joined with the treasurer, partly to pacify and partly divide those who were in greater haste than moderate men thought convenient. It was well known that "the supposed author met a considerable number of this club in a public-house, where he convinced them very plainly of the treasurer's sincerity, with many of those very reasons which are urged in the following discourse, beside some others which were not so proper to appear at that time in print.

The treasurer alleged in his defence, that such a treatment would not consist with prudence, because there were many employments to be bestowed which required skill and practice; that several gentlemen who possessed them had been long versed, very loyal to her majesty, had never been violent party-men, and were ready to fall into all honest measures for the service of their queen and country. But, however, as offices became vacant, he would humbly recommend to her majesty such gentlemen whose principles, with regard both to church and state, his friends would approve of, and he would be ready to accept their recommendations. Thus the earl proceeded in procuring employments for those who deserved them by their honesty, and abilities to execute them; which, I confess, to have been a singularity not very likely to be imitated. However, the gentlemen of this club still continued uneasy that no quicker progress was made in removals, until those who were least violent began to soften a little, or, by dividing them, the whole affair dropped. During this difficulty we have been assured that the following discourse was very seasonably published with great success; showing the difficulties that the earl of Oxford lay under, and his real desire that all persons in employment should be true loyal churchmen, zealous for her majesty's honour and safety, as well as for the succession in the house of Hanover, if the queen should happen to die without issue. This discourse, having been published about the year 1711, and many of the facts forgotten, would not have been generally understood without some explanation, which we have now endeavoured to give, because it seems a point of history too material to be lost. We owe this piece of intelligence to an intimate of the supposed author.

SOME ADVICE, &c.

GENTLEMEN,-Since the first institution of your society I have always thought you capable of the greatest things. Such a number of persons, members of parliament, true lovers of our constitution in church and state, meeting at certain times, and mixing business and conversation together, without the forms and constraint necessary to be observed in public assemblies, must very much improve each other's understanding, correct and fix your judgment, and prepare yourselves against any designs of the opposite party. Upon the opening of this session an incident has happened, to provide against the consequences whereof will require your utmost vigilance and application. All this last summer the enemy was working underground, and laying their train; they gradually became more frequent and bold in their pamphlets and papers, while those on our side were dropped, as if we had no further occasion for them. Some time before, an opportunity fell into their hands which they have cultivated ever since; and thereby have endeavoured, in some sort, to turn those arts against us which had been so effectually employed to their ruin: a plain demonstration of their superior skill at intrigue, to make a stratagem succeed a second time, and this

even against those who first tried it upon them. I know not whether this opportunity I have mentioned could have been prevented by any care without straining a very tender point; which those chiefly concerned avoided by all means, because it might seem a counterpart of what they had so much condemned in their predecessors; although it is certain the two cases were widely different; and if policy had once got the better of good nature, all had been safe, for there was no danger in view; but the consequences of this were foreseen from the beginning; and those who kept the watch had early warning of it. It would have been a masterpiece of prudence in this case to have made a friend of an enemy. But whether that were possible to be compassed, or whether it were ever attempted, is now too late to inquire. All accommodation was rendered desperate by an unlucky proceeding some months ago at Windsor, which was a declaration of war too frank and generous for that situation of affairs, and I am told was not approved of by a certain great minister [the lord-treasurer]. It was obvious to suppose that, in a particular where the honour and interest of a husband were so closely united with those of a wife, he might be sure of her utmost endeavours for his protection, although she neither loved nor esteemed him. The danger of losing power, favour, profit, and shelter from domestic tyranny, were strong incitements to stir up a working brain, early practised in all the arts of intriguing. Neither is it safe to count upon the weakness of any man's understanding who is thoroughly possessed with the spirit of revenge to sharpen his invention: nothing else is required beside obsequiousness and assiduity; which, as they are often the talents of those who have no better, so they are apt to make impressions upon the best and greatest minds.

It was no small advantage to the designing party that, since the adventure at Windsor, the person on whom we so much depend [the lord-treasurer] was long absent by sickness, which hindered him from pursuing those measures that ministers are in prudence forced to take to defend their country and themselves against an irritated faction. The negotiators on the other side improved this favourable conjuncture to the utmost, and, by an unparalleled boldness, accompanied with many falsehoods, persuaded certain lords (who were already in the same principle, but were afraid of making a wrong step, lest it should lead them out of their coaches into the dirt) that voting in appearance against the court would be the safest course to avoid the danger they most apprehended, which was that of losing their pensions; and their opinions, when produced, by seemingly contradicting their interest, have an appearance of virtue into the bargain. This, with some arguments of more immediate power, went far in producing that strange unexpected turn we have so lately seen, and from which our adversaries reckoned upon such wonderful effects, and some of them, particularly my lord chief-justice, began to act as if all were already in their power.

But although the more immediate causes of this desertion were what I have above related, yet I am apt to think it would hardly have been attempted, or at least not have succeeded, but for a prevailing opinion that the church-party and the ministers had different views, or at least were not so firmly united as they ought to have been. It was commonly said, and I suppose not without some ground of truth, that many gentlemen of your club were discontented

The queen's favour for the duchess of Somerset, groom of the stole.

b A severe quarrel between Mrs. Masham and the duchess.

selves betrayed and sold by their brethren. What they have been told, that the present bill against occasional conformity was to prevent a greater evil, is an excuse too gross to pass; and if any other profound refinement was meant, it is now come to nothing. The remaining sections of the party have no other tie but that of an inveterate hatred and rancour against those in power, without agreeing in any other common interest, nor cemented by principle or personal friendship: I speak particularly of their leaders; and although I know that court enmities are as inconstant as its friendships, yet, from the difference of temper and principle, as well as the scars remaining of former animosities, I am persuaded their league will not be of long continuance: I know several of them who will never pardon those with whom they are now in confederacy; and when once they see the present ministry thoroughly fixed, they will grow weary of hunting upon a cold scent or playing a desperate game, and crumble away. On the other side, while the malice of that party continues in vigour, while they yet feel the bruises of their fall, which pain them afresh since their late disappointment, they will leave no arts untried to recover themselves; and it behoves all who have any regard for the safety of the queen or her kingdom to join unanimously against an adversary who will return full fraught with vengeance upon the first opportunity that shall offer; and this perhaps is more to be regarded, because that party seem yet to have a reserve of hope in the same quarter whence their last reinforcement came. Neither can anything cultivate this hope of theirs so much as a disagreement among ourselves, founded upon a jealousy of the ministry, who, I think, need no better a testimony of their good intentions than the incessant rage of the party-leaders against them.

There is one fault which both sides are apt to charge upon themselves, and very generously commend their adversaries for the contrary virtue. The Tories acknowledge that the Whigs outdid them in rewarding their friends and adhering to each other; the Whigs allow the same to the Tories. I am apt to think that the former may a little excel the latter in this point, for, doubtless, the Tories are less vindictive of the two; and whoever is remiss in punishing will probably be so in rewarding; although, at the same time, I well remember the clamours often raised during the reign of that party against the leaders by those who thought their merits were not rewarded; and they had reason on their side, because it is no doubt a misfortune to forfeit honour and conscience for nothing: but surely the case is very different at this time, when whoever adheres to the administration does service to God, his prince, and his country, as well as contributes to his own private interest and safety.

But if the Whig leaders were more grateful in rewarding their friends, it must be avowed likewise that the bulk of them were in general more zealous for the service of their party, even when abstracted from any private advantage, as might be observed in a thousand instances; for which I would likewise commend them if it were not unnatural for mankind to be more violent in an ill cause than a good one.

The perpetual discord of factions, with several changes of late years in the very nature of our government, have controlled many maxims among us. The court and country party, which used to be the old division, seems now to be ceased, or suspended for better times and worse princes. The queen and ministry are at this time fully in the true interest of the kingdom; and therefore the court and country are of a side; and the Whigs, who originally were

VOL. I.

of the latter, are now of neither, but an independent faction, nursed up by the necessities or mistakes of a late good although unexperienced prince. Court and country ought therefore to join their forces against these common enemies until they are entirely dispersed and disabled. It is enough to arm ourselves against them when we consider that the greatest misfortunes which can befal the nation are what would most answer their interest and their wishes; a perpetual war increases their money, and breaks and beggars their landed enemies. The ruin of the church would please the dissenters, deists, and socinians, whereof the body of their party consists. A commonwealth, or a protector, would gratify the republican principles of some, and the ambition of others among them.

Hence I would infer that no discontents of an inferior nature, such I mean as I have already mentioned, should be carried so far as to give any ill impression of the present ministry. If all things have not been hitherto done as you, gentlemen, could reasonably wish, it can be imputed only to the secret instruments of that faction. The truth of this has appeared from some late incidents more visibly than formerly. Neither do I believe that any one will now make a doubt whether a certain person [the lord-treasurer] be in earnest, after the united and avowed endeavours of a whole party to strike directly at his head.

When it happens, by some private cross intrigues, that a great man has not that power which is thought due to his station, he will however probably desire the reputation of it, without which he neither can preserve the dignity, nor hardly go through the common business, of his place; yet is it that reputation to which he owes all the envy and hatred of others, as well as his own disquiets. Meantime, his expecting friends impute all their disappointments to some deep design, or to his defect of good will; and his enemies are sure to cry up his excess of power, especially in those points where they are confident it is most shortened. A minister, in this difficult case, is sometimes forced to preserve his credit by forbearing what is in his power, for fear of discovering how far the limits extend of what is not; or, perhaps, for fear of showing an inclination contrary to that of his master. Yet all this while he lies under the reproach of delay, unsteadiness, or want of sincerity. So that there are many inconveniences and dangers either in discovering or concealing the want of power. Neither is it hard to conceive that ministers may happen to suffer for the sins of their predecessors, who, by their great abuses and monopolies of power and favour, have taught princes to be more thrifty for the future in the distribution of both. And as in common life, whoever has been long confined is very fond of his liberty, and will not easily endure the very appearance of restraint, even from those who have been the instruments of setting him free; so it is with the recovery of power, which is usually attended with an undistinguished jealousy, lest it should be again invaded. In such a juncture I cannot discover why a wise and honest man should venture to place himself at the head of affairs upon any other regard than the safety of his country, and the advice of Socrates, to prevent an ill man from coming in.

Upon the whole, I do not see any one ground of suspicion or dislike which you, gentlemen, or others who wish well to their country, may have entertained about persons or proceedings but what may probably be misapprehended, even by those who think they have the best information. Nay, I will venture to go one step further, by adding that, although it may not be prudent to speak out upon this occa2 B

sion, yet whoever will reason impartially upon the whole state of affairs must entirely acquit the ministry of that delay and neutrality which have been laid to their charge. Or, suppose some small part of this accusation were true (which I positively know to be otherwise, whereof the world will soon be convinced), yet the consequences of any resentment at this time must either be none at all, or the most fatal that can be imagined; for, if the present ministry be made so uneasy that a change be thought necessary, things will return of course into the old hands of those whose little fingers will be found heavier than their predecessors' loins. The Whig faction is so dexterous at corrupting, and the people so susceptible of it, that you cannot be ignorant how easy it will be after such a turn of affairs, upon a new election, to procure a majority against you. They will resume their power, with a spirit like that of Marius or Sylla, or the last triumvirate; and those ministers who have been most censured for too much hesitation will fall the first sacrifices to their vengeance; but these are the smallest mischiefs to be apprehended from such returning exiles. What security can a prince hope for his person, or his crown, or even for the monarchy itself? He must expect to see his best friends brought to the scaffold for asserting his rights; to see his prerogative trampled on, and his treasure applied to feed the avarice of those who make themselves his keepers; to hear himself treated with insolence and contempt; to have his family purged at pleasure by their humour and malice; and to retain even the name and shadow of a king no longer than his ephori shall think fit. These are the inevitable consequences of such a change of affairs as that envenomed party is now projecting, which will best be prevented by your firmly adhering to the present ministry until this domestic enemy is out of all possibility of making head any more.

SOME REASONS

TO PROVE THAT NO ONE IS OBLIGED, BY HIS PRINCIPLES AS A WHIG, TO OPPOSE THE QUEEN: IN A LETTER TO A WHIG LORD.a

To which is annexed,

A SUPPOSED LETTER

FROM THE PRETENDER TO ANOTHER WHIG LORD. I WAS with my friend Lewis to day, getting materials for a little mischief.-Journal to Stella, May 28, 1712.

Things are now in the way of being soon in the extremes of well or ill: I hope and believe the first. Lord Wharton is gone out of town in a rage; and curses himself and friends for ruining themselves in defending lord Marlborough and Godolphin, and taking Nottingham into their favour. He swears he will meddle no more during this reign: a pretty speech at sixty-six ; and the queen is near twenty years younger, and now in very good health! Read the letter to a Whig Lord. Ibid., June 17.

To-day there will be another Grub: A Letter from the Preten ler to a Whig Lord. Grub-street has but ten days to live; then an act of parliament takes place that ruins it, by taxing every half-sheet at a halfpenny.-Ibid., July 19.

SOME REASONS, &c.

MY LORD,-The dispute between your lordship and me has, I think, no manner of relation to what, in the common style of these times, are called principles; wherein both parties seem well enough to agree if we will but allow their professions. I can The lord Ashburnham.

Dr. Birch, in a note on this passage, supposes it to allude to the Letter from the Pretender, which however is not dated till July 8--It evidently relates to the larger letter. A MS. note of Charles Ford, esq, the confidential friend of Swift, not only confirms the fact of this letter being the production of the dean, but supplies the name of lord Ashburnham, the peer to whom it was addressed

truly affirm that none of the reasonable sober Whigs I have conversed with did ever avow any opinion concerning religion or government which I was not willing to subscribe; so that, according to my judg ment, those terms of distinction ought to be dropped, and others introduced in their stead to denominate men as they are inclined to peace or war, to the last or the present ministry; for whoever thoroughly considers the matter will find these to be the only differences that divide the nation at present. I am apt to think your lordship would readily allow this if you were not aware of the consequence I intend to draw; for it is plain that the making peace and war, as well as the choice of ministers, is wholly in the crown; and therefore the dispute at present lies altogether between those who would support and those who would violate the royal prerogative. This decision may seem, perhaps, too sudden and severe; but I do not see how it can be contested. Give me leave to ask your lordship whether you are not resolved to oppose the present ministry to the utmost! And whether it was not chiefly with this design that, upon the opening of the present session, you gave your vote against any peace till Spain and the West Indies were recovered from the Bourbon family? I am confident your lordship then believed, what several of your house and party have acknowledged, that the recovery of Spain was grown impracticable by several incidents, as well as by our utter inability to continue the war upon the former foot. But you reasoned right, that such a vote, in such a juncture, was the present way of ruining the present ministry. For as her majesty would certainly lay much weight upon a vote of either house, so it was judged that her ministers would hardly venture to act directly against it; the natural consequence of which must be a dissolution of the parliament, and a return of all your friends into a full possession of power. This advantage the lords have over the commons, by being a fixed body of men, where a majority is not to be obtained but by time and mortality, or new creations, or other methods which I will suppose the present age too virtuous to admit. Several noble lords who joined with you in that vote were but little inclined to disoblige the court, because it suited ill with their circumstances; but the poor gentlemen were told that it was the safest part they could act; for it was boldly alleged that the queen herself was at the bottom of this affair; and one of your neighbours, whom the dread of losing a great employment often puts into agonies, was growing fast into a very good courtier, began to cultivate the chief minister, and often expressed his approbation of present proceedings, till that unfortunate day of trial came, when the mighty hopes of a change revived his constancy and encouraged him to adhere to his old friends. But the event, as your lordship saw, was directly contrary to what your great undertaker had flattered you with. The queen was so far from approving what you had done, that, to show she was in earnest, and to remove all future apprehensions from that quarter, she took a resolute necessary step,b which is like to make her easy for the rest of her reign; and which, I am confident, your lordship would not have been one of those to have put her upon, if you had not been most shamefully misinformed. After this, your party had nothing to do but sit down and murmur at so extraordinary an exertion of the prerogative, and quarrel at a necessity which their own violence, inflamed by the treachery of others, had created. Now, my lord, if an action so indisputably in her

* Charles Seymour, duke of Somerset, master of the horse. b By creating twelve new peers.

majesty's power requires any excuse, we have a very good one at hand. We alleged that the majority you hardly acquired with so much art and management, partly made up from a certain transitory bench, and partly of those whose nobility began with themselves, was wholly formed during the long power of your friends; so that it became necessary to turn the balance by new creations, wherein, however, great care was taken to increase the peerage as little as possible, and to make a choice against which no objection could be raised with relation to birth or fortune, or other qualifications requisite for so high an honour.

There is no man hath a greater veneration than I for that noble part of our legislature whereof your lordship is a member; and I will venture to assert, that, supposing it possible for corruptions to go far in either assembly, yours is less liable to them than a house of commons. A standing senate of persons nobly born, of great patrimonial estates, and of pious learned prelates, is not easily perverted from intending the true interest of their prince and country; whereas we have found by experience that a corrupt ministry, at the head of a moneyed faction, is able to procure a majority of whom they please to represent the people. But then, my lord, on the other side, if it has been so contrived by time and management that the majority of a standing senate is made up of those who wilfully or otherwise mistake the public good, the cure by common remedies is as slow as the disease: whereas a good prince, in the hearts of his people, and at the head of a ministry who leaves them to their own free choice, cannot miss a good assembly of commons. Now, my lord, we do assert that this majority of yours has been the workmanship of about twenty years; during which time, considering the choice of persons in the several creations; considering the many arts used in making proselytes among the young nobility who have since grown up, and the wise methods to prevent their being tainted by university principles; lastly, considering the age of those who fill up a certain bench [the bishops], and with what views their successions have been supplied; I am surprised to find your majority so bare and weak, that it is not possible for you to keep it much longer, unless old men be immortal; neither, perhaps, would there be any necessity to wait so long if certain methods were put in practice which your friends have often tried with success. Your lordship plainly sees by the event that neither threats nor promises are made use of, where it is pretty well agreed that they would not be ineffectual. Voting against the court, and indeed against the kingdom, in the most important cases, has not been followed by the loss of places or pen sions, unless in very few particulars, where the circumstances have been so extremely aggravating, that to have been passive would have argued the lowest weakness or fear. To instance only in the duke of Marlborough, who against the wholesome advice of those who consulted his true interest much better than his flatterers, would needs put all upon that desperate issue, of destroying the present ministry or falling himself.

I believe, my lord, you are now fully convinced that the queen is altogether averse from the thoughts of ever employing your party in her councils or her court. You see a prodigious majority in the house of commons of the same sentiments; and the only quarrel against the treasurer is an opinion of more

This promotion was so ordered that a third part were of those on whom, or their posterity, the peerage would naturally devolve; and the rest were such whose merit, birth, and fortune could admit of no exception.-Swift.

mildness toward your friends than it is thought they deserve; neither can you hope for better success in the next election, while her majesty continues her present servants, although the bulk of the people were better disposed to you than it is manifest they are. With all the advantages I lately mentioned, which a house of lords has over the commons, it is agreed that the pulse of the nation is much better felt by the latter than the former, because those represent the whole people; but your lordships (whatever some may pretend) do represent only your own persons. Now, it has been the old complaint of your party, that the body of country gentlemen always leaned too much (since the Revolution) to the Tory side: and as your numbers were much lessened about two years ago, by a very unpopular quarr. [the impeachment of Sacheverel], wherein the church thought itself deeply concerned, so you daily diminish by your zeal against peace, which the landed men, half ruined by the war, do so extremely want and desire.

It is probable that some persons may upon occasion have endeavoured to bring you over to the present measures. If so, I desire to know whether such persons required of you to change any principles relating to government, either in church or state, in which you have been educated? or did you ever hear that such a thing was offered to any other of your party? I am sure neither can be affirmed; and then it is plain that principles are not concerned in the dispute. The two chief, or indeed the only, topics of quarrel are, whether the queen shall choose her own servants, and whether she shall keep her prerogative of making peace. And I believe there is no Whig in England that will openly deny her power in either. As to the latter, which is the more avowed, her majesty has promised that the treaty shall be laid before her parliament; after which, if it be made without their approbation, and proves to be against the interest of the kingdom, the ministers must answer for it at their extremest peril. What is there in all this that can possibly affect your principles as a Whig? or rather, my lord, are you not, by all sorts of principles lawful to own, obliged to acquiesce and submit to her majesty upon this article? But I suppose, my lord, you will not make a difficulty of confessing the true genuine cause of animosity to be, that those who are out of place would fain be in; and that the bulk of your party are the dupes of half a dozen, who are impatient at their loss of power. It is true, they would fain infuse into your lordship such strange opinions of the present ministry and their intentions as none of themselves at all believe. Has your lordship observed the least step made toward giving any suspicion of a design to alter the succession, to introduce arbitrary power, or to hurt the toleration, unless you will reckon the last to have been damaged by the bill lately obtained against occasional conformity, which was your own act and deed, by a strain of such profound policy, and the contrivance of so profound a politician, that I cannot unravel it to the bottom.

Pray, my lord, give yourself leave to consider whence this indefatigable zeal is derived, that makes the heads of your party send you a hundred messages, accost you in all places, and move heaven and earth to procure your vote upon a pinch, whenever they think it lies in their way to distress the queen and ministry. Those who have already rendered themselves desperate have no other resource than in an utter change. But this is by no means your lordship's case. While others were at the head of By a compromise with the Whigs and their proselyte the earl of Nottingham.

a