Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/281

Rh those he would leave behind. By which likewise he might be highly useful to his father, if that prince should happen to survive her majesty.

The late king William, who after his marriage with the lady Mary of England, could have no probable expectation of the crown, and very little even of being a queen's husband (the duke of York having a young wife) was no stranger to our language or manners;, and went often to the chapel of his princess; which I observe the rather, because I could heartily wish the like disposition were in another court, and because it may be disagreeable to a prince to take up new doctrines on a sudden, or speak to his subjects by an interpreter.

An illnatured or inquisitive man may still, perhaps, desire to press the question farther, by asking, what is to be done, in case it should so happen, that this malevolent working party at home, has credit enough with the court of Hanover, to continue the suspicion, jealousy, and uneasiness there, against the queen and her ministry; to make such demands be still insisted on, as are by no means thought proper to be complied with; and in the mean time to stand at arm's length with her majesty, and in close conjunction with those who oppose her.

I take the answer to be easy: in all contests, the safest way is to put those we dispute with, as much in the wrong as we can. When her majesty shall have offered such, or the like concessions, as I have abovementioned, in order to remove those scruples artificially raised in the mind of the expectant heir, and to divide him from that faction by which he is supposed to have been misled; she has done as much as any prince can do, and more than any other would. IV.