The same form
used to be gone through at Downing Street, by an underling, but he
always gained his point. The nickname of the "devil's advocate" that I
gave him did his business for him, he is no longer there now.
The British cabinet wants the mirror held up to them, to show them how
they look to others. Now, when an order is transmitted by a minister
of the crown, as was done last war, to send all Yankee prisoners to
the fortress of Louisburg for safe keeping, when that fortress more
than sixty years before had been effectually razed from the face of
the earth by engineer officers sent from England for the purpose, why
it is natural a colonist should laugh, and say Capital! only it is a
little too good; and when another minister says, he can't find good
men to be governors, in order to defend appointments that his own
party say are too bad, what language is strong enough to express his
indignation? Had he said openly and manly, We are so situated, and so
bound by parliamentary obligations, we not only have to pass over the
whole body of provincials themselves, who have the most interest and
are best informed in colonial matters, but we have to appoint some
people like those to whom you object, who are forced upon us by
hollerin' their daylights out for us at elections, when we would
gladly select others, who are wholly unexceptionable, and their name
is legion; why, he would have pitied his condition, and admired his
manliness.
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