Pageant

,—a spectacle, by the lure of which a minister may draw money for himself and his friends, by amusing the public mind; such, for instance, was the Spanish armament in 1790; such the Russian armament in 1791; and whilst the People of England tamely suffer their privileges to be restrained, their rights pillaged, and immunities plundered, the same pageants will be erected, and the same spectacles displayed.