We will give two extracts; one animadverting upon the preliminaries of
peace concluded by the earl of Shelburne; the other a character of David
Hartley, Esq.
"I know that it has been given out, that by the ability and
industry of their predecessors we found peace and order
established to our hands; and that the present ministers had
nothing to inherit, but emolument and indolence, _otium cum
dignitate._ Sir, I will inform you what kind of peace and
leisure the late ministers had provided. They were indeed
assiduous in their devotion; they erected a temple to the
goddess of peace. But it was so hasty and incorrect a structure,
the foundation was so imperfect, the materials so gross and
unwrought, and the parts so disjointed, that it would have been
much easier to have raised an entire edifice from the ground,
than to have reduced the injudicious sketch that was made to any
regularity of form. Where you looked for a shrine, you found
only a vestibule; instead of the chapel of the goddess, there
was a wide and dreary lobby; and neither altar nor treasury were
to be found. There was neither greatness of design, nor accuracy
of finishing. The walls were full of gaps and flaws, the winds
whistled through the spacious halls, and the whole building
tottered over our heads.
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