t together, avowedly without any
public principle, in order to sell their conjunct iniquity at the higher
rate, and are therefore universally odious, ought never to be suffered to
domineer in the State; because they have _no connection with the
sentiments and opinions of the people_.

These are considerations which, in my opinion, enforce the necessity of
having some better reason, in a free country and a free Parliament, for
supporting the Ministers of the Crown, than that short one, _That the
King has thought proper to appoint them_. There is something very
courtly in this. But it is a principle pregnant with all sorts of
mischief, in a constitution like ours, to turn the views of active men
from the country to the Court. Whatever be the road to power, that is
the road which will be trod. If the opinion of the country be of no use
as a means of power or consideration, the qualities which usually procure
that opinion will be no longer cultivated. And whether it will be right,
in a State so popular in its constitution as ours, to leave ambition
without popular motives, and to trust all to the operation of pure virtue
in the minds of Kings and Ministers, and public men, must be submitted to
the judgment and good sense of the people of England.

* * * * *

Cunning men are here apt to break in, and, without directly controverting
the principle, to raise objections from the difficulty under which the
Sovereign labours to distinguish the genuine voice and sentiments of his
people from the clamour of a faction, by which it is so easily
counterfeited. The nation, they say, is generally divided into parties,
with views and passions utterly irreconcilable. If the King should put
his affairs into the hands of any one of them, he is sure to disgust the
rest; if he select particular men from among them all, it is a hazard
that he disgusts them all. Those who are left out, however divided
before, will soon run into a body of opposition, which, being a
collection of many discontents into one focus, will without doubt be hot
and violent enough. Faction will make its cries resound through the
nation, as if the whole were in an uproar, when by far the majority, and
much the better part, will seem for awhile, as it were, annihilated by
the quiet in which their virtue and moderation incline them to enjoy the
blessings of Government. Besides that, the opinion of the mere vulgar is
a miserable rule even with regard to themselves