Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/375

Rh could not answer for what might happen; although king Charles had not at that time one third of the troops for which he was paid; and even those he had, were neither paid nor clothed.

I cannot forbear mentioning here another passage concerning subsidies, to show what opinion foreigners have of our easiness, and how much they reckon themselves masters of our money, whenever they think fit to call for it. The queen was, by agreement, to pay two hundred thousand crowns a year to the Prussian troops; the States, one hundred thousand; and the emperor, only thirty thousand for recruiting; which his imperial majesty never paid. Prince Eugene happening to pass by Berlin, the ministers of that court applied to him for redress in this particular; and his highness very frankly promised them, that in consideration of this deficiency, Britain and the States should increase their subsidies to seventy thousand crowns more between them; and that the emperor should be punctual for the time to come. This was done by that prince without any orders or power whatsoever. The Dutch very reasonably refused consenting to it; but the Prussian minister here, making his applications at our court, prevailed on us to agree to our proportion, before we could hear what resolution would be taken in Holland. It is therefore to be hoped, that his Prussian majesty, at the end of this war, will not have the same cause of complaint, which he had at the close of the last; that his military chest was emptier by twenty thousand crowns than at the time that war began.

The emperor, as we have already said, was, by stipulation, to furnish ninety thousand men against the