Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/212

204 millions, who contribute to the loss, while the whole gain is sunk among a few. The damage suffered by the publick, is not so immediately or heavily felt by particular persons; and the zeal of prosecutions is apt to drop and be lost among numbers.

But imagine a set of politicians for many years at the head of affairs, the game visibly their own, and by consequence, acting with great security; may not these be sometimes tempted to forget their caution, by length of time, by excess of avarice and ambition, by the insolence or violence of their nature, or perhaps by a mere contempt for their adversaries? may not such motives as these put them often upon actions directly against the law, such as no evasions can be found for, and which will lay them fully open to the vengeance of a prevailing interest, whenever they are out of power? it is answered in the affirmative. And here we cannot refuse the late ministry their due praises; who, foreseeing a storm, provided for their own safety by two admirable expedients, by which, with great prudence, they have escaped the punishments due to pernicious counsels, and corrupt management. The first was to procure, under pretences hardly specious, a general act of indemnity, which cuts off all impeachments. The second was yet more refined: suppose, for instance, a counsel is to be pursued, which is necessary to carry on the dangerous designs of a prevailing party, to preserve them in power, to gratify the unmeasurable appetites of a few leaders civil and military, although by hazarding the ruin of the whole nation; this counsel, desperate in itself, unprecedented in its nature, they procure a majority to form into an address, which makes