Page:The genuine remains in verse and prose of Mr. Samuel Butler (1759), volume 1.djvu/475

 do not believe themselves obliged to that Strictness of Justice as other inferior Courts do, who are more tyed up with Oaths, and Rules in their Proceedings, and fear of Punishment by loss of their Places, if they should be discovered. For though Conscience be laid to be a thousand Witnesses, they are all Knights of the Post, when they are to testify on their own Side, I mean in this World, in which they are not so competent Witnesses as in the next.

The King sends for them to advise with him about the hard Affairs of the Nation, that is, how to raise Money; and they advise him to let it alone, till they are in the Humour, and in the mean time by letting them do what they please, endeavour to bring them to that good Humour, and suffer them to redress him, as the likeliest Way, until he is forced to redress them by letting loose the Laws upon them, as much the better Way. They give the King Money just as the Bankers used to lend it him; and make him pay so much in the hundred for it, the more his Occasions require it, in ready Prerogative down upon the Nail: and make him stay long enough for it, as all those are wont, who pay for any Thing before they