you are, with the infamy of a notorious breach of trust? With what countenance can you take your seat at the treasury-board, or in the council, when you feel that every circulating whisper is at your expence alone, and stabs you to the heart? Have you a single friend in Parliament so shameless, so thoroughly abandoned, as to undertake your defence? You know, my Lord, that there is not a man in either house, whose character, however flagitious, would not be ruined by mixing his reputation with yours: and does not your heart inform you that you are degraded below the condition of a man, when you are obliged to bear these insults with submission, and even to thank me for my modera-` tion?

We are told, by the highest judicial authority, that Mr. Vaughan's offer to purchase the re

*

* A little before the publication of this, and the preceding letter, the Duke of Grafton had commenced a prosecution against Mr. Samuel Vaughan, for endeavouring to corrupt his integrity, by an offer of five thousand pounds for a patent place in Jamaica. A rule to shew cause why an information should not be exhibited against Vaughan for certain misdemeanours, being granted by the Court of King's Bench, the matter was solemnly argued on the 27th of November, 1769, and, by the unanimous opinion of the four judges, the rule was made absolute. The pleadings and speeches were accurately taken in short hand, and published. The whole of Lord Mansfield's speech, and particularly the following extracts from it, deserves the reader's attention. "A practice

of the kind, complained of here, is certainly dishonourable #6 and scandalous. If a man, standing under the relation of

version of a patent place in Jamaica (which he was otherwise sufficiently entitled to) amounts. to a high misdemeanour. Be it so: and if he deserves it, let him be punished. But the learned Judge might have had a fairer opportunity of displaying the powers of his eloquence. Having delivered himself, with so much energy, upon the criminal nature, and dangerous consequences of any attempt to corrupt a man in your Grace's station, what would he have said to the Minister himself, to that very Privy Counsellor, to that first Commissioner of the Treasury, who does not wait for, but impatiently solicits, the touch of corruption; who employs the meanest

"an officer under the King, or of a person in whom the King "puts confidence, or of a Minister, takes money for the use "of that confidence the King puts in him, he basely betrays "the King; he basely betrays his trust. If the King sold the "office, it would be acting contrary to the trust the consti"tution hath reposed in him. The constitution does not in"tend the Crown should sell those offices to raise a revenue "out of them. Is it possible to hesitate, whether this would "not be criminal in the Duke of Grafton? Contrary to his "duty as a Privy Counsellor, contrary to his duty as a Mi"nister, contrary to his duty as a subject? His advice should "be free, according to his judgment. It is the duty of his "office; he hath sworn to it."--Notwithstanding all this, the Duke of Grafton certainly sold a patent place to Mr. Hine, for three thousand five hundred pounds. If the House of Commons had done their duty, and impeached the Duke for this breach of trust, how woefully must poor honest Mansfield have been puzzled! His embarrassment would have afforded the most ridiculous scene that was ever exhibited. To save the Judge from this perplexity, and the Duke from impeachment, the prosecution against Vaughan was immediately dropped.

of his creatures in these honourable services; and, forgetting the genius and fidelity of his secretary, descends to apply to his house-builder for assistance?

This affair, my Lord, will do infinite credit to government, if, to clear your character, you should think proper to bring it into the House of Lords, or into the court of King's Bench. But, my Lord, you dare not do either.

WHEN the complaints of a brave and powerful people are observed to increase in proportion to the wrongs they have suffered, when, instead of sinking into submission, they are roused to resistance, the time will soon arrive, at which every inferior consideration must

yield to the security of the Sovereign, and to the general safety of the state.

There is a mo

ment of difficulty and danger, at which flattery and falsehood can no longer deceive, and simplicity itself can no longer be misled. Let us suppose it arrived: let us suppose a gracious, well-intentioned prince, made sensible, at last, of the great duty he owes to his people, and of his own disgraceful situation; that he looks round him for assistance, and asks for no advice, but how to gratify the wishes and secure the happiness of his subjects. In these circumstances, it may be matter of curious speculation to consider, if an honest man were permitted to approach a king, in what terms he would address himself to his sovereign. Let it be imagined, no matter how improbable, that the first prejudice against his character is removed; that the ceremonious difficulties of an audience are surmounted; that he feels himself animated by the purest and most honourable affections to his King and country; and that the great person whom he addresses, has spirit enough to bid him speak freely, and understanding enough to listen to him with attention. Unacquainted with the vain impertinence of forms, he would deliver his sentiments with dignity and firmness, but not without respect.

SIR,

It is the misfortune of your life, and originally the cause of every reproach and distress which has attended your government, that you should never have been acquainted with the language of truth, until you heard it in the complaints of your people. It is not, however, too late to correct the error of your education. We are still inclined to make an indulgent allowance for the pernicious lessons you received in your youth, and to form the most sanguine hopes from the natural benevolence of your disposition.*

The plan of the tutelage and future dominion over the heir apparent, laid many years ago, at Carlton-House, between the Princess Dowager, and her favourite the Earl of Bute, was as gross and palpable as that which was concerted between Ann of Austria and Cardinal Mazarine, to govern Louis the Fourteenth, and, in effect, to prolong his minority until the end of their lives. That prince had strong natural parts, and used frequently to blush for his own ignorance and want of education, which had been wilfully neglected by his mother and her minion. A little experience, however, soon shewed him how shamefully he had been treated, and for what infamous purposes he had been kept in ignorance. Our great Edward, too, at an early period, had sense enough to understand the nature of the connexion between his abandoned mother and the detested Mortimer. But, since that time, human nature, we may observe, is greatly altered for the better. Dowagers may be chaste, and minions may be honest. When it was proposed to settle the present King's household, as Prince of Wales, it is well known, that the Earl of Bute was forced into it, in direct contradiction to the late King's inclination. That was the salient point from which all the mischiefs and disgraces of the present reign took life and motion. From that moment, Lord Bute never suffered the Prince of Wales to be an instant out of his sight. We need not look farther.