Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/132

124 which cent per cent has been saved in that mighty article of our expense, as will appear from an account taken at the victualling office on the 9th of August, 1712. And the payment of the interest was less a burden upon the navy, by the stores being bought at so cheap a rate.

It might look invidious to enter into farther particulars upon this head, but of smaller moment. What I have above related, may serve to show in how ill a condition the kingdom stood, with relation to its debts, by the corruption, as well as negligence of former management; and what prudent effectual measures have since been taken to provide for old incumbrances, and hinder the running into new. This may be sufficient for the information of the reader, perhaps already tired with a subject so little entertaining as that of accompts: I shall therefore now return to relate some of the principal matters that passed in parliament during this session.

Upon the 18th of January, the house of lords sent down a bill to the commons, for fixing the precedence of the Hanover family, which probably had been forgot in the acts for settling the succession of the crown. That of Henry VIII, which gives the rank to princes of the blood, carries it no farther than to nephews, nieces and grandchildren, of the crown; by virtue of which, the princess Sophia is a princess of the blood, as niece to king Charles I. of England, and precedes accordingly; but the privilege does not descend to her son the elector, or the electoral prince. To supply which defect, and pay a compliment to the presumptive heirs of the crown, this bill, as appears by the preamble, was recommended by her majesty to the house of lords; which the