curiosity or
leisure sufficient for such an examination of the writings on each side,
as is necessary, before the superiority of any author above his brethren
can he justly asserted.

It is no part, sir, of my employment or amusement to compare their
arguments, or to balance their abilities; nor do I often read the papers
of either party, except when I am informed by some that have more
inclination to such studies than myself, that they have risen by some
accident above their common level.

Yet that I may not appear entirely to desert the question, I cannot
forbear to say, that I have never, from these accidental inspections of
their performances, discovered any reason to exalt the authors who write
against the administration, to a higher degree of reputation than their
opponents. That any of them deserve loud applauses, I cannot assert, and
am afraid that all, which deserves to be preserved of the writings on
either side, may be contracted to a very few volumes.

The writers for the opposition appear to me to be nothing more than the
echoes of their predecessors, or, what is still more despicable, of
themselves, and to have produced nothing in the last seven years, which
had not been said seven years before.

I may, perhaps, be thought by some gentlemen of each class to speak
contemptuously of their advocates, nor shall I think my own opinion less
just for such a censure; for the reputation of controversial writers
arises, generally, from the prepossession of their readers in favour of
the opinions which they endeavour to defend. Men easily admit the force
of an argument which tends to support notions, that it is their interest
to diffuse, and readily find wit and spirit in a satire pointed at
characters which they desire to depress: but to the opposite party, and
even to themselves, when their passions have subsided, and their
interest is disunited from the question, those arguments appear only
loud assertions, or empty sophistry; and that which was clamorously
praised, discovers itself to be only impudence or low conceits; the
spirit evaporates, and the malignity only remains.

If we consider, sir, what opposition of character is necessary to
constitute a political writer, it will not be wondered that so few excel
in that undertaking. He that will write well in politicks, must at the
same time have a complete knowledge of the question, and time to digest
his thoughts into method, and polish his style into elegan