Machiavelli next treats (ch. 22) of what he considers the index of a monarch's widom, the choice of ministers, and how good ministers may be known.
This is a delicate subject for an Englishman to treat of in March 1810; let me draw the veil over the infirmities naturally attendant on old age; let me not touch the hallowed precincts of my venerable monarch's sanctorum, but rather blast with infamy the wretch who, in the House of Commons, asserted that, "His Majesty is laden with age and infirmities," and who has for three years taken advantage of that age and those infirmities by every dishonourable and unconstitutional means to whisper falsehood in the royal ear; enrich himself and the miscreants around him, and spill the nation's blood and treasure to gratify his mad ambition, non te hoc pudet, Miserable! Cannot the finger of scorn, the scowl of contempt, and the burst of general indignation appal thee? Art thou deaf to every cry, insensible to thy country's suffer-
