Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/267

Rh the world will have other notions of our proceedings. This perhaps will not be long untold, and might already have been, if other people had been no wiser than I. After all, my lord, I grant that from a distant view of things, abundance of objections may be raised against many parts of our conduct. But the difficulties which gave room to these objections are not seen, and perhaps some of them will never appear; neither may it be convenient they should. If in the end it appears that we have made a good bargain for you, we hope you will take it without entering too nicely into the circumstances. I will not undertake to defend our proceedings against any man who will not allow this postulatum, that it was impossible to carry on the war any longer; which, whoever denies, either has not examined the state of the nation with respect to its debts, or denies it from the spirit of party. When a friend of mine objected this to lord Nottingham, he freely confessed it was a thing he had never considered. But, however, he would be against any peace without Spain; and why? because he was not privy seal. But then, why does he vote with the whigs in every thing else, although peace has no concern? because he was not privy seal. I hope, my lord, we shall in time unriddle you many a dark problem; and let you see that faction, rage, rebellion, revenge, and ambition, were deeply rooted in the hearts of those who have been the great obstructors of the queen's measures, and of the kingdom's happiness; and if I am not mistaken, such a scene may open, as will leave the present age, and posterity, little room to doubt who were the real friends, and real enemies of their country. At the