nefs or Weakness in a Minister, ren-
ders it neceffary for him to have
Recourse to fuch an infamous Prac-
tice. We may fometimes be faid
to be in no prefent Danger of an
Invafion, yet would he not be look'd
on as a Madman, who should make A
that an Argument for not repairing
our Navy, especially if, upon In-
quiry, it should appear to be unfit
for Service?

Without finding fault with any
late Measures, without accufing any
one in the Adminiftration, I will B
affirm, my Lords, that we are now
in greater Danger from Corruption,
than we were either in the 4th and
5th of Queen Anne, or in the first of
his late Majefty's Reign; for the
more Power the Minifters of the
Crown have to corrupt, whether C
they make use of that Power or no,
the more Danger we are in from
Corruption; and every one knows,
that the Minifters of the Crown
have now a much greater Power to
corrupt, than they had at either of
thofe Periods. This fhould make us
refolve in Time, to take all the
Methods that can be thought of for
guarding against the Use of that
Power; for it is already fo great,
that if we fhould have the Misfor-
tune to fall under a Prince or Ad-
ministration that will make ufe of
it, I fear, it would then be impoffi-
ble for us to guard against it. On
the contrary, if the Means of Cor-
ruption, now in the Power of the
Crown, fhould be thought infuffi-
cient for fecuring a perpetual cor-
rupt Influence over both Houses F
of Parliament, fuch an Adminiftra-
tion would take hold of every
Grievance, every War, every Mis-
fortune, the Nation could be ex-
pofed to, for encreafing thofe Means,
in order to render the Effect infalli-
ble; and unless a moft extraordi-
nary Spirit of Virtue, as well as
Jealoufy, fhould begin to exert it-
felf, I'm afraid, it would be im-
1740

poffible, as the Laws ftand at prefent, to prevent their Success by any legal or peaceable Method. For this Reason, my Lords, I look upon the prefent Queftion to be a Sort of Trial of Skill, the Fate of which is to determine, whether or no our Conftitution is hereafter to be destroyed by Corruption, and the People reduced to the fatal Neceffity of endeavouring to reftore it by the Sword. If this fhould ever come to be the unlucky Fate of this Nation, thofe who now oppofe our making ufe of legal Means for preferving our Conftitution, whilft it is yet in our Power, will have no great Reafon to rejoice in their paft Conduct.

Let us confider, my Lords, the vaft Sums of Money that are now at the Difpofal, or under the Direction of the Crown; the infinite Number of lucrative Pofts, Places, and Employments, most of them unknown to our Ancestors, now depending upon the fole and arbitrary D Pleasure of the Crown; and the great Variety of penal Laws, by one or other of which the moft Innocent may be made to fuffer, the moft Cautious may be entrapped, and from which the moft Guilty may be screened, by Virtue of that E difpenfing or mitigating Power, which, with refpect to many of them, is now lodged in the Officers of the Crown: Let us, I fay, my Lords, confider thefe Things, and we must acknowledge, that the prefent Danger we are in, of having our Parliament converted into a Turkish Divan, is far from being imaginary; and when we are under fuch well grounded Apprehenfions, fhall we rack our Invention for vifionary Dangers, in order to excufe our agreeing to any Method for guarding againft a Danger fo real, and which may, upon the first Change of Minifters or Measures, become inevitable and irresistible? 4 R

G

I

I must confefs, my Lords, I do Force or Corruption, get the abfonot know what the noble Lord lute Direction or Command of the means, when he fays, the Balance other two, our Conftitution will then of our Constitution will be destroyed be undone, tho' the Forms of it by Means of that feparate and di- might, perhaps, be preferved, in ftinct new Power which, by this order to deceive the Vulgar and Bill, is to be lodged in the other A Ignorant. This is the Misfortune Houfe. I do not know of any Power intended to be guarded againft by that is by this Bill to be lodged in this Bill; and it is not of late Years the other Houfe, but the Power of only, that this good Intention has turning a Man out, that ought not, been fet on Foot. In the End of that cannot, by the Laws now in be- the late Queen's Reign, there was ing, fit or vote there; and this is juft fuch another Bill brought into a feparate and diftinct Power which B this Houfe, which at that Time that House now enjoys, and which met with fo good a Reception here, has been always allowed. This Bill that it was thrown out but by one can, therefore, make no Alteration Vote; and its meeting with that in what the noble Lord calls the Fate was occafioned by the Fault Balance of our Conftitution; but if of one noble Lord, who, at the by this Bill, or fome fuch Bill, we Time the Question was put, hapdo not prevent corrupt and merce- Cpened to be in the Court of Renary Slaves from entering into that quefts, buying a Pen-knife, with House, I can foresee where the Ba- two Proxies in his Pocket. lance of our Conftitution will foon come to be: It will foon come to be lodged in the Pocket of the Prime Minifter for the Time being; and if our Liberties and Privileges de- D pend upon that Balance, they will then be lodged in the fame Place, which, in my Opinion, is the worst Repofitory they can be lodged in.

I therefore hope your Lordships will, by pailing this Bill, take Care, that no Prime Minister fhall ever be able to get the Balance of our Conftitution into his Pocket; but I must here obferve, that what is called the Balance, and, indeed, the Security of our Conftitution, confifts not in the Power which any of the three Branches of our Ligiflature has over itself, or any of its own Members, but in no one of them having a Power over either of the other two. As the three Branches of our Legiflature are diftinct, they ought to be inde pendent; at leaft they ought to have no Dependency, but what proceeds from the publick Good, and the mutual Happiness of the three; for if any one of them fhould ever, by

E

+

I shall acknowledge, my Lords, that I do not think the Bill now before us fo perfect as it ought to be; but all its Defects may, I think, be easily remedied by proper Claufes and Amendments in the Committee; and if your Lordfhips go into a Committee upon it, I fhall contribute the little I can towards making it a perfect Bill: I fhall probably offer fome Claufes, and particularly I think, it will be neceflary to add one for punishing the Corruptor as well as the Corrupted. It is criminal to receive, but much more criminal to give a Bribe, and therefore the latter ought to be more feverely punished: The very Attempt ought to be feverely punifhed; and this, perhaps, would be as effectual a Method as any, to prevent the Committing of the Crime; for if it were made penal to offer, directly or indirectly, to give or receive a Bribe, or corrupt G Penfion, the Practice would become extremely dangerous, because he that offers cannot be beforehand affured, that the other will not, in

F

ftead

stead of accepting, become an Evi-
dence against him. In fhort, my
Lords, if the Commons were ferious,
when they paffed and fent us up this
Bill, we ought to affift them as much
as we can in purging their Affem-
bly, or at leaft, in keeping it clean, A
from all Corruption. Whether they
were serious or not, is, indeed, what
I fhall not determine; for I must
confefs, I have fome Sufpicions,
when I confider, that this Bill was
paffed unanimously in that very Af-
fembly, which foon after difagreed
to a Motion for bringing in a Bill to
exclude Placemen from having Seats
in their House. There is fuch an Af-
finity between a Penfion and a Sine-
Cure Place with a good Salary, de-
pending upon the Pleasure of the
Crown, that I am not quick-fighted C
enough to difcern the Difference;
and therefore, I cannot fee the Rea-
fon, why any Member of the other

B

House that was seriously refolved to
exclude Penfioners from that Affem-

bly, fhould difagree to the bringing
in of a Bill for excluding at lealt
fome Sorts of Placemen. But, my
Lords, if the other House, or any
Part of it, was not ferious when
they paffed this Bill, I think, we
fhould make them fo, by fending
it back with fuch Additions and
Amendments, as they can find no
Shadow of Reafon for difagreeing
By this Means, we may get
a Bill paffed into a Law, which
will be of infinite Service for fe--
curing our Conftitution, and which
we could not, perhaps, have got
their Concurrence in, if the Bill
had been first modelled and brought

to.

in here.

[This DEBATE and JOURNAL to be
continued in our MAGAZINE for
the Month of January 1741]

INDEX to the DEBATES in the POLITICAL CLUB,
to the ESSAYS, POLITICKS, Domestick and Foreign
OCCURRENCES, &c. 1740.

Meffage relating to the Treaty with Den-
mark, and a Vote of Credit 108. His
Speech against the Paragraph in the Ad-
drefs, about Heats and Animofities 204.
His Speeches in favour of the Motion, that
the fending his Majefty's Meffage of Feb.
12. to the House of Commons fingly, was
derogatory to the Privileges of the Houfe
of Lords
462, 465, 477
Aldermen, refolved in Common Council and
in the Court of Aldermen, that they have
not the Power of putting a Negative upon
the Framing of a Question 557, 558
Ambition in private Life
65
Ambitious, Avaritious and Luxurious 62
America, Debate on the Queftion, whether a
Bill ought to be brought in for encouraging
our Trade there, &c.
305, &c.
Amfterdam, Number of Deaths and Marri-
ages there
Anfon, Commodore, fails with Vice-Admiral
Balchen, and returns 403. Sails again with
Sir Chaloner Ogle 456, 457, 508, 509
Archduchefs Maria Terefa, deliver'd of a
4 R 2
Priacels

48