fall of the ftocks; that we may foon expect more and worfe; 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 fcattered abroad by the malice of a ruined party, to render the Queen and her administration odious, and to inflame the nation. And thefe are what, upon occafion, I fhall endeavour to overthrow by difcovering the falfehood and abfurdity of them, It is a great unhappinefs, when in a government conftituted like ours it fhould be fo brought about, that the continuance of a war muft be for the intereft of vaft numbers (civil as well as military) who otherwife would have been as unknown as their original. I think our prefent condition of affairs is admirably defcribed by two verfes in Lucan: Hinc ufura vorax, avidumque in tempore fœnus, Which, without any great force upon the words, may be thus tranflated: "Hence are derived thofe exorbitant interests "and annuities; hence thofe large difcounts for "advance and prompt payment; hence public cre"dit is fhaken; and hence great numbers find. is their profit in prolonging the war." It is odd, that among a free trading people, as we call ourfelves, 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 fhall find the greater number of those who make a figure, to be a fpecious of men quite different from any that were known before the revolution, confifting either of generals or colonels, or of thofe whofe whole fortunes lie in funds and ftocks; fo that 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 fcrivener receives half the rents for intereft, and hath a mortgage on the whole; and is therefore always ready to feed his vices and extravagancies, 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 inquiring, from what beginnings and by what steps we have been broughtinto this defperate condition: and in fearch of this we must run up as high as the revolution. Most of the nobility and gentry, who invited o- ver the Prince of Orange, or attended him in his expedition, were true lovers of their country, and its conftitution in church and state; 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 fafety of the people, which did, and could only make them lawful; but without intention of drawing fuch a practice into précedent, or making it a standing measure by which to proceed in all times to come; and therefore we. find their counfels ever tended to keep things, as much as poffible, in the old courfe. But foon after, and under a fet of men who had nothing to lofe, and had neither borne the burthen 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-bedience, and non-refiftance. At the fame time, in order to Faften wealthy people to the new government, they propofed. Bb3 propofed thofe pernicious expedients of borrowing money by vaft premiums, and at exorbitant intereft: á practice as old as Eumenes, one of Alexander's captains, who fetting up for himself after the death of his master, perfuaded his principal officers to lend him great fums, after which they were forced to follow him for their own fecurity. This introduced a number of new dextrous men into bufinefs and credit. It was argued, that the war could not laft above two or three campaigns; and that it was easier for the fubjects to raise a fund for paying intereft, than to tax them annually to the full expenfe of the war. Several perfons, who had fmall or incumbered eftates, fold them, and turned their money into those funds, to great advantage merchants, as well as other moneyed men, finding trade was dangerous, purfued 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 monftrous height we now behold them; and that which was at first a corruption, is at last grown neceffary, and what every good fubject must now fall in with, although he may be allowed to with 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 foundation of credit be ftill the fame, and upon a bottom that can never be fhaken, and although all interest be duly paid by the public; yet, through the contrivance and cunning of flockjobbers, there hath been brought in fuch a complication of knavery and cozenage, fuch a mystery of iniquity, and fuch an unintelligible jargon of terms to involve it in, as were never known in any other age or country in the world. I have heard it affirmed, by perfons killed in these cacula : calculations, that if the funds appropriated to the payment of intereft 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 fuch a part as, in the opinion of very able perfons, had been at that time prudent not to exceed. For I make it a queftion, 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 expenfe fhould 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 interefts 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 past. Befides, 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 fo will the other, by their prudent adminiftration, the greatness of their trade, their wonderful parfimony, the willingness of their people to undergo all kind of taxes, and their juftice in applying as well as collecting them. But above all, we are to confider, that France aud Holland fight on the continent, either upon, or near their own territories, and the greateft part of the money circulates among themselves; whereas ours croffes the fea, either to Flanders, Spain, or Portugal, and every penny of it, whether in fpecie or returns, is so much lost to the nation for ever. Upon these confiderations alone, it was the most prudent course imaginable in the Queen, to lay hold of the difpofition of the people for changing the parliament and miniftry at this juncture, and extricating herfelf as foon as poffible out of the pupillage of those who found their accounts only in perpetuating the war. Neither have we the least reafon to doubt, but the enfuing parliament will affift her Majesty with the utmost vigour, until her eremies again be brought to fue for peace, and again offer fuch terms as will make it both honourable and lafting; only with this difference, that the mis niftry perhaps will not again refufe them.. Audiet pugnas vitia parentum Rara juventus. I No. 14. Thursday, November 9, 17.10. E quibus hi vacuas implent fermonibus aures, Vanaque lætitia eft, confternatique timores, AM prevailed on, through the importunity of friends, to interrupt the fcheme. I had begun in my laft paper, by an effay upon the art of political lying. We are told the devil is the father of lies, and was a liar from the beginning; fo that, beyond contradiction, the invention is old: and, which is more, his first effay of it was purely political, em ployed |