through the hands of leaders of
Whigs or Tories, men of talents to conciliate the people, and to engage
their confidence, now the method was to be altered; and the lead was to
be given to men of no sort of consideration or credit in the country.
This want of natural importance was to be their very title to delegated
power. Members of parliament were to be hardened into an insensibility
to pride as well as to duty. Those high and haughty sentiments, which
are the great support of independence, were to be let down gradually.
Point of honour and precedence were no more to be regarded in
Parliamentary decorum than in a Turkish army. It was to be avowed, as a
constitutional maxim, that the King might appoint one of his footmen, or
one of your footmen, for Minister; and that he ought to be, and that he
would be, as well followed as the first name for rank or wisdom in the
nation. Thus Parliament was to look on, as if perfectly unconcerned
while a cabal of the closet and back-stairs was substituted in the place
of a national Administration.

With such a degree of acquiescence, any measure of any Court might well
be deemed thoroughly secure. The capital objects, and by much the most
flattering characteristics of arbitrary power, would be obtained.
Everything would be drawn from its holdings in the country to the
personal favour and inclination of the Prince. This favour would be the
sole introduction to power, and the only tenure by which it was to be
held: so that no person looking towards another, and all looking towards
the Court, it was impossible but that the motive which solely influenced
every man's hopes must come in time to govern every man's conduct; till
at last the servility became universal, in spite of the dead letter of
any laws or institutions whatsoever.

How it should happen that any man could be tempted to venture upon such a
project of Government, may at first view appear surprising. But the fact
is that opportunities very inviting to such an attempt have offered; and
the scheme itself was not destitute of some arguments, not wholly
unplausible, to recommend it. These opportunities and these arguments,
the use that has been made of both, the plan for carrying this new scheme
of government into execution, and the effects which it has produced, are
in my opinion worthy of our serious consideration.

His Majesty came to the throne of these kingdoms with more advantages
than any of his predecessors si