Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/51

Rh He was seconded by the earl of Scarborough; and, after a debate of several hours, the question for the clause was carried, as I remember, by not above two voices. The next day, the house agreed with the committee. The depending lords (having taken fresh courage from their principals, and some who professed themselves very humble servants to the present ministry, and enemies to the former) went along with the stream, pretending not to see the consequences that must visibly follow. The address was presented on the eleventh; to which her majesty's answer was short and dry. She distinguished their thanks from the rest of the piece; and, in return to lord Nottingham's clause, said, "She should be sorry that any body could think she would not do her utmost to recover Spain and the West Indies from the house of Bourbon."

Upon the 15th of December, the earl of Nottingham likewise brought in the bill to "prevent occasional conformity, (although under a disguised title) which met with no opposition; but was swallowed by those very lords, who always appeared with the utmost violence, against the least advantage to the established church.

But in the house of commons there appeared a very different spirit; for, when one Mr. Robert Walpole, offered a clause of the same nature with that of the earl of Nottingham, it was rejected with contempt by a very great majority. Their address was in the most dutiful manner, approving of what her majesty had done toward a peace, and trusting entirely to her wisdom, in the future management of it. This address was presented to the queen a day before that of the lords, and ceived