Wesley Corpus

King George has no such furious drivers about him as poor King Charles had. But a skilful painter may easily add a few features, either to one or the other, and by a little colouring make Lord North the very picture of Lord Strafford, and Archbishop Cornwallis of Archbishop Laud. How different likewise is the case, Thirdly, with regard to *These quotations from Virgil are thus translated by Pitt : “Thus o'er the corn, while furious winds conspire, Rolls on a wide-devouring blaze of fire; Or some big torrent, from a mountain's brow, Bursts, pours, and thunders down the vale below,” “And" rolls “resistless o'er the levell'd mounds.”-EDIT. the administration of public affairs! The requiring tonnage and poundage, the imposing ship-money, the prosecutions in the Bishops’ Courts, in the High Commission Court, and in the Star Chamber, were real and intolerable grievances. But what is there in the present administration which bears any resemblance to these ? Yet if you will view even such an affair as the Middlesex election through Mr. Horne's magnifying-glass, it will appear a more enormous instance of oppression than a hundred Star Chambers put together. The parallel does not hold, Fourthly, with regard to the opposers of the King and his ministry. Is Mr. Burke the same calm, wise, disinterested man that Mr. Hampden was? And where shall we find twenty noblemen and twenty gentle men (to name no more) in the present opposition, whom any impartial man will set on a level with the same number of those that opposed King Charles and his ministry. Nor does the parallel hold, Fifthly, in this respect: That was in great measure a contest about religion; at least, about rites, and ceremonies, and opinions, which many supposed to be religion. But all religion is out of the question now : This is generally allowed, both by the one side and the other, to be so very a trifle, that they do not give themselves the least concern about it. In one circumstance more there is an obvious difference. The Parliament were then the King's enemies: Now they are his firmest friends. But indeed this difference may easily be removed. Let the King only take Mr. Wilkes's advice, and dissolve Parliament.