XI. 1714. manufacturer, breaks the merchant, discourages industry, CHAP. and reduces fraud to a system; which drains continually a portion of our national wealth away to foreigners, and draws most perniciously the rest of that immense property that was diffused among thousands into the pockets of a few-who can answer that such a scheme will always endure? The whole art of stock-jobbing, the whole mystery of iniquity mentioned above, arises from this establishment, and is employed about the funds; and the main-springs which turn or may turn the artificial wheel of credit, and make the paper estates that are fastened to it rise or fall, lurk behind the veil of the treasury. That luxury which began to spread after the restoration of Charles II. hath increased ever since, from the growth of wealth among the stockjobbers from this system. Nothing can be more certain than this, that national luxury and national poverty may in time establish national prostitution. The immense wealth of particular men is a circumstance which always attends national poverty, and is in a great measure the cause of it. We may already apply to our country what Sallust makes Cato say of the state 1 Dissertaof Rome, and I wish we could apply no more :- Pro tion on Parhis nos habemus luxuriam; publicè egestatem, privatim lingbroke's opulentiam.' Public want and private wealth abound 298, 299. in all declining states." "1 ties-Bo Works, iii. 13. corruption induced in What rendered this system peculiarly alarming was the simultaneous development of a new, and apparently General interminable system of government, by which it was to which was be carried on. The Stuarts had tried to reign by pre- the country. rogative; and as one monarch had lost his head and another his crown in the attempt, the friends of freedom flattered themselves that the liberties of the nation CHAP. XI. 1714. were now established on a foundation which no future sovereign would attempt to shake. But the accession of William soon showed that there are other ways of managing a people than by open force. The Stuarts had failed because they had been bred under monarchical habits, and had no other ideas of government than those of prerogative and power. Experience had not taught them the secret, so well known to the Roman Emperor, of veiling authority under the name of freedom, and disarming opposition by attending to the interests of its leaders. William brought from the commercial republic of Holland, where they had been long practised and were perfectly understood, a thorough knowledge of both these important state secrets. Introduced by Parliament, having no legitimate title to the throne, standing solely on the choice of the nation, he was careful in all his measures not to run counter either in form or substance to the power which had raised him to supreme power. Everything originated with the legislature. The House of Commons stood forth in appearance as the ruler of the state. But then he contrived, by a simple expedient, to rule the House of Commons. The wars in which he was of necessity engaged, the loans which they rendered unavoidable, and which the commercial wealth of the nation enabled it to advance, and the great increase in the general expenditure of the Exchequer, -all conspired to place a vast and unprecedented amount of patronage in the hands of Government. This was systematically directed to buy off opposition in Parliament, and secure a majority in the constituencies. Corruption in every possible form, from the highest to the lowest, was employed in all parts of Great Britain, especially among the urban electors; XI. 1714. and with such success that almost every measure of CHAP. Government passed without difficulty through both Houses of Parliament. The nation had shaken off the prerogatives of the Crown, but they had fallen under the domination of its influence. The gold of the Exchequer was found to be more powerful than the penalties of the Star Chamber; and the last state of the realm was, in this view, worse than the first. 14. broke's ac dignation at this demo system. If this enormous increase in the public debt, under the influence of the funding system, awakened the appre- Bolinghensions of the thoughtful, not less did the unbounded count of the spread of corruption excite the indignation of the general invirtuous part of the nation. The first might embarrass ralising the revenue, and cripple the resources of the people ; but this threatened to sap the foundations of their prosperity, by undermining their virtue. Bolingbroke, whose genius, however brilliant, seldom did more than reflect the ideas of that part of the empire which constituted his section of the community, has left the following account of the sentiments with which this new and demoralising system of influence was regarded by the sturdy English or country party: "As the means of influencing by prerogative and of governing by force were considered to be increased formerly upon every addition to the power of the Crown, so are the means of influencing by money, and of governing by corruption, to be considered as increased now, upon that increase of power which hath accrued to the Crown by the new constitution of the revenue since the Revolution. Not only the means of corrupting are increased on the part of the Crown, but the facility of employing these means with success is increased on the part of the people, on the part of the electors and the part of the elected. CHAP. XI. 1714. 15. The power of the Crown to corrupt, and the proneness of the people to be corrupted, must continue to increase on the same principles, until a stop be put to the growing wealth and power of the one, and the growing depravity of the other. The Ministers, though never so weak, are always impudent enough to act, and able enough to get frequent supplies on national pretences for private purposes. The consequences of this are manifold, for, the more money passes through their hands, the more opportunities they have of gain; and in particular they may share it if they please in every bad bargain they make for the public; and the worse their bargain, the better their share will be. Then an immense subsidy given to some little prince His alarm- who deals in soldiers, or an immense arrear stated in ing picture on public morals. of its effect favour of these little merchants of human flesh, may be so ordered as to steal enough from the public to replenish the royal coffers, glut the Ministers, feed some of their hungry creatures, and bribe a Parliament besides. The establishment of public funds on the credit of these taxes hath been productive of far greater mischiefs than the taxes themselves, not only by increasing the means of corruption and the power of corruption, but the effect it hath had on the spirit of the nation, its manners and morals. Britain will soon be in the state described by Philip II. of his own court: They all take money, except myself and Sapona.' Britain may ere long be in that very condition in which, and in which alone, her constitution and her liberty, in consequence, may be destroyed, because the people may, in a state of universal corruption, and will in no other, either suffer others to betray them, or betray themselves. How near a progress we had made to this, I determine not. This I 6 CHAP. 1714. say, that it is time for every man who is desirous to preserve the British constitution, to contribute all he can to prevent the ill effects of that new influence and power which has gained strength in every reign since the Revolution; of those means of corruption that may be employed one time or other on the part of the Crown; and broke's of that proneness to corruption on the part of the people iii. 302. that hath been long growing, and still grows.' "1 1 Boling Works, ciples of loyalty in character. Independent of these considerations, which were so 16. obvious that they forced themselves on the consideration Strong prinof every thinking person in the country, there was a freedom and powerful set of feelings, which ere long began to impel the English the public mind in the same direction. Notwithstanding the strong love of freedom which has in every age characterised the English people, and which has been evinced for nearly a thousand years by the constant struggles they have made to maintain and extend their liberties, there is no nation in whom the principle of loyalty has taken a stronger root, or in which the precept to "fear God and honour the King" is more thoroughly interwoven with their domestic affections. It is the contest of these opposite principles which has produced such constant struggles in every period of English history; for not only has the strife repeatedly been fierce between them while it lasted, but the temporary triumph of the one has invariably and speedily been followed by a decided reaction in favour of the other. Vehement and energetic in whatever it undertakes, a large part of the Anglo-Saxon race rush alternately into the extreme of republican licentiousness and the enthusiasm of chivalrous loyalty. It was thus that the general and unaccountable submission to their Norman rulers was succeeded by the rebellion of Jack Cade; |