Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/175

Rh ridicule, and of the songs of drunkards; and the death of the noble, the pious, the fortunate queen Anne, our countrywoman, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, was to be celebrated as a festival of joy!

And is the death then of this excellent princess become so absolutely necessary at this time for the welfare of her people? I should rather imagine, even allowing their fears and jealousies to be well founded, that some degrees of prudence, temper, and tenderness for their fellow-subjects, might induce them to reason after the following manner.

"That it is good to put an evil day far off; that none can be more terrible than that which brings confusion, disorder, and perhaps a civil war; that Providence may find a way to disappoint our fears. It is possible the spirit of faction may abate, and that even these formidable enemies of the succession may vanish, or return to a sense of their duty and danger: that France may fall under the government of a minor, and have business enough at home; nay, it is possible, the pretender himself may die before her present majesty: and, considering the changeable condition of British affairs, it is not improbable that the whigs may recover their credit both at court and in the country; and then to be sure all things must go well. Nay, who can tell but that the successors may think it their interest to be kings of Britain, rather than kings of the whigs?" All or any one of those things are fully as probable as that the queen, lords, and commons, should agree to alter the present establishment; and much more so than that her present majesty should . XVIII.