Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/319

Rh short of them: and I fancy the queen will not be well pleased, that the commons have had so little regard to the dispatch of publick business, as to make so long an adjournment as three weeks: and indeed they lowly seem to intimate, that if the lord chancellor is not removed by that time, they will give her majesty no more money; and indeed some of them do not stick to say as much; and think it a duty incumbent on the crown, to turn out that minister (how innocent soever he be) whom the commons have addressed against.

I think it is plain to any who know the state of affairs here, that no party hath strength enough directly to oppose a money bill in this kingdom, when the government thinks fit to exert itself, as to be sure it always will do upon such occasions: and the halfpay officers, no doubt, will readily come in to that supply, out of which they are to receive their pay. But should all fail, yet the queen still may make herself easy, by disbanding two of three regiments, and striking off some unnecessary pensions.

Hobbes, in his Behemoth, talks of a heighth in time as well as place; and if ever there was a heighth in time here, it is certainly now; for some men seem to carry things higher, according to their poor power, than they did in England in 1641. And now they threaten (and I am pretty well assured, have resolved upon it) that if the chancellor is not discarded, they will impeach him before the lords in England. But if they have no more to say against him, than what their address contains, I think they will go upon no very wise errand. Rh