Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/327

Rh to come: and the only apprehension that seemed to give them any uneasiness, was, lest the zeal of the party in power might not, perhaps, represent their loyalty with advantage.

On the other side, the gainers, and men in hopes by the queen's death, talked with great freedom in a very different style: they all directly asserted, "That the whole late ministry were fully determined to bring in the Pretender," although they would sometimes a little demur upon the earl of Oxford; and by a more modern amendment, they charged the same accusation, without any reserve, upon the late queen herself. "That, if her majesty had died but, a month later, our ruin would have been inevitable." But in that juncture it happened (to use their own term, which I could never prevail with them to explain) things were not ripe. "That this accusation would, in a short time, infallibly be proved as clear as the sun at noonday to all the world." And the consequences naturally following from these positions were, "That the leaders ought to lose their heads, and all their abettors be utterly stripped of power and favour."

These being the sentiments and discourses of both parties, tending to load the late ministry with faults of a very different nature; it may, perhaps, be either of some use or satisfaction to examine those two points; that is to say, first, how far these ministers are answerable to their friends, for their neglect, mismanagement, and mutual dissensions: and secondly, with what justice they are accused, by their enemies, for endeavouring to alter the succession of the crown in favour of the pretender.

It is true, indeed, I have occasionally done this already