of that man who has patronised our enemies,
and given up our navigation, sunk his country into contempt abroad, and
into poverty at home, plundered the people, and corrupted the
legislature.

But, my lords, the minister has not only contributed, by his wickedness
or his ignorance, to the present calamities, but has applied all his art
and all his interest to remove from posts of honour and trust, to banish
from the court, and to exclude from the legislature all those whose
counsels might contribute to restore the publick affairs, without any
regard to the popularity of their characters, the usefulness of their
talents, or the importance of their past services to the crown. Had any
of these considerations prevailed, we had not seen the greatest general
in Britain dispossessed of all his preferments, dispossessed at a time
when we are at war with one nation, and in expectation of being attacked
by another far more powerful, which will, doubtless, be encouraged, by
his removal, to more daring contempt, and more vigorous measures.

What were the motives of this procedure it is easy to discover. As his
open defence of the present royal family in the late rebellion, exempts
him from the imputation of being disaffected to the crown, the only
crime with which he can be charged is disaffection to the minister.

Perhaps, my lords, the minister may have determined to have no need of
generals in his transactions with foreign powers; but in proportion as
he relies less upon the sword, he must depend more upon the arts of
peaceable negotiation, and, surely, there has been another person
dismissed from his employments, whose counsels it had been no reproach
to have asked, and to have followed.

The nature of my motion, my lords, makes it not necessary to produce
evidence of these facts, it is sufficient that any minister is
universally suspected; for when did an innocent man, supported by power,
and furnished with every advantage that could contribute to exalt or
preserve his character, incur the general hatred of the people? But if
it could ever happen by a combination of unlucky accidents, what could
be more for the happiness of himself, his master, and the nation, than
that he should retire and enjoy the consciousness of his own virtue.

His own interest, in such a retirement, I have already considered, and
that both of the prince and the people is no less apparent: while a
hated minister is employed, the king will always be d