provided the
leaders, sensible of their situation, do not of themselves recede in
time from their most declared opinions. This latter is generally the
case. It will not be conceivable to any one who has not seen it, what
pleasure is taken by the cabal in rendering these heads of office
thoroughly contemptible and ridiculous. And when they are become so,
they have then the best chance for being well supported.

The members of the court faction are fully indemnified for not holding
places on the slippery heights of the kingdom, not only by the lead in
all affairs, but also by the perfect security in which they enjoy less
conspicuous, but very advantageous situations. Their places are in
express legal tenure, or, in effect, all of them for life. Whilst the
first and most respectable persons in the kingdom are tossed about like
tennis-balls, the sport of a blind and insolent caprice, no minister
dares even to cast an oblique glance at the lowest of their body. If an
attempt be made upon one of this corps, immediately he flies to
sanctuary, and pretends to the most inviolable of all promises. No
conveniency of public arrangement is available to remove any one of them
from the specific situation he holds; and the slightest attempt upon one
of them, by the most powerful minister, is a certain preliminary to his
own destruction.

Conscious of their independence, they bear themselves with a lofty air
to the exterior ministers. Like janissaries, they derive a kind of
freedom from the very condition of their servitude. They may act just as
they please; provided they are true to the great ruling principle of
their institution. It is, therefore, not at all wonderful, that people
should be so desirous of adding themselves to that body, in which they
may possess and reconcile satisfactions the most alluring, and seemingly
the most contradictory; enjoying at once all the spirited pleasure of
independence, and all the gross lucre and fat emoluments of servitude.

Here is a sketch, though a slight one, of the constitution, laws, and
policy of this new court corporation. The name by which they choose to
distinguish themselves, is that of _king's men_ or the _king's friends_,
by an invidious exclusion of the rest of his Majesty's most loyal and
affectionate subjects. The whole system, comprehending the exterior and
interior administrations, is commonly called, in the technical language
of the court, _double cabinet_; in French or English