caprice, no Minister
dares even to cast an oblique glance at the lowest of their body. If an
attempt be made upon one of this corps, immediately he flies to
sanctuary, and pretends to the most inviolable of all promises. No
conveniency of public arrangement is available to remove any one of them
from the specific situation he holds; and the slightest attempt upon one
of them, by the most powerful Minister, is a certain preliminary to his
own destruction.

Conscious of their independence, they bear themselves with a lofty air to
the exterior Ministers. Like Janissaries, they derive a kind of freedom
from the very condition of their servitude. They may act just as they
please; provided they are true to the great ruling principle of their
institution. It is, therefore, not at all wonderful, that people should
be so desirous of adding themselves to that body, in which they may
possess and reconcile satisfactions the most alluring, and seemingly the
most contradictory; enjoying at once all the spirited pleasure of
independence, and all the gross lucre and fat emoluments of servitude.

Here is a sketch, though a slight one, of the constitution, laws, and
policy, of this new Court corporation. The name by which they choose to
distinguish themselves, is that of _King's men_, or the _King's friends_,
by an invidious exclusion of the rest of his Majesty's most loyal and
affectionate subjects. The whole system, comprehending the exterior and
interior Administrations, is commonly called, in the technical language
of the Court, _Double Cabinet_; in French or English, as you choose to
pronounce it.

Whether all this be a vision of a distracted brain, or the invention of a
malicious heart, or a real faction in the country, must be judged by the
appearances which things have worn for eight years past. Thus far I am
certain, that there is not a single public man, in or out of office, who
has not, at some time or other, borne testimony to the truth of what I
have now related. In particular, no persons have been more strong in
their assertions, and louder and more indecent in their complaints, than
those who compose all the exterior part of the present Administration; in
whose time that faction has arrived at such a height of power, and of
boldness in the use of it, as may, in the end, perhaps bring about its
total destruction.

It is true, that about four years ago, during the administration of the
Marquis of Rockingham, an