ct of
declaring their confidence they betrayed their fears.

As most of the rotten Borough Addressers are obscured in holes and
corners throughout the country, and to whom a newspaper arrives as
rarely as an almanac, they most probably have not had the opportunity of
knowing how far this part of the farce (the original prelude to all the
Addresses) has been acted. For _their_ information, I will suspend a
while the more serious purpose of my Letter, and entertain them with two
or three Speeches in the last Session of Parliament, which will serve
them for politics till Parliament meets again.

You must know, Gentlemen, that the Second Part of the Rights of Man (the
book against which you have been presenting Addresses, though it is
most probable that many of you did not know it) was to have come out
precisely at the time that Parliament last met. It happened not to be
published till a few days after. But as it was very well known that the
book would shortly appear, the parliamentary Orators entered into a very
cordial coalition to cry the book down, and they began their attack by
crying up the _blessings_ of the Constitution.

Had it been your fate to have been there, you could not but have been
moved at the heart-and-pocket-felt congratulations that passed between
all the parties on this subject of _blessings_; for the _Outs_ enjoy
places and pensions and sinecures as well as the _Ins_, and are as
devoutly attached to the firm of the house.

One of the most conspicuous of this motley groupe, is the Clerk of
the Court of King's Bench, who calls himself Lord Stormont. He is also
called Justice General of Scotland, and Keeper of Scoon, (an opposition
man,) and he draws from the public for these nominal offices, not less,
as I am informed, than six thousand pounds a-year, and he is, most
probably, at the trouble of counting the money, and signing a receipt,
to shew, perhaps, that he is qualified to be Clerk as well as Justice.
He spoke as follows.(*)

"That we shall all be unanimous in expressing our attachment to the
constitution of these realms, I am confident. It is a subject upon which
there can be no divided opinion in this house. I do not pretend to be
deep read in the knowledge of the Constitution, but I take upon me to
say, that from the extent of my knowledge [_for I have so many thousands
a year for nothing_] it appears to me, that from the period of the
Revolution, for it was by no means created then, it has