litary, to their Visirs. The appointments for your family, and private purse, shall exceed thofe of your predeceffors: You shall be at no trouble, further than to appear fometimes in council, and leave the reft to me: You fhall hear no clamour or complaints: Your fenate fhall, upon occafions, declare you the best of princes, the father of your country, the arbiter of Afia, the defender of the oppreffed, and the delight of mankind.

SIR, Hear not those who would moft falfely, impioufly, and maliciously infinuate, that your government can be carried on without that wholesome, neceffary expedient, of fharing the public revenue with your faithful deferving fenators. This, I know, my enemies are pleased to call bribery and corruption. Be it fo: But I infift, that, without this bribery and corruption, the wheels of government will not turn, or at least will be apt to take fire, like other wheels, unless they be greafed at proper times. If an angel from heaven should defcend, to govern this em .pire upon any other fcheme than what our enemies call corruption, he must return from whence he came, and leave the work undone.

SIR, It is well known we are a trading nation, and confequently cannot thrive in a bargain where nothing is to be gained. The poor electors, who run from their shops, or the plough, for the service of their country, are they not to be confidered for their labour and their loyalty? The candidates, who, with the hazard of their persons, the loss of their characters, and the ruin of their fortunes, are preferred to the fenate, in a country where they are ftrangers, before the very lords of the foil; are they not to be rewarded for their zeal to your Majefty's fervice, and qualified to live in your metropolis as becomes the luftre of their stations?

SIR, If I have given great numbers of the most profitable employments among my own relations and nearest allies, it was not out of any partiality, but because I know them beft, and can beft depend upon them. I have been at the pains to mould and cultivate their opinions. Abler heads might probably have been found, but they would not be equally under my direction. A huntsman, who hath the abfolute command of his dogs, will hunt more effectually than with a better pack, to whose manner and cry he is a stranger.

SIR, Upon the whole, I will appeal to all those who beft knew your royal father, whether that bleffed monarch had ever one anxious thought for the public, or difappointment, or uneafiness, or want of money for all his occafions, during the time of my administration? And, how happy the people confeffed themselves to be under fuch a king, I leave to their own numerous addreffes; which all politicians will allow to be the most infallible proof how any nation ftands affected to their fovereign.

Lelop-Aw, having ended his fpeech and ftruck his forehead thrice against the table, as the custom is in Japan, fate down with great complacency of mind, and much applause of his adherents, as might be obferved by their countenances and their whispers. But the Emperor's behaviour was remarkable; for, during the whole harangue, he appeared equally attentive and uneafy. After a fhort pause, his Majefty commanded that fome other counfellor should deliver his thoughts, either to confirm or object against what had been spoken by Lelop-Aw.

A LET

A

LETTER

TO THE

WRITER of the OCCASIONAL PAPER.

[Vide the CRAFTSMAN, 1727.]

SIR,

A

LTHOUGH, in one of your Papers, you declare an intention of turning them, during the dead season of the year, into accounts of domeftic and foreign intelligence; yet I think we, your correfpondents, fhould not understand your meaning fo literally, as if you intended to reject inserting any other paper, which might probably be useful for the public. Neither, indeed, am I fully convinced that this new course you refolve to take will render you more fecure than your former laudable practice, of inferting fuch speculations as were fent you by feveral well-wishers to the good of the kingdom; however grat ing fuch notices might be to fome, who wanted neither power nor inclination to refent them at your coft. For, fince there

is a direct law against spreading false news, if you fhould venture to tell us in one of the Craftsmen that the Dey of Algiers had got the tooth-ach, or the King of Bantam had taken a purge, and the facts should be contradicted in fucceeding pacquets; I do not fee what plea you could offer to avoid the utmost penalty of the law, because you are not fuppofed to be very gracious among those who are most able to hurt you.

Befides, as I take your intentions to be fincerely meant for the public fervice, fo your original method of entertaining and inftructing us will be more general and more useful in this feafon of the year, when people are retired to amusements more cool, more innocent, and much more reasonable than those they have left; when their paffions are fubfided or fufpended; when they have no occafions of inflaming themfelves, or each other; where they will have opportunities of hearing common fenfe, every day in the week, from their tenants or neighbouring farmers, and thereby be qualified, in hours of rain or leifure, to read and confider the advice or information you fhall fend them.

Another