In the third place, the Whigs accuse us of a design to bring in the
Pretender; and to give it a greater air of probability, they suppose the
Qu[een] to be a party in this design; which however, is no very
extraordinary supposition in those who have advanced such singular
paradoxes concerning Gregg and Guiscard. Upon this article, their charge
is general, without ever offering to produce an instance. But I verily
think, and believe it will appear no paradox, that if ever he be brought
in, the Whigs are his men. For, first, it is an undoubted truth, that a
year or two after the Revolution, several leaders of that party had their
pardons sent them by the late King James,[9] and had entered upon
measures to restore him, on account of some disobligations they received
from King William. Besides, I would ask, whether those who are under the
greatest ties of gratitude to King James, are not at this day become the
most zealous Whigs? And of what party those are now, who kept a long
correspondence with St. Germains?

It is likewise very observable of late, that the Whigs upon all
occasions, profess their belief of the Pretender's being no impostor, but
a real prince, born of the late Queen's body:[10] which whether it be
true or false, is very unseasonably advanced, considering the weight such
an opinion must have with the vulgar, if they once thoroughly believe it.
Neither is it at all improbable, that the Pretender himself puts his
chief hopes in the friendship he expects from the Dissenters and Whigs,
by his choice to invade the kingdom when the latter were most in credit:
and he had reason to count upon the former, from the gracious treatment
they received from his supposed father, and their joyful acceptance
of it. But further, what could be more consistent with the Whiggish
notion of a revolution-principle, than to bring in the Pretender? A
revolution-principle, as their writings and discourses have taught us to
define it, is a principle perpetually disposing men to revolutions: and
this is suitable to the famous saying of a great Whig, "That the more
revolutions the better"; which how odd a maxim soever in appearance, I
take to be the true characteristic of the party.

A dog loves to turn round often; yet after certain revolutions, he lies
down to rest: but heads, under the dominion of the moon, are for
perpetual changes, and perpetual revolutions: besides, the Whigs owe all
their wealth to wars and revolutions; like the girl at Bartholomew-fair,
who gets a penny by turning round a hundred times, with swords in her
hands.[11]

To conclude, the Whigs have a natural faculty of bringing in pretenders,
and will therefore probably endeavour to bring in the great one at last:
How many _pretenders_ to wit, honour, nobility, politics, have they
brought in these last twenty years? In short, they have been sometimes
able to procure a majority of pretenders in Parliament; and wanted
nothing to render the work complete, except a Pretender at their head.


[Footnote 1: No. 39 in the reprint. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 2: Juvenal, "Satires," ii. 24.

  "Who his spleen could rein,
  And hear the Gracchi of the mob complain?"--W. GIFFORD.

  [T.S.]]

[Footnote 3: The Calves-Head Club "was erected by an impudent set of
people, who have their feast of calves-heads in several parts of the
town, on the 30th of January; in derision of the day, and defiance of
monarchy" ("Secret History of the Calves-Head Club," 1703). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 4: These works can hardly be called "tracts." Algernon Sidney's
"Discourses concerning Government" (1698), is a portly folio of 467
pages, and Ludlow's "Memoirs" (1698-9) occupy three stout octavo volumes.
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 5: On July 21st, 1683, the University of Oxford passed a decree
condemning as "false, seditious, and impious," a series of twenty-seven
propositions, among which were the following:

"All civil authority is derived originally from the people."

"The King has but a co-ordinate power, and may be over-ruled by the Lords
and Commons."

"Wicked kings and tyrants ought to be put to death."

"King Charles the First was lawfully put to death."

The decree was reprinted in 1709/10 with the title, "An Entire
Confutation of Mr. Hoadley's Book, of the Original of Government." It was
burnt by the order of the House of Lords, dated March 23rd, 1709/10.
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 6: In a letter to Dr. Chenevix, Bishop of Waterford (dated May
23rd, 1758), Lord Chesterfield, speaking of Swift's "Last Four Years,"
says that it "is a party pamphlet, founded on the lie of the day,
which, as Lord Bolingbroke who had read it often assured me, _was
coined and delivered out to him, to write 'Examiners' and other
political papers upon_" (Chesterfield's "Works," ii. 498, edit. 1777).
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 7: From this and many previous passages it is obvious, that, in
joining the Tories, Swift reserved to himself the right of putting his
own interpretation upon the speculative points of their political creed.
[S.]]

[Footnote 8: See Swift's "Presbyterians' Plea of Merit," and note, vol.
iv., p. 36, of present edition. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 9: James II. sent a Declaration to England, dated April 20th,
1692, in which he promised to pardon all those who should return to their
duty. He made a few exceptions, and among these were Ormonde, Sunderland,
Nottingham, Churchill, etc. It is said that of Churchill James remarked
that he never could forgive him until he should efface the memory of his
ingratitude by some eminent service. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 10: "The Pretended Prince of Wales," as he is styled in several
Acts of Parliament, was first called "the Pretender" in Queen Anne's
speech to Parliament on March 11th, 1707/8. She then said: "The French
fleet sailed from Dunkirk, Tuesday, at three in the morning, northward,
with the Pretender on board." The same epithet is employed in the
Addresses by the two Houses in reply to this speech.

It was currently reported that he was not a son of James II. and Queen
Mary. Several pamphlets were written by "W. Fuller," to prove that he was
the son of a gentlewoman named Grey, who was brought to England from
Ireland in 1688 by the Countess of Tyrconnel. See also note on p. 409 of
vol. v. of present edition. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 11: An exhibition described at length in Ward's "London Spy."
The wonder and dexterity of the feat consisted in the damsel sustaining a
number of drawn swords upright upon her hands, shoulders, and neck, and
turning round so nimbly as to make the spectators giddy. [S.]]




NUMB. 41.[1]

FROM THURSDAY MAY 3, TO THURSDAY MAY 10, 1711.[2]


  _Dos est magna parentium virtus._[3]

I took up a paper[4] some days ago in a coffee-house; and if the
correctness of the style, and a superior spirit in it, had not
immediately undeceived me, I should have been apt to imagine, I had been
reading an "Examiner." In this paper, there were several important
propositions advanced. For instance, that "Providence raised up Mr.
H[arle]y to be an instrument of great good, in a very critical juncture,
when it was much wanted." That, "his very enemies acknowledge his eminent
abilities, and distinguishing merit, by their unwearied and restless
endeavours against his person and reputation": That "they have had
an inveterate malice against both": That he "has been wonderfully
preserved from _some_ unparalleled attempts"; with more to the same
purpose. I immediately computed by rules of arithmetic, that in the last
cited words there was something more intended than the attempt of
Guiscard, which I think can properly pass but for _one_ of the "some."
And, though I dare not pretend to guess the author's meaning; yet the
expression allows such a latitude, that I would venture to hold a wager,
most readers, both Whig and Tory, have agreed with me, that this plural
number must, in all probability, among other facts, take in the business
of Gregg.[5]

See now the difference of styles. Had I been to have told my thoughts on
this occasion; instead of saying how Mr. H[arle]y was "treated by some
persons," and "preserved from some unparalleled attempts"; I should with
intolerable bluntness and ill manners, have told a formal story, of a
com[mitt]ee[6] sent to a condemned criminal in Newgate, to bribe him with
a pardon, on condition he would swear high treason against his master,
who discovered his correspondence, and secured his person, when a certain
grave politician had given him warning to make his escape: and by this
means I should have drawn a whole swarm of hedge-writers to exhaust their
catalogue of scurrilities against me as a liar, and a slanderer. But with
submission to the author of that forementioned paper, I think he has
carried that expression to the utmost it will bear: for after all this
noise, I know of but two "attempts" against Mr. H[arle]y, that can really
be called "unparalleled," which are those aforesaid of Gregg and
Guiscard; and as to the rest, I will engage to parallel them from the
story of Catiline, and others I could produce.

However, I cannot but observe, with infinite pleasure, that a great part
of what I have charged upon the late prevailing faction, and for
affirming which, I have been adorned with so many decent epithets, hath
been sufficiently confirmed at several times, by the resolutions of one
or the other House of Parliament.[7] I may therefore now say, I hope,
with good authority, that there have been "some unparalleled attempts"
against Mr. Harley. That the late ministry were justly to blame in some
management, which occasioned the unfortunate battle of Almanza,[8] and
the disappointment at Toulon.[9] That the public has been grievously
wronged by most notorious frauds, during the Whig administration. That
those who advised the bringing in the Palatines,[10] were enemies to the
kingdom. That the late managers of the revenue have not duly passed their
accounts,[11] for a great part of thirty-five millions, and ought not to
be trusted in such employments any more. Perhaps in a little time, I may
venture to affirm some other paradoxes of this kind, and produce the same
vouchers. And perhaps also, if it had not been so busy a period, instead
of one "Examiner," the late ministry might have had above four hundred,
each of whose little fingers would be heavier than my loins. It makes me
think of Neptune's threat to the winds:

  _Quos ego--sed motos praestat componere fluctus._[12]

Thus when these sons of Aeolus, had almost sunk the ship with the
tempests they raised, it was necessary to smooth the ocean, and secure
the vessel, instead of pursuing the offenders.

But I observe the general expectation at present, instead of dwelling any
longer upon conjectures who is to be punished for past miscarriages,
seems bent upon the rewards intended to those, who have been so highly
instrumental in rescuing our constitution from its late dangers. It is
the observation of Tacitus, in the life of Agricola, that his eminent
services had raised a general opinion of his being designed, by the
emperor, for praetor of Britain. _Nullis in hoc suis sermonibus, sed quia
par videbatur:_ and then he adds, _Non semper errat fama, aliquando et
eligit._[13] The judgment of a wise prince, and the general disposition
of the people, do often point at the same person; and sometimes the
popular wishes, do even foretell the reward intended for some superior
merit. Thus among several deserving persons, there are two,[14] whom the
public vogue hath in a peculiar manner singled out, as designed very soon
to receive the choicest marks of the royal favour. One of them to be
placed in a very high station, and both to increase the number of our
nobility. This, I say, is the general conjecture; for I pretend to none,
nor will be chargeable if it be not fulfilled; since it is enough for
their honour, that the nation thinks them worthy of the greatest rewards.

Upon this occasion I cannot but take notice, that of all the heresies in
politics, profusely scattered by the partisans of the late
administration, none ever displeased me more, or seemed to have more
dangerous consequences to monarchy, than that pernicious talent so much
affected, of discovering a contempt for birth, family, and ancient
nobility. All the threadbare topics of poets and orators were displayed
to discover to us, that merit and virtue were the only nobility; and that
the advantages of blood, could not make a knave or a fool either honest
or wise. Most popular commotions we read of in histories of Greece and
Rome, took their rise from unjust quarrels to the nobles; and in the
latter, the plebeians' encroachments on the patricians, were the first
cause of their ruin.

Suppose there be nothing but opinion in the difference of blood; every
body knows, that authority is very much founded on opinion. But surely,
that difference is not wholly imaginary. The advantages of a liberal
education, of choosing the best companions to converse with; not being
under the necessity of practising little mean tricks by a scanty
allowance; the enlarging of thought, and acquiring the knowledge of men
and things by travel; the example of ancestors inciting to great and good
actions. These are usually some of the opportunities, that fall in the
way of those who are born, of what we call the better families; and
allowing genius to be equal in them and the vulgar, the odds are clearly
on their side. Nay, we may observe in some, who by the appearance of
merit, or favour of fortune, have risen to great stations, from an
obscure birth, that they have still retained some sordid vices of their
parentage or education, either insatiable avarice, or ignominious
falsehood and corruption.

To say the truth, the great neglect of education, in several noble
families, whose sons are suffered to pass the most improvable seasons of
their youth, in vice and idleness, have too much lessened their
reputation; but even this misfortune we owe, among all the rest, to that
Whiggish practice of reviling the Universities, under the pretence of
their instilling pedantry, narrow principles, and high-church doctrines.

I would not be thought to undervalue merit and virtue, wherever they are
to be found; but will allow them capable of the highest dignities in a
state, when they are in a very great degree of eminence. A pearl holds
its value though it be found in a dunghill; but however, that is not the
most probable place to search for it. Nay, I will go farther, and admit,
that a man of quality without merit, is just so much the worse for his
quality; which at once sets his vices in a more public view, and
reproaches him for them. But on the other side, I doubt, those who are
always undervaluing the advantages of birth, and celebrating personal
merit, have principally an eye to their own, which they are fully
satisfied with, and which nobody will dispute with them about; whereas
they cannot, without impudence and folly, pretend to be nobly born:
because this is a secret too easily discovered: for no men's parentage is
so nicely inquired into, as that of assuming upstarts; especially when
they affect to make it better than it is, as they often do, or behave
themselves with insolence.

But whatever may be the opinion of others upon this subject, whose
philosophical scorn for blood and families, reaches even to those that
are royal, or perhaps took its rise from a Whiggish contempt of the
latter; I am pleased to find two such instances of extraordinary merit,
as I have mentioned, joined with ancient and honourable birth, which
whether it be of real or imaginary value, hath been held in veneration by
all wise, polite states, both ancient and modern. And, as much a foppery,
as men pretend to think it, nothing is more observable in those who rise
to great place or wealth, from mean originals, than their mighty
solicitude to convince the world that they are not so low as is commonly
believed. They are glad to find it made out by some strained genealogy,
that they have some remote alliance with better families. Cromwell
himself was pleased with the impudence of a flatterer, who undertook to
prove him descended from a branch of the royal stem. I know a
citizen,[15] who adds or alters a letter in his name with every plum he
acquires: he now wants but the change of a vowel, to be allied to a
sovereign prince in Italy; and that perhaps he may contrive to be done,
by a _mistake_ of the graver upon his tombstone.

When I am upon this subject of nobility, I am sorry for the occasion
given me, to mention the loss of a person who was so great an ornament to
it, as the late lord president;[16] who began early to distinguish
himself in the public service, and passed through the highest employments
of state, in the most difficult times, with great abilities and untainted
honour. As he was of a good old age, his principles of religion and
loyalty had received no mixture from late infusions, but were instilled
into him by his illustrious father, and other noble spirits, who had
exposed their lives and fortunes for the royal martyr.

            ----_Pulcherrima proles,
  Magnanimi heroes nati melioribus annis._[17]

His first great action was, like Scipio, to defend his father,[18] when
oppressed by numbers; and his filial piety was not only rewarded with
long life, but with a son, who upon the like occasion, would have shewn
the same resolution. No man ever preserved his dignity better when he was
out of power, nor shewed more affability while he was in. To conclude:
his character (which I do not here pretend to draw) is such, as his
nearest friends may safely trust to the most impartial pen; nor wants the
least of that allowance which, they say, is required for those who are
dead.


[Footnote 1: No. 40 in the reprint. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 2: Writing to Stella, May 14th, 1711, Swift informs her: "Dr.
Freind was with me, and pulled out a twopenny pamphlet just published
called 'The State of Wit,' giving a character of all the papers that have
come out of late. The author seems to be a Whig, yet he speaks very
highly of a paper called 'The Examiner,' and says the supposed author of
it is Dr. Swift" (vol. ii., p. 176, of present edition). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 3: Horace, "Odes," III. xxiv. 21.

  "The lovers there for dowry claim
  The father's virtue, and the mother's fame."
                               P. FRANCIS.

[T.S.]]

[Footnote 4: "The Congratulatory Speech of William Bromley, Esq., ...
together with the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Answer."--See also No.
42, _post_, pp. 273-4. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5: See No. 33, _ante_, pp. 207-14. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 6: The writer of "A Letter to the Seven Lords" says this means
"that there was a committee of seven lords, sent to a condemned criminal
in Newgate, to bribe him with a pardon, on condition he would swear high
treason, against his master."

In Hoffman's "Secret Transactions" (pp. 14, 15) the matter is thus
referred to: "Who those persons were that offered Gregg his life, with
great preferments and advantages (if he would but accuse his master) may
not uneasily be guessed at, for most of the time he was locked up none
but people of note, were permitted to come near him, who made him strange
promises, and often repeated them." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 7: "He does, with his own impudence, and with the malice of a
devil, bring in both Houses of P---- to say and mean the same thing....
It is matter of wonder ... to see the greatest ministers of state we ever
had (till now) treated by a poor paper-pedlar, every Thursday, like the
veriest rascals in the kingdom.... I could, if it were needful, bring a
great many instances, of this licentious way of the scum of mankind's
treating the greatest peers in the nation" ("A Letter to the Seven
Lords"). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 8: The Earl of Galway was defeated by the Duke of Berwick at
this battle on April 25th, 1707. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 9: The Allies, under the Duke of Savoy, unsuccessfully laid
siege to Toulon from July 26th to August 21st, 1707. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 10: The Palatines, who were mostly Lutherans, came over to
England in great numbers in May and June of 1709. So large was the
immigration that the House of Commons, on April 14th, 1711, passed a
resolution declaring that the inviting and bringing over of the Palatines
"at the public expense, was an extravagant and unreasonable charge to the
kingdom, and a scandalous misapplication of the public money." Whoever
advised it, said the resolution, "was an enemy to the Queen and this
kingdom." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 11: A Committee, appointed January 13th, 1710/1, reported in
April, 1711, that accounts for _ВЈ_35,302,107 18_s._ 9-5/8_d._(_sic_) had
not been passed. On February 21st, 1711/2, the auditors presented a
statement which showed that of these accounts (which went back to 1681),
_ВЈ_6,133,571 had then been passed, and that a considerable portion of the
remainder was waiting for technicalities only. On June 11th, 1713, it was
reported that _ВЈ_24,624,436 had been either passed or "adjusted." See
"Journals of House of Commons," xvi., xvii. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 12: Virgil, "Aeneid," i. 135.
"Whom I--but first this uproar must be quelled."--R. KENNEDY.
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 13: Tacitus, "Agricola," 9. (Tacitus wrote "Haud semper," etc.)
"An opinion not founded upon any suggestions of his own, but upon his
being thought equal to the station. Common fame does not always err,
sometimes it even directs a choice" ("Oxford Translation" revised).
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 14: Harley, who was created Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer,
May 23rd, 1711, and Sir Simon Harcourt, made Baron Harcourt, September
3rd, 1711. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 15: Sir Henry Furnese (1658-1712), Bart. He obtained his
baronetcy June 18th, 1707, and was the first to receive that dignity
since the Union. He sat in the House as Member for Bramber and Sandwich,
and was twice expelled. He was, however, re-elected for Sandwich and
represented that constituency until his death on November 30th, 1712.

The variety of ways in which his name has been spelt is quite remarkable.
In the "Calendar of State Papers" for 1691 and 1692, the name is given as
Furness, Furnese, and Furnes. The "Journals of the House of Commons,"
recording his expulsion, speaks of him as Furnesse. When he was knighted
(October 11th, 1691), the "Gazette" of October 19th printed it Furnace,
and when he was made a baronet, the same journal had it Furnese. In the
official "Return of Names of Members," the name is given successively as,
Furnace, Furnac, Furnice, Furnise, Furness and Furnese. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 16: Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, second son of the first
Earl of Clarendon (see No. 27, _ante_, p. 170). He undertook the defence
of his father when the latter was impeached by the House of Commons,
October 30th, 1667, on a charge of high treason. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 17: Virgil, "Aeneid," vi. 648-9.

  "Warriors, high souled, in better ages born,
  Great Teucer's noble race, these plains adorn."--J.M. KING.

  [T.S.]]

[Footnote 18: "When the tumultuous perplexed charge of accumulated
treasons was preferred against him by the Commons; his son Laurence, then
a Member of that House, stept forth with this brave defiance to his
accusers, that, if they could make out any proof of any one single
article, he would, as he was authorized, join in the condemnation of his
father" (Burton's "Genuineness of Clarendon's History," p. 111). [T.S.]]




NUMB. 42.[1]

FROM THURSDAY MAY 10, TO THURSDAY MAY 17, 1711.


  _------Quem cur distringere coner,
  Tutus ab infestis latronibus?_[2]


I never let slip an opportunity of endeavouring to convince the world,
that I am not partial, and to confound the idle reproach of my being
hired or directed what to write in defence of the present ministry,[3] or
for detecting the practices of the former. When I first undertook this
paper, I firmly resolved, that if ever I observed any gross neglect,
abuse or corruption in the public management, which might give any just
offence to reasonable people, I would take notice of it with that
innocent boldness which becomes an honest man, and a true lover of his
country; at the same time preserving the respect due to persons so highly
entrusted by so wise and excellent a Queen. I know not how such a liberty
might have been resented; but I thank God there has been no occasion
given me to exercise it; for I can safely affirm, that I have with the
utmost rigour, examined all the actions of the present ministry, as far
as they fall under general cognizance, without being able to accuse them
of one ill or mistaken step. Observing indeed some time ago, that seeds
of dissension[4] had been plentifully scattered from a certain corner,
and fearing they began to rise and spread, I immediately writ a paper on
the subject; which I treated with that warmth I thought it required: but
the prudence of those at the helm soon prevented this growing evil; and
at present it seems likely to have no consequences.

I have had indeed for some time a small occasion of quarrelling, which I
thought too inconsiderable for a formal subject of complaint, though I
have hinted at it more than once. But it is grown at present to as great
a height, as a matter of that nature can possibly bear; and therefore I
conceive it high time that an effectual stop should be put to it. I have
been amazed at the flaming licentiousness of several weekly papers, which
for some months past, have been chiefly employed in barefaced
scurrilities against those who are in the greatest trust and favour with
the Qu[een], with the first and last letters of their names frequently
printed; or some periphrasis describing their station, or other
innuendoes, contrived too plain to be mistaken. The consequence of which
is, (and it is natural it should be so) that their long impunity hath
rendered them still more audacious.

At this time I particularly intend a paper called the "Medley"; whose
indefatigable, incessant railings against me, I never thought convenient
to take notice of, because it would have diverted my design, which I
thought was of public use.[5] Besides, I never yet observed that writer,
or those writers, (for it is every way a "Medley") to argue against any
one material point or fact that I had advanced, or make one fair
quotation. And after all, I knew very well how soon the world grow weary
of controversy. It is plain to me, that three or four hands at least have
been joined at times in that worthy composition; but the outlines as well
as the finishing, seem to have been always the work of the same pen, as
it is visible from half a score beauties of style inseparable from it.
But who these Meddlers are, or where the judicious leaders have picked
them up, I shall never go about to conjecture: factious rancour, false
wit, abandoned scurrility, impudent falsehood, and servile pedantry,
having so many fathers, and so few to own them, that curiosity herself
would not be at the pains to guess. It is the first time I ever did
myself the honour to mention that admirable paper: nor could I imagine
any occasion likely to happen, that would make it necessary for me to
engage with such an adversary. This paper is weekly published, and as
appears by the number, has been so for several months, and is next to the
"Observator,"[6] allowed to be the best production of the party. Last
week my printer brought me that of May 7, Numb. 32. where there are two
paragraphs[7] relating to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and to Mr.
Harley; which, as little as I am inclined to engage with such an
antagonist, I cannot let pass, without failing in my duty to the public:
and if those in power will suffer such infamous insinuations to pass with
impunity, they act without precedent from any age or country of the
world.

I desire to open this matter, and leave the Whigs themselves to determine
upon it. The House of Commons resolved, _nemine contradicente_, that the
Speaker should congratulate Mr. Harley's escape and recovery[8] in the
name of the House, upon his first attendance on their service. This is
accordingly done; and the speech, together with the chancellor of the
exchequer's, are printed by order of the House.[9] The author of the
"Medley" takes this speech to task the very next week after it is
published, telling us, in the aforesaid paper, that the Speaker's
commending Mr. Harley, for being "an instrument of great good" to the
nation, was "ill-chosen flattery"; because Mr. Harley had brought the
"nation under great difficulties, to say no more:" He says, that when the
Speaker tells Mr. Harley, that Providence has "wonderfully preserved" him
"from some unparalleled attempts" (for that the "Medley" alludes to) he
only "revives a false and groundless calumny upon other men"; which is
"an instance of impotent, but inveterate malice,"[10] that makes him [the
Speaker] "still appear more vile and contemptible." This is an extract
from his first paragraph. In the next this writer says, that the
Speaker's "praying to God for the continuance of Mr. Harley's life, as an
invaluable blessing,[11] was a fulsome piece of insincerity, which
exposes him to shame and derision"; because he is "known to bear ill will
to Mr. Harley, to have an extreme bad opinion of him, and to think him an
obstructor of those fine measures he would bring about."

I now appeal to the Whigs themselves, whether a great minister of state,
in high favour with the Qu[een], and a Speaker of the House of Commons,
were ever publicly treated after so extraordinary a manner, in the most
licentious times? For this is not a clandestine libel stolen into the
world, but openly printed and sold, with the bookseller's name and place
of abode at the bottom. And the juncture is admirable, when Mr. H[arle]y
is generally believed upon the very point to be made an earl, and
promoted to the most important station of the kingdom:[12] nay, the very
marks of esteem he hath so lately received from the whole representative
body of the people, are called "ill-chosen flattery," and "a fulsome
piece of insincerity," exposing the donors "to shame and derision."

Does this intrepid writer think he has sufficiently disguised the matter,
by that stale artifice of altering the story, and putting it as a
supposed case? Did any man who ever saw the congratulatory speech, read
either of those paragraphs in the "Medley," without interpreting them
just as I have done? Will the author declare upon his great sincerity,
that he never had any such meaning? Is it enough, that a jury at
Westminster-Hall would, perhaps, not find him guilty of defaming the
Speaker and Mr. Harley in that paper? which however, I am much in doubt
of too; and must think the law very defective, if the reputation of such
persons must lie at the mercy of such pens. I do not remember to have
seen any libel, supposed to be writ with caution and double meaning, in
order to prevent prosecution, delivered under so thin a cover, or so
unartificially made up as this; whether it were from an apprehension of
his readers' dullness, or an effect of his own. He hath transcribed the
very phrases of the Speaker, and put them in a different character, for
fear they might pass unobserved, and to prevent all possibility of being
mistaken. I shall be pleased to see him have recourse to the old evasion,
and say, that I who make the application, am chargeable with the abuse:
let any reader of either party be judge. But I cannot forbear asserting,
as my opinion, that for a m[inist]ry to endure such open calumny, without
calling the author to account, is next to deserving it. And this is an
omission I venture to charge upon the present m[inist]ry, who are too apt
to despise little things, which however have not always little
consequences.

When this paper was first undertaken, one design, among others, was, to
_Examine_ some of those writings so frequently published with an evil
tendency, either to religion or government; but I was long diverted by
other enquiries, which I thought more immediately necessary, to
animadvert upon men's actions, rather than their speculations: to shew
the necessity there was of changing the ministry, that our constitution
in Church and State might be preserved; to expose some dangerous
principles and practices under the former administration, and prove by
many instances, that those who are now at the helm, are entirely in the
true interest of prince and people. This I may modestly hope, hath in
some measure been already done, sufficient to answer the end proposed,
which was to inform the ignorant and those at distance, and to convince
such as are not engaged in a party, from other motives than that of
conscience. I know not whether I shall have any appetite to continue this
work much longer; if I do, perhaps some time may be spent in exposing and
overturning the false reasonings of those who engage their pens on the
other side, without losing time in vindicating myself against their
scurrilities, much less in retorting them. Of this sort there is a
certain humble companion, a French _maГ®tre de langues_,[13] who every
month publishes an extract from votes, newspapers, speeches and
proclamations, larded with some insipid remarks of his own; which he
calls "The Political State of Great Britain:"[14] This ingenious piece he
tells us himself, is constantly translated into French, and printed in
Holland, where the Dutch, no doubt, conceive most noble sentiments of us,
conveyed through such a vehicle. It is observable in his account for
April, that the vanity, so predominant in many of his nation, has made
him more concerned for the honour of Guiscard, than the safety of Mr.
H[arle]y: And for fear we should think the worse of his country upon that
assassin's account,[15] he tells us, there have been more murders,
parricides and villanies, committed in England, than any other part of
the world. I cannot imagine how an illiterate foreigner, who is neither
master of our language, or indeed of common sense, and who is devoted to
a faction, I suppose, for no other reason, but his having more Whig
customers than Tories, should take it into his head to write politic
tracts of our affairs. But I presume, he builds upon the foundation of
having being called to an account for his insolence in one of his former
monthly productions,[16] which is a method that seldom fails of giving
some vogue to the foolishest composition. If such a work must be done, I
wish some tolerable hand would undertake it; and that we would not suffer
a little whiffling Frenchman to neglect his trade of teaching his
language to our children, and presume to instruct foreigners in our
politics.


[Footnote 1: No. 41 in the reprint. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 2: Horace, "Satires," II. i. 41-2.
          "Safe it lies
Within the sheath, till villains round me rise."--P. FRANCIS.
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 3: See No. 40, _ante_, and note, p. 259. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 4: In "A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions ... Athens
and Rome," 1701 (vol. i., pp. 227-270, of present edition). See also
Swift's reference to this pamphlet in his "Memoirs Relating to that
Change," etc. (vol. v., p. 379). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5: "The Medley," under Maynwaring, with occasional help from
Addison and Steele, seems to have been published for the sole purpose
of replying to the "Examiner." No. 40 (July 2nd, 1711) begins: "The
'Examiner' is grown so insipid and contemptible that my acquaintance
are offended at my troubling myself about him." No. 45 (the final number,
August 6th, 1711) expresses the writer's "deep concern" for the loss of
his "dear friend 'The Examiner,' who has at once left the world and me,
quite unprovided for so great a blow." When the "Examiner" was revived by
W. Oldisworth in December, 1711, it was soon followed by a reappearance
of "The Medley." It started afresh with Numb. I. on March 3rd, 1712
(_i.e._ 1711/2), and continued until August 4th, 1712, the date of the
publication of Numb. XLV. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 6: See No. 16, _ante_, and note p. 85. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 7: The two paragraphs appeared in No. 32 of "The Medley," and
the writer introduces them by a reference to "praise and censure, which I
choose out of all the rest, because it only concerns the 'Examiner' to be
well instructed in them, he having no other business but to flatter the
new m[inistry], and abuse the old." The first paragraph runs:

"In the first place, whenever any body would praise another, all he can
say will have no weight or effect, if it be not true or probable. If
therefore, for example, my friend should take it into his head to commend
a man, _for having been an instrument of great good to a nation_, when in
truth that very person had brought that same nation under great
difficulties, to say no more; such ill-chosen flattery would be of no use
or moment, nor add the least credit to the person so commended. Or if he
should take that occasion to revive any false and groundless calumny upon
other men, or another party of men; such an instance of _impotent but
inveterate malice_, would make him still appear more vile and
contemptible. The reason of all which is, that what he said was neither
just, proper, nor real, and therefore must needs want the force of true
eloquence, which consists in nothing else but in well representing things
as they really are. I advise therefore my friend, before he praises any
more of his heroes, to learn the common rules of writing; and
particularly to read over and over a certain chapter in Aristotle's first
book of Rhetoric, where are given very proper and necessary directions,
_for praising a man who has done nothing that he ought to be praised
for_."

There is no reference here to the Speaker. The reference is to the
"Examiner"; nor is there any mention of Providence having wonderfully
preserved him from some unparalleled attempts.

The second paragraph runs:

"But the ancients did not think it enough for men to speak what was true
or probable, they required further that their orators should be heartily
in earnest; and that they should have all those motions and affections in
their own minds which they endeavoured to raise in others. He that
thinks, says Cicero, to warm others with his eloquence, must first be
warm himself. And Quintilian says, We must first be affected ourselves,
before we can move others. This made Pliny's panegyric upon Trajan so
well received by his hearers, because every body knew the wonderful
esteem and affection which he had for the person he commended: and
therefore, when he concluded with a prayer to Jupiter, that he would take
care of the life and safety of that great and good man, which he said
contained in it all other blessings; though the expression was so high,
it passed very well with those that heard him, as being agreeable to the
known sentiments and affection of the speaker. Whereas, if my friend
should be known to bear ill-will to another person, or to have an extreme
bad opinion of him, or to think him an abstractor of those fine measures
he would bring about, and should yet in one of his panegyrics pray to God
for the continuance of that very person's life, as '_an invaluable
blessing_'; such a fulsome piece of insincerity would only expose him to
shame and derision." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 8: The House of Commons resolved on April 11th, that the
Speaker should congratulate Mr. Harley when he was able to attend the
House. This was done on April 26th. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 9: The House of Commons, on April 27th, ordered, "That Mr.
Speaker be desired to print his congratulatory speech ... with the Answer
of Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer to the same." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 10: The Speaker thanks God that Harley's enemies had "not been
able to accomplish what their inveterate, but impotent, malice, had
designed." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 11: The Speaker prayed that Providence might "continue still to
preserve so invaluable a life." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 12: Harley was appointed lord treasurer, May 30th, 1711, and
created Earl of Oxford, May 23rd. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 13: Abel Boyer (1667-1729), author of a French dictionary, a
French grammar, "History of William III.," "History of Queen Anne," "The
Political State," "The Post Boy" (1705-9), and many other works. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 14: "The Political State of Great Britain" was started in
January, 1710/1, and continued monthly until 1740. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 15: See No. 33, _ante_, and note, p. 207. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 16: Boyer appeared before the House of Lords, March 6th,
1710/1, and owned that he was the compiler of "The Political State of
Great Britain." He was kept in custody till March 12th, when he was
reprimanded, and discharged after he had paid his fees. His offence was
that "an account is pretended to be given of the Debates and Proceedings
of this House" ("Journals of House of Lords," xix). The third number of
"The Political State," Boyer issued on March 17th, giving his reason for
the delay in its appearance: "An unavoidable and unvoluntary avocation,
of which I may give you an account hereafter, has obliged me to write to
you a fortnight later than usual." [T.S.]]




NUMB. 43.[1]

FROM THURSDAY MAY 17, TO THURSDAY MAY 24, 1711.

  _Delicta majorum immeritus lues,
  Romane; donec templa refeceris,
      Aedesque labentes deorum_----[2]



Several letters have been lately sent me, desiring I would make
honourable mention of the pious design of building fifty churches, in
several parts of London and Westminster, where they are most wanted;
occasioned by an address of the convocation to the Queen,[3] and
recommended by her Majesty to the House of Commons; who immediately
promised, they would enable her "to accomplish so excellent a design,"
and are now preparing a Bill accordingly. I thought to have deferred any
notice of this important affair till the end of this session; at which
time I proposed to deliver a particular account of the great and useful
things already performed by this present Parliament. But in compliance to
those who give themselves the trouble of advising me; and partly
convinced by the reasons they offer; I am content to bestow a paper upon
a subject, that indeed so well deserves it.

The clergy, and whoever else have a true concern for the constitution of
the Church, cannot but be highly pleased with one prospect in this new
scene of public affairs. They may very well remember the time, when every
session of Parliament, was like a cloud hanging over their heads; and if
it happened to pass without bursting into some storm upon the Church, we
thanked God, and thought it an happy escape till the next meeting; upon
which we resumed our secret apprehensions, though we were not allowed to
believe any danger. Things are now altered; the Parliament takes the
necessities of the Church into consideration, receives the proposals of
the clergy met in convocation, and amidst all the exigencies of a long
expensive war, and under the pressure of heavy debts, finds a supply for
erecting fifty edifices for the service of God. And it appears by the
address of the Commons to her Majesty upon this occasion (wherein they
discovered a true spirit of religion) that the applying the money granted
"to accomplish so excellent a design,"[4] would, in their opinion, be the
most effectual way of carrying on the war; that it would (to use their
own words) "be a means of drawing down blessings on her Majesty's
undertakings, as it adds to the number of those places, where the prayers
of her devout and faithful subjects, will be daily offered up to God, for
the prosperity of her government at home, and the success of her arms
abroad."

I am sometimes hoping, that we are not naturally so bad a people, as we
have appeared for some years past. Faction, in order to support itself,
is generally forced to make use of such abominable instruments, that as
long as it prevails, the genius of a nation is overpressed, and cannot
appear to exert itself: but when _that_ is broke and suppressed, when
things return to the old course, mankind will naturally fall to act from
principles of reason and religion. The Romans, upon a great victory, or
escape from public danger, frequently built a temple in honour of some
god, to whose peculiar favour they imputed their success or delivery: and
sometimes the general did the like, _at his own expense_, to acquit
himself of some pious vow he had made. How little of any thing resembling
this hath been done by us after all our victories! and perhaps for that
reason, among others, they have turned to so little account. But what
could we expect? We acted all along as if we believed nothing of a God or
His providence; and therefore it was consistent to offer up our edifices
only to those, whom we looked upon as givers of all victory, in His
stead.

I have computed, that fifty churches may be built by a medium, at six
thousand pound for a church; which is somewhat _under_ the price of a
subject's palace: yet perhaps the care of above two hundred thousand
souls, with the benefit of their prayers for the prosperity of their
Queen and country, may be almost put in the balance with the domestic
convenience, or even magnificence of any subject whatsoever.

Sir William Petty, who under the name of Captain Graunt, published some
observations upon bills of mortality about five years after the
Restoration;[5] tells us, the parishes in London, were even then so
unequally divided, that some were two hundred times larger than others.
Since that time, the increase of trade, the frequency of Parliaments, the
desire of living in the metropolis, together with that genius for
building, which began after the fire, and hath ever since continued, have
prodigiously enlarged this town on all sides, where it was capable of
increase; and those tracts of land built into streets, have generally
continued of the same parish they belonged to, while they lay in fields;
so that the care of above thirty thousand souls, hath been sometimes
committed to one minister, whose church would hardly contain the
twentieth part of his flock: neither, I think, was any family in those
parishes obliged to pay above a groat a year to their spiritual pastor.
Some few of those parishes have been since divided; in others were
erected chapels of ease, where a preacher is maintained by general
contribution. Such poor shifts and expedients, to the infinite shame
and scandal, of so vast and flourishing a city, have been thought
sufficient for the service of God and religion; as if they were
circumstances wholly indifferent.

This defect, among other consequences of it, hath made schism a sort of
necessary evil, there being at least three hundred thousand inhabitants
in this town, whom the churches would not be able to contain, if the
people were ever so well disposed: and in a city not overstocked with
zeal, the only way to preserve any degree of religion, is to make all
attendance upon the duties of it, as easy and cheap as possible: whereas
on the contrary, in the larger parishes, the press is so great, and the
pew-keeper's tax so exorbitant, that those who love to save trouble and
money, either stay at home, or retire to the conventicles. I believe
there are few examples in any Christian country of so great a neglect
for religion; and the dissenting teachers have made their advantages
largely by it, "sowing tares among the wheat while men slept;" being much
more expert at procuring contributions, which is a trade they are bred up
in, than men of a liberal education.

And to say truth, the way practised by several parishes in and about this
town, of maintaining their clergy by voluntary subscriptions, is not only
an indignity to the character, but hath many pernicious consequences
attending it; such a precarious dependence, subjecting a clergyman, who
hath not more than ordinary spirit and resolution, to many
inconveniences, which are obvious to imagine: but this defect will, no
doubt, be remedied by the wisdom and piety of the present Parliament; and
a tax laid upon every house in a parish, for the support of their pastor.
Neither indeed can it be conceived, why a house, whose purchase is not
reckoned above one-third less than land of the same yearly rent, should
not pay a twentieth part annually (which is half tithe) to the support of
the minister. One thing I could wish, that in fixing the maintenance to
the several ministers in these new intended parishes, no determinate sum
of money may be named, which in all perpetuities ought by any means to be
avoided; but rather a tax in proportion to the rent of each house, though
it be but a twentieth or even a thirtieth part. The contrary of this, I
am told, was done in several parishes of the city after the fire; where
the incumbent and his successors were to receive for ever a certain sum;
for example, one or two hundred pounds a year. But the lawgivers did not
consider, that what we call at present, one hundred pounds, will, in
process of time, have not the intrinsic value of twenty; as twenty pounds
now are hardly equal to forty shillings, three hundred years ago. There
are a thousand instances of this all over England, in reserved rents
applied to hospitals, in old chiefries, and even among the clergy
themselves, in those payments which, I think, they call a _modus_.[6]

As no prince had ever better dispositions than her present Majesty, for
the advancement of true religion, so there was never any age that
produced greater occasions to employ them on. It is an unspeakable
misfortune, that any designs of so excellent a Queen, should be checked
by the necessities of a long and ruinous war, which the folly or
corruption of modern politicians have involved us in, against all the
maxims whereby our country flourished so many hundred years: else her
Majesty's care of religion would certainly have reached even to her
American plantations. Those noble countries, stocked by numbers from
hence, whereof too many are in no very great reputation for faith
or morals, will be a perpetual reproach to us, till some better care is
taken for cultivating Christianity among them. If the governors of those
several colonies were obliged, at certain times, to transmit an exact
representation of the state of religion, in their several districts; and
the legislature here would, in a time of leisure, take that affair under
their consideration, it might be perfected with little difficulty, and be
a great addition to the glories of her Majesty's reign.