The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

102 TOBIAS SMOLLETT
publication, and catalogues printed of them and the manuscripts,
for the information of those that want to consult, or compile from
such authorities. I could also wish, for the honour of the nation,
that there was a complete apparatus for a course of mathematics,
mechanics, and experimental philosophy; and a good salary settled
upon an able professor, who should give regular lectures on these
subjects.
But this is all idle speculation, which will never be reduced to
practice—Considering the temper of the times, it is a wonder to
see any institution whatsoever established, for the benefit of the
public. The spirit of party is risen to a kind of phrenzy, unknown to
former ages, or rather degenerated to a total extinction of honesty
and candour—You know I have observed, for some time, that the
public papers are become the infamous vehicles of the most cruel
and perfidious defamation: every rancorous knave—every des-
perate incendiary, that can afford to spend half a crown or three
shillings, may skulk behind the press of a newsmonger, and have a
stab at the first character in the kingdom, without running the
least hazard of detection or punishment.
I have made acquaintance with a Mr. Barton, whom Jery knew
at Oxford; a good sort of a man, though most ridiculously warped
in his political principles; but his partiality is the less offensive, as
it never appears in the stile of scurrility and abuse. He is a member
of parliament, and a retainer to the court; and his whole con-
versation turns upon the virtues and perfections of the ministers,
who are his patrons. T’other day, when he was bedaubing one of
those worthies, with the most fulsome praise, I told him I had seen
the same nobleman characterized very differently, in one of the
daily-papers; indeed, so stigmatized, that if one half of what was
said of him was true, he must be not only unfit to rule, but even unfit
to live: that those impeachments had been repeated again and again,
with the addition of fresh matter; and that as he had taken no steps
towards his own vindication, I began to think there was some
foundation for the charge. ‘And pray, sir, (said Mr. Barton) what
steps would you have him take?—Suppose he should prosecute
the publisher, who screens the anonymous accuser, and bring him
to the pillory for a libel; this is so far from being counted a punish-
ment, in terrorem, that it will probably make his fortune. The
multitude immediately take him into their protection, as a martyr
to the cause of defamation, which they have always espoused—