Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/293

Rh loudness of his voice, as to have the honour of being mentioned upon that account in a comedy.

He has disturbed me many a morning before he came within fifty doors of my lodging: and although I were not in those days so fully apprized of the designs which our common enemy had then in agitation, yet, I know not how, by a secret impulse, young as I was, I could not forbear conceiving a strong dislike against the fellow; and often said to myself, This cry seems to be forged in the jesuits school: alas poor England! I am grievously mistaken if there be not some popish plot at the bottom. I communicated my thoughts to an intimate friend, who reproached me with being too visionary in my speculations; but it proved afterward that I conjectured right. And I have since reflected, that if the wicked faction could have procured only a thousand men of as strong lungs as the fellow I mentioned, none can tell how terrible the consequences might have been, not only to these two kingdoms, but over all Europe, by selling Flanders to France, And yet these cries continue unpunished both in London and Dublin; although, I confess, not with equal vehemency or loudness; because the reason for contriving this desperate plot, is, to our great felicity, wholly ceased.

It is well known, that the majority of the British house of commons in the last years of queen Anne's reign, were in their hearts directly opposite to the earl of Oxford's pernicious measures; which put him under the necessity of bribing them with salaries. Whereupon he had again recourse to his old politicks. And accordingly his emissaries were very busy in employing certain artful women, of no good life and conversation