Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/207

N° 37. : and therefore it is that they are so ill able to endure one, when it comes to be their turn; so that they complain more of a few months truths from us, than we did of all their scandal and malice for twice as many years.

I cannot forbear observing upon this occasion, that those worthy authors I am speaking of, seem to me not fairly to represent the sentiments of their party; who, in disputing with us, do generally give up several of the late ministry, and freely own many of their failings. They confess the monstrous debt upon the navy to have been caused by most scandalous mismanagement; they allow the insolence of some, the avarice of others, to have been insupportable: but these gentlemen are most liberal in their praises to those persons, and upon those very articles, where their wisest friends give up the point. They gravely tell us, that such a one was the most faithful servant that ever any prince had: another, the most dutiful; a third, the most generous; a fourth, of the greatest integrity: so that I look upon these champions rather as retained by a cabal than a party; which I desire the reasonable men among them would please to consider. Rh