Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/34

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WILL employ this present paper upon a subject, which of late has very much affected me, which I have considered with a good deal of application, and made several inquiries about among those persons, who, I thought, were best able to inform me; and if I deliver my sentiments with some freedom, I hope it will be forgiven, while I accompany it with that tenderness, which so nice a point requires.

I said in a former paper, (Number 13) that one specious objection to the late removals at court, was, the fear of giving uneasiness to a general, who has been long successful abroad; and accordingly, the common clamour of tongues and pens for some months past has run against the baseness, the inconstancy, and ingratitude of the whole kingdom to the duke of Marlborough, in return of the most eminent services, that ever were performed by a subject, to his country; not to be equalled in history: and then, to be sure, some bitter stroke of detraction against Alexander and Cæsar, who never did us the least injury. Besides, the people who read Plutarch, come upon us with parallels drawn from the Greeks and