being the clofe of the paper fo called, &c. He defired I would read it over, and confider it in a paper by itself; which laft I abfolutely refused. Upon perufal, I found it chiefly an invective against Toby, the miniftry, the Examiner, the clergy, the QUEEN, and the Poft-boy; yet at the fame time, with great juftice, exclaiming against thofe, who prefumed to offer the leaft word against the heads of that faction whom her majefty discarded. The author likewife proposes an equal division of favour and employments between the whigs and tories; for if the former can have no part or portion [w] in David, they defire no longer to be his fubjects. He infifts, that her majefty hath exactly followed Monfieur Tughe's memorial [x] against demolishing of Dunkirk. He reflects, with great fatisfaction, on the good already done to his country by The Crifis. Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, &c.—He gives us hopes that he will leave off writing, and confult his own quiet and happiness; and concludes with a letter to a friend at court. I fuppofe, by the ftyle of old friend, and the like, it must be some body there of his own level; among whom his party have indeed more friends than I could wifh. In this letter he afferts, that the prefent minifters were not edu [w] What portion have we in David? 1 Kings, xii. 16. [x] "Tugbe was deputed by the magistrates of Dunkirk, to inter" cede with the Queen, that fhe would recall part of her fentence "concerning Dunkirk, by caufing her thunderbolts to fall only on "the martial works, and to fpare the moles and dykes, which, in "their naked condition, could be no more than objects of pity." cated cated in the church of England, but are new converts from prefbytery. Upon which I can only reflect, how blind the malice of that man must be, who invents a groundless lie in order to defame his fuperiors, which would be no difgrace if it had been a truth. And he concludes with making three demands, for the fatisfaction of himself and other malecontents. First, the demolition of the harbour of Dunkirk. Secondly, that Great-Britain and France would heartily join against the exorbitant power of the duke of Lorrain, and force the pretender from his afylum at Bar-le-Duc. Laftly, that his electoral highness of Hanover would be fo grateful to fignify to all the world the perfect good underfanding he hath with the court of England, in as plain terms as her majefty was pleafed to declare fhe bad with that house on her part. As to the first of these demands, I will venture to undertake it fhail be granted; but then Mr. Steele, and his brother malecontents, muft promise to believe the thing is done, after thofe employed have made their report; or else bring vouchers to difprove it. Upon the fecond; I cannot tell whether her majefty will engage in a war against the duke of Lorrain, to force him to remove the pretender; but, I believe, if the parliament fhould think it neceffary to addrefs upon fuch an occafion, the QUEEN will move that prince to fend him away. His laft demand, offered under the title of a wish, is of fo infolent and feditious a ftrain, that I care not to touch it. Here he directly chargeth her majefty majesty with delivering a falfhood to her parliament from the throne; and declares he will not believe her, until the elector of Hanover himself fhall vouch for the truth of what he hath fo folemnly affirmed. I agree with this writer, that it is an idle thing in his antagonists to trouble themselves upon the articles of his birth, education, or fortune; for whoever writes at this rate of his fovereign, to whom he owes fo many perfonal obligations, I should never enquire whether he be a GENTLEMAN BORN, but whether he be a HUMAN CREATURE. THE WAR. Written in the Year 1712. Partem tibi Gallia noftri Eripuit: Partem duris Hifpania bellis : Pars jacet Hefperia; totoque exercitus orbe, Te vincente, perit. Odimus accipitrem, quia femper vivit in armis. To this Tract and the Examiners, which make Vol. V. of the Irish Edition, there is a preface in the name of the publisher, which lord Orrery afcribes to Swift, for no other apparent reason, than to accuse him of praifing himself; but, befides, the incorrectness of the ftyle, which his lordship supposes to be affected, there is an affertion that these papers produced the change in the queen's miniftry, which even in his lordship's opinion they were written to defend, and to which they appear, by their date, as well as tenor, to be fubfequent; an abfurdity of which Swift, even in the character of a publisher, cannot be fuppofed to have been guilty. PRE |