“Your Majesty knows it is the laudable custom of all Eastern princes, to leave the whole management of affairs, both civil and military, to their viziers.  The appointments for your family, and private purse, shall exceed those of your predecessors:  You shall be at no trouble, further than to appear sometimes in council, and leave the rest to me:  You shall hear no clamour or complaints:  Your senate shall, upon occasions, declare you the best of princes, the father of your country, the arbiter of Asia, the defender of the oppressed, and the delight of mankind.

“Sir, Hear not those who would most falsely, impiously, and maliciously insinuate, that your government can be carried on without that wholesome, necessary expedient, of sharing the public revenue with your faithful deserving senators.  This, I know, my enemies are pleased to call bribery and corruption.  Be it so:  But I insist, that without this bribery and corruption, the wheels of government will not turn, or at least will be apt to take fire, like other wheels, unless they be greased at proper times.  If an angel from heaven should descend, to govern this empire upon any other scheme than what our enemies call corruption, he must return from whence he came, and leave the work undone.

“Sir, It is well known we are a trading nation, and consequently cannot thrive in a bargain where nothing is to be gained.  The poor electors, who run from their shops, or the plough, for the service of their country, are they not to be considered for their labour and their loyalty?  The candidates, who, with the hazard of their persons, the loss of their characters, and the ruin of their fortunes, are preferred to the senate, in a country where they are strangers, before the very lords of the soil; are they not to be rewarded for their zeal to your Majesty’s service, and qualified to live in your metropolis as becomes the lustre of their stations?

“Sir, If I have given great numbers of the most profitable employments among my own relations and nearest allies, it was not out of any partiality, but because I know them best, and can best depend upon them.  I have been at the pains to mould and cultivate their opinions.  Abler heads might probably have been found, but they would not be equally under my direction.  A huntsman, who hath the absolute command of his dogs, will hunt more effectually than with a better pack, to whose manner and cry he is a stranger.

“Sir, Upon the whole, I will appeal to all those who best knew your royal father, whether that blessed monarch had ever one anxious thought for the public, or disappointment, or uneasiness, or want of money for all his occasions, during the time of my administration?  And, how happy the people confessed themselves to be under such a king, I leave to their own numerous addresses; which all politicians will allow to be the most infallible proof how any nation stands affected to their sovereign.”