Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/335

Rh purpose? I do not hear that this license is confined to any particular number of men. It is confessed, I think, that they want above two thousand men to complete their corps; and who knows but they may design to raise a great many more than they care to own; or even to form some new regiments of these troops? But supposing they are confined to a certain number of recruits, and that Ireland were in a capacity to spare them; it is well known how easily such limitations are evaded, and how difficult it is to know when people conform exactly to the terms of their commission. This was sufficiently explained in the late famous controversy, concerning Mr. Wood's patent for supplying Ireland with a particular sum of copper halfpence; and the arguments upon that subject may be applied to this, with some allowances for the difference between the two cases. It may, perhaps, be said likewise that all the vigilance of the ministry has been hitherto found ineffectual to prevent the French from clandestinely recruiting these regiments with Irish catholicks; and therefore, that we may as well allow them to do it openly; nay, that it is our interest to let them purge Ireland of her popish inhabitants as much as they please: but I deny this for several reasons, which I shall mention presently; and if it were really the case, that the French can at any time recruit these troops clandestinely, I cannot see any reason why they should solicit an order so pressingly, for two years together, to do it openly, unless they have some other design. Ought not even this consideration to put us a little upon our guard; and is it not a tacit confession, that these troops are thought to be of more importance to them than we ought to wish? Besides, are Rh