Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/124

88 ministry could not carry a peace, it was impossible they should stand. In this critical situation of affairs it was, that Swift's talents shone forth in their highest lustre. It was at this juncture, that his celebrated political tract, called, The Conduct of the Allies, produced such marvellous effects. Never did any thing of that nature cause so sudden a change in the minds of the people. It immediately passed through seven editions, and eleven thousand of them were sold in less than a month. The members, during the recess, had full time to read and consider it well; and Swift, in his Journal, gives the following account of the effects which it produced, February 4, 1711. "The house of commons have this day made many severe votes about our being abused by our allies. Those who spoke, drew all their arguments from my book, and their votes confirm all I wrote. The court had a majority of 150. All agree, that it was my book that spirited them to these resolutions." And shortly afterward, speaking on the same subject, he says, February 8, "The resolutions, printed the other day in the votes, are almost quotations from it, and would never have passed, if that book had not been written." That Swift had taken uncommon pains about this tract, appears from another passage, where he says, "It is fit it should answer the pains I have been at about it." Thus did the doctor amply fulfil his prediction with regard to this book, in a passage before cited, where he says, "We have no quiet with the whigs, they are so violent against a peace; but I will cool them, with a vengeance, very soon." The voice of the commons was immediately backed by a great majority without doors, who were made converts