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have unavoidably occaſioned ſome increaſe of patron age; but the influence created by ſuch means is infinitely ſhort of what has been given up by the meaſures of œconomy and regulation to which recourſe has been had, eſpecially when the deſcription and value of the employments created is compared with thoſe aboliſhed; and it will not be denied to us that the manners of the times; the conſtant exigence of a watchful oppoſition; the modern uſage of parliament; the liberty of the preſs; and the unbounded circulation of the productions which that liberty encourages; all conſpire to limit in practice that influence which, in other times, was ſo powerful and ſo prevailing. Not to go back to the more ancient periods of our hiſtory, when the great weight of the prerogative bore down all oppoſition, whether of the parliament or the people; even ſince the prerogative has been defined and limited by the Revolution, when the people, having recently ſhaken off their yoke, were likely to have ſtretched their newly-acquired rights to the utmoſt, there has not been a reign in which the influence of the Crown has been ſo unceaſingly controlled by the jealouſy of the Houſe of Commons as that of His preſent Majeſty.
