I have made acquaintance with a Mr Barton, whom Jery knew at
Oxford; a good sort of a man, though most ridiculously warped in
his political principles; but his partiality is the less
offensive, as it never appears in the stile of scurrility and
abuse. He is a member of parliament, and a retainer to the court;
and his whole conversation turns upon the virtues and perfections
of the ministers, who are his patrons. T'other day, when he was
bedaubing one of those worthies, with the most fulsome praise, I
told him I had seen the same nobleman characterised very
differently, in one of the daily-papers; indeed, so stigmatized,
that if one half of what was said of him was true, he must be not
only unfit to rule, but even unfit to live: that those
impeachments had been repeated again and again, with the addition
of fresh matter; and that as he had taken no steps towards his
own vindication, I began to think there was some foundation for
the charge. 'And pray, Sir (said Mr Barton), what steps would you
have him take? Suppose he should prosecute the publisher, who
screens the anonymous accuser, and bring him to the pillory for a
libel; this is so far from being counted a punishment, in
terrorem, that it will probably make his fortune.
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