Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/225

Rh

MY LORD,

CANNOT ask pardon for not sooner acknowledging your grace's letter, because that would look as if I thought mine were of consequence. Either I grow weary of politicks, or am out of the way of them, or there is less stirring than usual; and indeed we are all in suspense at present; but I am told that in ten or twelve days time, we shall know what the issue will be at Utrecht. I can only tell your grace, that there are some unlucky circumstances, not proper to be trusted to a letter, which have hitherto retarded this great work; Mihi ludibria rerum mortalium cuntis in negotiis obversantur. Mean-time, we are with great difficulty raising funds upon which to borrow five millions. One of those funds is a tax upon paper, and I think 30 per cent upon imported books; and of such a nature as I could not yesterday forbear saying to my lord treasurer and the chancellor of the exchequer, that instead of preventing small papers and libels, it will leave nothing else for the press. I have not talked to the duke of Argyle upon the affairs of Spain, since his return; but am Rh