Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/173

Rh of it herself." In another tract, entitled, An Inquiry into the Behaviour of the Queen's last Ministry, there is a passage to the same effect. "But in dispensing her favours, she was extremely cautious and slow; and after the usual mistake of those who think they have been often imposed on, became so very suspicious, that she overshot the mark, and erred on the other extreme. When a person happened to be recommended as useful for her service, or proper to be obliged, perhaps, after a long delay, she would consent; but if the treasurer offered at the same time a warrant, or other instrument to her, already prepared, in order to be signed, because he presumed to reckon on her consent beforehand, she would not; and thus the affair would sometimes lie for several months together, although the thing were ever so reasonable, or that even the publick suffered by the delay. So that this minister had no other remedy, but to let her majesty take her own time, which never failed to be the very longest, that the nature of the thing could suffer her to defer it." Hence it is evident, that the queen, who had long been weary of the bondage in which she was held by the whig ministry, was determined, upon a change, that she would not bring herself into the same predicament again, but was resolved to show that she had a will of her own, and that she would exert it; and, in order to be able to do this effectually, her plan was, not to suffer the tory interest to grow too strong, but to keep such a number of whigs still in office, as should be a constant check upon her ministers, against any encroachments of that sort. In the abovementioned tract, there are several passages that prove this point. In