Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/141

Rh find it very different from that of your party at present. We opposed the grant to the duke of Marlborough till he had done something to deserve so great a reward; and then it was granted, nemine contradicente. We opposed repealing the test; which would level the church established with every snivelling sect in the nation. We opposed the bill of general naturalization, by which we were in danger to be overrun by schismaticks and beggars. The scheme of breaking into the statutes of colleges, which obliged the fellows to take holy orders; the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell; the hopeful project of limiting clergymen what to preach; with several others of the same stamp, were strenuously opposed, as manifestly tending to the ruin of the church. But you cannot give a single instance, where the least violation hath been offered to her majesty's undoubted prerogative, in either house, by the lords or commons of our side. We should have been glad indeed to have seen affairs in other management; yet we never attempted to bring it about by stirring up the city, or inviting foreign ministers to direct the queen in the choice of her servants, much less by infusing jealousies into the next heir. Endeavours were not publickly used to blast the credit of the nation, and discourage foreigners from trusting their money in our funds: nor were writers suffered openly, and in weekly papers, to revile persons in the highest employments. In short, if you can prove where the course of affairs, under the late ministry, was any way clogged by the church party, I will freely own the latter to have so far acted against reason and duty. Your lordship finds I would argue from hence, that even the warmest heads on your Rh