Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/53

Rh and the treasurer stood the foremost mark, both of his enemies fury, and the censure of his friends: among the latter, some imputed this fatal miscarriage, to his procrastinating nature; others, to his immeasurable publick thrift. Both parties agreed, that a first minister, with very moderate skill in affairs, might easily have governed the event; and some began to doubt, whether the great fame of his abilities, acquired in other stations, were what he justly deserved. All this he knew well enough, and heard it with great phlegm; neither did it make any alteration in his countenance or humour. He told monsieur Buys, the Dutch envoy, two days before the parliament sat, "That he was sorry for what was likely to pass, because the States would be the first sufferers; which he desired the envoy to remember." And to his nearest friends, who appeared in pain about the publick or themselves, he only said, "That all would be well:" and desired them not to be frighted.

It was, I conceive, upon these motives, that the treasurer advised her majesty to create twelve new lords, and thereby disable the sting of faction for the

Thomas