re in
hopes should be allayed by the happy accession of the king to the
throne.

It is and ever was my opinion, that moderation is the only virtue by
which the peace and tranquillity of this nation can be preserved. Even
the king himself--I believe his majesty will allow me that freedom--can
only be happy in the enjoyment of the crown by a moderative
administration. If his majesty should be obliged, contrary to his known
disposition, to join with intemperate councils, if it does not lessen
his security, I am persuaded it will lessen his satisfaction. It cannot
be pleasant or agreeable, and I think it cannot be safe, to any just
prince, to rule over a divided people, split into incensed and
exasperated parties. Though a skilful mariner may have courage to master
a tempest, and goes fearless through a storm, yet he can never be said
to delight in the danger; a fresh, fair gale, and a quiet sea, is the
pleasure of his voyage, and we have a saying worth notice to them that
are otherwise minded, _Qui amat periculum, periebat in illo_.

To attain at the happy calm, which, as I say, is the safety of Britain,
is the question which should now move us all; and he would merit to be
called the nation's physician that could prescribe the specific for it.
I think I may be allowed to say, a conquest of parties will never do it;
a balance of parties may. Some are for the former; they talk high of
punishments, letting blood, revenging the treatment they have met with,
and the like. If they, not knowing what spirit they are of, think this
the course to be taken, let them try their hands; I shall give them up
for lost, and look for their downfall from that time; for the ruin of
all such tempers slumbereth not.

It is many years that I have professed myself an enemy to all
precipitations in public administrations; and often I have attempted to
show, that hot councils have ever been destructive to those who have
made use of them. Indeed, they have not always been a disadvantage to
the nation, as in king James II.'s reign, when, as I have often said in
print, his precipitation was the safety of us all: and if he had
proceeded temperately and politicly, we had been undone. _Felix quem
faciunt._

But these things have been spoken when your ferment has been too high
for anything to be heard; whether you will hear it now or no, I know
not; and therefore it was that I said, I fear the present cessation of
party arms will not hold long. These