Dear birds! repeats the fair, and heaves a figh, A fketch of Louis the XIIIth's character, as given in the life of lord Herbert. H good as could be expected in one that was IS understanding and natural parts were as brought up in fo much ignorance, which was on purpose fo done, that he might be the longer governed, nor did he even in time acquire any great knowledge in affairs, as converfing for the moft part, with weak and inactive minifters. He was noted to have two qualities almost infeparably incident to all who have been ignorantly brought up, fufpicion, and diffimulation; for as ignorant perfons walk fo much in the dark, they cannot be exempt from fear of ftumbling; and as they are likewife deprived of, or deficient in those true principles, by which they should govern both public and private affairs in a wife, folid, and demonftrative way, they strive commonly to fupply thofe imperfections with covert-acts, which though it may be excufable in neceffitous perfons, and though it be indeed often practised amongst thofe, who negociate in small matters, yet is condemnable in princes; who, proceeding upon foundations of strength and reafon, ought not to fubmit to fuch poor helps. His favourite was one monfieur de Luynes, who in his non-age had gained much upon the king, by making hawks fly at little birds in his garden, and again, making fome of thofe little birds catch butterflies; and indeed, had the king used him for no other purpose, he might have been tolerated; but as when the king came to a riper age, the government of public affairs was drawn chiefly from his counfels, not not a few errors were committed, which the parlia ment of Paris resenting, impeached and brought him to judgment. TH Princes deceived by wicked minifters. HE unhappy condition of princes, into which they are for the most part betrayed by their pre-eminence and greatness, has been lamented by the wifeft and most virtuous amongst them in all ages. The profligate, the needy men of abandoned characters, and of defperate fortunes, the false flatterer, and the base betrayer, prefs impudently forward to furround and to besiege the throne. It was a sense of these disadvantages and delufions, which made the great emperor Dioclefian declare, in his retirement, that of all undertakings, the 'moft difficult and arduous was, to govern well.' He used to fay, [Hiftor. Auguft. Scriptor, tom. ii. P. 531. Colligant fe quatuor vel quinque, &c.] that Four or five men ufually form themselves into a cabal, and confpire together to deceive and to betray their royal mafter. This knot of knaves prefcribes 'what he is to think, and puts into his mouth the very words be is inftructed to utter. They but him up, and, as it were, imprison him in his own palace, fo that truth fhall never be able to come near bim. He is permitted to know nothing but what they, or their fpies planted about him, think fit to tell him. By their intrigues and influence, be prefers the most undeferving men to the first dignities and pofts in the • empire; and, to make way for them, difgraces and difpoffefes the most worthy of his fubjects, and the moft devoted to his intereft. In short, in this fhameful, miferable manner, are often the most virtuous, the best intention, and the wifeft emperors, taken captive, made a property of, bought and fold.'Thus far Dioclefian. . That That fuch has generally been the fate of arbitrary fovereigns, whofe wills alone were a law to their fubjects, the hiftories of past times fufficiently have manifested; but the observation has not been fo frequently verified in limited monarchies; and the cafe is far otherwise, at prefent, in this happier land of liberty; where the prince must govern his people by fixed and known ftatutes, to which all have given their confent, and by which himself is bound alike with the poorest peasant. Nor can a prince, under our well-tempered conftitution, have his eyes long muffled, or be kept in total ignorance of the opinion entertained, by the majority of the nation, of his administration, or of the hardships they may at any time endure, from the intemperance or ignorance of his ftate-officers. The English are an honeft, ingenuous, and not to mince the truth, a blunt people. As they have no reafon to harbour fear, the laws of the land being their protection, fo neither are they, as in the countries of oppreffion and slavery, obliged to wear the mask of smiles upon the face of anguish, and cover discontent and mifery with diffimulation. Befides the privilege they have by the bill of rights, and the act of fettlement, to petition for redress, they never fail discovering, daily, upon every occafion that offers, by their words, their actions, nay, their very looks, the judgment they have formed of the conduct and characters of thofe who have the direction of their public concerns. Their joyful acclamations, or their gloomy filence, their marked expreffions of refpect and zeal at one period, or their no lefs remarkable neglect, and even oppofition at another, will indicate, and demonftrate to a difcerning prince, to what degree the credit of his minifters at any time rifes, or how low it is continually finking in the great national barometer. Whereby Whereby that prince who has a fincere affection for his people, and does not hold his regard for prerogative above every other confideration, will be directed to take the proper means to avoid the great risk he would otherwife run, of losing the hearts of his people, by a mistaken and ill placed firmnefs, in fupport of an unpopular and detested fet of ministers. He may, with a little pains, difcover beyond a doubt, when his minifters are become odious or contemptible, and confequently when it highly concerns his own as well as the public happiness and tranquility, to difmifs them from his fervice. It was the declaration of that great and wife monarch Henry the fourth of France, fo far was be from thinking himself under any tie of honour to maintain a bad minifter against the cries of his people, that a general odium, or fufpicion only, was fufficient grounds for the difcarding him. Indeed the famous earl of Strafford, as lord Clarendon obferves, held the fenfe of the nation in the utmost contempt; and no doubt inftilled the fame bad opinion of them in his royal master; but the error and the danger of advancing fuch an arbitrary doctrine amongst free-born Englishmen, were evinced by the event; for his deftruction, (according to the fame noble writer) was at last brought upon him, by two things, that he had most despised, the people, and Sir Harry Vane. WE A lover of the king and conftitution, Power of the treafury in elections. E have been often told by ministerial writers, that our conftitution hath not been in the leaft injured or violated, that we are now as free a people as can be, and enjoy all the liberty human human nature is capable of, as we are fubject to no laws, but fuch as are of our own making; that is, by our own reprefentatives freely chofen to parliament. But, Sir, though the people were as free in their choice of reprefentatives, as fuch writers affert, yet may not fuch members be afterwards biaffed by the crown? And fhould we ever live to fee an house of commons wherein there were near two hundred placemen and penfioners, could fuch a parliament be faid to be free and independent? But indeed, the freedom of electing our own representatives, though so much boasted of, is not fo perfect as every friend to the conftitution of his country could wifh; for may it not be truly faid, that a fifth part, at leaft, of the boroughs, take, according to the modern phrase, a recommendation from the treasury, and chufe fuch perfons as are utterly ftrangers to them? Now, in fuch cafe, I fhould be glad to know, whether perfons fo elected, can be properly called representatives of the people; or whether they are not rather commiffioners from the treasury; and whether laws made by the force of their votes, can be juftly called laws made by the confent of the people? In our maritime counties is not the power of the admiralty exceffive? Are not the number of dockmen and cinque-port officers as regularly computed at fuch county elections, as a gentleman reckons his own tenants? And what is still worse, are not many of our boroughs totally governed by this mischievous dependence? Hence we fee little, low creatures, fent down from above, and forced upon fuch electors, in prejudice to the neighbouring gentlemen, whom they love and honour, as much as they defpife and abhor the mushrooms whom they are compelled to chufe. But they have places in the cinque-ports, or work in the docks, and are therefore looked upon as the properties of the admiralty. The candidate comes to them with a letter |