Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/398

390 the like occasions, with the old ones:" with more to the same purpose. A man may affirm, without being of the cabinet, that every syllable of this is absolutely false; unless he means that money is still raised by parliament, and borrowed upon new funds; that the duke of Marlborough still commands the army; that we have a treasurer, keeper, president, and secretaries, as we had before; and that because the council meets much about the same times and places as formerly, therefore they give the same advice, and pursue the same measures. What does he think of finding funds to pay the old unprovided for debt of the navy, and erecting a company for the South Sea trade? what does he think of Mr. Hill's expedition, to preserve our trade in the West Indies? what, of the methods taken to make our allies pay their quotas to the war, which was a thing so scandalously either neglected, connived at, or encouraged? what, of the care to retrench the exorbitant expenses of the Spanish war? what, of those many abuses and corruptions at home, which have been so narrowly inquired into, and in a good part redressed? Evils, so deeply radicated, must require some time to remedy them, and cannot be all set right in a few months. Besides, there are some circumstances known by the names of honour, probity, good sense, great capacity for business; as likewise, certain principles of religion and loyalty, the want, or possession of all which, will make a mighty difference even in the pursuit of the same measures. There is also one characteristick, which will ever distinguish the late ministry from the present; That the former, ing