g like a regular system of liberty. It was
complained of under king William. It was boasted of, even to
ostentation, by the Tory ministers of queen Anne. The Pelhams cried out
upon it in lord Carteret. It has been the business of half the history
of the present reign to fix the charge upon my lord Bute.

And yet in spite of these appearances, in spite of all the deductions
that modesty can authorise, I may boldly affirm that my scheme has
something in it that is truly original. My lord, I would not have you
proceed by leaps and starts, like these half-fledged statesmen. I would
have you proceed from step to step in a finished and faultless plan. I
have too an improvement without which the first step is of no value,
which yet has seldom been added, which at first sight has a very daring
appearance, but which I pretend to teach your lordship to practice with
perfect safety. But it is necessary for me, before I come to this grand
_arcanum_ of my system, to premise a few observations for the more
accurately managing the influence itself.

My lord, there are a variety of things necessary to absolute secrecy.
There is nothing more inconvenient to a political character than that
gross and unmanageable quantity of flesh and blood that fortune has
decreed that every mortal should carry about with him. The man who is
properly initiated in the _arcana_ of a closet, ought to be able to
squeeze himself through a key hole, and, whenever any impertinent
Marplot appears to blast him, to change this unwieldy frame into the
substance of the viewless winds. How often must a theoretical statesman
like myself, have regretted that incomparable invention, the ring of
Gyges! How often must he have wished to be possessed of one of those
diabolical forms, described by Milton, which now were taller than the
pole, and anon could shrink into the compass of an atom!

But I forget the characteristic of my profession. It is not ours, my
lord, to live in air-built castles, and to deal in imaginary hypotheses.
On the contrary, we are continually talking of the weakness and the
frailty of humanity. Does any man impeach one of our body of bribery and
corruption? We confess that these practices may seem to run counter with
the fine-spun systems of morality; but this is our constant apology,
human affairs can be no otherwise managed. Does any man suggest the most
beautiful scheme of oeconomy, or present us with the most perfect model
of liberty? We turn a