Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/156

148 many surmised, it had some other meaning; it appeared manifestly, by the issue, that the publick was a loser by every individual among them; and that a kingdom can no more be the richer by such an importation, than a man can be fatter by a wen, which is unsightly and troublesome at best, and intercepts that nourishment, which would otherwise diffuse itself through the whole body.

About a fortnight after, the commons sent up a bill for securing the freedom of parliaments, by limiting the number of members in that house, who should be allowed to possess employments under the crown. Bills to the same effect, promoted by both parties, had, after making the like progress, been rejected in former parliaments; the court and ministry, who will ever be against such a law, having usually a greater influence in the house of lords: and so it happened now. Although that influence were less, I am apt to think that such a law would be too thorough a reformation in one point, while we have so many corruptions in the rest; and perhaps the regulations already made on that article are sufficient, by which several employments incapacitate a man from being chosen a member, and all of them bring it to a new election.

For my own part, when I consider the temper of particular persons, and by what maxims they have acted (almost without exception) in their private capacities, I cannot conceive how such a bill should obtain a majority, unless every man expected to be one of the fifty, which, I think, was the limitation intended.

About the same time, likewise, the house of commons