fears of popery and the pretender, make any part of the conversation: I presume, because neither Homer, Plato, Aristotle, nor Cicero, have made any mention of them.
These I freely acknowledge to be his excellency's failings: yet, I think it is agreed by philosophers and divines, that some allowance ought to be given to human infirmity, and to the prejudices of a wrong education.
I am well aware, how much my sentiments differ, from the orthodox opinions of one or two principal patriots, at the head of whom I name with honour Pistorides; for these have decided the matter directly against me, by declaring, that no person, who was ever known to lie under the suspicion of one single tory principle, or who had been once seen at a great man's levee in the worst of times[1], should be allowed to come within the verge of the castle; much less to bow in the antichamber, appear at the assemblies, or dance at a birthnight. However, I dare assert that this maxim has been often controlled; and that on the contrary, a considerable number of early penitents have been received into grace, who are now an ornament, happiness, and support to the nation.
Neither do I find any murmuring on some other points of greater importance, where this favourite maxim is not so strictly observed.
To instance only in one. I have not heard that any care has hitherto been taken to discover whe-
- ↑ The four last years of queen Anne, when lord Oxford was minister, were so called by the whigs.
