BMS 4947 A View of the Origin of Scotch Ministers,& Managers. They go from the Devil to Court, And from Court to the Devil again. Swift. THE POLITICAL REGISTER. For MARCH, 1772. NUMBER LXI. SIR, U To the EDITOR. Secure in his retreat Vejanius lies, Hangs up his arms, nor courts the doubtful prize; PON Mr. FRANCIS' HOR: -'s acceffion to the government of the Leeward Islands, I had the honor to point out to you his non-ability for the execution of such an office; upon his embarkation for Europe in confequence of a leave of abfence from the administration, Lafferted to you he never would reaffume the reins of government, whatever proteftations he might have made, or however he might have endeavoured to throw duft in the poor deluded people's eyes; both these affertions you have seen verified; but it needed not the spirit of prophecy, or one rifen from the dead, to fupport facts which were notorious to every man of difcernment and common understanding; I hope therefore you will acquit me from, having in the leaft endeavoured to miflead you or the public at large, in refpect respect to this gentleman's character. These letters (which have no fmall fhare in the removal of Mr. - from an office which nature never meant him for) have ever stood upon the firm and invincible pillars of truth; I aim at no rhetorical flourishes, I do not mean to captivate the paffions of mankind, my weapons are, and ever fhall be plain truth, dictated by common honeft which needs no flowers of fpeech. As I think I have proved Mr. to have been an unfit man to hold the reins of government, and to be his Majesty's representative in a diftant part of his dominions; I do now stand forth and am bold enough to fay his fucceffor is if poffible a ftill more unfit man, I do not attack him as I have ever done Mr. for the want of parts, I never will arrogate to myself or derogate from the just merits of any man, -'s understanding we will then lay afde, as 1 do most chearfully allow him to be a man of sense; but his pride, vanity and hereditary notions of defpotifm, are fuch, that from the knowledge I have of the people whom he goes to govern, I am convinced his reign. will be to the full as unpopular and temporary as his predeceffor's of immortal memory was; Mr.'s firft appearance in England (for he is by birth a West-Indian) was juft upon the eve of the late general election; by wading through a fea of corruption and diftreffing his eftate (no very large one) he procured himself to be returned for after the meeting of the prefent p-t, Mr. ; foon rendered himself very confpicuous and courtly, by appearing not quite fatisfied that Mr. Wilkes had only loft his feat for Middlefex, he was alfo for bringing in a bill of pains and penalties to expel him the kingdom; this opened the eyes of the minifter and he judged him a proper implement or tool to be used or laid afide at his will and pleafure; accordingly we find him in the fucceeding feffion the perfon pitched upon to move the addrefs and echo back the minifter's fpeech; and as he had taken a determination not to do his master's work by halves, he was pleased in his motion to call the miniftry a fet of spotlefs gentlemen. I know, Mr.. Editor, you will fmile at the idea of spotlefs being joined to the names of Grafton and Rigby; but as I told you before, fair truth fhall ever guide my goofe-quill: for this laft fpeech Mr. was complimented with the government of the Leeward Iflands, his fhoulder decorated with a blufhing ribband of the military order of the Bath, to the diflike of many of our ancient families, who thought they had a fairer claim to it than an upftart Weft-Indian of yesterday; thus you fee how nobly he was rewarded for his dirty work; it has of of late become the fashion for every afpiring West-Indian to endeavour at getting into pt, and when there, they all run at fame goal, they are as mad for the government of the Leeward Iflands as Sancho was for that of Barataria when he attended the fortunes of the Don; this the ministry have had address enough to find out, fo that every Weft-Indian comes into pt with a clog about his leg; Mr. had no fooner left Portsmouth than his office, in cafe of vacancy, was promised to Mr. fooner makes his courtly bow at St. James' than this dear place is promised to one of the prefent members for - no -, a man of obfcure birth and still more obfcure connections, but as he was just called to parliament and having been fufpected to be a Wilkite it was neceffary to divert him with this promise as you would a child with a rattle and bells. The Romans feldom or never fent a native to the government of a colony, this policy was worthy of that noble people, the reafons which operate against such an appointment are obvious; I do believe Mr. might have fucceeded better, though not altogether, had he not been a native of Christopher's; upon his arrival the people had immediately a retrospective eye to his ancestry, which they traced to about two generations back, and there found him originating from an illiterate Negroe driver; I do not mention this as conveying any abuse to Mr. it is well known, and I am fure he has candour enough not to deny it; the people brought their ideas then nearer ftill to him and in the person of his father found a poor miferable illiterate old man dying for want in the midst of a good eftate; thefe reflections occafioned the multitude to exclaim, Shall this man govern us? we are at leaft his equals, if not his fuperiors;' and it was these reflections that firft occafioned him to be treated with contempt, which Montefquieu fays, when a king or governor has brought upon himself he has every thing to fear; to fupport my argument of it's being impolitic to fend a native to govern a colony, I will now proceed to examine what profpectcan have of a peaceable adminiftration; in the male line he springs from the fame family with Mr. fo that if you go back two generations you come to his origin, his father Mr. was always efteemed a proud, arbitrary, infolent man, curfed with a deferved unpopularity and which he even carried to execration by his having at the very time of his being Chief Juftice of the courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, incestuously married the fifter of his fecond wife; and I am fure the peo T 2 ple ple will vifit the fins of the father upon the prefent governor and to the third and fourth generation; in regard to Mr. who now looks forward to the promised land; he alfo is a Weft-Indian; but of fo vulgar and mean an extraction that it is not worth the trouble of enquiring who or what he is; let it fuffice to say the Weft-Indians know him and his origin well, that he lived in open fornication in St. Chriftopher's, and in as open adultery in England, having married the daughter of a gentleman in HS of confiderable fortune and made her compleatly miferable. I am well aware that it will be faid by my readers, That the author of these letters is fome jealous difcontented man who would be glad to get the government for himfelf; to obviate this objection to my candour, know Mr. Editor, that I am by birth a Weft-Indian, and that any application of mine for, or appointment to this office, would immediately fly in the face of my general argument, viz. that a native of a colony fhould be fent to govern in the place of his nativity; these letters have not not proceeded from a fcurrilous difpofition to abuse or expose any man, but from a natural love which I bear the West-Indians and the Weft-India islands, and from a powerful defire [ have to fee internal peace take place in the once happy ifland of St. Chriftopher's; which never will be the cafe until an European is deputed by his Majefty; let him be English, Scotch, or Irish, let him be but poffeffed of the arts of government, let him but conceal the meanness of his ancestry, I will join in throwing a fhade over the juvenile part of his life. This will fecure him from contempt. He will find a generous noble people and I fhall from the very bottom of my heart with him fuccefs. Hill Street, February 11. X. Seafonable REFLECTIONS on Mr. SAWBRIDGE'S Motion, against the holding of long PARLIAMENTS. TH HERE is nothing the people of England in general have always fhewn fo great a diflike to as the holding of long parliaments. This diflike may be faid to be truly inherent to their notions of liberty, and juftly founded on reafon and experience. Long parliaments in former reigns have proved the unhappy caufe of great calamities to this nation, and have at all times been declared, an innovation upon our conftitution. In the 4th of Edward III. an act paffed for holding them once a year, or oftener, if there should be occafion. In the 36th year of the fame reign, that ftatute was con |