Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/166

152 who owed their honour, their riches, and other superfluities, but even the necessaries of life to her bounty; such as ate her bread, wore her raiment, and were protected under the shelter of her roof; should not be able for a moment to stifle their eager and impatient ingratitude: that this behaviour should not only appear in those vile and detestable places which are dedicated to faction and disorder; but that it should infect her majesty's palaces and chapels (where the accustomed devotion for her health and prosperity was derided): these, I say, are facts that might demand a full proof, could I not appeal to their own consciences, and the uncontestable evidence of credible persons.

I will, for once, suppose some foreigner, unacquainted with our temper and affairs, to be disturbed in his walks by some of the revels at Charing cross upon this occasion, or by chance to stumble into a neighbouring coffeehouse: would not his curiosity prompt him to address himself to the company, after the following manner?

"Gentlemen, Though I am no Englishman, I rejoice as much at the fall of a tyrant as any of you. Surely this queen Anne exceeded both Nero and Caligula in acts of cruelty. May I beg you to relate to me some particulars? As for you, gentlemen, who express such unusual joy, no doubt but there are at this time multitudes of your relations and friends in prison; who were to be executed the next day, if this lucky accident had not prevented it."

Give me leave to imagine some poor disconsolate honest gentleman, at the same time, accidentally among them, thus answering this foreigner: "Alas! " sir,