Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/413

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
OF SARUM’S INTRODUCTION.
405

nisters, the majority of lords and commons, loudly taxed in print, with this charge against them at full length? is it not the perpetual echo of every whig coffeehouse and club? have they not quartered popery and the pretender upon the peace and treaty of commerce; upon the possessing, and quieting, and keeping, and demolishing of Dunkirk: have they not clamoured, because the pretender continued in France, and because he left it? have they not reported that the town swarmed with many thousand papists; when, upon search, there were never found so few of that religion in it before? if a clergyman preaches obedience to the higher powers, is he not immediately traduced as a papist? can mortal man do more? To deal plainly, my lord, your friends are not strong enough yet to make an insurrection, and it is unreasonable to expect one from them, until their neighbours be ready.

My lord, I have a little seriousness at heart upon this point, where your lordship affects to show so much. When you can prove, that one single word has ever dropped from any minister of state, in publick or private, in favour of the pretender, or his cause; when you can make it appear that in the course of this administration, since the queen thought fit to change her servants, there has one step been made toward weakening the Hanover title, or giving the least countenance to any other whatsoever; then and not until then, go dry your chaff and stubble, give fire to the zeal of your faction, and reproach them with lukewarmness.

Pourthly, the bishop applies himself to the tories in general; taking it for granted, after his charitable manner, that they are all ready prepared to

D D 3
introduce