Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/161

Rh persons who had formerly moved between the two extremes, those gentlemen who were impatient for an entire change, and to see all their adversaries laid at once as low as the dust, began to be apprehensive that the work would be done by halves. But the juncture of affairs at that time, both at home and abroad, would by no means admit of the least precipitation, although the queen and her first minister had been disposed to it: which certainly they were not. Neither did the court seem at all uneasy at this league, formed in appearance against it, but composed of honest gentlemen, who wished well to their country, in which both were entirely agreed, although they might differ about the means; or, if such a society should begin to grow resty, nothing was easier than to divide them, and render all their endeavours ineffectual.

But, in the course of that first session, many of this society became gradually reconciled to the new ministry, whom they found to be greater objects of the common enemy's hatred than themselves; and the attempt of Guiscard, as it gained farther time for deferring the disposal of employments, so it much endeared that person to the kingdom, who was so near falling a sacrifice to the safety of his country. Upon the last session, of which I am now writing, this October Club (as it was called) renewed their usual meetings; but were now very much altered from their original institution, and seemed to have wholly dropped the design, as of no farther use. They saw a point carried in the house of lords against the court, that would end in the ruin of the kingdom; and they observed the enemy's whole artillery directly