It is the
business of every Machiavelian minister, such as your lordship, both
from nature and choice, is inclined to be, to prop the cause of
despotism. In order to this, the dignity of the sovereign is not to be
committed, but exalted. To bring forward the royal person to put a
negative upon any bill in parliament, is a most inartificial mode of
proceeding. It marks too accurately the strides of power, and awakens
too pointedly the attention of the multitude. Your lordship has heard
that the house of lords is the barrier between the king and the people.
There is a sense of this phrase, of which I am wonderfully fond. The
dissemination of the royal opinion will at any time create a majority in
that house, to divert the odium from the person of the monarch.
Twenty-two bishops, thirteen lords of the bed-chamber, and all the
rabble of household troops, will at any time compose an army. They may
not indeed cover an acre of ground, nor would I advise your lordship to
distribute them into a great number of regiments. Their countenances are
not the most terrific that were ever beheld, and it might be proper to
officer them with persons of more sagacity than themselves. But under
all this meekness of appearance, and innocence of understanding, believe
me, my lord, they are capable of keeping at bay the commons and the
people of England united in one cause, for a considerable time.
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