talents of those who appeared their advocates in print. This I must never allow to be a general rule; yet I cannot but think it prodigiously unfortunate, that, among the answerers, defenders, repliers, and panegyrists, started up in defence of present perfons and proceedings, there hath not yet arisen one whofe labours we can read with patience, however we may applaud their loyalty and good-will. And all this with the advantages of conftant ready pay, of natural and acquired venom, and a grant of the whole fund of flander, to range over and riot in as they please.

On the other fide, a turbulent writer of Occafional Letters, and other vexatious papers, in conjunction perhaps with one or two friends as bad as himself, is able to difconcert, teaze, and four us whenever he thinks fit, merely by the ftrength of genius and truth; and after fo dextrous a manner, that, when we are vexed to the foul, and well know the reafons why we are fo, we are ashamed to own the firft, and cannot tell how to exprefs the other. In a word, it seems to me, that all the writers are on one fide, and all the railers on the other.

However, I do not pretend to affert, that it is impoffible for an ill minister to find men of wit, who may be drawn, by a very valuable confideration, to undertake his defence: But the misfortune is, that the heads of fuch writers rebel against their hearts; their genius forfakes them,

when

when they would offer to prostitute it to the fervice of injuftice, corruption, party-rage, and false representations of things and perfons.

And this is the beft argument I can offer in defence of great men, who have been of late fo very unhappy in the choice of their paper-champions; although I cannot much commend their good husbandry, in those exorbitant payments of twenty and fixty guineas at a time for a scurvy pamphlet; fince the fort of work they require, is what will all come within the talents of any one who hath enjoyed the happiness of a very bad education, hath kept the vileft company, is endowed with a fervile fpirit, is master of an empty purse, and a heart full malice.

But, to speak the truth in fobernefs; it fhould feem a little hard, fince the old Whiggifh principle hath been recalled, of standing up for the liberty of the prefs, to a degree that no man, for feveral years paft, durft venture out a thought which did not square to a point with the maxims and practices that then prevailed: I fay, it is a little hard that the vileft mercenaries fhould be countenanced, preferred, rewarded, for difcharging their brutalities against men of honour, only upon a bare conjecture.

If it should happen that these profligates have attacked an innocent person, I afk what fatisfaction can their hirers give in return? Not all the wealth raked together by the most corrupt rapacious minifters, in the longest course of unVOL. XI.

M

limited

limited power, would be fufficient to atone for the hundredth part of fuch an injury.

In the common way of thinking, it is a fituation fufficient in all confcience to fatisfy a reasonable ambition, for a private perfon, to command the laws, the forces, the revenues of a great kingdom, to reward and advance his followers and flatterers as he pleases, and to keep his enemies (real or imaginary) in the duft. In fuch an exaltation, why fhould he be at the trouble to make use of fools to found his praises, (because I always thought the lion was hard fet, when he chose the afs for his trumpeter) or knaves to revenge his quarrels, at the expence of innocent men's reputations?

With all thofe advantages, I cannot fee why perfons in the height of power, fhould be under the leaft concern on account of their reputation, for which they have no manner of ufe; or to ruin that of others, which may perhaps be the only poffeffion their enemies have left them. Suppofing times of corruption, which I am very far from doing, if a writer difplays them in their proper colours, does he do any thing worfe than fending customers to the shop? Here only, at the fign of the Brazen Head, are to be fold places and penfions: Beware of counterfeits, and take care of mistaking the door.

For my own part, I think it very unneceffary to give the character of a great minister in the fulness of his power, because it is a thing that na

turally

turally does itself, and is obvious to the eyes of all mankind; for his perfonal qualities are all derived into the most minute parts of his adminiftration. If this be juft, prudent, regular, impartial, intent upon the public good, prepared for prefent exigencies, and provident of the future; fuch is the director himself in his pri vate capacity: If it be rapacious, infolent, partial, palliating long and deep difeafes of the public with empirical remedies, false, disguised, impudent, malicious, revengeful, you fhall infallibly find the private life of the conductor to answer in every point; nay, what is more, every twinge of the gout or gravel will be felt in their confequences by the community: As the thiefcatcher, upon viewing a house broke open, could immediately distinguish, from the manner of the workmanship, by what hand it was done.

It is hard to form a maxim against which an exception is not ready to start up: So, in the prefent cafe, where the minifter grows enormously rich, the public is proportionably poor: As in a private family, the fteward always thrives the fastest, when his Lord is running out.

O F

PUBLIC ABSURDITIES

IN ENGLAND.

I

T is a common topic of fatire, which you

will hear not only from the mouths of minifters of state, but of every whiffler in office, that half a dozen obfcure fellows, over a bottle of wine, or a difh of coffee, fhall prefume to cenfure the actions of parliaments and councils, to form fchemes of government, and new-model the common-wealth; and this ufually ridiculed as a pragmatical difpofition to politics, in the very nature and genius of the people. It may poffibly be true: And yet I am grofsly deceived if any fober man, of very moderate talents, when he reflects upon the many ridiculous hurtful maxims, cuftoms, and general rules of life, which prevail in this kingdom, would not with great reafon be tempted, according to the prefent turn of his humour, either to laugh, lament, or be angry; or, if he were fanguine enough, perhaps to dream of a remedy. It is the mistake of wife and good men, that they expect more rea

fon