Christmas Chat: or, Observations on the late change at court, on the different characters of the ins and outs; and on the present state of publick affairs.Anonymous
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Christmas Chat: or, Observations on the late change at court, on the different characters of the ins and outs; and on the present state of publick affairs.
Anonymous
Dialogues; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 18th century
_Over_. Why not? you forget how apt Lawyers and Divines are to learn.
Ha, ha!
_Blunt_. And Patriots too, when once they creep within the Palace Gates.
_Broad_. Mr. _Blunt_, I am well acquainted with the Uprightness of your
Heart. You love me, and therefore fear I am to be deluded from my Duty
to my Country by the Allurements of a Post. But let me intreat my
Friends to suppress their Fears till the End of the Session.
_Blunt_. I should not wonder by the End of the present Session, or at
least before the Beginning of the next, to see you and your Brethren
reduced to your primitive Nakedness. Of what Use can you be, after you
grant all the Court wants, and reject or throw cold Water on every
Motion for the Benefit of the Nation?
Sir _John_. Motion for the Benefit of the Nation, said you! Who will
make such a Motion? Or if made, who will support it? Neighbour _Blunt_,
I don’t wonder that you, who never sat in Parliament, should mistake the
Nature of _Motions_ made there; but I, who represented your Borough in
my younger Days, am able from my Experience to inform you, that no
important _Motion_ of public Benefit will be made this Session; or, if
fortuitously made, will be seconded. The different Parties in the House,
and Parties with different Views there always were and will be, are led
by a _few_, who may be said to direct all the Operations of the Session.
Among that _few_, there is generally some one or two who are permitted
to take the Lead in all Deliberations, and from thence may be said to
direct the whole. Supposing then that the Court should find means to
take off not only that _one_, or those _two_ or _three_, but all the
Chiefs or Directors of an Opposition at the Beginning of a Session, how
can it be expected that any Motions of Moment will be made? or, as I
said before, if made will be seconded? All Motions to be made, that are
of consequence, are first projected by the Leaders, and communicated and
recommended at their private Meetings and Clubs. But strip the Party of
such Leaders, before they have Time to make, or even resolve on a new
Choice of Chiefs, and there is an End of all such necessary and usual
Communications and Recommendations, and probably of the very Meetings
antecedent to them. In time, a new Set of Leaders may arise, but there
must be Proof of their Truth and Abilities before they can acquire the
necessary Confidence; and such Proof is not produced hastily.
_Over_. Right, old Sportsman. It must be _Truth_ and _Time_ that acquire
the Captains of Foxhounds the Confidence of the Pack.
_Smooth_. Mr. _Overall_, you might have spared your Comparison of
Foxhounds and Members of Parliament.
_Rose_. Nor is Sir _John_’s Doctrine of _Motions_ less seasonable or
pertinent.
_Blunt_. Decent Mr. _Smoothwell_, and you cautious Mr. _Roseband_, when
are apt Comparisons to be made or necessary, and seasonable Truths to be
spoken, unless it be on such an Occasion, and at such a Time as the
present?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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