nor can it be properly objected that such a proceeding was only a blind
to cover their malice towards you and your assistants; because to
affront the King, Queen, or the Royal Family, as it would be directly
opposite to the principles that those kind of writers have always
professed, so it would destroy the very end they have in pursuit. And it
is somewhat remarkable, that those very writers against you, and the
regiment you command, are such as most distinguish themselves upon all,
or upon no occasions, by their panegyrics on their prince; and, as all
of them do this without favour or hire, so some of them continue the
same practice under the severest prosecution by you and your janizaries.

You seem to know, or at least very strongly to conjecture, who those
persons are that give you so much weekly disquiet. Will you dare to
assert that any of these are Jacobites, endeavour to alienate the hearts
of the people, to defame the prince, and then dethrone him (for these
are your expressions) and that I am their patron, their bulwark, their
hope, and their refuge? Can you think I will descend to vindicate myself
against an aspersion so absurd? God be thanked, we have had many a
change of ministry without changing our prince: for if it had been
otherwise, perhaps revolutions might have been more frequent. Heaven
forbid that the welfare of a great kingdom, and of a brave people,
should be trusted with the thread of a single subject's life; for I
suppose it is not yet in your view to entail the ministryship in your
family. Thus I hope we may live to see different ministers and different
measures, without any danger to the succession in the royal Protestant
line of Hanover.

You are pleased to advance a topic, which I could never heartily approve
of in any party, although they have each in their turn advanced it while
they had the superiority. You tell us, "It is hard that while every
private man shall have the liberty to choose what servants he pleaseth,
the same privilege should be refused to a king." This assertion, crudely
understood, can hardly be supported. If by servants be only meant those
who are purely menial, who provide for their master's food and clothing,
or for the convenience and splendour of his family, the point is not
worth debating. But the bad or good choice of a chancellor, a secretary,
an ambassador, a treasurer, and many other officers, is of very high
consequence to the whole kingdom; so is likewise th