Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/113

N° 25. "Resolved,

"That by the original compact, the government of this realm is by a junto, and a king, or queen; but the administration solely in the junto.

"Ordered,

"That a bill be brought in for farther limiting the prerogative.

"Ordered,

"That it be a standing order of this house, that the merit of elections be not determined by the number of voices, or right of electors, but by weight; and that one whig shall weigh down ten tories.

"A motion being made, and the question being put, that when a whig is detected of manifest bribery, and his competitor, being a tory, has ten to one a majority, there shall be a new election; it passed in the negative.

"Resolved,

"That for a king, or queen of this realm, to read, or examine, a paper brought them to be signed by a junto minister, is arbitrary and illegal, and a violation of the liberties of the people."

These, and the like reformations, would in all probability be the first fruits of the whigs resurrection; and what structures such able artists might In a short time build upon such foundations, I leave others to conjecture. All hopes of a peace cut off; the nation industriously involved in farther debts, to a degree that none would dare undertake the management of affairs, but those whose interest lay in ruining the constitution; I do not see how the wisest prince, under