Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/437

Rh is neither wise, nor for the credit of his party, to put us in mind of that secretary, or of that clerk; however, so it happens that nothing relating to the affair of Toulon did ever pass through that secretary's office: which I here affirm with great phlegm, leaving the epithets of false, scandalous, villanous, and the rest, to the author and his fellows.

But to leave this author; let us consider the consequence of our triumphs, upon which some set so great a value, as to think that nothing less than the crown can be a sufficient reward for the merit of the general. We have not enlarged our dominions by one foot of land: our trade, which made us considerable in the world, is either given up by treaties, or clogged with duties, which interrupt and daily lessen it. We see the whole nation groaning under excessive taxes of all sorts, to raise three millions of money for payment of the interest of those debts we have contracted. Let us look upon the reverse of the medal; we shall see our neighbours, who in their utmost distress called for our assistance, become by this treaty, even in time of peace, masters of a more considerable country than their own; in a condition to strike terrour into us, with fifty thousand veterans ready to invade us from that country, which we have conquered for them; and to commit insolent hostilities upon us in ail other parts, as they have lately done in the East Indies. THE