Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/383

Rh, and have since been so impatient to see. For, although she was a true professor of the religion established, yet the first motives to this alteration, did not arise from any dangers she apprehended to that, or the government; but from a desire to get out of the dominion of some, who, she thought, had kept her too much and too long in pupillage. She was in her own nature extremely dilatory and timorous; yet, upon some occasions, positive to a great degree. And when she had got rid of those who had, as she thought, given her the most uneasiness, she was inclined to stop, and entertain a fancy of acting upon a moderating scheme, whence it was very difficult to remove her. At the same time I must confess my belief, that this imagination was put into her head, and made use of as an encouragement to begin that work, after which, her advisers might think it easier to prevail with her, to go as far as they thought fit. That these were her majesty's dispositions in that conjuncture, may be confirmed by many instances. In the very height of the change, she appeared very loth to part with two great officers of state of the other party: and some whose absence the new ministers most earnestly wished, held in for above two years after.

Mr. Harley, who acted as first minister before he had the staff, as he was a lover of gentle measures, and inclined to procrastination, so he could not, with any decency, press the queen too much against her nature; because it would be like running upon the rock, where his predecessors had split. But, violent humours running both in the kingdom and the new parliament, against the Rh