I very readily allow, my lords, that nothing has been left unattempted
that might fill the people with suspicion and discontent. That
inevitable calamities have been imputed to misconduct, or to treachery,
and even the inconstancy of the winds and severity of the weather
charged upon the right honourable gentleman, the daily libels that are
in every man's hand, are a standing evidence; and though I should grant
that the people never complain without cause, and that their burdens are
always heavy before they endeavour to shake them off, yet it will by no
means follow, that they do not sometimes mistake the cause of their
miseries, and impute their burdens to the cruelty of those whose utmost
application is employed to lighten them.

Common fame is, therefore, my lords, no sufficient ground for such a
censure as this, a censure that condemns a man long versed in high
employments, long honoured with the confidence of his sovereign, and
distinguished by the friendship of the most illustrious persons in the
nation, to infamy and contempt, unheard, and even unaccused; for he
against whom nothing is produced but general charges, supported by the
evidence of common fame, may be justly esteemed to be free from
accusation.

That other evidence will appear against him when he shall be reduced, in
consequence of our agreeing to this motion, to the level with his
fellow-subjects, that all informations are now precluded by the terrours
of resentment, or the expectations of favour, has been insinuated by the
noble lord, who made the motion: whether his insinuation be founded only
upon conjecture, whether it be one of those visions which are raised by
hope in a warm imagination, or upon any private informations
communicated to his lordship, I pretend not to determine; but if we may
judge from the known conduct of the opposition, if we consider their
frequent triumphs before the battle, and their chimerical schemes of
discoveries, or prosecutions and punishments, their constant assurance
of success upon the approach of a new contest, and their daily
predictions of the ruin of the administration, we cannot but suspect
that men so long accustomed to impose upon themselves, and flatter one
another with fallacious hopes, may now, likewise, be dreaming of
intelligence which they never will receive, and amusing themselves with
suspicions which they have no reasonable expectation of seeing
confirmed.

And to confess the truth, my lords, if