scourage them from an attack, by
representing the bulk and strength of their paper fortifications. They
have lost all memory of the excise and the convention, who can believe
their eloquence sufficiently powerful to evince, that the inquiry now
proposed ought to be numbered among impossibilities.

Whoever, sir, is acquainted with their methods of negotiation, will,
indeed, easily believe the papers sufficiently numerous, and the task of
examining them such as no man would willingly undertake; for it does not
appear for what end the immense sums which late senates have granted,
were expended, except for the payment of secretaries, and ministers, and
couriers. But whatever care has been employed to perplex every
transaction with useless circumstances, and to crowd every office with
needless papers, it will be long before they convince us, that it is
impossible to examine them. They may, doubtless, be in time perused,
though, perhaps, they can never be understood.

The utmost inconvenience, sir, that can be feared, is the necessity of
engaging a greater number of hands than on former occasions; and it will
be no disagreeable method to the publick, if we employ some of the
clerks which have been retained only for the sake of gratifying the
leaders of boroughs, or advancing the distant relations of the defenders
of the ministry, in unravelling those proceedings which they have been
hitherto hired only to embarrass, and in detecting some of those abuses
to which the will of their masters has made them instrumental; that they
may at last deserve, in some degree, the salaries which they have
enjoyed, may requite the publick for their part of its spoils, by
contributing to the punishment of the principal plunderers, and leave
their offices, of which I hope the number will be quickly diminished,
with the satisfaction of having deserved at last the thanks of their
country.

By this expedient, sir, the inquiry will be made at least possible, and
I hope, though it should still remain difficult, those who have so long
struggled for the preservation of their country, and who have at last
seen their labours rewarded with success, will not be discouraged from
pursuing it.

The necessity of such an inquiry will grow every day more urgent;
because wicked men will be hardened in confidence of impunity, and the
difficulty, such as it is, will be increased by every delay; for what
now makes an inquiry difficult, or in the style of these