Their very gowns are enough to strike terror into the most
inattentive. Each of them covers his _cranium_ with a venerable periwig,
whose flowing curls and voluminous frizure bespeak wealth and
contentment. Their faces are buxom, and their cheeks are florid.
You will also, my lord, find them much more easy and tractable, than the
squeamish, fretful, discontented wretches, with which other ministers
have had to do. There is but one expence that will be requisite. It is
uniform, and capable of an easy calculation. In any great and trying
question, I was going to say debate, but debates, I am apt to think,
would not be very frequent, or very animated,--your lordship has nothing
to do, but to clear the table of the rolls and parchments, with which it
is generally covered, and spreading a table cloth, place upon it half a
score immense turtles, smoking hot, and larded with green fat. My lord,
I will forfeit my head, if with this perfume regaling their nostrils, a
single man has resolution enough to divide the house, or to declare his
discontent with any of the measures of government, by going out into the
lobby.
So much, my lord, for this scheme. It is too considerable to be adopted
without deliberation; it is too important, and too plausible, to be
rejected without examination.
Pages:
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95