Page:Trenchard Tracts 074-124.djvu/4

 if I hould ay they have not been better executed ince they were in ome Hands, than when in fewer: and I mut confes, I ee no Reaon why they may not be made twice as many, and o ad infinitum'', unles the Number be acertain'd by Parliament; and what Danger this may be to our Contitution, I think of with Horror. For if in Ages to come they hould be all given to Parliament Men, what will become of our o much boated Liberty? What hall be done when the Criminal becomes the Judge, and the Malefactors are left to try themelves? We may be ure their common Danger will unite them, and they will all tand by one another. I do not peak this by Gues; for I have read of a Country where there was a constand Series of Mimanagement for many Years together, and yet no Body was punih'd: And even in our own Country I believe, ome Men now alive can remember the Time, when if the King had but twenty more Places in his, or dipoed of thoe he had to the bet Advantage, the Liberty of England had been at an End. I would not be undertood quite to exclude Parliament men from having Places; for a Man may erve his Country in two : but I would not have it to be a Qualification for a Place, becaue a poor Borough thinks a Man fit to repreent them, that therefore he mut be a Stateman, a, a Soldier, an Admiral, and what not? If this hould be taken in a future Reign, the People mut not expect to ee Men of Ability or Integrity in any Places, while they hold them by no other Tenure than the  they do their Country in the Houe of Commons, and are ure to be turned out upon every prevalent Faction on the other Side. They mut then never expect to ee the Houe of Commons act vigorouly for the Interet either of King or People; but ome will ervilely comply with the Court to keep their Places, others will oppoe it as unreaonably to get them: And thoe Gentlemen whoe Deigns are for their Country's Interet, will grow weary of the bet Form of Government in the World, thinking by Mitake the Fault is in our Contitution. I have heard of a Country, where the Diputes about Offices to the Value of thirty thouand Pounds per Annum, have made ix Millieus ineffectual; what by ome Mens protitue Compliance, and others clogging the Wheels, it has caus'd Want and Neceity ''