o annihilate responsibility, nothing more is
necessary than that every individual should be as free, and as much in
the habit of advising the king upon the measures of government, as his
ministers. Let every discarded, and let every would-be statesman, sow
dissension in the royal councils, and pour the poison of his discontent
into the royal ear. Let the cabinet ring with a thousand jarring
sentiments; and let the subtlest courtier, let him that is the most
perfect master of wheedling arts and pathetic tones, carry it from every
rival. This, my lord, will probably create some confusion at first. The
system of government will appear, not a regular and proportioned beauty,
like the pheasant of India, but a gaudy and glaring system of
unconnected parts, like Esop's daw with borrowed feathers. Anarchy and
darkness will be the original appearance. But light shall spring out of
the noon of night; harmony and order shall succeed the chaos. The
present patchwork of three different forms of government shall be
changed into one simple and godlike system of despotism. Thus, when
London was burned, a more commodious and healthful city sprung as it
were out of her ashes.

But neither Rome nor London was built in a day. The glorious work I am
recommending to you must be a work of time. At first it will be
necessary for the person who would subvert the silly system of English
government, to enter upon his undertaking with infinite timidity and
precaution. He must stalk along in silence like Tarquin to the rape of
Lucretia. His horses, like those of Lear, must be shoed with felt. He
must shroud himself in the thickest shade. Let him comfort himself with
this reflexion:

"It is but for a time. It will soon be over. No work of mortal hands can
long stand against concussions so violent. Ulysses, who entered Troy,
shut up in the cincture of the wooden horse, shall soon burst the
enclosure, shall terrify those from whose observation he lately shrunk,
and carry devastation and ruin on whatever side he turns."

My lord, I have considered the subject of politics with as much
acuteness as any man. I have revolved a thousand schemes, which to
recommend to the pursuit of the statesman of my own creation. But there
is no plan of action that appears to me half so grand and comprehensive,
as this of _secret influence_. It is true the scheme is not entirely
new. It has been a subject of discussion ever since the English nation
could boast any thin