r
know repose, his kingdom settlement, or his business order, efficiency,
or grace with his people, until things are established upon the basis of
some set of men, who are trusted by the public, and who can trust one
another.

This comes rather nearer to the mark than the author's description of a
proper administration, under the name of _men of ability and virtue_,
which conveys no definite idea at all; nor does it apply specifically
to our grand national distemper. All parties pretend to these qualities.
The present ministry, no favorites of the author, will be ready enough
to declare themselves persons of virtue and ability; and if they choose
a vote for that purpose, perhaps it would not be quite impossible for
them to procure it. But, if the disease be this distrust and
disconnection, it is easy to know who are sound and who are tainted; who
are fit to restore us to health, who to continue, and to spread the
contagion. The present ministry being made up of draughts from all
parties in the kingdom, if they should profess any adherence to the
connections they have left, they must convict themselves of the blackest
treachery. They therefore choose rather to renounce the principle
itself, and to brand it with the name of pride and faction. This test
with certainty discriminates the opinions of men. The other is a
description vague and unsatisfactory.

As to the unfortunate gentlemen who may at any time compose that system,
which, under the plausible title of an administration, subsists but for
the establishment of weakness and confusion; they fall into different
classes, with different merits. I think the situation of some people in
that state may deserve a certain degree of compassion; at the same time
that they furnish an example, which, it is to be hoped, by being a
severe one, will have its effect, at least, on the growing generation;
if an original seduction, on plausible but hollow pretences, into loss
of honor, friendship, consistency, security, and repose, can furnish it.
It is possible to draw, even from the very prosperity of ambition,
examples of terror, and motives to compassion.

I believe the instances are exceedingly rare of men immediately passing
over a clear, marked line of virtue into declared vice and corruption.
There are a sort of middle tints and shades between the two extremes;
there is something uncertain on the confines of the two empires which
they first pass through, and which renders the