Had this point been steadUy pursued in aU
its parts, for three years past, and asserted as
the avowed resolution of the court, there must
probably have been an end of faction, which
has been able, ever since, with so much vigour
to disturb and insult the administration. I
know very well, that some refiners pretend to
argue for the usefulness of parties in such a
government as ours ; I have said something of
this already, and have heard a great many idle
wise topics1 upon the subject. But I shaU
not argue that matter at present : I suppose if
a man think it necessary to play with a serpent,
he wiU choose one of a kind that is least mis
chievous ; otherwise, although it appears to be
crushed, it may have life enough to sting him
to death. So, I think it is not safe tampering
with the present faction, at least in this junc
ture : first, because their principles and prac
tices have been already very dangerous to the
1 = Arguments. K

154 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
constitution in church and state: secondly,
because they are highly irritated with the loss
of their power, full of venom and vengeance,
and prepared to execute every thing that rage
or mahce can suggest : but principally, because
they have prevaUed, by misrepresentations, and
other artifices, to make the successor look upon
them as the only persons he can trust: upon
which account they cannot be too soon or too
much disabled : neither wiU England ever be
safe from the attempts of this wicked confeder
acy, untU their strength and interests shaU be
so far reduced, that for the future it shaU not
be in the power of the crown, although in con
junction with any rich and factious body of
men, to choose an UI majority in the House of
Commons. One step very necessary to this great work
will be, to regulate the army, and chiefly those
troops which, in thefr turns, have the care of
her majesty's person ; who are most of them
fitter , to guard a prince under a high court
of justice, than seated on the throne. The
pecuhar hand of Providence has hitherto
preserved her majesty, encompassed, whether
sleeping or traveUing, by her enemies : but
since rehgion teaches us, that Providence ought
not to be tempted, it is iU venturing to trust

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 155
that precious hfe any longer to those who, by
their public behaviour and discourse, discover
their impatience to see it at an end ; that they
may have liberty to be the instruments of glut
ting at once the revenge of their patrons and
their own. It should be weU remembered,
what a satisfaction these gentlemen (after the
example of their betters) were so sanguine to ex
press upon the queen's last iUness at Windsor,
and what threatenings they used of refusing to
obey their general, in case that illness had
proved fatal. Nor do I think it a want of
charity to suspect, that, in such an evil day,
an enraged faction would be highly pleased
with the power of the sword, and with great
connivance leave it so long unsheathed, untU
they were got rid of their most formidable
adversaries.1 In the mean time, it must be a
very melancholy prospect, that whenever it shaU
please God to visit us with this calamity, those
who are paid to be defenders of the civU power
wiU stand ready for any acts of violence, that
a junto, composed of the greatest enemies to
the constitution, shall think fit to enjoin them.
1 1 he Tories were always suspicious of Marlborough's
designs, and hinted that he might imitate Cromwell.
" In the latter years of Queen Anne the shadow of
Cromwell fell darkly across the path of Marlborough "
(Lecky, i. 149).

156 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
The other point of great importance is, the
security of the Protestant succession in the
House of Hanover ; not from any partiahty to
that Ulustrious house, farther than as it has
had the honour to mingle with the blood royal
of England, and is the nearest branch of our
regal hne reformed from popery. This point
has one advantage over the former, that both
parties profess to desire the same blessing for
posterity, but differ about the means of secur
ing it. Whence it has come to pass, that the
Protestant succession, in appearance the desire
of the whole nation, has proved the greatest
topic of slander, jealousy, suspicion, and dis
content. I have been so curious to ask several acquaint
ances among the opposite party, whether they,
or their leaders, did really suspect there had
been ever any design in the ministry to weaken
the succession in favour of the Pretender, or
of any other person whatsoever. Some of them
freely answered in the negative : others were of
the same opinion, but added, they did not know
what might be done in time, and upon further
provocations : others again seemed to believe
the affirmative, but could never produce any
plausible grounds for their belief. I have
Ukewise been assured by a person of some

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 157
consequence, that, during a very near and
constant familiarity with the great men at
court for four years past, he never could ob
serve, even in those hours of conversation
where there is usually least restraint, that one
word ever passed among them to show a dis
like to the present settlement : although they
would sometimes lament, that the false repre
sentations of theirs, and the kingdom's enemies,
had made some impressions in the mind of the
successor. As to my own circle of acquaint
ance, I can safely affirm that, excepting those
who are nonjurors by profession, I have not met
with above two persons who appeared to have
any scruples concerning the present limitation
of the crown. I .therefore think it may very
impartially be pronounced, that the number
of those, who wish to see the son of the ab
dicated prince upon the throne, is altogether
inconsiderable. And farther, I beheve it will
be found, that there are none who so much
dread any attempt he shaU make for the
recovery of his imagined rights as the Roman
Catholics of England ; who love their freedom
and properties too well to desire his entrance
by a French army, and a field of blood ; who
must continue upon the same foot, if he changes
his rehgion, and must expect to be the first

158 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
and greatest sufferers, if he should happen
to fail.
As to the person of this nominal prince,
he lies under all manner of disadvantages ;
the vulgar imagine him to have been a child
imposed upon the nation by the fraudulent
zeal of his parents, and their bigoted coun-
seUors ; who took special care, against aU
the rules of common pohcy, to educate him
in their hateful superstition, sucked in with
his milk, and confirmed in his manhood, too
strongly to be now shaken by Mr Lesley,1 and
a counterfeit conversion will be too gross to
pass upon the kingdom, after that we have
seen and suffered from the Uke practice in
his father. He is likewise said to be of
weak inteUectuals, and an unsound consti
tution; he was treated contemptibly enough
by the young princes of France, even during
the war; is now wholly neglected by that
crown, and driven to live in exile 2 upon, a
1 Charles Leslie (1650-1722) an eminent non-juror and
pamphleteer. In 1710 his attacks on the Whigs elicited
an order for his apprehension and he fled to St Germains.
He advised the Pretender not to dissemble his religion
but to profess himself open to conviction. In Aug. 1713
he went to Bar-le-Duc where the Pretender gave him a.
place in his household and promised to listen to his argu
ments in favour of the Anglican church.
2 I.e. at Bar-le-Duc.

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 159
small exhibition; he is utterly unknown in
England, which he left in the cradle; his
father's friends are most of them dead, the
rest antiquated or poor. Six and twenty
years have almost past since the Revolution,
and the bulk of those who are now most in
action either at court, in parhament, or public
offices, were then boys at school or the univer
sities, and look upon that great change to
have happened during a period of time for
which they are not accountable. The logic
of the highest Tories is now, that this was
the establishment they found, as soon as they
arrived at a capacity of judging; that they
had no hand in turning out the late king,
and therefore had no crime to answer for, if
it were any; that the inheritance to the
crown is fixed in pursuance of laws made
ever since their remembrance, by which aU
papists are excluded, and they have no other
rule to go by ; that they wiU no more dispute
King William the Third's title than King
William the First's ; since they must have
recourse to history for both; that they have
been instructed in the doctrines of passive
obedience, non-resistance, and hereditary right,
and find them aU necessary for preserving
the present estabhshment in church and state,

160 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
and for continuing the succession in the house
of Hanover, and must in their own opinion
renounce all those doctrines by setting up
any other title to the crown. This, I say,
seems to be the political creed of all the
high principled men I have for some time met
with of forty years old and under ; which,
although I do not pretend to justify in every
part, yet I am sure it sets the Protestant suc
cession upon a much firmer foundation, than aU
the indigested schemes of those who profess to
act upon what they caU Revolution principles.1
Neither should it perhaps be soon forgotten,
that, during the greatest licentiousness of the
press, while the sacred character of the queen
was every day insulted in factious papers and
baUads, not the least reflecting insinuation ever
appeared against the Hanover family, whatever
occasion was offered to intemperate pens, by
the rashness or indiscretion of one or two
ministers from thence.
From all these considerations, I must there
fore lay it down as an incontestable truth,
that the succession to these kingdoms in the
illustrious house of Hanover is as firmly
secured as the nature of the thing can pos-
1 It was somewhat on these principles that Bolingbroke
subsequently strove to re-construct the Tory party.

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 161
sibly admit ; by the oaths of all those who are
entrusted with any office, by the very principles
of those who are termed the high church,
by the general inclinations of the people, by
the insignificancy of that person who claims
it from inheritance, and the little assistance
he can expect either from princes abroad, or
adherents at home.
However, since the virulent opposers of the
queen and her administration have so far pre-
vaUed by their emissaries at the court of
Hanover, and by their practices upon one or
two ignorant unmannerly messengers1 from
thence, as to make the elector desire some
farther security, and send over a memorial here
to that end ; the great question is, how to give
reasonable satisfaction to his highness, and
(what is infinitely of greater consequence) at
the same time consult the honour and safety of
the queen, whose quiet possession is of much
more consequence to us of the present age, than
his reversion. The substance of his memorial,
if I retain it right, is, to desire that some one
of his family might hve in England, with such
a maintenance as is usual to those of the royal
blood, and that certain titles should be conferred
1 I.e. Bothmar and Robethon, Hanoverian envoys,
who were in close alliance with the Whigs.

1 62 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
upon the rest, according to ancient custom.
The memorial does not specify which of the
famUy should be invited to reside here ; and if
it had, I beheve, however, her majesty would
have looked upon it as a circumstance left to
her own choice.
But, as all this is most manifestly unneces
sary in itself, and only in compUance with the
mistaken doubts of a presumptive heir; so
the nation would (to speak in the language
of Mr Steel) expect, that her majesty should
be made perfectly easy from that side for the
future ; no more to be alarmed with appre
hensions of visits, or dreams of writs, where
she has not thought fit to give any invita
tion. The nation would likewise expect, that
there should be an end of aU private com
merce between that court, and the leaders of
a party here ; and that his electoral highness
should declare himself entirely satisfied with aU
her majesty's proceedings, her treaties of peace
and commerce, her aUiances abroad, her choice
of ministers at home, and particularly in her
most gracious condescensions to his request:
that he would upon aU proper occasions, and
in the most pubhc manner, discover his utter
dislike of factious persons and principles, but
especially of that party, which, under the pre-

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 163
tence or shelter of his protection, has so long
disquieted the kingdom: and lastly, that he
would acknowledge the goodness of the queen,
and justice of the nation, in so fully securing
the succession to his family.
It is indeed a problem which I could never
comprehend, why the court of Hanover, who \
have all along thought themselves so perfectly
secure in the affections, the principles, and the
professions of the low church party, should
not have endeavoured, according to the usual
politics of princes, to gain over those who are
represented as their enemies ; since these sup
posed enemies had made so many advances,
were in possession of all the power, had framed
the very settlement to which that Ulustrious
family owes its claim ; had aU of them abjured
the Pretender; were now employed in the
great offices of state, and composed a majority
in both houses of parliament. Not to mention,
that the queen herself, with the bulk of the
landed gentry and commonaUty throughout the
kingdom, were of the number. This, one
would think, might be a strength sufficient not
only to obstruct; but to bestow a succession :
and since the presumed heir could not but be
perfectly secure of the other party, whose
greatest avowed grievance was the pretended

1 64 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
danger of his future rights ; it must therefore
surely have been worth his while, to have made
at least one step toward cultivating a fair cor
respondence with the power in possession.
Neither could those, who are called his friends,
have blamed him, or with the least decency
enter into any engagements for defeating his
title. But why might not the reasons of this pro
ceeding in the elector be directly contrary to
what is commonly imagined? Methinks I
could endeavour to believe, that his highness
is thoroughly acquainted with both parties ; is
convinced, that no true member of the church
of England can easily be shaken in his prin
ciples of loyalty, or forget the obhgation of an
oath, by any provocation. That these are
therefore the people he intends to rely upon,
and keeps only fair with the others, from a true
notion he has of their doctrines, which prompt
them to forget their duty upon every motive of
interest or ambition. If this conjecture be
right, his highness cannot sure but entertain
a very high esteem of such ministers, who
continue to act under the dread and appear
ance of a successor's utmost displeasure, and
the threats of an enraged faction, whom he is
supposed alone to favour, and to be guided

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 165
entirely in his judgment of British affairs and
persons by their opinions.
But to return from this digression : the pre
sence of that infant prince among us could not,
I think, in any sort, be inconsistent with the
safety of the queen ; he would be in no danger
of being corrupted in his principles, or exposed
in his person by vicious companions ; he could
be at the head of no factious clubs and cabals,
nor be attended by a hired rabble, which his
flatterers might represent as popularity. He
would have none of that impatience which the
frailty of human nature gives to expecting
heirs. There would be no pretence for men
to make their court, by affecting German modes
and refinements in dress or behaviour: nor
would there be any occasion of insinuating to
him how much more his levee was frequented
than the antechamber of St James's. Add to
all this, the advantages of being educated in
our rehgion, laws, language, manners, nature of
government, each so very different from those
he would leave behind. By wliich hkewise he
might be highly useful to his father, if that
prince should happen to survive her majesty.
The late King Wilham, who, after his mar
riage with the Lady Mary of England, could
have no probable expectation of the crown.

1 66 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
and very Uttle even of being a queen's husband,
(the Duke of York having a young wife,) was
no stranger to our language or manners, and
went often to the chapel of his princess ; which
I observe the rather, because I could heartily
wish the Uke disposition were in another court,
and because it may be disagreeable to a prince
to take up new doctrines on a sudden, or speak
to his subjects by an interpreter.
An Ul-natured or inquisitive man may still,
perhaps, desire to press the question farther, by
asking what is to be done, in case it should so
happen, that this malevolent working party
at home has credit enough with the court of
Hanover to continue the suspicion, jealousy,
and uneasiness there, against the queen and her
ministry; to make such demands be stiU in
sisted on, as are by no means thought proper
to be complied with ; and in the mean time to
stand at arm's length with her majesty, and in
close conjunction with those who oppose her.
I take the answer to be easy : in aU contests,
the safest way is to put those we dispute with
as much in the wrong as we can. When her
majesty shaU have offered such, or the like
concessions, as I have above mentioned, in
order to remove those scruples artificiaUy raised
in the mind of the expectant heir, and to divide

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 167
him from that faction by which he is supposed
to have been misled ; she has done as much as
any prince can do, and more than any other
would probably do in her case; and will be
justified before God and man, whatever be the
event. The equitable part of those who now
side against the court wUl probably be more
temperate ; and if a due dispatch be made in
placing the civil and mihtary power in the
hands of such as wish well to the constitution,
it cannot be any way for the quiet or interest of
a successor to gratify so small a faction, as will
probably then remain, at the expense of a much
more numerous and considerable part of his
subjects. Neither do I see how the principles
of such a party, either in religion or govern
ment, wiU prove very agreeable, because I
think Luther and Calvin1 seemed to have
differed as much as any two among the re
formers : and because a German prince wiU
probably be suspicious of those who think they
can never depress the prerogative enough.
But supposing, once for all, as far as possible,
that the elector should utterly refuse to be
upon any terms of confidence with the present
ministry, and aU others of their principles, as
1 The elector was a Lutheran, and Swift implies that
the Low Church party in England were Calvinist.

1 68 FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE
enemies to him and the succession ; nor easy
with the queen herself, but upon such con
ditions as will not be thought consistent with
her safety and honour; and continue to place
all his hopes and trust in the discontented
party; I think it were humbly to be wished,
that whenever the succession shall take place,
the alterations intended by the new prince
should be made by himself, and not by his
deputies: because I am of opinion, that the
clause empowering the successor to appoint a
latent, unlimited number, additional to the
seven regents named in the act, went upon a
supposition that the secret committee would be
of such, whose enmity and contrary principles
disposed them to confound the rest. King
WiUiam, whose title was much more con
troverted than that of her majesty's successor
can ever probably be, did, for several years,
leave the admimstration of the kingdom in the
hands of lords justices, during the height of a
war, and whUe the abdicated prince himself
was frequently attempting an invasion : whence
one might imagine, that the regents appointed
by parhament, upon the demise of the crown,
would be able to keep the peace during an
absence of a few weeks without any coUeagues.
However, I am pretty confident that the only

PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS 169
reason, why a power was given of choosing
dormant viceroys, was to take away all pre
tence of a necessity to invite over any of the
family here, during her majesty's Ufe. So that
I do not well apprehend what arguments the
elector can use to insist upon both.
To conclude : the only way of securing the
constitution in church and state, and conse
quently this very Protestant succession itself,
will be by lessening the power of our domestic
adversaries as much as can possibly consist
with the lenity of our government ; and if this
be not speedily done, it wUl be easy to point
where the nation is to fix the blame : for we
are well assured, that since the account her
majesty received of the cabals, the triumphs,
the insolent behaviour of the whole faction
during her late Ulness at Windsor, she has been
as willing to see them deprived of all power
to do mischief, as any of her most zealous and
loyal subjects can desire.

VII
THE STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
ACCESSION OF GEORGE I
[This pamphlet was written by Henry St John,
Viscount Bolingbroke, about 1730. During Queen
Anne's reign he had been the leader of those high
Tories who would have preferred the succession of
the Pretender to that of George I. With that ob
ject in view he succeeded in ousting the moderate
Harley from office, but Bolingbroke had been
Prime Minister for only four days when the Queen
died, and no plan for the accession of James III.
had been worked out. In fear of attainder Boling
broke soon after fled to France, but was sub
sequently allowed to return. He then set to work
to reconstruct the Tory party, accepting the
Hanoverian succession as a fait accompli. His
object in this pamphlet is to clear his party and
particularly himself from the suspicion of having
entertained Jacobite designs, and in order to do
this he has no scruples as to the necessity of truth.
But it is interesting to see how completely he
adopts the views advocated by Swift in 1714 in the
preceding pamphlet.] l
I perceive by yours that my discourse of the
character and conduct of a Patriot King,2 in
that article which relates to party, has not
1 See Introduction, p. 19. 2 lb., p. 20.
I70

STATE OF PARTIES 171
entirely falsified your expectations. You ex
pected, from some things that I remember to
have said to you in conversation, and others
that have fallen on that occasion from my pen,
a more particular apphcation of those general
reasonings to the present time, and to the state
of parties, from the late king's1 accession to the
throne. The subject is dehcate enough, and
yet I shall speak upon it what truth exacts
from me, with the utmost frankness : for I
know aU our parties too weU to esteem any ;
and I am too old, and too resigned to my fate,
to want or to fear any.
Whatever anecdotes you have been told, for
you are too young to have seen the passages of
the times I am going to mention, and what
ever prepossessions you have had, take these
facts for undoubted truths.: that there was no
design on foot during the last years of Queen
Anne's reign to set aside the succession of the
house of Hanover, and to place the crown on
the head of the pretender to it ; 2 nor any
1 George I.
'* This statement belies Bolingbroke's pretence of
speaking 'what truth exacts'; it is beyond doubt
that there was such a design, that Bolingbroke himself
was its prime mover, and that only the sudden death
of Queen Anne prevented a serious attempt to carry it
out. See Macpherson, Original Papers, ii. 366-7 ; Lock-
hart Papers, i. 412, 413 ; but to admit it at this juncture
would have been fatal to Bolingbroke's object.

172 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
party formed for this purpose at the time of
the death of that princess, whose memory I
honour and therefore feel a just indignation at
the irreverence with which we have seen it
treated. If such a design had been on foot
during that time, there were moments when
the execution of it would not have been diffi
cult, or dangerous enough, to have stopped
men of the most moderate resolution. Neither
could a design of that nature have been carried
on so long, tho' it was not carried into exe
cution, without leaving some traces, which
would have appeared when such strict inquisi
tions were made ; when the papers of so many
of the queen's servants were seized, and even her
own papers, even those she had sealed up to be
burnt after her death were exposed to so much
indecent inspection. But laying aside aU argu
ments of the probable kind, I deny the fact
absolutely : and I have the better title to
expect credit, because it could not be true
without my knowledge, or at least suspicion
of it ; and because even they who beheved it,
for aU who asserted it did not beUeve it, had
no proof to produce, nor have to this hour,
but vain surmises ; nor any authority to rest
upon, but the clamour of party.
That there were particular men, who corre-

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 173
sponded indirectly and directly too with the
pretender, and with others for his service ;
that these men professed themselves to be
zealous in it, and made large promises, and
raised some faint hopes, I cannot doubt ;
tho' this was unknown to me at that time,
or at least I knew it not with the same cer
tainty and in the same detail that I have
known it since. But if this were done by
some who were in the queen's service, it was
done too by some who were out of it,1 and I
think with httle sincerity by either.
It may well seem strange to one who carries
in his breast a heart like yours, that men of
any rank, and especiaUy of the highest, should
hold a conduct so false, so dangerous, always
of uncertain event, and often, as it was in the
case here mentioned, upon remote contingen
cies, and such as they themselves think the
least probable. Even I think it strange, who
have been much longer mingled in a corrupt
world, and who have seen many more ex
amples of the folly, of the cunning, and the
perfidy of mankind. A great regard to wealth,
and a total contempt of virtue, are sentiments
1 E.g. Marlborough, who was in correspondence with
the Courts of Hanover and St Germains at the same
time.

174 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
very nearly aUied: and they must possess the
whole souls of men whom they can determine
to such infamous duplicity, to such double
treachery. In fact they do so. One is so
afraid of losing his fortune, that he lays in
claims to secure it, perhaps to augment it,
on all sides, and to prevent even imaginary
dangers. Another values so Uttle the inward
testimony of a good conscience, or the future
reproaches of those he has deceived, that he
scruples not to take engagements for a time to
come that he has no design to keep ; if they
may serve as expedients to facUitate, in any
small degree, the success of an immediate
project. All this was done at the time, on the
occasion, and by the persons I intend. But
the scheme of defeating the Protestant succes
sion was so far from being laid by the queen
and her ministers,1 and such a resolution was
so far from being taken, that the very men I
speak of, when they were pressed by the other
side, that is from VersaiUes and St Germains,
to be more particular, and to come into a
closer concert, declined both, and gave the
most evasive answers.
1 Queen Anne of course had nothing to do with the
Jacobite designs, and the statement about her ministers
is true if applied to Harley.

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 175
A Uttle before, or about the time of the
queen's death, some other persons, who figured
afterwards in the rebeUion,1 entered in good
earnest into those engagements, as I beUeve ;
for I do not know exactly the date of them.
But whenever they took them, they took them
as single men. They could answer for no
party to back them. They might flatter them
selves with hopes and dreams like Pompey, if
Uttle men and little things may be compared
with great, of legions ready to rise at the
stamp of their feet.2 But they had no assur
ance, no nor grounds to expect any troops,
except those of the highlands, whose disposi
tion in general was known to every man, but
whose insurrection without the concurrence of
other insurrections, and other troops, was
deemed, even by those that made them take
arms afterwards, not a strength but a weak
ness, ruin to the poor people, and ruin to the
cause. In a word these men were so truly
single in their engagements, and their measures
were so unripe for action when the resolution
of acting immediately was taken by them, that
1 E.g. The Earl of Mar.
2 In the year 49 B.C., just before the outbreak of the
war between Csesar and Pompey, the latter asserted that
he had only to stamp his foot to cover the ground with
armed men. See Mommsen, iv. 371.

176 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
I am persuaded they durst not communicate
their design to any one man of consequence
that served at that time with them. What
persuades me of it is this : one man, whom
they thought hkely to inchne to them on
several accounts, they attempted indirectly and
at a great distance: they came no nearer to
the point with him, neither then, that is
just before the queen's death, nor afterwards.
They had indeed no encouragement to do it ;
for upon this hint and another circumstance
which fell in, both he and others took several
occasions to declare that tho' they would
serve the queen faithfully and exclusively of
ail other regards or engagements to her last
breath, yet after her decease they would ac
knowledge the prince on whom the succession
devolved by law, and to which they had sworn,
and no other. This declaration would have
been that of the far greatest number of the
same party, and would have been stuck to by
them, if the passions and private interests of
another party had not prevailed over the true
interest of a new family that was going to
mount the throne. You may ask me now, and
the question wiU not be at aU improper, how
it came to pass, if the queen and her ministers
had no design to defeat this succession, that so

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 177
much suspicion of it prevaUed, that so great
an alarm was taken, and so great a clamour
raised ? I might answer you very shortly and
very truly, by the strange conduct of a first
minister,1 by the contests about the negotia
tions of the peace, and by the arts of a party.
The minds of some ministers are like
the sanctum sanctorum of a temple I have
read of somewhere : before it a great curtain
was solemnly drawn ; within it nothing was
to be seen but a confused group of miss-shapen,
and imperfect forms, heads without bodies,
bodies without heads and the like. To develop
the most complicated cases, and to decide in
the most doubtful, has been the talent of great
ministers : it is that of others to perplex the
most simple, and to be puzzled by the plainest.
No man was more desirous of power than
the minister here intended : and he had a
competent share of cunning to wriggle himself
into it: but then his part was over, and no
man was more at a loss how to employ it.
The ends he proposed to himself, he saw for
the most part darkly and indistinctly : and
if he saw them a little better, he still made
use of means disproportionate to them. That
1 Harley : the following paragraph is a severe, but not
altogether inaccurate, characterisation of that minister.

178 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
private correspondence with the queen, which
produced the change of ministry in 1710,
was begun with him whilst he was secretary
of state, and was continued thro' him during
the two years that intervened between his
leaving the court, and his return to it. This
gave him the sole confidence of the queen,
put him more absolutely at the head of the
party that came into power, and invested
him with all the authority that a first minister
could have in those days, and before any
man could presume to rival in that rank, and
in this kingdom, the rank of the ancient
mayors of the palace in France.1 The tories,
with whom and by whom he had risen, ex
pected much from him. Their expectations
were Ul-answered : and I think that such
management as he employed would not have
hindered them long from breaking from him, if
new things had not fallen in, to engage their
whole attention, and to divert their passions.
The foolish prosecution of Sacheverel2 had
carried party-rage to the height, and the
late change of the ministry had confirmed it
1 Bolingbroke insinuates that Walpole, the prime
minister at the date at which he was writing, was like a
mayor of the palace, and the king by implication a
roi faindant.
2 See pp. 145, 146.

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 179
there. These circumstances, and many others
relative to them, which I omit, would have
made it impossible, if there had been honesty
and wisdom enough to desire it, to bring
about a coalition of the bulk of the tories
and whigs at the latter end of this reign : as
it had been brought about a few years before
under the administration of my lord Marl
borough and my lord Godolphin, who broke
it soon and before it had time to cement, by
making such an use of it, as I am unable to
account for even at this hour. The two parties
were in truth become factious, in the strict
sense of the word. I was of one, and I
own the guilt ; which no man of the other
would have a good grace to deny. In this
respect they were alike ; but here was the
difference : one was weU united, well con
ducted, and determined to their future, as
well as their present objects. Not one of
these advantages attended the other. The
minister had evidently no bottom to rest his
administration upon, but that of the party,
at the head of which he came into power :
if he had gained their confidence, instead
of creating even wantonly, if I may say so, a
distrust of himself in them, it is certain he
might have determined them to every national

180 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
interest during the queen's time, and after
her death. But this was above his concep
tion as well as his talents. He meant to
keep power as long as he could, by the
little arts by which he had got into it ; he
thought that he should be able to compound
for himself in all events, and cared little
what became of his party, his mistress, or
the nation. That this was the whole of his
scheme appeared sufficiently in the course of
his administration ; was then seen by some,
and has been since acknowledged by all
people. For this purpose he coaxed and
persecuted whigs, he flattered and disap
pointed tories ; and supported by a thousand
little tricks his tottering administration. To
the tory party he held out the peace, as an
cera when aU they expected should be done
for them, and when they should be placed
in such fulness of power and such strength
of party, that it would be more the interest of
the successor to be well with them, than theirs
to be well with him. Such expressions were
often used, and others of like import:
and I believe these oracular speeches were
interpreted, as oracles used to be, according
as every man's inchnations led him.
The contests that soon followed, by the

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 181
violent opposition to the negotiations of peace,
did the good hinted at above to the minister,
and enabled him to amuse and banter his party
a httle longer. But they did great, and in
some respects irreparable, mischief to Great
Britain, and to aU Europe. One part of the
mischief they did at home is proper to be men
tioned here. They dipped the house of Hanover
in our party-quarrels unseasonably, I presume
to think, and unpopularly : for tho' the contest
was maintained by two parties that pretended
equally to have the national interest at heart,
yet the national interest was so plainly on one
side of the question, and the other side was so
plainly partial, at the expense of this interest,
to the emperor, the princes of the empire, and
the Dutch in particular; that a successor to
the crown, who was himself a prince of Ger
many, should have preserved in good policy,
for this very reason, the appearance at least of
some neutrality. The means employed openly
to break the queen's measures were indecent
and unjustifiable : those employed secretly, and
meditated to be employed, were worse. The
ministers of Hanover, whose conduct I may
censure the more freely because the late king
did not approve it all, took so remarkable a
share in the first, that they might be, and they

1 82 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
were, suspected of having some in the others.
This had a very bad effect, which was improved
by men in the two extremes. The whigs desired
nothmg more than to have it thought that the
successor was theirs, if I may repeat an insolent
expression which was used at that time : the
notion did them honour, and tho' it could give
no colour, it gave some strength to their opposi
tion. The Jacobites insinuated industriously
the same thing ; and represented that the estab
lishment of the house of Hanover would be the
estabUshment of the whig party, and that the
interests of Great Britain would be constantly
sacrificed to foreign interests, and her wealth
drained to support them under that famUy. I
leave you to judge what ingression such exag
gerations must find, on such occasion, and in
such a ferment. I do not think they deter
mined men to Jacobitism. I know they did
not; but I know that they dis-inchned men
from the succession, and made many who re
solved to submit to it, submit to it rather as a
necessary evil, than as an eligible good.
This was, to the best of my observation, and
knowledge, the state of one party. An absurd
one it was, and the consequences of it were
foreseen, foretold, and pressed upon the minister

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 183
at the time, but always without effect, and
sometimes without any answers. He had some
private intrigue for himself at Hanover : so he
had at Bar.1 He was the bubble of one in the
end : the pretender was so of the other. But
his whole management in the mean time was
contrived to keep up a kind of general indeter-
mination in the party about the succession;
which made a man of great temper once say to
him with passion, that 'he believed no other
minister at the head of a powerful party would
not be better at Hanover, if he did not mean to
be worse there.'
The state of the other party was this. The
whigs had appeared zealous for the Protestant
succession from the time when king William pro
posed it, after the death of the duke of Glou
cester.2 The tories voted for it then, and the acts
that were judged necessary to secure it, some
of them at least, were promoted by them. Yet
they were not thought, nor did they affect as
the others did, to be thought extremely fond of
it. King WUliam did not come into this
1 One of the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht was
that the Pretender should be expelled from France, and
he then established his court at Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine.
2 The husband of Princess (afterwards Queen) Anne.

184 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
measure, till he found, upon trial, that there
was no other safe and practicable : and the
tories had an air of coming into it for no other
reason. Besides which, it is certain that there
was at that time a much greater leaven of
Jacobitism in the tory-lump, than at the time
spoken of here.
Now thus far the whigs acted like a national
party, who thought that their religion and
liberty could be secured by no other expedient,
and therefore adhered to this settlement of
the crown with distinguished zeal. But this
national party degenerated soon into faction ;
that is, the national interest became soon a
secondary and subservient motive, and the
cause of the succession was supported more
for the sake of the party or faction, than for
the sake of the nation ; and with views that
went more directly to the establishment of
their own administration, than to a sohd
settlement of the present royal family. This
appeared, evidently enough, to those whom
noise and show could not impose on, in the
latter end of the queen's reign, and plain be
yond dispute to all mankind, after her decease.
The art of the whigs was to blend, as un-
distinguishably as they could, aU their party-
interests with those of the succession ; and

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 185
they made the same factious use of the sup
posed danger of it, as the Tories had endea
voured to make some time before of the
supposed danger of the church. As no man
is reputed a friend to Christianity beyond the
Alps and the Pyrenees, who does not acknow
ledge the papal supremacy, so here no man
was to be reputed a friend to the Protestant
succession who was not ready to acknowledge
their supremacy. The interest of the present
royal famUy" was to succeed without opposition
and risk, and to come to the throne in a calm.
It was. the interest of a faction that they should
come to it in a storm. Accordingly the whigs
were very near putting in execution some of
the wUdest projects of insurrections and re
beUion, under pretence of securing what there
was not sufficient disposition, nor any prepara
tion at all made to obstruct. Happily for the
pubhc these designs proved abortive. They
were too weU known to have succeeded, but
they might have had, and they would have
had, most fatal consequences. The storm, that
was not raised to disturb and endanger the
late king's accession, was only deferred. To
a party, who meant nothmg less than engross
ing the whole power of the government and
the whole wealth of the nation under the
M

1 86 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
successor, a storm, in which every other man
should be driven from him, was too necessary,
not to be conjured up at any rate ; and it
was so immediately after the late king's ac
cession. He came to the throne easUy, and
quietly, and took possession of the kingdom
with as Uttle trouble, as he could have ex
pected if he had been not only the queen's
successor, but her son. The whole nation
submitted cheerfuUy to his government, and
the queen's servants discharged the duty of
their offices, whilst he continued them in their
offices, in such a manner as to merit his appro
bation. This was signified to some of them,
to the secretaries in particular, in the strongest
terms, and according to his majesty's express
order, before the whole council of state. He
might I think, I thought then that he ought,
and every man except the earl of 0  d,1 who
beheved or had a mind to make others believe
that his influence would be great in the new
reign, expected that he would have given his
principal confidence and the principal power
of the administration to the whigs : but it
was scarce possible to expect, that he would
immediately let loose the whole fury of party,
suffer the queen's servants, who had surely
1 Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford.

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 187
been guilty of no crime against him or the
state, to be so bitterly persecuted ; and pro
scribe in effect every man in the country who
did not bear the name of whig. Princes have
often forgot, on their accession to a throne,
even personal injuries received in party quar
rels : and the saying of Lewis XII. of France,
in answer to those who would have persuaded
him to show severity to La TremouUle, is very
deservedly famous. 'God forbid,' said he,
' that Lewis XII. should revenge the quarrels
of the duke of Orleans.' 1 Other princes, who
have fought their way to the throne, have not
only exercised clemency, but shown favour to
those who had stood in arms against them :
and here again I might quote the example of
another king of France, that of Henry IV.
But to take an example in our own country,
look back to the restoration, consider aU that
passed from the year 1641 to the year 1660, and
then compare the measures that King Charles
the second was advised to pursue for the estab
lishment of his government in the circumstances
of that time, with those which the late king
was advised, and prevaUed on, against his
opinion, inclination, and first resolution, to
1 He was Duke of Orleans before he came to the
throne.

188 STATE OF PARTIES AT THE
pursue, in the circumstances I have just
mentioned. I leave the conclusion to the
candour and good sense of every impartial
reader. To these measures of unexpected violence
alone must it be ascribed, that the pretender
had any party for him of strength sufficient
to appear and act. These measures alone pro
duced the troubles that followed, and dyed
the royal ermines of a prince, in no way
sanguinary, in blood. I am far from excusing
one party, for suffering another to drive them
into rebelhon. I wish I could forget it myself.
But there are two observations on that event,
which I cannot refuse myself to make. One is,
that the very manner in which this rebellion
was begun shews abundantly that it was a
start of passion, a sudden phrenzy of men
transported by their resentment, and nothing
less x than the execution of a design long pre
meditated and prepared. The other is, that
few examples are to be found in history,
perhaps none, of what happened on this
occasion, when the same men, in the same

1 Ordinary use makes ' nothing less ' equivalent to
' nothing but ' ; this interpretation would make the pas
sage meaningless, and the real sense is that nothing was
less the execution of a design than the rebellion.

ACCESSION OF GEORGE I 189
country, and in the compass of the same
year, were ready to rise in arms against one
prince without any national cause; and then
provoked, by the violence of their councUs,
the opposite faction to rise in actual rebellion
against the successor.
These are some of the effects of maintaining
in a nation, and of governing by
I might descend into a detaU of
many fatal consequences that have followed,
from the first false step which was taken,
when the present settlement was so avowedly
made on the narrow bottom of party. But
I consider that this discourse is growing into
length ; that I have had and shall have occa
sion to mention some of these consequences
elsewhere; and that your own reflections on
what has been said, wiU more than supply
what I omit to say in this place. Let me
therefore conclude by repeating, that division
has caused aU the mischief we lament, that
union can alone retrieve it, and that a great
advance towards this union was the coalition
Of parties, so happily begun, so successfuUy
carried on, and of late so unaccountably
neglected, to say no worse. But let me add,
that this union can never be complete, tiU
it become an union of the head with the

190 STATE OF PARTIES
members, as well as of the members with
one another: and that such an union can
never be expected till patriotism fills the
throne, and faction be banished from the
admimstration.

VIII
THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
[The fourth of these letters reprinted here is the
most famous of Swift's Irish writings. On 12 July
1722 one ironmonger named William Wood was
granted a patent to coin £400,000 worth of copper
coins to replace those then in use in Ireland. It at
once roused a great outcry in Ireland ; there it was
believed that the measure would drive all silver
and gold coin out of the kingdom and that Ireland
would be ruined. It was beyond doubt that the
amount was far in excess of what was required.
Then, as has happened since, a financial question
united all classes in opposition to the English
government. Swift threw himself into the fray
and assuming the guise of a Dublin tradesman
wrote his 'Drapier's Letters.' 'In his famous
fourth letter,' writes Mr Lecky, 'he re-asserted
with commanding power the principles of Moly-
neux ; claimed for the Irish Legislature the right
of self-government ; drew with a firm and unfalter
ing hand the line between the prerogative of the
Sovereign and the liberty of the people ; laid bare
the scandalous abuses of the Irish Government ;
and, urging that '"government without the consent
of the governed is the very definition of slavery,' "
struck a chord which for the first time vibrated
through every class in Ireland.] '
1 History of Ireland, ed. 1892, i. 454. 191

192 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS

LETTER IV
TO
THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF IRELAND
October 23, 1724.
My Dear Countrymen, — Having already
written three letters upon so disagreeable a
subject as Mr Wood and his halfpence, I
conceived my task was at an end ; but I find
that cordials must be frequently apphed to
weak constitutions, political as well as natural.
A people long used to hardships lose by degrees
the very notions of liberty. They look upon
themselves as creatures at mercy, and that all
impositions, laid on them by a stronger hand,
are, in the phrase of the Report,1 legal and
obligatory. Hence proceed that poverty and
lowness of spirit, to wliich a kingdom may
be subject, as weU as a particular person.
And when Esau came fainting from the field
at the point to die, it is no wonder that he
sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
I thought I had sufficiently shewn, to all
who could want instruction, by what methods
1 I.e. the report of the Committee of the Privy Council,
dated 24 July 1724. The Committee had been appointed
to consider the complaints against Wood's patent.

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 193
they might safely proceed, whenever this coin
should be offered to them; and, I beheve,
there has not been, for many ages, an example
of any kingdom so firmly united in a point
of great importance, as this of ours is at
present against that detestable fraud. But,
however, it so happens, that some weak
people begin to be alarmed anew by rumours
industriously spread. Wood prescribes to the
newsmongers in London what they are to
write. In one of their papers, published here
by some obscure printer, and certainly with
a bad design, we are told, "That the Papists
in Ireland have entered into an association
against his coin,' although it be notoriously
known, that they never once offered to stir
in the matter ; so that the two Houses
of Parhament, the Privy-council, the great
number of corporations, the lord mayor and
aldermen of Dublin, the grand juries, and
principal gentlemen of several counties, are
stigmatized in a lump under the name of
' Papists.' This impostor and his crew do likewise give
out, that, by refusing to receive his dross for
sterling, we ' dispute the king's prerogative,
are grown ripe for rebeUion, and ready to
shake off the dependency of Ireland upon the

194 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
crown of England.' To countenance which
reports, he has published a paragraph in an
other newspaper, to let us know, that 'the
Lord-lieutenant1 is ordered to come over im
mediately to settle his halfpence.'
I entreat you, my dear countrymen, not to
be under the least concern upon these and the
like rumours, which are no more than the last
howls of a dog dissected ahve, as I hope he
has sufficiently been. These calumnies are the
only reserve that is left him. For surely our
continued and (almost) unexampled loyalty,
wUl never be called in question, for not suf
fering ourselves to be robbed of aU that we
have by one obscure ironmonger.
As to disputing the King's prerogative, give
me leave to explain, to those who are ig
norant, what the meaning of that word
prerogative is.
The Kings of these realms enjoy several
powers, wherein the laws have not interposed.
So, they can make war and peace without the
consent of Parliament — and this is a very
great prerogative : but if the Parliament does
not approve of the war, the King must bear
the charge of it out of his own purse — and
1 Carteret ; the former Lord-lieutenant Grafton had
been recalled because he was thought too weak to deal
with the crisis. Carteret, however, fared little better.

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 195
this is a great check on the crown. So, the
King has a prerogative to coin money without
consent of ParUament ; but he cannot compel
the subject to take that money, except it be
sterling gold or sUver, because herein he is
limited by law. Some princes have, indeed,
extended their prerogative farther than the
law allowed them ; wherein, however, the
lawyers of succeeding ages, as fond as they
are of precedents, have never dared to justify
them. But, to say the truth, it is only of
late times that prerogative has been fixed and
ascertained ; for, whoever reads the history of
England wiU find, that some former Kings,
and those none of the worst, have, upon
several occasions, ventured to control the
laws, with very httle ceremony or scruple,
even later than the days of Queen Elizabeth.
In her reign, that pernicious counsel of sending
base money hither, very narrowly faUed of
losing the kingdom1 — being complained of by
the lord-deputy, the councU, and the whole
body of the Enghsh here ; so that, soon after
her death, it was recaUed by her successor, and
lawful money paid in exchange.
Having thus given you some notion of what
is meant by ' the King's prerogative,' as far as
1 I.e. during Tyrone's rebellion, 1600-01.

196 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
a tradesman can be thought capable of ex
plaining it, I wiU oiUy add the opinion of the
great Lord Bacon : ' That, as God governs the
world by the settled laws of nature, which
he has made, and never transcends those laws
but upon high important occasions, so, among
earthly princes, those are the wisest and the
best, who govern by the known laws of he
country, and seldomest make use of their
prerogative.' l
Now here you may see, that the vile accusa
tion of Wood and his accomphces, charging us
with disputing the King's prerogative by re
fusing his brass, can have no place — because
compelling the subject to take any coin which
is not sterhng, is no part of the King's pre
rogative, and, I am very confident, if it were
so, we should be the last of his people to
dispute it ; as weU from that inviolable loyalty
we have always paid to his Majesty, as from
the treatment we might, in such a case, justly
expect from some, who seem to think we have
neither common sense, nor common senses.
But, God be thanked, the best of them are
only our fellow-subjects, and not our masters.
One great merit I am sure we have, which
1 A paraphrase of some of Bacon's ideas, not an exact
quotation from him.

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 197
those of Enghsh birth can have no pretence
to — that our ancestors reduced this kingdom
to the obedience of England ; for which we
have been rewarded with a worse chmate, —
the privUege of being governed by laws to
which we do not consent, — a ruined trade,—
a House of Peers without jurisdiction, — almost
an incapacity for aU employments, — and the
dread of Wood's halfpence.
But we are so far from disputing the King's
prerogative in coining, that we own he has
power to give a patent to any man for setting
his royal image and superscription upon what
ever materials he pleases, and hberty to the
patentee to offer them in any country from
England to Japan ; only attended with one
small limitation — that nobody ahve is obhged
to take them.
Upon these considerations, I was ever against
aU recourse to England for a remedy against
the present impending evil ; especiaUy when
I observed, that the addresses of both Houses,
after long expectance, produced nothing but a
Report, altogether in favour of Wood ; upon
which I made some observations in a former
letter, and might at least have made as many
more, for it is a paper of as singular a nature
as I ever beheld.

198 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
But I mistake ; for, before this Report was
made, his Majesty's most gracious answer to
the House of Lords was sent over, and printed ;
wherein are these words, granting the patent
for coining halfpence and farthings, agree
able TO THE PRACTICE OF HIS ROYAL PRE
DECESSORS, &c. That King Charles II. and
King James II. (and they only,) did grant
patents for this purpose, is indisputable, and
I have shewn it at large. Their patents were
passed under the great seal of Ireland, by
references to Ireland ; the copper to be coined
in Ireland ; the patentee was bound, on de
mand, to receive his coin back in Ireland, and
pay silver and gold in return. Wood's patent
was made under the great seal of England ;
the brass corned in England ; not the least
reference made to Ireland ; the sum immense,
and the patentee under no obhgation to receive
it again, and give good money for it. This I
only mention, because, in my private thoughts,
I have sometimes made a query, whether the
penner of those words in his Majesty's most
gracious answer, 'agreeable to the practice of
his royal predecessors,' had maturely considered
the several circumstances, which, in my poor
opinion, seem to make a difference.
Let me now say something concerning the

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 199
other great cause of some people's fear, as
Wood has taught the London newswriter to
express it, that his ExceUency the Lord-Ueu-
tenant is coming over to settle Wood's half
pence. We know very well, that the Lords-Ueuten-
ants, for several years past, have not thought
this kingdom worthy the honour of their resi
dence longer than was absolutely necessary
for the King's business, which, consequently,
wanted no speed in the dispatch. And there
fore it naturaUy feU into most men's thoughts,
that a new governor, coming at an unusual
time, must portend some unusual business to
be done ; especiaUy if the common report be
true, that the ParUament, prorogued to I know
not when, is by a new summons, revoking that
prorogation, to assemble soon after the arrival ;
for which extraordmary proceeding, the lawyers
on the other side the water have, by great good
fortune, found two precedents.
AU this being granted, it can never enter
into my head, that so httle a creature as Wood
would find credit enough with the King and
his ministers, to have the Lord-heutenant of
Ireland sent hither in a hurry upon his errand.
For, let us take the whole matter nakedly
as it hes before us, without the refinements

200 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
of some people with which we have noth
ing to do. Here is a patent granted under
the great seal of England, upon false sugges
tions, to one Wilham Wood, for coining copper
halfpence for Ireland. The Parhament here,
upon apprehensions of the worst consequences
from the said patent, address the King to have
it recalled. This is refused ; and a committee
of the Privy-council report to his Majesty, that
Wood has performed the conditions of his
patent. He then is left to do the best he can
with his halfpence, no man being obhged to
receive them ; the people here, being hkewise
left to themselves, unite as one man, resolving
they wiU have nothing to do with his ware.
By this plain account of the fact it is manifest,
that the King and his ministry are whoUy out
of the case, and the matter is left to be disputed
between him and us. WiU any man, therefore,
attempt to persuade me, that a Lord-heuten
ant is to be dispatched over in great haste be
fore the ordinary time, and a Parhament sum
moned by anticipating a prorogation, merely
to put a hundred thousand pounds into the
pocket of a sharper, by the rum of a most
loyal kingdom?
But, supposing all this to be true, by what
arguments could a Lord-lieutenant prevaU on

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 201
the same Parhament which addressed with so
much zeal and earnestness against this evU, to
pass it into a law ? I am sure their opinion of
Wood and his project is not mended since their
last prorogation ; and, supposing those methods
should be used, which detractors teU us have
been sometimes put in practice for gaining votes,
it is weU known, that, in this kingdom, there
are few employments to be given ; and, if there
were more, it is as well known to whose share
they must faU.
But, because great numbers of you are alto
gether ignorant of the affairs of your country,
I wiU teU you some reasons why there are
so few employments to be disposed of in this
kingdom. AU considerable offices for hfe are here pos
sessed by those to whom the reversions were
granted ; and these have been generaUy foUowers
ofthe chief governors, or persons who had interest
in the Court of England. So, the Lord Berkeley
of Stratton holds that great office of master of
the rolls ; the Lord Palmerstown is first remem
brancer, worth near £2000 per annum. One
Dodington, secretary to the Earl of Pembroke,
begged the reversion of clerk of the pells, worth
£2500 a year, which he now enjoys by the
death of the Lord Newtown. Mr SouthweU
N

202 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
is secretary of state, and the Earl of Burlington
lord high treasurer of Ireland by inheritance.
These are only a few among many others which
I have been told of, but cannot remember. Nay,
the reversion of several employments, during
pleasure, is granted the same way. This, among
others, is a circumstance, whereby the kingdom
of Ireland is distinguished from aU other nations
upon earth ; and makes it so difficult an affair
to get into a civil employ, that Mr Addison
was forced to purchase an old obscure place,
caUed keeper of the records in Bermingham's
Tower, of £10 a-year, and to get a salary of
£400 annexed to it, though all the records
there are not worth half-a-crown, either for
curiosity or use. And we lately saw a favourite
secretary descend to be master of the revels,
which, by his credit and extortion, he has made
pretty considerable. I say nothmg of the under-
treasurership, worth about £9000 a-year, nor of
the commissioners of the revenue, four of whom
generaUy live in England, for I think none of
these are granted in reversion. But the jest is,
that I have known, upon occasion, some of these
absent officers as keen against the interest of
Ireland, as if they had never been indebted to
her for a single groat.
I confess, I have been sometimes tempted to

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 203
wish, that this project of Wood's might suc
ceed; because I reflected with some pleasure,
what a joUy crew it would bring over among
us of lords and squires, and pensioners of both
sexes, and officers civil and military, where we
should hve together as merry and sociable as
beggars; only with this one abatement, that
we should neither have meat to feed, nor manu
factures to clothe us, unless we could be con
tent to prance about in coats of mail, or eat
brass as ostriches do iron.
I return from this digression to that which
gave me the occasion of making it. And I
beheve you are now convinced, that if the
Parhament of Ireland were as temptable as
any other assembly within a mUe of Christen
dom, (which God forbid!) yet the managers
must of necessity faU for want of tools to work
with. But I wiU yet go one step farther, by
supposing that a hundred new employments
were erected on purpose to gratify compilers;
yet stUl an insuperable difficulty would remain.
For it happens, I know not how, that money is
neither Whig nor Tory — neither of town nor
country party ; and it is not improbable, that a
gentleman would rather choose to hve upon his
own estate, which brings him gold and sUver,
than with the addition of an employment, when

204 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
his rents and salary must both be paid iu
Wood's brass, at above eighty per cent.
discount. For these, and many other reasons, I am
confident you need not be under the least
apprehension from the sudden expectation of
the Lord-heutenant, wlule we continue in our
present hearty disposition, to alter which no
suitable temptation can possibly be offered.
And if, as I have often asserted from the best
authority, the law has not left a power in the
crown to force any money, except sterling,
upon the subject, much less can the crown de
volve such a power upon another.
This I speak with the utmost respect to the
person and dignity of his exceUency the Lord
Carteret, whose character was lately given me
by a gentleman that has known him from his
first appearance in the world. That gentleman
describes him as a young nobleman of great
accomplishments, exceUent learning, regular in
his hfe, and of much spirit and vivacity. He
has since, as I have heard, been employed
abroad ; was principal secretary of state ; and
is now, about the thirty-seventh year of his
age, appointed Lord-heutenant of Ireland.
From such a governor, this kingdom may
reasonably hope for as much prosperity, as,

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 205
under so many discouragements, it can be
capable of receiving.
It is true, indeed, that, within the memory
of man, there have been governors of so much
dexterity, as to carry points of terrible con
sequence to this kingdom, by their power
with those who are in office ; and by their
arts in managing or deluding others with oaths,
affability, and even with dinners. If Wood's
brass had in those times been upon the anvil,
it is obvious enough to conceive what methods
would have been taken. Depending persons
would have been told in plain terms, 'that it
was a service expected from them, under the
pain of the pubhc business being put into more
complying hands.' Others would be aUured by
promises. To the country gentlemen, beside
good words, burgundy, and closeting, it might
perhaps have been hinted, ' how kindly it would
be taken to comply with a royal patent, al
though it were not compulsory; that if any
inconveniences ensued, it might be made up
with other graces or favours hereafter; that
gentlemen ought to consider whether it were
prudent or safe to disgust England. They
would be desired to think of some good bUls
for encouraging of trade, and setting the poor
to work; some farther acts against Popery,

206 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
and for uniting Protestants.' There would be
solemn engagements, 'that we should never
be troubled with above forty thousand pounds
in his coin, and aU of the best and weightiest
sort, for which we should only give our manu
factures in exchange, and keep our gold and
silver at home.' Perhaps a seasonable report
of some invasion would have been spread in
the most proper juncture; which is a great
smoother of rubs in pubhc proceedings ; and
we should have been told, 'that this was no
time to create differences, when the kingdom
was in danger.'
These, I say, and the hke methods, would,
in corrupt times, have been taken to let in this
deluge of brass among us ; and I am confident,
even then, would not have succeeded ; much
less under the administration of so exceUent
a person as the Lord Carteret; and in a
country where the people of all ranks, parties,
and denominations, are convinced to a man,
that the utter midoing of themselves and
their posterity for ever, wiU be dated from
the admission of that execrable coin; that if
it once enters, it can be no more confined
to a small or moderate quantity, than a
plague can be confined to a few famihes ;
and that no equivalent can be given by any

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 207
earthly power, any more than a dead carcass
can be recovered to Ufe by a cordial.
There is one comfortable circumstance in
this universal opposition to Mr Wood, that
the people sent over hither from England,
to fiU up our vacancies, ecclesiastical, civil,
and mihtary, are aU on our side. Money,
the great divider of the world, has, by a
strange revolution, been the great uniter of
a most divided people.1 Who would leave
a hundred pounds a-year in England (a country
of freedom) to be paid a thousand in Ireland
out of Wood's exchequer? The gentleman2
they have lately made primate, would never
quit his seat in an EngUsh House of Lords,
and his preferments at Oxford and Bristol,
worth twelve hundred pounds a-year, for four
times the denomination here, but not half
the value ; therefore I expect to hear he wiU
be as good an Irishman, at least upon this
one article, as any of his brethren, or even
of us, who have had the misfortune to be
born in this island.3 For, those who in the
common phrase do not come hither to learn
1 The aptness of this remark needs no emphasising
to-day. 2 Dr Hugh Boulter (1672-1742).
3 This anticipation proved correct. See Lecky's Hist.
Ireland, i. 455.

208 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
the language, would never change a better
country for a worse, to receive brass instead
of gold.
Another slander spread by Wood and his
emissaries, is, 'that by opposing him, we
discover an inclination to throw off our de
pendence upon the crown of England.' Pray
observe how important a person is this same
WUham Wood, and how the pubhc weal of
two kingdoms is involved in his private interest.
First, aU those who refuse to take his coin
are Papists ; for he teUs us, ' that none but
Papists are associated against him.' Secondly,
' they dispute the King's prerogative.' Thirdly,
'they are ripe for rebeUion.' And, fourthly,
' they are going to shake off their dependence
upon the crown of England;' that is to say,
they are going to choose another king; for
there can be no other meaning in this ex
pression, however some may pretend to strain it.
And this gives me an opportunity of ex
plaining to those who are ignorant, another
point, which has often sweUed in my breast.
Those who come over hither to us from
England, and some weak people among our
selves, whenever in discourse we make mention
of hberty and property, shake their heads, and
tell us, that ' Ireland is a depending kingdom ; '

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 209
as if they would seem by this phrase to intend,
that the people of Ireland are in some state
of slavery or dependence different from those
of England: whereas a depending kingdom
is a modern term of art, unknown as I have
heard to aU ancient civilians, and writers
upon government ; and Ireland is, on the con
trary, caUed in some statutes ' an imperial
crown,' as held only from God ; which is as
high a style as any kingdom is capable of
receiving. Therefore, by this expression, 'a
depending kingdom,' there is no more to be
understood, than that, by a statute made here
in the thirty-third year of Henry VIII.,1 the
King, and his successors, are to be kings im
perial of this realm, as united and knit to the
imperial crown of England. I have looked
over aU the Enghsh and Irish statutes, with
out finding any law that makes Ireland depend
upon England, any more than England does
upon Ireland. We have indeed obliged our
selves to have the same king with them ; and
consequently they are obliged to have the same
king with us. For the law was made by our
own Parhament ; and our ancestors then were
not such fools (whatever they were in the
preceding reign) to bring themselves under I
1 Really in 1543, the 35th year of Henry VIII.

210 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
know not what dependence, which is now
talked of, without any ground of law, reason,
or common sense.1
Let whoever thinks otherwise I, M. B.,
drapier, desire to be excepted; for I declare,
next under God, I depend only on the King
my sovereign, and on the laws of my own
country. And I am so far from depending
upon the people of England, that if they
should ever rebel against my sovereign (which
God forbid !) I would be ready, at the first
command from his Majesty, to take arms
agamst them, as some of my countrymen did
against theirs at Preston. And if such a re
beUion should prove so successful as to fix
the Pretender on the throne of England, I
would venture to transgress that statute so
far, as to lose every drop of my blood to
hinder him from being King of Ireland.
It is true, indeed, that within the memory
1 This is scarcely an accurate account of the position
of Ireland. Poynings' Act passed in 1494 really placed
the Irish Parliament in a subordinate position by ex
tending to Ireland the scope of all acts passed in the
English Parliament and making the consent of the
English Privy Council necessary for the validity of Irish
Statutes. In 1719 an act was also passed enabling the
English Parliament to legislate for Ireland. These
measures were repealed in 1782, when Ireland was
given full legislative independence.

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 21 1
of man, the ParUaments of England have some
times assumed the power of binding this king
dom by laws enacted there ; wherein they were
at first openly opposed (as far as truth, reason,
and justice, are capable of opposing) by the
famous Mr Molineux,1 an EngUsh gentleman
born here, as weU as by several of the greatest
patriots and best Whigs in England ; but the
love and torrent of power prevailed. Indeed
the arguments on both sides were invincible.
For, in reason, all government without the
consent of the governed, is the very definition
of slavery ; but, in fact, eleven men weU armed
wiU certainly subdue one single man in his
shirt. But I have done ; for those who have
used to cramp Uberty, have gone so far as to
resent even the Uberty of complaining ; al
though a man upon the rack was never known
to be refused the hberty of roaring as loud as
he thought fit.
And as we are apt to sink too much under
unreasonable fears, so we are too soon inchned
to be raised by groundless hopes, according to
the nature of aU consumptive bodies Uke ours.
Thus it has been given about, for several days
1 William Molyneux (1656-1698), the philosopher and
champion of Irish legislative independence in his ' Case
of Ireland's being bound by Acts of Parliament in
England,' 1698.

212 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
past, that somebody in England empowered a
second somebody, to write to a third somebody
here, to assure us that we should no more be
troubled with these halfpence. And this is
reported to have been done by the same per
son, who is said to have sworn some months
ago, 'that he would ram them down our
throats,' though I doubt they would stick in
our stomachs ; but whichever of these reports
be true or false, it is no concern of ours. For,
in this point, we have nothing to do with
Enghsh ministers ; and I should be sorry to
leave it in their power to redress this grievance,
or to enforce it ; for the report of the Com
mittee has given me a surfeit. The remedy
is wholly in your own hands ; and therefore
I have digressed a httle, in order to refresh
and continue that spirit so seasonably raised
among you ; and to let you see, that by the
laws of God, of nature, of nations, and
of your country, you are, and ought to be,
as free a people as your brethren in England.
If the pamphlets pubhshed at London by
Wood and his journeymen, in defence of his
cause, were reprinted here, and our country
men could be persuaded to read them, they
would convince you of his wicked design more
than aU I shaU ever be able to say. In short,

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 213
I make him a perfect saint iu comparison of
what he appears to be from the writings of
those whom he hires to justify his project.
But he is so far master of the field (let others
guess the reason) that no London printer dare
publish any paper written in favour of Ireland ;
and here nobody as yet has been so bold as to
pubhsh anything in favour of him.
There was, a few days ago, a pamphlet sent
me, of near fifty pages, written in favour of
Mr Wood and his coinage, printed in London ;
it is not worth answering, because probably it
will never be published here. But it gave me
occasion to reflect upon an unhappiness we he
under, that the people of England are utterly
ignorant of our case ; which, however, is no
wonder, since it is a point they do not in the
least concern themselves about, further than
perhaps as a subject of discourse in a coffee
house, when they have nothing else to talk of.
For I have reason to beheve, that no minister
ever gave himself the trouble of reading any
papers written in our defence, because I sup
pose their opinions are already determined, and
are formed whoUy upon the reports of Wood and
his accomphces; else it would be impossible
that any man could have the impudence to
write such a pamphlet as I have mentioned.

214 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS i
Our neighbours, whose understandings are
just upon a level with ours (which perhaps
are none of the brightest), have a strong con
tempt for most nations, but especiaUy for
Ireland. They look upon us as a sort of
savage Irish, whom our ancestors conquered
several hundred years ago. And if I should
describe the Britons to you as they were in
Caesar's time, when they painted their bodies,
or clothed themselves with the skins of beasts,
I should act fuU as reasonably as they do.
However, they are so far to be excused in
relation to the present subject, that hearing
only one side of the cause, and having neither
opportunity nor curiosity to examine the other,
they beheve a he merely for their ease; and
conclude, because Mr Wood pretends to power
he has also reason on his side.
Therefore, to let you see how this case is
represented in England by Wood and his ad
herents, I have thought it proper to extract
out of that pamphlet a few of those notorious
falsehoods, in point of fact and reasoning, con
tained therein ; the knowledge whereof will
confirm my countrymen in their own right
sentiments, when they wiU see, by comparing
both, how much their enemies are in the
wrong.

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 215
First, the writer positively asserts, 'that
Wood's' halfpence were current among us for
several months, with the universal approbation
of aU people, without one single gainsayer ;
and we aU, to a man, thought ourselves happy
in having them.'
Secondly, he affirms, 'that we were drawn
into dislike of them only by some cunning,
evU-designing men among us, who opposed
this patent of Wood to get another for them
selves.' Thirdly, 'that those who most declared at
first against Wood's patent, were the very men
who intend to get another for their own
advantage.' Fourthly, 'that our Parliament and Privy-
council, the Lord Mayor and aldermen of
Dublin, the grand juries and merchants, and,
in short, the whole kingdom, nay, the very
dogs,' as he expresses it, ' were fond of those
halfpence, till they were inflamed by those
few designing persons aforesaid.'
Fifthly, he says directly, ' that aU those who
opposed the halfpence, were Papists, and
enemies to King George.'
Thus far, I am confident, the most ignorant
among you can safely swear, from your own
knowledge, that the author is a most notorious

216 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
liar in every article ; the direct contrary being
so manifest to the whole kingdom, that, if occa
sion required, we might get it confirmed under
five hundred thousand hands.
Sixthly, he would persuade us, 'that if we
seU five shillings worth of our goods or manu
factures for two shillings and fourpence worth
of copper, although the copper were melted
down, and that we could get five shillings in
gold and sUver for the said goods ; yet to take
the said two shillings and fourpence in copper,
would be greatly for our advantage.'
And, lastly, he makes us a very fair offer, as
empowered by Wood, ' that if we wiU take off
two hundred thousand pounds in his halfpence
for our goods, and hkewise pay him three per
cent, interest for thirty years for a hundred and
twenty thousand pounds (at which he computes
the coinage above the intrinsic value of the
copper) for the loan of his coin, he wUl after
that time give us good money for what half
pence wiU be then left.'
Let me place this offer in as clear a hght as I
can, to show the insupportable villainy and im
pudence of that incorrigible wretch. 'First,'
says he, 'I wUl send two hundred thousand
pounds of my coin into your country; the
copper I compute to be, in real value, eighty

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 217
thousand pounds, and I charge you with a
hundred and twenty thousand pounds for the
coinage ; so that, you see, I lend you a hun
dred and twenty thousand pounds for thirty
years; for which you shaU pay me three per
cent., that is to say, three thousand six hun
dred pounds per annum, which in thirty years
wiU amount to a hundred and eight thousand
pounds. And when these thirty years are
expired, return me my copper, and I wiU give
you good money for it.'
This is the proposal made to us by Wood in
that pamphlet, written by one of his commis
sioners : and the author is supposed to be the
same infamous Coleby, one of his under-swearers
at the committee of council, who was tried for
robbing the treasury here, where he was an
under-clerk. By this proposal, he will, first, receive two
hundred thousand pounds in goods or sterUng,
for as much copper as he values at eighty
thousand pounds, but in reality not worth thirty
thousand pounds. Secondly, he wUl receive for
interest a hundred and eight thousand pounds :
and when our chUdren come thirty years hence
to return his halfpence upon his executors (for
before that time he wiU be probably gone to his
own place) those executors wiU very reasonably
o

218 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
reject them as raps and counterfeits, which they
will be, and millions of them of his own
coinage. Methinks I am fond of such a dealer as this,
who mends every day upon our hands, hke a
Dutch reckoning; wherein if you dispute the
unreasonableness and exorbitance of the biU,
the landlord shall bring it up every time with
new additions.
Although these, and the hke pamphlets, pub
lished by Wood in London, are altogether un
known here, where nobody could read them
without as much indignation as contempt would
aUow ; yet I thought it proper to give you a
specimen how the man employs his time, where
he rides alone without any creature to contra
dict him; whUe our pew friends there
wonder at our sUence: and the English in
general, if they think of this matter at aU, im
pute our refusal to wUfulness or disaffection,
just as Wood and his hirelings are pleased
to represent.
But although our arguments are not suffered
to be printed in England, yet the consequence
wUl be of Uttle moment. Let Wood endeavour
to persuade the people there, that we ought to
receive his coin ; and let me convince our people
here, that they ought to reject it, under pain of

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 219
our utter undoing; and then let him do his
best and his worst.
Before I conclude, I must beg leave, in all
hunuhty, to teU Mr Wood, that he is guUty of
great indiscretion, by causing so honourable a
name as that of Mr Walpole to be mentioned
so often, and in such a manner, upon this occa
sion. A short paper printed at Bristol, and re
printed here, reports Mr Wood to say, ' that he
wonders at the impudence and insolence of the
Irish in refusing his coin, and what he will do
when Mr Walpole comes to town.' Where, by
the way, he is mistaken ; for it is the true
Enghsh people of Ireland who refuse it, although
we take it for granted that the Irish wiU do so
too whenever they are asked. In another printed
paper of his contriving, it is roundly expressed,
' that Mr Walpole wUl cram his brass down our
throats.' Sometimes it is given out, ' that we
must either take those halfpence, or eat our
brogues : ' and in another newsletter, but of
yesterday, we read, ' that the same great man
has sworn to make us swaUow his coin in fire
balls.' This brings to my mind the known story
of a Scotchman, who, receiving the sentence
of death with all the circumstances of hanging,
beheading, quartering, emboweUing, and the

220 THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS
hke, cried out, ' What need aU this Cookery ? '
And I think we have reason to ask the same
question; for, if we beheve Wood, here is a
dinner ready for us; and you see the bUl of
fare ; and I am sorry the drink was forgot, which
might easUy be supphed with melted lead and
flaming pitch.
What vUe words are these to put into the
mouth of a great counseUor, in high trust with
his majesty, and looked upon as a prime-
minister ? If Mr Wood has no better a manner
of representing his patrons, when I come to be
a great man he shaU never be suffered to attend
at my levee. This is not the style of a great
minister ; it savours too much of the kettle and
the furnace, and came entirely out of Wood's
forge. As for the threat of making us eat our brogues,
we need not be in pain ; for, if his coin should
pass, that unpolite covering for the feet would
no longer be a national reproach ; because then
we should have neither shoe nor brogue left in
the kingdom. But here the falsehood of Mr
Wood is fairly detected ; for I am confident Mr
Walpole never heard of a brogue in his whole
life. As to 'swaUowing these halfpence in fire
balls,' it is a story equaUy improbable. For, to

THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS 221
execute this operation, the whole stock of Mr
Wood's coin and metal must be melted down,
and moulded into hoUow baUs with wUd-fire, no
bigger than a reasonable throat may be able to
swallow. Now, the metal he has prepared, and
already coined, wiU amount to at least fifty
milhons of halfpence, to be swaUowed by a
million and a half of people : so that, allowing
two halfpence to each baU, there wiU be about
seventeen baUs of wUd-fire a-piece to be swal
lowed by every person in the kingdom; and
to administer this dose, there cannot be con
veniently fewer than fifty thousand operators,
allowing one operator to every thirty; which,
considering the squeamishness of some stomachs,
and the peevishness of young children, is but
reasonable. Now, under correction of better
judgments, I think the trouble and charge of
such an experiment would exceed the profit;
and therefore I take this report to be spurious,
or, at least, only a new scheme of Mr Wood
himself; which, to make it pass the better in
Ireland, he would father upon a minister of
state. But I wiU now demonstrate, beyond aU con
tradiction, that Mr Walpole is against this pro
ject of Mr Wood, and is an entire friend to Ire
land, only by this one invincible argument ; that

224 LETTERS OF JUNIUS

LETTER I
TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC
ADVERTISER
21 January 1769.
Sir, — The submission of a free people to
the executive authority of government is no
more than a compliance with laws, which they
themselves have enacted. While the national
honour is firmly maintained abroad, and while
justice is impartiaUy administered at home, the
obedience of the subject wUl be voluntary,
cheerful, and I might almost say, unlimited.
A generous nation is grateful even for the pre
servation of its rights, and willingly extends
the respect due to the office of a good prince
into an affection for his person. Loyalty, in
the heart and understanding of an Enghshman,
is a rational attachment to the guardian of the
laws. Prejudices and passion have sometimes
carried it to a criminal length; and, whatever
foreigners may imagine, we know that English
men have erred as much in a mistaken zeal for
particular persons and famUies, as they ever did
in defence of what they thought most dear and
interesting to themselves.
It naturaUy fills us with resentment, to see

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 225
such a temper insulted, or abused. In reading
the history of a free people, whose rights have
been invaded, we are interested in their cause.
Our own feehngs teU us how long they ought
to have submitted, and at what moment it
would have been treachery to themselves not
to have resisted. How much warmer wiU be
our resentment, if experience should bring the
fatal example home to ourselves !
The situation of this country is alarming
enough to rouse the attention of every man,
who pretends to a concern for the pubhc wel
fare. Appearances justify suspicion ; and, when
the safety of a nation is at stake, suspicion is a
just ground of enquiry. Let us enter into it
with candour and decency. Respect is due to
the station of ministers; and, if a resolution
must at last be taken, there is none so likely to
be supported with firmness, as that which has
been adopted with moderation.
The ruin or prosperity of a state depends so
much upon the administration of its govern
ment, that, to be acquainted with the merit of
a ministry, we need only observe the condition
of the people. If we see them obedient to the
laws, prosperous in their industry, united at
home, and respected abroad, we may reason
ably presume that their affairs are conducted by

226 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
men of experience, abilities, and virtue. If, on
the contrary, we see a universal spirit of dis
trust and dissatisfaction, a rapid decay of trade,
dissensions in all parts of the empire, and a
total loss of respect in the eyes of foreign
powers, we may pronounce, without hesitation,
that the government of that country is weak,
distracted, and corrupt. The multitude, in all
countries, are patient to a certain point. IU-
usage may rouse their indignation, and hurry
them into excesses, but the original fault is in
government.1 Perhaps there never was an in
stance of a change, in the circumstances and
temper of a whole nation, so sudden and extra
ordinary as that which the misconduct of
ministers has, within these very few years,
produced in Great Britain. When our gracious
Sovereign ascended the throne, we were a
flourishing and a contented people. If the
personal virtues of a king could have insured
the happiness of his subjects, the scene could
not have altered so entirely as it has done.
The idea of uniting all parties, of trying all
characters, and of distributing the offices of
state by rotation, was gracious and benevolent
to an extreme, though it has not yet produced
1 Compare p. 287, where Burke makes some very
similar reflections.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 227
the many salutary effects which were intended
by it. To say nothmg of the wisdom of such
a plan, it undoubtedly arose from an unbounded
goodness of heart, in which folly had no share.
It was not a capricious partiality to new faces : —
it was not a natural turn for low intrigue ; nor
was it the treacherous amusement of double
and triple negotiations. No, Sir, it arose from
a continued anxiety, in the purest of all possible
hearts, for the general welfare. Unfortunately
for us, the event has not been answerable to
the design. After a rapid succession of changes,
we are reduced to that state, which hardly any
change can mend. Yet there is no extremity
of distress, which of itself ought to reduce a
great nation to despair. It is not the disorder,
but the physician; — it is not a casual con
currence of calamitous circumstances, it is the
pernicious hand of government, which alone
can make a whole people desperate.
Without much pohtical sagacity, or any
extraordinary depth of observation, we need
only mark how the principal departments of
the state are bestowed, and look no farther
for the true cause of every mischief that
befalls us.
The finances of a nation, sinking under its
debts and expenses, are committed to a young

228 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
nobleman already ruined by play.1 Introduced
to act under the auspices of lord Chatham,
and left at the head of affairs by that noble
man's retreat, he became minister by accident ;
but deserting the principles and professions
which gave him a moment's popularity, we
see him, from every honourable engagement
to the pubhc, an apostate by design. As
for business, the world yet knows nothing
of his talents or resolution; unless a way
ward, wavering inconsistency be a mark of
genius, and caprice a demonstration of spirit.
It may be said perhaps, that it is his Grace's
province, as surely it is his passion, rather
to distribute than to save the pubhc money,
and that whUe lord North is chanceUor of
the Exchequer, the first lord of the Treasury
may be as thoughtless and as extravagant
as he pleases. I hope, however, he wiU not
rely too much on the fertihty of lord North's
genius for finance. His Lordship is yet to
give us the first proof of his abihties : It
may be candid to suppose that he has hitherto
voluntarily concealed his talents; intending
perhaps to astonish the world, when we least
expect it, with a knowledge of trade, a choice
of expedients, and a depth of resources equal
1 The Duke of Grafton.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 229
to the necessities, and far beyond the hopes,
of his country. He must now exert the whole
power of his capacity, if he would wish us
to forget, that, since he has been in office,
no plan has been formed, no system adhered
to, nor any one important measure adopted
for the rehef of pubhc credit. If his plan
for the service of the current year be not
irrevocably fixed on, let me warn him to
think seriously of consequences before he
ventures to increase the pubhc debt. Out
raged and oppressed as we are, this nation
will not bear, after a six years' peace, to
see new miUions borrowed, without an eventual
diminution of debt, or reduction of interest.
The attempt might rouse a spirit of resentment,
which might reach beyond the sacrifice of
a minister. As to the debt upon the civil
hst, the people of England expect that it
wiU not be paid without a strict enquiry
how it was incurred. If it must be paid
by parhament, let me advise the chanceUor
of the Exchequer to think of some better
expedient than a lottery. To support an ex
pensive war, or in circumstances of absolute
necessity, a lottery may perhaps be aUowable ;
but, besides that it is at aU times the very
worst way of raising money upon the people,

230 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
I think it ill becomes the royal dignity
to have the debts of a king provided for,
Uke the repairs of a country bridge, or a
decayed hospital The management of the
king's affairs in the House of Commons can
not be more disgraced that it has been. A
leading minister1 repeatedly caUed down for
absolute ignorance ; — ridiculous motions ridicu
lously withdrawn ; — deliberate plans discon
certed, and a week's preparation of graceful
oratory lost in a moment, give us some, though
not an adequate, idea of lord North's parlia
mentary abUities and influence. Yet before
he had the misfortune to be chanceUor of the
Exchequer, he was neither an object of derision
to his enemies, nor of melancholy pity to
his friends.
A series of inconsistent measures had ahenated
the colonies from their duty as subjects, and
from their natural affection to their common
country. When Mr GrenvUle was placed at
the head of the Treasury, he felt the impos
sibihty of Great Britain's supporting such
an establishment as her former successes had
made indispensable, and at the same time of
giving any sensible rehef to foreign trade, and
to the weight of the pubUc debt. He thought
1 Lord North.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 231
it equitable that those parts of the empire,
which had benefitted most by the expenses
of the war, should contribute sometliing to
the expenses of the peace, and he had no
doubt of the [ constitutional right vested in
parhament to raise that contribution. But,
unfortunately for this country, Mr Grenville
was at any rate to be distressed, because he
was minister, and Mr Pitt and lord Camden
were to be the patrons of America, because
they were in opposition. Their declarations
gave spirit and argument to the colonies,
and while perhaps they meant no more
than the ruin of a minister, they in effect
divided one half of the empire from the
other. Under one administration the Stamp Act
is made; under the second it is repealed;
under the third, in spite of aU experience,
a new mode of taxing the colonies is invented,
and a question revived, which ought to have
been buried in oblivion. In these circum
stances a new office is established for the
business of the plantations, and the earl of
Hillsborough caUed forth, at a most critical
season, to govern America. The choice at
least announced to us a man of superior
capacity and knowledge. Whether he be so

232 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
or not, let his despatches, as far as they
have appeared, let his measures as far as they
have operated, determine for him. In the
former we have seen strong assertions with
out proof, declamation without argument, and
violent censures without dignity or moderation ;
but neither correctness in the composition, nor
judgment in the design. As for his measures,
let it be remembered, that he was called upon
to conciliate and unite ; and that, when he
entered into office, the most refractory of the
colonies were stUl disposed to proceed by the
constitutional methods of petition and remon
strance. Since that period they have been
driven into excesses httle short of rebellion.
Petitions have been hindered from reaching
the throne ; and the continuance of one of
the principal assembhes rested upon an arbi
trary condition, which, considering the temper
they were in, it was impossible they should
comply with, and which would have availed
nothing as to the general question, if it had
been comphed with. So violent, and I beheve
I may caU it so unconstitutional, an exertion
of the prerogative, to say nothing of the weak,
injudicious terms in which it was conveyed,
gives us as humble an opinion of his Lord
ship's capacity, as it does of his temper and

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 233
moderation. WhUe we are at peace with
other nations, our military force may perhaps
be spared to support the earl of Hillsborough's
measures in America. Whenever that force
shaU be necessarily withdrawn or diminished,
the dismission of such a minister wUl neither
console us for his imprudence, nor remove
the settled resentment of a people, who,
complaining of an act of the legislature, are
outraged by an unwarrantable stretch of
prerogative, and supporting their claims by
argument, are insulted with declamation.
Drawing lots would be a prudent and reason
able method of appointing the officers of state,
compared to a late disposition of the secretary's
office. Lord Rochford was acquainted with
the affairs and temper of the southern courts:
lord Weymouth was equaUy qualified for
either department. By what unaccountable
caprice has it happened, that the latter, who
pretends to no experience whatsoever, is re
moved to the most important of the two de
partments, and the former by preference placed
in an office, where his experience can be of no
use to him ? lord Weymouth had distinguished
himself in his first employment by a spirited,
if not judicious conduct. He had animated
the civU magistrate beyond the tone of civU

234 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
authority, and had directed the operations of
the army to more than mihtary execution.
Recovered from the errors of his youth, from
the distraction of play, and the bewitching
smiles of Burgundy, behold him exerting the
whole strength of his clear, unclouded faculties,
in the service of the crown. It was not the
heat of midnight excesses, nor ignorance of
the laws, nor the furious spirit of the house
of Bedford: No, Sir, when this respectable
minister interposed his authority between the
magistrate and the people, and signed the
mandate, on which, for aught he knew, the
hves of thousands depended, he did it from
the deliberate motion of his heart, supported
by the best of his judgment.1
It has lately been a fashion to pay a com
pliment to the bravery and generosity of the
commander-in-chief,2 at the expense of his
understanding. They who love him least
1 During the riots connected with Wilkes's election in
1768, Weymouth wrote urging the magistrates not to
scruple to employ soldiers against the people; cf. p.
320. It should be remembered that hitherto there had
been only two secretaries of state, for the northern and
southern departments. The former had charge of home
affairs. In 1768 lord Hillsborough became first secretary
of state for the colonies, thus bringing the number up to
three. 2 Lord Granby.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 235
make no question of his courage, while his
friends dweU chiefly on the facility of his
disposition. Admitting him to be as brave
as a total absence of aU feeUng and reflection
can make him, let us see what sort of merit
he derives from the remainder of his character.
If it be generosity to accumulate in his own
person and family a number of lucrative em
ployments ; to provide, at the pubhc expense,
for every creature that bears the name of
Manners ; and, neglecting the merit and ser
vices of the rest of the army, to heap pro
motions upon his favourites and dependants,
the present commander-in-chief is the most
generous man aUve. Nature has been spar
ing of her gifts to this noble lord ; but where
birth and fortune are united, we expect the
noble pride and independence of a man of
spirit, not the servile, humiliating comphances
of a courtier. As to the goodness of his heart,
if a proof of it be taken from the facility of
never refusing, what conclusion shall we draw
from the independency of never performing?
And if the discipline of the army be in any
degree preserved, what thanks are due to a
man, whose cares, notoriously confined to filling
up vacancies, have degraded the office of com
mander-in-chief into a broker of commissions ?

234 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
authority, and had directed the operations of
the army to more than military execution.
Recovered from the errors of his youth, from
the distraction of play, and the bewitching
smUes of Burgundy, behold him exerting the
whole strength of his clear, unclouded faculties,
in the service of the crown. It was not the
heat of midnight excesses, nor ignorance of
the laws, nor the furious spirit of the house
of Bedford: No, Sir, when this respectable
minister interposed his authority between the
magistrate and the people, and signed the
mandate, on which, for aught he knew, the
Uves of thousands depended, he did it from
the deliberate motion of his heart, supported
by the best of his judgment.1
It has lately been a fashion to pay a com
pliment to the bravery and generosity of the
commander-in-chief,2 at the expense of his
understanding. They who love him least
1 During the riots connected with Wilkes's election in
1768, Weymouth wrote urging the magistrates not to
scruple to employ soldiers against the people; cf. p.
320. It should be remembered that hitherto there had
been only two secretaries of state, for the northern and
southern departments. The former had charge of home
affairs. In 1768 lord Hillsborough became first secretary
of state for the colonies, thus bringing the number up to
three. 2 Lord Granby.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 235
make no question of his courage, while his
friends dweU chiefly on the facUity of his
disposition. Admitting him to be as brave
as a total absence of all feehng and reflection
can make him, let us see what sort of merit
he derives from the remainder of his character.
If it be generosity to accumulate in his own
person and family a number of lucrative em
ployments ; to provide, at the pubhc expense,
for every creature that bears the name of
Manners ; and, neglecting the merit and ser
vices of the rest of the army, to heap pro
motions upon his favourites and dependants,
the present commander-in-chief is the most
generous man ahve. Nature has been spar
ing of her gifts to this noble lord ; but where
birth and fortune are united, we expect the
noble pride and independence of a man of
spirit, not the servUe, humihating comphances
of a courtier. As to the goodness of his heart,
if a proof of it be taken from the facility of
never refusing, what conclusion shall we draw
from the independency of never performing?
And if the discipline of the army be in any
degree preserved, what thanks are due to a
man, whose cares, notoriously confined to filling
up vacancies, have degraded the office of com
mander-in-chief into a broker of commissions ?

236 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
With respect to the navy, I shaU only say,
that this country is so highly indebted to sir
Edward Hawke, that no expense should be
spared to secure to him an honourable and
affluent retreat.
The pure and impartial admimstration of
justice is perhaps the firmest bond to secure
a cheerful submission of the people, and to
engage their affections to government. It is
not sufficient that questions of private right
and wrong are justly decided, nor that judges
are superior to the vileness of pecuniary cor
ruption. Jefferies himself, when the court
had no interest, was an upright judge. A
court of justice may be subject to another
sort of bias, more important and pernicious,
as it reaches beyond the interest of individuals,
and affects the whole community. A judge
under the influence of government, may be
honest enough in the decision of private
causes, yet a traitor to the pubhc. When a
victim is marked out by the ministry, this
judge wiU offer himself to perform the sacrifice.
He wUl not scruple to prostitute his dignity,
and betray the sanctity of his office, whenever
an arbitrary point is to be carried for govern
ment, or the resentments of a court are to be
gratified.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 237
These principles and proceedings, odious and
contemptible as they are, in effect are no less
injudicious. A wise and generous people are
roused by every appearance of oppressive,
unconstitutional measures, whether those mea
sures are supported openly by the power of
government, or masked under the forms of
a court of justice. Prudence and self-pre
servation wUl oblige the most moderate dis
positions to make common cause, even with
a man whose conduct they censure, if they
see him persecuted in a way which the real
spirit of the laws will not justify. The facts,
on which these remarks are founded, are too
notorious to require an application.
This, Sir, is the detail. In one view behold
a nation overwhelmed with debt ; her revenues
wasted ; her trade dechning ; the affections of
her colonies ahenated ; the duty of the magis
trate transferred to the soldiery ; a gaUant army,
which never fought unwiUingly but against
their feUow - subjects, mouldering away for
want of the direction of a man of common
abUities and spirit ; and, in the last instance,
the administration of justice become odious
and suspected to the whole body of the
people. This deplorable scene admits but
of one addition — that we are governed by

238 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
counsels, from which a reasonable man can
expect no remedy but poison, no rehef but
death. If, by the immediate interposition of Provi
dence, it were possible for us to escape a
crisis so full of terror and despair, posterity
wiU not beUeve the history of the present
times. They wiU either conclude that our
distresses were imaginary, or that we had
the good fortune to be governed by men of
acknowledged integrity and wisdom : they
wUl not beheve it possible that their ancestors
could have survived, or recovered from so
desperate a condition, whUe a duke of Grafton
was prime minister, a lord North chanceUor
of the Exchequer, a Weymouth and a Hills
borough secretaries of state, a Granby com
mander-in-chief, and a Mansfield chief criminal
judge of the kingdom.
JUNIUS.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS
[This letter is an attack on John Russell, fourth
Duke of Bedford (1710-1771), the head of the
'Bloomsbury gang,' as his adherents were called.
They were of sufficient strength to constitute if not
a party at any rate a faction by themselves. Bed
ford's character and career do not merit much
admiration, but they were far different from what
Junius represents them to be. This letter is indeed
one of the most effective but certainly one of the
most venomous attacks on a politician to be found
in the whole range of English political literature.
For an exhaustive examination of Junius's insinua
tions and falsehoods the reader is referred to
Brougham's ' Statesmen of George III. ' and Lord
John Russell's introduction to the third volume of
the ' Bedford Correspondence.'] LETTER XXIII
TO
HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD
19 Sept. 1769.
My Lord, — You are so httle accustomed to
receive any remarks of respect or esteem from
the pubhc that if, in the following Unes, a com-
239

240 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
pliment or expression of applause should escape
me, I fear you would consider it as a mockery
of your estabhshed character, and perhaps an
insult to your understanding. You have nice
feehngs, my Lord, if we may judge from your
resentments. Cautious therefore of giving
offence, where you have so httle deserved it, I
shaU leave the Ulustration of your virtues to
other hands. Your friends have a privilege to
play upon the easiness of your temper, or pos
sibly they are better acquainted with your good
quahties than I am. You have done good by
stealth. The rest is upon record. You have
stiU left ample room for speculation, when
panegyric is exhausted.
You are indeed a very considerable man.
The highest rank ; a splendid fortune ; and a
name, glorious tiU it was yours, were sufficient
to have supported you with meaner abUities than
I think you possess. From the first you de
rived a constitutional claim to respect ; from
the second, a natural extensive authority ; — the
last created a partial expectation of hereditary
virtues. The use you have made of these
uncommon advantages might have been more
honourable to yourself, but could not be more
instructive to mankind. We may trace it in the
veneration of your country, the choice of your

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 241
friends, and in the accomplishment of every san
guine hope, which the pubhc might have con
ceived from the illustrious name of Russell.
The eminence of your station gave you a
commanding prospect of your duty. The road
which led to honour, was open to your view.
You could not lose it by mistake, and you had
no temptation to depart from it by design.
Compare the natural dignity and importance
of the richest peer of England; — the noble
independence which he might have maintained
in parhament, and the real interest and respect
which he might have acquired, not only in
parhament, but through the whole kingdom ;
compare these glorious distinctions with the
ambition of holding a share in government, the
emoluments of a place, the sale of a borough,
or the purchase of a corporation ; and though
you may not regret the virtues which create
respect, you may see with anguish how much
real importance and authority you have lost.
Consider the character of an independent
virtuous duke of Bedford; imagine what he
might be in this country, then reflect one
moment upon what you are. If it be possible
for me to withdraw my attention from the fact,
I wiU tell you in theory what such a man
might be.

242 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
Conscious of his own weight and import
ance, his conduct in parhament would be
directed by nothing but the constitutional duty
of a peer. He would consider himself as a
guardian of the laws. WiUing to support the
just measures of government, but determined
to observe the conduct of the minister with
suspicion, he would oppose the violence of
faction with as much firmness as the encroach
ments of prerogative. He would be as little
capable of bargaining with the minister for places
for himself, or his dependents, as of descending
to mix himself in the intrigues of opposi
tion. Whenever an important question caUed
for his opinion in parhament, he would be
heard, by the most profligate minister, with
deference and respect. His authority would
either sanctify or disgrace the measures of
government. — The people would look up to
him as to their protector, and a virtuous prince
would have one honest man in his dominions,
in whose integrity and judgment he might
safely confide. If it should be the wiU of
Providence to afflict him with a domestic
misfortune, he would submit to the stroke
with feehng, but not without dignity. He
would consider the people as his children,
and receive a generous heartfelt consolation,

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 243
in the sympathizing tears and blessings of
his country.
Your Grace may probably discover some
thing more intelligible in the negative part
of this iUustrious character. The man I have
described would never prostitute his dignity
in parhament by an indecent violence either
in opposing or defending a minister. He
would not at one moment rancorously per
secute, at another basely cringe to, the
favourite of his sovereign. After outraging
the royal dignity with peremptory conditions,
httle short of menace and hostihty, he would
never descend to the humility of sohciting an
interview with the favourite, and of offering
to recover, at any price, the honour of his
friendship. Though deceived perhaps in his
youth, he would not, through the course of
a long hfe, have invariably chosen his friends
from among the most profligate of mankind.
His own honour would have forbidden him from
mixing his private pleasures or conversation with
jockeys, gamesters, blasphemers, gladiators,
or buffoons. He would then have never felt,
much less would he have submitted to the
humiliating, dishonest necessity of engaging
in the interest and intrigues of his depen
dents, of supplying their vices, or relieving

244 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
their beggary, at the expense of his country.
He would not have betrayed such ignorance,
or such contempt of the constitution, as openly
to avow, in a court of justice, the purchase
and sale of a borough. He would not have
thought it consistent with his rank in the
state, or even with his personal importance,
to be the Uttle tyrant of a httle corporation.
He would never have been insulted with
virtues, which he had laboured to extinguish,
nor suffered the disgrace of a mortifying defeat,
wliich has made him ridiculous and contempt
ible, even to the few by whom he was not
detested. — I reverence the afflictions of a good
man, — his sorrows are sacred. But how can
we take part in the distresses of a man,
whom we can neither love nor esteem ; or feel
for a calamity of which he himself is in
sensible ? Where was the father's heart when
he could look for or find an immediate consola
tion for the loss of an only son, in consultations
and bargains for a place at court, and even
in the misery of balloting at the India House !
Admitting then that you have mistaken or
deserted those honourable principles, which
ought to have directed your conduct; admit
ting that you have as httle claim to private
affection as to pubhc esteem, let us see with

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 245
what abilities, with what degree of judgment,
you have carried your own system into execution.
A great man, in the success and even in the
magnitude of his crimes, finds a rescue from con
tempt. Your Grace is every way unfortunate.
Yet I wUl not look back to those ridiculous
scenes, by which in your earlier days you
thought it an honour to be distinguished ; the
recorded stripes, the pubhc infamy, your own
sufferings, or Mr Rigby 's fortitude.1 These
events undoubtedly left an impression, though
not upon your mind. To such a mind, it may
perhaps be a pleasure to reflect, that there is
hardly a corner of any of his Majesty's king
doms, except France, in which, at one time
or other, your valuable Ufe has not been in
danger. Amiable man! we see and acknow
ledge the protection of Providence, by which
you have so often escaped the personal detes
tation of your feUow-subjects, and are stiU
reserved for the public justice of your country.
Your history begins to be important at
that auspicious period at which you were
deputed to represent the earl of Bute, at the
court of VersaiUes. It was an honourable
office, and executed with the same spirit
1 In 1752 Richard Rigby (1722-1788) rescued the duke
from the violence of the mob at the Lichfield races.

246 LETTERS OF JUNIUS .
with which it was accepted. Your patrons
wanted an ambassador, who would submit
to make concessions, without daring to insist
upon any honourable condition for his sove
reign. Their business required a man, who
had as Uttle feeling for his own dignity as
for the welfare of his country ; and they found
him in the first rank of the nobility. BeUeisle,
Goree, Guadaloupe, St Lucia, Martinique, the
Fishery,1 and the Havanna, are glorious monu
ments of your Grace's talents for negotiation.
My Lord, we are too weU acquainted with
your pecuniary character, to think it possible
that so many pubhc sacrifices should have been
made, without some private compensations.
Your conduct carries with it an internal evi
dence, beyond aU the legal proofs of a court
of justice. Even the caUous pride of lord
Egremont was alarmed. He saw and felt his
own dishonour in corresponding with you;
and there certainly was a moment, at which
he meant to have resisted, had not a fatal
lethargy prevailed over his faculties, and car
ried aU sense and memory away with it.
I wiU not pretend to specify the secret terms
on which you were invited to support an ad-
1 I.e. off Newfoundland; all these acquisitions were
given up by the peace of Paris in 1763.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 247
ministration which lord Bute pretended to
leave in fuU possession of their ministerial
authority, and perfectly masters of themselves.
He was not of a temper to reUnquish power,
, though he retired from employment. Stipula
tions were certainly made between your Grace
and him, and certainly violated. After two
years' submission, you thought you had col
lected a strength sufficient to controul his
influence, and that it was your turn to be a
tyrant, because you had been a slave. When
you found yourself mistaken in your opinion of
your gracious Master's firmness, disappointment
got the better of all your humble discretion,
and carried you to an excess of outrage to his
person, as distant from true spirit, as from aU
decency and respect. After robbing him of the
rights of a king, you would not permit him to
preserve the honour of a gentleman. It was
then lord Weymouth was nominated to Ireland,
and despatched (we weU remember with what
indecent hurry) to plunder the treasury of the
first fruits of an employment which you well
knew he was never to execute.
This sudden declaration of war against the
favourite might have given you a momentary
merit with the pubhc, if it had either been
adopted upon principle, or maintained with

248 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
resolution. Without looking back to aU your
former servUity, we need only observe your
subsequent conduct, to see upon what motives
you acted. Apparently united with Mr Gren
vUle, you waited until lord Rockingham's
feeble admimstration should dissolve in its
own weakness. — The moment their dismission
was suspected, the moment you perceived that
another system was adopted in the closet, you
thought it no disgrace to return to your former
dependence, and solicit once more the friend
ship of lord Bute. You begged an interview,
at which he had spirit enough to treat you
with contempt.
It would now be of little use to point out,
by what a train of weak, injudicious measures
it became necessary, or was thought so, to caU
you back to a share in the administration.
The friends, whom you did not in the last
instance desert, were not of a character to add
strength or credit to government ; and at that
time your aUiance with the duke of Grafton
was, I presume, hardly foreseen. We must
look for other stipulations, to account for that
sudden resolution of the closet, by which three
of your dependants (whose characters, I think,
cannot be less respected than they are) were
advanced to offices, through which you might

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 249
again controul the minister, and probably en
gross the whole direction of affairs.
The possession of absolute power is now
once more within your reach. The measures
you have taken to obtain and confirm it, are
too gross to escape the eyes of a discerning
judicious prince. His palace is besieged; the
fines of. circumvallation are drawing round him ;
and unless he finds a resource in his own
activity, or in the attachment of the real friends
of his family, the best of princes must submit
to the confinement of a state prisoner, until
your Grace's death, or some less fortunate
event, shaU raise the siege. For the present,
you may safely resume that style of insult and
menace, which even a private gentleman can
not submit to hear without being contemptible.
Mr Mackenzie's history is not yet forgotten,
and you may find precedents enough of the
mode, in which an imperious subject may
signify his pleasure to his sovereign. Where
will this gracious monarch look for assistance,
when the wretched Grafton could forget his
obligations to his master, and desert him for a
hollow aUiance with such a man as the duke of
Bedford !
Let us consider you, then, as arrived at the
summit of worldly greatness ; let us suppose,
Q

250 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
that aU your plans of avarice and ambition are
accompUshed, and your most sanguine wishes
gratified in the fear as well as the hatred of the
people : Can age itself forget that you are now
in the last act of hfe ? Can grey hairs make
foUy venerable? and is there no period to be
reserved for meditation and retirement? For
shame ! my Lord : let it not be recorded of
you, that the latest moments of your hfe were
dedicated to the same unworthy pursuits, the
same busy agitations, in which your youth and
manhood were exhausted. Consider, that, al
though you cannot disgrace your former hfe,
you are violating the character of age, and
exposing the impotent imbecihty, after you
have lost the vigour of the passions.
Your friends will ask, perhaps, Whither shall
this unhappy old man retire ? Can he remain
in the metropolis, where his hfe has been so
often threatened, and his palace so often
attacked? If he returns to Woburn, scorn
and mockery await him. He must create a
sohtude round his estate, if he would avoid
the face of reproach and derision. At Ply
mouth, his destruction would be more than
probable ; at Exeter, inevitable. No honest
EngUshman wUl ever forget his attachment, nor
any honest Scotchman forgive his treachery, to

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 251
lord Bute. At every town he enters, he must
change his liveries and his name. Which ever
way he flies, the Hue and Cry of the country
pursues him.
In another kingdom, indeed, the blessings of
his administration have been more sensibly
felt ; his virtues better understood ; or at
worst, they will not, for him alone, forget
their hospitality. — As weU might Verres
have returned to SicUy. You have twice
escaped, my Lord ; beware of a third experi
ment. The indignation of a whole people,
plundered, insulted, and oppressed as they
have been, wUl not always be disappointed.
It is in vain therefore to shift the scene.
You can no more fly from your enemies
than from yourself. Persecuted abroad, you
look into your own heart for consolation, and
find nothing but reproaches and despair.
But, my Lord, you may quit the field of
business, though not the field of danger;
and though you cannot be safe, you may
cease to be ridiculous. I fear you have
listened too long to the advice of those per
nicious friends, with whose interests you have
sordidly united your own, and for whom you
have sacrificed every thing that ought to be
dear to a man of honour. They are stUl base

252 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
enough to encourage the follies of your age,
as they once did the vices of your youth. As
Uttle acquainted with the rules of decorum, as
with the laws of morahty, they wUl not suffer
you to profit by experience, nor even to con
sult the propriety of a bad character. Even
now they teU you, that hfe is no more than
a dramatic scene, in which the hero should
preserve his consistency to the last, and that
as you hved without virtue, you should die
without repentance.

XI
LETTERS OF JUNIUS
[The excitement caused by these letters culmin
ated in the following addressed to the king, whom
Junius hated even more than he hated his ministers.
This letter is perhaps unique in its outspokenness,
but unlike most of Junius's letters there is little
that is actually scurrilous in it except the
ferocious attack on the Scots.] 1
LETTER XXXV
FOR THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER
19 December, 1769.
When the complaints of a brave and powerful
people are observed to increase in proportion to
the wrongs they have suffered; when, instead
of sinking into submission, they are roused to
resistance, the time wiU soon arrive at which
every inferior consideration must yield to the
security of the sovereign, and to the general
safety of the state. There is a moment of
difficulty and danger, at which flattery and false
hood can no longer deceive, and simpUcity itself
1 See Lecky's Hist, of England, ed. 1892, iii. 446, 399.

254 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
can no longer be misled. Let us suppose it
arrived. Let us suppose a gracious, weU-in-
tentioned Prince, made sensible at last of the
great duty he owes to his people, and of his own
disgraceful situation ; that he looks round him
for assistance, and asks for no advice, but how
to gratify the wishes and secure the happiness
of his subjects. In these circumstances, it may
be matter of curious speculation to consider,
if an honest man were permitted to approach a
king, in what terms he would address himself
to his sovereign. Let it be imagined, no matter
how improbable, that the first prejudice against
his character is removed, that the ceremonious
difficulties of an audience are surmounted, that
he feels himself animated by the purest and
most honourable affections to his king and
country, and that the great person, whom he
addresses, has spirit enough to bid bim speak
freely, and understanding enough to listen to
him with attention. Unacquainted with the
vain impertinence of forms, he would dehver his
sentiments with dignity and firmness, but not
without respect.
Sir, — It is the misfortune of your life, and
originaUy the cause of every reproach and dis
tress which has attended your government, that

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 255
you should never have been acquainted with the
language of truth, until you heard it in the com
plaints of your people. It is not, however, too
late to correct the error of your education. We
are stiU inclined to make an indulgent aUow
ance for the pernicious lessons you received in
your youth, and to form the most sanguine
hopes from the natural benevolence of your dis
position. We are far fi-om thinking you capable
of a direct, dehberate purpose to invade those
original rights of your subjects, on which aU
their civU and pohtical Uberties depend. Had
it been possible for us to entertain a suspicion
so dishonourable to your character, we should
long since have adopted a style of remonstrance
very distant from the humility of complaint.
The doctrine inculcated by our laws, That the
King can do no wrong, is admitted without
reluctance. We separate the amiable, good-
natured prince from the folly and treachery of
his servants, and the private virtues of the man
from the vices of his government. Were it not
for this just distinction, I know not whether
your Majesty's condition, or that of the Enghsh
nation, would deserve most to be lamented. I
would prepare your mind for a favourable re
ception of truth, by removing every painful,
offensive idea of personal reproach. Your sub-

256 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
jects, Sir, wish for nothing but that, as they are
reasonable and affectionate enough to separate
your person from your government, so you, in
your turn, should distinguish between the con
duct which becomes the permanent dignity of a
king, and that which serves only to promote the
temporary interest and miserable ambition of a
minister. You ascended the throne with a declared,
and, I doubt not, a sincere resolution of giving
universal satisfaction to your subjects. You
found them pleased with the novelty of a young
prince, whose countenance promised even more
than his words, and loyal to you not only from
principle, but passion. It was not a cold pro
fession of allegiance to the first magistrate, but
a partial, animated attachment to a favourite
prince, the native of their country. They did
not wait to examine your conduct, nor to be
determined by experience, but gave you a gener
ous credit for the future blessings of your reign,
and paid you in advance the dearest tribute of
their affections. Such, Sir, was once the dis
position of a people, who now surround your
throne with reproaches and complaints. Do
justice to yourself. Banish from your mind
those unworthy opinions, with which some
interested persons have laboured to possess you.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 257
Distrust the men, who tell you that the Enghsh
are naturaUy Ught and inconstant ; — that they
complain without a cause. Withdraw your
confidence equally from all parties, from minis
ters, favourites, and relations ; and let there be
one moment in your hfe, in which you have con
sulted your own understanding.
When you affectedly renounced the name of
Enghshman,1 beheve me, Sir, you were per
suaded to pay a very Ul-judged comphment to
one part of your subjects, at the expense of
another. While the natives of Scotland are not
in actual rebellion, they are undoubtedly entitled
to protection ; nor do I mean to condemn the
pohcy of giving some encouragement to the
novelty of their affections for the house of
Hanover. I am ready to hope for every thing
from thefr new-born zeal, and from the future
steadiness of their aUegiance. But hitherto
they have no claim to your favour. To honour
them with a determined predUection and con
fidence, in exclusion of your Enghsh subjects,
who placed your family, and, in spite of
treachery and rebeUion, have supported it
upon the throne, is a mistake too gross, even
for the unsuspecting generosity of youth.
In this error we see a capital violation of
1 George III. gloried in the name of Briton.

258 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
the most obvious rules of policy and pru
dence. We trace it, however, to an original
bias in your education, and are ready to aUow
for your inexperience.
To the same early influence we attribute it,
that you have descended to take a share not
only in the narrow views and interests of
particular persons, but in the fatal malignity
of their passions. At your accession to the
throne, the whole system of government was
altered, not from wisdom or dehberation, but
because it had been adopted by your pre
decessor. A httle personal motive of pique
and resentment was sufficient to remove the
ablest servants of the crown;1 but it is not
in this country, Sir, that such men can be
dishonoured by the frowns of a king. They
were dismissed, but could not be disgraced.
Without entering into a minuter discussion
of the merits of the peace,2 we may observe,
in the imprudent hurry with which the
first overtures from France were accepted,
in the conduct of the negotiation, and terms
1 E.g. Henry Bilson Legge, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
who was dismissed in March 1761 for refusing to support
the candidature of Bute's friend Simeon Stuart for Par
liament, and for refusing to move a motion for paying
large sums to the landgrave of Hesse.
2 The peace of Paris, Nov. 1762.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 259
of the treaty, the strongest marks of that
precipitate spirit of concession, with which
a certain part of your subjects have been at
all times ready to purchase a peace with the
natural enemies of this country. On your
part we are satisfied that every thing was
honourable and sincere, and if England was
sold to France, we doubt not that your
Majesty was equaUy betrayed. The conditions
of the peace were matter of grief and surprise
to your subjects, but not the immediate cause
of their present discontent.
Hitherto, Sir, you had been sacrificed to the
prejudices and passions of others. With what
firmness wUl you bear the mention of your own ?
A man, not very honourably distinguished in
the world, commences a formal attack upon
your favourite, considering nothing, but how
he might best expose his person and principles
to detestation, and the national character of
his countrymen to contempt. The natives of
that country, Sir, are as much distinguished
by a pecuhar character, as by your Majesty's
favour. Like another chosen people, they have
been conducted into the land of plenty, where
they find themselves effectuaUy marked, and
divided from mankind. There is hardly a
period, at which the most irregular character

260 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
may not be redeemed. The mistakes of one
sex find a retreat in patriotism,1 those of the
other, in devotion. Mr WUkes brought with
him into pohtics the same liberal sentiments,
by which his private conduct had been directed,
and seemed to think, that, as there are few
excesses in which an English gentleman may
not be permitted to indulge, the same latitude
was aUowed him in the choice of his pohtical
principles, and in the spirit of maintaining
them. — I mean to state, not entirely to defend
his conduct. In the earnestness of his zeal,
he suffered some unwarrantable insinuations
to escape him. He said more than moderate
men would justify ; but not enough to entitle
him to the honour of your Majesty's personal
resentment. The rays of royal indignation,
coUected upon him, served only to iUuminate,
and could not consume. Animated by the
favour of the people on one side, and heated
by persecution on the other, his views and
sentiments changed with his situation. Hardly
serious at first, he is now an enthusiast. The
coldest bodies warm with opposition, the
hardest sparkle in collision. There is a holy
mistaken zeal in politics as well as in reUgion.
1 Compare Johnson's remark that ' patriotism was the
last refuge of scoundrels. '

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 261
By persuading others, we convince ourselves.
The passions are engaged, and create a maternal
affection in the mind, which forces us to love
the cause for which we suffer. — Is this a con
tention worthy of a king ? Are you not sensible
how much the meanness of the cause gives an
air of ridicule to the serious difficulties into
which you have been betrayed? the destruc
tion of one man has been now, for many years,
the sole object of your government; and if
there can be any thing stUl more disgraceful,
we have seen, for such an object, the utmost
influence of the executive power, and every
ministerial artifice, exerted without success.
Nor can you ever succeed, unless he should be
imprudent enough to forfeit the protection of
those laws to which you owe your crown, or
unless your ministers should persuade you to
make it a question of force alone, and try the
whole strength of government in opposition to
the people. The lessons he has received from
experience, wiU probably guard him from such
excess of foUy ; and in your Majesty's virtues
we find an unquestionable assurance that no
iUegal violence wUl be attempted.
Far from suspecting you of so horrible a
design, we would attribute the continued viola
tion of the laws, and even this last enormous

262 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
attack upon the vital principles of the con
stitution, to an Ul-advised, unworthy, personal
resentment. From one false step you have
been betrayed into another, and as the cause
was unworthy of you, your ministers were
determined that the prudence of the execution
should correspond with the wisdom and dignity
of the design. They have reduced you to
the necessity of chusing out of a variety
of difficulties; — to a situation so unhappy,
that you can neither do wrong without ruin,
nor right without affliction. These worthy
servants have undoubtedly given you many
singular proofs of their abilities. Not con
tented with making Mr WUkes a man of im
portance, they have judiciously transferred the
question, from the rights and interests of one
man, to the most important rights and interests
of the people, and forced your subjects, from
wishing weU to the cause of an individual,
to unite with him in their own. Let them
proceed as they have begun, and your Majesty
need not doubt that the catastrophe wiU do
no dishonour to the conduct of the piece.
The circumstances to which you are reduced,
wiU not admit of a compromise with the
Enghsh nation. Undecisive, qualifying mea
sures wiU disgrace your government still more

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 263
than open violence, and, without satisfying
the people, wiU excite their contempt. They
have too much understanding and spirit to
accept of an indirect satisfaction for a direct
injury. Nothing less than a repeal, as formal
as the resolution itself, can heal the wound,
which has been given to the constitution,1 nor
wiU any thing less be accepted. I can readUy
beheve that there is an influence sufficient
to recall that pernicious vote. The House
of Commons undoubtedly consider their duty
to the crown as paramount to all other obli
gations. To us they are only indebted for
an accidental existence, and have justly trans
ferred their gratitude from their parents to
their benefactors ; — from those who gave them
birth, to the minister, from whose benevolence
they derive the comforts and pleasures of
their pohtical hfe ; — who has taken the
tenderest care of their infancy, and reUeves
their necessities without offending their deli
cacy. But, if it were possible for thefr
integrity to be degraded to a condition so
vile and abject, that, compared with it, the
present j estimation they stand in is a state
of honour and respect, consider, Sir, in what
1 I.e. a repeal of the resolution excluding Wilkes from
the House of Commons.

264 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
manner you wUl afterwards proceed. Can
you conceive that the people of this country
wiU long submit to be governed by so flexible
a House of Commons ! It is not in the
nature of human society, that any form of
government, in such circumstances, can long
be. preserved. In ours, the general contempt
of the people is as fatal as their detestation.
Such, I am persuaded, would be the necessary
effect of any base concession made by the pre
sent House of Commons, and, as a qualifying
measure would not be accepted, it remains for
you to decide whether you wUl, at any hazard,
support a set of men, who have reduced you
to this unhappy dUemma, or whether you will
gratify the united wishes of the whole people
of England, by dissolving the parliament.
Taking it for granted, as I do very sincerely,
that you have personaUy no design against the
constitution, nor any views inconsistent with
the good of your subjects, I think you cannot
hesitate long upon the choice, which it equally
concerns your interest and your honour to
adopt. On one side, you hazard the affec
tions of aU your EngUsh subjects ; you
rehnquish every hope of repose to yourself,
and you endanger the estabhshment of your
famUy for ever. AU this you venture for no

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 265
object whatsoever, or for such an object, as
it would be an aflront to you to name. Men
of sense wUl examine your conduct with sus
picion ; whUe those who are incapable of com
prehending to what degree they are injured,
afflict you with clamours equally insolent and
unmeaning. Supposing it possible that no
fatal struggle should ensue, you determine at
once to be unhappy, without the hope of a
compensation either from interest or ambition.
If an Enghsh king be hated or despised, he
must be unhappy ; and this perhaps is the
only political truth, which he ought to be
convinced of without experiment. But if
the English people should no longer confine
their resentment to a submissive representation
of their wrongs ; if, foUowing the glorious
example of thefr ancestors, they should no
longer appeal to the creature of the constitu
tion, but to that high Being, who gave them
the rights of humanity, whose gifts it were
sacrilege to surrender, let me ask you, Sir,
upon what part of your subjects would you
rely for assistance?
The people of Ireland have been uniformly
plundered and oppressed. In return, they give
you every day fresh marks of their resent
ment. They despise the miserable governor
R

266 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
you have sent them,1 because he is the
creature of lord Bute ; nor is it from any
natural confusion in their ideas, that they are
so ready to confound the original of a king
with the disgraceful representation of him.
The distance of the colonies would make it
impossible for them to take an active con
cern in your affairs, if they were as well
affected to your government as they once pre
tended to be to your person. They were ready
enough to distinguish between you and your
ministers. They complained of an act of the
legislature, but traced the origin of it no higher
than to the servants of the crown: They
pleased themselves with the hope that their
sovereign, if not favourable to their cause,
at least was impartial. The decisive, per
sonal part you took against them, has effec-
tuaUy banished that first distinction from their
minds. They consider you as united with
your servants against America, and know how
to distinguish the sovereign and a venal par
hament on one side, from the real sentiments
of the English people on the other. Looking
forward to independence, they might possibly
receive you for their king; but, ff ever you
1 George Townshend, fourth Viscount and first Marquis
Townshend .

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 267
retire to America, be assured they wUl give
you such a covenant to digest, as the presby
tery of Scotland would have been ashamed
to offer to Charles the Second. They left
their native land in search of freedom, and
found it in a desert. Divided as they are
into a thousand forms of policy and rehgion,
there is one point in which they all agree : —
they equally detest the pageantry of a king,
and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop.
It] is not then from the ahenated affections
of Ireland or America, that you can reason
ably look for assistance ; stiU less from the
people of England, who are actuaUy con
tending for their rights, and in this great
question, are parties against you. You are
not, however, destitute of every appearance
of support : You have aU the Jacobites, Non
jurors, Roman Cathohcs, and Tories of this
country, and aU Scotland without exception.
Considering from what famUy you are de
scended, the choice of your friends has been
singularly directed ; and truly, Sir, ff you had
not lost the Whig interest of England, I
should admire your dexterity in turning the
hearts of your enemies. Is it possible for you
to place any confidence in men, who, before
they are faithful to you, must renounce every

268 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
opinion, and betray every principle, both in
church and state, which they inherit from their
ancestors, and are confirmed in by their educa
tion? whose numbers are so inconsiderable,
that they have long since been obhged to give
up the principles and language which dis
tinguish them as a party, and to fight under
the banners of their enemies? Their zeal
begins with hypocrisy, and must conclude in
treachery. At first they deceive ; at last they
betray. As to the Scotch, I must suppose your heart
and understanding so biassed, from your earhest
infancy, in their favour, that nothing less than
your own misfortunes can undeceive you. You
wUl not accept of the uniform experience of
your ancestors : and when once a man is de
termined to beheve, the very absurdity of the
doctrine confirms him in his faith. A bigoted
understanding can draw a proof of attachment
to the house of Hanover from a notorious zeal
for the house of Stuart, and find an earnest
of future loyalty in former rebeUions. Ap
pearances are however in their favour : so
strongly indeed, that one would think they
had forgotten that you are their lawful king,
and had mistaken you for a pretender to the
crown. Let it be admitted then that the

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 269
Scotch are as sincere in their present pro
fessions, as if you were in reality not an
Englishman, but a Briton of the North. You
would not be the first prince, of their native
country, against whom they have rebelled,
nor the first whom they have basely betrayed.
Have you forgotten, Sir, or has your favourite
concealed from you, that part of our history,
when the unhappy Charles (and he too had
private virtues) fled from the open, avowed
indignation of his English subjects, and sur
rendered himself at discretion to the good
faith of his own countrymen. Without look
ing for support in their affections as subjects,
he apphed only to their honour as gentlemen,
for protection. They received him as they
would your Majesty, with bows and smiles,
and falsehood, and kept him untU they had
settled their bargain with the Enghsh parha
ment ; then basely sold their native king to
the vengeance of his enemies. This, Sir, was
not the act of a few traitors, but the de
liberate treachery of a Scotch parhament, re
presenting the nation. A wise prince might
draw from it two lessons of equal utUity to
himself. On one side he might learn to
dread the undisguised resentment of a gener
ous people, who dare openly assert their

270 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
rights, and who, hi a just cause, are ready
to meet their sovereign in the field. On the
other side, he would be taught to apprehend
something far more formidable; — a fawning
treachery, against which no prudence can
guard, no courage can defend. The insidious
smile upon the cheek would warn him of the
canker in the heart.
From the uses to which one part of the
army has been too frequently applied, you
have some reason to expect, that there are
no services they would refuse. Here too we
trace the partiaUty of your understanding.
You take the sense of the army from the
conduct of the guards, with the same justice
with which you coUect the sense of the people
from the representations of the ministry. Your
marching regiments, Sir, wiU not make the
guards their example either as soldiers or
subjects. They feel and resent, as they ought
to do, that invariable, undistinguishing favour
with which the guards are treated ; while
those gallant troops, by whom every hazardous,
every laborious service is performed, are left
to perish in garrisons abroad, or pine in
quarters at home, neglected and forgotten.
If they had no sense of the] great original
duty they owe their country, their resent-

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 271
ment would operate Uke patriotism, and leave
your cause to be defended by those to whom
you have lavished the rewards and honours
of their profession. The Praetorian bands,
enervated and debauched as they were, had
still strength enough to awe the Roman
populace: but when the distant legions took
the alarm, they marched to Rome, and gave
away the empire.
On this side then, whichever way you turn
your eyes, you see nothing but perplexity and
distress. You may determine to support the
very ministry who have reduced your affairs
to this deplorable situation: you may shelter
yourself under the forms of a parliament, and
set your people at defiance. But be assured,
Sir, that such a resolution would be as im
prudent as it would be odious. If it did
not immediately shake your estabhshment, it
would rob you of your peace of mind for
ever. On the other, how different is the prospect !
How easy, how safe and honourable is the
path before you! The EngUsh nation declare
they are grossly injured by their representatives,
and sohcit your Majesty to exert your lawful
prerogative, and give them an opportunity of
recalling a trust, which, they find, has been

272 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
scandalously abused. You are not to be told
that the power of the House of Commons is
not original, but delegated to them for the
welfare of the people, from whom they re
ceived it. A question of right arises between
the constituent and the representative body.
By what authority shaU it be decided ? WUl
your Majesty interfere in a question in which
you have properly no immediate concern ? — It
would be a step equaUy odious and unnecessary.
ShaU the Lords be caUed upon to determine
the rights and privUeges of the Commons? —
They cannot do it without a flagrant breach of
the constitution. Or wUl you refer it to the
judges ? — They have often told your ancestors,
that the law of parhament is above them.
What party then remains, but to leave it to
the people to determine for themselves ? They
alone are injured ; and since there is no superior
power, to which the cause can be referred, they
alone ought to determine.
I do not mean to perplex you with a tedious
argument upon a subject already so discussed
that inspiration could hardly throw a new hght
upon it. There are, however, two points of
view, in which it particularly imports your
Majesty to consider the late proceedings of the
House of Commons. By depriving a subject

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 273
of his birthright, they have attributed to their
own vote an authority equal to an act of the
whole legislature ; and, though perhaps not
with the same motives, have strictly foUowed
the example of the long parhament, which first
declared the regal office useless, and soon after,
with as Uttle ceremony, dissolved the House of
Lords. The same pretended power, which robs
an Enghsh subject of his birthright, may rob an
Enghsh king of his crown. In another view,
the resolution of the House of Commons, ap
parently not so dangerous to your Majesty, is
stiU more alarming to your people. Not con
tented with divesting one man of his right,
they have arbitrarily conveyed that right to
another. They have set aside a return as
illegal, without daring to censure those officers,
who were particularly apprized of Mr WUkes's
incapacity not only by the declaration of the
House, but expressly by the writ directed to
them, and who nevertheless returned him as
duly elected. They have rejected the majority
of votes, the only criterion by which our laws
judge of the sense of the people; they have
transferred the right of election from the col
lective to the representative body; and by
these acts, taken separately or together, they
have essentiaUy altered the original constitution

274 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
of the House of Commons. Versed, as your
Majesty undoubtedly is, in the Enghsh history,
it cannot easily escape you, how much it is
your interest, as weU as your duty, to prevent
one of the three estates1 from encroaching
upon the province of the other two, or assum
ing the authority of them all. When once
they have departed from the great constitu
tional hne, by which aU their proceedings
should be directed, who wUl answer for their
future moderation? Or what assurance will
they give you, that, when they have trampled
upon their equals, they wUl submit to a
superior? Your Majesty may learn hereafter,
how nearly the slave and tyrant are allied.
Some of your council, more candid than
the rest, admit the abandoned profligacy of
the present House of Commons, but oppose
their dissolution upon an opinion, I confess
not very unwarrantable, that their successors
would be equaUy at the disposal of the Trea
sury. I cannot persuade myself that the
nation wiU have profited so Uttle by experi
ence. But if that opinion were well founded,

1 Junius here follows the popular error that the three
estates were king, lords, and commons : the king is not
an estate ; and the three were properly the clergy, peers,
and commons.

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 275
you might then gratify our wishes at an easy
rate, and appease the present clamour against
your government, without offering any material
injury to the favourite cause of corruption.
You have stiU an honourable part to act.
The affections of your subjects may stiU be
recovered. But before you subdue their hearts,
you must gain a noble victory over your own.
Discard those httle, personal resentments,
which have too long directed your pubUc
conduct. Pardon this man the remainder of
his punishment; and if resentment still pre-
vaUs, make it, what it should have been long
since, an act, not of mercy, but contempt.
He wUl soon faU back into his natural station,
— a silent senator, and hardly supporting the
weekly eloquence of a newspaper. The gentle
breath of peace would leave him on the sur
face, neglected and unremoved. It is only the
tempest, that lifts him from his place.
Without consulting your minister, caU to
gether your whole council. Let it appear to
the pubhc that you can determine and act
for yourself. Come forward to your people.
Lay aside the wretched formahties of a king,
and speak to your subjects with the spirit
of a man, and in the language of a gentleman.
TeU them you have been fataUy deceived.

276 LETTERS OF JUNIUS
The acknowledgment will be no disgrace, but
rather an honour to your understanding. Tell
them you are determined to remove every
cause of complaint against your government ;
that ^ou wUl give your confidence to no man,
who does not possess the confidence of your
subjects; and leave it to themselves to deter
mine, by their conduct at a future election,
whether or no it be in reahty the general
sense of the nation, that their rights have
been arbitrarUy invaded by the present House
of Commons, and the constitution betrayed.
They will then do justice to their representa
tives and to themselves.
These sentiments, Sir, and the style they
are conveyed in, may be offensive, perhaps,
because they are new to you. Accustomed
to the language of courtiers, you measure their
affections by the vehemence of their expres
sions ; and, when they only praise you in
directly, you admire their sincerity. But this
is not a time to trifle with your fortune. They
deceive you, Sir, who teU you that you have
many friends, whose affections are founded
upon a principle of personal attachment.
The first foundation of friendship is not the
power of conferring benefits, but the equahty
with which they are received, and may be

LETTERS OF JUNIUS 277
returned. The fortune, which made you a
king, forbade you to have a friend. It is a
law of nature which cannot be violated with
impunity. The mistaken prince, who looks
for friendship, wiU find a favourite, and in
that favourite the ruin of his affairs.
The people of England are loyal to the
house of Hanover, not from a vain preference
of one famUy to another, but from a conviction
that the estabhshment of that family was
necessary to the support of their civU and
religious liberties. This, Sir, is a principle
of allegiance equally soUd and rational ; —
fit for Englishmen to adopt, and well worthy
of your Majesty's encouragement. We cannot
long be deluded by nominal distinctions. The
name of Stuart, of itself, is only contemptible ;
— armed with the sovereign authority, their
principles are formidable. The prince who
imitates their conduct, should be warned by
their example; and whUe he plumes himself
upon the security of his title to the crown,
should remember that, as it was acquired by
one revolution, it may be lost by another.

XII
THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF THE
PRESENT DISCONTENTS
[Burke appears to have commenced this pamphlet
in May 1769, and it was published in 1770. He was
therefore writing it at the same time that Junius
was sending his letters to the proprietor of the
Public Advertiser, and both writers deal with the
same political conditions, but in a very different
manner. Junius writes merely as a brilliant
partisan, Burke as a statesman. This is the
earliest of his great writings, but the fragment
reprinted here probably contains more sound
political philosophy than is to be found any
where else in the same space.]1
Hoc vero occultum, intestinum ac domesticum malum,
non modo non existit, verum etiam opprimit, antequam
prospicere atque explorare potueris. — Cicero.2
It is an undertaking of some degree of dehcacy
to examine into the cause of pubhc disorders.
If a man happens not to succeed in such an en
quiry, he will be thought weak and visionary ;
1 See Introd. 21.
2 In Verrem. Oratio Secunda, I. xv., § 39.
278

CAUSE OF PRESENT DISCONTENTS 279
if he touches the true grievance, there is a
danger that he may come near to persons of
weight and consequence, who wiU rather be
exasperated at the discovery of their errors,
than thankful for the occasion of correcting
them. If he should be obhged to blame the
favourites of the people, he wUl be considered
as the tool of power; if he censures those in
power, he wiU be looked on as an instrument
of faction. But in all exertions of duty some
thing is to be hazarded. In cases of tumult
and disorder, our law has invested every man,
in some sort, with the authority of a magistrate.
When the affairs of the nation are distracted,
private people are, by the spirit of that law,
justified in stepping a httle out of their ordinary
sphere. They enjoy a privilege, of somewhat
more dignity and effect, than that of idle lamen
tation over the calamities of |thefr country.
They may look into them narrowly ; they may
reason upon them hberaUy ; and if they should
be so fortunate as to discover the true source of
the mischief, and to suggest any probable method
of removing it, though they may displease the
rulers for the day, they are certainly of service
to the cause of Government. Government is
deeply interested in everything wliich, even
through the medium of some temporary uneasi-

280 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
ness, may tend finaUy to compose the minds of
the subject, and to conciliate thefr affections. I
have nothing to do here with the abstract value
of the voice of the people. But as long as re- '
putation, the most precious possession of every
individual, and as long as opinion, the great
support of the State, depend entirely upon that
voice, it can never be considered as a thing of
little consequence either to individuals or to
Government. Nations are not primarily ruled by
laws; less by violence. Whatever original energy
may be supposed either in force or regulation ;
the operation of both is, in truth, merely in
strumental. Nations are governed by the same
methods, and on the same principles, by which
an individual without authority is often able
to govern those who are his equals or his
superiors ; by a knowledge of their temper,
and by a judicious management of it ; I mean,
— when public affairs are steadily and quietly
conducted : not when Government is nothing
but a continued scuffle between the magistrate
and the multitude; in which sometimes the
one and sometimes the other is uppermost ; in
which they alternately yield and prevail, in a
series of contemptible victories, and scandal
ous submissions. The temper of the people
amongst whom he presides ought therefore to

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 281
be the first study of a Statesman. And the
knowledge of this temper it is by no means
impossible for him to attain, if he has not
an interest in being ignorant of what it is his
duty to learn.
To complain of the age we hve in, to mur
mur at the present possessors of power, to
lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes
of the future, are the common dispositions
of the greatest part of mankind ; indeed the
necessary effects of the ignorance and levity
of the vulgar. Such complaints and humours
have existed in all times ; yet as aU times
have not been aUke, true poUtical sagacity
manifests itself, in distinguishing that com
plaint which only characterizes the general
infirmity of human nature, from those which
are symptoms of the particular distemperature
of our own air and season.
Nobody, I beUeve, wUl consider it merely
as the language of spleen or disappointment,
if I say, that there is something particularly
alarming in the present conjuncture. There
is hardly a man, in or out of power, who
holds any other language. That Government
is at once dreaded and contemned ; that the
laws are despoUed of aU thefr respected and
s

282 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
salutary terrors ; that their inaction is a sub
ject of ridicule, and thefr exertion of abhor
rence ; that rank, and office, and title, and
all the solemn plausibihties of the world, have
lost thefr reverence and effect; that our
foreign poUticks are as much deranged as
our domestic ceconomy ; that our dependen
cies are slackened in thefr affection, and
loosened from thefr obedience ; that we know
neither how to yield nor how to enforce ;
that hardly anything above or below, abroad
or at home, is sound and entire ; but that
disconnection and confusion, in offices, in
parties, in famUies, in ParUament, in the
nation, prevaU beyond the disorders of any
former time : these are facts universaUy ad
mitted and lamented.
This state of things is the more extra
ordinary, because the great parties which
formerly divided and agitated the kingdom
are known to be in a manner entirely dis
solved.1 No great external calamity has

1 The Whig party had split up into a number of
factions ; the old Tory party of Queen Anne's time
had been wiped out ; Bolingbroke had called for a
4jationflLpaxty_and a patriot king who should govern
by the ablest men irrespective of party. Chatham had
attempted a similar policy. Hence the results that
Burke describes.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 283
visited the nation ; no pestilence or famine.
We do not labour at present under any
scheme of taxation new or oppressive in the
quantity or in the mode. Nor are we en
gaged in unsuccessful war ; in which, our
misfortunes might easily pervert our judg
ment; and our minds, sore from the loss of
national glory, might feel every blow of
Fortune as a crime in Government.
It is impossible that the cause of this
strange distemper should not sometimes be
come a subject of discourse. It is a com
pliment due, and which I willingly pay, to
those who administer our affairs, to take
notice in the first place of their speculation.
Our Ministers are of opinion, that the increase
of om- trade and manufactures, that our
growth by colonization and by conquest, have
concurred to accumulate immense wealth in
the hands of some individuals ; and this again
being dispersed amongst the people, has
rendered them universaUy proud, ferocious,
and ungovernable ; that the insolence of
some from their enormous wealth, and the
boldness of others from a guUty poverty, have
rendered them capable of the most atrocious
attempts ; so that they have trampled upon

284 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
aU subordination, and violently borne down
the unarmed laws of a free Government ;
barriers too feeble against the fury of a
populace so fierce and licentious as ours.
They contend, that no adequate provocation
has been given for so spreading a discontent ;
our affairs having been conducted throughout
with remarkable temper and consummate wis
dom. The wicked industry of some UbeUers,1
joined to the intrigues of a few disappointed
politicians, have, in their opinion, been able
to produce this unnatural ferment in the
nation. Nothing indeed can be more unnatural than the
present convulsions of this country, if the above
account be a true one. I confess I shaU assent
to it with great reluctance, and only on the
compulsion of the clearest and firmest proofs ;
because their account resolves itself into this
short, but discouraging proposition, 'That we
have a very good Ministry, but that we are a
very bad people ; ' that we set ourselves to bite
the hand that feeds us ; that with a malignant
insanity we oppose the measures, and ungrate-
fuUy vilify the persons, of those whose sole
object is our own peace and prosperity. If a
few puny hbeUers, acting under a knot of factious
1 Especially Junius.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 285
politicians, without virtue, parts, or character,
(such they are constantly represented by these
gentlemen,) are sufficient to excite this disturb
ance, very perverse must be the disposition of
that people, amongst whom such a disturbance
can be excited by such means. It is besides no
smaU aggravation of the pubhc misfortune, that
the disease, on this hypothesis, appears to be
without remedy. If the wealth of the nation be
the cause of its turbulence, I imagine it is not
proposed to introduce poverty, as a constable to
keep the peace. If our dominions abroad are
the roots which feed aU this rank luxuriance of
sedition, it is not intended to cut them off in
order to famish the fruit. If our hberty has en
feebled the executive power, there is no design,
I hope, to call in the aid of despotism, to fill up
the deficiencies of law. Whatever may be in
tended, these things are not yet professed. We
seem therefore to be driven to absolute despair ;
for we have no other materials to work upon,
but those out of which God has been pleased to
form the inhabitants of this island. If these be
radicaUy and essentiaUy vitious, all that can be
said is that those men are very unhappy, to
whose fortune or duty it faUs to administer the
affairs of this imtoward people. I hear it indeed
sometimes asserted, that a steady perseverance

286 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
in the present measures, and a rigorous punish
ment of those who oppose them, wiU in course
of time infallibly put an end to these disorders.
But this, in my opmion, is said without much
observation of our present disposition, and with
out any knowledge at aU of the general nature
of mankind. If the matter of which this nation
is composed be so very fermentable as these
gentlemen describe it, leaven never wiU be
wanting to work it up, as long as discontent,
revenge, and ambition have existence in the
world. Particular punishments are the cure for
accidental distempers in the State ; they inflame
rather than aUay those heats which arise from
the settled mismanagement of the Government,
or from a natural iU disposition in the people.
It is of the utmost moment not to make mis
takes in the use of strong measures ; and firm
ness is then only a virtue when it accompanies
the most perfect wisdom. In truth, incon
stancy is a sort of natural corrective of foUy and
ignorance. I am not one of those who think that the
people are never in the wrong. They have
been so, frequently and outrageously, both in
other countries and in this. But I do say, that
in aU disputes between them and their rulers,
the presumption is at least upon a par in favour

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 287
of the people. Experience may perhaps justify
me in going further. When popular discontents
have been very prevalent; it may weU be
affirmed and supported, that there has been
generaUy something found amiss in the consti
tution, or in the conduct of Government. The
people have no interest in disorder. When they
do wrong, it is their error, and not their crime.
But with the governing part of the State, it is
far otherwise. They certainly may act UI by
design, as weU as by mistake. 'Les revolu
tions qui arrivent dans les grands etats ne
sont point un effect du hazard, ni du caprice
des peuples. Rien ne revolte les grands d'un
royaume comme un Gouvernement foible et
d6range\ Pour la populace, ce n'est jamais
par envie d'attaquer qu'elle se souleve, mais
par impatience de souffrir.'1 These are the
words of a great man ; of a Minister of state ;
and a zealous assertor of Monarchy. They are
apphed to the system of Favouritism which
was adopted by Henry the Third of France,
and to the dreadful consequences it produced.
What he says of revolutions, is equaUy true
of aU great disturbances. If this presumption
in favour of the subjects against the trustees
1 Sully's Memoirs, i. 133; Sully was minister to
Henry IV. of France.

288 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
of power be not the more probable, I am
sure it is the more comfortable speculation ;
because it is more easy to change an adminis
tration than to reform a people.
Upon a supposition, therefore, that, in
the opening of the cause, the presumptions
stand equaUy balanced between the parties,
there seems sufficient ground to entitle any
person to a fair hearing, who attempts some
other scheme beside that easy one which is
fashionable in some fashionable companies, to
account for the present discontents. It is not
to be argued that we endure no grievance,
because our grievances are not of the same
sort with those under which we laboured
formerly ; not precisely those which we bore
from the Tudors, or vindicated on the Stuarts.
A great change has taken place in the affairs
of this country. For in the silent lapse of
events as material alterations have been in
sensibly brought about in the pohcy and char
acter of governments and nations, as those
which have been marked by the tumult of
pubhc revolutions.
It is very rare indeed for men to be wrong
in thefr feehngs concerning public misconduct ;
as rare to be right in their speculation upon

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 289
the cause of it. I have constantly observed,
that the generality of people are fifty years,
at least, behindhand in their pohticks. There
are but very few, who are capable of com
paring and digesting what passes before their
eyes at different times and occasions, so as
to form the whole into a distinct system. But
in books everything is settled for them, with
out the exertion of any considerable dUigence
or sagacity. For which reason men are wise
with but Uttle reflexion, and good with little
self-denial, in the business of all times except
their own. We are very uncorrupt and toler
ably enlightened judges of the transactions of
past ages; where no passions deceive, and
where the whole train of circumstances, from
the trifling cause to the tragical event, is set
in an orderly series before us. Few are the
partizans of departed tyranny; and to be a
Whig on the business of an hundred years
ago, is very consistent with every advantage
of present servUity. This retrospective wisdom,
and historical patriotism, are things of wonder
ful convenience; and serve admirably to re
concile the old quarrel between speculation
and practice. Many a stern repubhcan, after
gorging himself with a full feast of admira
tion of the Grecian commonwealths and of

290 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
our true Saxon constitution, and discharging
aU the splendid bUe of bis virtuous indignation
on King John and King James, sits down
perfectly satisfied to the coarsest work and
homehest job of the day he hves in. I beUeve
there was no professed admirer of Henry the
Eighth among the instruments of the last King
James ; nor in the court of Henry the Eighth
was there, I dare say, to be found a single advo
cate for the favourites of Richard the Second.
No complaisance to our Court, or to our
age, can make me beheve nature to be so
changed, but that pubhc Uberty wUl be among
us, as among our ancestors, obnoxious to some
person or other ; and that opportunities wiU be
furnished for attempting, at least, some altera
tion to the prejudice of our constitution. These
attempts wiU naturaUy vary in their mode,
according to times and circumstances. For
ambftionjjhough it has ever the same general
views, has not at all times the same means, nor
the same particular objects. A great deal of
the furniture of ancient tyranny is worn to rags;
the rest is entirely out of fashion. Besides,
there are few Statesmen so very clumsy and
awkward in their business, as to fall into the
identical snare which has proved fatal to their
predecessors. When an arbitrary imposition

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 291
is attempted upon the subject, undoubtedly it
wiU not bear on its forehead the name of Ship-
money. There is no danger that an extension
of the Forest laws should be the chosen mode
of oppression in this age. . . .
Every age has its own manners, and its poli
ticks dependent upon them; and the same
attempts wiU not be made against a constitution
fully formed and matured, that were used to
destroy it in the cradle, or to resist its growth
during its infancy.
Against the being of Parhament, I am satis
fied, no designs have ever been entertained since
the Revolution. Every one must perceive, that
it is strongly the interest of the Court, to have
some second cause interposed between the
Ministers and the people. The gentlemen of
the House of Commons have an interest equaUy
strong, in sustaining the part of that intermediate
cause. However they may hire out the usufruct
of their voices, they never wiU part with the/ee
and inheritance. Accordingly those who have
been of the most known devotion to the wiU
and pleasure of a Court, have, at the same time,
been most forward in asserting an high authority
in the House of Commons. When they knew
who were to use that authority, and how it was
to be employed, they thought it never could be

292 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
carried too far. It must be always the wish of
an unconstitutional Statesman, that an House
of Commons who are entirely dependent upon
him, should have every right of the people en
tirely dependent upon thefr pleasure. It was
soon discovered, that the forms of a free, and
the ends of an arbitrary Government, were
things not altogether incompatible.
The power of the Crown, almost dead and
rotten as Prerogative, has grown up anew, with
much more strength, and far less odium, under
the name of Influence. An influence, which
operated without noise and without violence;
an influence, which converted the very antago
nist, into the instrument, of power ; which con
tained in itself a perpetual principle of growth
and renovation; and which the distresses and
the prosperity of the country equaUy tended to
augment, was an admirable substitute for a
Prerogative, that, being only the offspring of
antiquated prejudices, had moulded in its
original stamina irresistible principles of decay
and dissolution. The ignorance of the people
is a bottom but for a temporary system; the
interest of active men in the State is a founda
tion perpetual and infaUible. However, some
circumstances, arising, it must be confessed, in
a great degree from accident, prevented the

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 293
effects of this influence for a long time from
breaking out in a manner capable of exciting
any serious apprehensions. Although Govern
ment was strong and flourished exceedingly, the
Court had drawn far less advantage than one
would imagine from this great source of power.
At the Revolution, the Crown, deprived, for
the ends of the Revolution itself, of many pre
rogatives, was found too weak to struggle against
all the difficulties which pressed so new and un
settled a Government. The Court was obliged
therefore to delegate a part of its powers to men
of such interest as could support, and of such
fidelity as would adhere to, its estabhshment.
Such men were able to draw in a greater number
to a concurrence in the common defence. This
connexion, necessary at first, continued long
after convenient ; and properly conducted might
indeed, in aU situations, be an useful instru
ment of Government. At the same time,
through the intervention of men of popular
weight and character, the people possessed a
security for their just proportion of importance
in the State. But as the title to the Crown
grew stronger by long possession, and by the
constant increase of its influence, these helps
have of late seemed to certain persons no better

294 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
than incumbrances. The powerful managers
for Government were not sufficiently submis
sive to the pleasure of the possessors of im
mediate and personal favour, sometimes from
a confidence in thefr own strength natural and
acquired ; sometimes from a fear of offending
their friends, and weakening that lead in the
country, which gave them a consideration inde
pendent of the Court. Men acted as if the
Court could receive, as well as confer, an
obUgation. The influence of Government, thus
divided in appearance between the Court and
the leaders of parties, became in many cases
an accession rather to the popular than to the
royal scale; and some part of that influence,
which would otherwise have been possessed as
in a sort of mortmain and unahenable domain,
returned again to the great ocean from whence
it arose, and circulated among the people.
This method therefore of governing by men of
great natural interest or great acquired con
sideration, was viewed in a very invidious hght
by the true lovers of absolute monarchy. It
is the nature of despotism to abhor power
held by any means but its own momentary
'pleasure ; and to annihilate aU intermediate
situations between boundless strength on its own
part, and total debility on the part of the people.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 295
To get rid of aU this intermediate and inde
pendent importance, and to secure to the Court
the unlimited and uncontrouled use of its own
vast influence, under the sole direction of its
own private favour, has for some years past
been the great object of pohcy. If this were
compassed, the influence of the Crown must of
course produce aU the effects which the most
sanguine partizans of the Court could possibly
desire. Government might then be carried on
without any concurrence on the part of the
people; without any attention to the dignity
of the greater, or to the affections of the lower
sorts. A new project was therefore devised
by a certain set of intriguing men, totally
different from the system of Administration
which had prevaUed since the accession of the
House of Brunswick. This project, I have
heard, was first conceived by some persons in
the court of Frederick Prince of Wales.
The earliest attempt in the execution of this
design was to set up for Minister, a person, in
rank indeed respectable, and very ample in
fortune ; but who, to the moment of this vast
and sudden elevation, was httle known or
considered in the kingdom.1 To him the whole
1 Bute ; the design was originated by Bolingbroke in
his ' Patriot King. ' Bute became virtual prime min i ster

296 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
nation was to yield an immediate and imphcit
submission. But whether it was from want of
firmness to bear up against the first opposition ;
or that things were not yet fuUy ripened, or
that this method was not found the most
eligible ; that idea was soon abandoned. The
instrumental part of the project was a Uttle
altered, to accommodate it to the time, and to
bring things more gradually and more surely to
the one great end proposed.
The first part of the reformed plan was to
draw a line which should separate the Court
from the Ministry. Hitherto these names had
been looked upon as synonymous ; but for
the future, Court and Administration were to
be considered as things totaUy distinct. By
this operation, two systems of Administra
tion were to be formed; one which should
be in the real secret and confidence ; the
other merely ostensible, to perform the offi
cial and executory duties of Government.
The latter were alone to be responsible;
whilst the real advisers, who enjoyed aU the
power, were effectuaUy removed from aU the
danger.1
on the resignation of Pitt in October 1761, but his tenure
of office only lasted till April 1763.
1 Curiously enough, there was a somewhat similar
double system in France under Louis XV. His osten-

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 297
Secondly, A party under these leaders was
to be formed in favour of the Court against
the Ministry: this party was to have a large
share in the emoluments of Government, and
to hold it totally separate from, and inde
pendent of, ostensible Administration.
The third point, and that on which the suc
cess of the whole scheme ultimately depended,
was to bring Parliament to an acquiescence in
this project. Parliament was therefore to be
taught by degrees a total indifference to the
persons, rank, influence, abihties, connexions,
and character of the Ministers of the Crown.
By means of a discipUne, on which I shaU say
more hereafter, that body was to be habituated
to the most opposite interests, and the most
discordant poUticks. AU connexions and de
pendencies among subjects were to be entirely
dissolved. As hitherto business had gone
through the hands of leaders of Whigs or
Tories, men of talents to concihate the people,
and to engage thefr confidence, now the method
was to be altered ; and the lead was to be
given to men of no sort of consideration or
credit in the country. This want of natural
importance was to be their very title to dele-
sible ministers were continually thwarted by secret agents
who were in the full confidence of the king.

298 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
gated power. Members of Parhament were to
be hardened into an insensibiUty to pride as
weU as to duty. Those high and haughty
sentiments, which are the great support of
independence, were to be let down gradually.
Point of honour and precedence were no more
to be regarded in Parliamentary decorum, than
in a Turkish army. It was to be avowed, as a
constitutional maxim, that the King might
appoint one of his footmen, or one of your
footmen, for Minister; and that he ought to
be, and that he would be, as weU followed as
the first name for rank or wisdom in the nation.
Thus' ParUament was to look on, as if perfectly
unconcerned, whUe a cabal of the closet and
back-stairs was substituted in the place of a
national Admimstration.
With such a degree of acquiescence, any
measure of any Court might weU be deemed
thoroughly secure. The capital objects, and
by much the most flattering characteristicks of
arbitrary power, would be obtained. Every
thing would be drawn from its holdings in the
country to the personal favour and inchnation
of the Prince. This favour would be the sole
introduction to power, and the only tenure by
which it was to be held : so that no person
looking towards another, and aU looking to-

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 299
wards the Court, it was impossible but that
the motive which solely influenced every man's
hopes must come in time to govern every man's
conduct ; till at last the servUity became uni
versal, in spite of the dead letter of any laws
or institutions whatsoever.
How it should happen that any man could
be tempted to venture upon such a project of
Government, may at first view appear sur
prizing. But the fact is, that opportunities
very inviting to such an attempt have offered ;
and the scheme itself was not destitute of
some arguments, not whoUy unplausible, to
recommend it. These opportunities and these
arguments, the use that has been made of
both, the plan for carrying this new scheme of
government into execution, and the effects
which it has produced, are in my opinion
worthy of our serious consideration.
His Majesty came to the throne of these
kingdoms with more advantages than any of
his predecessors since the Revolution. Fourth
in descent, and third in succession of his Royal
family, even the zealots of hereditary right,
in him, saw something to flatter thefr favourite
prejudices; and to justify a transfer of their
attachments, without a change in their prin-

300 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
ciples. The person and cause of the Pretender
were become contemptible; his title disowned
throughout Europe, his party disbanded in
England. His Majesty came indeed to the
inheritance of a mighty war; but, victorious
in every part of the globe, peace was always
in his power, not to negociate, but to dictate.
No foreign habitudes or attachments withdrew
him from the cultivation of his power^at home.
His revenue for the civil estabUshment, fixed
(as it was then thought) at a large, but
definite sum,1 was ample, without being in
vidious. His influence, by additions from
conquest, by an augmentation of debt, by
an increase of miUtary and naval estabUshment,
much strengthened and extended. And coming
to the throne in the prime and fuU vigour
of youth, as from affection there was a strong
dislike, so from dread there seemed to be
a general averseness, from giving anything
hke offence to a Monarch, against whose
resentment opposition could not look for a
refuge in any sort of reversionary hope.
These singular advantages inspired his
Majesty .only with a more ardent desire
to preserve unimpaired the spirit of that
national freedom, to which he owed a situa-
1 £800,000.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 301
tion so full of glory. But to others it sug
gested sentiments of a very different nature.
They thought they now beheld an opportunity
(by a certain sort of Statesmen never long
undiscovered or unemployed) of drawing to
themselves, by the aggrandisement of a Court
Faction, a degree of power which they could
never hope to derive from natural influence
or from honourable service ; and wliich it
was impossible they could hold with the
least security, whilst the system of Adminis
tration rested upon its former bottom. In
order to facilitate the execution of their
design, it was necessary to make many altera
tions in pohtical arrangement, and a signal
change in the opinions, habits, and connexions
of the greatest part of those who at that
time acted in pubhck.
In the first place, they proceeded gradually,
but not slowly, to destroy everything of strength
which did not derive its principal nourishment
from the immediate pleasure of the Court.
The greatest weight of popular opinion and
party connexion were then with the Duke
of Newcastle and Mr Pitt. Neither of these
held thefr importance by the new tenure of
the Court; they were not therefore thought
to be so proper as others for the services which

302 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
were required by that tenure. It happened
very favourably for the new system, that
under a forced coalition there rankled an
incurable ahenation and disgust between the
parties which composed the Administration.
Mr Pitt was first attacked. Not satisfied
with removing him from power, they en
deavoured by various artifices to ruin his
character. The other party seemed rather
pleased to get rid of so oppressive a support ;
not perceiving that their own fall was prepared
by his, and involved in it. Many other reasons
prevented them from daring to look their true
situation in the face. To the great Whig
famihes it was extremely disagreeable, and
seemed almost unnatural, to oppose the Ad
ministration of a Prince of the House of
Brunswick. Day after day they hesitated,
and doubted, and lingered, expecting that
other counsels would take place; and were
slow to be persuaded, that all which had been
done by the Cabal, was the effect not of
humour, but of system. It was more strongly
and evidently the interest of the new Court
Faction, to get rid of the great Whig con
nexions, than to destroy Mr Pitt. The power
of that gentleman was vast indeed and merited ;
but it was in a great degree personal, and

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 303
therefore transient. Theirs was rooted in
the country. For, with a good deal less of
popularity, they possessed a far more natural
and fixed influence. Long possession of
Government; vast property; obligations of
favours given and received; connexion of
office; ties of blood, of aUiance, of friend
ship (things at that time supposed of some
force); the name of Whig, dear to the
majority of the people ; the zeal early begun
and steadUy continued to the Royal Family :
aU these 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 aU then-
proceedings, how various soever they may have
been, was to signify to the world, that the
Court would proceed upon its own proper
forces only; and that the pretence of bring
ing any other into its service was an affront
to it, and not a support. Therefore when the
chiefs were removed, in order to go to the
root, the whole party was put under a pro
scription, so general and severe as to take
their hard-earned bread from the lowest officers,
in a manner wliich had never been known be
fore, even in general revolutions. But it was
thought necessary effectuaUy to destroy aU

304 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
dependencies but one ; and to show an ex
ample of the firmness and rigour with which
the new system was to be supported.
Thus for the time were pulled down, in the
persons of the Whig leaders and of Mr Pitt,
(in spite of the services of the one at the
accession of the Royal Family, and the recent
services of the other in the war,) the two only
securities for the importance of the people;
power arising from popularity ; and power
arising from connexion. Here and there in
deed a few individuals were left standing,
who gave security for their total estrangement
from the odious principles of party connexion
and personal attachment ; and it must be
1
confessed that most of them have rehgiously
kept their faith. Such a change could not
however be made without a mighty shock to
Government. To reconcile the minds of the people to all
these movements, principles correspondent to
them had been preached up with great zeal.
Every one must remember that the Cabal set
out with the most astonishing prudery, both
moral and political. Those, who in a few
months after soused over head and ears into
the deepest and dirtiest pits of corruption,
cried out violently agamst the indirect prae-

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 305
tices in the electing and managing of Parlia
ments, which had formerly prevaUed. This
marveUous abhorrence which the Court had
suddenly taken to all influence, was not only
circulated in conversation through the kingdom,
but pompously announced to the pubhck, with
many other extraordinary things, in a pamphlet1
which had aU the appearance of a manifesto
preparatory to some considerable enterprize.
Throughout, it was a satire, though in terms
managed and decent enough, on the politicks
of the former Reign. It was indeed written
with no smaU art and address.
In this piece appeared the first dawning
of the new system; there first appeared the
idea (then only in speculation) of separating
the Court from the Administration; of carrying
everything from national connexion to personal
regards; and of forming a regular party for
that purpose, under the name of Kmgl^jmen^
To recommend this system to the people, a
perspective view of the Court, gorgeously
painted, and finely Uluminated from within,
was exhibited to the gaping multitude. Party
was to be totaUy done away, with aU its evil
1 Lord Bath's ' Seasonable Hints from an Honest Man,
1761. William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, was long a
political ally of Bolingbroke, and imbibed his ideas
about a ' Patriot King.'

306 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
works. Corruption was to be cast down from
Court, as Ail, was from heaven. Power was
thenceforward to be the chosen residence of
pubhc spirit ; and no one was to be supposed
under any sinister influence, except those who
had the misfortune to be in disgrace at Court,
which was to stand in lieu of aU vices and all
corruptions. A scheme of perfection to be
reahzed in a Monarchy, far beyond the vision
ary Repubhck of Plato. The whole scenery was
exactly disposed to captivate those good souls,
whose credulous morality is so invaluable a
treasure to crafty politicians. Indeed there
was wherewithall to charm every body, except
those few who are not much pleased with pro
fessions of supernatural virtue, who know of what
stuff such professions are made, for what pur
poses they are designed, and in what they are
sure constantly to end. Many innocent gentle
men, who had been talking prose all their hves
without knowing anything of the matter, began
at last to open their eyes upon their own merits,
and to attribute their not having been Lords of
the Treasury and Lords of Trade many years
before, merely to the prevalence of party, and
to the Ministerial power, which had frustrated
the good intentions of the Court in favour of
thefr abUities. Now was the time to unlock

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 307
the sealed fountain of Royal bounty, which had
been infamously monopolized and huckstered,
and to let it flow at large upon the whole
people. The time was come, to restore Royalty
to its original splendour. Mettre le Roy hors
de page, became a sort of watchword. And it
was constantly in the mouths of aU the runners
of the Court, that nothing could preserve the
balance of the constitution from being over
turned by the rabble, or by a faction of the
nobility, but to free the sovereign effectuaUy
from that Ministerial tyranny under which the
Royal dignity had been oppressed in the person
of his Majesty's grandfather.
These were some of the many artifices used
to reconcile the people to the great change
which was made in the persons who composed
the Ministry, and the stUl greater which was
made and avowed in its constitution. As to
individuals, other methods were employed with
them ; in order so thoroughly to disunite every
party, and even every family, that no concert,
order, or effect, might appear in any future
opposition. And in this manner an Administra
tion without connexion with the people, or with
one another, was first put in possession of
Government. What good consequences fol
lowed from it, we have all seen ; whether with

308 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
regard to virtue, pubhc or private ; to the ease
and happiness of the Sovereign ; or to the real
strength of Government. But as so much stress
was then laid on the necessity of this new pro
ject, it wiU not be amiss to take a view of the
effects of this Royal servitude and vile durance,
which was so deplored in the reign of the late
Monarch, and was so carefully to be avoided
in the reign of his Successor. The effects were
these. In times full of doubt and danger to his per
son and famUy, George the Second maintained
the dignity of his Crown connected with the
hberty of his people, not only unimpaired, but
improved, for the space of thirty -three years.
He overcame a dangerous rebeUion, abetted by
foreign force, and raging in the heart of his
kingdoms ; and thereby destroyed the seeds of
aU future rebellion that could arise upon the
same 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 greatest prosperity : and he left his
succession resting on the true and only true
foundation of all national and aU regal great
ness; affection at home, reputation abroad,
trust in allies, terror in rival nations. The
most ardent lover of his country cannot wish

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 309
for Great Britain an happier fate than to con
tinue as she was then left. A people emulous
as we are in affection to our present Sovereign,
know not how to form a prayer to Heaven for a
greater blessing upon his virtues, or an higher
state of fehcity and glory, than that he should
hve, and should reign, and, when Providence
ordains it, should die, exactly like his illustrious
Predecessor. A great Prince may be obUged (though such
a thing cannot happen very often) to sacrifice
his private inclination to his pubhc interest.
A wise Prince will not think that such a
restraint imphes a condition of servility; and
truly, if such was the condition of the last
reign, and the effects were also such as we
have described, we ought, no less for the sake
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 great body of
strong and recent experience.
One of the principal topicks which was
then, and has been since, much employed by
that pohtical school, is an effectual terror of
the growth of an aristocratic power, prejudicial
to the rights of the Crown, and the balance of
the constitution. Any new powers exercised

310 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
in the House of Lords, or in the House of
Commons, or by the Crown, ought certainly to
excite the vigUant and anxious jealousy of a
free people. Even a new and unprecedented
course of action in the whole Legislature,
without great and evident reason, may be a
subject of just uneasiness. I will not affirm,
that there may not have lately appeared in
the House of Lords a disposition to some
attempts derogatory to the legal rights of the
subject. If any such have really appeared,
they have arisen, not from a power properly
aristocratic, but from the same influence which
is charged with having excited attempts of a
simUar nature in the House of Commons ;
which House, if it should have been betrayed
into an unfortunate quarrel with its con
stituents, and involved in a charge of the very
same nature, could have neither power nor
inchnation to repeU such attempts in others.
Those attempts in the House of Lords can no
more be caUed aristocratic proceedings, than
the proceedings with regard to the county of
Middlesex1 in the House of Commons can
with any sense be caUed democratical.
It is true, that the Peers have a great influ
ence in the kingdom, and in every part of the
1 I.e. in connection* with Wilkes's election.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 311
pubhc concerns. While they are men of pro
perty, it is impossible to prevent it, except
by such means as must prevent aU pro
perty from its natural operation : an event
not easily to be compassed, while property is
power ; nor by any means to be wished, whUe
the least notion exists of the method by which
the spirit of liberty acts, and of the means by
which it is preserved. If any particular Peers,
by their uniform, upright, constitutional conduct,
by their pubhc and their private virtues, have
acquired an influence in the country; the
people on whose favour that influence depends,
and from whom it arose, wiU never be duped
into an opinion, that such greatness in a Peer
is the despotism of an aristocracy, when they
know and feel it to be the effect and pledge of
their own importance.
I am no friend to aristocracy, in the sense at
least in which that word is usuaUy understood.
If it were not a bad habit to moot cases on the
supposed ruin of the constitution, I should be
free to declare, that if it must perish, I would
rather by far see it resolved into any other
form, than lost in that austere and insolent
domination. But, whatever my dislikes may
be, my fears are not upon that quarter. The
question, on the influence of a Court, and of a

312 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
Peerage, is not, which of the two dangers is the
most ehgible, but which is the most imminent.
He is but a poor observer, who has not seen,
that the generality of Peers, far from support
ing themselves in a state of independent great
ness, are but too apt to faU into an oblivion of
their proper dignity, and to run headlong into
an abject servitude. Would to God it were
true, that the fault of our Peers were too much
spirit ! It is worthy of some observation, that
these gentlemen, so jealous of aristocracy, make
no complaints of the power of those peers
(neither few nor inconsiderable) who are always
in the train of a Court, and whose whole weight
must be considered as a portion of the settled
influence of the Crown. This is all safe and
right ; but if some Peers (I am very sorry they
are not as many as they ought to be) set them
selves, in the great concern of Peers and Com
mons, against a back-stairs influence and clan
destine government, then the alarm begins ;
then the constitution is in danger of being forced
into an aristocracy.
I rest a Uttle the longer on this Court topick,
because it was much insisted upon at the time
of the great change, and has been since fre
quently revived by many of the agents of that
party : for, whilst they are terrifying the great

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 313
and opulent with the horrors of mob-govern
ment, they are by other managers attempting
(though hitherto with Uttle success) to alarm the
people with a phantom of tyranny in the Nobles.
AU this is done upon their favourite principle
of disunion, of sowing jealousies amongst the
different orders of the State, and of disjointing
the natural strength of the kingdom ; that it
may be rendered incapable of resisting the
sinister designs of wicked men, who have
engrossed the Royal power.
Thus much of the topicks chosen by the
Courtiers to recommend their system ; it wiU be
necessary to open a httle more at large the
nature of that party which was formed for its
support. Without this, the whole would have
been no better than a visionary amusement, Uke
the scheme of Harrington's political club,1 and
not a business in which the nation had a real
concern. As a powerful party, and a party
constructed on a new principle, it is a very
inviting object of curiosity.
1 James Harrington (1611-1677), the author of 'Oceana,'
during the confusion that followed Cromwell's death,
formed a club called the ' Rota ' to discuss the introduc
tion of his political schemes. It lasted from Nov. 1659
to Feb. 1660, when Monck's action made the Restoration
a certainty. Cf. Hudibras, Part II. , Canto iii. 1107.
U

314 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
It must be remembered, that since the
Revolution, until the period we are speaking
of, the influence of the Crown had been always
employed in supporting the Ministers of State,
and in carrying on the pubhc business according
to their opinions. But the party now in ques
tion is formed upon a very different idea. It is
to intercept the favour, protection, and confi
dence of the Crown in the passage to its Minis
ters; it is to come between them and their
importance in Parhament ; it is to separate
them from all their natural and acquired depen
dencies ; it is intended as the controul, not the
support, of Administration. The machinery of
this system is perplexed in its movements, and
false in its principle. It is formed on a sup
position that the King is something external to
his government ; and that he may be honoured
and aggrandized, even by its debUity and dis
grace. The plan proceeds expressly 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 scheme
depending entirely on distrust, on disconnexion,
on mutabiUty by principle, on systematic weak
ness in every particular member; it is impos
sible that the total result should be substantial
strength of any kind.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 315
As a foundation of their scheme, the Cabal
have estabhshed a sort of Rota in the Court.
AU sorts of parties, by this means, have been
brought into Administration, from whence few
have had the good fortune to escape without
disgrace; none at aU without considerable
losses. In the beginning of each arrangement
no professions of confidence and support are
wanting, to induce the leading men to engage.
But whUe the Ministers of the day appear in all
the pomp and pride of power, while they have
all their canvas spread out to the wind, and
every saU fiUed with the fair and prosperous gale
of Royal favour, in a short time they find, they
know not how, a current, which sets directly
against them ; which prevents all progress ; and
even drives them backwards. They grow
ashamed and mortified in a situation, which,
by its vicinity to power, only serves to remind
them the more strongly of thefr insignificance.
They are obhged either to execute the orders of
their inferiors, or to see themselves opposed
by the natural instruments of their office.
With the loss of thefr dignity, they lose their
temper. In their turn they grow troublesome
to that Cabal, wliich, whether it supports or
opposes, equally disgraces and equaUy betrays
them. It is soon found necessary to get rid

316 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
of the heads of Admimstration ; but it is of
the heads only. As there always are many
rotten members belonging to the best con
nexions, it is not hard to persuade several 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
strength by its temporaiy possession of power.
Besides, if by accident, or in course of changes,
that power should be recovered, the Junto
have thrown up a retrenchment of these car
cases, which may serve to cover themselves
in a day of danger. They conclude, not un
wisely, that such rotten members wUl become
the first objects of disgust and resentment to
their antient connexions.
They contrive to form in the outward Ad
ministration two parties at the least ; which,
whilst they are tearing one another to pieces,
are both competitors for the favour and pro
tection of the Cabal ; and, by their emulation,
contribute to throw everything more and more
into the hands of the interior managers.
A Minister of State will sometimes keep
himself totaUy estranged from aU his coUeagues ;
will differ from them in their counsels, will
privately traverse, and publicly oppose, then-
measures. He will, however, continue in his

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 317
employment. Instead of suffering any mark
of displeasure, he will be distinguished by an
unbounded profusion of Court rewards and
caresses ; because he does what is expected,
and aU that is expected, from men in office. He
helps to keep some form of Admimstration in
being, and keeps it at the same time as weak
and divided as possible.
' However, we must take care not to be mis
taken, or to imagine that such persons have
any weight in their opposition. When, by
them, Administration is convinced of its in
significancy, they are soon to be convinced of
their own. They never are suffered to suc
ceed in their opposition. They and the world
are to be satisfied, that neither office, nor
authority, nor property, nor ability, eloquence,
counsel, skill, or union, are of the least im
portance ; but that the mere influence of the
Court, naked of aU support, and destitute of
all management, is abundantly sufficient for
all its own purposes.
When any adverse connexion is to be de
stroyed, the Cabal seldom appear in the work
themselves. They find out some person of
whom the party entertains an high opinion.
Such a person they endeavour to delude with
various pretences. They teach him first to

318 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
distrust, and then to quarrel with his friends ;
among whom, by the same arts, they excite
a simUar diffidence of him ; so that in this
mutual fear and distrust, he may suffer him
self to be employed as the instrument in the
change which is brought about. Afterwards
they are sure to destroy him in his turn ; by
setting up in his place some person in whom
he had himself reposed the greatest confidence,
and who serves to carry off a considerable part
of his adherents.
When such a person has broke in this man
ner with his connexions, he is soon compeUed
to commit some flagrant act of iniquitous per
sonal hostility against some of them (such as
an attempt to strip a particular friend of his
family estate),1 by which the Cabal hope to
render the parties utterly irreconcileable. In
truth, they have so contrived matters, that
people have a greater hatred to the subor
dinate instruments than to the principal movers.
As in destroying their enemies they make
use of instruments not immediately belonging
to their corps, so in advancing their own
friends they pursue exactly the same method.
1 This refers to the attempt made to deprive the Duke
of Portland of his manor and castle of Carlisle, which
occasioned the ' Nullum Tempus ' bill.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 319
To promote any of them to considerable rank
or emolument, they commonly take care that
the recommendation shaU pass through the
hands of the ostensible Ministry : such a re
commendation might however appear to the
world, as some proof of the credit of Ministers,
and some means of increasing their strength.
To prevent this, the persons so advanced are
directed in aU companies, industriously to
declare, that they are under no obhgations
whatsoever to Administration ; that they have
received their office from another quarter;
that they are totaUy free and independent.
When the Faction has any job of lucre to
obtain, or of vengeance to perpetrate, then-
way is, to select, for the execution, those very
persons to whose habits, friendships, principles,
and declarations, such proceedings are pubhcly
known to be the most adverse ; at once to
render the instruments the more odious, and
therefore the more dependent, and to prevent
the people from ever reposing a confidence in
any appearance of private friendship, or public
principle. If the Administration seem now and then,
from remissness, or from fear of making them
selves disagreeable, to suffer any popular ex
cesses to go unpunished, the Cabal immediately

320 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
sets up some creature of theirs to raise a
clamour against the Ministers, as having shame-
fuUy betrayed the dignity of Government.
Then they compel the Ministry to become
active in conferring rewards and honours on
the persons who have been the instruments
of thefr disgrace ; and, after having first vilified
them with the higher orders for suffering the
laws to sleep over the licentiousness of the
populace, they drive them (in order to make
amends for their former inactivity) to some
act of atrocious violence, which renders them
completely abhorred by the people. They who
remember the riots which attended the Middle
sex Election; the opening of the present
Parliament; and the transactions relative to
Saint George's Fields,1 will not be at a loss for
an application of these remarks.
That this body may be enabled to compass
aU the ends of its institution, its members are
scarcely ever to aim at the high and respon
sible offices of the State. They are distributed
with art and judgement through all the
secondary, but efficient, departments of office,
\ See Lecky, ed. 1892, iii. 319-321, on the riots which
then took place. Wilkes was confined in the King's
Bench prison, situated in St George's Fields. The mob
demanded Wilkes's release, were fired upon by the
soldiers, and five men killed.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 321
and through the households of aU the branches
of the Royal Family: so as on one hand to
occupy aU the avenues to the Throne; and
on the other to forward or frustrate the execu
tion of any measure, according to their own
interests. For with the credit and support
which they are known to have, though for
the greater part in places which are only a
genteel excuse for salary, they possess aU the
influence of the highest posts ; and they dictate
pubhcly in almost every thing, even with a
parade of superiority. Whenever they dissent
(as it often happens) from their nominal
leaders, the trained part of the Senate, in
stinctively in the secret, is sure to foUow
them; provided the leaders, sensible of their
situation, do not of themselves recede in time
from their most declared opinions. This latter
is generaUy the case. It wUl not be conceivable
to any one who has not seen it, what pleasure
is taken by the Cabal in rendering these heads
of office thoroughly contemptible and ridiculous.
And when they are become so, they have then
the best chance for being weU supported.
The members of the Court Faction are fully
indemnified for not holding places on the
slippery heights of the kingdom, not only by
the lead in aU affairs, but also by the perfect

322 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
security in which they enjoy less conspicuous,
but very advantageous, situations. Their
places are, in express legal tenure, or in
effect, all of them for life. Whilst the first
and most respectable persons in the kingdom
are tossed about Uke tennis baUs, the sport
of a bhnd and insolent caprice, no Minister
dares even to cast an obhque glance at the
lowest of thefr body. If an attempt be made
upon one of this corps, immediately he flies to
sanctuary, and pretends to the most inviolable
of all promises. No conveniency of pubUc
arrangement is avaUable to remove any one
of them from the specific situation he holds;
and the sUghtest attempt upon one of them,
by the most powerful Minister, is a certain
preliminary to his own destruction.
Conscious of their independence, they bear
themselves with a lofty air to the exterior
Ministers. Like Janissaries, they derive a
kind of freedom from the very condition of
their servitude. They may act just as they
please; provided they are true to the great
ruling principle of their institution. It is,
therefore, not at all wonderful, that people
should be so desirous of adding themselves
to that body, in which they may possess
and reconcile satisfactions the most aUuring,

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 323
and seemingly the most contradictory; enjoy
ing at once all the spirited pleasure of inde
pendence, and aU the gross lucre and fat
emoluments of servitude.
Here is a sketch, though a shght one, of
the constitution, laws, and pohcy, of this new
Court corporation. The name by which they
chuse to distinguish themselves, is that of
King's men, or the King's friends, by an in
vidious exclusion of the rest of his Majesty's
most loyal and affectionate subjects. The
whole system, comprehending the exterior
and interior Administrations, is commonly
called, in the technical language of the Court,
Double Cabinet; in French or EngUsh, as
you chuse to pronounce it.
Whether all this be a vision of a distracted
brain, or the invention of a malicious heart,
or a real Faction in the country, must be
judged by the appearances which things
have worn for eight years past. Thus far
I am certain, that there is not a single pubhc
man, in or out of office, who has not, at
some time or other, borne testimony to the
truth of what I have now related. In par
ticular, no persons have been more strong in
their assertions, and louder and more indecent
in their complaints, than those who compose

324 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
aU the exterior part of the present Admimstra
tion; in whose time that Faction has arrived
at such an height of power, and of boldness in
the use of it, as may, in the end, perhaps
bring about its total destruction.
It is true, that about four years ago,1 during
the administration of the Marquis of Rocking
ham, an attempt was made to carry on Govern
ment without their concurrence. However,
this was only a transient cloud; they were
hid but for a moment ; and their constellation
blazed out with greater brightness, and a far
more vigorous influence, some time after it
was blown over. An attempt was at that
time made (but without any idea of proscrip
tion) to break thefr corps, to discountenance
their doctrines, to revive connexions of a
different kind, to restore the principles and
poUcy of the Whigs, to reanimate the cause
of Liberty by Ministerial countenance; and
then for the first time were men seen attached
in office to every principle they had maintained
in opposition. No one wiU doubt, that such
men were abhorred and violently opposed by
the Court Faction, and that such a system
could have but a short duration.
1 Rockingham's first administration only lasted a few
months in the winter of 1765-6.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 325
It may appear somewhat affected, that in
so much discourse upon this extraordinary
Party, I should say so httle of the Earl of
Bute, who is the supposed head of it. But this
was neither owing to affectation nor inad
vertence. I have carefuUy avoided the in
troduction of personal reflexions of any kind.
Much the greater part of the topicks which
have been used to blacken this Nobleman,
are either unjust or frivolous. At best, they
have a tendency to give the resentment of
this bitter calamity a wrong direction, and to
turn a pubhc grievance into a mean personal,
or a dangerous national, quarrel. Where
there is a regular scheme of operations carried
on, it is a system, and not any individual
person who acts in it, that is truly dangerous.
This system has not risen solely from the am
bition of Lord Bute, but from the circumstances
which favoured it, and from an indifference to
the constitution which had been for some time
growing among our gentry. We should have
been tried with it, if the Earl of Bute had
never existed ; and it will want neither a con
triving head nor active members, when the
Earl of Bute exists no longer. It is not, there
fore, to raU at Lord Bute, but firmly to embody
against this Court Party and its practices, which

326 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
can afford us any prospect of relief in our pre
sent condition.
Another motive induces me to put the per
sonal consideration of Lord Bute wholly out of
the question. He communicates very little in a
direct manner with the greater part of our men
of business. This has never been his custom.
It is enough for him that he surrounds them
with his creatures. Several imagine, therefore,
that they have a very good excuse for doing
all the work of this Faction, when they have
no personal connexion with Lord Bute. But
whoever becomes a party to an Administration,
composed of insulated individuals, without
faith phghted, tie, or common principle; an
Administration constitutionally impotent, be
cause supported by no party in the nation ; he
who contributes to destroy the connexions of
men and their trust in one another, or in any
sort to throw the dependence of public counsels
upon private will and favour, possibly may
have nothing to do with the Earl of Bute. It
matters little whether he be the friend or the
enemy of that particular person. But let him
be who or what he wUl, he abets a Faction
that is driving hard to the ruin of his country.
He is sapping the foundation of its liberty,
disturbing the sources of its domestic tran-

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 327
quilhty, weakening its government over its
dependencies, degrading it from all its im
portance in the system of Europe.
It is this unnatural infusion of a system of
Fa/vouritism into a Government which in a
great part of its constitution is popular, that
has 'raised the present ferment in the nation.
The people, without entering deeply into its
principles, could plainly perceive its effects, in
much violence, in a great spirit of innovation,
and a general disorder in all the functions of
Government. I keep my eye solely on this
system; if I speak of those measures which
have arisen from it, it will be so far only as
they iUustrate the general scheme. This is the
fountain of all those bitter waters of which,
through an hundred different conduits, we have
drunk until we are ready to burst. The dis
cretionary power of the Crown in the formation
of Ministry, abused by bad or weak men, has
given rise to a system, which, without directly
violating the letter of any law, operates against
the spirit of the whole constitution.
A plan of Favouritism for our executory
Government is essentially at variance with the
plan of our Legislature. One great end un
doubtedly of a mixed Government like ours,

328 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
composed of Monarchy, and of controuls, on
the part of the higher people and the lower,
is that the Prince shaU not be able to violate
the laws. This is useful indeed and funda
mental. But this, even at first view, is no
more than a negative advantage ; an armour
merely defensive. It is therefore next in order,
and equal in importance, that the discretionary
powers which are necessarily vested in the
Monarch, whether for the execution of the
la/ws, or for the nomination to magistracy and
office, or for conducting the affairs of peace
and war, or for ordering fhe revenue, should
all be exercised upon public principles and
national grounds, and not on the likings or
prejudices, the intrigues or poUcies, of a Court.
This, I said, is equal in importance to the
securing a Government according to law. The
laws reach but a very httle way. Constitute
Government how you please, infinitely the
greater part of it must depend upon the
exercise of the powers which are left at large
to the prudence and uprightness of Ministers
of State. Even all the use and potency of the
laws depends upon them. Without them, your
Commonwealth is no better than a scheme
upon paper ; and not a Uving, active, effective
constitution. It is possible, that througb

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 329
negUgence, or ignorance, or design artfuUy
conducted, Ministers may suffer one part of
Government to languish, another to be per
verted from its purposes, and every valuable
interest of the country to fall into ruin and
decay, without possibihty of fixing any single
act on which a criminal prosecution can be
justly grounded. The due arrangement of
men in the active part of the State, far from
being foreign to the purposes of a wise Govern
ment, ought to be among its very first and
dearest objects. When, therefore, the abettors
of the new system tell us, that between them
and their opposers there is nothing but a
struggle for power, and that therefore we
are no-ways concerned in it ; we must tell
those who. have the impudence to insult us
in this manner, that, of aU things, we ought to
be the most concerned, who and what sort of
men they are, that hold the trust of everything
that is dear to us. Nothing can render this a
point of indifference to the nation, but what
must either render us totaUy desperate, or
soothe us into the security of idiots. We
must soften into a credulity below the mUki-
ness of infancy, to think aU men virtuous.
We must be tainted with a malignity truly
diabolical, to beheve aU the world to be

330 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
equaUy wicked and corrupt. Men are in
pubhc life as in private, some good, some
evU. The elevation of the one, and the de
pression of the other, are the first objects of
aU true poUcy. But that form of Government,
which, neither in its dfrect institutions, nor in
thefr immediate tendency, has contrived to
throw its affairs into the most trust-worthy
hands, but has left its whole executory system
to be disposed of agreeably to the uncontrouled
pleasure of any one man, however excellent or
virtuous, is a plan of pohty defective not only
in that member, but consequentiaUy erroneous
in every part of it.
In arbitrary Governments, the constitution of
the Ministry follows the constitution of the Legis
lature. Both the Law and the Magistrate are the
creatures of WiU. It must be so. Nothing, in
deed, wUl appear more certain, on any tolerable
consideration of this matter, than that every sort
of Government ought to have its Administration.
correspondent to its Legislature. If it should
be otherwise, things must fall into an hideous
disorder. The people of a free Commonwealth,
who have taken such care that their laws
should be the result of general consent, cannot
be so senseless as to suffer their executory
system to be composed of persons on whom

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 331
they have no dependence, and whom no proofs
of the public love and confidence have recom
mended to those powers, upon the use of which
the very being of the State depends.
The popular election of magistrates, and
popular disposition of rewards and honours,
is one of the first advantages of a free State.
Without it, or something equivalent to it, per
haps the people cannot long enjoy the substance
of freedom ; certainly none of the vivifying
energy of good Government. The frame of
our Commonwealth did not admit of such an
actual election : but it provided as well, and
(while the spirit of the constitution is pre
served) better, for all the effects of it, than by
the method of suffrage in any democratic State
whatsoever. It had always, until of late, been
held the first duty of Parhament, to refuse to
support Government, until power was in the
hands of persons who were acceptable to the
people, or while factions predominated in the
Court in which the nation had no confidence.
Thus aU the good effects of— popular election
were supposed to be secured to us/without
the mischiefs attending on perpetual intrigue,
and a distinct canvass for every particular office
throughout the body of the people. This
was the most noble and refined part of our

332 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
constitution. The people, by their representa
tives and grandees, were intrusted with a
dehberate power in making laws ; the King
with the controul of his negative. The King
was intrusted with the dehberate choice and
the election to office ; the people had the
negative in a ParUamentary refusal to sup
port. Formerly this power of controul was
what kept Ministers in awe of Parhaments,
and Parliaments in reverence with the people.
If the use of this power of controul on the
system and persons of Administration is gone,
everything is lost, Parhament and aU. We
may assure ourselves, that if Parhament wiU
tamely see evU men take possession of aU the
strong-holds of their country, and aUow them
time and means to fortify themselves, under a
pretence of giving them a fair trial, and upon
a hope of discovering, whether they will not
be reformed by power, and whether their mea
sures will not be better than their morals ;
such a Parliament will give countenance to
their measures also, whatever that Parhament
may pretend, and whatever those measures
may be.
Every good political institution must have
a preventive operation as weU as a remedial.
It ought to have a natural tendency to ex-

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 333
elude bad men from Government, and not to
trust for the safety of the State to subsequent
punishment alone : punishment, which has ever
been tardy and uncertain ; and which, when
power is suffered in bad hands, may chance
to fall rather on the injured than the criminal.
Before men are put forward into the great
trusts of the State, they ought by their con
duct to have obtained such a degree of esti
mation in their country, as may be some sort
of pledge and security to the pubhek, that
they wiU not abuse those trusts. It is no
mean security for a proper use of power,
that a man has shown by the general tenor
of his actions, that the affection, the good
opinion, the confidence, of his feUow-citizens
have been among the principal objects of his
hfe ; and that he has owed none of the
gradations of his power or fortune to a
settled contempt, or occasional forfeiture of
their esteem.
That man who before he comes into power
has no friends, or who coming into power is
obhged to desert his friends, or who losing it
has no friends to sympathize with him ; he
who has no sway among any part of the
landed or commercial interest, but whose
whole importance has begun with his office,

334 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
and is sure to end with it ; is a person who
ought never to be suffered by a controuhng
Parhament to continue in any of those situa
tions which confer the lead and dfrection of
aU our public affairs ; because such a man
has no connection with the interest of the
people. Those knots or cabals of men who have got
together, avowedly without any public prin
ciple, in order to seU their conjunct iniquity at
the higher rate, and are therefore universally
odious, ought never to be suffered to domineer
in the State ; because they have no connexion
with the sentiments and opinions of the people.
These are considerations which in my opinion
enforce the necessity of having some better
reason, in a free country, and a free ParUa
ment, for supporting the Ministers of the
Crown, than that short one, That the King
has thought proper to appoint them. There
is something very courtly in this. But it is
a principle pregnant with all sorts of mischief,
in a constitution hke ours, to turn the views
of active men from the country to the Court.
Whatever be the road to power, that is the
road which wiU be trod. If the opmion of
the country be of no use as a means of power
or consideration, the quahties which usuaUy

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 335
procure that opinion will be no longer culti
vated. And whether it will be right, in a State
so popular in its constitution as ours, to leave
ambition without popular motives, and to trust
all to the operation of pure virtue x in the minds
of Kings and Ministers, and pubhc men, must
be submitted to the judgement and good sense of
the people of England.
Cunning men are here apt to break in, and,
without directly controverting the principle, to
raise objections from the difficulty under which
the Sovereign labours, to distinguish the genuine
voice and sentiments of his people, from the
clamour of a faction, by which it is so easily
counterfeited. The nation, they say, is generally
divided into parties, with views and passions
utterly irreconcUeable. If the King should put
his affairs into the hands of any one of them, he
is sure to disgust the rest ; if he select particular
men from among them aU, it is an hazard that
he disgusts them all. Those who are left out,
however divided before, wiU soon run into a
body of opposition ; which, being a collection of
many discontents into one focus, will without
doubt be hot and violent enough. Faction wUl
make its cries resound through the nation, as if
1 Another allusion to the 'Patriot King.'

336 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
the whole were in an uproar, when by far the
majority, and much the better part, will seem
for awhUe as it were annihUated by the quiet in
which their virtue and moderation incline them
to enjoy the blessings of Government. Besides
that, the opinion of the mere vulgar is a miser
able rule even with regard to themselves, on
account of their violence and instability. So
that if you were to gratify them in their humour
to-day, that very gratification would be a ground
of their dissatisfaction on the next. Now as
aU these rules of pubUc opinion are to be col
lected with great difficulty, and to be apphed
with equal uncertainty as to the effect, what
better can a King of England do, than to employ
such men as he finds to have views and inchna
tions most conformable to his own ; who are
least infected with pride and self-wUl ; and who
are least moved by such popular humours as are
perpetuaUy traversing his designs, and disturbing
his service ; trusting that when he means no
iU to his people, he will be supported in his
appointments, whether he chooses to keep or to
change, as his private judgment or his pleasure
leads him ? He will find a sure resource in the
real weight and influence of the Crown, when it
is not suffered to become an instrument in the
hands of a faction.

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 337
I wiU not pretend to say that there is nothing
at all in this mode of reasoning ; because I wiU
not assert, that there is no difficulty in the art
of Government. Undoubtedly the very best
Administration must encounter a great deal of
opposition ; and the very worst wiU find more
support than it deserves. Sufficient appear
ances wiU never be wanting to those who have
a mind to deceive themselves. It is a fallacy
in constant use with those who would level aU
things, and confound right with wrong, to insist
upon the inconveniences which are attached to
every choice, without taking into consideration
the different weight and consequence of those
inconveniences. The question is not concerning
absolute discontent or perfect satisfaction in
Government ; neither of which can be pure and
unmixed at any time, or upon any system. The
controversy is about that degree of good-humour
in the people, which may possibly be attained,
and ought certainly to be looked for. While
some pohticians may be -waiting to know
whether the sense of every individual be against
them, accurately distinguishing the vulgar from
the better sort, drawing lines between the enter-
prizes of a faction and the efforts of a people,
they may chance to see the Government, which
they are so nicely weighing, and dividing, and

338 THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE OF
distinguishing, tumble to the ground in the
midst of their wise dehberation. Prudent
men, when so great an object as the security
of Government, or even its peace, is at
stake, wiU not run risque of a decision
which may be fatal to it. They who can
read the pohtical sky wiU see an hurricane
in a cloud no bigger than an hand at the very
edge of the horizon, and wiU run into the first
harbour. No lines can be laid down for civil
or poUtical wisdom. They are a matter incap
able of exact definition. But, though no man
can draw a stroke between the confines of day
and night, yet light and darkness are upon the
whole tolerably distinguishable. Nor wiU it
be impossible for a Prince to find out such a
mode of Government, and such persons to
administer it, as wiU give a great degree of
content to his people ; without any curious
and anxious research for that abstract, uni
versal, perfect harmony, wliich whUe he is
seeking, he abandons those means of ordinary
tranquUUty 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 confusion. If

THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS 339
the opinion of the people is against them, they
wiU naturally wish that it should have no pre
valence. Here it is that the people must on
their part show themselves sensible of their
own value. Their whole importance, in the
first instance, and afterwards their whole
freedom, is at stake. Their freedom cannot
long survive their importance. Here it is that
the natural strength of the kingdom, the great
peers, the leading landed gentlemen, the
opulent merchants and manufacturers, the sub
stantial yeomanry, must interpose, to rescue
their Prince, themselves, and thefr posterity.
We are at present at issue upon this point.
We are in the great crisis of this contention ;
and the part which men take, one way or
other, will serve to discriminate their characters
and their principles. Until the matter is
decided, the country wiU remain in its present
confusion. For while a system of Administra
tion is attempted, entirely repugnant to the
genius of the people, and not conformable
to the plan of thefr Government, everything
must necessarily be disordered for a time, until
this system destroys the constitution, or the
constitution gets the better of this system.

XIII
BURKE'S THIRD LETTER ON A
REGICIDE PEACE
[This the last work from Burke's pen was written
exactly a century ago, between January and
Burke's death on 9 July 1797 ; it has on the one
hand been held to exceed in intellectual magni
tude all other single efforts of the human brain,
while on the other a great living critic has
described these letters as ' deplorable.' J But there
is no difference of opinion as to their literary
qualities, and the passage reprinted here, with
which the third letter closes, is the most splendid
peroration in the English language. The letter
was written on the failure of Lord Malmesburys
peace mission to the French Directorate in the
autumn of 1796, but was not published till after
Burke's death.]
If then the real state of this nation is such as
I have described, and I am only apprehensive
that you may think I have taken too much
pains to exclude aU doubt on this question —
if no class is lessened in it's numbers, or in it's
stock, or in it's conveniencies, or even it's
1 Morley, Burke, ed. 1888, p. 293.

LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE 341
luxuries; if they build as many habitations,
and as elegant and as commodious as ever,
and furnish them with every chargeable de
coration, and every prodigality of ingenious
invention, that can be thought of by those who
even encumber their necessities with super
fluous accommodation; if they are as numer
ously attended ; if their equipages are as
splendid ; if they regale at table with as much
or more variety of plenty than ever; if they
are clad in as expensive and changeful a
diversity according to their tastes and modes ;
if they are not deterred from the pleasures of
the field by the charges, which Government has
wisely turned from the culture to the sports of
the field; if the theatres are as rich and as
well filled, and greater, and at a higher price
than ever; and, what is more important than
aU, if it is plain from the treasures which
are spread over the soU, or confided to the
winds, and the seas, that there are as many
who are indulgent to their propensities of
parsimony, as others to their voluptuous
desires, and that the pecuniary capital grows
instead of diminishing ; on what ground are
we authorized to say that a nation gambolling
in an ocean of superfluity is undone by want ?
With what face can we pretend, that they

342 BURKE'S THIRD LETTER ON
who have not denied any one gratification
to any one appetite, have a right to plead
poverty in order to famish their virtues, and
to put their duties on short aUowance ? That
they are to take the law from an imperious
enemy, and can contribute no longer to the
honour of their king, to the support of the
independence of thefr country, to the salvation
of that Europe, which, ff it faUs, must crash
them with its gigantick ruins ? How can
they affect to sweat, and stagger, and groan
under their burdens, to whom the mines of
Newfoundland, richer than those of Mexico
and Peru, are now thrown in as a make-weight
in the scale of their exorbitant opulence?
What excuse can they have to faint, and
creep, and cringe, and prostrate themselves
at the footstool of ambition and crime, who,
during a short though violent struggle, which
they have never supported with the energy
of men, have amassed more to their annual
accumulation, than aU the well-husbanded
capital that enabled their ancestors by long,
and doubtful, and obstinate conflicts to
defend, and liberate, and vindicate the
civiUzed world? But I do not accuse the
People of England. As to the great majority
of the nation, they have done whatever in

A REGICIDE PEACE 343
their several ranks, and conditions, and descrip
tions, was required of them by their relative
situations in society ; and from those the
great mass of mankind cannot depart, with
out the subversion of all pubhck order. They
look up to that Government, which they obey
that they may be protected. They ask to be
led and directed by those rulers, whom Provi
dence and the laws of thefr country have set
over them, and under thefr guidance to walk
in the ways of safety and honour. They
have again delegated the greatest trust which
they have to bestow to those faithful represen
tatives who made their true voice heard
against the disturbers and destroyers of
Europe. They suffered, with unapproving
acquiescence, soUcitations, which they had in
no shape desfred, to an unjust and usurping
Power, whom they had never provoked, and
whose hostUe menaces they did not dread.
When the exigencies of the pubhck service
could only be met by their voluntary zeal,
they started forth with an ardour which
outstripped the wishes of those, who had
injured them by doubting, whether it might
not be necessary to have recourse to compul
sion. They have, in aU things, reposed an
enduring, but not an unreflecting confidence.

344 BURKE'S THIRD LETTER ON
That confidence demands a fuU return ; and
fixes a responsibility on the Ministers entire
and undivided. The People stands acquitted ;
if the war is not carried on in a manner suited
to it's objects. If the pubhck honour is tar
nished ; if the pubUc safety suffers any detri
ment ; they, not the People, are to answer
it, and they alone. It's armies, it's navies,
are given to them without stint or restriction.
It's treasures are poured out at their feet. It's
constancy is ready to second aU their efforts.
They are not to fear a responsibihty for acts
of manly adventure. The responsibUity which
they are to dread, is, lest they should shew
themselves unequal to the expectation of a
brave people. The more doubtful may be
the constitutional and ceconomical questions,
upon which they have received so marked
a support, the more loudly they are caUed
upon to support this great war, for the success
of which thefr country is wiUing to supersede
considerations of no shght importance. Where
I speak of responsibUity, I do not mean to
exclude that species of it, which the legal
powers of the country have a right finaUy
to exact from those who abuse a pubhc
trust ; but high as this is, there is a responsi
bihty which attaches on them, from which

A REGICIDE PEACE 345
the whole legitimate power of the kingdom
cannot absolve them ; there is a responsibiUty
to conscience and to glory ; a responsibiUty
to the existing world, and to that posterity,
which men of their eminence cannot avoid
for glory or for shame ; a responsibihty to
a tribunal, at which, not only Ministers, but
Kings and Parhaments, but even Nations them
selves, must one day answer.

Y

PRINTED BT
TUENBDLL AND SPEAKS
EDINBURGH