or any wild goose chace, is, as the vulgar use the phrase, a
lucky turn-up of patronage for the minister, whose chief merit is
the art of keeping himself in place. It is not necessary then that
he should have bowels for the poor, so he can secure for his family
the odd trick. Or should some shew of respect, for what is termed with
ignorant ostentation an Englishman's birth-right, be expedient to
bubble the gruff mastiff that he has to lead by the nose, he can
make an empty shew, very safely, by giving his single voice, and
suffering his light squadron to file off to the other side. And when a
question of humanity is agitated he may dip a sop in the milk of human
kindness, to silence Cerberus, and talk of the interest which his
heart takes in an attempt to make the earth no longer cry for
vengeance as it sucks in its children's blood, though his cold hand
may at the very moment rivet their chains, by sanctioning the
abominable traffick. A minister is no longer a minister, than while he
can carry a point, which he is determined to carry.- Yet it is not
necessary that a minister should feel like a man, when a bold push
might shake his seat.
But, to have done with these episodical observations, let me
return to the more specious slavery which chains the very soul of
woman, keeping her for ever under the bondage of ignorance.
The preposterous distinctions of rank, which render civilization a
curse, by dividing the world between voluptuous tyrants, and cunning
envious dependents, corrupt, almost equally, every class of people,
because respectability is not attached to the discharge of the
relative duties of life, but to the station, and when the duties are
not fulfilled the affections cannot gain sufficient strength to
fortify the virtue of which they are the natural reward.
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