two principles on which we were attacked. On the first the
whimsical Tories joined the Whigs, and declared directly against
their party. Although nothing is more certain than this truth:
that there was at that time no formed design in the party, whatever
views some particular men might have, against his Majesty's
accession to the throne. On the latter, and most other points, they
affected a most glorious neutrality.

Instead of gathering strength, either as a Ministry or as a party,
we grew weaker every day. The peace had been judged, with reason,
to be the only solid foundation whereupon we could erect a Tory
system; and yet when it was made we found ourselves at a full stand.
Nay, the very work which ought to have been the basis of our
strength was in part demolished before our eyes, and we were stoned
with the ruins of it. Whilst this was doing, Oxford looked on as if
he had not been a party to all which had passed; broke now and then
a jest, which savoured of the Inns of Court and the bad company in
which he had been bred. And on those occasions where his station
obliged him to speak of business, was absolutely unintelligible.

Whether this man ever had any determined view besides that of
raising his family is, I believe, a problematical question in the
world. My opinion is that he never had any other. The conduct of a
Minister who proposes to himself a great and noble object, and who
pursues it steadily, may seem for a while a riddle to the world;
especially in a Government like ours, where numbers of men,
different in their characters and different in their interests, are
at all times to be managed; where public affairs are exposed to more
accidents and greater hazards than in other countries; and where, by
consequence, he who is at the head of business will find himself