then of
Honour and Honesty: This is a Language which I hope they will at least pretend
to understand. Now to deny a Man the Preferment which he merits, and to give it
to another Man who doth not merit it, is a manifest Act of Injustice; and is
consequently inconsistent with both Honour and Honesty. Nor is it only an Act of
Injustice to the Man himself, but to the Public, for whose Good principally all
public Offices are, or ought to be instituted. Now this Good can never be
completed, not obtained, but by employing all Persons according to their
Capacities. Wherever true Merit is liable to be superseded by Favour and
Partiality, and Men are intrusted with Offices, without any Regard to Capacity
or Integrity, the Affairs of that State will always be in a deplorable
Situation. Such, as Livy tells us, was the State of Capua, a little before its
final Destruction; and the Consequence your Lordship well knows. But, my Lord,
there is another Mischief which attends this Kind of Injustice, and that is, it
hath a manifest Tendency to destroy all Virtue and all Ability among the People,
by taking away all that Encouragement and Incentive, which should promote
Emulation, and raise Men to aim at excelling in any Art, Science, or Profession.
Nor can any Thing, my Lord, contribute more to render a Nation contemptible
among its Neighbours; for what Opinion can other Countries have of the Councils,
or what Terror can they conceive of the Arms of such a People? And it was
chiefly owing to the avoiding this Error, that Oliver Cromwell carried the
Reputation of England higher than it ever was at any other Time. I will add only
one Argument more, and that is founded on the most narrow and selfish System of
Politics; and this is, that such a Conduct is sure to create universal
Discontent and Grumbling at home: For nothing can bring Men to rest satisfied,
when they see others preferred to them, but an Opinion that they deserve that
Elevation; for as one of the greatest Men this Country ever produced, observes,
 
One worthless Man that gains what he pretends,
Disgusts a thousand unpretending Friends.
 
With what Heartburnings then must any Nation see themselves obliged to
contribute to the Support of a Set of Men, of whose Incapacity to serve them
they are well apprized, and who do their Country a double Diskindness; by being
themselves employed in Posts to which they are unequal, and by keeping others
out of those Employments, for which they are qualified!«
    »And do you really think, Doctor,« cries