Page:The Danger of Mercenary Parliaments - Toland (1698).djvu/9

 of frequent meetings of Parliament during the War, has taught our Managers so much dexterity and address in their applications to the Members of that Assembly, that they are now become consummate Masters in that most detestable art of corrupting our Representatives, by hopes and fears of attaining or losing Offices and Preferments. And tho I here name Offices, yet those Offices are downright Bribes and Pensions, since they are held precariously from the Court, and constantly taken away upon non-compliance with the Court-measures; tho I am not ignorant that several considerable Pensions were also paid out of the Exchequer to Members of both Houses: For Places could not be had for all, tho they have tried all imaginable arts for dividing amongst themselves the considerable Posts in the Kingdom: For either by splitting of Offices amongst several Persons which were formerly executed by one, or by reviving such as were sunk, or by creating others which were altogether useless and unnecessary, or by promises of Preferment to those who could not presently be provided for, they had made above 200 Members absolutely dependent upon them. And what Points might not such a number carry in the House, who were always ready and constantly attending with more diligence to destroy our Constitution, than the rest were to preserve it? who represented not their Country but themselves, and always kept together in a close and undivided Phalanx, impenetrable either by shame or honour, voting always the same way, and saying always the same things, as if they were no longer voluntary Agents, but so many Engines merely turn'd about by a mechanic Motion, like an Organ where the great humming Bases as well as the little squeaking Trebles are fill'd but with one blast of Wind from the same sound-board? Yet a few of them may in some measure be distinguish'd from those pointblank Voters, whom neither their Country's Safety, nor their own more dear and valu'd Interest, nor the perswasion of their once intimate Friends, nor fear of Reproach, nor love of Reputation could ever prevail to join in an honest Point, or dissent from a Question that carried in it the Violation of the Rights and Properties of the Subject. These are the Men who have perswaded his Majesty, or rather assum'd to themselves not to fill up any vacant Offices whilst the Parliament is sitting; but to keep all Pretenders in a dependence till the end of the Session, and bind them up to their ill behaviour, which will then be their best pretence to demand their Wages of Unrighteousness: Witness the Commission of Excise the last Session, which was sued for by, and promis'd to above 30 Competitors, who all did their utmost to signalize their several Merits for an Office, which doubtless will be at last divided amongst those who have deserv'd worst of their Country. By these means they made their Numbers and Interest in the House so great, that no Miscarriage in the Government could ever be redrest, nor the meanest Tool belonging to them be punish'd: some of which they did indeed take into their own hands, which rais'd in the People a high expectation that some extraordinary Penalties would be inflicted upon them; when their design at the same time was nothing else but to protect and screen them from the ordinary course of Justice: such is now the difference in point of Corruption between a common Jury and the Grand Jury of the Nation! such a mutual assistance and support have they been to one another in the several mismanagements of their Trusts: so favourable have they been to their own Creatures, and so implacable to those who have any way oppos'd their unjust Proceedings, witness their scandalous Partiality in the case of DUNCOMB, which I hope to see printed at large for the satisfaction of the Public. If it were truly represented, I am sure there needs nothing more to excite in the People a universal detestation of their Arrogance and Injustice. And yet do these Apostates pretend to value themselves upon their Merit in contriving that most destructive Project of Exchequer Bills, by which all impartial men must either think they notoriously dissemble with us, or that they have indeed lost their Senses when they speak of publick Service; the word is so unbecoming in their mouths, and so awkerdly pronounc'd, that they seem not to breath