Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/62

54 day entertained magnificently, by persons of quality of both parties. He went frequently to the treasurer, and sometimes affected to do it in private. He visited the other ministers, and great officers of the court: but on all occasions, publickly owned the character and appellation of a whig; and, in secret, held continual meetings with the duke of Marlborough, and the other discontented lords, where M. Bothmar usually assisted. It is the great ambition of this prince, to be perpetually engaged in war, without considering the cause or consequence; and to see himself at the head of an army, where only he can make any considerable figure. He is not without a natural tincture of that cruelty, sometimes charged upon the Italians; and his being nursed in arms, has so far extinguished pity and remorse, that he will at any time sacrifice a thousand men's lives, to a caprice of glory or revenge. He had conceived an incurable hatred for the treasurer, as the person who principally opposed this insatiable passion for war; said, "He had hopes of others; but that the treasurer was un mechant diable, not to be moved." Therefore, since it was impossible for him or his friends to compass their designs, while that minister continued at the head of affairs, he proposed an expedient, often practised by those of his country, "That the treasurer (to use his own expression) should be taken off à la negligence; that this might be easily done, and pass for an effect of chance, if it were preceded by encouraging some proper people, " to