Languages & literature > Key to the drama

( l7° )
which was then compoied of fuch monfters
only, as could bemoft forward in contriving
and executing the deftruction of thofe of
their fellow creatures whofe power or vir¬
tues rendered them fufpedted by, and ob¬
noxious to the tyrant. And I, may with
truth allure you, that even I, who ftill
held the nominal, without any fhare of the
executive office of a minifter, feldom went
to deep, that I did not dread the being
furprifed, with my family, by aflaffins, be¬
fore next morning. So that however flat¬
tering the grandeur of a prime minifter
may be, it is for the moft part a fitua-
tion rather to be pitied than envied. If a
weak Xing is on the throne, you are lure
to .be perplexed with the dangerous emula¬
tion of fadtions ; and if .a tyrant reigns,
you mull give the fandlion of your name
to deeds horrible to think ofj and the ra¬
rity of a fovereign untinftured with neither
the one nor the other, gives the chance a-
gainft any well meaning minifter, whether
his ftation is to be defireable or not:
people who have no accefs to penetrate into
the fecret machinery of government, often
blame the minifter with mifmanagements,
which are purely the effedts of either the
weak or defpotick temper of the monarch,
whofe blemilhes it is at the fame time his
favourites duty to throw a veil over, if in