Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/60

52 St. John introduced him to the queen, who received him with great civility. His arrival had been long expected; and the project of his journey, had as long been formed here, by the party leaders, in concert with monsieur Buys and monsieur Bothmar, the Dutch and Hanover envoys. This prince brought over credentials from the emperor, with offers to continue the war on a new foot, very advantageous to Britain; part of which, by her majesty's commands, Mr. St. John soon after produced to the house of commons; where they were rejected, not without some indignation, by a great majority. The emperor's proposals, as far as they related to Spain, were communicated to the house in the words following:

"His imperial majesty judges that forty thousand men will be sufficient for this service; and that the whole expense of the war in Spain may amount to four millions of crowns; toward which, his imperial majesty offers to make up the troops which he has in that country to thirty thousand men, and to take one million of crowns upon himself."

On the other side, the house of commons voted a third part of those four millions as a sufficient quota for her majesty toward that service: for it was supposed the emperor ought to bear the greatest proportion, in a point that so nearly concerned him: or at least, that Britain contributing one third, the other two might be paid by his imperial majesty, and the States, as they could settle it between them.

The design of prince Eugene's journey was, to raise a spirit in the parliament and people for continuing the war; for nothing was thought impossible to a prince of such high reputation in arms, in great favour