Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/141

Rh on in Flanders, was at first immediately necessary to the security of the States General, and has since brought them great acquisitions both of revenue and dominion: yet even there the original proportions have been departed from, and during the course of the war, have been sinking by degrees on the part of Holland: so that, in this last year, we find the number in which they fell short of their three-fifths, to your majesty's two-fifths, have been twenty thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven men. We are not unmindful that in the year 1703, a treaty was made between the two nations, for a joint augmentation of twenty thousand men, wherein the proportions were varied, and England consented to take half upon itself. But it having been annexed as an express condition to the grant of the said augmentation in parliament, that the States General should prohibit all trade and commerce with France; and that condition having not been performed by them; the commons think it reasonable, that the first rule of three to two ought to have taken place again, as well in that, as in other subsequent augmentations; more especially when they consider, that the revenues of those rich provinces which have been conquered, would, if they were duly applied, maintain a great number of new additional forces against the common enemy: notwithstanding which, the States General have raised none upon that account: but make use of those fresh supplies of money, only to ease themselves in the charges of their first established quota.

As, in the progress of the war in Flanders, a Rh