Accommodating Principles

IN one of Sir Robert Walpole's letters, he gives a very instructive

picture of a skilful minister and a condescending Parliament. My dear

friend, writes Sir Robert, there is scarcely a member whose purse I do

not know to a sixpence, and whose very soul almost I could not purchase

at the offer. The reason former ministers have been deceived in this

matter is evident--they never considered the temper of the people they

h d to deal with. I have known a minister so weak as to offer an

avaricious old rascal a star and garter, and attempt to bribe a young

rogue, who set no value upon money, with a lucrative employment. I

pursue methods as opposite as the poles, and therefore my

administration has been attended with a different effect.



Patriots, says Walpole, spring up like mushrooms. I could raise fifty

of them within four-and-twenty hours. I have raised many of them in one

night. It is but refusing to gratify an unreasonable or insolent demand,

and up starts a patriot.