 antiministerial calumny will blow
away -« »A pack of rascals (cried the duke) - Tories, Jacobites, rebels; one
half of them would wag their heels at Tyburn, if they had their deserts -« So
saying, he wheeled about; and, going round the levee, spoke to every individual,
with the most courteous familiarity; but he scarce ever opened his mouth without
making some blunder, in relation to the person or business of the party with
whom he conversed; so that he really looked like a comedian, hired to burlesque
the character of a minister - At length, a person of a very prepossessing
appearance coming in, his grace ran up, and, hugging him in his arms, with the
appellation of »My dear Ch--s!« led him forthwith into the inner apartment, or
Sanctum Sanctorum of this political temple. »That (said captain C--) is my
friend C-- T--, almost the only man of parts who has any concern in the present
administration - Indeed, he would have no concern at all in the matter, if the
ministry did not find it absolutely necessary to make use of his talents upon
some particular occasions - As for the common business of the nation, it is
carried on in a constant routine by the clerks of the different offices,
otherwise the wheels of government would be wholly stopt amidst the abrupt
succession of ministers, every one more ignorant than his predecessor - I am
thinking what a fine hovel we should be in, if all the clerks of the treasury,
of the secretaries, the war-office, and the admiralty, should take it in their
heads to throw up their places in imitation of the great pensioner - But, to
return to C-- T--; he certainly knows more than all the ministry and all the
opposition, if their heads were laid together, and talks like an angel on a vast
variety of subjects - He would really be a great man, if he had any consistency
or stability of character - Then, it must be owned, he wants courage, otherwise
he would never allow himself to be cowed by the great political bully, for whose
understanding he has justly a very great contempt. I have seen him as much
afraid of that overbearing Hector, as ever schoolboy was of his pedagogue; and
yet this Hector, I shrewdly suspect, is no more than a craven at bottom -
Besides this defect, C-- has another, which he is at too little pains to hide -
There's no faith to be given to
