Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/84

74 a quart; I desire you will now make another, to appoint who must drink it; for by G I will not.

I must beg leave to caution your lordships and worships in one particular. Wood has graciously promised to load us at present only with forty thousand pounds of his coin, till the exigencies of the kingdom require the rest. I entreat you will never suffer Mr. Wood to be a judge of your exigencies. While there is one piece of silver or gold left in the kingdom, he will call it an exigency. He will double his present quantum by stealth as soon as he can; he will pour his own raps and counterfeits upon us; France and Holland will do the same; nor will our own coiners at home be behind them: to confirm which, I have now in my pocket a rap, or counterfeit halfpenny, in imitation of his; but so ill performed, that in my conscience I believe it is not of his coining.

I must now desire your lordships and worships, that you will give great allowance for this long, undigested paper. I find myself to have gone into several repetitions, which were the effects of haste, while new thoughts fell in to add something to what I had said before. I think I may affirm, that I have fully answered every paragraph in the report; which although it be not unartfully drawn, and is perfectly in the spirit of a pleader, who can find the most plausible topicks in behalf of his client, yet there was no great skill required, to detect the many