fectly eafy, and believe they could not be fo if they had any fear at heart. My comfort is, they are perfons of great abilities, and they are engaged in a good cause. And what is one very good circumftance, as I told three of them the other day, they feem heartily to love one another, in fpite of the fcandal of inconftancy which courtfriendships lie under. And I can affirm to your Lordship, they heartily love you too; which I take to be a great deal more than when they affure you fo themselves. For even statefmen will fometimes difcover their paffions, efpecially their good

ones.

Here is a pamphlet come out, called A Leiter to Jacob Banks, fhewing that the liberty of Sweden was deftroyed by the principle of paffive obedience. I know not whether his quotation be fair, but the piece is fhrewdly written; and, in my opinion, not to be answered, otherwife than by disclaiming that fort of paffive obedience which the Tories are charged with. This difpute would foon be ended, if the dunces, who write on each fide, would plainly tell us what the object of this paffive obedience is in our country. For, I dare fwear, nine in ten of the Whigs

will allow it to the legislature, and as many of the Tories deny it to the prince alone: And I hardly ever faw a Whig and Tory together, whom I could not immediately reconcile on that article, when I made them explain themselves.

My Lord, the Queen knew what she did, when she sent your Lordship to fpur up a dull northern court: Yet, I confefs, I had rather have seen that activity of mind and body, employed in conquering another kingdom, or the fame over again. I

MY LORD, &c.

I am,

LETTER IV.

I

To the Earl of PETERBOROW.

MY LORD,

May 4, 1711.

HAVE had the honour of your Lordfhip's letter; and, by the first lines of it have made a discovery that your Lordship is come into the world about eighteen hundred years too late, and was born about half a dozen degrees too far to the north, to employ that public virtue I always heard you did poffefs; which is now wholly ufelefs, and which those very few B 4

that

that have it, are forced to lay afide when they would have business succeed.

Is it not fome comfort, my Lord, that you meet with the fame degeneracy of manners, and the fame neglect of the public, among the honeft Germans, though, in the philofopher's phrase, differently modified; and I hope, at leaft, we have one advantage, to be more polite in our corruptions than they.

Our divifions run further than perhaps your Lordship's intelligence hath yet informed you of. That is, a triumvirate of our friends whom I have mentioned to you: I have told them more than once, upon occafion, that all my hope of their fuccefs depended on their union; that I faw they loved one another, and hoped they would continue it, to remove that fcandal of inconftancy afcribed to courtfriendships. I am not now fo fecure. I care not to say more on fuch a fubject, and even this is entre nous. My credit is not of a fize to do any fervice on fuch an occafion: But, as little as it is, I am fo ill a politician, that I will venture the lofs of it to prevent this mischief; the confequences of which I am as good a judge of as any minifter

4

minister of state, and perhaps a better because I am not one.

When you writ your letter, you had not heard of Guifcard's attempt on Mr. Harley: Suppofing you know all the circumstances, I shall not defcant upon it. We believe Mr. Harley will foon be Treasurer, and be of the House of Peers; and then we imagine the Court will begin to deal out employments, for which every October-member is a candidate; and confequently nine in ten must be disappointed: The effect of which we may find in the next feffion. Mr. Harley was yesterday to open to the House the ways he has thought of, to raise funds for the fecuring the unprovided debts of the nation, and we are all impatient to know what his proposals are.

As to the imperfect account you fay you have received of disagreement among our felves, your Lordship knows that the names of Whig and Tory have quite altered their meanings. All who were for turning out the late miniftry, we now generally call Tories; and, in that fenfe, I think it plain that there are among the Tories three different interefts, One of thofe, I mean the ministry, who agree with your Lordship and me, in a steady management for pur

fuing the true interest of the nation; another is that of warmer heads, as the Octo-. ber-club and their adherents without doors; and a third is, I fear, of those who, as your Lordship expreffes it, would found a parly, and who would make fair weather in cafe of a change, and some of these last are not inconfiderable.

8

Nothing can be more obliging than your Lordship's remembering to mention me in your letters to Mr. Harley and Mr. St. John, when you are in the midst of such great affairs. I doubt I fhall want such an advocate as your Lordship; for, I believe, every man who has modefty or merit, is but an ill one for himself. I defire but the smallest of those titles you give me on the outside of your letter. My ambition is to live in England, and with a competency to support me with honour. The miniftry know by this time whether I am worth keeping; and it is easier to provide for ten men in the church than one in a civil employ

ment.

But I renounce England and deanries, without a promife from your Lordship, under your own hand and feal, that I shall have liberty to attend you whenever I please. I foresee we shall have a peace next year,

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