This has surely now happened to the veteran advocates for an
absolute and unaccountable ministry, who have discovered on this
occasion, by the weakness of their resistance, that their abilities are
declining; and I cannot but hope, that the omen will be fulfilled, and
that their infatuation will be quickly followed by their ruin.
To touch in this debate on our domestick affairs, to mention the
distribution of the publick money, and to discover their fears, lest the
ways in which it has been disbursed, should by this inquiry be
discovered; to recall to the minds of their opponents the immense sums
which have been annually demanded, and of which no account has been yet
given, is surely the lowest degree of weakness and imprudence.
I am so far from being convinced that any danger can arise from this
inquiry, that I believe the nation can only be injured by a long neglect
of such examinations; and that a minister is easily formidable, when he
has exempted himself by a kind of prescription from exposing his
accounts, and has long had an opportunity of employing the publick money
in multiplying his dependants, enriching his hirelings, enslaving
boroughs, and corrupting senates.
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