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 has 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 publick, 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."
Lelop-Aw, having ended his speech, and struck his forehead thrice against the table, as the custom is in Japan, sat down with great complacency of mind, and much applause of his adherents, as might
be
