oss of respect in the eyes of foreign powers, we may pronounce,
without hesitation, that the government of that country is weak,
distracted, and corrupt. The multitude, in all countries, are patient to
a certain point. Ill usage may rouse their indignation and hurry them
into excesses, _but the original fault is in government_.[C] Perhaps
there never was an instance of a change in the circumstances and temper
of a whole nation, so sudden and extraordinary as that which the
misconduct of ministers has, within these very few years, produced in
Great Britain. When our gracious sovereign ascended the throne, we were
a flourishing and a contented people. If the personal virtues of a king
could have insured the happiness of his subjects, the scene could not
have altered so entirely as it has done. The idea of uniting all
parties, of trying all characters, and distributing the offices of state
by rotation, was gracious and benevolent to an extreme, though it has
not yet produced the many salutary effects which were intended by it. To
say nothing of the wisdom of such plan, it undoubtedly arose from an
unbounded goodness of heart, in which folly had no share. It was not a
capricious partiality to new faces; it was not a natural turn for low
intrigue, nor was it the treacherous amusement of double and triple
negotiations. No, sir; it arose from a continued anxiety in the purest
of all possible hearts for the general welfare.[D] Unfortunately for us,
the event has not been answerable to the design. After a rapid
succession of changes, we are reduced to that change which hardly any
change can mend. Yet there is no extremity of distress which of itself
ought to reduce a great nation to despair. It is not the disorder, but
the physician; it is not a casual concurrence of calamitous
circumstances, it is the pernicious hand of government, which alone can
make a whole people desperate.

Without much political sagacity, or any extraordinary depth of
observation, we need only mark how the principal departments of the
state are bestowed [distributed], and look no farther for the true cause
of every mischief that befalls us.

The finances of a nation, sinking under its debts and expenses, are
committed to a young nobleman already ruined by play.[E] Introduced to
act under the auspices of Lord Chatham, and left at the head of affairs
by that nobleman's retreat, he became a minister by accident; but,
deserting the principles and professions