Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/145

Rh a general, under whose conduct our troops have been so many years victorious; whereas it is most certain, that this great lord's resolution against peace upon any terms whatsoever did reach the ministry at home as much as the enemy abroad: nay, his rage against the former was so much the more violent of the two, that, as it is affirmed by skilful computers, he spent more money here upon secret service in a few months, than he did for many years in Flanders. But, whether that be true or false, your lordship knows very well, that he resolved to give no quarter, whatever he might be content to take when he should find himself at mercy. And the question was brought to this issue, whether the queen should dissolve the present parliament, procure a new one of the whig stamp, turn out those who had ventured so far to rescue her from insolence and ill usage, and invite her old controllers to resume their tyranny with a recruited spirit of vengeance? or, whether she should save all this trouble, danger, and vexation, by only changing one general for another?

Whatever good opinion I may have of the present ministry, I do not pretend, by any thing I have said, to make your lordship believe that they are persons of sublime abstracted Roman virtue: but, where two parties divide a nation, it usually happens, that, although the virtues and vices may be pretty equal on both sides, yet the publick good of the country may suit better with the private interest of one side than of the other. Perhaps there may be nothing in it but chance; and it might so have happened, if things were to begin again, that the junto and their Rh