venom, and a grant of the whole fund of slander, to range over and riot in as they please. *

On the other side, a turbulent writer of Occasional Letters, and other vexatious papers, in conjunction, perhaps, with one or two friends as bad as himself, is able to disconcert, tease, and sour us, whenever he thinks fit, merely by the strength of genius and truth; and after so dexterous a manner, that when we are vexed to the soul, and well know the reasons why we are so, we are ashamed to own the first, and cannot tell how to express the other. In a word, it seems to me that all the writers are on one side, and all the railers on the other.

However, I do not pretend to assert that it is impossible for an ill minister to find men of wit, who may be drawn, by a very valuable consideration, to undertake his defence; but the misfortune is, that the heads of such writers rebel against their hearts; their genius forsakes them, when they would offer to prostitute it to the service of injustice, corruption, party rage, and false representation of things and persons.

And this is the best argument I can offer in defence of great men, who have been of late so very unhappy in the choice of their paper-champions; although I cannot much commend their good husbandry in those exorbitant payments of twenty and sixty guineas at a time for a scurvy

* Sir Robert Walpole was by no means negligent of his literary assistants. But unfortunately, like an unskilful general, he confided more in the number than the spirit or discipline of his forces. Arnall, Concanen, and Henley, were wretched auxiliaries; yet they could not complain of indifferent pay, since Arnall used to brag, that, in the course of four years, he had received from the treasury, for his political writings, the sum of £10,997:6: 8.

pamphlet; since the sort of work they require, is what will all come within the talents of any one who has enjoyed the happiness of a very bad education, has kept the vilest company, is endowed with a servile spirit, is master of an empty purse, and a heart full of malice.

But, to speak the truth in soberness; it should seem a little hard, since the old whiggish principle has been recalled, of standing up for the liberty of the press, to a degree that no man, for several years past, durst venture out a thought which did not square, to a point, with the maxims and practices that then prevailed: I say, it is a little hard, that the vilest mercenaries should be countenanced, preferred, rewarded, for discharging their brutalities against men of honour, only upon a bare conjecture.

If it should happen that these profligates have attacked an innocent person, I ask, What satisfaction can their hirers give in return? Not all the wealth raked together by the most corrupt, rapacious ministers, in the longest course of unlimited power, would be sufficient to atone for the hundredth part of such an injury.

In the common way of thinking, it is a situation sufficient in all conscience to satisfy a reasonable ambition, for a private person to command the laws, the forces, the revenues of a great kingdom; to reward and advance his followers and flatterers as he pleases; and to keep his enemies (real or imaginary) in the dust. In such an exaltation, why should he be at the trouble to make use of fools to sound his praises, (because I always thought the lion was hard set, when he chose the ass for his trumpeter,) or knaves to revenge his quarrel, at the expence of innocent men's reputations?

With all those advantages, I cannot see why persons in the height of power should be under the least concern on account of their reputation, for which they have no manner of use; or to ruin that of others, which may perhaps be the only possession their enemies have left them. Supposing times of corruption, which I am very far from doing; if a writer displays them in their proper colours, does he do any thing worse than sending customers to the shop? "Here only, at "the sign of the Brazen Head, are to be sold places and pensions: beware of counterfeits, and take care of mistaking the door."

For my own part, I think it very unnecessary to give the character of a great minister in the fullness of his power, because it is a thing that naturally does itself, and is obvious to the eyes of all mankind; for his personal qualities are all derived into the most minute parts of his administration. If this be just, prudent, regular, impartial, intent upon the public good, prepared for present exigencies, and provident of the future ; such is the director himself, in his private capacity: if it be rapacious, insolent, partial, palliating long and deep diseases of the public with empirical remedies, false, disguised, impudent, malicious, revengeful; you shall infallibly find the private life of the conductor to answer in every point: nay, what is more, every twinge of the gout or gravel will be felt in their consequences

the community; as the thief-catcher, upon viewing a house broke open, could immediately distinguish, from the manner of the workmanship, by what hand it was done.

It is hard to form a maxim against which an exception is not ready to start up; so, in the present case, where the minister grows enormously

rich, the public is proportionably poor; as, in a private family, the steward always thrives the fattest, when his lord is running out.

AN

ACCOUNT

OF THE

COURT AND EMPIRE OF JAPAN.

WRITTEN IN 1728.

Upon the death of King George I., it was generally supposed that his favourite minister, Sir Robert Walpole, would have fallen into utter disgrace. George II., while heir-apparent, had shewed some countenance to the Tories, and to other opponents of Walpole. Queen Caroline was believed to be the minister's personal enemy; and all things appeared to predict his downfall, and the elevation of Sir Spenser Compton to the office of premier. The Tory writers, who, during the apparency of George II., had been well received at Leicester-House, anticipated a triumph over the favourite of the deceased monarch, and, in many a jeu d'esprit, expressed their confidence of the course which the successor was to pursue. But, by one of those cabinet intrigues, of which the real cause has never been ascertained, because, perhaps, it was too trifling to bear the public eye, Walpole maintained, under George II., even more than the power he had enjoyed from the favour of his predecessor. To these events the following piece has emblematical reference. It was probably left imperfect, when the crisis to which the Tories so anxiously looked forward terminated so undesirably, in the confirmation of Walpole's power.]

VOL X.

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