Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/405

Rh not, for a very manifest reason, be said, properly speaking, to fall from any of the other three. To his other questions I can only say, that the constant language of the whig pamphleteers has been, this twelvemonth past, to tell us, how dangerous a step it was to change the ministry at so nice a juncture; to shake our credit, disoblige our allies, and encourage the French. Then this author tells us, that those discarded politicians were the greatest ministers we ever had: his brethren have said the same thing a hundred times. On the other side, the queen, upon long deliberation, was resolved to part with them: the universal voice of the people was against them: her majesty is the most mild and gracious prince that ever reigned: we have been constantly victorious, and are ruined; the enemy flourishes under his perpetual losses. If these be the consequences of an able, faithful, diligent, and dutiful administration; of that astonishing success, he says, Providence has crowned us with; what can be those of one directly contrary? But, not to enter into a wide field at present, I faithfully promise the author of the letter, his correspondents, his patrons, and his brethren, that this mystery of iniquity shall be very shortly laid open to the view of the world: when the most ignorant and prejudiced reader will, I hope, be convinced, by facts not to be controlled, how miserably this poor kingdom had been deluded to the very brink of destruction.

He would have it, that the people of England have lost their senses; are bewitched and cheated, mad and without understanding: but that all this will go off by degrees, and then his great men will recover