low him any longer. Silly Traitors! is it then poffible to invent inextricable Cyphers, and you remain fo indolent as to put your Lives and Fortunes on a Key as fimple as Julius Cæfar's, which the School-Boys have learned from Suetonius for thefe Sixteen Hundred Years past.

Treason is a paw Thing! a noify Crime of State, as Dryden fays. I'll have none on't. There's Perkins's Head on Temple-Bar, like Cymon in Dryden's Fables,

Whistles for want of Thought.

From all Men of common Sense, Heaven avert the Omen.

There is an English Bishop, a Spanish Cardinal, an Irish General, a British Peer, or twain, a Brace of very fmall Nonjuring Priests (but one of them has drowned himself, I wish you were to fee the Wall he got over, you would judge how ingenious, and nimble too, he must have been) all thefe, and more, are Perfonages in the Drama, which has lately entertained the Town. I fay nothing of Proofs; fome People are very believing, and others were mere Infidels. The Doctrine of Tranfubftantiation has had full Credit with our Ancestors, in Spite of their Senfes: And yet Zeno, in another Age, would not believe there was such a Thing as Motion.

For my own Part, I defign, as long as I live, to be courtly in my political Creed: It is an npertinent and pragmatical Folly to endure the Frowns of the Great, for want of acknowledging, that a Cloud is like a Whale, or very like a Weazel. Since Plots, true or falfe, are neceffary Things, why should we doubt of the Reality of

this:

this: But for irrefragable Proofs of it, peruse the Arguments of the Sollicitor-General, &c. Mr. Wynne, a young Lawyer, is much applauded for the Defence. The D of W has fhone in his Houfe on the Occafion; he has taken abundance of Pains to obferve upon the Evidence, which makes his Speech much the longer; it delighted many of the Hearers: But the Mafter-piece of Eloquence on this Occafion, in my poor Opinion, is Mr. K--'s which you receive a Copy of; it is indeed the most finished Performance of the greatest Orator our Ifland ever boasted. There is nothing omitted that was neceffary to be remembred; there is not a fuperfluous Sentence, not an ill-turned Period, not an ill-chofen Expreffion in the whole. There is that Strength of reasoning in answering the Arguments of the Adverfary, and that Clearness of Diction to convey to us his own Sentiments. that, it is like a polifhed Diamond, of the firft Water and most excellent Workmanship. It is impoffible to say whether its Firmness or its Luftre be moft predominant; or for which of those Merits in the highest Degree of Perfection, all other Gems muft yield it the Preference.

LETTER XX.

May 28, 1725.

YOUR Complaint is very juft, that by the Titles of Impeachments in Parliament, a Man at a Distance off cannot guess what the Accufation is. This against the Earl of M** confifted chiefly of two Branches; one that he fold the Offices of the

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Masters

Mafters in Chancery for very great Sums of Money; which Offices are in fome Degree judicial; the Sale of them therefore must naturally introduce Corruption in the Officers, according to the Adage, He that buys Juftice, muft fell Juftice. The other Branch is, that to conceal this Sin, (as it commonly happens) he fell into a greater: Large Sums of Money, belonging chiefly to Orphans, had by the Authority of the Court been depofited in the Hands of these Masters; fome of them thought it a proper Opportunity to grow rich, nor fcrupled to adventure the Fortunes of their Neighbours: They met with woeful Difappointments of their Expectations; there were great Deficiencies; and the Chancellor, to fcreen them, was guilty of fhameful Delays of Juftice, by putting off the Hearing of the Causes affected by thefe Loffes.

To the Wonder of the gazing World, and maugre the zealous Endeavours of fome moft noble Peers, this corrupt Man is to continue a Judge, upon his Honour, of the Lives and Fortunes of Englishmen; he is to continue to make our Laws, and to interpret them. He is condemned in 30,000 l. it is true, but, cui bono? Not to repair the fuffering Suitors; but as a Fine to the Crown, (which perhaps may remit it) tho' the People have received the greateft Injury. How then are the Sufferers to be repaired, think ye? Why, truly, it is rumoured, by a Tax to be laid on the Suitors in that Court. The innocent Suitors, who may be esteemed fufficiently unfortunate in having Occafion to refort thither, are to be punished-for the Iniquities of the Chancellor.

The House of Lords is not bound by the Forms of the Courts below Stairs, and the Impeachments before them are managed pretty much in the Stile

of

of the Civil Law; it were to be wifhed, in the Cafe of this Earl, they had adopted a Form of that Law which is proper to produce a just and rational Sentence upon Crimes like these they have lately cenfured. The Criminal Procefs, among the Civilians, is frequently, if not always, in the Nature of an Action Qui tam, &c. I have seen a Libel of theirs for Homicide, which amounted to an Appeal, as well as Indictment. In a Cafe, like this, they would, in the first Place,, have given Relief to the Injured out of his Eftate, and then have made a reasonable Confifcation to the Prince, as a Punishment of his Crimes. Thus they would have fulfilled the Dictates both of commutative and diftributive Juftice. Reftitution, was barely a Debt, and Confifcation was a moderate Punishment.

If a Sentence of Sir George Oxenden's, who opened this Impeachment, had been duly weighed, we should hardly fee the Innocent taxed for the Crimes of the folvent Guilty. But we have ne

ver been fond of changing our Laws, no not even for the better; the Lords in Parliament, four hundred Years ago, to reject a mischievous ecclefiaftical Propofal, anfwered, Nolumus leges Anglia mutari. An Anfwer highly laudable on that Occafion! and ever fince we have it trumped up to us, as a Maxim, without the least Attention to the Difference of the Matters in Question. I will mention to you two ftrong Inftances (inftead of twenty) of our fupine Neglect in amending our Laws. The Landlord from all Antiquity might diftrain his Tenant for Rent due, and then the Diftrefs muft perifh in his Hands, if the Tenant could not pay; for the Lord could not fell it, till enabled by a Statute made in the Days of King Charles

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Charles II. This Piece of Common Law we fent to Ireland, but they found the Remedy one hundred and fifty Years earlier than we did. Another Inftance is, that the then Statute of Adminiftrations (which is but a Tranflation from the one hundred and eighteenth Novel) was made in the latter End of the fame Reign, and no earlier; and we are fure that our Law was a regular and flourishing Profeffion four hundred Years without it. Perhaps it flourished the more, for diffèring in many Points from common Sense.

LETTER XXI:

Feb. 7, 1730.

THERE is one of the Wonders of the World to be accomplished this Seffion; the Salt-Tax will be abolifhed. It is a new Thing for the Crown to lofe Ground in the Revenue. Our Hiftory fhews very few Inftances of the Kind. Tho' the Occafion was most urgent when the Tax was. imposed; and tho' the Grant of it was only temporary, and for a very fhort Time too, yet Pretences have been always found to continue the Burthen, when the Neceffity ceafed. Our Oracle in the Law and Records of Parliament obferves, that Tonnage and Poundage were granted first to King Henry V. to enable him to invade and conquer France; but his unfortunate Son, who loft that Acquifition back again, enjoyed the fame Revenue, as did alfo Queen Mary I. who loft

Calais,