Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/364

356 and Spain, were calculated, in several points, directly against the pretender, as he has now found to his cost, and as it is manifest to all the world. Neither could any thing be more superficial, than the politicks of those, who could be brought to think that the regent of France, would ever engage in measures against the present king of England; and how the grimace of an ambassador's taking, or not taking his publick character, as in the case of the earl of Stairs, should serve so long for an amusement, cannot be sufficiently wondered at. What can be plainer, than that the chief interest of the duke of Orleans, is woven and twisted with that of king George; and this, whether it shall be thought convenient to suffer the young king of France to live longer, or not? For, in the second case, the regent perfectly agrees with our present king in this particular circumstance, that the whole order of succession has been broken for his sake; by which means, he likewise will be encumbered with a pretender, and thereby engaged, upon the strongest motives, to prevent the union of France and Spain under one monarch. And even in the other case, the chance of a boy's life, and his leaving heirs male of his body, is so dubious, that the hopes of a crown to the regent, or his children, will certainly keep that prince, as long as his power continues, very firm in his alliance with England.

And as this design was originally intended and avowed by the queen's ministers, in their treaties with France and Spain, so the events have fully answered in every particular. The present king succeeded to these crowns, with as hearty and universal a disposition of the people, as could possibly consist