power, and none at all in parliament, which, on the contrary, paffed 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 defperate, by fpiriting the French, who rejoice in these changes, and by the fall of our credit, which unqualifies us for carrying on the war; that the parliament, fo untimely diffolved, had been dili gent in their fupplies, and dutiful in their beha viour; that one confequence of these changes appears already, in the fall of the ftocks; that we may foon expect more and worse; and lastly, that all this naturally tends to break the fettlement 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 occafion, I shall endeavour to overthrow, by difcovering the falfhood and abfudity of them.

It is a great unhappiness when, in a govern ment conftituted like ours, it fhould be so brought about, that the continuance of a war muft be for the interest of vaft numbers (civil) as well as military) who otherwife would have been as unknown as their original. I think our present condition of affairs is admirably described by two verfes in Lucan:

Hinc ufura vorax, avidumque in tempore fœnus,
Hine concuffa fides, et multis utile bellum:

which, without any great force upon the words, may be thus tranflated:

Hence, are derived thofe exorbitant interests and annuities; hence, thofe large discounts for advance and prompt payment; hence, publick credit is fhaken; and hence, great numbers find their profit in prolonging the war.

;

It is odd, that among a free trading people, as we call ourselves, there fhould fo many be found to close-in with thofe counfels, who have been ever averfe from all overtures towards a peace: but yet there is no great mystery in the matter. Let any man obferve the equipages in this town, he thall 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; confifting either of generals and colonels, or of thofe, whose whole fortunes lie in funds and ftocks 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 whofe eftate a fcriveirer receives half the rents for intereft, and has a mortgage on the whole; and is therefore always ready to feed his vices and extravagances, while there is any thing left. So that, if the war continue fome years longer, a landed man will be little better than a farmer of a rack-rent to the army, and to the public funds.

It may perhaps be worth enquiring, from what beginnings, and by what fteps, we have been brought into this defperate condition and in

fearch

fearch of this, we muft run up as high as the Revolution.

· Most of the nobility and gentry, who invited over the prince of Orange, or attended him in hist expedition, were true lovers of their country, and its conftitution in church and ftate; and were brought to yield to thofe breaches in the fucceffion of the crown, out of a regard to the neceffity of the kingdom, and the safety of the people, which did, and could only, make them lawful; but withdut intention of drawing fuch a practice into precedent, or making it a ftanding measure by which to proceed in all times to come: and therefore we find their counfels ever tended to keep things, ai much as poffible, in the old courfe. But foon after, an underset of men, who had nothing to lose, and had neither borne the burden 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 inconfiftent with the Revolution. Hence began the early practice of careffing the Diffenters, reviling the universities, as maintainers of arbitrary power, and reproaching the clergy with the doctrines of divine right, paffive obedience, and non-refiftance. At the fame time, in order to faften wealthy people to the new govern ment, they propofed thofe pernicious expedients of borrowing money by vaft premiums, and at exorbitant intereft: a practice as old as Eumenes, one of Alexander's captains, who, fetting up for himself after the death of his mafter, perfuaded S principal officers to lend him great fums, after B 4 which

which they were forced to follow him for their

own fecurity.

This introduced a number of new dextrous 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 subjects to raise a fund for paying intereft, than to tax them annually. to the full expence of the war. Several perfons, who had finall or incumbered eftates, fold them, and turned their money into thofe funds, to great advantage: merchants, as well as other monied men, finding trade was dangerous, pursued the fame method. But the war continuing, and growing more expenfive, taxes were increased, and funds multiplied every year, till they have arrived at the monftruous height we now behold them; and that, which was at firft a corruption, is at last grown neceffary, and what every good subject must now fall-in with, although he may be allowed to wish it might foon 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 a nation, that used to be reckoned by the value of land, is now computed by the rife and fall of stocks: and although the founda tion of credit be ftill the fame, and upon a bottom that can never be shaken, and although all interest be duly paid by the publick; yet, through the contrivance and cunning of ftock-jobbers, there has been brought in fuch a complication of knavery and cozenage, fuch a mystery of iniquity, and fuch an unintelligible jargon of terms to in

volve it in, as were never known in any other age or country in the world. I have heard it affirmed, by perfons fkilled in these calculations, that if the funds appropriated to the payment of interest and annuities, were added to the yearly taxes, and the four-fhilling aid ftrictly exacted in all counties of the kingdom, it would very near, if not fully, fupply the occafions of the war, at least such a part as, in the opinion of very able perfons, had: been at that time prudent not to exceed. For I make it a question, Whether any wife prince or ftate, in the continuance of a war, which was not purely defenfive, or immediately at his own door, did ever propofe that his expence should perpetually exceed, what he was able to impofe annually upon his fubjects? Neither, if the war laft many years longer, do I fee 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 neceffary for them, as it hath been for us. And if our fathers had left us as deeply involved, as we are likely to leave our children, I appeal to any man, what fort of figure we should have been able to. make these twenty years paft. Besides, neither our enemies, nor allies, are upon the fame foot with us in this particular. France and Holland, our nearest neighbours, and the fartheft engaged, will much fooner recover themselves after a war: the first, by the abfolute power of the prince, who, being mafter of the lives and fortunes of his fubjects, will quickly find expedients to pay his debts;

and