Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/458

450 about king William and his French dog-keeper, "who gave that prince a gun loaden only with powder, and then pretended to wonder how his majesty could miss his aim: which was no argument against the king's reputation for shooting very finely." This he would have you apply, by allowing her majesty to be a wise prince, but deceived by wicked counsellors, who are in the interest of France. Her majesty's aim was peace: which, I think, she has not missed; and God be thanked, she has got it, without any more expense, either of shot or powder. Her dogkeepers, for some years past, had directed her gun against her friends, and at last loaded it so deep, that it was in danger to burst in her hands.

You may please to observe, that Mr. Steele calls this dogkeeper a minister; which, with humble submission, is a gross impropriety of speech. The word is derived from the Latin, where it properly signifies a servant; but in English is never made use of otherwise than to denominate those who are employed in the service of church or state: so that the appellation, as he directs it, is no less absurd, than it would be for you, Mr. Bailiff, to send your apprentice for a pot of ale, and give him the title of your envoy: to call a petty constable a magistrate, or the common hangman a minister of justice. I confess, when I was choqued at this word in reading the paragraph, a gentleman offered his conjecture, that it might possibly be tended