all its
evil works. Corruption was to be cast down from Court, as _Ate_ was from
heaven. Power was thenceforward to be the chosen residence of public
spirit; and no one was to be supposed under any sinister influence,
except those who had the misfortune to be in disgrace at Court, which was
to stand in lieu of all vices and all corruptions. A scheme of
perfection to be realised in a Monarchy, far beyond the visionary
Republic of Plato. The whole scenery was exactly disposed to captivate
those good souls, whose credulous morality is so invaluable a treasure to
crafty politicians. Indeed, there was wherewithal to charm everybody,
except those few who are not much pleased with professions of
supernatural virtue, who know of what stuff such professions are made,
for what purposes they are designed, and in what they are sure constantly
to end. Many innocent gentlemen, who had been talking prose all their
lives without knowing anything of the matter, began at last to open their
eyes upon their own merits, and to attribute their not having been Lords
of the Treasury and Lords of Trade many years before merely to the
prevalence of party, and to the Ministerial power, which had frustrated
the good intentions of the Court in favour of their abilities. Now was
the time to unlock the sealed fountain of Royal bounty, which had been
infamously monopolised and huckstered, and to let it flow at large upon
the whole people. The time was come to restore Royalty to its original
splendour. _Mettre le Roy hors de page_, became a sort of watchword. And
it was constantly in the mouths of all the runners of the Court, that
nothing could preserve the balance of the constitution from being
overturned by the rabble, or by a faction of the nobility, but to free
the Sovereign effectually from that Ministerial tyranny under which the
Royal dignity had been oppressed in the person of his Majesty's
grandfather.

These were some of the many artifices used to reconcile the people to the
great change which was made in the persons who composed the Ministry, and
the still greater which was made and avowed in its constitution. As to
individuals, other methods were employed with them, in order so
thoroughly to disunite every party, and even every family, that _no
concert_, _order_, _or effect_, _might appear in any future opposition_.
And in this manner an Administration without connection with the people,
or with one another, was first put in pos