and almost
equally deserves to be prosecuted by the indignation and justice of this
assembly, in the severest manner; for how great must be his wickedness
who undertakes a charge above his abilities, when his country may be
probably ruined by his errours?

Your lordships cannot but observe, that I make use rather of the term
minister than that of the administration, which others are so desirous
to substitute in its place, either to elude all inquiry into the
management of our affairs, or to cover their own shameful dependence.

Administration, my lords, appears to me a term without a meaning, a wild
indeterminate word, of which none can tell whom it implies, or how
widely it may extend: a charge against the administration may be
imagined a general censure of every officer in the whole subordination
of government, a general accusation of instruments and agents, of
masters and slaves: my charge, my lords, is against the minister,
against that man, who is believed by every one in the nation, and known
by great numbers, to have the chief, and, whenever he pleases to require
it, the sole direction of the publick measures; he, to whom all the
other ministers owe their elevation, and by whose smile they hold their
power, their salaries, and their dignity.

That this appellation is not without sufficient reason bestowed upon
that man, I have already proved to your lordships; and as it has already
been made appear that common fame is a sufficient ground of accusation,
it will easily be shown that this man has a just claim to the title of
minister; for if any man be told of an accusation of the minister; he
will not ask the name of the person accused.

But there is in the motion one title conferred upon him, to which he has
no pretensions; for there is no law for styling him the first
commissioner of the treasury. The commissioners, my lords, who
discharge, in a collective capacity, the office of lord high treasurer,
are constituted by the same patent, invested with equal power and equal
dignity, and I know not why this man should be exalted to any
superiority over his associates.

If we take, my lords, a review of our affairs, and examine the state of
the nation in all its relations and all its circumstances, we cannot,
surely, conceive that we are in a state of prosperity, unless discontent
at home, and scorn abroad, the neglect of our allies, and insolence of
our enemies, the decay of trade, and multitude of our imposts,