Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/419

Rh reason. Our minister was very importunate; and monsieur Prior seemed to have no fatigue remaining from his journey: perhaps he might conceive it more suitable to his dignity, that monsieur de la Bastide should go before, to prepare the king, by giving notice of his arrival. However it were, monsieur de la Bastide made all haste to Versailles, and returned the same night. During his absence, monsieur Prior never stirred out of his chamber; and after dinner, did me the honour to send for me up, "that I might bear him company," as he was pleased to express it. I was surprised to hear him wondering at the misery he had observed in our country, in his journey from Calais; at the scarcity and poverty of the inhabitants, "which," he said, "did much exceed even what he had seen in his former journey;" for he owned that he had been in France before. He seemed to value himself very much upon the happiness of his own island, which, as he pretended, had felt no effects like these upon trade or agriculture.

I made bold to return for answer, "That in our nation, we only consulted the magnificence and power of our prince; but that in England, as I was informed, the wealth of the kingdom was so divided among the people, that little or nothing was left to their sovereign; and that it was confidently told (though hardly believed in France) that some subjects had palaces more magnificent than queen Anne herself: that I hoped, when he went to Versailles, he would allow the grandeur of our potent monarch to exceed, not only that of England, but any other in Europe; by which he would find, that what he called the poverty of our " nation,