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No. XXXVII.

THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1711.

Semper causæ eventorum magis movent quam ipsa eventa.

We are always more moved at the causes of events, than at the events themselves.

I AM glad to observe that several among the Whigs have begun very much to change their language of late. The style is now among the reasonable part of them, when they meet a man in business, or a member of parliament; well, gentlemen, if you go on as you have hitherto done, we shall no longer have any pretence to complain: they find, it seems, that there have been yet no overtures made to bring in the Pretender, nor any preparatory steps toward it. They read no enslaving votes, nor bills brought in to endanger the subject. The indulgence to scrupulous consciences is again confirmed from the throne, inviolably preserved, and not the least whisper offered that may affect it. All care is taken to support the war; supplies cheerfully granted, and funds readily subscribed to, in spite of the little arts made use of to discredit them. The just resentments of some, which are laudable in themselves, and to which, at another juncture, it might be proper to give way, have been softened or diverted by the calmness of others; so that, upon the article of present management, I do not see how any objection of weight can well be raised.

However, our adversaries still allege, that this great

success was wholly unexpected, and out of all probable view; that in public affairs we ought least of all others to judge by events; that the attempt of changing a mi nistry, during the difficulties of a long war, was rash and inconsiderate; that if the queen were disposed, by her inclinations, or from any personal dislike, for such a change, it might have been done with more safety in a time of peace; that if it had miscarried by any of those incidents, which in all appearance might have intervened, the consequences would perhaps have ruined the whole confederacy; and, therefore, however it has now succeeded, the experiment was too dangerous to try.

But this is what we can by no means allow them. We never will admit rashness, or chance, to have produced all this harmony and order. It is visible to the world, that the several steps toward this change were slowly taken, and with the utmost caution. The movers observed, as they went on, how matters would bear; and advanced no farther at first, than so as they might be able to stop, or go back, if circumstances were not mature. Things were grown to such a height, that it was no longer the question, whether a person who aimed at an employment were a Whig or Tory; much less, whether he had merit, or proper abilities, for what he pretended to: he must owe his preferment only to the favourites; and the crown was so far from nominating, that they would not allow it a negative. This the queen was resolved no longer to endure; and began to break into their prescription, by bestowing one or two places of consequence, * without consulting her ephori, after they had

* See Memoirs respecting the Change of Ministry, Vol. III. for the circumstances attending it.

fixed them for others, and concluded as usual, that all their business was to signify their pleasure to her majesty. But, although the persons the queen had chosen were such, as no objection could well be raised against upon the score of party, yet the oligarchy took the alarm; their sovereign authority was, it seems, called in question; they grew into anger and discontent, as if their undoubted rights were violated. All former obligations to their sovereign now became cancelled; and they put themselves upon the foot of the people, who are hardly used after the most eminent services.

I believe all men, who know any thing in politics, will agree, that a prince thus treated by those he has most confided in, and perpetually loaded with his favours, ought to extricate himself as soon as possible; and is then only blameable in his choice of time, when he defers one minute after it is in his power; because, from the monstrous encroachments of exorbitant avarice and ambition, he cannot tell how long it may continue to be And it will be found, upon enquiring into history, that most of those princes, who have been ruined by favourites, have owed their misfortune to the neglect of earlier remedies; deferring to struggle, until they were quite sunk.

So.

The Whigs are every day cursing the ungovernable rage, the haughty pride, and insatiable covetousness of a certain person,* as the cause of their fall; and are apt to tell their thoughts, that one single removal might have

• The Duchess of Marlborough; whose haughty conduct to the queen occasioned the rupture betwixt her majesty and the administration formed under the duchess's influence, and composed chiefly of her allies.

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set all things right. person were found, upon experience, so complicated and woven with the rest, by love, by awe, by marriage, by alliance, that they would rather confound heaven and earth than dissolve such a union.

But the interests of that single

I have always heard and understood, that a king of England, possessed of his people's hearts, at the head of a free parliament, and in full agreement with a great majority, made the true figure in the world that such a monarch ought to do; and pursued the real interest of himself and his kingdom. Will they allow her majesty to be in those circumstances at present? And was it not plain, by the addresses sent from all parts of the island,* and by the visible disposition of the people, that such a parliament would undoubtedly be chosen? and so it proved, without the court's using any arts to influence elections.

What people then are these in a corner, to whom the constitution must truckle? If the whole nation's credit cannot supply funds for the war, without humble applications from the entire legislature to a few retailers of money, it is high time we should sue for a peace. What new maxims are these, which neither we nor our forefathers ever heard of before, and which no wise institution

* "The bulk of the High Church, or Tory party, being no less exasperated against the Low Church party than their leaders, were uneasy at the long, not to say imperious reign, of the old ministers and favourites; they were both very industrious in procuring addresses, which, under pretence of expressing their loyalty to the queen, and affection to the church established, were mainly levelled, like so many batteries, against the ministry and parliament, and whole moderate party."-Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne, Vol. IX. p. 158.

would ever allow ? must our laws from henceforward pass the Bank and East India Company, or have their royal assent, before they are in force?

To hear some of those worthy reasoners talking of credit, that she is so nice, so squeamish, so capricious, you would think they were describing a lady troubled with vapours or the colick, to be removed only by a course of steel, or swallowing a bullet. By the narrowness of their thoughts, one would imagine they conceived the world to be no wider than Exchange Alley. It is probable they may have such a sickly dame among them; and it is well if she has no worse diseases, considering what hands she passes through. But the national credit is of another complexion; of sound health, and an even temper; her life and existence being a quintessence drawn from the vitals of the whole kingdom; and we find these money politicians, after all their noise, to be of the same opinion, by the court they paid her, when she lately appeared to them in the form of a lottery.*

As to that mighty error in politics they charge upon the queen, for changing her ministry in the height of war, I suppose it is only looked upon as an error under a Whig

* The lottery bill received the royal assent on the 6th March, and advertisement was made, that payments would begin to be received on Tuesday the 13th. But when the receivers met for this purpose on the morning of that day, it was found that L. 27,000 had been subscribed at the Bank of England above the first payment of the whole sum of L. 1,500,000. So that the lottery was more than full before the books were opened. But such a cry was raised against the directors of the bank and stock-jobbers, for having engrossed the fund to the disappointment of the public, that they found themselves obliged to give up one-fifth part of the tickets purchased. As these monied men were chiefly Whigs, Swift's sarcasm is easily understood.

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