NOTE.
The new ministry, which came into
power on the fall of the able administration of Godolphin
in 1710, was the famous Oxford ministry headed by
Harley and St. John. The new leaders were well
aware that they would have to use all the means in
their power not only to justify themselves to the
English nation, but successfully to defeat the strong
opposition which had such a man as Marlborough for
its moving spirit. The address to Queen Anne
from the Commons, showing undoubted evidences of St.
John’s hand, was the first employment of a means
by which this ministry hoped to appeal to the public.
But this remarkable literary effort had already been
preceded by the establishment of a weekly political
paper, entitled “The Examiner,” a few weeks
before Godolphin’s fall. During the months
of August, September, and October, in which were issued
twelve papers, Dr. Freind, Atterbury, Prior and St.
John, were the men employed to arouse the nation to
a necessary condition of discontent. Now that
the ministry was in power, the necessity for continuing
these public appeals was felt to be all the stronger;
and Harley’s shrewdness in selecting Swift to
take this important matter in hand shows his ability
as a party leader.
The first number of “The Examiner”
was issued on August 3rd, 1710, and the paper was
continued until July 26th, 1711. On December 6th,
1711, William Oldisworth revived it, and issued it
weekly until December 18th, 1712, after which date
it was published twice a week until July 26th, 1714,
though it occasionally happened that only one was
issued in a week. The last number was N of
the sixth volume, so that Oldisworth edited vols.
ii., iii., iv., v., and what was published of vol.
vi. The death of the Queen put an end to the publication.
Swift was called to his work about
the middle of October of 1710, and his first paper
appeared in N. From that number to N,
Swift continued with unabated zeal and with masterly
effect to carry out the policy of his friends.
He also wrote a part of N, and Nos. 16 and
21 of the third volume, which appeared on January 16th
and February 2nd, 1712-13. These two last numbers
are not included in the present volume; since they
have been printed in the fifth volume of this edition
of Swift’s works with the titles “An Appendix
to the Conduct of the Allies” and “The
Vindication of Erasmus Lewis.”
The appearance of “The Examiner”
had brought an opposition paper into the field, entitled
“The Whig Examiner,” a periodical that
ably maintained its party’s stand in the face
of St. John’s attacks. But this paper only
lasted for five weeks, and when Swift took charge of
the Tory organ, the position of “The Examiner”
was entirely altered. As Mr. Churton Collins
ably remarks: “It became a voice of power
in every town and in every hamlet throughout England.
It was an appeal made, not to the political cliques
of the metropolis, but to the whole kingdom; and to
the whole kingdom it spoke.... No one who will
take the trouble to glance at Swift’s contributions
to ‘The Examiner’ will be surprised at
their effect. They are masterpieces of polemical
skill. Every sentence every word comes
home. Their logic, adapted to the meanest capacity,
smites like a hammer. Their statements, often
a tissue of mere sophistry and assumption, appear
so plausible, that it is difficult even for the cool
historian to avoid being carried away by them.
At a time when party spirit was running high, and
few men stopped to weigh evidence, they must have
been irresistible.” ("Jonathan Swift,”
1893, .)
In his “Memoirs relating to
that Change” (vol. v., p 384), Swift gives
the following explanation of the foundation of this
paper. “Upon the rise of this ministry
the principal persons in power thought it necessary
that some weekly paper should be published, with just
reflections upon former proceedings, and defending
the present measures of Her Majesty. This was
begun about the time of the Lord Godolphin’s
removal, under the name of ‘The Examiner.’
... The determination was that I should continue
it, which I did accordingly for about eight months.”
Gay remarks in his pamphlet, “The
Present State of Wit, in a Letter to a Friend in the
Country,” 1711: “‘The Examiner’
is a paper which all men, who speak without prejudice,
allow to be well writ. Though his subject will
admit of no great variety, he is continually placing
it on so many different lights, and endeavouring to
inculcate the same thing by so many beautiful changes
of expressions, that men who are concerned in no party,
may read him with pleasure. His way of assuming
the question in debate is extremely artful; and his
‘Letter to Crassus’ is, I think,
a masterpiece.... I presume I need not tell you
that ‘The Examiner’ carries much the more
sail as ’tis supposed to be writ by the direction,
and under the eye of some great persons who sit at
the helm of affairs, and is consequently looked on
as a sort of public notice which way they are steering
us. The reputed author is Dr. S[wif]t, with the
assistance sometimes of Dr. Att[erbur]y and Mr. P[rio]r.”
With the fall of Bolingbroke on the death of Queen
Anne and the accession of George I., “The Examiner”
collapsed. [T.S.]
NUMB. 14.
FROM THURSDAY OCTOBER 26 TO THURSDAY NOVEMBER 2,
1710.
Longa est injuria, longae
Ambages, sed summa sequar fastigia rerum.
It is a practice I have generally
followed, to converse in equal freedom with the deserving
men of both parties; and it was never without some
contempt, that I have observed persons wholly out of
employment, affect to do otherwise: I doubted
whether any man could owe so much to the side he was
of, though he were retained by it; but without some
great point of interest, either in possession or prospect,
I thought it was the mark of a low and narrow spirit.
It is hard, that, for some weeks past,
I have been forced in my own defence, to follow a
proceeding that I have so much condemned in others.
But several of my acquaintance among the declining
party, are grown so insufferably peevish and splenetic,
profess such violent apprehensions for the public,
and represent the state of things in such formidable
ideas, that I find myself disposed to share in their
afflictions, though I know them to be groundless and
imaginary, or, which is worse, purely affected.
To offer them comfort one by one, would be not only
an endless, but a disobliging task. Some of them,
I am convinced would be less melancholy, if there
were more occasion. I shall therefore, instead
of hearkening to further complaints, employ some part
of this paper for the future, in letting such men
see, that their natural or acquired fears are ill-grounded,
and their artificial ones as ill-intended. That
all our present inconveniencies, are the consequence
of the very counsels they so much admire, which would
still have increased, if those had continued:
and that neither our constitution in Church or State,
could probably have been long preserved, without such
methods as have been lately taken.
The late revolutions at court, have
given room to some specious objections, which I have
heard repeated by well-meaning men, just as they had
taken them up on the credit of others, who have worse
designs. They wonder the Queen would choose to
change her ministry at this juncture, and thereby
give uneasiness to a general who has been so long successful
abroad; and might think himself injured, if the entire
ministry were not of his own nomination. That
there were few complaints of any consequence against
the late men in power, and none at all in Parliament;
which on the contrary, passed votes in favour of the
chief minister. That if her Majesty had a mind
to introduce the other party, it would have been more
seasonable after a peace, which now we have made desperate,
by spiriting the French, who rejoice at these changes,
and by the fall of our credit, which unqualifies us
for continuing the war. That the Parliament so
untimely dissolved, had been diligent in their supplies,
and dutiful in their behaviour. That one consequence
of these changes appears already in the fall of the
stocks: that we may soon expect more and worse:
and lastly, that all this naturally tends to break
the settlement of the Crown, and call over the Pretender.
These and the like notions are plentifully
scattered abroad, by the malice of a ruined party,
to render the Queen and her administration odious,
and to inflame the nation. And these are what,
upon occasion, I shall endeavour to overthrow, by
discovering the falsehood and absurdity of them.
It is a great unhappiness, when in
a government constituted like ours, it should be so
brought about, that the continuance of a war, must
be for the interest of vast numbers (peaceable as
well as military) who would otherwise have been as
unknown as their original. I think our present
condition of affairs, is admirably described by two
verses in Lucan,
Hinc usura vorax, avidumque in tempore
foenus,
Hinc concussa fides, et multis utile bellum,
which without any great force upon
the words, may be thus translated,
“Hence are derived those exorbitant
interests and annuities; hence those large discounts
for advances and prompt payment; hence public credit
is shaken, and hence great numbers find their profit
in prolonging the war.”
It is odd, that among a free trading
people, as we take ourselves to be, there should so
many be found to close in with those counsels, who
have been ever averse from all overtures towards a
peace. But yet there is no great mystery in the
matter. Let any man observe the équipages
in this town; he shall find the greater number of
those who make a figure, to be a species of men quite
different from any that were ever known before the
Revolution, consisting either of generals and colonels,
or of such whose whole fortunes lie in funds and stocks:
so that power, which according to the old maxim, was
used to follow land, is now gone over to money; and
the country gentleman is in the condition of a young
heir, out of whose estate a scrivener receives half
the rents for interest, and hath a mortgage on the
whole, and is therefore always ready to feed his vices
and extravagancies while there is any thing left.
So that if the war continues some years longer, a
landed man will be little better than a farmer at
a rack rent, to the army, and to the public funds.
It may perhaps be worth inquiring
from what beginnings, and by what steps we have been
brought into this desperate condition: and in
search of this, we must run up as high as the Revolution.
Most of the nobility and gentry who
invited over the Prince of Orange, or attended him
in his expedition, were true lovers of their country
and its constitution, in Church and State; and were
brought to yield to those breaches in the succession
of the crown, out of a regard to the necessity of
the kingdom, and the safety of the people, which did,
and could only, make them lawful; but without intention
of drawing such a practice into precedent, or making
it a standing measure by which to proceed in all times
to come; and therefore we find their counsels ever
tended to keep things as much as possible in the old
course. But soon after, an under set of men,
who had nothing to lose, and had neither borne the
burthen nor heat of the day, found means to whisper
in the king’s ear, that the principles of loyalty
in the Church of England, were wholly inconsistent
with the Revolution. Hence began the early practice
of caressing the dissenters, reviling the universities,
as maintainers of arbitrary power, and reproaching
the clergy with the doctrines of divine-right, passive
obedience and non-resistance. At the same time,
in order to fasten wealthy people to the new government,
they proposed those pernicious expedients of borrowing
money by vast premiums, and at exorbitant interest:
a practice as old as Eumenes, one of Alexander’s
captains, who setting up for himself after the death
of his master, persuaded his principal officers to
lend him great sums, after which they were forced
to follow him for their own security.
This introduced a number of new dexterous
men into business and credit: It was argued,
that the war could not last above two or three campaigns,
and that it was easier for the subject to raise a fund
for paying interest, than to tax them annually to
the full expense of the war. Several persons
who had small or encumbered estates, sold them, and
turned their money into those funds to great advantage:
merchants, as well as other moneyed men, finding trade
was dangerous, pursued the same method: But the
war continuing, and growing more expensive, taxes were
increased, and funds multiplied every year, till they
have arrived at the monstrous height we now behold
them. And that which was at first a corruption,
is at last grown necessary, and what every good subject
must now fall in with, though he may be allowed to
wish it might soon have an end; because it is with
a kingdom, as with a private fortune, where every
new incumbrance adds a double weight. By this
means the wealth of the nation, that used to be reckoned
by the value of land, is now computed by the rise
and fall of stocks: and although the foundation
of credit be still the same, and upon a bottom that
can never be shaken; and though all interest be duly
paid by the public, yet through the contrivance and
cunning of stock-jobbers, there has been brought in
such a complication of knavery and cozenage, such
a mystery of iniquity, and such an unintelligible
jargon of terms to involve it in, as were never known
in any other age or country of the world. I have
heard it affirmed by persons skilled in these calculations,
that if the funds appropriated to the payment of interest
and annuities, were added to the yearly taxes, and
the four-shilling aid strictly exacted in all counties
of the kingdom, it would very near, if not fully,
supply the occasions of the war, at least such a part,
as in the opinion of very able persons, had been at
that time prudence not to exceed. For I make it
a question, whether any wise prince or state, in the
continuance of a war, which was not purely defensive,
or immediately at his own door, did ever propose that
his expense should perpetually exceed what he was able
to impose annually upon his subjects? Neither
if the war lasts many years longer, do I see how the
next generation will be able to begin another, which
in the course of human affairs, and according to the
various interests and ambition of princes, may be
as necessary for them as it has been for us.
And had our fathers left us as deeply involved as we
are like to leave our children, I appeal to any man,
what sort of figure we should have been able to make
these twenty years past. Besides, neither our
enemies, nor allies, are upon the same foot with us
in this particular. France and Holland, our nearest
neighbours, and the farthest engaged, will much sooner
recover themselves after a war. The first, by
the absolute power of the prince who being master
of the lives and fortunes of his subjects, will quickly
find expedients to pay his debts: and so will
the other, by their prudent administration, the greatness
of their trade, their wonderful parsimony, the willingness
of their people to undergo all kind of taxes, and
their justice in applotting as well as collecting them.
But above all, we are to consider that France and
Holland fight in the continent, either upon, or near
their own territories, and the greatest part of the
money circulates among themselves; whereas ours crosses
the sea either to Flanders, Spain, or Portugal, and
every penny of it, whether in specie or returns, is
so much lost to the nation for ever.
Upon these considerations alone, it
was the most prudent course imaginable in the Queen,
to lay hold of the disposition of the people for changing
the Parliament and ministry at this juncture, and extricating
herself, as soon as possible, out of the pupillage
of those who found their accounts only in perpetuating
the war. Neither have we the least reason to
doubt, but the ensuing Parliament will assist her Majesty
with the utmost vigour, till her enemies again
be brought to sue for peace, and again offer
such terms as will make it both honourable and lasting;
only with this difference, that the Ministry perhaps
will not again refuse them.
Audiet pugnas vitio parentum
Rara Juventus.
“Her whole tale of wrong ’Twere
tedious to relate. But I will give The leading
facts.” R. KENNEDY. [T.S.]]
“Hence debt unthrifty, careless
to repay,
And usury still watching for its day:
Hence perjuries in every wrangling court;
And war, the needy bankrupt’s last
resort,”
N. ROWE.
Lucan wrote “et concussa,”
[T.S.]]
See also, on this matter, “Examiner,”
Nos. 34 and 40 post. [T.S.]]
NUMB. 15.
FROM THURSDAY NOVEMBER 2, TO THURSDAY NOVEMBER 9,
1710.
E quibis hi vacuas implent sermonibus
aures, Hi narrata ferunt alio: mensuraque ficti
Crescit, et auditis aliquid novus adjicit autor,
Illic Credulitas, illic temerarius Error, Vanaque
Laetitia est, consternatique Timores, Seditioque
recens, dubioque autore susurri.
I am prevailed on, through the importunity
of friends, to interrupt the scheme I had begun in
my last paper, by an Essay upon the Art of Political
Lying. We are told, “the Devil is the father
of lies, and was a liar from the beginning”;
so that beyond contradiction, the invention is old:
And which is more, his first essay of it was purely
political, employed in undermining the authority of
his Prince, and seducing a third part of the subjects
from their obedience. For which he was driven
down from Heaven, where (as Milton expresseth it)
he had been viceroy of a great western province;
and forced to exercise his talent in inferior regions
among other fallen spirits, or poor deluded men, whom
he still daily tempts to his own sin, and will ever
do so till he is chained in the bottomless pit.
But though the Devil be the father
of lies, he seems, like other great inventors, to
have lost much of his reputation, by the continual
improvements that have been made upon him.
Who first reduced lying into an art,
and adapted it to politics, is not so clear from history,
though I have made some diligent enquiries: I
shall therefore consider it only according to the modern
system, as it has been cultivated these twenty years
past in the southern part of our own island.
The poets tell us, that after the
giants were overthrown by the gods, the earth in revenge
produced her last offspring, which was Fame. And
the fable is thus interpreted; that when tumults and
séditions are quieted, rumours and false reports
are plentifully spread through a nation. So that
by this account, lying is the last relief of
a routed, earth-born, rebellious party in a state.
But here, the moderns have made great additions, applying
this art to the gaining of power, and preserving it,
as well as revenging themselves after they have lost
it: as the same instruments are made use of by
animals to feed themselves when they are hungry, and
bite those that tread upon them.
But the same genealogy cannot always
be admitted for political lying; I shall therefore
desire to refine upon it, by adding some circumstances
of its birth and parents. A political lie is
sometimes born out of a discarded statesman’s
head, and thence delivered to be nursed and dandled
by the mob. Sometimes it is produced a monster,
and licked into shape; at other times it comes
into the world completely formed, and is spoiled in
the licking. It is often born an infant in the
regular way, and requires time to mature it:
and often it sees the light in its full growth, but
dwindles away by degrees. Sometimes it is of noble
birth; and sometimes the spawn of a stock-jobber.
Here, it screams aloud at the opening of the
womb; and there, it is delivered with a whisper.
I know a lie that now disturbs half the kingdom with
its noise, which though too proud and great at present
to own its parents, I can remember in its whisper-hood.
To conclude the nativity of this monster; when it comes
into the world without a sting, it is still-born;
and whenever it loses its sting, it dies.
No wonder, if an infant so miraculous
in its birth, should be destined for great adventures:
and accordingly we see it has been the guardian spirit
of a prevailing party for almost twenty years.
It can conquer kingdoms without fighting, and sometimes
with the loss of a battle: It gives and resumes
employments; can sink a mountain to a mole-hill, and
raise a mole-hill to a mountain; has presided for many
years at committees of elections; can wash a blackamoor
white; make a saint of an atheist, and a patriot of
a profligate; can furnish foreign ministers with intelligence,
and raise or let fall the credit of the nation.
This goddess flies with a huge looking-glass in her
hands, to dazzle the crowd, and make them see, according
as she turns it, their ruin in their interest, and
their interest in their ruin. In this glass you
will behold your best friends clad in coats powdered
with flower-de-luces and triple crowns;
their girdles hung round with chains, and beads, and
wooden shoes: and your worst enemies adorned with
the ensigns of liberty, property, indulgence, and
moderation, and a cornucopia in their hands.
Her large wings, like those of a flying-fish, are of
no use but while they are moist; she therefore dips
them in mud, and soaring aloft scatters it in the
eyes of the multitude, flying with great swiftness;
but at every turn is forced to stoop in dirty way for
new supplies.
I have been sometimes thinking, if
a man had the art of the second sight for seeing lies,
as they have in Scotland for seeing spirits, how admirably
he might entertain himself in this town; to observe
the different shapes, sizes, and colours, of those
swarms of lies which buzz about the heads of some
people, like flies about a horse’s ears in summer:
or those legions hovering every afternoon in Popes-head
Alley, enough to darken the air; or over a club
of discontented grandees, and thence sent down in
cargoes to be scattered at elections.
There is one essential point wherein
a political liar differs from others of the faculty;
that he ought to have but a short memory, which is
necessary according to the various occasions he meets
with every hour, of differing from himself, and swearing
to both sides of a contradiction, as he finds the
persons disposed, with whom he has to deal. In
describing the virtues and vices of mankind, it is
convenient upon every article, to have some eminent
person in our eye, from whence we copy our description.
I have strictly observed this rule; and my imagination
this minute represents before me a certain great man
famous for this talent, to the constant practice of
which he owes his twenty years’ reputation of
the most skilful head in England, for the management
of nice affairs. The superiority of his genius
consists in nothing else but an inexhaustible fund
of political lies, which he plentifully distributes
every minute he speaks, and by an unparalleled generosity
forgets, and consequently contradicts the next half-hour.
He never yet considered whether any proposition were
true or false, but whether it were convenient for the
present minute or company to affirm or deny it; so
that if you think to refine upon him, by interpreting
every thing he says, as we do dreams by the contrary,
you are still to seek, and will find yourself equally
deceived, whether you believe him or no: the only
remedy is to suppose that you have heard some inarticulate
sounds, without any meaning at all. And besides,
that will take off the horror you might be apt to conceive
at the oaths wherewith he perpetually tags both ends
of every proposition: though at the same time
I think he cannot with any justice be taxed for perjury,
when he invokes God and Christ, because he has often
fairly given public notice to the world, that he believes
in neither.
Some people may think that such an
accomplishment as this, can be of no great use to
the owner or his party, after it has been often practised,
and is become notorious; but they are widely mistaken:
Few lies carry the inventor’s mark; and the
most prostitute enemy to truth may spread a thousand
without being known for the author. Besides, as
the vilest writer has his readers, so the greatest
liar has his believers; and it often happens, that
if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done
its work, and there is no farther occasion for it.
Falsehood flies, and Truth comes limping after it;
so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too
late, the jest is over, and the tale has had its effect:
like a man who has thought of a good repartee, when
the discourse is changed, or the company parted:
or, like a physician who has found out an infallible
medicine, after the patient is dead.
Considering that natural disposition
in many men to lie, and in multitudes to believe,
I have been perplexed what to do with that maxim,
so frequent in every body’s mouth, that “Truth
will at last prevail.” Here, has this island
of ours, for the greatest part of twenty years, lain
under the influence of such counsels and persons, whose
principle and interest it was to corrupt our manners,
blind our understandings, drain our wealth, and in
time destroy our constitution both in Church and State;
and we at last were brought to the very brink of ruin;
yet by the means of perpetual misrepresentations,
have never been able to distinguish between our enemies
and friends. We have seen a great part of the
nation’s money got into the hands of those, who
by their birth, education and merit, could pretend
no higher than to wear our liveries; while others,
who by their credit, quality and fortune, were only
able to give reputation and success to the Revolution,
were not only laid aside, as dangerous and useless;
but loaden with the scandal of Jacobites, men of arbitrary
principles, and pensioners to France; while Truth,
who is said to lie in a well, seemed now to be buried
there under a heap of stones. But I remember,
it was a usual complaint among the Whigs, that the
bulk of landed men was not in their interests, which
some of the wisest looked on as an ill omen; and we
saw it was with the utmost difficulty that they could
preserve a majority, while the court and ministry
were on their side; till they had learned those admirable
expedients for deciding elections, and influencing
distant boroughs by powerful motives from the
city. But all this was mere force and constraint,
however upheld by most dexterous artifice and management:
till the people began to apprehend their properties,
their religion, and the monarchy itself in danger;
then we saw them greedily laying hold on the first
occasion to interpose. But of this mighty change
in the dispositions of the people, I shall discourse
more at large in some following paper; wherein I shall
endeavour to undeceive those deluded or deluding persons,
who hope or pretend, it is only a short madness in
the vulgar, from which they may soon recover.
Whereas I believe it will appear to be very different
in its causes, its symptoms, and its consequences;
and prove a great example to illustrate the maxim I
lately mentioned, that “Truth” (however
sometimes late) “will at last prevail.”
“The troubled air with empty sounds they beat.
Intent to hear, and eager to repeat.
Error sits brooding there, with added train
Of vain Credulity, and Joys as vain:
Suspicion, with Sedition joined, are near,
And Rumours raised, and Murmurs mixed, and panic Fear.”
J.
DRYDEN.
[T.S.]]
NUMB. 16.
FROM THURSDAY NOVEMBER 9, TO THURSDAY NOVEMBER 16,
1710.
–medioque ut limite
curras,
Icare, ait, moneo: ne si demissior
ibis,
Unda gravet pennas, si celsior, ignis
adurat.
It must be avowed, that for some years
past, there have been few things more wanted in England,
than such a paper as this ought to be; and such as
I will endeavour to make it, as long as it shall be
found of any use, without entering into the violences
of either party. Considering the many grievous
misrepresentations of persons and things, it is highly
requisite, at this juncture, that the people throughout
the kingdom, should, if possible, be set right in
their opinions by some impartial hand, which has never
been yet attempted: those who have hitherto undertaken
it, being upon every account the least qualified of
all human-kind for such a work.
We live here under a limited monarchy,
and under the doctrine and discipline of an excellent
Church: We are unhappily divided into two parties,
both which pretend a mighty zeal for our religion and
government, only they disagree about the means.
The evils we must fence against are, on one side,
fanaticism and infidelity in religion; and anarchy,
under the name of a commonwealth, in government:
on the other side, popery, slavery, and the Pretender
from France. Now to inform and direct us in our
sentiments, upon these weighty points; here are on
one side two stupid, illiterate scribblers, both of
them fanatics by profession; I mean the “Review"
and “Observator." On the other side we have
an open Nonjuror, whose character and person, as
well as good learning and sense, discovered upon other
subjects, do indeed deserve respect and esteem; but
his “Rehearsal,” and the rest of his political
papers, are yet more pernicious than those of the former
two. If the generality of the people know not
how to talk or think, till they have read their lesson
in the papers of the week, what a misfortune is it
that their duty should be conveyed to them through
such vehicles as those? For let some gentlemen
think what they please, I cannot but suspect, that
the two worthies I first mentioned, have in a degree
done mischief among us; the mock authoritative manner
of the one, and the insipid mirth of the other, however
insupportable to reasonable ears, being of a level
with great numbers among the lowest part of mankind.
Neither was the author of the “Rehearsal,”
while he continued that paper, less infectious to many
persons of better figure, who perhaps were as well
qualified, and much less prejudiced, to judge for
themselves.
It was this reason, that moved me
to take the matter out of those rough, as well as
those dirty hands, to let the remote and uninstructed
part of the nation see, that they have been misled
on both sides, by mad, ridiculous extremes, at a wide
distance on each side from the truth; while the right
path is so broad and plain, as to be easily kept, if
they were once put into it.
Further, I had lately entered on a
resolution to take very little notice of other papers,
unless it were such, where the malice and falsehood,
had so great a mixture of wit and spirit, as would
make them dangerous; which in the present circle of
scribbles, from twelvepence to a halfpenny, I could
easily foresee would not very frequently occur.
But here again, I am forced to dispense with my resolution,
though it be only to tell my reader, what measures
I am like to take on such occasions for the future.
I was told that the paper called “The Observator,”
was twice filled last week with remarks upon a late
“Examiner." These I read with the first opportunity,
and to speak in the news-writers’ phrase, they
gave me occasion for many speculations. I observed
with singular pleasure, the nature of those things,
which the owners of them, usually call answers;
and with what dexterity this matchless author had fallen
into the whole art and cant of them. To transcribe
here and there three or four detached lines of least
weight in a discourse, and by a foolish comment mistake
every syllable of the meaning, is what I have known
many of a superior class, to this formidable adversary,
entitle an “Answer." This is what he has
exactly done in about thrice as many words as my whole
discourse; which is so mighty an advantage over me,
that I shall by no means engage in so unequal a combat;
but as far as I can judge of my own temper, entirely
dismiss him for the future; heartily wishing he had
a match exactly of his own size to meddle with, who
should only have the odds of truth and honesty; which
as I take it, would be an effectual way to silence
him for ever. Upon this occasion, I cannot forbear
a short story of a fanatic farmer who lived in my
neighbourhood, and was so great a disputant in religion,
that the servants in all the families thereabouts,
reported, how he had confuted the bishop and all his
clergy. I had then a footman who was fond of
reading the Bible, and I borrowed a comment for him,
which he studied so close, that in a month or two I
thought him a match for the farmer. They disputed
at several houses, with a ring of servants and other
people always about them, where Ned explained his
texts so full and clear, to the capacity of his audience,
and showed the insignificancy of his adversary’s
cant, to the meanest understanding, that he got the
whole country of his side, and the farmer was cured
of his itch of disputation for ever after.
The worst of it is, that this sort
of outrageous party-writers I have above spoke of,
are like a couple of make-bates, who inflame small
quarrels by a thousand stories, and by keeping friends
at a distance hinder them from coming to a good understanding,
as they certainly would, if they were suffered to
meet and debate between themselves. For let any
one examine a reasonable honest man of either side,
upon those opinions in religion and government, which
both parties daily buffet each other about, he shall
hardly find one material point in difference between
them. I would be glad to ask a question about
two great men of the late ministry, how they came
to be Whigs? and by what figure of speech, half a
dozen others, lately put into great employments, can
be called Tories? I doubt, whoever would suit
the definition to the persons, must make it directly
contrary to what we understood it at the time of the
Revolution.
In order to remove these misapprehensions
among us, I believe it will be necessary upon occasion,
to detect the malice and falsehood of some popular
maxims, which those idiots scatter from the press twice
a week, and draw an hundred absurd consequences from
them.
For example, I have heard it often
objected as a great piece of insolence in the clergy
and others, to say or hint that the Church was in danger,
when it was voted otherwise in Parliament some years
ago: and the Queen herself in her last speech,
did openly condemn all such insinuations. Notwithstanding
which, I did then, and do still believe, the Church
has, since that vote, been in very imminent danger;
and I think I might then have said so, without the
least offence to her Majesty, or either of the two
Houses. The Queen’s words, as near as I
can remember, mentioned the Church being in danger
from her administration; and whoever says or thinks
that, deserves, in my opinion, to be hanged for a traitor.
But that the Church and State may be both in danger
under the best princes that ever reigned, and without
the least guilt of theirs, is such a truth, as a man
must be a great stranger to history or common sense,
to doubt. The wisest prince on earth may be forced,
by the necessity of his affairs, and the present power
of an unruly faction, or deceived by the craft of
ill designing men: One or two ministers, most
in his confidence, may at first have good intentions,
but grow corrupted by time, by avarice, by love, by
ambition, and have fairer terms offered them, to gratify
their passions or interests, from one set of men
than another, till they are too far involved for a
retreat; and so be forced to take “seven spirits
more wicked than themselves.” This is a
very possible case; and will not “the last state
of such men be worse than the first”? that is
to say, will not the public, which was safe at first,
grow in danger by such proceedings as these?
And shall a faithful subject, who foresees and trembles
at the consequences, be called disaffected,
because he delivers his opinion, though the prince
declares, as he justly may, that the danger is not
owing to his administration? Or, shall the prince
himself be blamed, when in such a juncture he puts
his affairs into other hands, with the universal applause
of his people? As to the vote against those who
should affirm the Church was in danger, I think it
likewise referred to danger from or under the Queen’s
administration, (for I neither have it by me, nor
can suddenly have recourse to it;) but if it were
otherwise, I know not how it can refer to any dangers
but what were past, or at that time present; or how
it could affect the future, unless the senators were
all inspired, or at least that majority which
voted it. Neither do I see any crime further than
ill manners, to differ in opinion from a majority
of either or both Houses; and that ill manners, I
must confess I have been often guilty of for some years
past, though I hope I never shall again.
Another topic of great use to these
weekly inflamers, is the young Pretender in France,
to whom their whole party is in a high measure indebted
for all their greatness; and whenever it lies in their
power, they may perhaps return their acknowledgments,
as out of their zeal for frequent revolutions, they
were ready to do to his supposed father: which
is a piece of secret history, that I hope will one
day see the light; and I am sure it shall, if ever
I am master of it, without regarding whose ears may
tingle. But at present, the word Pretender
is a term of art in their possession: A secretary
of state cannot desire leave to resign, but the Pretender
is at bottom: the Queen cannot dissolve a Parliament,
but it is a plot to dethrone herself, and bring in
the Pretender. Half a score stock-jobbers are
playing the knave in Exchange-Alley, and there goes
the Pretender with a sponge. One would be apt
to think they bawl out the Pretender so often, to take
off the terror; or tell so many lies about him, to
slacken our caution, that when he is really coming,
by their connivance, we may not believe them;
as the boy served the shepherds about the coming of
the wolf. Or perhaps they scare us with the Pretender,
because they think he may be like some diseases, that
come with a fright. Do they not believe that the
Queen’s present ministry love her Majesty, at
least as well as some others loved the Church?
And why is it not as great mark of disaffection now
to say the Queen is in danger, as it was some months
ago to affirm the same of the Church? Suppose
it be a false opinion, that the Queen’s right
is hereditary and indefeasible; yet how is it possible
that those who hold and believe that doctrine, can
be in the Pretender’s interest? His title
is weakened by every argument that strengthens hers.
It is as plain as the words of an Act of Parliament
can make it, that her present Majesty is heir to the
survivor of the late King and Queen her sister.
Is not that an hereditary right? What need we
explain it any further? I have known an Article
of Faith expounded in much looser and more general
terms, and that by an author whose opinions are very
much followed by a certain party. Suppose we go
further, and examine the word indefeasible,
with which some writers of late have made themselves
so merry: I confess it is hard to conceive, how
any law which the supreme power makes, may not by
the same power be repealed: so that I shall not
determine, whether the Queen’s right be indefeasible
or no. But this I will maintain, that whoever
affirms it so, is not guilty of a crime. For
in that settlement of the crown after the Revolution,
where her present Majesty is named in remainder,
there are (as near as I can remember) these remarkable
words, “to which we bind ourselves and our posterity
for ever.” Lawyers may explain this, or
call them words of form, as they please: and
reasoners may argue that such an obligation is against
the very nature of government; but a plain reader,
who takes the words in their natural meaning, may
be excused, in thinking a right so confirmed, is indefeasible;
and if there be an absurdity in such an opinion, he
is not to answer for it.
P.S. When this paper was going
to the press, the printer brought me two more Observators,
wholly taken up in my Examiner upon lying,
which I was at the pains to read; and they are just
such an answer, as the two others I have mentioned.
This is all I have to say on that matter.
“My boy, take care
To wing your course along the middle air:
If low, the surges wet your flagging plumes;
If high, the sun the melting wax consumes.”
S. CROXALL.
[T.S.]]
“Earless on high stood unabashed
De Foe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge
below.”
[T.S.]]
Of Swift’s use of the term “Nonjuror,”
“The Medley” (June 18th, 1711, N
made the following remarks: “If he speaks
of him with relation to his party, there can be nothing
so inconsistent as a Whig and a Nonjuror: and
if he talks of him merely as an author, all the authors
in the world are Nonjurors, but the ingenious divine
who writ ‘The Tale of a Tub’ ... for he
is the first man who introduced those figures of rhetoric
we call swearing and cursing in print.” [T.S.]]
NUMB. 17.
FROM THURSDAY NOVEMBER 16, TO THURSDAY NOVEMBER 23,
1710.
Qui sunt boni cives? Qui belli,
qui domi de patria bene merentes, nisi qui patriae
beneficia meminerunt?
I will employ this present paper upon
a subject, which of late hath very much affected me,
which I have considered with a good deal of application,
and made several enquiries about, among those persons
who I thought were best able to inform me; and if
I deliver my sentiments with some freedom, I hope
it will be forgiven, while I accompany it with that
tenderness which so nice a point requires.
I said in a former paper (Num
that one specious objection to the late removals at
court, was the fear of giving uneasiness to a general,
who has been long successful abroad: and accordingly,
the common clamour of tongues and pens for some months
past, has run against the baseness, the inconstancy
and ingratitude of the whole kingdom to the Duke of
M[arlborough], in return of the most eminent services
that ever were performed by a subject to his country;
not to be equalled in history. And then to be
sure some bitter stroke of detraction against Alexander
and Cæsar, who never did us the least injury.
Besides, the people that read Plutarch come upon us
with parallels drawn from the Greeks and Romans, who
ungratefully dealt with I know not how many of their
most deserving generals: while the profounder
politicians, have seen pamphlets, where Tacitus and
Machiavel have been quoted to shew the danger
of too resplendent a merit. Should a stranger
hear these furious outcries of ingratitude against
our general, without knowing the particulars, he would
be apt to enquire where was his tomb, or whether he
were allowed Christian burial? not doubting but we
had put him to some ignominious death. Or, has
he been tried for his life, and very narrowly escaped?
has he been accused of high crimes and misdemeanours?
has the prince seized on his estate, and left him
to starve? has he been hooted at as he passed the
streets, by an ungrateful mob? have neither honours,
offices nor grants, been conferred on him or his family?
have not he and they been barbarously stripped of
them all? have not he and his forces been ill paid
abroad? and does not the prince by a scanty, limited
commission, hinder him from pursuing his own methods
in the conduct of the war? has he no power at all
of disposing commissions as he pleases? is he not
severely used by the ministry or Parliament, who yearly
call him to a strict account? has the senate ever
thanked him for good success, and have they not always
publicly censured him for the least miscarriage?
Will the accusers of the nation join issue upon any
of these particulars, or tell us in what point, our
damnable sin of ingratitude lies? Why, it is
plain and clear; for while he is commanding abroad,
the Queen dissolves her Parliament, and changes her
ministry at home: in which universal calamity,
no less than two persons allied by marriage to the
general, have lost their places. Whence came this
wonderful sympathy between the civil and military
powers? Will the troops in Flanders refuse to
fight, unless they can have their own lord keeper,
their own lord president of the council, their own
chief Governor of Ireland, and their own Parliament?
In a kingdom where the people are free, how came they
to be so fond of having their councils under the influence
of their army, or those that lead it? who in all well
instituted states, had no commerce with the civil
power, further than to receive their orders, and obey
them without reserve.
When a general is not so popular,
either in his army or at home, as one might expect
from a long course of success; it may perhaps be ascribed
to his wisdom, or perhaps to his complexion.
The possession of some one quality, or a defect in
some other, will extremely damp the people’s
favour, as well as the love of the soldiers. Besides,
this is not an age to produce favourites of the people,
while we live under a Queen who engrosses all our
love, and all our veneration; and where, the only way
for a great general or minister, to acquire any degree
of subordinate affection from the public, must be
by all marks of the most entire submission and respect,
to her sacred person and commands; otherwise, no
pretence of great services, either in the field or
the cabinet, will be able to screen them from universal
hatred.
But the late ministry was closely
joined to the general, by friendship, interest, alliance,
inclination and opinion, which cannot be affirmed of
the present; and the ingratitude of the nation, lies
in the people’s joining as one man, to wish,
that such a ministry should be changed. Is it
not at the same time notorious to the whole kingdom,
that nothing but a tender regard to the general, was
able to preserve that ministry so long, till neither
God nor man could suffer their continuance? Yet
in the highest ferment of things, we heard few or
no reflections upon this great commander, but all
seemed unanimous in wishing he might still be at the
head of the confederate forces; only at the same time,
in case he were resolved to resign, they chose rather
to turn their thoughts somewhere else, than throw
up all in despair. And this I cannot but add,
in defence of the people, with regard to the person
we are speaking of, that in the high station he has
been for many years past, his real defects (as nothing
human is without them) have in a detracting age been
very sparingly mentioned, either in libels or conversation,
and all his successes very freely and universally
applauded.
There is an active and a passive ingratitude;
applying both to this occasion, we may say, the first
is, when a prince or people returns good services
with cruelty or ill usage: the other is, when
good services are not at all, or very meanly rewarded.
We have already spoke of the former; let us therefore
in the second place, examine how the services of our
general have been rewarded; and whether upon that article,
either prince or people have been guilty of ingratitude?
Those are the most valuable rewards,
which are given to us from the certain knowledge of
the donor, that they fit our temper best: I
shall therefore say nothing of the title of Duke,
or the Garter, which the Queen bestowed [on] the general
in the beginning of her reign; but I shall come to
more substantial instances, and mention nothing which
has not been given in the face of the world. The
lands of Woodstock, may, I believe, be reckoned worth
40,000_l_. On the building of Blenheim Castle
200,000_l_. have been already expended, though it be
not yet near finished. The grant of 5,000_l.
per ann._ on the post-office, is richly
worth 100,000_l_. His principality in Germany
may be computed at 30,000_l_. Pictures, jewels,
and other gifts from foreign princes, 60,000_l_.
The grant at the Pall-Mall, the rangership, &c. for
want of more certain knowledge, may be called 10,000,_l_.
His own, and his duchess’s employments at five
years value, reckoning only the known and avowed salaries,
are very low rated at 100,000_l_. Here is a good
deal above half a million of money, and I dare say,
those who are loudest with the clamour of ingratitude,
will readily own, that all this is but a trifle in
comparison of what is untold.
The reason of my stating this account
is only to convince the world, that we are not quite
so ungrateful either as the Greeks or the Romans.
And in order to adjust this matter with all fairness,
I shall confine myself to the latter, who were much
the more generous of the two. A victorious general
of Rome in the height of that empire, having entirely
subdued his enemy, was rewarded with the larger triumph;
and perhaps a statue in the Forum, a bull for a sacrifice,
an embroidered garment to appear in: a crown
of laurel, a monumental trophy with inscriptions; sometimes
five hundred or a thousand copper coins were struck
on occasion of the victory, which doing honour to
the general, we will place to his account; and lastly,
sometimes, though not very frequently, a triumphal
arch. These are all the rewards that I can call
to mind, which a victorious general received after
his return from the most glorious expedition, conquered
some great kingdom, brought the king himself, his family
and nobles to adorn the triumph in chains, and made
the kingdom either a Roman province, or at best a
poor depending state, in humble alliance to that empire.
Now of all these rewards, I find but two which were
of real profit to the general; the laurel crown, made
and sent him at the charge of the public, and the
embroidered garment; but I cannot find whether this
last were paid for by the senate or the general:
however, we will take the more favourable opinion,
and in all the rest, admit the whole expense, as if
it were ready money in the general’s pocket.
Now according to these computations on both sides,
we will draw up two fair accounts, the one of Roman
gratitude, and the other of British ingratitude, and
set them together in balance.
A BILL OF ROMAN GRATITUDE.
l.
s. d.
Imprimis for frankincense and earthen pots
to burn it in 4
10
A bull for sacrifice 8
0
An embroidered garment 50
0
A crown of laurel 0
0
A statue 100
0
A trophy 80
0
A thousand copper medals value half pence
a piece 2
1
A triumphal arch 500
0
A triumphal car, valued as a modern coach 100
0
Casual charges at the triumph 150
0
-------------
Sum
total 994 11 10
A BILL OF BRITISH INGRATITUDE.
l.
s. d.
Imprimis Woodstock 40,000
0
Blenheim 200,000
0
Post-office grant 100,000
0
Mildenheim 30,000
0
Pictures, jewels, &c. 60,000
0
Pall-Mall grant, &c. 10,000
0
Employments 100,000
0
-----------------
Sum total 540,000
0 0
This is an account of the visible
profits on both sides; and if the Roman general had
any private perquisites, they may be easily discounted,
and by more probable computations, and differ yet
more upon the balance; if we consider, that all the
gold and silver for safeguards and contributions,
also all valuable prizes taken in the war were openly
exposed in the triumph, and then lodged in the Capitol
for the public service.
So that upon the whole, we are not
yet quite so bad at worst, as the Romans were
at best. And I doubt, those who raise this
hideous cry of ingratitude, may be mightily mistaken
in the consequence they propose from such complaints.
I remember a saying of Seneca, Multos ingratos
invenimus, plures facimus; “We find many
ungrateful persons in the world, but we make
more,” by setting too high a rate upon our pretensions,
and under-valuing the rewards we receive. When
unreasonable bills are brought in, they ought to be
taxed, or cut off in the middle. Where there
have been long accounts between two persons, I have
known one of them perpetually making large demands
and pressing for payments, who when the accounts were
cast up on both sides, was found to be creditor for
some hundreds. I am thinking if a proclamation
were issued out for every man to send in his bill
of merits, and the lowest price he set them at,
what a pretty sum it would amount to, and how many
such islands as this must be sold to pay them.
I form my judgment from the practice of those who
sometimes happen to pay themselves, and I dare affirm,
would not be so unjust to take a farthing more than
they think is due to their deserts. I will instance
only in one article. A lady of my acquaintance,
appropriated twenty-six pounds a year out of her allowance,
for certain uses, which her woman received, and was
to pay to the lady or her order, as it was called
for. But after eight years, it appeared upon
the strictest calculation, that the woman had paid
but four pound a year, and sunk two-and-twenty for
her own pocket. It is but supposing instead of
twenty-six pound, twenty-six thousand, and by that
you may judge what the pretensions of modern merit
are, where it happens to be its own paymaster.
“The following sums have been rec’d since
the year 1701:
“Receiv’d on Accompt of Bread and Bread-waggons
L63,319 3
Receiv’d 10,000,_l_. by Annual Contingencies
100,000 0
Receiv’d by 2 and 1/2 per cent, from
the
payment of Troops
460,062 6 7-3/
-----------------
623,381
10 2-3/4”
-----------------]
NUMB. 18.
FROM THURSDAY NOVEMBER 23, TO THURSDAY NOVEMBER 30,
1710.
Quas res luxuries in flagitus,...
avaritia in rapinis, superbia in contumeliis efficere
potuisset; eas omnes sese hoc uno praetore per triennium
pertulisse aiebant.
When I first undertook this paper,
I was resolved to concern myself only with things,
and not with persons. Whether I have kept or broken
this resolution, I cannot recollect; and I will not
be at the pains to examine, but leave the matter to
those little antagonists, who may want a topic for
criticism. Thus much I have discovered, that it
is in writing as in building; where, after all our
schemes and calculations, we are mightily deceived
in our accounts, and often forced to make use of any
materials we can find, that the work may be kept a
going. Besides, to speak my opinion, the things
I have occasion to mention, are so closely linked
to persons, that nothing but Time (the father of Oblivion)
can separate them. Let me put a parallel case:
Suppose I should complain, that last week my coach
was within an inch of overturning, in a smooth, even
way, and drawn by very gentle horses; to be sure, all
my friends would immediately lay the fault upon John,
because they knew, he then presided in my coach-box.
Again, suppose I should discover some uneasiness to
find myself, I knew not how, over head-and-ears in
debt, though I was sure my tenants paid their rents
very well, and that I never spent half my income;
they would certainly advise me to turn off Mr. Oldfox
my receiver, and take another. If, as a justice
of peace, I should tell a friend that my warrants
and mittimuses were never drawn up as I would have
them; that I had the misfortune to send an honest man
to gaol, and dismiss a knave; he would bid me no longer
trust Charles and Harry, my two clerks, whom he
knew to be ignorant, wilful, assuming and ill-inclined
fellows. If I should add, that my tenants made
me very uneasy with their squabbles and broils among
themselves; he would counsel me to cashier Will Bigamy,
the seneschal of my manor. And lastly, if my
neighbour and I happened to have a misunderstanding
about the delivery of a message, what could I do less
than strip and discard the blundering or malicious
rascal that carried it?
It is the same thing in the conduct
of public affairs, where they have been managed with
rashness or wilfulness, corruption, ignorance or injustice;
barely to relate the facts, at least, while they are
fresh in memory, will as much reflect upon the persons
concerned, as if we had told their names at length.
I have therefore since thought of
another expedient, frequently practised with great
safety and success by satirical writers: which
is, that of looking into history for some character
bearing a resemblance to the person we would describe;
and with the absolute power of altering, adding or
suppressing what circumstances we please, I conceived
we must have very bad luck, or very little skill to
fail. However, some days ago in a coffee-house,
looking into one of the politic weekly papers; I found
the writer had fallen into this scheme, and I happened
to light on that part, where he was describing a person,
who from small beginnings grew (as I remember) to
be constable of France, and had a very haughty, imperious
wife. I took the author as a friend to our faction,
(for so with great propriety of speech they call the
Queen and ministry, almost the whole clergy, and nine
parts in ten of the kingdom) and I said to a gentleman
near me, that although I knew well enough what persons
the author meant, yet there were several particulars
in the husband’s character, which I could not
reconcile, for that of the lady was just and adequate
enough; but it seems I mistook the whole matter, and
applied all I had read to a couple of persons, who
were not at that time in the writer’s thoughts.
Now to avoid such a misfortune as
this, I have been for some time consulting Livy and
Tacitus, to find out a character of a Princeps
Senatus, a Praetor Urbanus, a Quaestor
Aerarius, a Caesari ab Epistolis, and a
Proconsul; but among the worst of them,
I cannot discover one from whom to draw a parallel,
without doing injury to a Roman memory: so that
I am compelled to have recourse to Tully. But
this author relating facts only as an orator, I thought
it would be best to observe his method, and make an
extract from six harangues of his against Verres,
only still preserving the form of an oration.
I remember a younger brother of mine, who deceased
about two months ago, presented the world with a speech
of Alcibiades against an Athenian brewer: Now,
I am told for certain, that in those days there was
no ale in Athens; and therefore that speech, or at
least a great part of it, must needs be spurious.
The difference between me and my brother is this; he
makes Alcibiades say a great deal more than he really
did, and I make Cicero say a great deal less.
This Verres had been the Roman governor of Sicily
for three years; and on return from his government,
the Sicilians entreated Cicero to impeach him in the
Senate, which he accordingly did in several orations,
from whence I have faithfully translated and abstracted
that which follows.
“MY LORDS,
“A pernicious opinion hath for
some time prevailed, not only at Rome, but among our
neighbouring nations, that a man who has money enough,
though he be ever so guilty, cannot be condemned in
this place. But however industriously this opinion
be spread, to cast an odium on the Senate, we have
brought before your lordships Caius Verres, a
person, for his life and actions, already condemned
by all men; but as he hopes, and gives out, by the
influence of his wealth, to be here absolved.
In condemning this man, you have an opportunity of
belying that general scandal, of redeeming the credit
lost by former judgments, and recovering the love of
the Roman people, as well as of our neighbours.
I have brought a man here before you, my lords, who
is a robber of the public treasure, an overturner
of law and justice, and the disgrace, as well as destruction,
of the Sicilian province: of whom, if you shall
determine with equity and due severity, your authority
will remain entire, and upon such an establishment
as it ought to be: but if his great riches will
be able to force their way through that religious
reverence and truth, which become so awful an assembly,
I shall, however, obtain thus much, that the defect
will be laid where it ought, and that it shall not
be objected that the criminal was not produced, or
that there wanted an orator to accuse him. This
man, my lords, has publicly said, that those ought
to be afraid of accusations who have only robbed enough
for their own support and maintenance; but that he
has plundered sufficient to bribe numbers, and that
nothing is so high or so holy which money cannot corrupt.
Take that support from him, and he can have no other
left. For what eloquence will be able to defend
a man, whose life has been tainted with so many scandalous
vices, and who has been so long condemned by the universal
opinion of the world? To pass over the foul stains
and ignominy of his youth, his corrupt management
in all employments he has borne, his treachery and
irreligion, his injustice and oppression, he has left
of late such monuments of his villainies in Sicily,
made such havoc and confusion there, during his government,
that the province cannot by any means be restored
to its former state, and hardly recover itself at all
under many years, and by a long succession of good
governors. While this man governed in that island,
the Sicilians had neither the benefit of our laws,
nor their own, nor even of common right. In Sicily,
no man now possesses more than what the governor’s
lust and avarice have overlooked, or what he was forced
to neglect out of mere weariness and satiety of oppression.
Every thing where he presided, was determined by his
arbitrary will, and the best subjects he treated as
enemies. To recount his abominable debaucheries,
would offend any modest ear, since so many could not
preserve their daughters and wives from his lust.
I believe there is no man who ever heard his name,
that cannot relate his enormities. We bring before
you in judgment, my lords, a public robber, an adulterer,
a DEFILER OF ALTARS, an enemy of religion, and
of all that is sacred; he sold all employments in
Sicily of judicature, magistracy, and trust, places
in the council, and the priesthood itself, to the
highest bidder; and has plundered that island of forty
millions of sesterces. And here I cannot
but observe to your lordships, in what manner Verres
passed the day: the morning was spent in taking
bribes, and selling employments, the rest of it in
drunkenness and lust. His discourse at table
was scandalously unbecoming the dignity of his station;
noise, brutality, and obsceneness. One particular
I cannot omit, that in the high character of governor
of Sicily, upon a solemn day, a day set apart for
public prayer for the safety of the commonwealth; he
stole at evening, in a chair, to a married woman of
infamous character, against all decency and prudence,
as well as against all laws both human and divine.
Didst thou think, O Verres, the government of
Sicily was given thee with so large a commission, only
by the power of that to break all the bars of law,
modesty, and duty, to suppose all men’s fortunes
thine, and leave no house free from thy rapine, or
lust? &c.”
This extract, to deal ingenuously,
has cost me more pains than I think it is worth, having
only served to convince me, that modern corruptions
are not to be paralleled by ancient examples, without
having recourse to poetry or fable. For instance,
I never read in story of a law enacted to take away
the force of all laws whatsoever; by which a man
may safely commit upon the last of June, what he would
infallibly be hanged for if he committed on the first
of July; by which the greatest criminals may escape,
provided they continue long enough in power to antiquate
their crimes, and by stifling them a while, can deceive
the legislature into an amnesty, of which the enactors
do not at that time foresee the consequence.
A cautious merchant will be apt to suspect, when he
finds a man who has the repute of a cunning dealer,
and with whom he has old accounts, urging for a general
release. When I reflect on this proceeding, I
am not surprised, that those who contrived a parliamentary
sponge for their crimes, are now afraid of a new revolution
sponge for their money: and if it were possible
to contrive a sponge that could only affect those
who had need of the other, perhaps it would not be
ill employed.
NUMB. 19.
FROM THURSDAY NOVEMBER 30, TO THURSDAY DECEMBER 7,
1710.
Quippe ubi fas versunt atque nefas:
tot bella per orbem: Tam multae, scelerum facies
I am often violently tempted to let
the world freely know who the author of this paper
is; to tell them my name and titles at length; which
would prevent abundance of inconsistent criticisms
I daily hear upon it. Those who are enemies to
the notions and opinions I would advance, are sometimes
apt to quarrel with the “Examiner” as defective
in point of wit, and sometimes of truth. At other
times they are so generous and candid, to allow, it
is written by a club, and that very great hands have
fingers in it. As for those who only appear its
adversaries in print, they give me but very little
pain: The paper I hold lies at my mercy, and
I can govern it as I please; therefore, when I begin
to find the wit too bright, the learning too deep,
and the satire too keen for me to deal with, (a very
frequent case no doubt, where a man is constantly attacked
by such shrewd adversaries) I peaceably fold it up,
or fling it aside, and read no more. It would
be happy for me to have the same power over people’s
tongues, and not be forced to hear my own work railed
at and commended fifty times a day, affecting all
the while a countenance wholly unconcerned, and joining
out of policy or good manners with the judgment of
both parties: this, I confess, is too great a
hardship for so bashful and unexperienced a writer.
But, alas, I lie under another discouragement
of much more weight: I was very unfortunate in
the choice of my party when I set up to be a writer;
where is the merit, or what opportunity to discover
our wit, our courage, or our learning, in drawing
our pens for the defence of a cause, which the Queen
and both Houses of Parliament, and nine parts in ten
of the kingdom, have so unanimously embraced?
I am cruelly afraid, we politic authors must begin
to lessen our expenses, and lie for the future at the
mercy of our printers. All hopes now are gone
of writing ourselves into places or pensions.
A certain starveling author who worked under the late
administration, told me with a heavy heart, above a
month ago, that he and some others of his brethren
had secretly offered their service dog-cheap to the
present ministry, but were all refused, and are now
maintained by contribution, like Jacobites or fanatics.
I have been of late employed out of perfect commiseration,
in doing them good offices: for, whereas some
were of opinion that these hungry zealots should not
be suffered any longer in their malapert way to snarl
at the present course of public proceedings; and whereas,
others proposed, that they should be limited to a
certain number, and permitted to write for their masters,
in the same manner as counsel are assigned for other
criminals; that is, to say all they can in defence
of their client, but not reflect upon the court:
I humbly gave my advice, that they should be suffered
to write on, as they used to do; which I did purely
out of regard to their persons: for I hoped it
would keep them out of harm’s way, and prevent
them from falling into evil courses, which though
of little consequence to the public, would certainly
be fatal to themselves. If I have room at the
bottom of this paper, I will transcribe a petition
to the present ministry, sent me by one of these authors,
in behalf of himself and fourscore others of his brethren.
For my own part, notwithstanding the
little encouragement to be hoped for at this time
from the men in power, I shall continue my paper till
either the world or myself grow weary of it:
the latter is easily determined; and for the former,
I shall not leave it to the partiality of either party,
but to the infallible judgment of my printer.
One principal end I designed by it, was to undeceive
those well-meaning people, who have been drawn unaware
into a wrong sense of things, either by the common
prejudices of education and company, the great personal
qualities of some party leaders, or the foul misrepresentations
that were constantly made of all who durst differ
from them in the smallest article. I have known
such men struck with the thoughts of some late changes,
which, as they pretend to think, were made without
any reason visible to the world. In answer to
this, it is not sufficient to allege, what nobody doubts,
that a prince may choose his own servants without
giving a reason to his subjects; because it is certain,
that a wise and good prince will not change his ministers
without very important reasons; and a good subject
ought to suppose, that in such a case there are such
reasons, though he be not apprised of them, otherwise
he must inwardly tax his prince of capriciousness,
inconstancy, or ill-design. Such reasons indeed,
may not be obvious to persons prejudiced, or at great
distance, or short thinkers; and therefore, if they
be no secrets of state, nor any ill consequences to
be apprehended from their publication; it is no uncommendable
work in any private hand to lay them open for the
satisfaction of all men. And if what I have already
said, or shall hereafter say of this kind, be thought
to reflect upon persons, though none have been named,
I know not how it can possibly be avoided. The
Queen in her speech mentions, “with great concern,”
that “the navy and other offices are burthened
with heavy debts, and desires that the like may be
prevented for the time to come." And, if it be now
possible to prevent the continuance of an evil that
has been so long growing upon us, and is arrived to
such a height, surely those corruptions and mismanagements
must have been great which first introduced them, before
our taxes were eaten up by annuities.
If I were able to rip up, and discover
in all their colours, only about eight or nine thousand
of the most scandalous abuses, that have been committed
in all parts of public management for twenty years
past, by a certain set of men and their instruments,
I should reckon it some service to my country, and
to posterity. But to say the truth, I should be
glad the authors’ names were conveyed to future
times along with their actions. For though the
present age may understand well enough the little
hints we give, the parallels we draw, and the characters
we describe, yet this will all be lost to the next.
However, if these papers, reduced into a more durable
form, should happen to live till our grandchildren
are men, I hope they may have curiosity enough to
consult annals, and compare dates, in order to find
out what names were then intrusted with the conduct
of affairs, in the consequences whereof, themselves
will so deeply share; like a heavy debt in a private
family, which often lies an incumbrance upon an estate
for three generations.
But leaving the care of informing
posterity to better pens, I shall with due regard
to truth, discretion, and the safety of my person from
the men of the new-fangled moderation, continue to
take all proper opportunities of letting the misled
part of the people see how grossly they have been
abused, and in what particulars: I shall also
endeavour to convince them, that the present course
we are in, is the most probable means, with the blessing
of God, to extricate ourselves out of all our difficulties.
Among those who are pleased to write
or talk against this paper, I have observed a strange
manner of reasoning, which I should be glad to hear
them explain themselves upon. They make no ceremony
of exclaiming upon all occasions against a change
of ministry, in so critical and dangerous a conjuncture.
What shall we, who heartily approve and join in those
proceedings, say in defence of them? We own the
juncture of affairs to be as they describe: we
are pushed for an answer, and are forced at last freely
to confess, that the corruptions and abuses in
every branch of the administration, were so numerous
and intolerable, that all things must have ended in
ruin, without some speedy reformation. This I
have already asserted in a former paper; and the replies
I have read or heard, have been in plain terms to
affirm the direct contrary; and not only to defend
and celebrate the late persons and proceedings, but
to threaten me with law and vengeance, for casting
reflections on so many great and honourable men, whose
birth, virtue and abilities, whose morals and religion,
whose love of their country and its constitution in
Church and State, were so universally allowed; and
all this set off with odious comparisons reflecting
on the present choice. Is not this in plain and
direct terms to tell all the world that the Qu[een]
has in a most dangerous crisis turned out a whole
set of the best ministers that ever served a prince,
without any manner of reason but her royal pleasure,
and brought in others of a character directly contrary?
And how so vile an opinion as this can consist with
the least pretence to loyalty or good manners, let
the world determine.
I confess myself so little a refiner
in the politics, as not to be able to discover, what
other motive besides obedience to the Queen, a sense
of public danger, and a true love of their country,
joined with invincible courage, could spirit those
great men, who have now under her Majesty’s
authority undertaken the direction of affairs.
What can they expect but the utmost efforts of malice
from a set of enraged domestic adversaries, perpetually
watching over their conduct, crossing all their designs,
and using every art to foment divisions among them,
in order to join with the weakest upon any rupture?
The difficulties they must encounter are nine times
more and greater than ever; and the prospects of interest,
after the reapings and gleanings of so many years,
nine times less. Every misfortune at home or
abroad, though the necessary consequence of former
counsels, will be imputed to them; and all the good
success given to the merit of former schemes.
A sharper has held your cards all the evening, played
booty, and lost your money, and when things are almost
desperate, you employ an honest gentleman to retrieve
your losses.
I would ask whether the Queen’s
speech does not contain her intentions, in every particular
relating to the public, that a good subject, a Briton
and a Protestant can possibly have at heart? “To
carry on the war in all its parts, particularly in
Spain, with the utmost vigour, in order to procure
a safe and honourable peace for us and our allies;
to find some ways of paying the debts on the navy;
to support and encourage the Church of England; to
preserve the British constitution according to the
Union; to maintain the indulgence by law allowed to
scrupulous consciences; and to employ none but such
as are for the Protestant succession in the house
of Hanover." It is known enough, that speeches on
these occasions, are ever digested by the advice of
those who are in the chief confidence, and consequently
that these are the sentiments of her Majesty’s
ministers, as well as her own; and we see, the two
Houses have unanimously agreed with her in every article.
When the least counterpaces are made to any of
these resolutions, it will then be time enough for
our malcontents to bawl out Popery, persecution, arbitrary
power, and the Pretender. In the mean while,
it is a little hard to think, that this island can
hold but six men of honesty and ability enough to
serve their prince and country; or that our safety
should depend upon their credit, any more than it
would upon the breath in their nostrils. Why should
not a revolution in the ministry be sometimes necessary
as well as a revolution in the crown? It is to
be presumed, the former is at least as lawful in itself,
and perhaps the experiment not quite so dangerous.
The revolution of the sun about the earth was formerly
thought a necessary expedient to solve appearances,
though it left many difficulties unanswered; till
philosophers contrived a better, which is that of the
earth’s revolution about the sun. This
is found upon experience to save much time and labour,
to correct many irregular motions, and is better suited
to the respect due from a planet to a fixed star.
“For right and wrong we see perverted here:
So many wars arise, such countless forms
Of crime and evil agitate the globe.” R.
KENNEDY.
[T.S.]]
NUMB. 20.
FROM THURSDAY DECEMBER 7, TO THURSDAY DECEMBER 14,
1710.
Sunt quibus in Satira videor nimis
acer, et ultra
Legem tendere opus: sine nervis altera,
quicquid
Composui, pars esse putat
When the printer came last week for
his copy, he brought along with him a bundle of those
papers, which in the phrase of Whig coffee-houses
have “swinged off” the “Examiner,”
most of which I had never seen nor heard of before.
I remember some time ago in one of the “Tatlers”
to have read a letter, wherein several reasons
are assigned for the present corruption and degeneracy
of our taste, but I think the writer has omitted the
principal one, which I take to be the prejudice of
parties. Neither can I excuse either side of
this infirmity; I have heard the arrantest drivellers
pro and con commended for their smartness
even by men of tolerable judgment; and the best performances
exploded as nonsense and stupidity. This indeed
may partly be imputed to policy and prudence; but
it is chiefly owing to that blindness, which prejudice
and passion cast over the understanding: I mention
this because I think it properly within my province
in quality of Examiner. And having granted
more than is usual for an enemy to do, I must now take
leave to say, that so weak a cause, and so ruined
a faction, were never provided with pens more resembling
their condition, or less suited to their occasions.
Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus
istis
Tempus eget
This is the more to be wondered at,
when we consider they have the full liberty of the
press, that they have no other way left to recover
themselves, and that they want not men of excellent
parts to set their arguments in the best light they
will bear. Now if two men would argue on both
sides with fairness, good sense, and good manners,
it would be no ill entertainment to the town, and
perhaps be the most effectual means to reconcile us.
But I am apt to think that men of a great genius are
hardly brought to prostitute their pens in a very
odious cause; which besides, is more properly undertaken
by noise and impudence, by gross railing and scurrility,
by calumny and lying, and by little trifling cavils
and carpings in the wrong place, which those whifflers
use for arguments and answers.
I was well enough pleased with a story
of one of these answerers, who in a paper last
week found many faults with a late calculation of mine.
Being it seems more deep learned than his fellows,
he was resolved to begin his answer with a Latin verse,
as well as other folks: His business was to look
out for something against an “Examiner”
that would pretend to tax accounts; and turning
over Virgil, he had the luck to find these words,
so down they went, and out they would
have come, if one of his unlucky prompters had not
hindered it.
I here declare once for all, that
if these people will not be quiet, I shall take the
bread out of their mouths, and answer the “Examiner”
myself; which I protest I have never yet done, though
I have been often charged with it; neither have those
answers been written or published with my privity,
as malicious people are pleased to give out; nor do
I believe the common Whiggish report, that the authors
are hired by the ministry to give my paper a value.
But the friends of this paper have
given me more uneasiness with their impatience, than
its enemies by their answers. I heard myself censured
last week by some of the former, for promising to discover
the corruptions in the late administration, but
never performing any thing. The latter on the
other side, are thundering out their anathemas against
me for discovering so many. I am at a loss how
to decide between these contraries, and shall therefore
proceed after my own way, as I have hitherto done:
my design being of more importance than that of writing
only to gratify the spleen of one side, or provoke
that of the other, though it may occasionally have
both effects.
I shall therefore go on to relate
some facts that in my humble opinion were no hindrance
to the change of the ministry.
The first I shall mention, was that
of introducing certain new phrases into the court
style, which had been very seldom or never made use
of in former times. They usually ran in the following
terms: “Madam, I cannot serve you while
such a one is in employment: I desire humbly to
resign my commission, if Mr. ------ continues secretary
of state: I cannot answer that the city will
lend money, unless my L-- ------ be pr[esiden]t
of the c[ounc]il. I must beg leave to surrender,
except ------ has the staff. I must not accept
the seals, unless ------ comes into the other office.”
This has been the language of late years from subjects
to their prince. Thus they stood upon terms, and
must have their own conditions to ruin the nation.
Nay, this dutiful manner of capitulating, had spread
so far, that every understrapper began at length to
perk up and assume: he “expected a regiment”;
or “his son must be a major”; or “his
brother a collector”, else he threatened to
vote “according to his conscience.”
Another of their glorious attempts,
was the clause intended in the bill for the encouragement
of learning; for taking off the obligation upon
fellows of colleges in both Universities to enter upon
holy orders: the design of which, as I have heard
the undertakers often confess, was to remove the care
of educating youth out of the hands of the clergy,
who are apt to infuse into their pupils too great
a regard for the Church and the Monarchy. But
there was a farther secret in this clause, which may
best be discovered by the first projectors, or at least
the garblers of it; and these are known to be Cllns
and Tindal, in conjunction with a most pious lawyer
their disciple.
What shall we say to their prodigious
skill in arithmetic, discovered so constantly in their
decision of elections; where they were able to make
out by the rule of false, that three were more
than three-and-twenty, and fifteen than fifty?
Nay it was a maxim which I never heard any of them
dispute, that in determining elections, they were not
to consider where the right lay, but which of the
candidates was likelier to be true to “the cause.”
This they used to illustrate by a very apt and decent
similitude, of gaming with a sharper; if you cannot
cheat as well as he, you are certainly undone.
Another cast of their politics was
that of endeavouring to impeach an innocent ldy,
for no reason imaginable, but her faithful and diligent
service to the Q[ueen], and the favour her M[ajesty]
bore to her upon that account, when others had acted
contrary in so shameful a manner. What else was
the crime? Had she treated her royal mistress
with insolence or neglect? Had she enriched herself
by a long practice of bribery, and obtaining exorbitant
grants? Had she engrossed her M[ajest]y’s
favours, without admitting any access but through her
means? Had she heaped employments upon herself,
her family and dependants? Had she an imperious,
haughty behaviour? Or, after all, was it a perfect
blunder and mistake of one person for another?
I have heard of a man who lay all night on a rough
pavement; and in the morning, wondering what it could
possibly be, that made him rest so ill, happened to
see a feather under him, and imputed the uneasiness
of his lodging to that. I remember likewise the
story of a giant in Rabelais, who used to feed
upon wind-mills, but was unfortunately choked with
a small lump of fresh butter, before a warm oven.
And here I cannot but observe how
very refined some people are in their generosity and
gratitude. There is a certain great person
(I shall not say of what sex) who for many years past,
was the constant mark and butt, against which our
present malcontents used to discharge their resentment:
upon whom they bestowed all the terms of scurrility,
that malice, envy and indignation could invent; whom
they publicly accused of every vice that can possess
a human heart: pride, covetousness, ingratitude,
oppression, treachery, dissimulation, violence and
fury, all in the highest extremes: but of late,
they have changed their language on a sudden; that
person is now the most faithful and just that ever
served a prince; that person, originally differing
from them in principles, as far as east and west,
but united in practice, and falling together, they
are now reconciled, and find twenty resemblances between
each other, which they could never discover before.
Tanti est ut placeam tibi perire.
But to return: How could it be
longer suffered in a free nation, that all avenues
to preferment should be shut up, except a very few,
when one or two stood constant sentry, who docked
all favours they handed down; or spread a huge invisible
net, between the prince and subject, through which
nothing of value could pass? And here I cannot
but admire at one consequence from this management,
which is of an extraordinary nature: Generally
speaking, princes who have ill ministers are apt to
suffer in their reputation, as well as in the love
of the people: but it was not so with the Q[ueen].
When the sun is overcast by those clouds he exhales
from the earth, we still acknowledge his light and
influence, and at last find he can dispel and drive
them down to the horizon. The wisest prince,
by the necessity of affairs, the misrepresentations
of designing men, or the innocent mistakes, even of
a good predecessor, may find himself encompassed by
a crew of courtiers, whom time, opportunity and success,
have miserably corrupted. And if he can save himself
and his people from ruin, under the worst administration,
what may not his subjects hope for, when with their
universal applause, he changes hands, and makes use
of the best?
Another great objection with me against
the late party, was the cruel tyranny they put upon
conscience, by a barbarous inquisition, refusing to
admit the least toleration or indulgence. They
imposed a hundred tests, but could never be prevailed
with to dispense with, or take off the smallest, nor
even admit of occasional conformity; but
went on daily (as their apostle Tindal expresseth
it) narrowing their terms of communion; pronouncing
nine parts in ten of the kingdom heretics, and shutting
them out of the pale of their Church. These very
men, who talk so much of a comprehension in religion
among us, how came they to allow so little of it in
politics, which is their sole religion? You
shall hear them pretending to bewail the animosities
kept up between the Church of England and Dissenters,
where the differences in opinion are so few and inconsiderable;
yet these very sons of moderation were pleased to
excommunicate every man who disagreed with them in
the smallest article of their political creed,
or who refused to receive any new article, how difficult
soever to digest, which the leaders imposed at pleasure
to serve their own interest.
I will quit this subject for the present,
when I have told one story. “There was a
great king in Scythia, whose dominions were bounded
to the north, by the poor, mountainous territories
of a petty lord, who paid homage as the king’s
vassal. The Scythian prime minister being largely
bribed, indirectly obtained his master’s consent
to suffer this lord to build forts, and provide himself
with arms, under pretence of preventing the inroads
of the Tartars. This little depending sovereign,
finding he was now in a condition to be troublesome,
began to insist upon terms, and threatened upon every
occasion to unite with the Tartars: upon which,
the prime minister, who began to be in pain about his
head, proposed a match betwixt his master, and the
only daughter of this tributary lord, which he had
the good luck to bring to pass: and from that
time, valued himself as author of a most glorious
union, which indeed was grown of absolute necessity
by his corruption.” This passage, cited
literally from an old history of Sarmatia, I thought
fit to set down, on purpose to perplex little smattering
remarkers, and put them upon the hunt for an application.
“There are, to whom too poignant
I appear; Beyond the laws of satire too severe.
My lines are weak, unsinewed, others say.” P.
FRANCIS. [T.S.]]
“’Tis not such aid or such
defence as thine
The time demands.” –R.
KENNEDY.
[T.S.]]
“So may thy bees the poisonous
yew forgo.”
ARCHDN. F. WRANGHAM.
[T.S.]]
NUMB. 21.
FROM THURSDAY DECEMBER 14, TO THURSDAY DECEMBER 21,
1710.
_ Pugnacem scirent
sapiente minorem._
I am very much at a loss how to proceed
upon the subject intended in this paper, which a new
incident has led me to engage in: The subject
I mean, is that of soldiers and the army; but being
a matter wholly out of my trade, I shall handle it
in as cautious a manner as I am able.
It is certain, that the art of war
hath suffered great changes, almost in every age and
country of the world; however, there are some maxims
relating to it, that will be eternal truths, and which
every reasonable man will allow.
In the early times of Greece and Rome,
the armies of those states were composed of their
citizens, who took no pay, because the quarrel was
their own; and therefore the war was usually decided
in one campaign; or, if it lasted longer, however
in winter the soldiers returned to their several callings,
and were not distinguished from the rest of the people.
The Gothic governments in Europe, though they were
of military institution, yet observed almost the same
method. I shall instance only here in England.
Those who held lands in capite of the king,
were obliged to attend him in his wars with a certain
number of men, who all held lands from them at easy
rents on that condition. These fought without
pay, and when the service was over, returned again
to their farms. It is recorded of William Rufus,
that being absent in Normandy, and engaged in a war
with his brother, he ordered twenty thousand men to
be raised, and sent over from hence to supply his army;
but having struck up a peace before they were embarked,
he gave them leave to disband, on condition they would
pay him ten shillings a man, which amounted to a mighty
sum in those days.
Consider a kingdom as a great family,
whereof the prince is the father, and it will appear
plainly that mercenary troops are only servants armed,
either to awe the children at home; or else to defend
from invaders, the family who are otherwise employed,
and choose to contribute out of their stock for paying
their defenders, rather than leave their affairs to
be neglected in their absence. The art of making
soldiery a trade, and keeping armies in pay, seems
in Europe to have had two originals. The first
was usurpation, when popular men destroyed the liberties
of their country, and seized the power into their
own hands, which they were forced to maintain by hiring
guards to bridle the people. Such were anciently
the tyrants in most of the small states in Greece,
and such were those in several parts of Italy, about
three or four centuries ago, as Machiavel informs
us. The other original of mercenary armies, seems
to have risen from larger kingdoms or commonwealths,
which had subdued provinces at a distance, and were
forced to maintain troops upon them, to prevent insurrections
from the natives: Of this sort were Macedon,
Carthage and Rome of old; Venice and Holland at this
day; as well as most kingdoms of Europe. So that
mercenary forces in a free state, whether monarchy
or commonwealth, seem only necessary, either for preserving
their conquests, (which in such governments it is not
prudent to extend too far) or else for maintaining
a war at distance.
In this last, which at present is
our most important case, there are certain maxims
that all wise governments have observed.
The first I shall mention is, that
no private man should have a commission to be general
for life, let his merit and services be ever so
great. Or, if a prince be unadvisedly brought
to offer such a commission in one hand, let him (to
save time and blood) deliver up his crown with the
other. The Romans in the height and perfection
of their government, usually sent out one of the new
consuls to be general against their most formidable
enemy, and recalled the old one, who often returned
before the next election, and according as he had merit
was sent to command in some other part, which perhaps
was continued to him for a second, and sometimes a
third year. But if Paulus Aemilius, or Scipio
himself, had presumed to move the Senate to continue
their commissions for life, they certainly would have
fallen a sacrifice to the jealousy of the people.
Cæsar indeed (between whom and a certain general,
some of late with much discretion have made a parallel)
had his command in Gaul continued to him for five
years, and was afterwards made perpetual Dictator,
that is to say, general for life, which gave him the
power and the will of utterly destroying the Roman
liberty. But in his time the Romans were very
much degenerated, and great corruptions crept
into their morals and discipline. However, we
see there still were some remains of a noble spirit
among them; for when Cæsar sent to be chosen consul,
notwithstanding his absence, they decreed he should
come in person, give up his command, and petere
more majorum.
It is not impossible but a general
may desire such a commission out of inadvertency,
at the instigation of his friends, or perhaps of his
enemies, or merely for the benefit and honour of it,
without intending any such dreadful consequences;
and in that case, a wise prince or state may barely
refuse it without shewing any marks of their displeasure.
But the request in its own nature is highly criminal,
and ought to be entered so upon record, to terrify
others in time to come from venturing to make it.
Another maxim to be observed by a
free state engaged in war, is to keep the military
power in absolute subjection to the civil, nor ever
suffer the former to influence or interfere with the
latter. A general and his army are servants hired
by the civil power to act as they are directed from
thence, and with a commission large or limited as the
administration shall think fit; for which they are
largely paid in profit and honour. The whole
system by which armies are governed, is quite alien
from the peaceful institutions of states at home;
and if the rewards be so inviting as to tempt a senator
to take a post in the army, while he is there on his
duty, he ought to consider himself in no other capacity.
I know not any sort of men so apt as soldiers are,
to reprimand those who presume to interfere in what
relates to their trade. When they hear any of
us in a coffeehouse, wondering that such a victory
was not pursued, complaining that such a town cost
more men and money than it was worth to take it; or
that such an opportunity was lost, of fighting the
enemy; they presently reprove us, and often with justice
enough, for meddling in matters out of our sphere,
and clearly convince us of our mistakes in terms of
art that none of us understand. Nor do we escape
so; for they reflect with the utmost contempt of our
ignorance, that we who sit at home in ease and security,
never stirring from our firesides, should pretend
from books, and general reason, to argue upon military
affairs; which after all, if we may judge from the
share of intellectuals in some who are said to excel
that way, is not so very profound or difficult a science.
But if there be any weight in what they offer, as perhaps
there may be a great deal; surely these gentlemen
have a much weaker pretence to concern themselves
in matters of the cabinet, which are always either
far above, or much beside their capacities. Soldiers
may as well pretend to prescribe rules for trade,
to determine points in philosophy, to be moderators
in an assembly of divines, or direct in a court of
justice, as to misplace their talent in examining
affairs of state, especially in what relates to the
choice of ministers, who are never so likely to be
ill chosen as when approved by them. It would
be endless to shew how pernicious all steps of this
nature have been in many parts and ages of the world.
I shall only produce two at present; one in Rome, and
the other in England. The first is of Cæsar,
when he came to the city with his soldiers to settle
the ministry, there was an end of their liberty for
ever. The second was in the great rebellion against
King Charles the First. The King and both Houses
were agreed upon the terms of a peace, but the officers
of the army (as Ludlow relates it) sets a guard upon
the House of Commons, took a list of the members,
and kept all by force out of the House, except those
who were for bringing the King to a trial. Some
years after, when they erected a military government,
and ruled the island by major-generals, we received
most admirable instances of their skill in politics.
To say the truth, such formidable sticklers can
have but two reasons for desiring to interfere in the
administration; the first is that of Cæsar and Cromwell,
of which, God forbid, I should accuse or suspect any
body; since the second is pernicious enough, and that
is, to preserve those in power who are for perpetuating
a war, rather than see others advanced, who they are
sure will use all proper means to promote a safe and
honourable peace.
Thirdly, Since it is observed of armies,
that in the present age they are brought to some degree
of humanity, and a more regular demeanour to each
other and to the world, than in former times; it is
certainly a good maxim to endeavour preserving this
temper among them, without which they would soon degenerate
into savages. To this end, it would be prudent
among other things, to forbid that detestable custom
of drinking to the damnation or confusion of any person
whatsoever.
Such desperate acts, and the opinions
infused along with them, into heads already inflamed
by youth and wine, are enough to scatter madness and
sedition through a whole camp. So seldom upon
their knees to pray, and so often to curse! This
is not properly atheism, but a sort of anti-religion
prescribed by the Devil, and which an atheist of common
sense would scorn as an absurdity. I have heard
it mentioned as a common practice last autumn, somewhere
or other, to drink damnation and confusion (and
this with circumstances very aggravating and horrid)
to the new ministry, and to those who had any hand
in turning out the old; that is to say, to those persons
whom her Majesty has thought fit to employ in her
greatest affairs, with something more than a glance
against the Qu[een] herself. And if it be true
that these orgies were attended with certain doubtful
words of standing by their g[enera]l, who without question
abhorred them; let any man consider the consequence
of such dispositions, if they should happen to spread.
I could only wish for the honour of the Army, as well
as of the Qu[een] and ministry, that a remedy had been
applied to the disease, in the place and time where
it grew. If men of such principles were able
to propagate them in a camp, and were sure of a general
for life, who had any tincture of ambition, we might
soon bid farewell to ministers and parliaments, whether
new or old.
I am only sorry such an accident has
happened towards the close of a war, when it is chiefly
the interest of those gentlemen who have posts in the
army, to behave themselves in such a manner as might
encourage the legislature to make some provision for
them, when there will be no further need of their
services. They are to consider themselves as
persons by their educations unqualified for many other
stations of life. Their fortunes will not suffer
them to retain to a party after its fall, nor have
they weight or abilities to help towards its resurrection.
Their future dependence is wholly upon the prince
and Parliament, to which they will never make their
way, by solemn exécrations of the ministry; a
ministry of the Qu[een]’s own election, and fully
answering the wishes of her people. This unhappy
step in some of their brethren, may pass for an uncontrollable
argument, that politics are not their business or their
element. The fortune of war hath raised several
persons up to swelling titles, and great commands
over numbers of men, which they are too apt to transfer
along with them into civil life, and appear in all
companies as if it were at the head of their regiments,
with a sort of deportment that ought to have been
dropt behind, in that short passage to Harwich.
It puts me in mind of a dialogue in Lucian, where
Charon wafting one of their predecessors over Styx,
ordered him to strip off his armour and fine clothes,
yet still thought him too heavy; “But”
(said he) “put off likewise that pride and presumption,
those high-swelling words, and that vain-glory;”
because they were of no use on the other side the water.
Thus if all that array of military grandeur were confined
to the proper scene, it would be much more for the
interest of the owners, and less offensive to their
fellow subjects.
“Well assured, that art
And conduct were of war the better part.”
J.
DRYDEN.
[T.S.]]
The “Examiner” seems to
allude to the remarkable, and, to say the least, imprudent,
article in “The Tatler,” N. Such
a passage, published by so warm an adherent of Marlborough
as Steele, gives credit to Macpherson’s assertion,
that there really was some intention of maintaining
the Duke in power, by his influence in the army.
It is even affirmed, that under pretence his commission
under the great seal could not be superseded by the
Queen’s order of dismissal, it was designed that
he should assemble the troops which were in town, and
secure the court and capital. To prevent which,
his commission was superseded by another under the
great seal being issued as speedily as possible.
The industrious editor of “The Tatler,”
in 1786, is of opinion, that the article was written
by Addison; but the violent counsels which it intimates
seem less congenial to his character than to that of
Steele, a less reflecting man, and bred a soldier.
It is worthy of notice, that the passage is cancelled
in all subsequent editions of “The Tatler,”
till restored from the original folio in that of 1786.
This evidently implies Steele’s own sense, that
more was meant than met the ear; and it affords a
presumptive proof, that very violent measures had at
least been proposed, if not agreed upon, by some of
Marlborough’s adherents. [S.]]
NUMB. 22.
FROM THURSDAY DECEMBER 21, TO THURSDAY
DECEMBER 28, 1710.
Nam et, majorum instituta tueri sacris, ceremoniisque
retinendis,
sapientis est.
Ruituraque
semper
Stat
(mirum!) moles
Whoever is a true lover of our constitution,
must needs be pleased to see what successful endeavours
are daily made to restore it in every branch to its
ancient form, from the languishing condition it hath
long lain in, and with such deadly symptoms.
I have already handled some abuses
during the late management, and shall in convenient
time go on with the rest. Hitherto I have confined
myself to those of the State; but with the good leave
of those who think it a matter of small moment, I
shall now take liberty to say something of the Church.
For several years past, there hath
not I think in Europe, been any society of men upon
so unhappy a foot, as the clergy of England, nor more
hardly treated, by those very persons from whom they
deserved much better quarter, and in whose power they
chiefly had put it to use them so ill. I would
not willingly misrepresent facts; but I think it generally
allowed by enemies and friends, that the bold and brave
defences made before the Revolution against those
many invasions of our rights, proceeded principally
from the clergy; who are likewise known to have rejected
all advances made them to close with the measures at
that time concerting; while the Dissenters, to gratify
their ambition and revenge, fell into the basest compliances
with the court, approved of all proceedings by their
numerous and fulsome addresses, and took employments
and commissions by virtue of the dispensing power,
against the direct laws of the land. All this is
so true, that if ever the Pretender comes in, they
will, next to those of his own religion, have the fairest
claim and pretensions to his favour, from their merit
and eminent services to his supposed father, who,
without such encouragement, would probably never have
been misled to go the lengths he did. It should
likewise be remembered to the everlasting honour of
the London divines, that in those dangerous times,
they writ and published the best collection of arguments
against Popery, that ever appeared in the world.
At the Revolution, the body of the clergy joined heartily
in the common cause (except a few, whose sufferings
perhaps have atoned for their mistakes) like men who
are content to go about, for avoiding a gulf or a
precipice, but come into the old straight road again
as soon as they can. But another temper had now
begun to prevail. For as in the reign of K. Charles
the First, several well-meaning people were ready
to join in reforming some abuses; while others who
had deeper designs, were still calling out for a thorough
reformation, which ended at last in the ruin of the
kingdom; so after the late king’s coming to
the throne, there was a restless cry from men of the
same principles, for a thorough revolution, which as
some were carrying it on, must have ended in the destruction
of the Monarchy and Church.
What a violent humour hath run ever
since against the clergy, and from what corner spread
and fomented, is, I believe, manifest to all men.
It looked like a set quarrel against Christianity,
and if we call to mind several of the leaders, it
must in a great measure have been actually so.
Nothing was more common in writing and conversation,
than to hear that reverend body charged in gross with
what was utterly inconsistent: despised for their
poverty, hated for their riches; reproached with avarice,
and taxed with luxury; accused for promoting arbitrary
power, and resisting the prerogative; censured for
their pride, and scorned for their meanness of spirit.
The representatives of the lower clergy railed at
for disputing the power of the bishops, by the known
abhorrers of episcopacy; and abused for doing nothing
in their convocations, by those very men who helped
to bind up their hands. The vice, the folly, the
ignorance of every single man, were laid upon the character;
their jurisdiction, censures and discipline trampled
under foot, yet mighty complaints against their excessive
power. The men of wit employed to turn the priesthood
itself into ridicule. In short, groaning every
where under the weight of poverty, oppression, contempt
and obloquy. A fair return for the time and money
spent in their education to fit them for the service
of the Altar; and a fair encouragement for worthy men
to come into the Church. However, it may be some
comfort for persons of that holy function, that their
Divine Founder as well as His harbinger, met with
the like reception. “John came neither eating
nor drinking, and they say he hath a devil; the Son
of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold
a glutton and a wine-bibber, &c.”
In this deplorable state of the clergy,
nothing but the hand of Providence, working by its
glorious instrument, the QUEEN, could have been able
to turn the people’s hearts so surprisingly in
their favour. This Princess, destined for the
safety of Europe, and a blessing to her subjects,
began her reign with a noble benefaction to the Church;
and it was hoped the nation would have followed such
an example, which nothing could have prevented, but
the false politics of a set of men, who form their
maxims upon those of every tottering commonwealth,
which is always struggling for life, subsisting by
expedients, and often at the mercy of any powerful
neighbour. These men take it into their imagination,
that trade can never flourish unless the country becomes
a common receptacle for all nations, religions and
languages; a system only proper for small popular
states, but altogether unworthy, and below the dignity
of an imperial crown; which with us is best upheld
by a monarch in possession of his just prerogative,
a senate of nobles and of commons, and a clergy established
in its due rights with a suitable maintenance by law.
But these men come with the spirit of shopkeepers to
frame rules for the administration of kingdoms; or,
as if they thought the whole art of government consisted
in the importation of nutmegs, and the curing of herrings.
Such an island as ours can afford enough to support
the majesty of a crown, the honour of a nobility, and
the dignity of a magistracy; we can encourage arts
and sciences, maintain our bishops and clergy, and
suffer our gentry to live in a decent, hospitable manner;
yet still there will remain hands sufficient for trade
and manufactures, which do always indeed deserve the
best encouragement, but not to a degree of sending
every living soul into the warehouse or the workhouse.
This pedantry of republican politics
hath done infinite mischief among us. To this
we owe those noble schemes of treating Christianity
as a system of speculative opinions, which no man
should be bound to believe; of making the being and
the worship of God, a creature of the state. In
consequence of these, that the teachers of religion
ought to hold their maintenance at pleasure, or live
by the alms and charitable collection of the people,
and be equally encouraged of all opinions: that
they should be prescribed what to teach, by those
who are to learn from them; and, upon default, have
a staff and a pair of shoes left at their door;
with many other projects of equal piety, wisdom, and
good nature.
But, God be thanked, they and their
schemes are vanished, and “their places shall
know them no more.” When I think of that
inundation of atheism, infidelity, profaneness and
licentiousness which were like to overwhelm us, from
what mouths and hearts it first proceeded, and how
the people joined with the Queen’s endeavours
to divert this flood, I cannot but reflect on that
remarkable passage in the Revelation, where “the
serpent with seven heads cast out of his mouth water
after the woman like a flood, that he might cause
her to be carried away of the flood: But the
earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth,
and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had cast
out of his mouth.” For the Queen having
changed her ministry suitable to her own wisdom, and
the wishes of her subjects, and having called a free
Parliament; at the same time summoned the convocation,
by her royal writ, “as in all times had
been accustomed,” and soon after their meeting,
sent a most gracious letter to the Archbishop
of Canterbury, to be communicated to the bishops and
clergy of his province; taking notice of “the
loose and profane principles which had been openly
scattered and propagated among her subjects:
that the consultations of the clergy were particularly
requisite to repress and prevent such daring attempts,
for which her subjects, from all parts of the kingdom,
have shown their just abhorrence. She hopes,
the endeavours of the clergy, in this respect, will
not be unsuccessful; and for her part, is ready to
give them all fit encouragement, to proceed in the
dispatch of such business as properly belongs to them;
and to grant them powers requisite to carry on so good
a work.” In conclusion, “earnestly
recommending to them, to avoid disputes, and determining
to do all that in her lies to compose and extinguish
them.”
It is to be hoped, that this last
part of her Majesty’s letter, will be the first
she will please to execute; for, it seems, this very
letter created the first dispute. The fact whereof
is thus related: The Upper House having formed
an address to the QUEEN, before they received her
Majesty’s letter, sent both address and letter
together, to the Lower House, with a message, excusing
their not mentioning the letter in the address, because
this was formed before the other was received:[l3]
The Lower House returned them, with a desire, that
an address might be formed, with due regard and acknowledgments
for the letter. After some difficulties, the
same address was sent down again with a clause inserted,
making some short mention of the said letter.
This the Lower House did not think sufficient, and
sent it back again with the same request: whereupon
the archbishop, after a short consultation with some
of his brethren, immediately adjourned the convocation
for a month, and no address at all was sent to the
QUEEN.
I understand not ecclesiastical affairs
well enough to comment upon this matter; but it
seems to me, that all methods of doing service to the
Church and kingdom, by means of a convocation, may
be at any time eluded, if there be no remedy against
such an incident. And if this proceeding be agreeable
to the institution, spiritual assemblies must needs
be strangely contrived, very different from any lay
senate yet known in the world. Surely, from the
nature of such a synod, it must be a very unhappy
circumstance, when the majority of the bishops draws
one way, and that of the lower clergy another.
The latter, I think, are not at this time suspected
for any principles bordering upon those professed by
enemies to episcopacy; and if they happen to differ
from the greater part of the present set of bishops,
I doubt it will call some things to mind, that may
turn the scale of general favour on the inferior clergy’s
side, who with a profound duty to her Majesty, are
perfectly pleased with the present turn of affairs.
Besides, curious people will be apt to enquire into
the dates of some promotions, to call to mind what
designs were then upon the anvil, and from thence
make malicious deductions. Perhaps they will
observe the manner of voting on the bishops’
bench, and compare it with what shall pass in the
upper house of convocation. There is, however,
one comfort, that under the present dispositions of
the kingdom, a dislike to the proceedings of any of
their lordships, even to the number of a majority,
will be purely personal, and not turned to the disadvantage
of the order. And for my part, as I am a true
lover of the Church, I had rather find the inclinations
of the people favourable to episcopacy in general,
than see a majority of prelates cried up by those
who are known enemies to the character. Nor, indeed,
hath anything given me more offence for several years
past, than to observe how some of that bench have
been caressed by certain persons; and others of them
openly celebrated by the infamous pens of atheists,
republicans and fanatics.
Time and mortality can only remedy
these inconveniencies in the Church, which are not
to be cured like those in the State, by a change of
ministry. If we may guess the temper of a convocation,
from the choice of a prolocutor, as it is usual
to do that of a House of Commons by the speaker, we
may expect great things from that reverend body, who
have done themselves much reputation, by pitching
upon a gentleman of so much piety, wit and learning,
for that office; and one who is so thoroughly versed
in those parts of knowledge which are proper for it.
I am sorry that the three Latin speeches, delivered
upon presenting the prolocutor, were not made public;
they might perhaps have given us some light into the
dispositions of each house: and besides, one of
them is said to be so peculiar in the style and matter,
as might have made up in entertainment what it wanted
in instruction.
“For it is the part of a wise man to defend
the institutions of his
forefathers, and uphold the sacred rites and ceremonies.
And
ever threatening to fall
The
mass a marvel stands.”
[T.S.]]
NUMB. 23.
FROM THURSDAY DECEMBER 28, TO THURSDAY
JANUARY 4, 1710.
Nullae sunt occultiores insidiae,
quam eae quae latent in simulatione officii, aut in
aliquo necessitudinis nomine.
The following answer is written
in the true style, and with the usual candour of such
pieces; which I have imitated to the best of my skill,
and doubt not but the reader will be extremely satisfied
with it.
The Examiner cross-examined, or,
A full Answer to the last Examiner.
If I durst be so bold with this author,
I would gladly ask him a familiar question; Pray,
Sir, who made you an Examiner? He talks in one
of his insipid papers, of eight or nine thousand corruptions,
while we were at the head of affairs, yet,
in all this time, he has hardly produced fifty:
Parturiunt montés, &c.
But I shall confine myself, at present,
to his last paper. He tells us, “The Queen
began her reign with a noble benefaction to the Church.”
Here’s priestcraft with a witness; this is the
constant language of your highfliers, to call those
who are hired to teach the religion of the magistrate
by the name of the Church. But this is not all;
for, in the very next line he says, “It was
hoped the nation would have followed this example.”
You see the faction begins already to speak out; this
is an open demand for the abbey-lands; this furious
zealot would have us priest-ridden again, like our
popish ancestors: but, it is to be hoped the
government will take timely care to suppress such audacious
attempts, else we have spent so much blood and treasure
to very little purpose, in maintaining religion and
Revolution. But what can we expect from a man,
who at one blow endeavours to ruin our trade?
“A country” (says he) “may flourish”
(these are his own words) “without being the
common receptacle for all nations, religions, and
languages.” What! We must immediately
banish or murder the Palatines; forbid all foreign
merchants, not only the Exchange, but the kingdom;
persecute the Dissenters with fire and faggot, and
make it high-treason to speak any other tongue but
English. In another place he talks of a “serpent
with seven heads,” which is a manifest corruption
of the text; for the words “seven heads”
are not mentioned in that verse. However, we know
what serpent he would mean; a serpent with fourteen
legs; or, indeed, no serpent at all, but seven great
men, who were the best ministers, the truest Protestants,
and the most disinterested patriots that ever served
a prince. But nothing is so inconsistent as this
writer; I know not whether to call him a Whig or a
Tory, a Protestant or a Papist; he finds fault with
convocations; says, “they are assemblies strangely
contrived;” and yet lays the fault upon us,
that we bound their hands: I wish we could have
bound their tongues too; but as fast as their hands
were bound, they could make a shift to hold their
pens, and have their share in the guilt of ruining
the hopefullest party and ministry that ever prescribed
to a crown. This captious gentleman is angry
to “see a majority of prelates cried up by those
who are enemies to the character”; now I always
thought, that the concessions of enemies were more
to a man’s advantage than the praise of his
friends. “Time and mortality,” he
says, “can only remedy these inconveniencies
in the Church.” That is, in other words,
when certain bishops are dead, we shall have others
of our own stamp. Not so fast; you are not yet
so sure of your game. We have already got one
comfortable loss in Spain, though by a G[enera]l of
our own. For joy of which, our J[un]to had a merry
meeting at the house of their great proselyte, on the
very day we received the happy news. One or two
more such blows would, perhaps, set us right again,
and then we can employ “mortality” as well
as others. He concludes with wishing, that “three
letters, spoke when the prolocutor was presented,
were made public.” I suppose he would be
content with one, and that is more than we shall humour
him to grant. However, I hope he will allow it
possible to have grace, without either eloquence or
Latin, which is all I shall say to his malicious innuendo.
Having thus, I hope, given a full
and satisfactory answer to the Examiner’s
last paper, I shall now go on to a more important affair;
which is, to prove, by several undeniable instances,
that the late m[inist]ry, and their abettors, were
true friends to the Church. It is yet, I confess,
a secret to the clergy, wherein this friendship did
consist. For information therefore of that reverend
body, that they may never forget their benefactors,
as well as of all others who may be equally ignorant,
I have determined to display our merits to the
world upon that weighty article. And I could
wish, that what I am to say were to be written in
brass, for an eternal memorial; the rather, because
for the future, the Church must endeavour to stand
unsupported by those patrons, who expired in doing
it their last good office, and will never rise to
preserve it any more.
Let us therefore produce the pious
endeavours of these church-defenders, who were its
patrons by their power and authority, as well as ornaments
of it by their exemplary lives.
First, St. Paul tells us, “there
must be hérésies in the Church, that the truth
may be manifest”; and therefore, by due course
of reasoning, the more hérésies there are, the
more manifest will the truth be made. This being
maturely considered by these lovers of the Church,
they endeavoured to propagate as many hérésies
as they could, that the light of truth might shine
the clearer.
Secondly, To shew their zeal for the
Church’s defence, they took the care of it entirely
out of the hands of God Almighty (because that was
a foreign jurisdiction) and made it their own creature,
depending altogether upon them; and issued out their
orders to Tindal, and others, to give public notice
of it.
Thirdly, Because charity is the most
celebrated of all Christian virtues, therefore they
extended theirs beyond all bounds; and instead of shutting
the Church against Dissenters, were ready to open it
to all comers, and break down its walls, rather than
that any should want room to enter. The strength
of a state, we know, consists in the number of people,
how different soever in their callings; and why should
not the strength of a Church consist in the same,
how different soever in their creeds? For that
reason, they charitably attempted to abolish the test,
which tied up so many hands from getting employments,
in order to protect the Church.
I know very well that this attempt
is objected to us as a crime, by several malignant
Tories, and denied as a slander by many unthinking
people among ourselves. The latter are apt in
their defence to ask such questions as these; Was
your test repealed? Had we not a majority?
Might we not have done it if we pleased? To which
the others answer, You did what you could; you prepared
the way, but you found a fatal impediment from that
quarter, whence the sanction of the law must come,
and therefore to save your credit, you condemned a
paper to be burnt which yourselves had brought in.
But alas! the miscarriage of that noble project for
the safety of the Church, had another original; the
knowledge whereof depends upon a piece of secret history
that I shall now lay open.
These church-protectors had directed
a Presbyterian preacher to draw up a bill for repealing
the test; it was accordingly done with great art, and
in the preamble, several expressions of civility to
the established Church; and when it came to the qualifications
of all those who were to enter on any office, the
compiler had taken special care to make them large
enough for all Christians whatsoever, by transcribing
the very words (only formed into an oath) which Quakers
are obliged to profess by a former Act of Parliament;
as I shall here set them down. “I A.B.
profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ
His eternal Son, the true God, and in the Holy Spirit
one God blessed for evermore; and do acknowledge the
Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be
given by divine inspiration.” This bill
was carried to the chief leaders for their approbation,
with these terrible words turned into an oath:
What should they do? Those few among them who
fancied they believed in God, were sure they did not
believe in Christ, or the Holy Spirit, or one syllable
of the Bible; and they were as sure that every body
knew their opinion in those matters, which indeed
they had been always too sincere to disguise; how
therefore could they take such an oath as that, without
ruining their reputation with Tindal, Toland, Coward,
Collins, Clendon, and all the tribe of free-thinkers,
and so give a scandal to weak unbelievers. Upon
this nice point of honour and conscience the matter
was hushed, the project for repealing the test let
fall, and the Sacrament left as the smaller evil of
the two.
Fourthly, These pillars of the Church,
because “the harvest was great, and the labourers
few,” and because they would ease the bishops
from that grievous trouble of laying on hands:
were willing to allow that power to all men whatsoever,
to prevent that terrible consequence of unchurching
those, who thought a hand from under a cloak as effectual
as from lawn-sleeves. And indeed, what could
more contribute to the advancement of true religion,
than a bill of general naturalization for priesthood?
Fifthly, In order to fix religion
in the minds of men, because truth never appears so
fair as when confronted with falsehood; they directed
books to be published, that denied the being of a God,
the divinity of the Second and Third Person, the truth
of all revelation, and the immortality of the soul.
To this we owe that great sense of religion, that
respect and kindness to the clergy, and that true love
of virtue so manifest of late years among the youth
of our nation. Nor could anything be more discreet,
than to leave the merits of each cause to such wise
impartial judges, who might otherwise fall under the
slavery of believing by education and prejudice.
Sixthly, Because nothing so much distracts
the thoughts, as too great a variety of subjects;
therefore they had kindly prepared a bill, to prescribe
the clergy what subjects they should preach upon, and
in what manner, that they might be at no loss; and
this no doubt, was a proper work for such hands, so
thoroughly versed in the theory and practice of all
Christian duties.
Seventhly, To save trouble and expense
to the clergy, they contrived that convocations should
meet as seldom as possible; and when they were suffered
to assemble, would never allow them to meddle with
any business; because they said, the office of a clergyman
was enough to take up the whole man. For the
same reason they were very desirous to excuse the
bishops from sitting in Parliament, that they might
be at more leisure to stay at home and look after
their clergy.
I shall mention at present but one
more instance of their pious zeal for the Church.
They had somewhere heard the maxim, that Sanguis
martyrum est semen ecclesiae; therefore in
order to sow this seed, they began with impeaching
a clergyman: and that it might be a true martyrdom
in every circumstance, they proceeded as much as possible
against common law, which the long-robe part of
the managers knew was in a hundred instances directly
contrary to all their positions, and were sufficiently
warned of it beforehand; but their love of the Church
prevailed. Neither was this impeachment an affair
taken up on a sudden. For, a certain great person
(whose Character has been lately published by some
stupid and lying writer) who very much distinguished
himself by his zeal in forwarding this impeachment,
had several years ago endeavoured to persuade the
late King to give way to just such another attempt.
He told his Majesty, there was a certain clergyman
preached very dangerous sermons, and that the only
way to put a stop to such insolence, was to impeach
him in Parliament. The King enquired the character
of the man; “O, sir,” said my lord, “the
most violent, hot, positive fellow in England; so
extremely wilful, that I believe he would be heartily
glad to be a martyr.” The King answered,
“Is it so? Then I am resolved to disappoint
him”; and would never hear more of the matter;
by which that hopeful project unhappily miscarried.
I have hitherto confined myself to
those endeavours for the good of the Church, which
were common to all the leaders and principal men of
our party; but if my paper were not drawing towards
an end, I could produce several instances of particular
persons, who by their exemplary lives and actions
have confirmed the character so justly due to the whole
body. I shall at present mention only two, and
illustrate the merits of each by a matter of fact.
That worthy patriot, and true lover
of the Church, whom the late “Examiner”
is supposed to reflect on under the name of Verres,
felt a pious impulse to be a benefactor to the Cathedral
of Gloucester, but how to do it in the most decent,
generous manner, was the question. At last he
thought of an expedient: One morning or night
he stole into the Church, mounted upon the altar,
and there did that which in cleanly phrase is called
disburthening of nature: He was discovered, prosecuted,
and condemned to pay a thousand pounds, which sum was
all employed to support the Church, as, no doubt,
the benefactor meant it.
There is another person whom the same
writer is thought to point at under the name of Will
Bigamy. This gentleman, knowing that marriage fees
were a considerable perquisite to the clergy, found
out a way of improving them cent. per cent.
for the good of the Church. His invention was
to marry a second wife while the first was alive,
convincing her of the lawfulness by such arguments,
as he did not doubt would make others follow the same
example: These he had drawn up in writing with
intention to publish for the general good; and it is
hoped he may now have leisure to finish them.
“The mountains laboured with
prodigious throes.” P. FRANCIS.
[T.S.]]
NUMB. 24.
FROM THURSDAY JANUARY 4, TO THURSDAY JANUARY 11, 1710.
Bellum ita suscipiatur, ut nihil
aliud nisi Pax quaesita videatur.
I am satisfied, that no reasonable
man of either party, can justly be offended at any
thing I said in one of my papers relating to the Army;
from the maxims I there laid down, perhaps many persons
may conclude, that I had a mind the world should think,
there had been occasion given by some late abuses
among men of that calling; and they conclude right.
For my intention is, that my hints may be understood,
and my quotations and allegories applied; and I am
in some pain to think, that in the Orcades on one
side, and the western coasts of Ireland on the other,
the “Examiner” may want a key in several
parts, which I wish I could furnish them with.
As for the French king, I am under no concern at all;
I hear he has left off reading my papers, and by what
he has found in them, dislikes our proceedings more
than ever, and intends either to make great additions
to his armies, or propose new terms for a peace:
So false is that which is commonly reported, of his
mighty satisfaction in our change of ministry:
And I think it clear that his late letter of “Thanks
to the Tories of Great Britain," must either have
been extorted from him against his judgment, or was
a cast of his politics to set the people against the
present ministry, wherein it has wonderfully succeeded.
But though I have never heard, or
never regarded any objections made against that paper,
which mentions the army; yet I intended this as a
sort of apology for it. And first, I declare,
(because we live in a mistaking world) that in hinting
at some proceedings, wherein a few persons are said
to be concerned, I did not intend to charge them upon
the body of the army. I have too much detested
that barbarous injustice among the writers of a late
party, to be ever guilty of it myself; I mean the
accusing societies for the crimes of a few. On
the other side, I must take leave to believe, that
armies are no more exempt from corruptions than
other numbers of men. The maxims proposed were
occasionally introduced by the report of certain facts,
which I am bound to believe is true, because I am
sure, considering what has passed, it would be a crime
to think otherwise. All posts in the army, all
employments at court, and many others, are (or ought
to be) given and resumed at the mere pleasure of the
prince; yet when I see a great officer broke, a change
made in the court or the ministry, and this under
the most just and gracious Princess that ever reigned,
I must naturally conclude it is done upon prudent
considerations, and for some great demerit in the sufferers.
But then; is not the punishment sufficient? Is
it generous or charitable to trample on the unfortunate,
and expose their faults to the world in the strongest
colours? And would it not suit better with magnanimity
as well as common good-nature, to leave them at quiet
to their own thoughts and repentance? Yes without
question, provided it could be so contrived that their
very names, as well as actions, might be forgotten
for ever; such an act of oblivion would be
for the honour of our nation, and beget a better opinion
of us with posterity; and then I might have spared
the world and myself the trouble of examining.
But at present, there is a cruel dilemma in the case:
The friends and abettors of the late ministry are
every day publishing their praises to the world, and
casting reflections upon the present persons in power.
This is so barefaced an aspersion upon the Q[ueen],
that I know not how any good subject can with patience
endure it, though he were ever so indifferent with
regard to the opinions in dispute. Shall they
who have lost all power and love of the people, be
allowed to scatter their poison; and shall not those,
who are, at least, of the strongest side, be suffered
to bring an antidote? And how can we undeceive
the deluded remainder, but by letting them see, that
those discarded statesmen were justly laid aside,
and producing as many instances to prove it as we
can? not from any personal hatred to them, but in
justification to the best of queens. The many
scurrilities I have heard and read against this poor
paper of mine, are in such a strain, that considering
the present state of affairs, they look like a jest.
They usually run after the following manner: “What?
shall this insolent writer presume to censure the
late ministry, the ablest, the most faithful, and
truest lovers of their country, and its constitution
that ever served a prince? Shall he reflect on
the best H[ouse] of C[ommons] that ever sat within
those walls? Has not the Queen changed both for
a ministry and Parliament of Jacobites and highfliers,
who are selling us to France, and bringing over the
Pretender?” This is the very sum and force of
all their reasonings, and this their method of complaining
against the “Examiner.” In them
it is humble and loyal to reflect upon the Q[ueen]
and the ministry, and Parliament she has chosen with
the universal applause of her people; in us
it is insolent to defend her Majesty and her choice,
or to answer their objections, by shewing the reasons
why those changes were necessary.
The same style has been used in the
late case relating to some gentlemen in the army;
such a clamour was raised by a set of men, who had
the boldness to tax the administration with cruelty
and injustice, that I thought it necessary to interfere
a little, by shewing the ill consequences that might
arise from some proceedings, though without application
to particular persons. And what do they offer
in answer? Nothing but a few poor common-places
against calumny and informers, which might have been
full as just and seasonable in a plot against the sacred
person of the Q[ueen].
But, by the way; why are these idle
people so indiscreet to name those two words, which
afford occasion of laying open to the world such an
infamous scene of subornation and perjury, as well
as calumny and informing, as I believe is without
example: when a whole cabal attempted an action,
wherein a condemned criminal refused to join with them
for the reward of his life? Not that I disapprove
their sagacity, who could foretell so long before,
by what hand they should one day fall, and therefore
thought any means justifiable by which they might prevent
it.
But waiving this at present, it must
be owned in justice to the army, that those violences
did not proceed so far among them as some have believed;
nor ought the madness of a few to be laid at their
doors. For the rest, I am so far from denying
the due praises to those victorious troops, who did
their part in procuring so many victories for the allies,
that I could wish every officer and private soldier
had their full share of honour in proportion to their
deserts; being thus far of the Athenians’ mind,
who when it was proposed that the statue of Miltiades
should be set up alone in some public place of the
city, said they would agree to it, whenever he
conquered alone, but not before. Neither do
I at all blame the officers of the army, for preferring
in their hearts the late ministry before the present;
or, if wishing alone could be of any use, to wish
their continuance, because then they might be secure
of the war’s continuance too: whereas,
since affairs have been put into other hands, they
may perhaps lie under some apprehensions of a peace,
which no army, especially in a course of success,
was ever inclined to, and which all wise states have
in such a juncture, chiefly endeavoured. This
is a point wherein the civil and military politics
have always disagreed. And for that reason, I
affirmed it necessary in all free governments, that
the latter should be absolutely in subjection to the
former; otherwise, one of these two inconveniencies
must arise, either to be perpetually in war, or to
turn the civil institution into a military.
I am ready to allow all that has been
said of the valour and experience of our troops, who
have fully contributed their part to the great successes
abroad; nor is it their fault, that those important
victories had no better consequences at home, though
it may be their advantage. War is their trade
and business: to improve and cultivate the advantages
of success, is an affair of the cabinet; and the neglect
of this, whether proceeding from weakness or corruption,
according to the usual uncertainty of wars, may be
of the most fatal consequence to a nation. For,
pray let me represent our condition in such a light,
as I believe both parties will allow, though perhaps
not the consequences I shall deduce from it.
We have been for above nine years, blessed with a QUEEN,
who besides all virtues that can enter into the composition
of a private person, possesses every regal quality
that can contribute to make a people happy: of
great wisdom, yet ready to receive the advice of her
counsellors: of much discernment in choosing proper
instruments, when she follows her own judgment, and
only capable of being deceived by that excess of goodness
which makes her judge of others by herself. Frugal
in her management in order to contribute to the public,
which in proportion she does, and that voluntarily,
beyond any of her subjects; but from her own nature,
generous and charitable to all that want or deserve;
and in order to exercise those virtues, denying herself
all entertainments of expense which many others enjoy.
Then if we look abroad, at least in Flanders, our
arms have been crowned with perpetual success in battles
and sieges, not to mention several fortunate actions
in Spain. These facts being thus stated, which
none can deny, it is natural to ask how we have improved
such advantages, and to what account they have turned?
I shall use no discouraging terms. When a patient
grows daily worse by the tampering of mountebanks,
there is nothing left but to call in the best physicians
before the case grows desperate: But I would ask,
whether France or any other kingdom, would have made
so little use of such prodigious opportunities, the
fruits whereof could never have fallen to the ground,
without the extremist degree of folly and corruption,
and where those have lain, let the world judge?
Instead of aiming at peace, while we had the advantage
of the war, which has been the perpetual maxim of
all wise states, it has been reckoned factious and
malignant even to express our wishes for it; and such
a condition imposed, as was never offered to any prince
who had an inch of ground to dispute; Quae enim
est conditio pacis; in qua ei cum quo pacem facias,
nihil concedi potest?
It is not obvious to conceive what
could move men who sat at home, and were called to
consult upon the good of the kingdom, to be so utterly
averse from putting an end to a long expensive war,
which the victorious, as well as conquered side, were
heartily weary of. Few or none of them were men
of the sword; they had no share in the honour; they
had made large fortunes, and were at the head of all
affairs. But they well knew by what tenure they
held their power; that the Qu[een] saw through their
designs, that they had entirely lost the hearts of
the clergy; that the landed men were against them;
that they were detested by the body of the people;
and that nothing bore them up but their credit with
the bank and other stocks, which would be neither
formidable nor necessary when the war was at an end.
For these reasons they resolved to disappoint all
overtures of a peace, till they and their party should
be so deeply rooted as to make it impossible to shake
them. To this end, they began to precipitate
matters so fast, as in a little time must have ruined
the constitution, if the crown had not interposed,
and rather ventured the accidental effects of their
malice, than such dreadful consequences of their power.
And indeed, had the former danger been greater than
some hoped or feared, I see no difficulty in the choice,
which was the same with his, who said, “he had
rather be devoured by wolves than by rats.”
I therefore still insist that we cannot wonder at,
or find fault with the army, for concurring with a
ministry who was for prolonging the war. The
inclination is natural in them all, pardonable in those
who have not yet made their fortunes, and as lawful
in the rest, as love of power or love of money can
make it. But as natural, as pardonable, and as
lawful as this inclination is, when it is not under
check of the civil power, or when a corrupt ministry
joins in giving it too great a scope, the consequence
can be nothing less than infallible ruin and slavery
to a state.
After I had finished this Paper, the
printer sent me two small pamphlets, called “The
Management of the War," written with some plausibility,
much artifice, and abundance of misrepresentation,
as well as direct falsehoods in point of fact.
These I have thought worth Examining_, which I
shall accordingly do when I find an opportunity.
In this print Louis XIV. is made to
thank the Tories for “what hath given me too
deep and lasting impressions of respect, and gratitude,
ever to be forgotten. If I should endeavour to
recount all the numerous obligations I have to you,
I should not know where to begin, nor where to make
an end.... To you and your predecessors I owe
that supineness and negligence of the English court,
which, gave me opportunity and ability to form and
prosecute my designs.” Alluding to William
III. he says: “To you I owed the impotence
of his life and the comfort of his death. At that
juncture how vast were my hopes?... But a princess
ascended your throne, whom you seemed to court with
some personal fondness ... She had a general whom
her predecessor had wrought into the confidence and
favour of the Allies.... It is with pleasure
I have observed, that every victory he hath obtained
abroad, hath been retrieved by your management at home....
What a figure have your tumults, your addresses, and
the progresses of your Doctor, made in my Gazettes?
What comfort have I received from them?... And
with what impatience do we now wait for that dissolution,
with the hopes of which you have so long flattered
us ?... Blessed be the engines, to which so glorious
events are owing. Republican, Antimonarchical,
Danger of the Church, Non-resistance, Hereditary and
Divine Right, words of force and energy!... How
great are my obligations to all these!” In a
postscript, King Louis is made to say further:
“My Brother of England [i.e. the Pretender]
... thanks you for ... your late loyal addresses;
your open avowal in them of that unlimited non-resistance
by which he keeps up his claim,” etc. [T.S.]]
NUMB. 25.
FROM THURSDAY JANUARY 11, TO THURSDAY JANUARY 18, 1710.
Parva momenta in spem metumque impellunt
animos.
Hopes are natural to most men, especially
to sanguine complexions, and among the various
changes that happen in the course of public affairs,
they are seldom without some grounds: Even in
desperate cases, where it is impossible they should
have any foundation, they are often affected, to keep
a countenance, and make an enemy think we have some
resource which they know nothing of. This appears
to have been for some months past the condition of
those people, whom I am forced, for want of other
phrases, to called the ruined party. They
have taken up since their fall, some real, and some
pretended hopes. When the E. of S[underlan]d
was discarded, they hoped her M[ajesty] would
proceed no farther in the change of her ministry,
and had the insolence to misrepresent her words to
foreign states. They hoped, nobody durst
advise the dissolution of the Parliament. When
this was done, and further alterations made at Court,
they hoped and endeavoured to ruin the credit
of the nation. They likewise hoped that
we should have some terrible loss abroad, which would
force us to unravel all, and begin again upon their
bottom. But, of all their hopes, whether
real or assumed, there is none more extraordinary
than that which they now would seem to place their
whole confidence in: that this great turn of
affairs was only occasioned by a short madness of
the people, from which they will recover in a little
time, when their eyes are open, and they grow cool
and sober enough to consider the truth of things,
and how much they have been deceived. It is not
improbable, that some few of the deepest sighted among
these reasoners, are well enough convinced how vain
all such hopes must be: but for the rest,
the wisest of them seem to have been very ill judges
of the people’s dispositions, the want of which
knowledge was a principal occasion to hasten their
ruin; for surely had they suspected which way the
popular current inclined, they never would have run
against it by that impeachment. I therefore conclude,
they generally are so blind, as to imagine some comfort
from this fantastical opinion, that the people of
England are at present distracted, but will shortly
come to their senses again.
For the service therefore of our adversaries
and friends, I shall briefly examine this point,
by shewing what are the causes and symptoms of a people’s
madness, and how it differs from their natural bent
and inclination.
It is Machiavel’s observation,
that the people when left to their own judgment, do
seldom mistake their true interests; and indeed they
naturally love the constitution they are born under,
never desiring to change but under great oppressions.
However, they are to be deceived by several means.
It has often happened in Greece, and sometimes in Rome,
that those very men who have contributed to shake off
a former tyranny, have, instead of restoring the old
constitution, deluded the People into a worse and
more ignominious slavery. Besides, all great changes
have the same effect upon commonwealths that thunder
has upon liquors, making the dregs fly up to the top:
the lowest plebeians rise to the head of affairs,
and there preserve themselves by representing the nobles
and other friends to the old government, as enemies
to the public. The encouraging of new mysteries
and new deities, with the pretences of further purity
in religion, hath likewise been a frequent topic to
mislead the people. And, not to mention more,
the promoting false reports of dangers from abroad,
hath often served to prevent them from fencing against
real dangers at home. By these and the like arts,
in conjunction with a great depravity of manners,
and a weak or corrupt administration, the madness
of the people hath risen to such a height as to break
in pieces the whole frame of the best instituted governments.
But however, such great frenzies being artificially
raised, are a perfect force and constraint upon human
nature, and under a wise steady prince, will certainly
decline of themselves, settling like the sea after
a storm, and then the true bent and genius of the
people will appear. Ancient and modern story
are full of instances to illustrate what I say.
In our own island we had a great example of a long
madness in the people, kept up by a thousand artifices
like intoxicating medicines, till the constitution
was destroyed; yet the malignity being spent, and the
humour exhausted that served to foment it; before
the usurpers could fix upon a new scheme, the people
suddenly recovered, and peaceably restored the old
constitution.
From what I have offered, it will
be easy to decide, whether this late change in the
dispositions of the people were a new madness, or a
recovery from an old one. Neither do I see how
it can be proved that such a change had in any circumstance
the least symptoms of madness, whether my description
of it be right or no. It is agreed, that the truest
way of judging the dispositions of the people in the
choice of their representatives, is by computing the
county-elections; and in these, it is manifest that
five in six are entirely for the present measures;
although the court was so far from interposing its
credit, that there was no change in the admiralty,
not above one or two in the lieutenancy, nor any other
methods used to influence elections. The free unextorted
addresses sent some time before from every part
of the kingdom, plainly shewed what sort of bent the
people had taken, and from what motives. The
election of members for this great city, carried
contrary to all conjecture, against the united interest
of those two great bodies, the Bank and East India
Company, was another convincing argument. Besides,
the Whigs themselves have always confessed, that the
bulk of landed men in England was generally of Tories.
So that this change must be allowed to be according
to the natural genius and disposition of the people,
whether it were just and reasonable in itself or not.
Notwithstanding all which, you shall
frequently hear the partisans of the late men in power,
gravely and decisively pronounce, that the present
ministry cannot possibly stand. Now, they who affirm
this, if they believe themselves, must ground their
opinion, upon the iniquity of the last being
so far established, and deeply rooted, that no endeavours
of honest men, will be able to restore things to their
former state. Or else these reasoners have been
so misled by twenty years’ mismanagement, that
they have forgot our constitution, and talk as if our
monarchy and revolution began together. But the
body of the people is wiser, and by the choice they
have made, shew they do understand our constitution,
and would bring it back to the old form; which if the
new ministers take care to maintain, they will and
ought to stand, otherwise they may fall like their
predecessors. But I think we may easily foresee
what a Parliament freely chosen, without threatening
or corruption, is likely to do, when no man shall
be in any danger to lose his place by the freedom
of his voice.
But, who are those advancers of this
opinion, that the present ministry cannot hold?
It must be either such as are afraid to be called to
an account, in case it should hold; or those who keep
offices, from which others, better qualified, were
removed; and may reasonably apprehend to be turned
out, for worthier men to come in their places, since
perhaps it will be necessary to make some changes,
that the public business of the nation may go on:
or lastly, stock-jobbers, who industriously spread
such reports that actions may fall, and their friends
buy to advantage.
Yet these hopes, thus freely expressed,
as they are more sincere, so they are more supportable,
than when they appear under the disguise and pretence
of fears. Some of these gentlemen are employed
to shake their heads in proper companies; to doubt
where all this will end; to be in mighty pain for
the nation; to shew how impossible it is, that the
public credit can be supported: to pray that
all may do well in whatever hands; but very much to
doubt that the Pretender is at the bottom. I know
not any thing so nearly resembling this behaviour,
as what I have often seen among the friends of a sick
man, whose interest it is that he should die:
The physicians protest they see no danger; the symptoms
are good, the medicines answer expectation; yet still
they are not to be comforted; they whisper, he is
a gone man; it is not possible he should hold out;
he has perfect death in his face; they never liked
this doctor: At last the patient recovers, and
their joy is as false as their grief.
I believe there is no man so sanguine,
who did not apprehend some ill consequences from the
late change, though not in any proportion to the good
ones: but it is manifest, the former have proved
much fewer and lighter than were expected, either
at home or abroad, by the fears of our friends, or
the hopes of our enemies. Those remedies that
stir the humours in a diseased body, are at first
more painful than the malady itself; yet certain death
is the consequence of deferring them too long.
Actions have fallen, and the loans are said to come
in slowly. But beside, that something of this
must have been, whether there had been any change
or no; beside, that the surprise of every change, for
the better as well as the worse, is apt to affect
credit for a while; there is a further reason, which
is plain and scandalous. When the late party was
at the helm, those who were called the Tories, never
put their resentments in balance with the safety of
the nation, but cheerfully contributed to the common
cause. Now the scene is changed, the fallen party
seems to act from very different motives: they
have given the word about; they will keep their
money and be passive; and in this point stand upon
the same foot with Papists and Nonjurors. What
would have become of the public, if the present great
majority had acted thus, during the late administration?
Had acted thus, before the others were masters of that
wealth they have squeezed out of the landed men, and
with the strength of that, would now hold the kingdom
at defiance?
Thus much I have thought fit to say,
without pointing reflections upon any particular person;
which I have hitherto but sparingly done, and that
only towards those whose characters are too profligate,
that the managing of them should be of any consequence:
Besides as it is a talent I am not naturally fond
of, so, in the subjects I treat, it is generally needless.
If I display the effects of avarice and ambition, of
bribery and corruption, of gross immorality and irreligion,
those who are the least conversant in things, will
easily know where to apply them. Not that I lay
any weight upon the objections of such who charge me
with this proceeding: it is notorious enough
that the writers of the other side were the first
aggressors. Not to mention their scurrilous libels
many years ago, directly levelled at particular persons;
how many papers do now come out every week, full of
rude invectives against the present ministry,
with the first and last letters of their names to prevent
mistakes? It is good sometimes to let these people
see, that we neither want spirit nor materials to
retaliate; and therefore in this point alone,
I shall follow their example, whenever I find myself
sufficiently provoked; only with one addition, that
whatever charges I bring, either general or particular,
shall be religiously true, either upon avowed facts
which none can deny, or such as I can prove from my
own knowledge.
Being resolved publicly to acknowledge
any mistakes I have been guilty of; I do here humbly
desire the reader’s pardon for one of mighty
importance, about a fact in one of my papers, said
to be done in the cathedral of Gloucester. A whole
Hydra of errors in two words: For as I am since
informed, it was neither in the cathedral, nor city,
nor county of Gloucester, but some other church of
that diocese. If I had ever met any other objection
of equal weight, though from the meanest hands, I
should certainly have answered it.
NUMB. 26.
FROM THURSDAY JANUARY 18, TO THURSDAY
JANUARY 25, 1710-11.
[Greek: Dialexamenoi tina
haesuchae, to men sumpan épi te tae dunas
eia kai kata ton echthron sunomosan.]
Summissa quaedam voce collocuti
sunt; quorum summa erat de dominatione sibi confirmanda,
ac inimicis delendis conjuratio.
Not many days ago I observed a knot
of discontented gentlemen cursing the Tories to Hell
for their uncharitableness, in affirming, that if the
late ministry had continued to this time, we should
have had neither Church nor Monarchy left. They
are usually so candid as to call that the opinion
of a party, which they hear in a coffeehouse, or over
a bottle from some warm young people, whom it is odds
but they have provoked to say more than they believed,
by some positions as absurd and ridiculous of their
own. And so it proved in this very instance:
for, asking one of these gentlemen, what it was that
provoked those he had been disputing with, to advance
such a paradox? he assured me in a very calm manner,
it was nothing in the world, but that himself and
some others of the company had made it appear, that
the design of the present P[arliamen]t and m[inistr]y,
was to bring in Popery, arbitrary power, and the Pretender:
which I take to be an opinion fifty times more improbable,
as well as more uncharitable, than what is charged
upon the Whigs: because I defy our adversaries
to produce one single reason for suspecting such designs
in the persons now at the helm; whereas I can upon
demand produce twenty to shew, that some late men
had strong views towards a commonwealth, and the alteration
of the Church.
It is natural indeed, when a storm
is over, that has only untiled our houses, and blown
down some of our chimneys, to consider what further
mischiefs might have ensued, if it had lasted longer.
However, in the present case, I am not of the opinion
above-mentioned; I believe the Church and State might
have lasted somewhat longer, though the late enemies
to both had done their worst: I can hardly conceive
how things would have been so soon ripe for a new
revolution. I am convinced, that if they had
offered to make such large and sudden strides, it must
have come to blows, and according to the computation
we have now reason to think a right one, I can partly
guess what would have been the issue. Besides,
we are sure the Q[uee]n would have interposed before
they came to extremities, and as little as they regarded
the regal authority, would have been a check in their
career.
But instead of this question; What
would have been the consequence if the late ministry
had continued? I will propose another, which will
be more useful for us to consider; and that is, What
we may reasonably expect they will do, if ever they
come into power again? This, we know, is the
design and endeavour of all those scribbles that daily
fly about in their favour; of all the false, insolent,
and scandalous libels against the present administration;
and of all those engines set at work to sink the actions,
and blow up the public credit. As for those who
shew their inclinations by writing, there is one consideration,
which I wonder does not sometimes affect them:
for how can they forbear having a good opinion of
the gentleness and innocence of those, who permit them
to employ their pens as they do? It puts me in
mind of an insolent pragmatical orator somewhere in
Greece, who railing with great freedom at the chief
men in the state, was answered by one who had been
very instrumental in recovering the liberty of the
city, that “he thanked the gods they had now
arrived to the condition he always wished them, when
every man in that city might securely say what they
pleased.” I wish these gentlemen would
however compare the liberty they take with what their
masters used to give: how many messengers and
warrants would have gone out against any that durst
have opened their lips, or drawn their pens, against
the persons and proceedings of their juntoes and cabals?
How would their weekly writers have been calling out
for prosecution and punishment? We remember when
a poor nickname, borrowed from an old play of Ben
Jonson, and mentioned in a sermon without any particular
application, was made use of as a motive to spur an
impeachment. But after all, it must be confessed,
they had reasons to be thus severe, which their successors
have not: their faults would never endure
the light; and to have exposed them sooner, would
have raised the kingdom against the actors, before
the time.
But, to come to the subject I have
now undertaken; which is to examine, what the
consequences would be, upon supposition that the Whigs
were now restored to their power. I already imagine
the present free P[arliamen]t dissolved, and another
of a different epithet met, by the force of money
and management. I read immediately a dozen or
two stinging votes against the proceedings of the
late ministry. The bill now to be repealed would
then be re-enacted, and the birthright of an Englishman
reduced again to the value of twelvepence. But
to give the reader a stronger imagination of such
a scene; let me represent the designs of some men,
lately endeavoured and projected, in the form of a
paper of votes.
“Ordered, That a Bill be brought
in for repealing the Sacramental Test.
“A petition of T[in]dl, Cll[in]s,
Cl[en]dn, Cw[ar]d, Tlnd,
in behalf of themselves and many hundreds of their
disciples, some of which are Members of this honourable
H[ouse], desiring that leave be given to bring in
a Bill for qualifying Atheists, Deists and Socinians,
to serve their Country in any employment.
“Ordered, That leave be given
to bring in a Bill, according to the prayer of the
said petition, and that Mr. L[ec]h[me]re do prepare
and bring it in.
“Ordered, That a Bill be brought
in for removing the education of youth out of the
hands of the Clergy.
“Another, to forbid the Clergy
preaching certain duties in religion, especially obedience
to Princes.
“Another, to take away the jurisdiction of Bishops.
“Another, for constituting a
General for life; with instructions to the committee,
that care may be taken to make the war last as long
as the life of the said General.
“A Bill of Attainder against
C[harles] D[uke] of Sh[rewsbury], J[ohn]
D[uke] of B[uckingham], L[aurence] E[arl] of R[ochester],
Sir S[imon] H[arcourt], k[nigh]t, R[obert] H[arley],
H[enry] S[t. John], Esqs; A[bigail] M[asham],
spinster, and others, for high treason against the
jnto.
“Resolved, That S[ara]h D[uchess]
of M[arlborough] hath been a most dutiful, just, and
grateful servant to Her M[ajest]y.
“Resolved, That to advise the
dissolution of a W[hi]g Parliament, or the removal
of a W[hi]g Ministry, was in order to bring in Popery
and the Pretender; and that the said advice was high
treason.
“Resolved, That by the original
compact the Government of this Realm is by a junto,
and a K[ing] or Qu[een]; but the Administration solely
in the junto.
“Ordered, That a Bill be brought
in for further limiting the Prerogative.
“Ordered, That it be a standing
order of this H[ouse] that the merit of elections
be not determined by the number of voices, or right
of electors, but by weight; and that one Whig shall
weigh down ten Tories.
“A motion being made, and the
question being put, that when a Whig is detected of
manifest bribery, and his competitor being a Tory,
has ten to one a majority, there shall be a new election;
it passed in the negative.
“Resolved, That for a K[ing]
or Q[ueen] of this Realm, to read or examine a paper
brought them to be signed by a j[un]to Minister, is
arbitrary and illegal, and a violation of the liberties
of the people.”
These and the like reformations would,
in all probability, be the first fruits of the Whigs’
resurrection; and what structures such able artists
might in a short time build upon such foundations,
I leave others to conjecture. All hopes of a
peace cut off; the nation industriously involved in
further debts to a degree, that none would dare undertake
the management of affairs, but those whose interest
lay in ruining the constitution. I do not see
how the wisest prince under such necessities could
be able to extricate himself. Then, as to the
Church, the bishops would by degrees be dismissed,
first from the Parliament, next from their revenues,
and at last from their office; and the clergy, instead
of their idle claim of independency on the state,
would be forced to depend for their daily bread on
every individual. But what system of future government
was designed; whether it were already digested, or
would have been left for time and incidents to mature,
I shall not now Examine. Only upon this
occasion I cannot help reflecting on a fact, which
it is probable, the reader knows as well as myself.
There was a picture drawn some time ago, representing
five persons as large as the life, sitting at council
together like a Pentarchy. A void space was left
for a sixth, which was to have been the Qu[een], to
whom they intended that honour: but her M[ajest]y
having since fallen under their displeasure, they have
made a shift to crowd in two better friends in her
place, which makes it a complete Heptarchy. This
piece is now in the country, reserved till better
times, and hangs in a hall, among the pictures of Cromwell,
Bradshaw, Ireton, and some other predecessors.
I must now desire leave to say something
to a gentleman, who has been pleased to publish a
discourse against a paper of mine relating to the
convocation. He promises to set me right, without
any undue reflections or undecent language. I
suppose he means in comparison with others, who pretend
to answer the “Examiner”: So far he
is right; but if he thinks he has behaved himself
as becomes a candid antagonist, I believe he is mistaken.
He says, in his title-page, my “representations
are unfair, and my reflections unjust.”
And his conclusion is yet more severe, where he
“doubts I and my friends are enraged against
the Dutch, because they preserved us from Popery and
arbitrary power at the Revolution; and since that
time, from being overrun by the exorbitant power of
France, and becoming a prey to the Pretender.”
Because this author seems in general to write with
an honest meaning, I would seriously put to him the
question, whether he thinks I and my friends are for
Popery, arbitrary power, France and the Pretender?
I omit other instances of smaller moment, which however
do not suit in my opinion with due reflection or decent
language. The fact relating to the convocation,
came from a good hand, and I do not find this author
differs from me in any material circumstance about
it. My reflections were no more than what might
be obvious to any other gentleman, who had heard of
their late proceedings. If the notion be right
which this author gives us of a Lower House of Convocation,
it is a very melancholy one, and to me seems utterly
inconsistent with that of a body of men whom he owns
to have a negative; and therefore, since a great majority
of the clergy differs from him in several points he
advances, I shall rather choose to be of their opinion
than his. I fancy, when the whole synod met in
one house, as this writer affirms, they were upon
a better foot with their bishops, and therefore whether
this treatment so extremely de haut en bas,
since their exclusion, be suitable to primitive custom
or primitive humility towards brethren, is not my
business to enquire. One may allow the divine
or apostolic right of Episcopacy, and their great superiority
over presbyters, and yet dispute the methods of exercising
the latter, which being of human institution, are
subject to encroachments and usurpations.
I know, every clergyman in a diocese has a good deal
of dependence upon his bishop, and owes him canonical
obedience: but I was apt to think, when the whole
representative of the clergy met in a synod, they were
considered in another light, at least since they are
allowed to have a negative. If I am mistaken,
I desire to be excused, as talking out of my trade:
only there is one thing wherein I entirely differ from
this author. Since in the disputes about privileges,
one side must recede; where so very few privileges
remain, it is a hundred to one odds, the encroachments
are not on the inferior clergy’s side; and no
man can blame them for insisting on the small number
that is left. There is one fact wherein I must
take occasion to set this author right; that the person
who first moved the QUEEN to remit the first-fruits
and tenths to the clergy, was an eminent instrument
in the late turn of affairs; and as I am told,
has lately prevailed to have the same favour granted
for the clergy of Ireland.
But I must beg leave to inform the
author, that this paper is not intended for the management
of controversy, which would be of very little import
to most readers, and only misspend time, that I would
gladly employ to better purposes. For where it
is a man’s business to entertain a whole room-full,
it is unmannerly to apply himself to a particular
person, and turn his back upon the rest of the company.
“This very project ... was first
set on foot by a great minister in the last reign.
It was then far advanced, and would have been finished,
had he stayed but a few months longer in the ministry”
("The Case,” etc., . [T.S.]]
NUMB. 27.
FROM THURSDAY JANUARY 25, TO THURSDAY
FEBRUARY 1, 1710-11.
Ea autem est gloria, laus recte
factorum, magnorumque in rempublicam meritorum:
Quae cum optimi cujusque, tum etiam multitudinis testimonio
comprobatur.
I am thinking, what a mighty advantage
it is to be entertained as a writer to a ruined cause.
I remember a fanatic preacher, who was inclined to
come into the Church, and take orders; but upon mature
thoughts was diverted from that design, when he considered
that the collections of the godly were a much
heartier and readier penny, than he could get by wrangling
for tithes. He certainly had reason, and the two
cases are parallel. If you write in defence of
a fallen party, you are maintained by contribution
as a necessary person, you have little more to do than
to carp and cavil at those who hold the pen on the
other side; you are sure to be celebrated and caressed
by all your party, to a man. You may affirm and
deny what you please, without truth or probability,
since it is but loss of time to contradict you.
Besides, commiseration is often on your side, and
you have a pretence to be thought honest and disinterested,
for adhering to friends in distress. After which,
if your party ever happens to turn up again, you have
a strong fund of merit towards making your fortune.
Then, you never fail to be well furnished with materials,
every one bringing in his quota, and falsehood
being naturally more plentiful than truth. Not
to mention the wonderful delight of libelling men in
power, and hugging yourself in a corner with mighty
satisfaction for what you have done.
It is quite otherwise with us, who
engage as volunteers in the service of a flourishing
ministry, in full credit with the Q[uee]n, and beloved
by the people, because they have no sinister ends
or dangerous designs, but pursue with steadiness and
resolution the true interests of both. Upon which
account they little want or desire our assistance;
and we may write till the world is weary of reading,
without having our pretences allowed either to a place
or a pension: besides, we are refused the common
benefit of the party, to have our works cried up of
course; the readers of our own side being as ungentle
and hard to please, as if we writ against them; and
our papers never make their way in the world, but
barely in proportion to their merit. The design
of their labours who write on the conquered
side, is likewise of greater importance than ours;
they are like cordials for dying men, which must
be repeated; whereas ours are, in the Scripture phrase,
but “meat for babes”: at least, all
I can pretend, is to undeceive the ignorant and those
at distance; but their task is to keep up the sinking
spirits of a whole party.
After such reflections, I cannot be
angry with those gentlemen for perpetually writing
against me: it furnishes them largely with topics,
and is besides, their proper business: neither
is it affectation, or altogether scorn, that I do
not reply. But as things are, we both act suitable
to our several provinces: mine is, by laying open
some corruptions in the late management, to set
those who are ignorant, right in their opinions of
persons and things: it is theirs to cover with
fig-leaves all the faults of their friends, as well
as they can: When I have produced my facts, and
offered my arguments, I have nothing farther to advance;
it is their office to deny and disprove; and then let
the world decide. If I were as they, my chief
endeavour should certainly be to batter down the “Examiner,”
therefore I cannot but approve their design, Besides,
they have indeed another reason for barking incessantly
at this paper: they have in their prints openly
taxed a most ingenious person as author of it;
one who is in great and very deserved reputation with
the world, both on account of his poetical works, and
his talents for public business. They were wise
enough to consider, what a sanction it would give
their performances, to fall under the animadversion
of such a pen; and have therefore used all the forms
of provocation commonly practised by little obscure
pedants, who are fond of distinguishing themselves
by the fame of an adversary. So nice a taste
have these judicious critics, in pretending to discover
an author by his style and manner of thinking:
not to mention the justice and candour of exhausting
all the stale topics of scurrility in reviling a paper,
and then flinging at a venture the whole load upon
one who is entirely innocent; and whose greatest fault,
perhaps, is too much gentleness toward a party, from
whose leaders he has received quite contrary treatment.
The concern I have for the ease and
reputation of so deserving a gentleman, hath at length
forced me, much against my interest and inclination,
to let these angry people know who is not the
author of the “Examiner." For, I observed,
the opinion began to spread, and I chose rather to
sacrifice the honour I received by it, than let injudicious
people entitle him to a performance, that perhaps he
might have reason to be ashamed of: still faithfully
promising, never to disturb those worthy advocates;
but suffer them in quiet to roar on at the “Examiner,”
if they or their party find any ease in it; as physicians
say there is, to people in torment, such as men in
the gout, or women in labour.
However, I must acknowledge myself
indebted to them for one hint, which I shall now pursue,
though in a different manner. Since the fall of
the late ministry, I have seen many papers filled
with their encomiums; I conceive, in imitation of
those who write the lives of famous men, where, after
their deaths, immediately follow their characters.
When I saw the poor virtues thus dealt at random,
I thought the disposers had flung their names, like
valentines into a hat, to be drawn as fortune pleased,
by the jnto and their friends. There, Crassus
drew liberty and gratitude; Fulvia, humility and
gentleness; Clodius, piety and justice; Gracchus,
loyalty to his prince; Cinna, love of his country
and constitution; and so of the rest. Or, to quit
this allegory, I have often seen of late, the whole
set of discarded statesmen, celebrated by their judicious
hirelings, for those very qualities which their admirers
owned they chiefly wanted. Did these heroes put
off and lock up their virtues when they came into
employment, and have they now resumed them since their
dismissions? If they wore them, I am sure it was
under their greatness, and without ever once
convincing the world of their visibility or influence.
But why should not the present ministry
find a pen to praise them as well as the last?
This is what I shall now undertake, and it may be more
impartial in me, from whom they have deserved so little.
I have, without being called, served them half
a year in quality of champion, and by help of
the Qu[een] and a majority of nine in ten of the kingdom,
have been able to protect them against a routed cabal
of hated politicians, with a dozen of scribblers at
their head; yet so far have they been from rewarding
me suitable to my deserts, that to this day they never
so much as sent to the printer to enquire who I was;
though I have known a time and a ministry, where a
person of half my merit and consideration would have
had fifty promises, and in the mean time a pension
settled on him, whereof the first quarter should
be honestly paid. Therefore my resentments shall
so far prevail, that in praising those who are now
at the head of affairs, I shall at the same time take
notice of their defects.
Was any man more eminent in his profession
than the present l[or]d k[eepe]r, or more distinguished
by his eloquence and great abilities in the House
of Commons? And will not his enemies allow him
to be fully equal to the great station he now adorns?
But then it must be granted, that he is wholly ignorant
in the speculative as well as practical part of polygamy:
he knows not how to metamorphose a sober man into a
lunatic: he is no freethinker in religion, nor
has courage to be patron of an atheistical book,
while he is guardian of the Qu[een]’s conscience.
Though after all, to speak my private opinion, I cannot
think these such mighty objections to his character,
as some would pretend.
The person who now presides at the
council, is descended from a great and honourable
father, not from the dregs of the people; he was at
the head of the treasury for some years, and rather
chose to enrich his prince than himself. In the
height of favour and credit, he sacrificed the greatest
employment in the kingdom to his conscience and honour:
he has been always firm in his loyalty and religion,
zealous for supporting the prerogative of the crown,
and preserving the liberties of the people. But
then, his best friends must own that he is neither
Deist nor Socinian: he has never conversed with
Tlnd, to open and enlarge his thoughts, and
dispel the prejudices of education; nor was he ever
able to arrive at that perfection of gallantry, to
ruin and imprison the husband, in order to keep the
wife without disturbance.
The present l[or]d st[ewa]rd has
been always distinguished for his wit and knowledge;
is of consummate wisdom and experience in affairs;
has continued constant to the true interest of the
nation, which he espoused from the beginning, and
is every way qualified to support the dignity of his
office: but in point of oratory must give place
to his predecessor.
The D. of Sh[rewsbur]y was
highly instrumental in bringing about the Revolution,
in which service he freely exposed his life and fortune.
He has ever been the favourite of the nation, being
possessed of all the amiable qualities that can accomplish
a great man; but in the agreeableness and fragrancy
of his person, and the profoundness of his politics,
must be allowed to fall very short of .
Mr. H[arley] had the honour of being
chosen Speaker successively to three Parliaments;
he was the first of late years, that ventured to restore
the forgotten custom of treating his PRINCE with duty
and respect. Easy and disengaged in private conversation,
with such a weight of affairs upon his shoulders;
of great learning, and as great a favourer and protector
of it; intrepid by nature, as well as by the consciousness
of his own integrity, and a despiser of money; pursuing
the true interest of his PRINCE and country against
all obstacles. Sagacious to view into the remotest
consequences of things, by which all difficulties fly
before him. A firm friend, and a placable enemy,
sacrificing his justest resentments, not only to public
good, but to common intercession and acknowledgment.
Yet with all these virtues it must be granted, there
is some mixture of human infirmity: His greatest
admirers must confess his skill at cards and dice
to be very low and superficial: in horse-racing
he is utterly ignorant: then, to save a few millions
to the public, he never regards how many worthy citizens
he hinders from making up their plum. And surely
there is one thing never to be forgiven him, that he
delights to have his table filled with black coats,
whom he uses as if they were gentlemen.
My Lord D[artmouth] is a man of
letters, full of good sense, good nature and honour,
of strict virtue and regularity in life; but labours
under one great defect, that he treats his clerks with
more civility and good manners, than others, in his
station, have done the Qu[een].
Omitting some others, I will close
this character of the present ministry, with that
of Mr. S[t. John], who from his youth applying
those admirable talents of nature and improvements
of art to public business, grew eminent in court and
Parliament at an age when the generality of mankind
is employed in trifles and folly. It is to be
lamented, that he has not yet procured himself a busy,
important countenance, nor learned that profound part
of wisdom, to be difficult of access. Besides,
he has clearly mistaken the true use of books, which
he has thumbed and spoiled with reading, when he ought
to have multiplied them on his shelves: not like
a great man of my acquaintance, who knew a book by
the back, better than a friend by the face, though
he had never conversed with the former, and often
with the latter.
The case is referred to in N
of “The Tatler” (July 12th, 1709).
Campbell says ("Chancellors,” i the commission
“very properly issued.” Luttrell
in his “Diary” (July 30th, 1709) notes
that “the jury yesterday brought it in that
he [Wenman] was no idiot” (v. Lord
Wenman died November 28th, 1729. See also Nos.
18 and 23, ante, and note, . [T.S.]]
NUMB. 28.
FROM THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1, TO THURSDAY FEBRUARY 8, 1710-11.
Caput est in omni procuratione
negotii et muneris publici, ut avaritiae pellatur
etiam minima suspicio.
There is no vice which mankind carries
to such wild extremes as that of avarice: Those
two which seem to rival it in this point, are lust
and ambition: but, the former is checked by difficulties
and diseases, destroys itself by its own pursuits,
and usually declines with old age: and the latter
requiring courage, conduct and fortune in a high degree,
and meeting with a thousand dangers and oppositions,
succeeds too seldom in an age to fall under common
observation. Or, is avarice perhaps the same
passion with ambition, only placed in more ignoble
and dastardly minds, by which the object is changed
from power to money? Or it may be, that one man
pursues power in order to wealth, and another wealth
in order to power; which last is the safer way, though
longer about, and suiting with every period as well
as condition of life, is more generally followed.
However it be, the extremes of this
passion are certainly more frequent than of any other,
and often to a degree so absurd and ridiculous, that
if it were not for their frequency, they could hardly
obtain belief. The stage, which carries
other follies and vices beyond nature and probability,
falls very short in the representations of avarice;
nor are there any extravagances in this kind
described by ancient or modern comedies, which are
not outdone by an hundred instances, commonly told,
among ourselves.
I am ready to conclude from hence,
that a vice which keeps so firm a hold upon human
nature, and governs it with so unlimited a tyranny,
since it cannot be wholly eradicated, ought at least
to be confined to particular objects, to thrift and
penury, to private fraud and extortion, and never
suffered to prey upon the public; and should certainly
be rejected as the most unqualifying circumstance
for any employment, where bribery and corruption can
possibly enter.
If the mischiefs of this vice, in
a public station, were confined to enriching only
those particular persons employed, the evil would be
more supportable; but it is usually quite otherwise.
When a steward defrauds his lord, he must connive
at the rest of the servants, while they are following
the same practice in their several spheres; so that
in some families you may observe a subordination of
knaves in a link downwards to the very helper in the
stables, all cheating by concert, and with impunity:
And even if this were all, perhaps the master could
bear it without being undone; but it so happens, that
for every shilling the servant gets by his iniquity,
the master loses twenty; the perquisites of servants
being but small compositions for suffering shopkeepers
to bring in what bills they please. It is exactly
the same thing in a state: an avaricious man
in office is in confederacy with the whole clan
of his district or dependence, which in modern terms
of art is called, “To live, and let live;”
and yet their gains are the smallest part of
the public’s loss. Give a guinea to a knavish
land-waiter, and he shall connive at the merchant
for cheating the Queen of an hundred. A brewer
gives a bribe to have the privilege of selling drink
to the Navy; but the fraud is ten times greater than
the bribe, and the public is at the whole loss.
Moralists make two kinds of avarice;
that of Catiline, alieni appetens, sui profusus;
and the other more generally understood by that name;
which is, the endless desire of hoarding: But
I take the former to be more dangerous in a state,
because it mingles well with ambition, which I think
the latter cannot; for though the same breast may be
capable of admitting both, it is not able to cultivate
them; and where the love of heaping wealth prevails,
there is not in my opinion, much to be apprehended
from ambition. The disgrace of that sordid vice
is sooner apt to spread than any other, and is always
attended with the hatred and scorn of the people:
so that whenever those two passions happen to meet
in the same subject, it is not unlikely that Providence
hath placed avarice to be a check upon ambition; and
I have reason to think, some great ministers of state
have been of my opinion.
The divine authority of Holy Writ,
the precepts of philosophers, the lashes and ridicule
of satirical poets, have been all employed in exploding
this insatiable thirst of money, and all equally controlled
by the daily practice of mankind. Nothing new
remains to be said upon the occasion, and if there
did, I must remember my character, that I am an Examiner
only, and not a Reformer.
However, in those cases where the
frailties of particular men do nearly affect the public
welfare, such as a prime minister of state, or a great
general of an army; methinks there should be some expedient
contrived, to let them know impartially what is the
world’s opinion in the point: Encompassed
with a crowd of depending flatterers, they are many
degrees blinder to their own faults than the common
infirmities of human nature can plead in their excuse;
Advice dares not be offered, or is wholly lost, or
returned with hatred: and whatever appears in
public against their prevailing vice, goes for nothing;
being either not applied, or passing only for libel
and slander, proceeding from the malice and envy of
a party.
I have sometimes thought, that if
I had lived at Rome in the time of the first Triumvirate,
I should have been tempted to write a letter, as from
an unknown hand, to those three great men, who had
then usurped the sovereign power; wherein I would
freely and sincerely tell each of them that fault
which I conceived was most odious, and of most consequence
to the commonwealth: That, to Crassus, should
have been sent to him after his conquests in Mesopotamia,
and in the following terms.
“To Marcus Crassus, health.
“If you apply as you ought,
what I now write, you will be more obliged to me
than to all the world, hardly excepting your parents
or your country. I intend to tell you, without
disguise or prejudice, the opinion which the world
has entertained of you: and to let you see I
write this without any sort of ill will, you shall
first hear the sentiments they have to your advantage.
No man disputes the gracefulness of your person; you
are allowed to have a good and clear understanding,
cultivated by the knowledge of men and manners, though
not by literature. You are no ill orator in the
Senate; you are said to excel in the art of bridling
and subduing your anger, and stifling or concealing
your resentments. You have been a most successful
general, of long experience, great conduct, and much
personal courage. You have gained many important
victories for the commonwealth, and forced the strongest
towns in Mesopotamia to surrender, for which frequent
supplications have been decreed by the Senate.
Yet with all these qualities, and this merit, give
me leave to say, you are neither beloved by the patricians,
or plebeians at home, nor by the officers or private
soldiers of your own army abroad: And, do you
know, Crassus, that this is owing to a fault, of which
you may cure yourself, by one minutes reflection?
What shall I say? You are the richest person
in the commonwealth; you have no male child, your
daughters are all married to wealthy patricians; you
are far in the decline of life; and yet you are deeply
stained with that odious and ignoble vice of covetousness:
It is affirmed, that you descend even to the meanest
and most scandalous degrees of it; and while you possess
so many millions, while you are daily acquiring so
many more, you are solicitous how to save a single
sesterce, of which a hundred ignominious instances
are produced, and in all men’s mouths. I
will only mention that passage of the buskins,
which after abundance of persuasion, you would hardly
suffer to be cut from your legs, when they were so
wet and cold, that to have kept them on, would have
endangered your life.
“Instead of using the common
arguments to dissuade you from this weakness, I will
endeavour to convince you, that you are really guilty
of it, and leave the cure to your own good sense.
For perhaps, you are not yet persuaded that this is
your crime, you have probably never yet been reproached
for it to your face, and what you are now told, comes
from one unknown, and it may be, from an enemy.
You will allow yourself indeed to be prudent in the
management of your fortune; you are not a prodigal,
like Clodius or Catiline, but surely that deserves
not the name of avarice. I will inform you how
to be convinced. Disguise your person; go among
the common people in Rome; introduce discourses about
yourself; inquire your own character; do the same
in your camp, walk about it in the evening, hearken
at every tent, and if you do not hear every mouth
censuring, lamenting, cursing this vice in you, and
even you for this vice, conclude yourself innocent.
If you are not yet persuaded, send for Atticus,
Servius Sulpicius, Cato or Brutus, they are all
your friends; conjure them to tell you ingenuously
which is your great fault, and which they would chiefly
wish you to correct; if they do not all agree in their
verdict, in the name of all the gods, you are acquitted.
“When your adversaries reflect
how far you are gone in this vice, they are tempted
to talk as if we owed our success, not to your courage
or conduct, but to those veteran troops you command,
who are able to conquer under any general, with so
many brave and experienced officers to lead them.
Besides, we know the consequences your avarice hath
often occasioned. The soldier hath been starving
for bread, surrounded with plenty, and in an enemy’s
country, but all under safeguards and contributions;
which if you had sometimes pleased to have exchanged
for provisions, might at the expense of a few talents
in a campaign, have so endeared you to the army, that
they would have desired you to lead them to the utmost
limits of Asia. But you rather chose to confine
your conquests within the fruitful country of Mesopotamia,
where plenty of money might be raised. How far
that fatal greediness of gold may have influenced
you, in breaking off the treaty with the old Parthian
King Orodes, you best can tell; your enemies charge
you with it, your friends offer nothing material in
your defence; and all agree, there is nothing so pernicious,
which the extremes of avarice may not be able to inspire.
“The moment you quit this vice,
you will be a truly great man; and still there will
imperfections enough remain to convince us, you are
not a god. Farewell."_
Perhaps a letter of this nature, sent
to so reasonable a man as Crassus, might have put
him upon Examining into himself, and correcting
that little sordid appetite, so utterly inconsistent
with all pretences to a hero. A youth in the
heat of blood may plead with some shew of reason,
that he is not able to subdue his lusts; An ambitious
man may use the same arguments for his love of power,
or perhaps other arguments to justify it. But,
excess of avarice hath neither of these pleas to offer;
it is not to be justified, and cannot pretend temptation
for excuse: Whence can the temptation come?
Reason disclaims it altogether, and it cannot be said
to lodge in the blood, or the animal spirits.
So that I conclude, no man of true valour and true
understanding, upon whom this vice has stolen unawares,
when he is convinced he is guilty, will suffer it
to remain in his breast an hour.
Writing to Stella, under date February
18th, Swift says: “Lord Rivers, talking
to me the other day, cursed the paper called ‘The
Examiner,’ for speaking civilly of the Duke
of Marlborough: this I happened to talk of to
the Secretary [St. John], who blamed the warmth of
that lord, and some others, and swore, that, if their
advice were followed, they would be blown up in twenty-four
hours” (vol. ii., of present edition).
[T.S.]]
NUMB. 29.
FROM THURSDAY FEBRUARY 8, TO THURSDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 1710-11.
Inultus ut tu riseris Cotyttia?
An Answer to the “Letter to the Examiner."
London, Fe, 1710/11.
Sir,
Though I have wanted leisure to acknowledge
the honour of a letter you were pleased to write to
me about six months ago; yet I have been very careful
in obeying some of your commands, and am going on as
fast as I can with the rest. I wish you had thought
fit to have conveyed them to me by a more private
hand, than that of the printing-house: for though
I was pleased with a pattern of style and spirit which
I proposed to imitate, yet I was sorry the world should
be a witness how far I fell short in both.
I am afraid you did not consider what
an abundance of work you have cut out for me; neither
am I at all comforted by the promise you are so kind
to make, that when I have performed my task, “D[olbe]n
shall blush in his grave among the dead, W[alpo]lé
among the living, and even Vol[pon]e shall feel some
remorse.” How the gentleman in his grave
may have kept his countenance, I cannot inform you,
having no acquaintance at all with the sexton; but
for the other two, I take leave to assure you, there
have not yet appeared the least signs of blushing
or remorse in either, though some very good opportunities
have offered, if they had thought fit to accept them;
so that with your permission, I had rather engage to
continue this work till they are in their graves too,
which I am sure will happen much sooner than the other.
You desire I would collect “some
of those indignities offered last year to her M[ajest]y.”
I am ready to oblige you; and have got a pretty tolerable
collection by me, which I am in doubt whether to publish
by itself in a large volume in folio, or scatter them
here and there occasionally in my papers. Though
indeed I am sometimes thinking to stifle them altogether;
because such a history will be apt to give foreigners
a monstrous opinion of our country. But since
it is your absolute opinion, the world should be informed;
I will with the first occasion pick out a few choice
instances, and let them take their chance in the ensuing
papers. I have likewise in my cabinet certain
quires of paper filled with facts of corruption, mismanagement,
cowardice, treachery, avarice, ambition, and the like,
with an alphabetical table, to save trouble.
And perhaps you will not wonder at the care I take
to be so well provided, when you consider the vast
expense I am at: I feed weekly two or three wit-starved
writers, who have no other visible support; besides
several others that live upon my offals. In short,
I am like a nurse who suckles twins at one time, and
has likewise one or two whelps constantly to draw
her breasts.
I must needs confess, (and it is with
grief I speak it) that I have been the innocent cause
of a great circulation of dullness: at the same
time, I have often wondered how it has come to pass,
that these industrious people, after poring so constantly
upon the “Examiner," a paper writ with plain
sense, and in a tolerable style, have made so little
improvement. I am sure it would have fallen out
quite otherwise with me; for, by what I have seen
of their performances (and I am credibly informed
they are all of a piece) if I had perused them till
now, I should have been fit for little but to make
an advocate in the same cause.
You, Sir, perhaps will wonder, as
most others do, what end these angry folks propose,
in writing perpetually against the “Examiner”:
it is not to beget a better opinion of the late ministry,
or with any hope to convince the world that I am in
the wrong in any one fact I relate; they know all
that to be lost labour; and yet their design is important
enough: they would fain provoke me by all sort
of methods, within the length of their capacity, to
answer their papers; which would render mine wholly
useless to the public; for if it once came to rejoinder
and reply, we should be all upon a level, and then
their work would be done.
There is one gentleman indeed, who
has written three small pamphlets upon “the
Management of the War,” and “the Treaty
of Peace:" These I had intended to have bestowed
a paper in Examining, and could easily have
made it appear, that whatever he says of truth, relates
nothing at all to the evils we complain of, or controls
one syllable of what I have ever advanced. Nobody
that I know of did ever dispute the Duke of M[arlboroug]h’s
courage, conduct or success, they have been always
unquestionable, and will continue to be so, in spite
of the malice of his enemies, or, which is yet more,
the weakness of his advocates. The nation
only wished to see him taken out of ill hands, and
put into better. But, what is all this to the
conduct of the late mnstry, the shameful mismanagements
in Spain, or the wrong steps in the treaty of peace,
the secret of which will not bear the light, and is
consequently by this author very poorly defended?
These and many other things I would have shewn; but
upon second thoughts determined to have done it in
a discourse by itself, rather than take up room
here, and break into the design of this paper, from
whence I have resolved to banish controversy as much
as possible. But the postscript to his third pamphlet
was enough to disgust me from having any dealings at
all with such a writer; unless that part was left
to some footman he had picked up among the boys
who follow the camp, whose character it would suit
much better than that of the supposed author. At
least, the foul language, the idle impotent menace,
and the gross perverting of an innocent expression
in the 4th “Examiner," joined to that respect
I shall ever have for the function of a divine, would
incline me to believe so. But when he turns off
his footman, and disclaims that postscript, I will
tear it out, and see how far the rest deserves to
be considered.
But, Sir, I labour under a much greater
difficulty, upon which I should be glad to hear your
advice. I am worried on one side by the Whigs
for being too severe, and by the Tories on the other
for being too gentle. I have formerly hinted
a complaint of this; but having lately received two
peculiar letters, among many others, I thought nothing
could better represent my condition, or the opinion
which the warm men of both sides have of my conduct,
than to send you a transcript of each. The former
is exactly in these words.
“To the ’Examiner.’
“MR. EXAMINER,
“By your continual reflecting
upon the conduct of the late mnstry, and by
your encomiums on the present, it is as clear as the
sun at noon-day, that your are a Jesuit or Nonjuror,
employed by the friends of the Pretender, to endeavour
to introduce Popery, and slavery, and arbitrary power,
and to infringe the sacred Act of Toleration of Dissenters.
Now, Sir, since the most ingenious authors who write
weekly against you, are not able to teach you better
manners, I would have you to know, that those great
and excellent men, as low as you think them at present,
do not want friends that will take the first proper
occasion to cut your throat, as all such enemies to
moderation ought to be served. It is well you
have cleared another person from being author of
your cursed libels; though d mme, perhaps
after all, that may be a bamboozle too. However
I hope we shall soon ferret you out. Therefore
I advise you as a friend, to let fall your pen, and
retire betimes; for our patience is now at an end.
It is enough to lose our power and employments, without
setting the whole nation against us. Consider
three years is the life of a party; and d mme,
every dog has his day, and it will be our turn next;
therefore take warning, and learn to sleep in a whole
skin, or whenever we are uppermost, by G d
you shall find no mercy.”
The other letter was in the following terms.
“To the ’Examiner.’
“SIR,,
“I am a country member, and
constantly send a dozen of your papers down to my
electors. I have read them all, but I confess
not with the satisfaction I expected. It is plain
you know a great deal more than you write; why will
you not let us have it all out? We are told, that
the Qu[een] has been a long time treated with insolence
by those she has most obliged; Pray, Sir, let us have
a few good stories upon that head. We have been
cheated of several millions; why will you not set a
mark on the knaves who are guilty, and shew us what
ways they took to rob the public at such a rate?
Inform us how we came to be disappointed of peace
about two years ago: In short, turn the whole
mystery of iniquity inside-out, that every body may
have a view of it. But above all, explain to
us, what was at the bottom of that same impeachment:
I am sure I never liked it; for at that very time,
a dissenting preacher in our neighbourhood, came often
to see our parson; it could be for no good, for he
would walk about the barns and stables, and desire
to look into the church, as who should say, These
will shortly be mine; and we all believed he was then
contriving some alterations against he got into possession:
And I shall never forget, that a Whig justice offered
me then very high for my bishop’s lease.
I must be so bold to tell you, Sir, that you are too
favourable: I am sure, there was no living in
quiet for us while they were in the saddle. I
was turned out of the commission, and called a Jacobite,
though it cost me a thousand pound in joining with
the Prince of Orange at the Revolution. The discoveries
I would have you make, are of some facts for which
they ought to be hanged; not that I value their heads,
but I would see them exposed, which may be done upon
the owners’ shoulders, as well as upon a pole,
&c."
These, Sir, are the sentiments of
a whole party on one side, and of considerable numbers
on the other: however, taking the medium
between these extremes, I think to go on as I have
hitherto done, though I am sensible my paper would
be more popular, if I did not lean too much to the
favourable side. For nothing delights the people
more than to see their oppressors humbled, and all
their actions, painted with proper colours, set out
in open view. Exactos tyrannos densum humeris bibit
aure vulgus.
But as for the Whigs, I am in some
doubt whether this mighty concern they shew for the
honour of the late ministry, may not be affected, at
least whether their masters will thank them for their
zeal in such a cause. It is I think, a known
story of a gentleman who fought another for calling
him “son of a whore;” but the lady desired
her son to make no more quarrels upon that subject,
because it was true. For pray, Sir; does
it not look like a jest, that such a pernicious crew,
after draining our wealth, and discovering the most
destructive designs against our Church and State,
instead of thanking fortune that they are got off safe
in their persons and plunder, should hire these bullies
of the pen to defend their reputations? I remember
I thought it the hardest case in the world, when a
poor acquaintance of mine, having fallen among sharpers,
where he lost all his money, and then complaining
he was cheated, got a good beating into the bargain,
for offering to affront gentlemen. I believe
the only reason why these purloiners of the public,
cause such a clutter to be made about their reputations,
is to prevent inquisitions, that might tend towards
making them refund: like those women they call
shoplifters, who when they are challenged for their
thefts, appear to be mighty angry and affronted, for
fear of being searched.
I will dismiss you, Sir, when I have
taken notice of one particular. Perhaps you may
have observed in the tolerated factious papers of the
week, that the E[arl] of R[ochester] is frequently
reflected on for having been ecclesiastical commissioner
and lord treasurer, in the reign of the late King
James. The fact is true; and it will not be denied
to his immortal honour, that because he could not
comply with the measures then taking, he resigned
both those employments; of which the latter was immediately
supplied by a commission, composed of two popish lords
and the present E[ar]l of Gdl[phi]n.
“Safely shalt thou Cotytto’s
rites
Divulge?” J.
DUNCOMBE.
[T.S.]]
Abel Roper conducted the Tory paper
called “The Post Boy.” (See note on of vol. v. of present edition.) [T.S.] ]
The fourth “Examiner”
had printed a “Letter from the Country,”
in which the following passage occurs: “Can
any wise people think it possible, that the Crown
should be so mad as to choose ministers, who would
not support public credit? ... This is such a
wildness as is never ... to be met with in the Roman
story; except in a devouring Sejanus at home, or an
ambitious Catiline at the head of a mercenary army.”
The writer of “An Examination
of the Third and Fourth Letters,” says:
“The words indeed are in the paper quoted, that
is, ‘The Examiner,’ N, but the application
is certainly the proper thought of the author of the
postscript” . [T.S.]]
NUMB. 30.
FROM THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15, TO THURSDAY
FEBRUARY 22, 1710-11.
Laus summa in fortunae bonis, non
extulisse se in potestate, non fuisse insolentem in
pecunia, non se praetulisse aliis propter abundantiam
fortunae.
I am conscious to myself that I write
this paper with no other intention but that of doing
good: I never received injury from the late ministry,
nor advantage from the present, further than in common
with every good subject. There were among the
former one or two, who must be allowed to have possessed
very valuable qualities; but proceeding by a system
of politics, which our constitution could not suffer;
and discovering a contempt of all religion, but especially
of that which hath been so happily established among
us ever since the Reformation, they seem to have been
justly suspected of no very good inclinations to either.
It is possible, that a man may speculatively
prefer the constitution of another country, or an
Utopia of his own, before that of the nation where
he is born and lives; yet from considering the dangers
of innovation, the corruptions of mankind, and
the frequent impossibility of reducing ideas to practice,
he may join heartily in preserving the present order
of things, and be a true friend to the government
already settled. So in religion; a man may perhaps
have little or none of it at heart; yet if he conceals
his opinions, if he endeavours to make no prosélytes,
advances no impious tenets in writing or discourse:
if, according to the common atheistical notion, he
believes religion to be only a contrivance of politicians
for keeping the vulgar in awe, and that the present
model is better adjusted than any other to so useful
an end: though the condition of such a man as
to his own future state be very deplorable; yet Providence,
which often works good out of evil, can make even such
a man an instrument for contributing toward the preservation
of the Church.
On the other side, I take a state
to be truly in danger, both as to its religion and
government, when a set of ambitious politicians, bred
up in a hatred to the constitution, and a contempt
for all religion, are forced upon exerting these qualities
in order to keep or increase their power, by widening
their bottom, and taking in (like Mahomet) some principles
from every party, that is any way discontented at the
present faith and settlement; which was manifestly
our case. Upon this occasion I remember to have
asked some considerable Whigs, whether it did not bring
a disreputation upon their body, to have the whole
herd of Presbyterians, Independents, Atheists, Anabaptists,
Deists, Quakers and Socinians, openly and universally
listed under their banners? They answered, that
all this was absolutely necessary, in order to make
a balance against the Tories, and all little enough:
for indeed, it was as much as they could possibly
do, though assisted with the absolute power of disposing
every employment; while the bulk of English gentry
kept firm to their old principles in Church and State.
But notwithstanding whatever I have
hitherto said, I am informed, several among the Whigs
continue still so refractory, that they will hardly
allow the heads of their party to have entertained
any designs of ruining the constitution, or that they
would have endeavoured it, if they had continued in
power, I beg their pardon if I have discovered a secret;
but who could imagine they ever intended it should
be one, after those overt acts with which they thought
fit to conclude their farce? But perhaps they
now find it convenient to deny vigorously, that
the question may remain; “Why was the old ministry
changed?” which they urge on without ceasing,
as if no occasion in the least had been given, but
that all were owing to the insinuations of crafty
men, practising upon the weakness of an easy pr[inc]e.
I shall therefore offer among a hundred, one reason
for this change, which I think would justify any monarch
that ever reigned, for the like proceeding.
It is notorious enough, how highly
princes have been blamed in the histories of all countries,
particularly of our own; upon the account of minions;
who have been ever justly odious to the people, for
their insolence and avarice, and engrossing the favour
of their masters. Whoever has been the least
conversant in the English story cannot but have heard
of Gaveston, the Spencers, and the Earl
of Oxford; who by the excess and abuse of their
power, cost the princes they served, or rather governed,
their crowns and lives. However, in the case of
minions, it must at least be acknowledged that the
prince is pleased and happy, though his subjects be
aggrieved; and he has the plea of friendship to excuse
him, which is a disposition of generous minds.
Besides, a wise minion, though he be haughty to others,
is humble and insinuating to his master, and cultivates
his favour by obedience and respect. But our
misfortune has been a great deal worse: we have
suffered for some years under the oppression, the avarice
and insolence of those, for whom the Qu[ee]n had neither
esteem nor friendship; who rather seemed to snatch
their own dues, than receive the favour of their sovereign,
and were so far from returning respect, that they forgot
common good manners. They imposed on their prince,
by urging the necessity of affairs of their own creating:
they first raised difficulties, and then offered them
as arguments to keep themselves in power. They
united themselves against nature and principle, to
a party they had always abhorred, and which was now
content to come in upon any terms, leaving them and
their creatures in full possession of the court.
Then they urged the formidable strength of that party,
and the dangers which must follow by disobliging of
it. So that it seems almost a miracle, how a
prince, thus besieged on all sides, could alone
have courage and prudence enough to extricate herself.
And indeed there is a point of history
relating to this matter, which well deserves to be
considered. When her M[ajest]y came to the crown,
she took into favour and employment, several persons
who were esteemed the best friends of the old constitution;
among whom none were reckoned further gone in the
high church principles (as they are usually called)
than two or three, who had at that time most credit,
and ever since, till within these few months, possessed
all power at court. So that the first umbrage
given to the Whigs, and the pretences for clamouring
against France and the Pretender, were derived from
them. And I believe nothing appeared then more
unlikely, than that such different opinions should
ever incorporate; that party having upon former occasions
treated those very persons with enmity enough.
But some l[or]ds then about court, and in the Qu[een]’s
good graces, not able to endure those growing impositions
upon the prince and people, presumed to interpose,
and were consequently soon removed and disgraced:
However, when a most exorbitant grant was proposed,
antecedent to any visible merit, it miscarried in
Parliament, for want of being seconded by those who
had most credit in the House, and who having always
opposed the like excesses in a former reign, thought
it their duty to do so still, to shew the world that
the dislike was not against persons but things.
But this was to cross the oligarchy in the tenderest
point, a point which outweighed all considerations
of duty and gratitude to their prince, or regard to
the constitution. And therefore after having
in several private meetings concerted measures with
their old enemies, and granted as well as received
conditions, they began to change their style and their
countenance, and to put it as a maxim in the mouths
of their emissaries, that England must be saved by
the Whigs. This unnatural league was afterwards
cultivated by another incident; I mean the Act of Security,
and the consequences of it, which every body knows;
when (to use the words of my correspondent) “the
sovereign authority was parcelled out among a faction,
and made the purchase of indemnity for an offending
M[iniste]r:” Thus the union of the two kingdoms
improved that between the ministry and the jnto,
which was afterwards cemented by their mutual danger
in that storm they so narrowly escaped about three
years ago; but however was not quite perfected
till the Prince’s death; and then they went
lovingly on together, both satisfied with their several
shares, at full liberty to gratify their predominant
inclinations; the first, their avarice and ambition;
the other, their models of innovation in Church and
State.
Therefore, whoever thinks fit to revive
that baffled question, “Why was the late ministry
changed?” may receive the following answer; That
it was become necessary by the insolence and avarice
of some about the Qu[een], who in order to perpetuate
their tyranny had made a monstrous alliance with those
who profess principles destructive to our religion
and government: If this will not suffice, let
him make an abstract of all the abuses I have mentioned
in my former papers, and view them together; after
which if he still remains unsatisfied, let him suspend
his opinion a few weeks longer. Though after
all, I think the question as trifling as that of the
Papists, when they ask us, “where was our religion
before Luther?” And indeed, the ministry was
changed for the same reason that religion was reformed,
because a thousand corruptions had crept into
the discipline and doctrine of the state, by the pride,
the avarice, the fraud, and the ambition of those
who administered to us in secular affairs.
I heard myself censured the other
day in a coffee-house, for seeming to glance in the
letter to Crassus, against a great man, who is
still in employment, and likely to continue so.
What if I had really intended that such an application
should be given it? I cannot perceive how I could
be justly blamed for so gentle a reproof. If
I saw a handsome young fellow going to a ball at court
with a great smut upon his face, could he take it
ill in me to point out the place, and desire him with
abundance of good words to pull out his handkerchief
and wipe it off; or bring him to a glass, where he
might plainly see it with his own eyes? Does any
man think I shall suffer my pen to inveigh against
vices, only because they are charged upon persons
who are no longer in power? Every body knows,
that certain vices are more or less pernicious, according
to the stations of those who possess them. For
example, lewdness and intemperance are not of so bad
consequences in a town rake as a divine. Cowardice
in a lawyer is more supportable than in an officer
of the army. If I should find fault with an admiral
because he wanted politeness, or an alderman for not
understanding Greek; that indeed would be to go out
of my way, for an occasion of quarrelling; but excessive
avarice in a g[enera]l, is I think the greatest defect
he can be liable to, next to those of courage and
conduct, and may be attended with the most ruinous
consequences, as it was in Crassus, who to that vice
alone owed the destruction of himself and his army.
It is the same thing in praising men’s excellencies,
which are more or less valuable, as the person you
commend has occasion to employ them. A man may
perhaps mean honestly, yet if he be not able to spell,
he shall never have my vote for a secretary: Another
may have wit and learning in a post where honesty,
with plain common sense, are of much more use:
You may praise a soldier for his skill at chess, because
it is said to be a military game, and the emblem of
drawing up an army; but this to a tr[easure]r
would be no more a compliment, than if you called
him a gamester or a jockey.
P.S. I received a letter relating
to Mr. Greenshields; the person who sent it may know,
that I will say something to it in the next paper.
“These blessings of nature and
fortune fall within the province of panegyric, the
highest strain of which is, that a man possessed power
without pride, riches without insolence, and the fullness
of fortune without the arrogance of greatness.” W.
GUTHRIE. [T.S.]]
NUMB. 31.
FROM THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22, TO THURSDAY MARCH 1, 1710-11.
Quae enim domus tam stabilis, quae
tam firma civitas est, quae non odiis atque discidiis
funditus possit everti?
If we examine what societies of men
are in closest union among themselves, we shall find
them either to be those who are engaged in some evil
design, or who labour under one common misfortune:
Thus the troops of banditti in several countries
abroad, the knots of highwaymen in our own nation,
the several tribes of sharpers, thieves and pickpockets,
with many others, are so firmly knit together, that
nothing is more difficult than to break or dissolve
their several gangs. So likewise those who are
fellow-sufferers under any misfortune, whether it be
in reality or opinion, are usually contracted into
a very strict union; as we may observe in the Papists
throughout this kingdom, under those real difficulties
which are justly put on them; and in the several schisms
of Presbyterians, and other sects, under that grievous
persecution of the modern kind, called want of power.
And the reason why such confederacies, are kept so
sacred and inviolable, is very plain, because in each
of those cases I have mentioned, the whole body is
moved by one common spirit, in pursuit of one general
end, and the interest of individuals is not crossed
by each other, or by the whole.
Now, both these motives are joined
to unite the high-flying Whigs at present: they
have been always engaged in an evil design, and of
late they are faster rivetted by that terrible calamity,
the loss of power. So that whatever designs a
mischievous crew of dark confederates may possibly
entertain, who will stop at no means to compass them,
may be justly apprehended from these.
On the other side, those who wish
well to the public, and would gladly contribute to
its service, are apt to differ in their opinions about
the methods of promoting it, and when their party
flourishes, are sometimes envious at those in power,
ready to overvalue their own merit, and be impatient
till it is rewarded by the measure they have prescribed
for themselves. There is a further topic of contention,
which a ruling party is apt to fall into, in relation
to rétrospections, and enquiry into past miscarriages;
wherein some are thought too warm and zealous; others
too cool and remiss; while in the meantime these divisions
are industriously fomented by the discarded faction;
which though it be an old practice, hath been much
improved in the schools of the Jesuits, who when they
despaired of perverting this nation to popery, by arguments
or plots against the state, sent their emissaries
to subdivide us into schisms. And this expedient
is now with great propriety taken up by our men of
incensed moderation, because they suppose themselves
able to attack the strongest of our subdivisions,
and so subdue us one after another. Nothing better
resembles this proceeding, than that famous combat
between the Horatii and Curiatii, where two of
the former being killed, the third, who remained entire
and untouched, was able to kill his three wounded
adversaries, after he had divided them by a stratagem.
I well know with how tender a hand all this should
be touched; yet at the same time I think it my duty
to warn the friends as well as expose the enemies
of the public weal, and to begin preaching up union
upon the first suspicion that any steps are made to
disturb it.
But the two chief subjects of discontent,
which, in most great changes, in the management of
public affairs, are apt to breed differences among
those who are in possession, are what I have just now
mentioned; a desire of punishing the corruptions
of former managers; and the rewarding merit, among
those who have been any way instrumental or consenting
to the change. The first of these is a point
so nice, that I shall purposely waive it; but the
latter I take to fall properly within my district:
By merit I here understand that value which every
man puts upon his own deservings from the public.
And I believe there could not be a more difficult
employment found out, than that of paymaster general
to this sort of merit; or a more noisy, crowded place,
than a court of judicature, erected to settle and
adjust every man’s claim upon that article.
I imagine, if this had fallen into the fancy of the
ancient poets, they would have dressed it up after
their manner into an agreeable fiction, and given
us a genealogy and description of merit, perhaps not
very different from that which follows.
A Poetical Genealogy and Description of MERIT.
That true Merit, was the son of Virtue
and Honour; but that there was likewise a spurious
child who usurped the name, and whose parents were
Vanity and Impudence. That, at a distance, there
was a great resemblance between them, and they were
often mistaken for each other. That the bastard
issue had a loud shrill voice, which was perpetually
employed in cravings and complaints; while the other
never spoke louder than a whisper, and was often so
bashful that he could not speak at all. That in
all great assemblies, the false Merit would step before
the true, and stand just in his way; was constantly
at court, or great men’s levees, or whispering
in some minister’s ear. That the more you
fed him, the more hungry and importunate he grew.
That he often passed for the true son of Virtue and
Honour, and the genuine for an impostor. That
he was born distorted and a dwarf, but by force of
art appeared of a handsome shape, and taller than
the usual size; and that none but those who were wise
and good, as well as vigilant, could discover his
littleness or deformity. That the true Merit
had been often forced to the indignity of applying
to the false, for his credit with those in power,
and to keep himself from starving. That he filled
the antechambers with a crew of his dependants and
creatures, such as projectors, schematises, occasional
converts to a party, prostitute flatterers, starveling
writers, buffoons, shallow politicians, empty orators,
and the like, who all owned him for their patron,
and grew discontented if they were not immediately
fed.
This metaphorical description of false
Merit, is, I doubt, calculated for most countries
in Christendom; and as to our own, I believe it may
be said with a sufficient reserve of charity, that
we are fully able to reward every man among us according
to his real deservings. And I think I may add,
without suspicion of flattery, that never any prince
had a ministry with a better judgment to distinguish
between false and real merit, than that which is now
at the helm; or whose inclination as well as interest
it is to encourage the latter. And it ought to
be observed, that those great and excellent persons
we see at the head of affairs, are of the Qu[een]’s
own personal voluntary choice; not forced upon her
by any insolent, overgrown favourite; or by the pretended
necessity of complying with an unruly faction.
Yet these are the persons whom those
scandals to the press, in their daily pamphlets and
papers, openly revile at so ignominious a rate, as
I believe was never tolerated before under any government.
For surely no lawful power derived from a prince,
should be so far affronted, as to leave those who
are in authority exposed to every scurrilous libeller.
Because in this point I make a mighty difference between
those who are in, and those who are out
of power; not upon any regard to their persons, but
the stations they are placed in by the sovereign.
And if my distinction be right, I think I might appeal
to any man, whether if a stranger were to read the
invectives which are daily published against
the present ministry, and the outrageous fury of the
authors against me for censuring the last;
he would not conclude the Whigs to be at this time
in full possession of power and favour, and the Tories
entirely at mercy? But all this now ceases to
be a wonder, since the Qu[een] herself is no longer
spared; witness the libel published some days ago under
the title of “A Letter to Sir J[aco]b B[an]ks,"
where the reflections upon her sacred Majesty are
much more plain and direct, than ever the “Examiner”
thought fit to publish against the most obnoxious persons
in a m[inistr]y, discarded for endeavouring the ruin
of their prince and country. Cæsar indeed threatened
to hang the pirates for presuming to disturb him while
he was their prisoner aboard their ship. But it
was Cæsar who did so, and he did it to a crew of
public robbers; and it became the greatness of his
spirit, for he lived to execute what he had threatened.
Had they been in his power, and sent such a
message, it could be imputed to nothing but the extremes
of impudence, folly or madness.
I had a letter last week relating
to Mr. Greenshields an Episcopal clergyman of Scotland,
and the writer seems to be a gentleman of that part
of Britain. I remember formerly to have read a
printed account of Mr. Greenshields’s case,
who has been prosecuted and silenced for no other
reason beside reading divine service, after the manner
of the Church of England, to his own congregation,
who desired it: though, as the gentleman who
writes to me says, there is no law in Scotland against
those meetings; and he adds, that the sentence pronounced
against Mr. Greenshields, “will soon be affirmed,
if some care be not taken to prevent it.”
I am altogether uninformed in the particulars of this
case, and besides to treat it justly, would not come
within the compass of my paper; therefore I could
wish the gentleman would undertake it in a discourse
by itself; and I should be glad he would inform the
public in one fact, whether Episcopal assemblies are
freely allowed in Scotland? It is notorious that
abundance of their clergy fled from thence some years
ago into England and Ireland, as from a persecution;
but it was alleged by their enemies, that they refused
to take the oaths to the government, which however
none of them scrupled when they came among us.
It is somewhat extraordinary to see our Whigs and
fanatics keep such a stir about the sacred Act of
Toleration, while their brethren will not allow a
connivance in so near a neighbourhood; especially if
what the gentleman insists on in his letter be true,
that nine parts in ten of the nobility and gentry,
and two in three of the commons, be Episcopal; of which
one argument he offers, is the present choice of their
representatives in both Houses, though opposed to
the utmost by the preachings, threatenings and anathemas
of the kirk. Such usage to a majority, may, as
he thinks, be of dangerous consequence; and I entirely
agree with him. If these be the principles of
high kirk, God preserve at least the southern parts
from their tyranny!
The pamphlet was written by a Mr.
Benson in reply to Sir Jacob Banks, who, as member
for Minehead, had, in 1709-10 presented an address
from his constituents in which it was pretty broadly
avowed that subjects must obey their monarch, since
he was responsible to God alone. The writer of
the letter institutes a clever parallel between England
and Sweden. See note to N, ante,
and N, post, pp. 75 and 216. [T.S.]]
NUMB. 32.
FROM THURSDAY MARCH 1, TO THURSDAY MARCH 8, 1710-11.
_ Garrit aniles
Ex re fabellas_.
I had last week sent me by an unknown
hand, a passage out of Plato, with some hints how
to apply it. That author puts a fable into the
mouth of Aristophanes, with an account of the original
of love. That, mankind was at first created with
four arms and legs, and all other parts double to
what they are now; till Jupiter, as a punishment for
his sins, cleft him in two with a thunderbolt, since
which time we are always looking for our other
half; and this is the cause of love. But
Jupiter threatened, that if they did not mend their
manners, he would give them t’other slit, and
leave them to hop about in the shape of figures in
basso relievo. The effect of this last
threatening, my correspondent imagines, is now come
to pass; and that as the first splitting was the original
of love, by inclining us to search for our t’other
half, so the second was the cause of hatred, by prompting
us to fly from our other side, and dividing the same
body into two, gave each slice the name of a party.
I approve the fable and application,
with this refinement upon it. For parties do
not only split a nation, but every individual among
them, leaving each but half their strength, and wit,
and honesty, and good nature; but one eye and ear
for their sight and hearing, and equally lopping the
rest of the senses: Where parties are pretty equal
in a state, no man can perceive one bad quality in
his own, or good one in his adversaries. Besides,
party being a dry disagreeable subject, it renders
conversation insipid or sour, and confines invention.
I speak not here of the leaders, but the insignificant
crowd of followers in a party, who have been the instruments
of mixing it in every condition and circumstance of
life. As the zealots among the Jews bound the
law about their foreheads, and wrists, and hems of
their garments; so the women among us have got the
distinguishing marks of party in their muffs, their
fans, and their furbelows. The Whig ladies put
on their patches in a different manner from the Tories.
They have made schisms in the playhouse, and each
have their particular sides at the opera: and
when a man changes his party, he must infallibly count
upon the loss of his mistress. I asked a gentleman
the other day, how he liked such a lady? but he would
not give me his opinion till I had answered him whether
she were a Whig or a Tory. Mr.
since he is known to visit the present m[inist]ry,
and lay some time under a suspicion of writing the
“Examiner,” is no longer a man of wit;
his very poems have contracted a stupidity many years
after they were printed.
Having lately ventured upon a metaphorical
genealogy of Merit, I thought it would be proper to
add another of Party, or rather, of Faction, (to avoid
mistake) not telling the reader whether it be my own
or a quotation, till I know how it is approved; but
whether I read or dreamed it, the fable is as follows.
“Liberty, the daughter of
Oppression, after having brought forth several fair
children, as Riches, Arts, Learning, Trade, and many
others, was at last delivered of her youngest daughter,
called Faction; whom Juno, doing the office of the
midwife, distorted in its birth, out of envy to the
mother, from whence it derived its peevishness and
sickly constitution. However, as it is often
the nature of parents to grow most fond of their youngest
and disagreeablest children, so it happened with Liberty,
who doted on this daughter to such a degree, that
by her good will she would never suffer the girl to
be out of her sight. As Miss Faction grew up,
she became so termagant and froward, that there was
no enduring her any longer in Heaven. Jupiter
gave her warning to be gone; and her mother rather
than forsake her, took the whole family down to earth.
She landed at first in Greece, was expelled by degrees
through all the Cities by her daughter’s ill-conduct;
fled afterwards to Italy, and being banished thence,
took shelter among the Goths, with whom she passed
into most parts of Europe; but driven out every where,
she began to lose esteem, and her daughter’s
faults were imputed to herself. So that at this
time, she has hardly a place in the world to retire
to. One would wonder what strange qualities this
daughter must possess, sufficient to blast the influence
of so divine a mother, and the rest of her children:
She always affected to keep mean and scandalous company;
valuing nobody, but just as they agreed with her in
every capricious opinion she thought fit to take up;
and rigorously exacting compliance, though she changed
her sentiments ever so often. Her great employment
was to breed discord among friends and relations,
and make up monstrous alliances between those whose
dispositions least resembled each other. Whoever
offered to contradict her, though in the most insignificant
trifle, she would be sure to distinguish by some ignominious
appellation, and allow them to have neither honour,
wit, beauty, learning, honesty or common sense.
She intruded into all companies at the most unseasonable
times, mixed at balls, assemblies, and other parties
of pleasure; haunted every coffee-house and bookseller’s
shop, and by her perpetual talking filled all places
with disturbance and confusion. She buzzed about
the merchant in the Exchange, the divine in his pulpit,
and the shopkeeper behind his counter. Above
all, she frequented public assemblies, where she sat
in the shape of an obscene, ominous bird, ready to
prompt her friends as they spoke.”
If I understand this fable of Faction
right, it ought to be applied to those who set themselves
up against the true interest and constitution of their
country; which I wish the undertakers for the late
m[inistr]y would please to take notice of; or tell
us by what figure of speech they pretend to call so
great and unforced a majority, with the Qu[een]
at the head, by the name of “the Faction”:
which is unlike the phrase of the Nonjurors, who dignifying
one or two deprived bishops, and half a score clergymen
of the same stamp, with the title of the “Church
of England,” exclude all the rest as schismatics;
or like the Presbyterians, laying the same accusation,
with equal justice, against the established religion.
And here it may be worth inquiring
what are the true characteristics of a faction, or
how it is to be distinguished from that great body
of the people who are friends to the constitution?
The heads of a faction, are usually a set of upstarts,
or men ruined in their fortunes, whom some great change
in a government, did at first, out of their obscurity
produce upon the stage. They associate themselves
with those who dislike the old establishment, religious
and civil. They are full of new schemes in politics
and divinity; they have an incurable hatred against
the old nobility, and strengthen their party by dependants
raised from the lowest of the people; they have several
ways of working themselves into power; but they are
sure to be called when a corrupt administration wants
to be supported, against those who are endeavouring
at a reformation; and they firmly observe that celebrated
maxim of preserving power by the same arts it is attained.
They act with the spirit of those who believe their
time is but short; and their first care is
to heap up immense riches at the public expense; in
which they have two ends, beside that common one of
insatiable avarice; which are, to make themselves necessary,
and to keep the Commonwealth in dependence: Thus
they hope to compass their design, which is, instead
of fitting their principles to the constitution, to
alter and adjust the constitution to their own pernicious
principles.
It is easy determining by this test,
to which side the name of faction most properly belongs.
But however, I will give them any system of law or
regal government, from William the Conqueror to this
present time, to try whether they can tally it with
their late models; excepting only that of Cromwell,
whom perhaps they will reckon for a monarch.
If the present ministry, and so great
a majority in the Parliament and Kingdom, be only
a faction, it must appear by some actions which answers
the idea we usually conceive from that word. Have
they abused the prerogatives of the prince, or invaded
the rights and liberties of the subject? Have
they offered at any dangerous innovations in Church
or State? Have they broached any doctrines of
heresy, rebellion or tyranny? Have any of them
treated their sovereign with insolence, engrossed and
sold all her favours, or deceived her by base, gross
misrepresentations of her most faithful servants?
These are the arts of a faction, and whoever has practised
them, they and their followers must take up with the
name.
It is usually reckoned a Whig principle
to appeal to the people; but that is only when they
have been so wise as to poison their understandings
beforehand: Will they now stand to this appeal,
and be determined by their vox populi, to which
side their title of faction belongs? And that
the people are now left to the natural freedom of their
understanding and choice, I believe our adversaries
will hardly deny. They will now refuse this appeal,
and it is reasonable they should; and I will further
add, that if our people resembled the old Grecians,
there might be danger in such a trial. A pragmatical
orator told a great man at Athens, that whenever the
people were in their rage, they would certainly tear
him to pieces; “Yes,” says the other, “and
they will do the same to you, whenever they are in
their wits.” But God be thanked, our populace
is more merciful in their nature, and at present under
better direction; and the orators among us have attempted
to confound both prerogative and law, in their sovereign’s
presence, and before the highest court of judicature,
without any hazard to their persons.
NUMB. 33.
FROM THURSDAY MARCH 8, TO THURSDAY MARCH 15, 1710-11.
Non ea est medicina, cum sanae
parti corporis scalpellum adhibetur, atque integrae;
carnificina est ista, et crudelitas. Hi medentur
Reipublicae qui exsecant pestem aliquam, tanquam strumam
Civitatis.
I am diverted from the general subject
of my discourses, to reflect upon an event of a very
extraordinary and surprising nature: A great minister,
in high confidence with the Queen, under whose management
the weight of affairs at present is in a great measure
supposed to lie; sitting in council, in a royal palace,
with a dozen of the chief officers of the state, is
stabbed at the very board, in the execution of his
office, by the hand of a French Papist, then under
examination for high treason. The assassin redoubles
his blow, to make sure work; and concluding the chancellor
was dispatched, goes on with the same rage to murder
a principal secretary of state: and that whole
noble assembly are forced to rise, and draw their
swords in their own defence, as if a wild beast had
been let loose among them.
This fact hath some circumstances
of aggravation not to be paralleled by any of the
like kind we meet with in history. Caesar’s
murder being performed in the Senate, comes nearest
to the case; but that was an affair concerted by great
numbers of the chief senators, who were likewise the
actors in it, and not the work of a vile, single ruffian.
Harry the Third of France was stabbed by an enthusiastic
friar, whom he suffered to approach his person,
while those who attended him stood at some distance.
His successor met the same fate in a coach, where neither
he nor his nobles, in such a confinement, were able
to defend themselves. In our own country we have,
I think, but one instance of this sort, which has
made any noise, I mean that of Felton, about fourscore
years ago: but he took the opportunity to stab
the Duke of Buckingham in passing through a dark lobby,
from one room to another: The blow was neither seen
nor heard, and the murderer might have escaped, if
his own concern and horror, as it is usual in such
cases, had not betrayed him. Besides, that act
of Felton will admit of some extenuation, from the
motives he is said to have had: but this attempt
of Guiscard seems to have outdone them all in every
heightening circumstance, except the difference of
persons between a king and a great minister:
for I give no allowance at all to the difference of
success (which however is yet uncertain and depending)
nor think it the least alleviation to the crime, whatever
it may be to the punishment.
I am sensible, it is ill arguing from
particulars to generals, and that we ought not to
charge upon a nation the crimes of a few desperate
villains it is so unfortunate to produce: Yet
at the same time it must be avowed, that the French
have for these last centuries, been somewhat too liberal
of their daggers, upon the persons of their greatest
men; such as the Admiral de Coligny, the Dukes
of Guise, father and son, and the two kings I last
mentioned. I have sometimes wondered how a people,
whose genius seems wholly turned to singing and dancing,
and prating, to vanity and impertinence; who lay so
much weight upon modes and gestures; whose essentialities
are generally so very superficial; who are usually
so serious upon trifles, and so trifling upon what
is serious, have been capable of committing such solid
villanies; more suitable to the gravity of a Spaniard,
or silence and thoughtfulness of an Italian: unless
it be, that in a nation naturally so full of themselves,
and of so restless imaginations, when any of them
happen to be of a morose and gloomy constitution,
that huddle of confused thoughts, for want of evaporating,
usually terminates in rage or despair. D’Avila
observes, that Jacques Clement was a sort of buffoon,
whom the rest of the friars used to make sport with:
but at last, giving his folly a serious turn, it ended
in enthusiasm, and qualified him for that desperate
act of murdering his king.
But in the Marquis de Guiscard there
seems to have been a complication of ingredients for
such an attempt: He had committed several enormities
in France, was extremely prodigal and vicious; of
a dark melancholy complexion, and cloudy countenance,
such as in vulgar physiognomy is called an ill look.
For the rest, his talents were very mean, having a
sort of inferior cunning, but very small abilities;
so that a great man of the late m[inist]ry, by whom
he was invited over, and with much discretion
raised at first step from a profligate popish priest
to a lieutenant-general, and colonel of a regiment
of horse, was forced at last to drop him for shame.
Had such an accident happened
under that m[inis]try, and to so considerable a member
of it, they would have immediately charged it upon
the whole body of those they are pleased to call “the
faction.” This would have been styled a
high-church principle; the clergy would have been
accused as promoters and abettors of the fact; com[mittee]s
would have been sent to promise the criminal his life
provided they might have liberty to direct and dictate
his confession: and a black list would have been
printed of all those who had been ever seen in the
murderer’s company. But the present men
in power hate and despise all such detestable arts,
which they might now turn upon their adversaries with
much more plausibility, than ever these did their honourable
negotiations with Gregg.
And here it may be worth observing
how unanimous a concurrence there is between some
persons once in great power, and a French Papist; both
agreeing in the great end of taking away Mr. Harley’s
life, though differing in their methods: the
first proceeding by subornation, the other by violence;
wherein Guiscard seems to have the advantage, as aiming
no further than his life; while the others designed
to destroy at once both that and his reputation.
The malice of both against this gentleman seems to
have risen from the same cause, his discovering designs
against the government. It was Mr. Harley who
detected the treasonable correspondence of Gregg,
and secured him betimes; when a certain great man
who shall be nameless, had, out of the depth of his
politics, sent him a caution to make his escape; which
would certainly have fixed the appearance of guilt
upon Mr. Harley: but when that was prevented,
they would have enticed the condemned criminal with
promise of a pardon, to write and sign an accusation
against the secretary. But to use Gregg’s
own expression, “His death was nothing near so
ignominious, as would have been such a life that must
be saved by prostituting his conscience.”
The same gentleman lies now stabbed by his other enemy,
a Popish spy, whose treason he has discovered.
God preserve the rest of her Majesty’s ministers
from such Protestants, and from such Papists!
I shall take occasion to hint at some
particularities in this surprising fact, for the sake
of those at distance, or who may not be thoroughly
informed. The murderer confessed in Newgate, that
his chief design was against Mr. Secretary St. John,
who happened to change seats with Mr. Harley, for
more convenience of examining the criminal: and
being asked what provoked him to stab the chancellor?
he said, that not being able to come at the secretary,
as he intended, it was some satisfaction to murder
the person whom he thought Mr. St. John loved best.
And here, if Mr. Harley has still
any enemies left, whom his blood spilt in the public
service cannot reconcile, I hope they will at least
admire his magnanimity, which is a quality esteemed
even in an enemy: and I think there are few greater
instances of it to be found in story. After the
wound was given, he was observed neither to change
his countenance, nor discover any concern or disorder
in his speech: he rose up, and walked along the
room while he was able, with the greatest tranquillity,
during the midst of the confusion. When the surgeon
came, he took him aside, and desired he would inform
him freely whether the wound were mortal, because
in that case, he said, he had some affairs to settle,
relating to his family. The blade of the penknife,
broken by the violence of the blow against a rib,
within a quarter of an inch of the handle, was dropt
out (I know not whether from the wound, or his clothes)
as the surgeon was going to dress him; he ordered it
to be taken up, and wiping it himself, gave it some
body to keep, saying, he thought “it now properly
belonging to him.” He shewed no sort of
resentment, or spoke one violent word against Guiscard,
but appeared all the while the least concerned of
any in the company a state of mind, which
in such an exigency, nothing but innocence can give,
and is truly worthy of a Christian philosopher.
If there be really so great a difference
in principle between the high-flying Whigs, and the
friends of France, I cannot but repeat the question,
how come they to join in the destruction of the same
man? Can his death be possibly for the interest
of both? or have they both the same quarrel against
him, that he is perpetually discovering and preventing
the treacherous designs of our enemies? However
it be, this great minister may now say with St. Paul,
that he hath been “in perils by his own countrymen,
and in perils by strangers.”
In the midst of so melancholy a subject,
I cannot but congratulate with our own country, that
such a savage monster as the Marquis de Guiscard,
is none of her production; a wretch perhaps more detestable
in his own nature, than even this barbarous act has
been yet able to represent him to the world.
For there are good reasons to believe, from several
circumstances, that he had intentions of a deeper dye,
than those he happened to execute; I mean such
as every good subject must tremble to think on.
He hath of late been frequently seen going up the back
stairs at court, and walking alone in an outer room
adjoining to her Ma[jest]y’s bed-chamber.
He has often and earnestly pressed for some time to
have access to the Qu[een], even since his correspondence
with France; and he has now given such a proof of
his disposition, as leaves it easy to guess what was
before in his thoughts, and what he was capable of
attempting.
It is humbly to be hoped, that the
legislature will interpose on so extraordinary
an occasion as this, and direct a punishment some
way proportionable to so execrable a crime.
Et quicunque tuum violavit vulnere
corpus,
Morte luat merita
Of course. Swift’s extreme
phrase of “invited over” referred to the
fact that Guiscard had a Whig commission in the army.
[T.S.]]
N. Luttrell has several entries in
his Diary relating to Guiscard and the attempted assassination
of Harley, and there is a long account of him in Boyer’s
“Political State” (vol. i., pp.
275-314). See also Portland MS., vol. iv.,
Wentworth Papers, and Swift’s “Journal
to Stella,” and “Some Remarks,”
etc. (vol. v. of present edition). [T.S.]]
NUMB. 34.
FROM THURSDAY MARCH 15, TO THURSDAY MARCH 22, 1710-11.
De Libertate retinenda, qua certe
nihil est dulcius, tibi assentior.
The apologies of the ancient Fathers
are reckoned to have been the most useful parts of
their writings, and to have done greatest service to
the Christian religion, because they removed those
misrepresentations which had done it most injury.
The methods these writers took, was openly and freely
to discover every point of their faith, to detect the
falsehood of their accusers, and to charge nothing
upon their adversaries but what they were sure to
make good. This example has been ill followed
of later times; the Papists since the Reformation
using all arts to palliate the absurdities of their
tenets, and loading the Reformers with a thousand
calumnies; the consequence of which has been only a
more various, wide, and inveterate separation.
It is the same thing in civil schisms: a Whig
forms an image of a Tory, just after the thing he most
abhors, and that image serves to represent the whole
body.
I am not sensible of any material
difference there is between those who call themselves
the Old Whigs, and a great majority of the present
Tories; at least by all I could ever find, from examining
several persons of each denomination. But it
must be confessed that the present body of Whigs,
as they now constitute that party, is a very odd mixture
of mankind, being forced to enlarge their bottom by
taking in every heterodox professor either in religion
or government, whose opinions they were obliged to
encourage for fear of lessening their number; while
the bulk of the landed men and people were entirely
of the old sentiments. However, they still pretended
a due regard to the monarchy and the Church, even
at the time when they were making the largest steps
towards the ruin of both: but not being able
to wipe off the many accusations laid to their charge,
they endeavoured, by throwing of scandal, to make
the Tories appear blacker than themselves, that so
the people might join with them, as the smaller
evil of the two.
But among all the reproaches which
the Whigs have flung upon their adversaries, there
is none hath done them more service than that of passive
obedience, as they represent it, with the consequences
of non-resistance, arbitrary power, indefeasible right,
tyranny, popery, and what not? There is no accusation
which has passed with more plausibility than this,
nor any that is supported with less justice. In
order therefore to undeceive those who have been misled
by false representations, I thought it would be no
improper undertaking to set this matter in a fair
light, which I think has not yet been done. A
Whig asks whether you hold passive obedience? you
affirm it: he then immediately cries out, “You
are a Jacobite, a friend of France and the Pretender;”
because he makes you answerable for the definition
he has formed of that term, however different it be
from what you understand. I will therefore give
two descriptions of passive obedience; the first as
it is falsely charged by the Whigs; the other as it
is really professed by the Tories, at least by nineteen
in twenty of all I ever conversed with.
Passive Obedience as charged by the Whigs.
The doctrine of passive obedience
is to believe that a king, even in a limited monarchy,
holding his power only from God, is only answerable
to Him. That such a king is above all law, that
the cruellest tyrant must be submitted to in all things;
and if his commands be ever so unlawful, you must
neither fly nor resist, nor use any other weapons than
prayers and tears. Though he should force your
wife or daughter, murder your children before your
face, or cut off five hundred heads in a morning for
his diversion, you are still to wish him a long prosperous
reign, and to be patient under all his cruelties,
with the same resignation as under a plague or a famine;
because to resist him would be to resist God in the
person of His vicegerent. If a king of England
should go through the streets of London, in order
to murder every man he met, passive obedience commands
them to submit. All laws made to limit him signify
nothing, though passed by his own consent, if he thinks
fit to break them. God will indeed call him to
a severe account, but the whole people, united to
a man, cannot presume to hold his hands, or offer him
the least active disobedience. The people were
certainly created for him, and not he for the people.
His next heir, though worse than what I have described,
though a fool or a madman, has a divine undefeasible
right to succeed him, which no law can disannul; nay
though he should kill his father upon the throne,
he is immediately king to all intents and purposes,
the possession of the crown wiping off all stains.
But whosoever sits on the throne without this title,
though never so peaceably, and by consent of former
kings and parliaments, is an usurper, while there is
any where in the world another person who hath a nearer
hereditary right, and the whole kingdom lies under
mortal sin till that heir be restored; because he
has a divine title which no human law can defeat.
This and a great deal more hath, in
a thousand papers and pamphlets, been laid to that
doctrine of passive obedience, which the Whigs are
pleased to charge upon us. This is what they perpetually
are instilling into the people to believe, as the
undoubted principles by which the present ministry,
and a great majority in Parliament, do at this time
proceed. This is what they accuse the clergy of
delivering from the pulpits, and of preaching up as
doctrines absolutely necessary to salvation.
And whoever affirms in general, that passive obedience
is due to the supreme power, he is presently loaden
by our candid adversaries with such consequences as
these. Let us therefore see what this doctrine
is, when stripped of such misrepresentations, by describing
it as really taught and practised by the Tories, and
then it will appear what grounds our adversaries have
to accuse us upon this article.
Passive Obedience, as professed and
practised by the Tories.
They think that in every government,
whether monarchy or republic, there is placed a supreme,
absolute, unlimited power, to which passive obedience
is due. That wherever is entrusted the power of
making laws, that power is without all bounds, can
repeal or enact at pleasure whatever laws it thinks
fit, and justly demands universal obedience and non-resistance.
That among us, as every body knows, this power is lodged
in the king or queen, together with the lords and commons
of the kingdom; and therefore all decrees whatsoever,
made by that power, are to be actively or passively
obeyed. That the administration or executive part
of this power is in England solely entrusted with the
prince, who in administering those laws, ought to
be no more resisted than the legislative power itself.
But they do not conceive the same absolute passive
obedience to be due to a limited prince’s commands,
when they are directly contrary to the laws he has
consented to, and sworn to maintain. The crown
may be sued as well as a private person; and if an
arbitrary king of England should send his officers
to seize my lands or goods against law, I can lawfully
resist them. The ministers by whom he acts are
liable to prosecution and impeachment, though his own
person be sacred. But if he interposes his royal
authority to support their insolence, I see no remedy,
till it grows a general grievance, or till the body
of the people have reason to apprehend it will be so;
after which it becomes a case of necessity, and then
I suppose a free people may assert their own rights,
yet without any violation to the person or lawful
power of the prince. But although the Tories allow
all this, and did justify it by the share they had
in the Revolution, yet they see no reason for entering
upon so ungrateful a subject, or raising controversies
upon it, as if we were in daily apprehensions of tyranny,
under the reign of so excellent a princess, and while
we have so many laws of late years made to limit
the prerogative; when according to the judgment of
those who know our constitution best, things rather
seem to lean to the other extreme, which is equally
to be avoided. As to the succession; the Tories
think an hereditary right to be the best in its own
nature, and most agreeable to our old constitution;
yet at the same time they allow it to be defeasible
by Act of Parliament, and so is Magna Charta too,
if the legislature thinks fit; which is a truth so
manifest, that no man who understands the nature of
government, can be in doubt concerning it.
These I take to be the sentiments
of a great majority among the Tories, with respect
to passive obedience: and if the Whigs insist,
from the writings or common talk of warm and ignorant
men, to form a judgment of the whole body, according
to the first account I have here given, I will engage
to produce as many of their side, who are utterly against
passive obedience even to the legislature; who will
assert the last resort of power to be in the people,
against those whom they have chosen and trusted as
their representatives, with the prince at the head;
and who will put wild improbable cases to shew the
reasonableness and necessity of resisting the legislative
power, in such imaginary junctures. Than which
however nothing can be more idle; for I dare undertake
in any system of government, either speculative or
practic, that was ever yet in the world, from Plato’s
“Republic” to Harrington’s “Oceana,"
to put such difficulties as cannot be answered.
All the other calumnies raised by
the Whigs may be as easily wiped off; and I have charity
to wish they could as fully answer the just accusations
we have against them. Dodwell, Hicks, and Lesley,
are gravely quoted, to prove that the Tories design
to bring in the Pretender; and if I should quote them
to prove that the same thing is intended by the Whigs,
it would be full as reasonable, since I am sure they
have at least as much to do with Nonjurors as we.
But our objections against the Whigs are built upon
their constant practice for many years, whereof I
have produced a hundred instances, against any single
one of which no answer hath yet been attempted, though
I have been curious enough to look into all the papers
I could meet with that are writ against the “Examiner”;
such a task as I hope no man thinks I would undergo
for any other end, but that of finding an opportunity
to own and rectify my mistakes; as I would be ready
to do upon call of the meanest adversary. Upon
which occasion, I shall take leave to add a few words.
I flattered myself last Thursday,
from the nature of my subject, and the inoffensive
manner I handled it, that I should have one week’s
respite from those merciless pens, whose severity
will some time break my heart; but I am deceived,
and find them more violent than ever. They charge
me with two lies and a blunder. The first lie
is a truth, that Guiscard was invited over: but
it is of no consequence; I do not tax it as a fault;
such sort of men have often been serviceable:
I only blamed the indiscretion of raising a profligate
abbot, at the first step, to a lieutenant-general
and colonel of a regiment of horse, without staying
some reasonable time, as is usual in such cases, till
he had given some proofs of his fidelity, as well
as of that interest and credit he pretended to have
in his country: But that is said to be another
lie, for he was a Papist, and could not have a regiment.
However this other lie is a truth too; for a regiment
he had, and paid by us, to his agent Monsieur Le Bas,
for his use. The third is a blunder, that I say
Guiscard’s design was against Mr. Secretary
St. John, and yet my reasonings upon it, are, as if
it were personal against Mr. Harley. But I say
no such thing, and my reasonings are just; I relate
only what Guiscard said in Newgate, because it was
a particularity the reader might be curious to know
(and accordingly it lies in a paragraph by itself,
after my reflections) but I never meant to be answerable
for what Guiscard said, or thought it of weight enough
for me to draw conclusions from thence, when I had
the Address of both Houses to direct me better; where
it is expressly said, “That Mr. Harley’s
fidelity to her Majesty, and zeal for her service,
have drawn upon him the hatred of all the abettors
of Popery and faction." This is what I believe,
and what I shall stick to.
But alas, these are not the passages
which have raised so much fury against me. One
or two mistakes in facts of no importance, or a single
blunder, would not have provoked them; they are not
so tender of my reputation as a writer. All their
outrage is occasioned by those passages in that paper,
which they do not in the least pretend to answer, and
with the utmost reluctancy are forced to mention.
They take abundance of pains to clear Guiscard from
a design against Mr. Harley’s life, but offer
not one argument to clear their other friends, who
in the business of Gregg, were equally guilty of the
same design against the same person; whose tongues
were very swords, and whose penknives were axes.
George Hickes (1642-1715), non-juror.
Dean of Worcester (1683-91), and author of “The
Pretences of the Prince of Wales Examined, and Rejected”
(1701).
Charles Leslie, see N, ante,
and note, . [T.S.]]
NUMB. 35.
FROM THURSDAY MARCH 22, TO THURSDAY MARCH 29, 1711.
_ Sunt hic etiam
sua praemia laudi;
Sunt lacrimae rerum, et mentem mortalia
tangunt._
I begin to be heartily weary of my
employment as Examiner; which I wish the m[inist]ry
would consider, with half so much concern as I do,
and assign me some other with less pains, and a larger
pension. There may soon be a vacancy, either
on the bench, in the revenue, or the army, and I am
equally qualified for each: but this trade
of Examining, I apprehend may at one time or
other go near to sour my temper. I did lately
propose that some of those ingenious pens, which are
engaged on the other side, might be employed to succeed
me, and I undertook to bring them over for t’other
crown; but it was answered, that those gentlemen
do much better service in the stations where they are.
It was added, that abundance of abuses yet remained
to be laid open to the world, which I had often promised
to do, but was too much diverted by other subjects
that came into my head. On the other side, the
advice of some friends, and the threats of many enemies,
have put me upon considering what would become of
me if times should alter. This I have done
very maturely, and the result is, that I am in no manner
of pain. I grant, that what I have said upon
occasion, concerning the late men in power, may be
called satire by some unthinking people, as long as
that faction is down; but if ever they come into play
again, I must give them warning beforehand, that I
shall expect to be a favourite, and that those pretended
advocates of theirs, will be pilloried for libellers.
For I appeal to any man, whether I ever charged that
party, or its leaders, with one single action or design,
which (if we may judge by their former practices)
they will not openly profess, be proud of, and score
up for merit, when they come again to the head of
affairs? I said, they were insolent to the Qu[een];
will they not value themselves upon that, as an argument
to prove them bold assertors of the people’s
liberty? I affirmed they were against a peace;
will they be angry with me for setting forth the refinements
of their politics, in pursuing the only method
left to preserve them in power? I said, they
had involved the nation in debts, and engrossed much
of its money; they go beyond me, and boast they have
got it all, and the credit too. I have urged the
probability of their intending great alterations in
religion and government: if they destroy both
at their next coming, will they not reckon my foretelling
it, rather as a panegyric than an affront? I
said, they had formerly a design against Mr. H[arle]y’s
life: if they were now in power, would they not
immediately cut off his head, and thank me for justifying
the sincerity of their intentions? In short,
there is nothing I ever said of those worthy patriots,
which may not be as well excused; therefore, as soon
as they resume their places, I positively design to
put in my claim; and, I think, may do it with much
better grace, than many of that party who now make
their court to the present m[inist]ry. I know
two or three great men, at whose levees you may daily
observe a score of the most forward faces, which every
body is ashamed of, except those that wear them.
But I conceive my pretensions will be upon a very
different foot: Let me offer a parallel case.
Suppose, King Charles the First had entirely subdued
the rebels at Naseby, and reduced the kingdom to his
obedience: whoever had gone about to reason,
from the former conduct of those saints, that
if the victory had fallen on their side, they would
have murdered their prince, destroyed monarchy and
the Church and made the king’s party compound
for their estates as delinquents; would have been called
a false, uncharitable libeller, by those very persons
who afterwards gloried in all this, and called it
the “work of the Lord,” when they happened
to succeed. I remember there was a person fined
and imprisoned for scandalum magnatum, because
he said the Duke of York was a Papist; but when that
prince came to be king, and made open profession of
his religion, he had the justice immediately to release
his prisoner, who in his opinion had put a compliment
upon him, and not a reproach: and therefore Colonel
Titus, who had warmly asserted the same thing in
Parliament, was made a privy-councillor.
By this rule, if that which, for some
politic reasons, is now called scandal upon the late
m[inist]ry, proves one day to be only an abstract
of such a character as they will assume and be proud
of; I think I may fairly offer my pretensions, and
hope for their favour. And I am the more confirmed
in this notion by what I have observed in those papers,
that come weekly out against the “Examiner.”
The authors are perpetually telling me of my ingratitude
to my masters, that I blunder, and betray the cause;
and write with more bitterness against those that hire
me, than against the Whigs. Now I took all this
at first only for so many strains of wit, and pretty
paradoxes to divert the reader; but upon further thinking
I find they are serious. I imagined I had complimented
the present ministry for their dutiful behaviour to
the Queen; for their love of the old constitution
in Church and State; for their generosity and justice,
and for their desire of a speedy, honourable peace:
but it seems I am mistaken, and they reckon all this
for satire, because it is directly contrary to the
practice of all those whom they set up to defend,
and utterly against all their notions of a good ministry.
Therefore I cannot but think they have reason on their
side: for suppose I should write the character
of an honest, a religious, and a learned man; and
send the first to Newgate, the second to the Grecian
Coffee-house, and the last to White’s; would
they not all pass for satires, and justly enough,
among the companies to whom they were sent?
Having therefore employed several
papers in such sort of panegyrics, and but very few
on what they understand to be satires; I shall henceforth
upon occasion be more liberal of the latter, of which
they are like to have a taste, in the remainder of
this present paper.
Among all the advantages which the
kingdom hath received by the late change of ministry,
the greatest must be allowed to be the calling of the
present Parliament, upon the dissolution of the last.
It is acknowledged, that this excellent assembly hath
entirely recovered the honour of P[arliamen]ts, which
had been unhappily prostituted for some years past
by the factious proceedings of an unnatural majority,
in concert with a most corrupt administration.
It is plain, by the present choice of members, that
the electors of England, when left to themselves, do
rightly understand their true interest. The moderate
Whigs begin to be convinced that we have been all
this while in wrong hands, and that things are now
as they should be. And as the present House of
Commons is the best representative of the nation that
hath ever been summoned in our memories; so they have
taken care in their first session, by that noble Bill
of Qualification, that future Parliaments should
be composed of landed men, and our properties lie
no more at mercy of those who have none themselves,
or at least only what is transient or imaginary.
If there be any gratitude in posterity, the memory
of this assembly will be always celebrated; if otherwise,
at least we, who share in the blessings they derive
to us, ought with grateful hearts to acknowledge them.
I design, in some following papers,
to draw up a list (for I can do no more) of the great
things this Parliament hath already performed, the
many abuses they have detected; their justice in deciding
elections without regard of party; their cheerfulness
and address in raising supplies for the war, and at
the same time providing for the nation’s debts;
their duty to the Queen, and their kindness to the
Church. In the mean time I cannot forbear mentioning
two particulars, which in my opinion do discover,
in some measure, the temper of the present Parliament;
and bear analogy to those passages related by Plutarch,
in the lives of certain great men; which, as himself
observes, “Though they be not of actions which
make any great noise or figure in history, yet give
more light into the characters of persons, than we
could receive from an account of their most renowned
achievements.”
Something like this may be observed
from two late instances of decency and good nature,
in that illustrious assembly I am speaking of.
The first was, when after that inhuman attempt upon
Mr. Harley, they were pleased to vote an Address to
the Queen, wherein they express their utmost detestation
of the fact, their high esteem and great concern for
that able minister, and justly impute his misfortunes
to that zeal for her Majesty’s service, which
had “drawn upon him the hatred of all the abettors
of Popery and faction.” I dare affirm, that
so distinguishing a mark of honour and good will from
such a Parliament, was more acceptable to a person
of Mr. H[arle]y’s generous nature, than the most
bountiful grant that was ever yet made to a subject;
as her Majesty’s answer, filled with gracious
expressions in his favour, adds more to his real glory,
than any titles she could bestow. The prince
and representatives of the whole kingdom, join in
their concern for so important a life. These
are the true rewards of virtue, and this is the commerce
between noble spirits, in a coin which the giver knows
where to bestow, and the receiver how to value, though
neither avarice nor ambition would be able to comprehend
its worth.
The other instance I intended to produce
of decency and good nature, in the present House of
Commons, relates to their most worthy Speaker;
who having unfortunately lost his eldest son, the
assembly, moved with a generous pity for so sensible
an affliction, adjourned themselves for a week, that
so good a servant of the public, might have some interval
to wipe away a father’s tears: And indeed
that gentleman has too just an occasion for his grief,
by the death of a son, who had already acquired so
great a reputation for every amiable quality, and who
might have lived to be so great an honour and an ornament
to his ancient family.
Before I conclude, I must desire one
favour of the reader, that when he thinks it worth
his while to peruse any paper writ against the “Examiner,”
he will not form his judgment by any mangled quotation
out of it which he finds in such papers, but be so
just to read the paragraph referred to; which I am
confident will be found a sufficient answer to all
that ever those papers can object. At least I
have seen above fifty of them, and never yet observed
one single quotation transcribed with common candour.
Swift wrote to Stella on the matter
under date March 20th, 1711: “The Speaker’s
eldest son is just dead of the small pox, and the House
is adjourned a week, to give him time to wipe off
his tears. I think it very handsomely done; but
I believe one reason is, that they want Mr. Harley
so much” (vol. ii., of present edition).
[T.S.]]
NUMB. 36.
FROM THURSDAY MARCH 29, TO THURSDAY APRIL 5, 1711.
Nullo suo peccato impediantur,
quo minus alterius peccata demonstrare possint.
I have been considering the old constitution
of this kingdom, comparing it with the monarchies
and republics whereof we meet so many accounts in
ancient story, and with those at present in most parts
of Europe: I have considered our religion, established
here by the legislature soon after the Reformation:
I have likewise examined the genius and disposition
of the people, under that reasonable freedom they
possess: Then I have turned my reflections upon
those two great divisions of Whig and Tory, (which,
some way or other, take in the whole kingdom) with
the principles they both profess, as well as those
wherewith they reproach one another. From all
this, I endeavour to determine, from which side her
present M[ajest]y may reasonably hope for most security
to her person and government, and to which she ought,
in prudence, to trust the administration of her affairs.
If these two rivals were really no more than parties,
according to the common acceptation of the word, I
should agree with those politicians who think, a prince
descends from his dignity by putting himself at the
head of either; and that his wisest course is, to
keep them in a balance; raising or depressing either
as it best suited with his designs. But when
the visible interest of his crown and kingdom lies
on one side, and when the other is but a faction, raised
and strengthened by incidents and intrigues, and by
deceiving the people with false representations of
things; he ought, in prudence, to take the first opportunity
of opening his subjects’ eyes, and declaring
himself in favour of those, who are for preserving
the civil and religious rights of the nation, wherewith
his own are so interwoven.
This was certainly our case:
for I do not take the heads, advocates, and followers
of the Whigs, to make up, strictly speaking, a national
party; being patched up of heterogeneous, inconsistent
parts, whom nothing served to unite but the common
interest of sharing in the spoil and plunder of the
people; the present dread of their adversaries, by
whom they apprehended to be called to an account,
and that general conspiracy, of endeavouring to overturn
the Church and State; which, however, if they could
have compassed, they would certainly have fallen out
among themselves, and broke in pieces, as their
predecessors did, after they destroyed the monarchy
and religion. For, how could a Whig, who is against
all discipline, agree with a Presbyterian, that carries
it higher than the Papists themselves? How could
a Socinian adjust his models to either? Or how
could any of these cement with a Deist or Freethinker,
when they came to consult upon settling points of faith?
Neither would they have agreed better in their systems
of government, where some would have been for a king,
under the limitations of a Duke of Venice; others
for a Dutch republic; a third party for an aristocracy,
and most of them all for some new fabric of their
own contriving.
But however, let us consider them
as a party, and under those general tenets wherein
they agreed, and which they publicly owned, without
charging them with any that they pretend to deny.
Then let us Examine those principles of the
Tories, which their adversaries allow them to profess,
and do not pretend to tax them with any actions contrary
to those professions: after which, let the reader
judge from which of these two parties a prince hath
most to fear; and whether her M[ajest]y did not consider
the ease, the safety and dignity of her person, the
security of her crown, and the transmission of monarchy
to her Protestant successors, when she put her affairs
into the present hands.
Suppose the matter were now entire;
the Qu[een] to make her choice, and for that end,
should order the principles on both sides to be fairly
laid before her. First, I conceive the Whigs
would grant, that they have naturally no very great
veneration for crowned heads; that they allow, the
person of the prince may, upon many occasions, be resisted
by arms; and that they do not condemn the war raised
against King Charles the First, or own it to be a
rebellion, though they would be thought to blame his
murder. They do not think the prerogative to be
yet sufficiently limited, and have therefore taken
care (as a particular mark of their veneration for
the illustrious house of Hanover) to clip it closer
against next reign; which, consequently, they would
be glad to see done in the present: not to mention,
that the majority of them, if it were put to the vote,
would allow, that they prefer a commonwealth before
a monarchy. As to religion; their universal,
undisputed maxim is, that it ought to make no distinction
at all among Protestants; and in the word Protestant
they include every body who is not a Papist, and who
will, by an oath, give security to the government.
Union in discipline and doctrine, the offensive sin
of schism, the notion of a Church and a hierarchy,
they laugh at as foppery, cant and priestcraft.
They see no necessity at all that there should be
a national faith; and what we usually call by that
name, they only style the “religion of the magistrate."
Since the Dissenters and we agree in the main, why
should the difference of a few speculative points,
or modes of dress, incapacitate them from serving
their prince and country, in a juncture when we ought
to have all hands up against the common enemy?
And why should they be forced to take the sacrament
from our clergy’s hands, and in our posture,
or indeed why compelled to receive it at all, when
they take an employment which has nothing to do with
religion?
These are the notions which most of
that party avow, and which they do not endeavour to
disguise or set off with false colours, or complain
of being misrepresented about, I have here placed
them on purpose, in the same light which themselves
do, in the very apologies they make for what we accuse
them of; and how inviting even these doctrines are,
for such a monarch to close with, as our law, both
statute and common, understands a King of England
to be, let others decide. But then, if to these
we should add other opinions, which most of their
own writers justify, and which their universal practice
has given a sanction to, they are no more than what
a prince might reasonably expect, as the natural consequence
of those avowed principles. For when such persons
are at the head of affairs, the low opinion they have
of princes, will certainly tempt them to violate that
respect they ought to bear; and at the same time, their
own want of duty to their sovereign is largely made
up, by exacting greater submissions to themselves
from their fellow-subjects: it being indisputably
true, that the same principle of pride and ambition
makes a man treat his equals with insolence, in the
same proportion as he affronts his superiors; as both
Prince and people have sufficiently felt from the
late m[inist]ry.
Then from their confessed notions
of religion, as above related, I see no reason to
wonder, why they countenanced not only all sorts of
Dissenters, but the several gradations of freethinkers
among us (all which were openly enrolled in their
party); nor why they were so very averse from the
present established form of worship, which by prescribing
obedience to princes from the topic of conscience,
would be sure to thwart all their schemes of innovation.
One thing I might add, as another
acknowledged maxim in that party, and in my opinion,
as dangerous to the constitution as any I have mentioned;
I mean, that of preferring, on all occasions, the moneyed
interest before the landed; which they were so far
from denying, that they would gravely debate the reasonableness
and justice of it; and at the rate they went on, might
in a little time have found a majority of representatives,
fitly qualified to lay those heavy burthens on the
rest of the nation, which themselves would not touch
with one of their fingers.
However, to deal impartially, there
are some motives which might compel a prince, under
the necessity of affairs, to deliver himself over to
that party. They were said to possess
the great bulk of cash, and consequently of credit
in the nation, and the heads of them had the reputation
of presiding over those societies who have the great
direction of both: so that all applications for
loans to the public service, upon any emergency, must
be made through them; and it might prove highly dangerous
to disoblige them, because in that case, it was not
to be doubted, that they would be obstinate and malicious,
ready to obstruct all affairs, not only by shutting
their own purses, but by endeavouring to sink credit,
though with some present imaginary loss to themselves,
only to shew, it was a creature of their own.
From this summary of Whig-principles
and dispositions, we find what a prince may reasonably
fear and hope from that party. Let us now very
briefly consider, the doctrines of the Tories, which
their adversaries will not dispute. As they prefer
a well-regulated monarchy before all other forms of
government; so they think it next to impossible to
alter that institution here, without involving our
whole island in blood and desolation. They believe,
that the prerogative of a sovereign ought, at least,
to be held as sacred and inviolable as the rights of
his people, if only for this reason, because without
a due share of power, he will not be able to protect
them. They think, that by many known laws of
this realm, both statute and common, neither the person,
nor lawful authority of the prince, ought, upon any
pretence whatsoever, to be resisted or disobeyed.
Their sentiments, in relation to the Church, are known
enough, and will not be controverted, being just the
reverse to what I have delivered as the doctrine and
practice of the Whigs upon that article.
But here I must likewise deal impartially
too, and add one principle as a characteristic of
the Tories, which has much discouraged some princes
from making use of them in affairs. Give the Whigs
but power enough to insult their sovereign, engross
his favours to themselves, and to oppress and plunder
their fellow-subjects; they presently grow into good
humour and good language towards the crown; profess
they will stand by it with their lives and fortunes;
and whatever rudenesses they may be guilty of in private,
yet they assure the world, that there never was so
gracious a monarch. But to the shame of the Tories,
it must be confessed, that nothing of all this hath
been ever observed in them; in or out of favour, you
see no alteration, further than a little cheerfulness
or cloud in their countenances; the highest employments
can add nothing to their loyalty, but their behaviour
to their prince, as well as their expressions of love
and duty, are, in all conditions, exactly the same.
Having thus impartially stated the
avowed principles of Whig and Tory; let the reader
determine, as he pleases, to which of these two a wise
prince may, with most safety to himself and the public,
trust his person and his affairs; and whether it were
rashness or prudence in her M[ajest]y to make those
changes in the ministry, which have been so highly
extolled by some, and condemned by others.
NUMB. 37.
FROM THURSDAY APRIL 5, TO THURSDAY APRIL 12, 1711.
Très species tam dissimiles, tria talia
texta
Una dies dedit exitio
I write this paper for the sake of
the Dissenters, whom I take to be the most spreading
branch of the Whig party, that professeth Christianity,
and the only one that seems to be zealous for any particular
system of it; the bulk of those we call the Low Church,
being generally indifferent, and undetermined in that
point; and the other subdivisions having not yet taken
either the Old or New Testament into their scheme.
By the Dissenters therefore, it will easily be understood,
that I mean the Presbyterians, as they include the
sects of Anabaptists, Independents, and others, which
have been melted down into them since the Restoration.
This sect, in order to make itself national, having
gone so far as to raise a Rebellion, murder their
king, destroy monarchy and the Church, was afterwards
broken in pieces by its own divisions; which made
way for the king’s return from his exile.
However, the zealous among them did still entertain
hopes of recovering the “dominion of grace;”
whereof I have read a remarkable passage, in a book
published about the year 1661 and written by one of
their own side. As one of the régicides was
going to his execution, a friend asked him, whether
he thought the cause would revive? He answered,
“The cause is in the bosom of Christ, and as
sure as Christ rose from the dead, so sure will the
cause revive also." And therefore the Nonconformists
were strictly watched and restrained by penal laws,
during the reign of King Charles the Second; the court
and kingdom looking on them as a faction, ready to
join in any design against the government in Church
or State: And surely this was reasonable enough,
while so many continued alive, who had voted, and fought,
and preached against both, and gave no proof that
they had changed their principles. The Nonconformists
were then exactly upon the same foot with our Nonjurors
now, whom we double tax, forbid their conventicles,
and keep under hatches; without thinking ourselves
possessed with a persecuting spirit, because we know
they want nothing but the power to ruin us. This,
in my opinion, should altogether silence the Dissenters’
complaints of persecution under King Charles the Second;
or make them shew us wherein they differed, at that
time, from what our Jacobites are now.
Their inclinations to the Church were
soon discovered, when King James the Second succeeded
to the crown, with whom they unanimously joined in
its ruin, to revenge themselves for that restraint
they had most justly suffered in the foregoing reign;
not from the persecuting temper of the clergy, as
their clamours would suggest, but the prudence and
caution of the legislature. The same indulgence
against law, was made use of by them and the Papists,
and they amicably employed their power, as in defence
of one common interest.
But the Revolution happening soon
after, served to wash away the memory of the rebellion;
upon which, the run against Popery, was, no doubt,
as just and seasonable, as that of fanaticism, after
the Restoration: and the dread of Popery, being
then our latest danger, and consequently the most
fresh upon our spirits, all mouths were open against
that; the Dissenters were rewarded with an indulgence
by law; the rebellion and king’s murder were
now no longer a reproach; the former was only a civil
war, and whoever durst call it a rebellion, was a Jacobite,
and friend to France. This was the more unexpected,
because the Revolution being wholly brought about
by Church of England hands, they hoped one good consequence
of it, would be the relieving us from the encroachments
of Dissenters, as well as those of Papists, since
both had equally confederated towards our ruin; and
therefore, when the crown was new settled, it was hoped
at least that the rest of the constitution would be
restored. But this affair took a very different
turn; the Dissenters had just made a shift to save
a tide, and joined with the Prince of Orange, when
they found all was desperate with their protector
King James. And observing a party, then forming
against the old principles in Church and State, under
the name of Whigs and Low-Churchmen, they listed themselves
of it, where they have ever since continued.
It is therefore, upon the foot they
now are, that I would apply myself to them, and desire
they would consider the different circumstances at
present, from what they were under, when they began
their designs against the Church and monarchy, about
seventy years ago. At that juncture they made
up the body of the party, and whosoever joined with
them from principles of revenge, discontent, ambition,
or love of change, were all forced to shelter under
their denomination; united heartily in the pretences
of a further and purer Reformation in religion, and
of advancing the “great work” (as the
cant was then) “that God was about to do in
these nations,” received the systems of doctrine
and discipline prescribed by the Scots, and readily
took the Covenant; so that there appeared no division
among them, till after the common enemy was subdued.
But now their case is quite otherwise,
and I can hardly think it worth being of a party,
upon the terms they have been received of late years;
for suppose the whole faction should at length succeed
in their design of destroying the Church; are they
so weak to imagine, that the new modelling of religion,
would be put into their hands? Would their brethren,
the Low-Churchmen and Freethinkers, submit to their
discipline, their synods or their classes, and divide
the lands of bishops, or deans and chapters, among
them? How can they help observing that their allies,
instead of pretending more sanctity than other men,
are some of them for levelling all religion, and the
rest for abolishing it? Is it not manifest, that
they have been treated by their confederates, exactly
after the same manner, as they were by King James the
Second, made instruments to ruin the Church, not for
their sakes, but under a pretended project of universal
freedom in opinion, to advance the dark designs of
those who employ them? For, excepting the anti-monarchical
principle, and a few false notions about liberty, I
see but little agreement betwixt them; and even in
these, I believe, it would be impossible to contrive
a frame of government, that would please them all,
if they had it now in their power to try. But
however, to be sure, the Presbyterian institution
would never obtain. For, suppose they should,
in imitation of their predecessors, propose to have
no King but our Saviour Christ, the whole clan of
Freethinkers would immediately object, and refuse
His authority. Neither would their Low-Church
brethren use them better, as well knowing what enemies
they are to that doctrine of unlimited toleration,
wherever they are suffered to preside. So that
upon the whole, I do not see, as their present circumstances
stand, where the Dissenters can find better quarter,
than from the Church of England.
Besides, I leave it to their consideration,
whether, with all their zeal against the Church, they
ought not to shew a little decency, and how far it
consists with their reputation, to act in concert with
such confederates. It was reckoned a very infamous
proceeding in the present most Christian king, to
assist the Turk against the Emperor: policy, and
reasons of state, were not allowed sufficient excuses,
for taking part with an infidel against a believer.
It is one of the Dissenters’ quarrels against
the Church, that she is not enough reformed from Popery;
yet they boldly entered into a league with Papists
and a popish prince, to destroy her. They profess
much sanctity, and object against the wicked lives
of some of our members; yet they have been long, and
still continue, in strict combination with libertines
and atheists, to contrive our ruin. What if the
Jews should multiply, and become a formidable party
among us? Would the Dissenters join in alliance
with them likewise, because they agree already in
some general principles, and because the Jews are
allowed to be a “stiffnecked and rebellious people”?
It is the part of wise men to conceal
their passions, when they are not in circumstances
of exerting them to purpose: the arts of getting
power, and preserving indulgence, are very different.
For the former, the reasonable hopes of the Dissenters,
seem to be at an end; their comrades, the Whigs and
Freethinkers, are just in a condition proper to be
forsaken; and the Parliament, as well as the body of
the people, will be deluded no longer. Besides,
it sometimes happens for a cause to be exhausted and
worn out, as that of the Whigs in general, seems at
present to be: the nation has had enough of it.
It is as vain to hope restoring that decayed interest,
as for a man of sixty to talk of entering on a new
scene of life, that is only proper for youth and vigour.
New circumstances and new men must arise, as well
as new occasions, which are not like to happen in
our time. So that the Dissenters have no game
left, at present, but to secure their indulgence:
in order to which, I will be so bold to offer them
some advice.
First, That until some late proceedings
are a little forgot, they would take care not to provoke,
by any violence of tongue or pen, so great a majority,
as there is now against them, nor keep up any longer
that combination with their broken allies, but disperse
themselves, and lie dormant against some better opportunity:
I have shewn, they could have got no advantage if
the late party had prevailed; and they will certainly
lose none by its fall, unless through their own fault.
They pretend a mighty veneration for the Queen; let
them give proof of it, by quitting the ruined interest
of those who have used her so ill; and by a due respect
to the persons she is pleased to trust at present with
her affairs: When they can no longer hope to
govern, when struggling can do them no good, and may
possibly hurt them, what is left but to be silent
and passive?
Secondly, Though there be no law (beside
that of God Almighty) against occasional conformity,
it would be prudence in the Dissenters to use it as
tenderly as they can: for, besides the infamous
hypocrisy of the thing itself, too frequent practice
would perhaps make a remedy necessary. And after
all they have said to justify themselves in this point,
it still continues hard to conceive, how those consciences
can pretend to be scrupulous, upon which an employment
has more power than the love of unity.
In the last place, I am humbly of
opinion, That the Dissenters would do well to drop
that lesson they have learned from their directors,
of affecting to be under horrible apprehensions, that
the Tories are in the interests of the Pretender,
and would be ready to embrace the first opportunity
of inviting him over. It is with the worst grace
in the world, that they offer to join in the cry upon
this article: as if those, who alone stood in
the gap against all the encroachments of Popery and
arbitrary power, are not more likely to keep out both,
than a set of schismatics, who to gratify their ambition
and revenge, did, by the meanest compliances, encourage
and spirit up that unfortunate prince, to fell upon
such measures, as must, at last, have ended in the
ruin of our liberty and religion.
I wish those who give themselves
the trouble to write to the “Examiner”
would consider whether what they send be proper for
such a paper to take notice of: I had one letter
last week, written, as I suppose, by a divine, to
desire I would offer some reasons against a Bill now
before the Parliament for Ascertaining the Tithe of
Hops; from which the writer apprehends great damage
to the clergy, especially the poorer vicars:
If it be, as he says, (and he seems to argue very reasonably
upon it) the convocation now sitting, will, no doubt,
upon due application, represent the matter to the
House of Commons; and he may expect all justice and
favour from that great body, who have already appeared
so tender of their rights.
A gentleman, likewise, who hath sent
me several letters, relating to personal hardships
he received from some of the late ministry; is advised
to publish a narrative of them, they being too large,
and not proper for this paper._
NUMB. 38.
FROM THURSDAY APRIL 12, TO THURSDAY APRIL 19, 1711.
Semper causae eventorum magis movent
quam ipsa eventa.
I am glad to observe, that several
among the Whigs have begun very much to change their
language of late. The style is now among the reasonable
part of them, when they meet a man in business, or
a Member of Parliament; “Well, gentlemen, if
you go on as you have hitherto done, we shall no longer
have any pretence to complain.” They find,
it seems, that there have been yet no overtures made
to bring in the Pretender, nor any preparatory steps
towards it. They read no enslaving votes, nor
bills brought in to endanger the subject. The
indulgence to scrupulous consciences, is again
confirmed from the throne, inviolably preserved, and
not the least whisper offered that may affect it.
All care is taken to support the war; supplies cheerfully
granted, and funds readily subscribed to, in spite
of the little arts made use of to discredit them.
The just resentments of some, which are laudable in
themselves, and which at another juncture it might
be proper to give way to, have been softened or diverted
by the calmness of others. So that upon the article
of present management, I do not see how any objection
of weight can well be raised.
However, our adversaries still allege,
that this great success was wholly unexpected, and
out of all probable view. That in public affairs,
we ought least of all others, to judge by events;
that the attempt of changing a ministry, during the
difficulties of a long war, was rash and inconsiderate:
That if the Qu[een] were disposed by her inclinations,
or from any personal dislike, for such a change, it
might have been done with more safety, in a time of
peace: That if it had miscarried by any of those
incidents, which in all appearance might have intervened,
the consequences would perhaps have ruined the whole
confederacy; and, therefore, however it hath now succeeded,
the experiment was too dangerous to try.
But this is what we can by no means
allow them. We never will admit rashness or chance
to have produced all this harmony and order. It
is visible to the world, that the several steps towards
this change were slowly taken, and with the utmost
caution. The movers observed as they went on,
how matters would bear, and advanced no farther at
first, than so as they might be able to stop or go
back, if circumstances were not mature. Things
were grown to such a height, that it was no longer
the question, whether a person who aimed at an employment,
were a Whig or a Tory, much less, whether he had merit
or proper abilities for what he pretended to:
he must owe his preferment only to the favourites;
and the crown was so far from nominating, that they
would not allow it a negative. This, the Qu[een]
was resolved no longer to endure, and began to break
into their prescription, by bestowing one or two places
of consequence, without consulting her ephori;
after they had fixed them for others, and concluded
as usually, that all their business was to signify
their pleasure to her M[ajest]y. But though the
persons the Qu[een] had chosen, were such as no objection
could well be raised against upon the score of party;
yet the oligarchy took the alarm; their sovereign
authority was, it seems, called in question; they grew
into anger and discontent, as if their undoubted rights
were violated. All former obligations to their
sovereign now became cancelled; and they put themselves
upon the foot of people, who were hardly used after
the most eminent services.
I believe all men, who know any thing
in politics, will agree, that a prince thus treated,
by those he has most confided in, and perpetually
loaded with his favours, ought to extricate himself
as soon as possible; and is then only blamable in
his choice of time, when he defers one minute after
it is in his power; because, from the monstrous encroachments
of exorbitant avarice and ambition, he cannot tell
how long it may continue to be so. And it will
be found, upon enquiring into history, that most of
those princes, who have been ruined by favourites,
have owed their misfortune to the neglect of early
remedies; deferring to struggle till they were quite
sunk.
The Whigs are every day cursing the
ungovernable rage, the haughty pride, and unsatiable
covetousness of a certain person, as the cause of
their fall; and are apt to tell their thoughts, that
one single removal might have set all things right.
But the interests of that single person, were found,
upon experience, so complicated and woven with the
rest, by love, by awe, by marriage, by alliance, that
they would rather confound heaven and earth, than
dissolve such an union.
I have always heard and understood,
that a king of England, possessed of his people’s
hearts, at the head of a free Parliament, and in full
agreement with a great majority, made the true figure
in the world that such a monarch ought to do, and
pursued the real interest of himself and his kingdom.
Will they allow her M[ajest]y to be in those circumstances
at present? And was it not plain by the addresses
sent from all parts of the island, and by the visible
disposition of the people, that such a Parliament
would undoubtedly be chosen? And so it proved,
without the court’s using any arts to influence
elections.
What people then, are these in a corner,
to whom the constitution must truckle? If the
whole nation’s credit cannot supply funds for
the war, without humble application from the entire
legislature to a few retailers of money, it is high
time we should sue for a peace. What new maxims
are these, which neither we nor our forefathers ever
heard of before, and which no wise institution would
ever allow? Must our laws from henceforward pass
the Bank and East India Company, or have their royal
assent before they are in force?
To hear some of those worthy reasoners
talking of credit, that she is so nice, so squeamish,
so capricious; you would think they were describing
a lady troubled with vapours or the colick, to be
only removed by a course of steel, and swallowing
a bullet. By the narrowness of their thoughts,
one would imagine they conceived the world to be no
wider than Exchange Alley. It is probable they
may have such a sickly dame among them, and it is
well if she has no worse diseases, considering what
hands she passes through. But the national credit
is of another complexion; of sound health, and an
even temper, her life and existence being a quintessence
drawn from the vitals of the whole kingdom. And
we find these money-politicians, after all their noise,
to be of the same opinion, by the court they paid
her, when she lately appeared to them in the form of
a lottery.
As to that mighty error in politics,
they charge upon the Qu[een], for changing her ministry
in the height of a war, I suppose, it is only looked
upon as an error under a Whiggish administration; otherwise,
the late King has much to answer for, who did it pretty
frequently. And it is well known, that the late
ministry of famous memory, was brought in during this
present war, only with this circumstance, that two
or three of the chief, did first change their own
principles, and then took in suitable companions.
But however, I see no reason why the
Tories should not value their wisdom by events, as
well as the Whigs. Nothing was ever thought a
more precipitate rash counsel, than that of altering
the coin at the juncture it was done; yet the
prudence of the undertaking was sufficiently justified
by the success. Perhaps it will be said, that
the attempt was necessary, because the whole species
of money, was so grievously clipped and counterfeit.
And, is not her Majesty’s authority as sacred
as her coin? And has not that been most scandalously
clipped and mangled, and often counterfeited too?
It is another grievous complaint of
the Whigs, that their late friends, and the whole
party, are treated with abundance of severity in print,
and in particular by the “Examiner.”
They think it hard, that when they are wholly deprived
of power, hated by the people, and out of all hope
of re-establishing themselves, their infirmities should
be so often displayed, in order to render them yet
more odious to mankind. This is what they employ
their writers to set forth in their papers of the week;
and it is humoursome enough to observe one page taken
up in railing at the “Examiner” for his
invectives against a discarded ministry; and the
other side filled with the falsest and vilest abuses,
against those who are now in the highest power and
credit with their sovereign, and whose least breath
would scatter them into silence and obscurity.
However, though I have indeed often wondered to see
so much licentiousness taken and connived at, and
am sure it would not be suffered in any other country
of Christendom; yet I never once invoked the assistance
of the gaol or the pillory, which upon the least provocation,
was the usual style during their tyranny. There
hath not passed a week these twenty years without
some malicious paper, scattered in every coffee-house
by the emissaries of that party, whether it were down
or up. I believe, they will not pretend to object
the same thing to us. Nor do I remember any constant
weekly paper, with reflections on the late ministry
or jnto. They have many weak, defenceless
parts, they have not been used to a regular attack,
and therefore it is that they are so ill able to endure
one, when it comes to be their turn. So that
they complain more of a few months’ truths from
us, than we did of all their scandal and malice, for
twice as many years.
I cannot forbear observing upon this
occasion, that those worthy authors I am speaking
of, seem to me, not fairly to represent the sentiments
of their party; who in disputing with us, do generally
give up several of the late m[inist]ry, and freely
own many of their failings. They confess the
monstrous debt upon the navy, to have been caused by
most scandalous mismanagement; they allow the insolence
of some, and the avarice of others, to have been insupportable:
but these gentlemen are most liberal in their praises
to those persons, and upon those very articles, where
their wisest friends give up the point. They gravely
tell us, that such a one was the most faithful servant
that ever any prince had; another the most dutiful,
a third the most generous, and a fourth of the greatest
integrity. So that I look upon these champions,
rather as retained by a cabal than a party, which
I desire the reasonable men among them would please
to consider.
NUMB. 39.
FROM THURSDAY APRIL 19, TO THURSDAY APRIL 26, 1711.
Indignum est in ed civitate, quae
legibus continetur, discedi a legibus.
I have been often considering how
it comes to pass, that the dexterity of mankind in
evil, should always outgrow, not only the prudence
and caution of private persons, but the continual
expedients of the wisest laws contrived to prevent
it. I cannot imagine a knave to possess a greater
share of natural wit or genius, than an honest man.
I have known very notable sharpers at play, who upon
all other occasions, were as great dunces, as human
shape can well allow; and I believe, the same might
be observed among the other knots of thieves and pickpockets,
about this town. The proposition however
is certainly true, and to be confirmed by an hundred
instances. A scrivener, an attorney, a stock-jobber,
and many other retailers of fraud, shall not only
be able to overreach others, much wiser than themselves,
but find out new inventions, to elude the force of
any law made against them. I suppose, the reason
of this may be, that as the aggressor is said to have
generally the advantage of the defender; so the makers
of the law, which is to defend our rights, have usually
not so much industry or vigour, as those whose interest
leads them to attack it. Besides, it rarely happens
that men are rewarded by the public for their justice
and virtue; neither do those who act upon such principles,
expect any recompense till the next world: whereas
fraud, where it succeeds, gives present pay; and this
is allowed the greatest spur imaginable both to labour
and invention. When a law is made to stop some
growing evil, the wits of those, whose interest it
is to break it with secrecy or impunity, are immediately
at work; and even among those who pretend to fairer
characters, many would gladly find means to avoid,
what they would not be thought to violate. They
desire to reap the advantage, if possible, without
the shame, or at least, without the danger. This
art is what I take that dexterous race of men, sprung
up soon after the Revolution, to have studied with
great application ever since, and to have arrived
at great perfection in it. According to the doctrine
of some Romish casuists, they have found out quam
prope ad peccatum sine peccato possint accedere.
They can tell how to go within an inch of an impeachment,
and yet come back untouched. They know what degree
of corruption will just forfeit an employment, and
whether the bribe you receive be sufficient to set
you right, and put something in your pocket besides.
How much to a penny, you may safely cheat the Qu[ee]n,
whether forty, fifty or sixty per cent. according
to the station you are in, and the dispositions of
the persons in office, below and above you. They
have computed the price you may securely take or give
for a place, or what part of the salary you ought to
reserve. They can discreetly distribute five
hundred pounds in a small borough, without any danger
from the statutes, against bribing elections.
They can manage a bargain for an office, by a third,
fourth or fifth hand, so that you shall not know whom
to accuse; and win a thousand guineas at play, in
spite of the dice, and send away the loser satisfied:
They can pass the most exorbitant accounts, overpay
the creditor with half his demands, and sink the rest.
It would be endless to relate, or
rather indeed impossible to discover, the several
arts which curious men have found out to enrich themselves,
by defrauding the public, in defiance of the law.
The military men, both by sea and land, have equally
cultivated this most useful science: neither
hath it been altogether neglected by the other sex;
of which, on the contrary, I could produce an instance,
that would make ours blush to be so far outdone.
Besides, to confess the truth, our
laws themselves are extremely defective in many articles,
which I take to be one ill effect of our best possession,
liberty. Some years ago, the ambassador of a great
prince was arrested, and outrages committed on
his person in our streets, without any possibility
of redress from Westminster-Hall, or the prerogative
of the sovereign; and the legislature was forced to
provide a remedy against the like evils in times to
come. A commissioner of the stamped paper
was lately discovered to have notoriously cheated the
public of great sums for many years, by counterfeiting
the stamps, which the law had made capital. But
the aggravation of his crime, proved to be the cause
that saved his life; and that additional heightening
circumstance of betraying his trust, was found to
be a legal defence. I am assured, that the notorious
cheat of the brewers at Portsmouth, detected about
two months ago in Parliament, cannot by any law now
in force, be punished in any degree, equal to the
guilt and infamy of it. Nay, what is almost incredible,
had Guiscard survived his detestable attempt upon Mr.
Harley’s person, all the inflaming circumstances
of the fact, would not have sufficed, in the opinion
of many lawyers, to have punished him with death;
and the public must have lain under this dilemma, either
to condemn him by a law, ex post facto (which
would have been of dangerous consequence, and form
an ignominious precedent) or undergo the mortification
to see the greatest villain upon earth escape unpunished,
to the infinite triumph and delight of Popery and faction.
But even this is not to be wondered at, when we consider,
that of all the insolences offered to the Qu[een]
since the Act of Indemnity, (at least, that ever came
to my ears) I can hardly instance above two or three,
which, by the letter of the law could amount to high
treason.
From these defects in our laws, and
the want of some discretionary power safely lodged,
to exert upon emergencies; as well as from the great
acquirements of able men, to elude the penalties of
those laws they break, it is no wonder, the injuries
done to the public, are so seldom redressed.
But besides, no individual suffers, by any wrong he
does to the commonwealth, in proportion to the advantage
he gains by doing it. There are seven or eight
millions who contribute to the loss, while the whole
gain is sunk among a few. The damage suffered
by the public, is not so immediately or heavily felt
by particular persons, and the zeal of prosecution
is apt to drop and be lost among numbers.
But imagine a set of politicians for
many years at the head of affairs, the game visibly
their own, and by consequence acting with great security:
may not these be sometimes tempted to forget their
caution, by length of time, by excess of avarice and
ambition, by the insolence or violence of their nature,
or perhaps by a mere contempt for their adversaries?
May not such motives as these, put them often upon
actions directly against the law, such as no evasions
can be found for, and which will lay them fully open
to the vengeance of a prevailing interest, whenever
they are out of power? It is answered in the affirmative.
And here we cannot refuse the late m[inistr]y their
due praises, who foreseeing a storm, provided for
their own safety, by two admirable expedients, by
which, with great prudence, they have escaped the
punishments due to pernicious counsels and corrupt
management. The first, was to procure, under
pretences hardly specious, a general Act of Indemnity,
which cuts off all impeachments. The second,
was yet more refined: suppose, for instance,
a counsel is to be pursued, which is necessary to
carry on the dangerous designs of a prevailing party,
to preserve them in power, to gratify the immeasurable
appetites of a few leaders, civil and military, though
by hazarding the ruin of the whole nation: this
counsel, desperate in itself, unprecedented in the
nature of it, they procure a majority to form into
an address, which makes it look like the sense
of the nation. Under that shelter they carry on
their work, and lie secure against after-reckonings.
I must be so free to tell my meaning
in this, that among other things, I understand it
of the address made to the Qu[een] about three years
ago, to desire that her M[ajest]y would not consent
to a peace, without the entire restitution of Sp[aï]n.
A proceeding, which to people abroad, must look like
the highest strain of temerity, folly, and gasconade.
But we at home, who allow the promoters of that advice
to be no fools, can easily comprehend the depth and
mystery of it. They were assured by this means,
to pin down the war upon us, consequently to increase
their own power and wealth, and multiply difficulties
on the Qu[een] and kingdom, till they had fixed their
party too firmly to be shaken, whenever they should
find themselves disposed to reverse their address,
and give us leave to wish for a peace.
If any man entertains a more favourable
opinion of this monstrous step in politics; I would
ask him what we must do, in case we find it impossible
to recover Spain? Those among the Whigs who believe
a God, will confess, that the events of war lie in
His hands; and the rest of them, who acknowledge no
such power, will allow, that Fortune hath too great
a share in the good or ill success of military actions,
to let a wise man reason upon them, as if they were
entirely in his power. If Providence shall think
fit to refuse success to our arms, with how ill a grace,
with what shame and confusion, shall we be obliged
to recant that precipitate address, unless the world
will be so charitable to consider, that parliaments
among us, differ as much as princes, and that by the
fatal conjunction of many unhappy circumstances, it
is very possible for our island to be represented
sometimes by those who have the least pretensions
to it. So little truth or justice there is in
what some pretend to advance, that the actions of
former senates, ought always to be treated with respect
by the latter; that those assemblies are all equally
venerable, and no one to be preferred before another:
by which argument, the Parliament that began the rebellion
against King Charles the First, voted his trial, and
appointed his murderers, ought to be remembered with
respect.
But to return from this digression;
it is very plain, that considering the defectiveness
of our laws, the variety of cases, the weakness of
the prerogative, the power or the cunning of ill-designing
men, it is possible, that many great abuses may be
visibly committed, which cannot be legally punished:
especially if we add to this, that some enquiries
might probably involve those, whom upon other accounts,
it is not thought convenient to disturb. Therefore,
it is very false reasoning, especially in the management
of public affairs, to argue that men are innocent,
because the law hath not pronounced them guilty.
I am apt to think, it was to supply
such defects as these, that satire was first introduced
into the world; whereby those whom neither religion,
nor natural virtue, nor fear of punishment, were able
to keep within the bounds of their duty, might be
withheld by the shame of having their crimes exposed
to open view in the strongest colours, and themselves
rendered odious to mankind. Perhaps all this may
be little regarded by such hardened and abandoned
natures as I have to deal with; but, next to taming
or binding a savage animal, the best service you can
do the neighbourhood, is to give them warning, either
to arm themselves, or not come in its way.
Could I have hoped for any signs of
remorse from the leaders of that faction, I should
very gladly have changed my style, and forgot or passed
by their million of enormities. But they are every
day more fond of discovering their impotent zeal and
malice: witness their conduct in the city about
a fortnight ago, which had no other end imaginable,
beside that of perplexing our affairs, and endeavouring
to make things desperate, that themselves may be thought
necessary. While they continue in this frantic
mood, I shall not forbear to treat them as they deserve;
that is to say, as the inveterate, irreconcilable enemies
to our country and its constitution.
Matveof, it seemed, was arrested by
his creditors, who feared that, since he had taken
leave at Court, they would never be paid. Peter
the Great was angry at the indignity thus offered his
representative, and was only unwillingly pacified
by the above Act. [T.S.]]
NUMB. 40.
FROM THURSDAY APRIL 26, TO THURSDAY MAY 3, 1711.
Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione
querentes?
There have been certain topics of
reproach, liberally bestowed for some years past,
by the Whigs and Tories, upon each other. We charge
the former with a design of destroying the established
Church, and introducing fanaticism and freethinking
in its stead. We accuse them as enemies to monarchy;
as endeavouring to undermine the present form of government,
and to build a commonwealth, or some new scheme of
their own, upon its ruins. On the other side,
their clamours against us, may be summed up in those
three formidable words, Popery, Arbitrary Power, and
the Pretender. Our accusations against them we
endeavour to make good by certain overt acts; such
as their perpetually abusing the whole body of the
clergy; their declared contempt for the very order
of priesthood; their aversion for episcopacy; the
public encouragement and patronage they gave to Tindall,
Toland, and other atheistical writers; their appearing
as professed advocates, retained by the Dissenters,
excusing their separation, and laying the guilt of
it to the obstinacy of the Church; their frequent
endeavours to repeal the test, and their setting up
the indulgence to scrupulous consciences, as a point
of greater importance than the established worship.
The regard they bear to our monarchy, hath appeared
by their open ridiculing the martyrdom of King Charles
the First, in their Calves-head Clubs, their common
discourses and their pamphlets: their denying
the unnatural war raised against that prince, to have
been a rebellion; their justifying his murder in the
allowed papers of the week; their industry in publishing
and spreading seditious and republican tracts; such
as Ludlow’s “Memoirs,” Sidney “Of
Government," and many others; their endless lopping
of the prerogative, and mincing into nothing her M[ajest]y’s
titles to the crown.
What proofs they bring for our endeavouring
to introduce Popery, arbitrary power, and the Pretender,
I cannot readily tell, and would be glad to hear;
however, those important words having by dexterous
management, been found of mighty service to their cause,
though applied with little colour, either of reason
or justice; I have been considering whether they may
not be adapted to more proper objects.
As to Popery, which is the first of
these, to deal plainly, I can hardly think there is
any set of men among us, except the professors of it,
who have any direct intention to introduce it among
us: but the question is, whether the principles
and practices of us, or the Whigs, be most likely
to make way for it? It is allowed, on all hands,
that among the methods concerted at Rome, for bringing
over England into the bosom of the Catholic Church;
one of the chief was, to send Jesuits and other emissaries,
in lay habits, who personating tradesmen and mechanics,
should mix with the people, and under the pretence
of a further and purer reformation, endeavour to divide
us into as many sects as possible, which would either
put us under the necessity of returning to our old
errors, to preserve peace at home; or by our divisions
make way for some powerful neighbour, with the assistance
of the Pope’s permission, and a consecrated
banner, to convert and enslave us at once. If
this hath been reckoned good politics (and it was
the best the Jesuit schools could invent) I appeal
to any man, whether the Whigs, for many years past,
have not been employed in the very same work?
They professed on all occasions, that they knew no
reason why any one system of speculative opinions (as
they termed the doctrines of the Church) should be
established by law more than another; or why employments
should be confined to the religion of the magistrate,
and that called the Church established. The grand
maxim they laid down was, That no man, for the sake
of a few notions and ceremonies, under the names of
doctrine and discipline, should be denied the liberty
of serving his country: as if places would go
a begging, unless Brownists, Familists, Sweet-singers,
Quakers, Anabaptists and Muggletonians, would take
them off our hands.
I have been sometimes imagining this
scheme brought to perfection, and how diverting it
would look to see half a dozen Sweet-singers on the
bench in their ermines, and two or three Quakers with
their white staves at court. I can only say,
this project is the very counterpart of the late King
James’s design, which he took up as the best
method for introducing his own religion, under the
pretext of an universal liberty of conscience, and
that no difference in religion, should make any in
his favour. Accordingly, to save appearances,
he dealt some employments among Dissenters of most
denominations; and what he did was, no doubt, in pursuance
of the best advice he could get at home or abroad;
and the Church thought it the most dangerous step
he could take for her destruction. It is true,
King James admitted Papists among the rest, which
the Whigs would not; but this is sufficiently made
up by a material circumstance, wherein they seem to
have much outdone that prince, and to have carried
their liberty of conscience to a higher point, having
granted it to all the classes of Freethinkers, which
the nice conscience of a Popish prince would not give
him leave to do; and was therein mightily overseen;
because it is agreed by the learned, that there is
but a very narrow step from atheism, to the other extreme,
superstition. So that upon the whole, whether
the Whigs had any real design of bringing in Popery
or no, it is very plain, that they took the most effectual
step towards it; and if the Jesuits had been their
immediate directors, they could not have taught them
better, nor have found apter scholars.
Their second accusation is, That we
encourage and maintain arbitrary power in princes,
and promote enslaving doctrines among the people.
This they go about to prove by instances, producing
the particular opinions of certain divines in King
Charles the Second’s reign; a decree of Oxford
University, and some few writers since the Revolution.
What they mean, is the principle of passive obedience
and non-resistance, which those who affirm, did, I
believe, never intend should include arbitrary power.
However, though I am sensible that it is not reckoned
prudent in a dispute, to make any concessions without
the last necessity; yet I do agree, that in my own
private opinion, some writers did carry that tenet
of passive obedience to a height, which seemed hardly
consistent with the liberties of a country, whose
laws can be neither enacted nor repealed, without
the consent of the whole people. I mean not those
who affirm it due in general, as it certainly is to
the Legislature, but such as fix it entirely in the
prince’s person. This last has, I believe,
been done by a very few; but when the Whigs quote
authors to prove it upon us, they bring in all who
mention it as a duty in general, without applying it
to princes, abstracted from their senate.
By thus freely declaring my own sentiments
of passive obedience, it will at least appear, that
I do not write for a party: neither do I, upon
any occasion, pretend to speak their sentiments, but
my own. The majority of the two Houses, and the
present ministry (if those be a party) seem to me
in all their proceedings, to pursue the real interest
of Church and State: and if I shall happen to
differ from particular persons among them, in a single
notion about government, I suppose they will not, upon
that account, explode me and my paper. However,
as an answer once for all, to the tedious scurrilities
of those idle people, who affirm, I am hired and directed
what to write; I must here inform them, that their
censure is an effect of their principles: The
present m[inistr]y are under no necessity of employing
prostitute pens; they have no dark designs to promote,
by advancing heterodox opinions.
But (to return) suppose two or three
private divines, under King Charles the Second, did
a little overstrain the doctrine of passive obedience
to princes; some allowance might be given to the memory
of that unnatural rebellion against his father, and
the dismal consequences of resistance. It is
plain, by the proceedings of the Churchmen before and
at the Revolution, that this doctrine was never designed
to introduce arbitrary power.
I look upon the Whigs and Dissenters
to be exactly of the same political faith; let us,
therefore, see what share each of them had in advancing
arbitrary power. It is manifest, that the fanatics
made Cromwell the most absolute tyrant in Christendom:
The Rump abolished the House of Lords; the army abolished
the Rump; and by this army of saints, he governed.
The Dissenters took liberty of conscience and employments
from the late King James, as an acknowledgment of
his dispensing power; which makes a King of England
as absolute as the Turk. The Whigs, under the
late king, perpetually declared for keeping up a standing
army, in times of peace; which has in all ages been
the first and great step to the ruin of liberty.
They were, besides, discovering every day their inclinations
to destroy the rights of the Church; and declared
their opinion, in all companies, against the bishops
sitting in the House of Peers: which was exactly
copying after their predecessors of ’Forty-one.
I need not say their real intentions were to make
the king absolute, but whatever be the designs of
innovating men, they usually end in a tyranny:
as we may see by an hundred examples in Greece, and
in the later commonwealths of Italy, mentioned by
Machiavel.
In the third place, the Whigs accuse
us of a design to bring in the Pretender; and to give
it a greater air of probability, they suppose the
Qu[een] to be a party in this design; which however,
is no very extraordinary supposition in those who
have advanced such singular paradoxes concerning Gregg
and Guiscard. Upon this article, their charge
is general, without ever offering to produce an instance.
But I verily think, and believe it will appear no
paradox, that if ever he be brought in, the Whigs
are his men. For, first, it is an undoubted truth,
that a year or two after the Revolution, several leaders
of that party had their pardons sent them by the late
King James, and had entered upon measures to restore
him, on account of some disobligations they received
from King William. Besides, I would ask, whether
those who are under the greatest ties of gratitude
to King James, are not at this day become the most
zealous Whigs? And of what party those are now,
who kept a long correspondence with St. Germains?
It is likewise very observable of
late, that the Whigs upon all occasions, profess their
belief of the Pretender’s being no impostor,
but a real prince, born of the late Queen’s
body: which whether it be true or false, is very
unseasonably advanced, considering the weight such
an opinion must have with the vulgar, if they once
thoroughly believe it. Neither is it at all improbable,
that the Pretender himself puts his chief hopes in
the friendship he expects from the Dissenters and Whigs,
by his choice to invade the kingdom when the latter
were most in credit: and he had reason to count
upon the former, from the gracious treatment they
received from his supposed father, and their joyful
acceptance of it. But further, what could be
more consistent with the Whiggish notion of a revolution-principle,
than to bring in the Pretender? A revolution-principle,
as their writings and discourses have taught us to
define it, is a principle perpetually disposing men
to revolutions: and this is suitable to the famous
saying of a great Whig, “That the more revolutions
the better”; which how odd a maxim soever in
appearance, I take to be the true characteristic of
the party.
A dog loves to turn round often; yet
after certain revolutions, he lies down to rest:
but heads, under the dominion of the moon, are for
perpetual changes, and perpetual revolutions:
besides, the Whigs owe all their wealth to wars and
revolutions; like the girl at Bartholomew-fair, who
gets a penny by turning round a hundred times, with
swords in her hands.
To conclude, the Whigs have a natural
faculty of bringing in pretenders, and will therefore
probably endeavour to bring in the great one at last:
How many pretenders to wit, honour, nobility,
politics, have they brought in these last twenty years?
In short, they have been sometimes able to procure
a majority of pretenders in Parliament; and wanted
nothing to render the work complete, except a Pretender
at their head.
“Who his spleen could rein,
And hear the Gracchi of the mob complain?” W.
GIFFORD.
[T.S.]]
“All civil authority is derived
originally from the people.”
“The King has but a co-ordinate
power, and may be over-ruled by the Lords and Commons.”
“Wicked kings and tyrants ought to be put to
death.”
“King Charles the First was lawfully put to
death.”
The decree was reprinted in 1709/10
with the title, “An Entire Confutation of Mr.
Hoadley’s Book, of the Original of Government.”
It was burnt by the order of the House of Lords, dated
March 23rd, 1709/10. [T.S.]]
It was currently reported that he
was not a son of James II. and Queen Mary. Several
pamphlets were written by “W. Fuller,”
to prove that he was the son of a gentlewoman named
Grey, who was brought to England from Ireland in 1688
by the Countess of Tyrconnel. See also note on
of vol. v. of present edition. [T.S.]]
NUMB. 41.
FROM THURSDAY MAY 3, TO THURSDAY MAY 10, 1711.
Dos est magna parentium virtus.
I took up a paper some days ago
in a coffee-house; and if the correctness of the style,
and a superior spirit in it, had not immediately undeceived
me, I should have been apt to imagine, I had been
reading an “Examiner.” In this paper,
there were several important propositions advanced.
For instance, that “Providence raised up Mr.
H[arle]y to be an instrument of great good, in a very
critical juncture, when it was much wanted.”
That, “his very enemies acknowledge his eminent
abilities, and distinguishing merit, by their unwearied
and restless endeavours against his person and reputation”:
That “they have had an inveterate malice against
both”: That he “has been wonderfully
preserved from some unparalleled attempts”;
with more to the same purpose. I immediately
computed by rules of arithmetic, that in the last
cited words there was something more intended than
the attempt of Guiscard, which I think can properly
pass but for one of the “some.”
And, though I dare not pretend to guess the author’s
meaning; yet the expression allows such a latitude,
that I would venture to hold a wager, most readers,
both Whig and Tory, have agreed with me, that this
plural number must, in all probability, among other
facts, take in the business of Gregg.
See now the difference of styles.
Had I been to have told my thoughts on this occasion;
instead of saying how Mr. H[arle]y was “treated
by some persons,” and “preserved from
some unparalleled attempts”; I should with intolerable
bluntness and ill manners, have told a formal story,
of a com[mitt]ee sent to a condemned criminal in
Newgate, to bribe him with a pardon, on condition
he would swear high treason against his master, who
discovered his correspondence, and secured his person,
when a certain grave politician had given him warning
to make his escape: and by this means I should
have drawn a whole swarm of hedge-writers to exhaust
their catalogue of scurrilities against me as a liar,
and a slanderer. But with submission to the author
of that forementioned paper, I think he has carried
that expression to the utmost it will bear: for
after all this noise, I know of but two “attempts”
against Mr. H[arle]y, that can really be called “unparalleled,”
which are those aforesaid of Gregg and Guiscard; and
as to the rest, I will engage to parallel them from
the story of Catiline, and others I could produce.
However, I cannot but observe, with
infinite pleasure, that a great part of what I have
charged upon the late prevailing faction, and for
affirming which, I have been adorned with so many decent
epithets, hath been sufficiently confirmed at several
times, by the resolutions of one or the other House
of Parliament. I may therefore now say, I hope,
with good authority, that there have been “some
unparalleled attempts” against Mr. Harley.
That the late ministry were justly to blame in some
management, which occasioned the unfortunate battle
of Almanza, and the disappointment at Toulon.
That the public has been grievously wronged by most
notorious frauds, during the Whig administration.
That those who advised the bringing in the Palatines,
were enemies to the kingdom. That the late managers
of the revenue have not duly passed their accounts,
for a great part of thirty-five millions, and ought
not to be trusted in such employments any more.
Perhaps in a little time, I may venture to affirm
some other paradoxes of this kind, and produce the
same vouchers. And perhaps also, if it had not
been so busy a period, instead of one “Examiner,”
the late ministry might have had above four hundred,
each of whose little fingers would be heavier than
my loins. It makes me think of Neptune’s
threat to the winds:
Quos ego sed motos praestat
componere fluctus.
Thus when these sons of Aeolus, had
almost sunk the ship with the tempests they raised,
it was necessary to smooth the ocean, and secure the
vessel, instead of pursuing the offenders.
But I observe the general expectation
at present, instead of dwelling any longer upon conjectures
who is to be punished for past miscarriages, seems
bent upon the rewards intended to those, who have been
so highly instrumental in rescuing our constitution
from its late dangers. It is the observation
of Tacitus, in the life of Agricola, that his eminent
services had raised a general opinion of his being
designed, by the emperor, for praetor of Britain.
Nullis in hoc suis sermonibus, sed quia par videbatur:
and then he adds, Non semper errat fama, aliquando
et eligit. The judgment of a wise prince,
and the general disposition of the people, do often
point at the same person; and sometimes the popular
wishes, do even foretell the reward intended for some
superior merit. Thus among several deserving
persons, there are two, whom the public vogue
hath in a peculiar manner singled out, as designed
very soon to receive the choicest marks of the royal
favour. One of them to be placed in a very high
station, and both to increase the number of our nobility.
This, I say, is the general conjecture; for I pretend
to none, nor will be chargeable if it be not fulfilled;
since it is enough for their honour, that the nation
thinks them worthy of the greatest rewards.
Upon this occasion I cannot but take
notice, that of all the hérésies in politics,
profusely scattered by the partisans of the late administration,
none ever displeased me more, or seemed to have more
dangerous consequences to monarchy, than that pernicious
talent so much affected, of discovering a contempt
for birth, family, and ancient nobility. All
the threadbare topics of poets and orators were displayed
to discover to us, that merit and virtue were the only
nobility; and that the advantages of blood, could
not make a knave or a fool either honest or wise.
Most popular commotions we read of in histories of
Greece and Rome, took their rise from unjust quarrels
to the nobles; and in the latter, the plebeians’
encroachments on the patricians, were the first cause
of their ruin.
Suppose there be nothing but opinion
in the difference of blood; every body knows, that
authority is very much founded on opinion. But
surely, that difference is not wholly imaginary.
The advantages of a liberal education, of choosing
the best companions to converse with; not being under
the necessity of practising little mean tricks by a
scanty allowance; the enlarging of thought, and acquiring
the knowledge of men and things by travel; the example
of ancestors inciting to great and good actions.
These are usually some of the opportunities, that fall
in the way of those who are born, of what we call
the better families; and allowing genius to be equal
in them and the vulgar, the odds are clearly on their
side. Nay, we may observe in some, who by the
appearance of merit, or favour of fortune, have risen
to great stations, from an obscure birth, that they
have still retained some sordid vices of their parentage
or education, either insatiable avarice, or ignominious
falsehood and corruption.
To say the truth, the great neglect
of education, in several noble families, whose sons
are suffered to pass the most improvable seasons of
their youth, in vice and idleness, have too much lessened
their reputation; but even this misfortune we owe,
among all the rest, to that Whiggish practice of reviling
the Universities, under the pretence of their instilling
pedantry, narrow principles, and high-church doctrines.
I would not be thought to undervalue
merit and virtue, wherever they are to be found; but
will allow them capable of the highest dignities in
a state, when they are in a very great degree of eminence.
A pearl holds its value though it be found in a dunghill;
but however, that is not the most probable place to
search for it. Nay, I will go farther, and admit,
that a man of quality without merit, is just so much
the worse for his quality; which at once sets his
vices in a more public view, and reproaches him for
them. But on the other side, I doubt, those who
are always undervaluing the advantages of birth, and
celebrating personal merit, have principally an eye
to their own, which they are fully satisfied with,
and which nobody will dispute with them about; whereas
they cannot, without impudence and folly, pretend to
be nobly born: because this is a secret too easily
discovered: for no men’s parentage is so
nicely inquired into, as that of assuming upstarts;
especially when they affect to make it better than
it is, as they often do, or behave themselves with
insolence.
But whatever may be the opinion of
others upon this subject, whose philosophical scorn
for blood and families, reaches even to those that
are royal, or perhaps took its rise from a Whiggish
contempt of the latter; I am pleased to find two such
instances of extraordinary merit, as I have mentioned,
joined with ancient and honourable birth, which whether
it be of real or imaginary value, hath been held in
veneration by all wise, polite states, both ancient
and modern. And, as much a foppery, as men pretend
to think it, nothing is more observable in those who
rise to great place or wealth, from mean originals,
than their mighty solicitude to convince the world
that they are not so low as is commonly believed.
They are glad to find it made out by some strained
genealogy, that they have some remote alliance with
better families. Cromwell himself was pleased
with the impudence of a flatterer, who undertook to
prove him descended from a branch of the royal stem.
I know a citizen, who adds or alters a letter
in his name with every plum he acquires: he now
wants but the change of a vowel, to be allied to a
sovereign prince in Italy; and that perhaps he may
contrive to be done, by a mistake of the graver
upon his tombstone.
When I am upon this subject of nobility,
I am sorry for the occasion given me, to mention the
loss of a person who was so great an ornament to it,
as the late lord president; who began early to
distinguish himself in the public service, and passed
through the highest employments of state, in the most
difficult times, with great abilities and untainted
honour. As he was of a good old age, his principles
of religion and loyalty had received no mixture from
late infusions, but were instilled into him by his
illustrious father, and other noble spirits, who had
exposed their lives and fortunes for the royal martyr.
Pulcherrima
proles,
Magnanimi heroes nati melioribus annis.
His first great action was, like Scipio,
to defend his father, when oppressed by numbers;
and his filial piety was not only rewarded with long
life, but with a son, who upon the like occasion, would
have shewn the same resolution. No man ever preserved
his dignity better when he was out of power, nor shewed
more affability while he was in. To conclude:
his character (which I do not here pretend to draw)
is such, as his nearest friends may safely trust to
the most impartial pen; nor wants the least of that
allowance which, they say, is required for those who
are dead.
“The lovers there for dowry
claim
The father’s virtue, and the mother’s
fame.”
P. FRANCIS.
[T.S.]]
In Hoffman’s “Secret Transactions”
(pp. 14, 15) the matter is thus referred to:
“Who those persons were that offered Gregg his
life, with great preferments and advantages (if he
would but accuse his master) may not uneasily be guessed
at, for most of the time he was locked up none but
people of note, were permitted to come near him, who
made him strange promises, and often repeated them.”
[T.S.]]
The variety of ways in which his name
has been spelt is quite remarkable. In the “Calendar
of State Papers” for 1691 and 1692, the name
is given as Furness, Furnese, and Furnes. The
“Journals of the House of Commons,” recording
his expulsion, speaks of him as Furnesse. When
he was knighted (October 11th, 1691), the “Gazette”
of October 19th printed it Furnace, and when he was
made a baronet, the same journal had it Furnese.
In the official “Return of Names of Members,”
the name is given successively as, Furnace, Furnac,
Furnice, Furnise, Furness and Furnese. [T.S.]]
“Warriors, high souled, in better
ages born,
Great Teucer’s noble race, these
plains adorn.” J.M. KING.
[T.S.]]
NUMB. 42.
FROM THURSDAY MAY 10, TO THURSDAY MAY 17, 1711.
I never let slip an opportunity of
endeavouring to convince the world, that I am not
partial, and to confound the idle reproach of my being
hired or directed what to write in defence of the present
ministry, or for detecting the practices of the
former. When I first undertook this paper, I
firmly resolved, that if ever I observed any gross
neglect, abuse or corruption in the public management,
which might give any just offence to reasonable people,
I would take notice of it with that innocent boldness
which becomes an honest man, and a true lover of his
country; at the same time preserving the respect due
to persons so highly entrusted by so wise and excellent
a Queen. I know not how such a liberty might
have been resented; but I thank God there has been
no occasion given me to exercise it; for I can safely
affirm, that I have with the utmost rigour, examined
all the actions of the present ministry, as far as
they fall under general cognizance, without being able
to accuse them of one ill or mistaken step. Observing
indeed some time ago, that seeds of dissension
had been plentifully scattered from a certain corner,
and fearing they began to rise and spread, I immediately
writ a paper on the subject; which I treated with
that warmth I thought it required: but the prudence
of those at the helm soon prevented this growing evil;
and at present it seems likely to have no consequences.
I have had indeed for some time a
small occasion of quarrelling, which I thought too
inconsiderable for a formal subject of complaint, though
I have hinted at it more than once. But it is
grown at present to as great a height, as a matter
of that nature can possibly bear; and therefore I
conceive it high time that an effectual stop should
be put to it. I have been amazed at the flaming
licentiousness of several weekly papers, which for
some months past, have been chiefly employed in barefaced
scurrilities against those who are in the greatest
trust and favour with the Qu[een], with the first
and last letters of their names frequently printed;
or some periphrasis describing their station, or other
innuendoes, contrived too plain to be mistaken.
The consequence of which is, (and it is natural it
should be so) that their long impunity hath rendered
them still more audacious.
At this time I particularly intend
a paper called the “Medley”; whose indefatigable,
incessant railings against me, I never thought convenient
to take notice of, because it would have diverted my
design, which I thought was of public use. Besides,
I never yet observed that writer, or those writers,
(for it is every way a “Medley”) to argue
against any one material point or fact that I had
advanced, or make one fair quotation. And after
all, I knew very well how soon the world grow weary
of controversy. It is plain to me, that three
or four hands at least have been joined at times in
that worthy composition; but the outlines as well
as the finishing, seem to have been always the work
of the same pen, as it is visible from half a score
beauties of style inseparable from it. But who
these Meddlers are, or where the judicious leaders
have picked them up, I shall never go about to conjecture:
factious rancour, false wit, abandoned scurrility,
impudent falsehood, and servile pedantry, having so
many fathers, and so few to own them, that curiosity
herself would not be at the pains to guess. It
is the first time I ever did myself the honour to
mention that admirable paper: nor could I imagine
any occasion likely to happen, that would make it necessary
for me to engage with such an adversary. This
paper is weekly published, and as appears by the number,
has been so for several months, and is next to the
“Observator," allowed to be the best production
of the party. Last week my printer brought me
that of May 7, Num. where there are two paragraphs
relating to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and
to Mr. Harley; which, as little as I am inclined to
engage with such an antagonist, I cannot let pass,
without failing in my duty to the public: and
if those in power will suffer such infamous insinuations
to pass with impunity, they act without precedent
from any age or country of the world.
I desire to open this matter, and
leave the Whigs themselves to determine upon it.
The House of Commons resolved, némine contradicente,
that the Speaker should congratulate Mr. Harley’s
escape and recovery in the name of the House, upon
his first attendance on their service. This is
accordingly done; and the speech, together with the
chancellor of the exchequer’s, are printed by
order of the House. The author of the “Medley”
takes this speech to task the very next week after
it is published, telling us, in the aforesaid paper,
that the Speaker’s commending Mr. Harley, for
being “an instrument of great good” to
the nation, was “ill-chosen flattery”;
because Mr. Harley had brought the “nation under
great difficulties, to say no more:” He
says, that when the Speaker tells Mr. Harley, that
Providence has “wonderfully preserved”
him “from some unparalleled attempts”
(for that the “Medley” alludes to) he
only “revives a false and groundless calumny
upon other men”; which is “an instance
of impotent, but inveterate malice," that makes
him [the Speaker] “still appear more vile and
contemptible.” This is an extract from
his first paragraph. In the next this writer says,
that the Speaker’s “praying to God for
the continuance of Mr. Harley’s life, as an
invaluable blessing, was a fulsome piece of insincerity,
which exposes him to shame and derision”; because
he is “known to bear ill will to Mr. Harley,
to have an extreme bad opinion of him, and to think
him an obstructor of those fine measures he would
bring about.”
I now appeal to the Whigs themselves,
whether a great minister of state, in high favour
with the Qu[een], and a Speaker of the House of Commons,
were ever publicly treated after so extraordinary a
manner, in the most licentious times? For this
is not a clandestine libel stolen into the world,
but openly printed and sold, with the bookseller’s
name and place of abode at the bottom. And the
juncture is admirable, when Mr. H[arle]y is generally
believed upon the very point to be made an earl, and
promoted to the most important station of the kingdom:
nay, the very marks of esteem he hath so lately received
from the whole representative body of the people,
are called “ill-chosen flattery,” and “a
fulsome piece of insincerity,” exposing the
donors “to shame and derision.”
Does this intrepid writer think he
has sufficiently disguised the matter, by that stale
artifice of altering the story, and putting it as a
supposed case? Did any man who ever saw the congratulatory
speech, read either of those paragraphs in the “Medley,”
without interpreting them just as I have done?
Will the author declare upon his great sincerity,
that he never had any such meaning? Is it enough,
that a jury at Westminster-Hall would, perhaps, not
find him guilty of defaming the Speaker and Mr. Harley
in that paper? which however, I am much in doubt of
too; and must think the law very defective, if the
reputation of such persons must lie at the mercy of
such pens. I do not remember to have seen any
libel, supposed to be writ with caution and double
meaning, in order to prevent prosecution, delivered
under so thin a cover, or so unartificially made up
as this; whether it were from an apprehension of his
readers’ dullness, or an effect of his own.
He hath transcribed the very phrases of the Speaker,
and put them in a different character, for fear they
might pass unobserved, and to prevent all possibility
of being mistaken. I shall be pleased to see
him have recourse to the old evasion, and say, that
I who make the application, am chargeable with the
abuse: let any reader of either party be judge.
But I cannot forbear asserting, as my opinion, that
for a m[inist]ry to endure such open calumny, without
calling the author to account, is next to deserving
it. And this is an omission I venture to charge
upon the present m[inist]ry, who are too apt to despise
little things, which however have not always little
consequences.
When this paper was first undertaken,
one design, among others, was, to Examine some
of those writings so frequently published with an evil
tendency, either to religion or government; but I was
long diverted by other enquiries, which I thought
more immediately necessary, to animadvert upon men’s
actions, rather than their speculations: to shew
the necessity there was of changing the ministry, that
our constitution in Church and State might be preserved;
to expose some dangerous principles and practices
under the former administration, and prove by many
instances, that those who are now at the helm, are
entirely in the true interest of prince and people.
This I may modestly hope, hath in some measure been
already done, sufficient to answer the end proposed,
which was to inform the ignorant and those at distance,
and to convince such as are not engaged in a party,
from other motives than that of conscience. I
know not whether I shall have any appetite to continue
this work much longer; if I do, perhaps some time
may be spent in exposing and overturning the false
reasonings of those who engage their pens on the other
side, without losing time in vindicating myself against
their scurrilities, much less in retorting them.
Of this sort there is a certain humble companion,
a French maitre de langues, who every month
publishes an extract from votes, newspapers, speeches
and proclamations, larded with some insipid remarks
of his own; which he calls “The Political State
of Great Britain:" This ingenious piece he tells
us himself, is constantly translated into French, and
printed in Holland, where the Dutch, no doubt, conceive
most noble sentiments of us, conveyed through such
a vehicle. It is observable in his account for
April, that the vanity, so predominant in many of his
nation, has made him more concerned for the honour
of Guiscard, than the safety of Mr. H[arle]y:
And for fear we should think the worse of his country
upon that assassin’s account, he tells us,
there have been more murders, parricides and
villanies, committed in England, than any other part
of the world. I cannot imagine how an illiterate
foreigner, who is neither master of our language,
or indeed of common sense, and who is devoted to a
faction, I suppose, for no other reason, but his having
more Whig customers than Tories, should take it into
his head to write politic tracts of our affairs.
But I presume, he builds upon the foundation of having
being called to an account for his insolence in one
of his former monthly productions, which is a
method that seldom fails of giving some vogue to the
foolishest composition. If such a work must be
done, I wish some tolerable hand would undertake it;
and that we would not suffer a little whiffling Frenchman
to neglect his trade of teaching his language to our
children, and presume to instruct foreigners in our
politics.
“In the first place, whenever
any body would praise another, all he can say will
have no weight or effect, if it be not true or probable.
If therefore, for example, my friend should take it
into his head to commend a man, for having been
an instrument of great good to a nation, when in
truth that very person had brought that same nation
under great difficulties, to say no more; such ill-chosen
flattery would be of no use or moment, nor add the
least credit to the person so commended. Or if
he should take that occasion to revive any false and
groundless calumny upon other men, or another party
of men; such an instance of impotent but inveterate
malice, would make him still appear more vile and
contemptible. The reason of all which is, that
what he said was neither just, proper, nor real, and
therefore must needs want the force of true eloquence,
which consists in nothing else but in well representing
things as they really are. I advise therefore
my friend, before he praises any more of his heroes,
to learn the common rules of writing; and particularly
to read over and over a certain chapter in Aristotle’s
first book of Rhetoric, where are given very proper
and necessary directions, for praising a man who
has done nothing that he ought to be praised for.”
There is no reference here to the
Speaker. The reference is to the “Examiner”;
nor is there any mention of Providence having wonderfully
preserved him from some unparalleled attempts.
The second paragraph runs:
“But the ancients did not think
it enough for men to speak what was true or probable,
they required further that their orators should be
heartily in earnest; and that they should have all
those motions and affections in their own minds which
they endeavoured to raise in others. He that
thinks, says Cicero, to warm others with his eloquence,
must first be warm himself. And Quintilian says,
We must first be affected ourselves, before we can
move others. This made Pliny’s panegyric
upon Trajan so well received by his hearers, because
every body knew the wonderful esteem and affection
which he had for the person he commended: and
therefore, when he concluded with a prayer to Jupiter,
that he would take care of the life and safety of
that great and good man, which he said contained in
it all other blessings; though the expression was so
high, it passed very well with those that heard him,
as being agreeable to the known sentiments and affection
of the speaker. Whereas, if my friend should
be known to bear ill-will to another person, or to
have an extreme bad opinion of him, or to think him
an abstractor of those fine measures he would bring
about, and should yet in one of his panegyrics pray
to God for the continuance of that very person’s
life, as ’an invaluable blessing’;
such a fulsome piece of insincerity would only expose
him to shame and derision.” [T.S.]]
NUMB. 43.
FROM THURSDAY MAY 17, TO THURSDAY MAY 24, 1711.
Delicta majorum immeritus lues,
Romane; donec templa refeceris,
Aedesque labentes
deorum
Several letters have been lately sent
me, desiring I would make honourable mention of the
pious design of building fifty churches, in several
parts of London and Westminster, where they are most
wanted; occasioned by an address of the convocation
to the Queen, and recommended by her Majesty to
the House of Commons; who immediately promised, they
would enable her “to accomplish so excellent
a design,” and are now preparing a Bill accordingly.
I thought to have deferred any notice of this important
affair till the end of this session; at which time
I proposed to deliver a particular account of the great
and useful things already performed by this present
Parliament. But in compliance to those who give
themselves the trouble of advising me; and partly
convinced by the reasons they offer; I am content to
bestow a paper upon a subject, that indeed so well
deserves it.
The clergy, and whoever else have
a true concern for the constitution of the Church,
cannot but be highly pleased with one prospect in this
new scene of public affairs. They may very well
remember the time, when every session of Parliament,
was like a cloud hanging over their heads; and if
it happened to pass without bursting into some storm
upon the Church, we thanked God, and thought it an
happy escape till the next meeting; upon which we
resumed our secret apprehensions, though we were not
allowed to believe any danger. Things are now
altered; the Parliament takes the necessities of the
Church into consideration, receives the proposals of
the clergy met in convocation, and amidst all the exigencies
of a long expensive war, and under the pressure of
heavy debts, finds a supply for erecting fifty edifices
for the service of God. And it appears by the
address of the Commons to her Majesty upon this occasion
(wherein they discovered a true spirit of religion)
that the applying the money granted “to accomplish
so excellent a design," would, in their opinion,
be the most effectual way of carrying on the war;
that it would (to use their own words) “be a
means of drawing down blessings on her Majesty’s
undertakings, as it adds to the number of those places,
where the prayers of her devout and faithful subjects,
will be daily offered up to God, for the prosperity
of her government at home, and the success of her arms
abroad.”
I am sometimes hoping, that we are
not naturally so bad a people, as we have appeared
for some years past. Faction, in order to support
itself, is generally forced to make use of such abominable
instruments, that as long as it prevails, the genius
of a nation is overpressed, and cannot appear to exert
itself: but when that is broke and suppressed,
when things return to the old course, mankind will
naturally fall to act from principles of reason and
religion. The Romans, upon a great victory, or
escape from public danger, frequently built a temple
in honour of some god, to whose peculiar favour they
imputed their success or delivery: and sometimes
the general did the like, at his own expense,
to acquit himself of some pious vow he had made.
How little of any thing resembling this hath been
done by us after all our victories! and perhaps for
that reason, among others, they have turned to so
little account. But what could we expect?
We acted all along as if we believed nothing of a God
or His providence; and therefore it was consistent
to offer up our edifices only to those, whom we looked
upon as givers of all victory, in His stead.
I have computed, that fifty churches
may be built by a medium, at six thousand pound for
a church; which is somewhat under the price
of a subject’s palace: yet perhaps the
care of above two hundred thousand souls, with the
benefit of their prayers for the prosperity of their
Queen and country, may be almost put in the balance
with the domestic convenience, or even magnificence
of any subject whatsoever.
Sir William Petty, who under the name
of Captain Graunt, published some observations upon
bills of mortality about five years after the Restoration;
tells us, the parishes in London, were even then so
unequally divided, that some were two hundred times
larger than others. Since that time, the increase
of trade, the frequency of Parliaments, the desire
of living in the metropolis, together with that genius
for building, which began after the fire, and hath
ever since continued, have prodigiously enlarged this
town on all sides, where it was capable of increase;
and those tracts of land built into streets, have generally
continued of the same parish they belonged to, while
they lay in fields; so that the care of above thirty
thousand souls, hath been sometimes committed to one
minister, whose church would hardly contain the twentieth
part of his flock: neither, I think, was any family
in those parishes obliged to pay above a groat a year
to their spiritual pastor. Some few of those
parishes have been since divided; in others were erected
chapels of ease, where a preacher is maintained by
general contribution. Such poor shifts and expedients,
to the infinite shame and scandal, of so vast and
flourishing a city, have been thought sufficient for
the service of God and religion; as if they were circumstances
wholly indifferent.
This defect, among other consequences
of it, hath made schism a sort of necessary evil,
there being at least three hundred thousand inhabitants
in this town, whom the churches would not be able to
contain, if the people were ever so well disposed:
and in a city not overstocked with zeal, the only
way to preserve any degree of religion, is to make
all attendance upon the duties of it, as easy and
cheap as possible: whereas on the contrary, in
the larger parishes, the press is so great, and the
pew-keeper’s tax so exorbitant, that those who
love to save trouble and money, either stay at home,
or retire to the conventicles. I believe there
are few examples in any Christian country of so great
a neglect for religion; and the dissenting teachers
have made their advantages largely by it, “sowing
tares among the wheat while men slept;”
being much more expert at procuring contributions,
which is a trade they are bred up in, than men of
a liberal education.
And to say truth, the way practised
by several parishes in and about this town, of maintaining
their clergy by voluntary subscriptions, is not only
an indignity to the character, but hath many pernicious
consequences attending it; such a precarious dependence,
subjecting a clergyman, who hath not more than ordinary
spirit and resolution, to many inconveniences, which
are obvious to imagine: but this defect will,
no doubt, be remedied by the wisdom and piety of the
present Parliament; and a tax laid upon every house
in a parish, for the support of their pastor.
Neither indeed can it be conceived, why a house, whose
purchase is not reckoned above one-third less than
land of the same yearly rent, should not pay a twentieth
part annually (which is half tithe) to the support
of the minister. One thing I could wish, that
in fixing the maintenance to the several ministers
in these new intended parishes, no determinate sum
of money may be named, which in all perpetuities ought
by any means to be avoided; but rather a tax in proportion
to the rent of each house, though it be but a twentieth
or even a thirtieth part. The contrary of this,
I am told, was done in several parishes of the city
after the fire; where the incumbent and his successors
were to receive for ever a certain sum; for example,
one or two hundred pounds a year. But the lawgivers
did not consider, that what we call at present, one
hundred pounds, will, in process of time, have not
the intrinsic value of twenty; as twenty pounds now
are hardly equal to forty shillings, three hundred
years ago. There are a thousand instances of
this all over England, in reserved rents applied to
hospitals, in old chiefries, and even among the clergy
themselves, in those payments which, I think, they
call a modus.
As no prince had ever better dispositions
than her present Majesty, for the advancement of true
religion, so there was never any age that produced
greater occasions to employ them on. It is an
unspeakable misfortune, that any designs of so excellent
a Queen, should be checked by the necessities of a
long and ruinous war, which the folly or corruption
of modern politicians have involved us in, against
all the maxims whereby our country flourished so many
hundred years: else her Majesty’s care
of religion would certainly have reached even to her
American plantations. Those noble countries, stocked
by numbers from hence, whereof too many are in no
very great reputation for faith or morals, will be
a perpetual reproach to us, till some better care is
taken for cultivating Christianity among them.
If the governors of those several colonies were obliged,
at certain times, to transmit an exact representation
of the state of religion, in their several districts;
and the legislature here would, in a time of leisure,
take that affair under their consideration, it might
be perfected with little difficulty, and be a great
addition to the glories of her Majesty’s reign.
But to waive further speculations
upon so remote a scene, while we have subjects enough
to employ them on at home; it is to be hoped, the clergy
will not let slip any proper opportunity of improving
the pious dispositions of the Queen and kingdom, for
the advantage of the Church; when by the example of
times past, they consider how rarely such conjunctures
are like to happen. What if some method were thought
on towards repairing of churches? for which there
is like to be too frequent occasions, those ancient
Gothic structures, throughout this kingdom, going
every year to decay. That expedient of repairing
or rebuilding them by charitable collections, seems
in my opinion not very suitable, either to the dignity
and usefulness of the work, or to the honour of our
country; since it might be so easily done, with very
little charge to the public, in a much more decent
and honourable manner, while Parliaments are so frequently
called. But these and other regulations must be
left to a time of peace, which I shall humbly presume
to wish may soon be our share, however offensive it
may be to any, either abroad or at home, who are gainers
by the war.
“Those ills your ancestors have
done,
Romans, are now become your own;
And they will cost you dear,
Unless you soon repair
The falling temples which the gods
provoke.”
EARL OF ROSCOMMON (1672). [T.S.]]
In this connection it is interesting
to remember that Swift, two years before, had recommended
the building of more churches as part of his suggestions
for “the advancement of religion.”
See his “Project for the Advancement of Religion”
(vol. iii., of present edition). [T.S.]]
NUMB. 44.
FROM THURSDAY MAY 24, TO THURSDAY MAY 31, 1711.
Scilicet, ut possem curvo dignoscere
rectum.
Having been forced in my papers to
use the cant-words of Whig and Tory, which have so
often varied their significations, for twenty
years past; I think it necessary to say something
of the several changes those two terms have undergone
since that period; and then to tell the reader what
I have always understood by each of them, since I undertook
this work. I reckon that these sorts of conceited
appellations, are usually invented by the vulgar;
who not troubling themselves to examine through the
merits of a cause, are consequently the most violent
partisans of what they espouse; and in their quarrels,
usually proceed to their beloved argument of calling
names, till at length they light upon one which
is sure to stick; and in time, each party grows proud
of that appellation, which their adversaries at first
intended for a reproach. Of this kind were the
Prasini and Veneti, the Guelfs and Ghibellines,
Huguenots and Papists, Roundheads and Cavaliers,
with many others, of ancient and modern date.
Among us of late there seems to have been a barrenness
of invention in this point, the words Whig and Tory,
though they are not much above thirty years old, having
been pressed to the service of many successions of
parties, with very different ideas fastened to them.
This distinction, I think, began towards the latter
part of King Charles the Second’s reign, was
dropped during that of his successor, and then revived
at the Revolution, since which it has perpetually flourished,
though applied to very different kinds of principles
and persons. In that Convention of Lords and
Commons, some of both Houses were for a regency
to the Prince of Orange, with a reservation of style
and title to the absent king, which should be made
use of in all public acts. Others, when they
were brought to allow the throne vacant, thought the
succession should immediately go to the next heir,
according to the fundamental laws of the kingdom,
as if the last king were actually dead. And though
the dissenting lords (in whose House the chief opposition
was) did at last yield both those points, took the
oaths to the new king, and many of them employments,
yet they were looked upon with an evil eye by the warm
zealots of the other side; neither did the court ever
heartily favour any of them, though some were of the
most eminent for abilities and virtue, and served
that prince, both in his councils and his army, with
untainted faith. It was apprehended, at the same
time, and perhaps it might have been true, that many
of the clergy would have been better pleased with
that scheme of a regency, or at least an uninterrupted
lineal succession, for the sake of those whose consciences
were truly scrupulous; and they thought there were
some circumstances, in the case of the deprived bishops,
that looked a little hard, or at least deserved commiseration.
These, and other the like reflections
did, as I conceive, revive the denominations of Whig
and Tory.
Some time after the Revolution the
distinction of high and low-church came in, which
was raised by the Dissenters, in order to break the
Church party, by dividing the members into high and
low; and the opinions raised, that the high joined
with the Papists, inclined the low to fall in with
the Dissenters.
And here I shall take leave to produce
some principles, which in the several periods of the
late reign, served to denote a man of one or the other
party. To be against a standing army in time of
peace, was all high-church, Tory and Tantivy. To
differ from a majority of b[isho]ps was the same.
To raise the prerogative above law for serving a turn,
was low-church and Whig. The opinion of the majority
in the House of Commons, especially of the country-party
or landed interest, was high-flying and rank Tory.
To exalt the king’s supremacy beyond all precedent,
was low-church, Whiggish and moderate. To make
the least doubt of the pretended prince being supposititious,
and a tiler’s son, was, in their phrase, “top
and topgallant,” and perfect Jacobitism.
To resume the most exorbitant grants, that were ever
given to a set of profligate favourites, and apply
them to the public, was the very quintessence of Toryism;
notwithstanding those grants were known to be acquired,
by sacrificing the honour and the wealth of England.
In most of these principles, the two
parties seem to have shifted opinions, since their
institution under King Charles the Second, and indeed
to have gone very different from what was expected
from each, even at the time of the Revolution.
But as to that concerning the Pretender, the Whigs
have so far renounced it, that they are grown the great
advocates for his legitimacy: which gives me the
opportunity of vindicating a noble d[uke] who was
accused of a blunder in the House, when upon a certain
lord’s mentioning the pretended Prince, his g[race]
told the lords, he “must be plain with them,
and call that person, not the pretended prince, but
the pretended impostor:” which was so far
from a blunder in that polite l[or]d, as his ill-willers
give out, that it was only a refined way of delivering
the avowed sentiments of his whole party.
But to return, this was the state
of principles when the Qu[een] came to the crown;
some time after which, it pleased certain great persons,
who had been all their lives in the altitude of Tory-profession,
to enter into a treaty with the Whigs, from whom they
could get better terms than from their old friends,
who began to be resty, and would not allow monopolies
of power and favour; nor consent to carry on the war
entirely at the expense of this nation, that they
might have pensions from abroad; while another people,
more immediately concerned in the war, traded with
the enemy as in times of peace. Whereas, the other
party, whose case appeared then as desperate, was
ready to yield to any conditions that would bring
them into play. And I cannot help affirming, that
this nation was made a sacrifice to the immeasurable
appetite of power and wealth in a very few, that shall
be nameless, who in every step they made, acted directly
against what they had always professed. And if
his Royal Highness the Prince had died some years
sooner (who was a perpetual check in their career)
it is dreadful to think how far they might have proceeded.
Since that time, the bulk of the Whigs
appears rather to be linked to a certain set of persons,
than any certain set of principles: so that if
I were to define a member of that party, I would say,
he was one “who believed in the late m[inist]ry.”
And therefore, whatever I have affirmed of Whigs in
any of these papers, or objected against them, ought
to be understood, either of those who were partisans
of the late men in power, and privy to their designs;
or such who joined with them, from a hatred to our
monarchy and Church, as unbelievers and Dissenters
of all sizes; or men in office, who had been guilty
of much corruption, and dreaded a change; which would
not only put a stop to further abuses for the future,
but might, perhaps, introduce examinations of what
was past. Or those who had been too highly obliged,
to quit their supporters with any common decency.
Or lastly, the money-traders, who could never hope
to make their markets so well of premiums and
exorbitant interest, and high remittances, under any
other administration.
Under these heads, may be reduced
the whole body of those whom I have all along understood
for Whigs: for I do not include within this number,
any of those who have been misled by ignorance, or
seduced by plausible pretences, to think better of
that sort of men than they deserve, and to apprehend
mighty danger from their disgrace: because, I
believe, the greatest part of such well-meaning people,
are now thoroughly converted.
And indeed, it must be allowed, that
those two fantastic names of Whig and Tory, have at
present very little relation to those opinions, which
were at first thought to distinguish them. Whoever
formerly professed himself to approve the Revolution,
to be against the Pretender, to justify the succession
in the house of Hanover, to think the British monarchy
not absolute, but limited by laws, which the executive
power could not dispense with, and to allow an indulgence
to scrupulous consciences; such a man was content
to be called a Whig. On the other side, whoever
asserted the Queen’s hereditary right; that the
persons of princes were sacred; their lawful authority
not to be resisted on any pretence; nor even their
usurpations, without the most extreme necessity:
that breaches in the succession were highly dangerous;
that schism was a great evil, both in itself and its
consequences; that the ruin of the Church, would probably
be attended with that of the State; that no power
should be trusted with those who are not of the established
religion; such a man was usually called a Tory.
Now, though the opinions of both these are very consistent,
and I really think are maintained at present by a
great majority of the kingdom; yet, according as men
apprehend the danger greater, either from the Pretender
and his party, or from the violence and cunning of
other enemies to the constitution; so their common
discourses and reasonings, turn either to the first
or second set of these opinions I have mentioned,
and are consequently styled either Whigs or Tories.
Which is, as if two brothers apprehended their house
would be set upon, but disagreed about the place from
whence they thought the robbers would come, and therefore
would go on different sides to defend it. They
must needs weaken and expose themselves by such a
separation; and so did we, only our case was worse:
for in order to keep off a weak, remote enemy, from
whom we could not suddenly apprehend any danger, we
took a nearer and a stronger one into the house.
I make no comparison at all between the two enemies:
Popery and slavery are without doubt the greatest
and most dreadful of any; but I may venture to affirm,
that the fear of these, have not, at least since the
Revolution, been so close and pressing upon us, as
that from another faction; excepting only one short
period, when the leaders of that very faction, invited
the abdicating king to return; of which I have formerly
taken notice.
Having thus declared what sort of
persons I have always meant, under the denomination
of Whigs, it will be easy to shew whom I understand
by Tories. Such whose principles in Church and
State, are what I have above related; whose actions
are derived from thence, and who have no attachment
to any set of ministers, further than as these are
friends to the constitution in all its parts, but
will do their utmost to save their prince and country,
whoever be at the helm.
By these descriptions of Whig and
Tory, I am sensible those names are given to several
persons very undeservedly; and that many a man is called
by one or the other, who has not the least title to
the blame or praise I have bestowed on each of them
throughout my papers.
Whig a more was a nick name
given to the western peasantry of Scotland, from then
using the words frequently in driving strings of horses.
Hence, as connected with Calvinistical principles
in religion, and republican doctrines in policy, it
was given as a term of reproach to the opposition
party in the latter years of Charles II. These
retorted upon the courtiers the word Tory,
signifying an Irish free-booter, and particularly
applicable to the Roman Catholic followers of the Duke
of York.
Macaulay’s explanation of the
origin of these two terms is somewhat different from
that given by Scott. “In Scotland,”
he says, “some of the persecuted Covenanters,
driven mad by oppression, had lately murdered the
Primate, had taken aims against the government,”
etc. “These zealots were most numerous
among the rustics of the western lowlands, who were
vulgarly called Whigs. Thus the appellation of
Whig was fastened on the Presbyterian zealots of Scotland,
and was transferred to those English politicians who
showed a disposition to oppose the court, and to treat
Protestant Nonconformists with indulgence. The
bogs of Ireland, at the same time, afforded a refuge
to Popish outlaws, much resembling those who were
afterwards known as Whiteboys. These men were
then called Tories. The name of Tory was therefore
given to Englishmen who refused to concur in excluding
a Roman Catholic prince from the throne.” ("History
of England,” vol. i, chap. ii) [T.S.]]
NUMB. 45.
FROM THURSDAY MAY 31, TO THURSDAY JUNE 7, 1711.
Magna vis est, magnum nomen, unum et
idem sentieritis Senatus.
Whoever calls to mind the clamour
and the calumny, the artificial fears and jealousies,
the shameful misrepresentation of persons and of things,
that were raised and spread by the leaders and instruments
of a certain party, upon the change of the last ministry,
and dissolution of Parliament; if he be a true lover
of his country, must feel a mighty pleasure, though
mixed with some indignation, to see the wishes, the
conjectures, the endeavours, of an inveterate faction
entirely disappointed; and this important period wholly
spent, in restoring the prerogative to the prince,
liberty to the subject, in reforming past abuses,
preventing future, supplying old deficiencies, providing
for debts, restoring the clergy to their rights, and
taking care of the necessities of the Church:
and all this unattended with any of those misfortunes
which some men hoped for, while they pretended to fear.
For my own part, I must confess, the
difficulties appeared so great to me, from such a
noise and shew of opposition, that I thought nothing
but the absolute necessity of affairs, could ever
justify so daring an attempt. But, a wise and
good prince, at the head of an able ministry, and
of a senate freely chosen; all united to pursue the
true interest of their country, is a power, against
which, the little inferior politics of any faction,
will be able to make no long resistance. To this
we may add one additional strength, which in the opinion
of our adversaries, is the greatest and justest of
any; I mean the vox populi, so indisputably
declarative on the same side. I am apt to think,
when these discarded politicians begin seriously to
consider all this, they will think it proper to give
out, and reserve their wisdom for some more convenient
juncture.
It was pleasant enough to observe,
that those who were the chief instruments of raising
the noise, who started fears, bespoke dangers, and
formed ominous prognostics, in order scare the allies,
to spirit the French, and fright ignorant people at
home; made use of those very opinions themselves had
broached, for arguments to prove, that the change
of ministers was dangerous and unseasonable. But
if a house be swept, the more occasion there is for
such a work, the more dust it will raise; if it be
going to ruin, the repairs, however necessary, will
make a noise, and disturb the neighbourhood a while.
And as to the rejoicings made in France, if it
be true, that they had any, upon the news of those
alterations among us; their joy was grounded upon the
same hopes with that of the Whigs, who comforted themselves,
that a change of ministry and Parliament, would infallibly
put us all into confusion, increase our divisions,
and destroy our credit; wherein, I suppose, by this
time they are equally undeceived.
But this long session, being in a
manner ended, which several circumstances, and
one accident, altogether unforeseen, have drawn out
beyond the usual time; it may be some small piece of
justice to so excellent an assembly, barely to mention
a few of those great things they have done for the
service of their QUEEN and country; which I shall take
notice of, just as they come to my memory.
The credit of the nation began mightily
to suffer by a discount upon exchequer bills, which
have been generally reckoned the surest and most sacred
of all securities. The present lord treasurer,
then a member of the House of Commons, proposed a
method, which was immediately complied with, of raising
them to a par with specie; and so
they have ever since continued.
The British colonies of Nevis and
St. Christopher’s, had been miserably plundered
by the French, their houses burnt, their plantations
destroyed, and many of the inhabitants carried away
prisoners: they had often, for some years past,
applied in vain for relief from hence; till the present
Parliament, considering their condition as a case of
justice and mercy, voted them one hundred thousand
pound by way of recompense, in some manner, for their
sufferings.
Some persons, whom the voice of the
nation authorizes me to call her enemies, taking advantage
of the general Naturalization Act, had invited over
a great number of foreigners of all religions, under
the name of Palatines; who understood no trade
or handicraft, yet rather chose to beg than labour;
who besides infesting our streets, bred contagious
diseases, by which we lost in natives, thrice the number
of what we gained in foreigners. The House of
Commons, as a remedy against this evil, brought in
a bill for repealing that Act of general Naturalization,
which, to the surprise of most people, was rejected
by the L[or]ds. And upon this occasion, I must
allow myself to have been justly rebuked by one of
my weekly monitors, for pretending in a former paper,
to hope that law would be repealed; wherein the Commons
being disappointed, took care however to send many
of the Palatines away, and to represent their being
invited over, as a pernicious counsel.
The Qualification Bill, incapacitating
all men to serve in Parliament, who have not some
estate in land, either in possession or certain reversion,
is perhaps the greatest security that ever was contrived
for preserving the constitution, which otherwise might,
in a little time, lie wholly at the mercy of the moneyed
interest: And since much the greatest part of
the taxes is paid, either immediately from land, or
from the productions of it, it is but common justice,
that those who are the proprietors, should appoint
what portion of it ought to go to the support of the
public; otherwise, the engrossers of money, would be
apt to lay heavy loads on others, which themselves
never touch with one of their fingers.
The public debts were so prodigiously
increased, by the negligence and corruption of those
who had been managers of the revenue; that the late
m[iniste]rs, like careless men, who run out their fortunes,
were so far from any thoughts of payment, as they
had not the courage to state or compute them.
The Parliament found that thirty-five millions had
never been accounted for; and that the debt on the
navy, wholly unprovided for, amounted to nine millions.
The late chancellor of the exchequer, suitable to
his transcendent genius for public affairs, proposed
a fund to be security for that immense debt, which
is now confirmed by a law, and is likely to prove
the greatest restoration and establishment of the
kingdom’s credit. Nor content with this,
the legislature hath appointed commissioners of accompts,
to inspect into past mismanagements of the public
money, and prevent them for the future.
I have, in a former paper, mentioned
the Act for building fifty new Churches in London
and Westminster, with a fund appropriated for that
pious and noble work. But while I am mentioning
acts of piety, it would be unjust to conceal my lord
high treasurer’s concern for religion, which
have extended even to another kingdom: his lordship
having some months ago, obtained of her Majesty a
remission of the first-fruits and tenths to the clergy
of Ireland, as he is known to have formerly done
for that reverend body in this kingdom.
The Act for carrying on a Trade to
the South-Sea, proposed by the same great person,
whose thoughts are perpetually employed, and always
with success, on the good of his country, will, in
all probability, if duly executed, be of mighty advantage
to the kingdom, and an everlasting honour to the present
Parliament.
I might go on further, and mention
that seasonable law against excessive gaming;
the putting a stop to that scandalous fraud of false
musters in the Guards; the diligent and effectual
enquiry made by the Commons into several gross abuses.
I might produce many instances of their impartial
justice in deciding controverted election, against
former example, and great provocations to retaliate.
I might shew their cheerful readiness in granting
such vast supplies; their great unanimity, not to
be broken by all the arts of a malicious and cunning
faction; their unfeigned duty to the QUEEN; and lastly,
that representation made to her Majesty from the House
of Commons, discovering such a spirit and disposition
in that noble assembly, to redress all those evils,
which a long mal-administration had brought upon us.
It is probable, that trusting only
to my memory, I may have omitted many things of great
importance; neither do I pretend further in the compass
of this paper, than to give the world some general,
however imperfect idea, how worthily this great assembly
hath discharged the trust of those who so freely chose
them; and what we may reasonably hope and expect from
the piety, courage, wisdom, and loyalty of such excellent
patriots, in a time so fruitful of occasions to exert
the greatest abilities.
And now I conceive the main design
I had in writing these papers, is fully executed.
A great majority of the nation is at length thoroughly
convinced, that the Qu[een] proceeded with the highest
wisdom, in changing her ministry and Parliament.
That under a former administration, the greatest abuses
of all kinds were committed, and the most dangerous
attempts against the constitution for some time intended.
The whole kingdom finds the present persons in power,
directly and openly pursuing the true service of their
QUEEN and country; and to be such whom their most
bitter enemies cannot tax with bribery, covetousness,
ambition, pride, insolence, or any pernicious principles
in religion or government.
For my own particular, those little
barking pens which have so constantly pursued me,
I take to be of no further consequence to what I have
writ, than the scoffing slaves of old, placed behind
the chariot, to put the general in mind of his mortality;
which was but a thing of form, and made no stop or
disturbance in the shew. However, if those perpetual
snarlers against me, had the same design, I must own
they have effectually compassed it; since nothing
can well be more mortifying, than to reflect that
I am of the same species with creatures capable of
uttering so much scurrility, dullness, falsehood and
impertinence, to the scandal and disgrace of human
nature.
The exactions of the French armies
in the Palatinate, in the year 1709, drove from their
habitations six or seven thousand persons of all descriptions
and professions, who came into Holland with a view
of emigrating to British America. It was never
accurately ascertained, with what view, or by whose
persuasions, their course was changed, but, by direction
from the English ministers, they were furnished with
shipping to come to England. In the settlements,
they would have been a valuable colony; but in the
vicinity of London, this huge accession to the poor
of the metropolis was a burthen and a nuisance.
They were encamped on Blackheath, near Greenwich,
where, so soon as their countrymen heard that they
were supported by British charity, the number of the
fugitives began to increase by recruits from the Continent,
till government prohibited further importation.
A general Naturalization Act, passed in favour of
the French Protestants, greatly encouraged this influx
of strangers. This matter was inquired into by
the Tory Parliament, who voted, that the bringing
over the Palatines was an oppression on the nation,
and a waste of the public money, and that he who advised
it was an enemy to his country. The unfortunate
fugitives had been already dispersed; some of them
to North America, some to Ireland, and some through
Britain. The pretence alleged for the vote against
them, was the apprehension expressed by the guardians
of the poor in several parishes, that they might introduce
contagious diseases; but the real reason was a wish
to gratify the prejudice of the common people against
foreigners, and to dimmish the number of Dissenters.
[S.]]
NUMB. 46.
FROM THURSDAY JUNE 7, TO THURSDAY JUNE 14, 1711.
Melius non tangere clamo.
When a general has conquered an army,
and reduced a country to obedience, he often finds
it necessary to send out small bodies, in order to
take in petty castles and forts, and beat little straggling
parties, which are otherwise, apt to make head and
infest the neighbourhood: This case exactly resembles
mine; I count the main body of the Whigs entirely
subdued; at least, till they appear with new reinforcements,
I shall reckon them as such; and therefore do now
find myself at leisure to Examine inferior
abuses. The business I have left, is, to fall
on those wretches that will be still keeping the war
on foot, when they have no country to defend, no forces
to bring into the field, nor any thing remaining,
but their bare good-will towards faction and mischief:
I mean, the present set of writers, whom I have suffered,
without molestation, so long to infest the town.
Were there not a concurrence from prejudice, party,
weak understanding, and misrepresentation, I should
think them too inconsiderable in themselves to deserve
correction: But as my endeavour hath been to
expose the gross impositions of the fallen party, I
will give a taste, in the following petition, of the
sincerity of these their factors, to shew how little
those writers for the Whigs were guided by conscience
or honour, their business being only to gratify a prevailing
interest.
“To the Right Honourable
the present M[inist]ry, the humble Petition of the
Party Writers to the late M[inist]ry.
“HUMBLY SHEWETH,
“That your petitioners have
served their time to the trade of writing pamphlets
and weekly papers, in defence of the Whigs, against
the Church of England, and the Christian religion,
and her Majesty’s prerogative, and her title
to the crown: That since the late change of ministry,
and meeting of this Parliament, the said trade is
mightily fallen off, and the call for the said pamphlets
and papers, much less than formerly; and it is feared,
to our further prejudice, that the ‘Examiner’
may discontinue writing, whereby some of your petitioners
will be brought to utter distress, forasmuch as through
false quotations, noted absurdities, and other legal
abuses, many of your petitioners, to their great comfort
and support, were enabled to pick up a weekly subsistence
out of the said ‘Examiner.’
“That your said poor petitioners,
did humbly offer your Honours to write in defence
of the late change of ministry and Parliament, much
cheaper than they did for your predecessors, which
your Honours were pleased to refuse.
“Notwithstanding which offer,
your petitioners are under daily apprehension, that
your Honours will forbid them to follow the said trade
any longer; by which your petitioners, to the number
of fourscore, with their wives and families, will
inevitably starve, having been bound to no other calling._
“Your petitioners desire your
Honours will tenderly consider the prémisses,
and suffer your said petitioners to continue their
trade (those who set them at work, being still willing
to employ them, though at lower rates) and your said
petitioners will give security to make use of the
same stuff, and dress it in the same manner, as they
always did, and no other. And your petitioners”
&c.
On November 2nd he gives the following
account: “I have sent to Leigh the set
of ‘Examiners’; the first thirteen were
written by several hands; some good, some bad; the
next three-and-thirty were all by one hand, that makes
forty-six: then that author, whoever he was, laid
it down on purpose to confound guessers; and the last
six were written by a woman” (vol. ii.,
. [T.S.]]