eminent fervices, that ever were performed by a fubject to his country; not to be equalled in history: and then, to be fure, fome bitter ftroke of detraction against Alexander and Cæfar, who never did us the leaft injury. Befides, the people, who read Plutarch, come upon us with parallels drawn from the Greeks and Romans, who ungratefully dealt with I know not how many of their moft deferving generals: while the profounder politicians have feen pamphlets, where Tacitus and Machiavel have been quoted to fhew the danger of too refplendent a merit. If a ftranger fhould hear thefe furious out-cries of ingratitude against our general, without knowing the particulars, he would be apt to enquire, where was his tomb, or whether he were allowed chriftian burial? not doubting but we had put him to fome ignominious death. Or, hath he been tried for his life, and very narrowly efcaped; hath he been accufed of high crimes and misdemeanors; hath the prince feized on his eftate, and left him to ftarve; hath he been hooted at, as he paffed the ftreets, by an ungrateful rabble; have D 2 neither

neither honours, offices, nor grants been conferred on him or his family; have not he and they been barbarously stript of them all; have not he and his forces been ill paid abroad; and doth not the prince, by a scanty limited commiffion, hinder him from pursuing his own methods in the conduct of the war; hath he no power at all of difpofing of commissions as he pleaseth; is he not severely ufed by the miniftry or parliament, who yearly call him to a strict account; hath the fenate ever thanked him for good fuccefs, and have they not always publickly cenfured him for the least miscarriage?. Will the accufers of the nation join issue upon any of these particulars: or, tell us in what point our damnable fin of ingratitude lies? Why, it is plain and clear; for while he is commanding abroad, the queen diffolves her parliament, and changes her ministry at home; in which univerfal calamity no less than two perfons allied by marriage to the general have lost their places. Whence came this wonderful fympathy between the civil and military powers? Will the troops in Flanders

refuse

refuse to fight, unless the can have their own lord keeper, their own lord prefident 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 fo fond of having their counfels under the influence of their army, or those that lead it? who, in all wellinftituted ftates, had no commerce with the civil power, farther than to receive their orders, and obey them without referve.

When a general is not fo popular, either in his army or at home, as one might expect from a long course of fuccefs; it may perhaps be afcribed to his wisdom, or perhaps to his complexion. The poffeffion of fome one quality, or a defect in fome other, will extremely damp the people's favour, as well as the love of the foldiers. Besides, this is not an age to produce favourites of the people, while we live under a queen, who engroffeth all our love and all our veneration; and where the only way for a great general or minifter to acquire any degree of fubordinate affection from the publick muft be by all marks

of the most entire fubmiffion and refpect to her facred person and commands; otherwife no pretence of great services, either in the field or the cabinet, will be able to fkreen them from univerfal hatred.

But the late miniftry was closely joined to the general by friendship, intereft, alliance, inclination, and opinion; which cannot be affirmed of the present: and the ingratitude of the nation lieth in the people's joining as one man to wish, that fuch a miniftry fhould be changed. Is it not at the fame time notorious to the whole kingdom, that nothing but a tender regard to the general was able to preserve that ministry fo long, until neither God nor man could fuffer their continuance? Yet in the highest ferment of things we heard few or no reflections upon this great commander; but all feemed unanimous in wishing, he might still be at the head of the confederate forces; only at the fame time, in cafe he were resolved to refign, they chose rather to turn their thoughts fomewhere else than throw up all in defpair. And this I cannot but add, in defence of the people with regard to

the

the person we are speaking of; that in the high ftation he hath 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 converfation, and all his fucceffes very freely and univerfally applauded.

There is an active and a paffive ingratitude: applying both to this occafion, we may fay, the firft is, when a prince or people returns good fervices with cruelty or ill usage; the other is, when good fervices are not at all, or very meanly rewarded. We have already spoken of the former; let us therefore in the fecond place examine, how the fervices 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 beft: I fhall therefore fay nothing of the title of duke, or the garter, which the queen bestowed upon the general in the beginning of her reign; but I shall come to more fubftantial inftances, and D 4

mention