test
corners of the kingdom. A majority of the House of Peers, in the Whig
interest, amply provided with emoluments, offices, and dignities, got
possession of so many boroughs and counties, that they secured a majority
in the Commons also, and got the entire command of government. The
sovereigns on the throne--men of little capacity, imperfectly acquainted
with English, unable, from that cause, even to preside at the meetings of
their own cabinet, and strongly opposed by an ardent and generous, because
disinterested, party in the country--became mere puppets in their hands,
and rendered the crown nearly destitute of all real or independent weight
in the kingdom.

The natural check in a free country upon this corrupt system, into which
every constitutional monarchy has so strong a tendency to run, is found in
the vigorous opposition and incessant watchfulness of the people. It is
this which has been so powerful a restraint upon the abuses of government
during the last half century; and which has now become so strong, that the
common complaint is, that, in all important appointments at least, the
Tory ministry are forgetful of their friends, and select the persons to
be appointed from the ranks of their enemies. But this salutary check upon
bad government did not exist during the first half of the eighteenth
century; or rather, it existed only to fan and augment the inclination,
already sufficiently strong, to corrupt administration on the part of the
Whig oligarchy, who had got possession of the helm. The popular party were
now in power; their leaders had the disposal of every thing, and therefore
not a whisper escaped their lips, as to the degrading system which was so
fast spreading in the country. The Tories, who were in opposition, were a
discredited and defeated party. They had got into ugly company--they had
the axe impending over them. The unsuccessful result of the rebellions of
1715 and 1745, had, as is always the case, not only greatly augmented the
strength of the ruling government, but it had rendered the Tories, who
were in great part, and probably justly, suspected of a leaning to the
rebels, to the last degree obnoxious to a large majority of the English
people. Religious feeling combined with political antipathy and personal
terror to produce this emotion. The Tories were associated, in the popular
mind, with Jacobites and rebels; with Popish mummery and national
antipathy; with the fires of Smithfield and