continuing a ruinous war in conjunction with allies, for whose sake principally we fought, who refused to bear their just proportion of their charge, and were connived at in their refusal, for private ends: that these factious people, treated the best and kindest of sovereigns, with insolence, cruelty, and ingratitude, of which he will be able to produce several instances; that they encouraged persons and principles alien from our religion and government, in order to strengthen their faction; he will tell the reasons, why the general, and first minister, were seduced to be heads of this faction, contrary to the opinions they had always professed. Such an historian will show many reasons, which made it necessary to remove the general and his friends; who, knowing the bent of the nation was against them, expected to lose their power when the war was at an end. Particularly, the historian will discover the whole intrigue of the duke of Marlborough's endeavouring to procure a commission to be general for life; wherein justice will be done to a person at that time of high station in the law, who (I mention it to his honour) advised the duke, when he was consulted upon it, not to accept of such a commission. By these, and many other instances which time will bring to light, it may perhaps appear not very unaccountable to posterity, why this great man was dismissed at last; but rather why he was dismissed no sooner.

But this is entering into a wide field. I shall therefore leave posterity to the information of better historians, than the author of the Crisis, or myself;

* See the Examiner Number XIX, and the subsequent papers. and

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and go on to inform the present age, in some facts, which the great orator and politician thinks fit to misrepresent, with the utmost degree either of natural, or wilful ignorance. He asserts, that in the duke of Ormond's campaign, "after a suspension of arms between Great Britain and France proclaimed at the head of the armies, the British troops, in the midst of the enemy's garrisons, withdrew themselves from their confederates." The fact is directly otherwise; for the British troops were most infamously deserted by the confederates, after all that could be urged by the duke of Ormond and the earl of Strafford, to press the confederate generals not to forsake them. The duke was directed to avoid engaging in any action, until he had farther orders, because an account of the king of Spain's renunciation was every day expected: this, the Imperialists and Dutch knew well enough; and therefore proposed to the duke, in that very juncture, to engage the French, for no other reason but to render desperate all the queen's measures toward a peace. Was not the certain possession of Dunkirk, of equal advantage to the uncertainty of a battle? A whole campaign under the duke of Marlborough, with such an acquisition, although at the cost of many thousand lives, and several millions of money, would have been thought very gloriously ended.

Neither, after all, was it a new thing, either in the British general, or the Dutch deputies, to refuse fighting, when they did not approve it. When the duke of Marlborough was going to invest Bouchain, the deputies of the States pressed him in vain to engage the enemy; and one of them was so far discontented upon his grace's refusal, that he presently

became

became a partizan of the peace; yet I do not remember any clamour then raised here against the duke upon that account. Again, when the French invaded Douay, after the confederates had deserted the duke of Ormond, prince Eugene was violently bent upon a battle, and said they should never have another so good an opportunity; but monsieur, a private deputy, rose up, and opposed it so far, that the prince was forced to desist. Was it then more criminal in the duke of Ormond to refuse fighting by express command of the queen, and in order to get possession of Dunkirk, than for the duke of Marlborough to give the same refusal, without any such orders, or any such advantage? or shall a Dutch deputy assume more power than the queen of Great Britain's general, acting by the immediate commands of his sovereign?

The emperor and the empire (says Mr. Steele by

way

of admiration) continue the war! Is his Imperial majesty able to continue it or not? if he be, then Great Britain has been strangely used for ten years past; then how came it to pass, that of about ten thousand men in his service in Italy at the time of the battle of Turin, there were not above four thousand paid by himself? if he be not able to continue it, why does he go on? The reasons are clear; because the war only affects the princes of the empire, whom he is willing enough to expose, but not his own dominions. Besides, his Imperial ministers are in daily expectation of the queen's death; which they hope will give a new turn to affairs, and rekindle the war in Europe upon the old foot; and we know how the ministers of that court publickly affign it for a reason of their obstinacy

against peace, that they hope for a sudden revolution in England. In the mean time, this appearance of the emperor's being forsaken by his ally, will serve to increase the clamour, both here and in Holland, against her majesty and those she employs.

Mr. Steele says, there can be no crime in affirming (if it be truth) that the house of Bourbon is at this juncture become more formidable, and bids fairer for a universal monarchy, and to engross the whole trade of Europe, than it did before the

war.

No crime in affirming it, if it be truth. I will for once allow his proposition. But, if it be false, then I affirm, that whoever advances so seditious a falsehood, deserves to be hanged. Does he mean by the house of Bourbon, the two kings of France and Spain? If so, I reject his meaning, which would insinuate, that the interests and designs of both those princes will be the same; whereas they are more opposite than those of any two other monarchs in Christendom. This is the whole foolish slander so frequently flung upon the peace, and as frequently refuted. These factious undertakers of the press write with great advantage; they strenuously affirm a thousand falsehoods, without fear, wit, conscience, or knowledge; and we, who answer them, must be at the expense of an argument for each; after which, in the very next pamphlet we see the same assertions produced again, without the least notice of what has been said to disprove them. By the house of Bourbon, does he mean only the French king for the time being? If so, and his assertion be true, then that prince must deal with the devil, or else the money and blood spent in our ten years victories against

against him, might as well have continued in the and veins of her majesty's subjects.

purses

But the particular assertions of this author, are easier detected* than his general ones; I shall therefore proceed upon examining the former. For instance: I desire him to ask the Dutch, who can best inform him, why they delivered up Traerbach to the Imperialists? for, as to the queen, her majesty was never once consulted in it; whatever his preceptors, the politicians of Button's coffee-house, may have informed him to the contrary.

Mr. Steele affirms, that the French have begun the demolition of Dunkirk contemptuously and arbitrarily their own way. The governor of the town, and those gentlemen intrusted with the inspection of this work, do assure me, that the fact is altogether otherwise; that the method prescribed by those whom her majesty employs, has been exactly followed, and that the works are already demolished. I will venture to tell him farther, that the demolition was so long deferred, in order to remove those difficulties, which the barrier treaty has put us under; and the event has shown, that it was prudent to proceed no faster, until those difficulties were got over. The mole and harbour could not be destroyed, until the ships were got out; which, by reason of some profound secrets of state, did not happen until the other day. Who gave him those just suspicions, that the mole and harbour will never be destroyed? What is it he would now insinuate? that the ministry is bribed to leave the most impor

6

It should be- are easier to be detected;' or, are more easily detected,' &c.

tant