Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/316

308 I have been the longer in answering the seventh question, because it led me to consider all he had afterward to say upon the subject of the pretender. Eighthly, and lastly, he asks himself whether Popery and Ambition are become tame and quiet neighbours? In this I can give him no satisfaction, because I never was in that street where they live; nor do I converse with any of their friends; only I find they are persons of a very evil reputation. But I am told for certain, that Ambition had removed her lodging, and lives the very next door to Faction, where they keep such a racket, that the whole parish is disturbed, and every night in an uproar.

This much in answer to those eight uneasy questions put by the author to himself in order to satisfy every Briton, and give him an occasion of "taking an impartial view of the affairs of Europe in general as well as of Great Britain in particular."

After enumerating the great actions of the confederate armies, under the command of prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough, Mr. Steele observes, in the bitterness of his soul, that the British "general, however unaccountable it may be to posterity, was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his glorious labour." Ten years fruits, it seems, were not sufficient, and yet they were the fruitfullest campaigns that ever any general cropped. However, I cannot but hope, that posterity will not be left in the dark, but some care taken both of her majesty's glory, and the reputation of those she employs. An impartial historian may tell the world, (and the next age will easily believe what it continues to feel) that the avarice and ambition of a few factious insolent subjects, had almost destroyed their country, by con-