Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/236

228. This I may modestly hope has in some measure been already done, sufficient to answer the end proposed, which was, to inform the ignorant, and those at a distance; and to convince such as are engaged in party from no other motive than that of conscience. I know not whether I shall have any appetite to continue this work much longer; if I do, perhaps some time may be spent in exposing and overturning the false reasonings of those, who engage their pens on the other side, without losing time in vindicating myself against their scurrilities, much less in retorting them. Of this sort there is a certain humble companion]], a French maitre des langues, who every month publishes an extract from votes, news-papers, speeches, and proclamations, larded with some insipid remarks of his own; which he calls, 'The Political State of Great Britain.' This ingenious piece, he tells us himself, is constantly translated into French, and printed in Holland, where the Dutch, no doubt, conceive most noble sentiments of us, conveyed through such a vehicle. It is observable in his account for April, that the vanity so predominant in many of his nation, has made him more concerned for the honour of Guiscard, than the safety of Mr. Harley. And for fear we should think the worse of his country upon that assassin's account, he tells us there have been more murders, parricides, and villanies committed in England, than any other part of the world. I cannot imagine how an illiterate foreigner, who is neither master of our language, nor indeed of common sense, and who is devoted to a faction, I pose