It is indeed their interest, who endeavour the subversion of
governments, to discourage poets and historians; for the best
which can happen to them, is to be forgotten. But such who,
under kings, are the fathers of their country, and by a just and
prudent ordering of affairs preserve it, have the same reason
to cherish the chroniclers of their actions, as they have to lay
up in safety the deeds and evidences of their estates; for such
records are their undoubted titles to the love and reverence of
after ages. Your lordship's administration has already taken up
a considerable part of the English annals; and many of its most
happy years are owing to it. His Majesty, the most knowing judge
of men, and the best master, has acknowledged the ease and
benefit he receives in the incomes of his treasury, which you
found not only disordered, but exhausted. All things were in the
confusion of a chaos, without form or method, if not reduced
beyond it, even to annihilation; so that you had not only
to separate the jarring elements, but (if that boldness of
expression might be allowed me) to create them.
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