Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/304

296 popery and the pretender, and in the most firm adherence to the protestant succession in the royal house of Hanover; yet plenty of matter may arise to kindle their animosities against each other, from the various infirmities, follies, and vices inherent in mankind.

Secondly, I observed, that although the vulgar reproach, which charges the quarrels between ministers and their opposers, to be only a contention for power between those who are in, and those who would be in if they could: yet, as long as this proceeds no farther than a scuffle of ambition among a few persons, it is only a matter of course, whereby the publick is little affected. But, when corruptions are plain, open, and undisguised, both in their causes and effects, to the hazard of a nation's ruin, and so declared by all the principal persons, and the bulk of the people, those only excepted who are gainers by those corruptions: and when such ministers are forced to fly for shelter to the throne, with a complaint of disaffection to majesty against all who durst dislike their administration: Such a general disposition in the minds of men, cannot, I think, by any rules of reason, be called "the clamour of a few disaffected incendiaries," grasping after power. It is the true voice of the people; which must and will at last be heard, or produce consequences that I dare not mention.

I have observed, thirdly, that among all the offensive printed papers which have come to my hand, whether good or bad, the writers have taken particular pains to celebrate the virtues of our excellent king and queen, even where these were, strictly speaking, no part of the subject; nor can it be properly Rh