fore, thought best to deny, that this Extreme could ever be dangerous to the Constitution, or that the Crown could ever have too little Influence over Members of Parliament.
All Questions concerning the proper Medium betwixt any two Extremes are very difficult to be decided; both because it is difficult to find Words proper to fix this Medium, and because the Good and Ill, in such Cases, run so gradually into each other, as even to render our Sentiments doubtful and uncertain. But there is a peculiar Difficulty in the present Case, which would embarrass the most knowing and most impartial Examiner. The Power of the Crown is always lodged in a single Person, either King or Minister; and as this Person may have either a greater or less Degree of Ambition, Capacity, Courage, Popularity or Fortune, the Power, which is too great in one Hand, may become too little in another.
private Bribery, it may be considered in the same Light as the Practice of employing Spies, which is scarcely justifiable in a good Minister, and is infamous in a bad one: But to be a Spy, or to be corrupted, is always infamous under all Ministries, and is to be regarded as a shameless Prostitution.
In
