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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2021
SOME FREE THOUGHTS UPON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS MAY——1714.
Whatever may be thought or practised by profound Politicians, they will never be able to convince the reasonable part of Mankind, that the most plain, short, easy, safe, and lawfull way to any good End, is not more eligible, than one directly contrary in some or all of these Qualities. I have been frequently assured by great Ministers, that Politicks were nothing but common sense; which as it was the only true Thing they spoke, so it was the only Thing they could have wished I should not believe. God has given the Bulk of Mankind a Capacity to understand Reason when it is fairly offered; and by Reason they would easily be governed, if it were left to their Choice. Those Princes in all Ages who were most distinguished for their mysterious Skill in Government, found by the Event that they had ill consulted their own Quiet, or the Ease and Happiness of their People; neither hathPosterity remembred them with Honour; such asLysander and Philip among the Greeks, Tiberius in Rome, Lewis the eleventh of France, Pope Alexander the Sixth, and his son Cesar Borgia, Queen Catherine de Medicis, Philip the Second of Spain, with many others. Examples are not less frequent of Ministers famed for men of deep Intrigue whose Politicks have produced little more than Murmurings, Factions, and Discontents, which usually terminated in the Disgrace and Ruin of the Authors.
I can recollect but three Occasions in a State, where the Talents of such Menmay be thought necessary, I mean in a State where the Prince is obeyed and loved by his Subjects: First, in the Negotiation of a Peace: Secondly, in adjusting the Interests of our own Country with those of the Nations round us; watching the severall Motions of our Neighbours and Allyes, and preserving a due Ballance among them: Lastly in the Management of Parties and Factions at home. Yet in the first of these Cases I have often heard it observed, that plain good Sense, and a firm Adherence to the Point, have proved more effectual, than all those Arts which I remember a great foreign Minister used in Contempt to call the Spirit of Negotiating.
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