Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/182

174 have reason on their side: for, suppose I should write the character of an honest, a religious, and a learned man; and send the first to Newgate, the second to the Grecian coffeehouse, and the last to White's, would they not all pass for satires, and justly enough, among the companies to whom they were sent?

Having therefore employed several papers in such sort of panegyrick, and but very few on what they understand to be satires, I shall henceforth upon occasion be more liberal of the latter; of which they are likely to have a taste in the remainder of this present paper.

Among all the advantages which the kingdom has received by the late change of ministry, the greatest must be allowed to be the calling of the present parliament upon the dissolution of the last. It is acknowledged, that this excellent assembly has entirely recovered the honour of parliaments, which had been unhappily prostituted for some years past, by the factious proceedings of an unnatural majority, in concert with a most corrupt administration. It is plain by the present choice of members, that the electors of England, when left to themselves, do rightly understand their true interest. The moderate whigs begin to be convinced, that we have been all this while in the wrong hands, and that things are now as they should be. And as the present house of commons is the best representative of the nation that has ever been summoned in our memories, so they have taken care in their first session, by that noble bill of qualification, that future liaments