Louis the Fourteenth, when come to the throne, did
not love the Cardinal Mazarin, but for his interests he preserved
him in power. When old, he detested Louvois, but for years, whilst
he faithfully served his greatness, he endured his person. When George
the Second took Mr. Pitt, who certainly was not agreeable to him, into
his councils, he did nothing which could humble a wise sovereign.
But these ministers, who were chosen by affairs, not by affections,
acted in the name of, and in trust for, kings, and not as their
avowed, constitutional, and ostensible masters. I think it
impossible that any king, when he has recovered his first terrors, can
cordially infuse vivacity and vigor into measures which he knows to be
dictated by those who, he must be persuaded, are in the highest degree
ill affected to his person. Will any ministers who serve such a king
(or whatever he may be called) with but a decent appearance of respect
cordially obey the orders of those whom but the other day in his
name they had committed to the Bastille? Will they obey the orders
of those whom, whilst they were exercising despotic justice upon them,
they conceived they were treating with lenity, and from whom, in a
prison, they thought they had provided an asylum? If you expect such
obedience amongst your other innovations and regenerations, you
ought to make a revolution in nature and provide a new constitution
for the human mind.
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