of his royal highness,--the prudent management of the
ministers is also most conspicuous. I am not particular in this
commendation, because I am unwilling to raise envy to your lordship,
who are too just, not to desire that praise should be communicated to
others, which was the common endeavour and co-operation of all. It is
enough, my lord, that your own part was neither obscure in it, nor
unhazardous. And if ever this excellent government, so well
established by the wisdom of our forefathers, and so much shaken by
the folly of this age, shall recover its ancient splendour, posterity
cannot be so ungrateful as to forget those, who, in the worst of
times, have stood undaunted by their king and country, and, for the
safeguard of both, have exposed themselves to the malice of false
patriots, and the madness of an headstrong rabble. But since this
glorious work is yet unfinished, and though we have reason to hope
well of the success, yet the event depends on the unsearchable
providence of Almighty God, it is no time to raise trophies, while
the victory is in dispute; but every man, by your example, to
contribute what is in his power to maintain so just a cause, on which
depends the future settlement and prosperity of three nations. The
pilot's prayer to Neptune was not amiss in the middle of the storm:
"Thou mayest do with me, O Neptune, what thou pleasest, but I will be
sure to hold fast the rudder." We are to trust firmly in the Deity,
but so as not to forget, that he commonly works by second causes, and
admits of our endeavours with his concurrence. For our own parts, we
are sensible, as we ought, how little we can contribute with our weak
assistance. The most we can boast of, is, that we are not so
inconsiderable as to want enemies, whom we have raised to ourselves
on no other account than that we are not of their number; and, since
that is their quarrel, they shall have daily occasion to hate us
more. It is not, my lord, that any man delights to see himself
pasquined and affronted by their inveterate scribblers; but, on the
other side, it ought to be our glory, that themselves believe not of
us what they write. Reasonable men are well satisfied for whose sakes
the venom of their party is shed on us; because they see, that at the
same time our adversaries spare not those to whom they owe allegiance
and veneration. Their despair has pushed them to break those bonds;
and it is observable, that the lower they are driven,