# The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 9/A Vindication of Lord Carteret

A
VINDICATION
OF HIS EXCELLENCY
JOHN, LORD CARTERET,
FROM THE
CHARGE OF FAVOURING NONE BUT TORIES, HIGH CHURCHMEN, AND JACOBITES.
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1730.
IN order to treat this important subject with the greatest fairness and impartiality, perhaps it may be convenient to give some account of his excellency; in whose life and character there are certain particulars, which might give a very just suspicion of some truth in the accusation he lies under.
He is descended from two noble, ancient, and most loyal families, the Carterets, and the Granvilles: too much distinguished, I confess, for what they acted, and what they suffered in defending the former constitution in church and state, under king Charles the martyr; I mean that very prince, on account of whose martyrdom a form of prayer, with fasting, was enjoined by act of parliament to be used ​on the 30th day of January every year, to implore the mercies of God, that the guilt of that sacred and innocent blood, might not be visited on us or our posterity; as we may read at large in our Common Prayer Books; which day has been solemnly kept, even within the memory of many men now alive.
His excellency, the present lord, was educated in the university of Oxford; from whence, with a singularity scarce to be justified, he carried away more Greek, Latin, and philosophy, than properly became a person of his rank; indeed much more of each, than most of those who are forced to live by their learnings will be at the unnecessary pains to load their heads with.
This was the rock he split on, upon his first appearance in the world, and having just got clear of his guardians. For, as soon as he came to town, some bishops and clergymen, and other persons most eminent for learning and parts, got him among them; from whom although he were fortunately dragged by a lady and the court, yet he could never wipe off the stain, nor wash out the tincture of his university acquirements and dispositions.
To this another misfortune was added, that it pleased God to endow him with great natural talents, memory, judgment, comprehension, eloquence, and wit: and, to finish the work, all these were fortified even in his youth with the advantages received by such employments, as are best fitted both to exercise, and polish, the gifts of nature and education, having been ambassador in several courts, when his age would hardly allow him to take a degree; and made principal secretary of state, at a period, when, ​according to custom, he ought to have been busied in losing his money at a chocolate-house, or in other amusements, equally laudable and epidemick, among persons of honour.
I cannot omit another weak side in his excellency. For it is known, and can be proved upon him, that Greek and Latin books might be found every day in his dressing room, if it were carefully searched; and there is reason to suspect, that some of the said books have been privately conveyed to him by tory hands. I am likewise assured, that he has been taken in the very fact of reading the said books, even in the midst of a session, to the great neglect of publick affairs.
I own, there may be some grounds for this charge; because I have it from good hands, that when his excellency is at dinner with one or two scholars at his elbows, he grows a most unsupportable and unintelligible companion, to all the fine gentlemen round the table.
I cannot deny, that his excellency lies under another very great disadvantage. For, with all the accomplishments abovementioned, adding that of a most comely and graceful person, and during the prime of youth, spirits, and vigour, he has in a most unexemplary manner led a regular domestick life; discovers a great esteem, and friendship, and love for his lady, as well as true affection for his children; and when he is disposed to admit an entertaining evening companion, he does not always enough reflect, whether the person may possibly in former days have lain under the imputation of a tory; nor at such times do the natural, or affected ​fears of popery and the pretender, make any part of the conversation: I presume, because neither Homer, Plato, Aristotle, nor Cicero, have made any mention of them.
These I freely acknowledge to be his excellency's failings: yet, I think it is agreed by philosophers and divines, that some allowance ought to be given to human infirmity, and to the prejudices of a wrong education.
I am well aware, how much my sentiments differ, from the orthodox opinions of one or two principal patriots, at the head of whom I name with honour Pistorides; for these have decided the matter directly against me, by declaring, that no person, who was ever known to lie under the suspicion of one single tory principle, or who had been once seen at a great man's levee in the worst of times, should be allowed to come within the verge of the castle; much less to bow in the antichamber, appear at the assemblies, or dance at a birthnight. However, I dare assert that this maxim has been often controlled; and that on the contrary, a considerable number of early penitents have been received into grace, who are now an ornament, happiness, and support to the nation.
Neither do I find any murmuring on some other points of greater importance, where this favourite maxim is not so strictly observed.
To instance only in one. I have not heard that any care has hitherto been taken to discover ​whether madam Violante be a whig or tory in her principles; or even that she has ever been offered the oaths to the government: on the contrary, I am told, that she openly professes herself to be a highflyer; and it is not improbable, by her outlandish name, she may also be a papist in her heart; yet we see this illustrious and dangerous female, openly caressed by principal persons of both parties; who contribute to support her in a splendid manner, without the least apprehensions from a grand jury, or even from squire Hartley Hutcheson himself, that zealous prosecutor of hawkers and libels. And, as Hobbes wisely observes, so much money being equivalent to so much power, it may deserve considering, with what safety such an instrument of power ought to be trusted in the hands of an alien, who has not given any legal security for her good affection to the government.
I confess, there is one evil which I could wish our friends would thing proper to redress. There are many whigs in this kingdom of the old fashioned stamp, of whom we might make very good use. They bear the same loyalty with us to the Hanoverian family, in the person of king George the IId; the same abhorrence of the pretender, with the consequences of popery and slavery; and the same indulgence to tender consciences: but having nothing to ask for themselves, and therefore the more leisure to think for the publick, they are often apt to entertain fears, and melancholy prospects, concerning the state of their country, the decay of trade, the want of ​money, the miserable condition of the people, with other topicks of the like nature; all which do equally concern both whig and tory; who, if they have any thing to lose, must be equally sufferers. Perhaps, one or two of these melancholy gentlemen, will sometimes venture to publish their thoughts in print: now I can by no means approve our usual custom of cursing and railing at this species of thinkers, under the names of tories, jacobites, papists, libellers, rebels, and the like.
This was the utter ruin of that poor, angry, bustling, well meaning mortal Pistorides; who lies equally under the contempt of both parties; with no other difference than a mixture of pity on one side, and of aversion on the other.
How has he been pelted, pestered, and pounded by one single wag, who promises never to forsake him, living or dead!
I was much pleased with the humour of a surgeon in this town; who having, in his own apprehension, received some great injustice from the earl of Galway, and despairing of revenge as well as relief, declared to all his friends, that he had set apart one hundred guineas, to purchase the earl's carcase from the sexton, whenever it should die, to make a skeleton of the bones, stuff the hide, and show them for threepence; and thus get vengeance for the injuries he had suffered by its owner.
Of the like spirit too often is that implacable race of wits; against whom there is no defence but innocence and philosophy, neither of which is likely to be at hand; and therefore the wounded have no where to fly for a cure, but to downright stupidity, ​a crazed head, or a profligate contempt of guilt and shame.
I am therefore sorry for that other miserable creature Traulus; who, although of somewhat a different species, yet seems very far to outdo even the genius of Pistorides, in that miscarrying talent of railing without consistency, or discretion, against the most innocent persons, according to the present situation of his gall and spleen. I do not blame an honest gentleman, for the bitterest invectives against one, to whom he professes the greatest friendship, provided he acts in the dark so as not to be discovered: but in the midst of caresses, visits, and invitations, to run into the streets, or to as publick a place, and without the least pretended incitement, sputter out the basest and falsest accusations, then to wipe his mouth, come up smiling to his friend, shake him by the hand, and tell him in a whisper it was all for his service: this proceeding I am bold to think a great failure in prudence: and I am afraid lest such a practitioner, with a body so open, so foul, and so full of sores, may fall under the resentment of an incensed political surgeon, who is not in much renown for his mercy, upon great provocations: who, without waiting for his death, will flay and dissect him alive; and to the view of mankind lay open all the disordered cells of his brain, the venom of his tongue, the corruption of his heart, and spots and flatuses of his spleen: and all this for threepence.
In such a case what a scene would be laid open! and, to drop my metaphor, what a character of our mistaking friend might an angry enemy draw and ​expose! particularizing that unnatural conjunction of vices and follies, so inconsistent with each other in the same breast: furious and fawning, scurrilous and flattering, cowardly and provoking, insolent and abject; most profligately false, with the strongest professions of sincerity; positive and variable, tyrannical and slavish.
I apprehend, that if all this should be set out to the world, by an angry whig of the old stamp, the unavoidable consequence must be, a confinement of our friend for some months more to his garret; and thereby depriving the publick for so long a time, and in so important a juncture, of his useful talents in their service, while he is fed like a wild beast through a hole; but I hope with a special regard to the quantity and quality of his nourishment.
In vain would his excusers endeavour to palliate his enormities, by imputing them to madness; because it is well known, that madness only operates by inflaming and enlarging the good or evil dispositions of the mind. For the curators of Bedlam assure us, that some lunaticks are persons of honour, truth, benevolence, and many other virtues, which appear in their highest ravings, although after a wild incoherent manner; while others, on the contrary, discover in every word and action, the utmost baseness and depravity of human minds; which infallibly they possessed in the same degree, although perhaps under a better regulation, before their entrance into that academy.
But it may be objected, that there is an argument of much force, to excuse the overflowings of that zeal, which our friend shows or means for our cause. And it must be confessed, that the easy and smooth ​fluency of his elocution, bestowed on him by nature, and cultivated by continual practice, added to the comeliness of his person, the harmony of his voice, the gracefulness of his manner, and the decency of his dress, are temptations too strong for such a genius to resist;, upon any publick occasion of making them appear with universal applause. And if good men are sometimes accused of loving their jest, better than their friend; surely to gain the reputation of the first orator in the kingdom, no man of spirit would scruple to lose all the friends he had in the world.
It is usual for masters to make their boys declaim on both sides of an argument; and as some kinds of assemblies are called the schools of politicks, I confess nothing can better improve political schoolboys, than the art of making plausible, or implausible harangues, against the very opinion for which they resolve to determine.
So cardinal Perron, after having spoke for an hour to the admiration of all his hearers to prove the existence of God, told some of his intimates, that he could have spoken another hour, and much better, to prove the contrary.
I have placed this reasoning in the strongest light that I think it will bear; and have nothing to answer, but that allowing it as much weight as the reader shall please, it has constantly met with ill success in the mouth of our friend; but whether for want of good luck, or good management, I suspend my judgment.
To return from this long digression; if persons in high stations have been allowed to choose wenches without regard even to difference in religion, yet ​never incurred the least refiection on their loyalty or their protestantism; shall the chief governor of a great kingdom be censured for choosing a companion, who may formerly have been suspected for differing from the orthodox in some speculative opinions of persons and things, which cannot affect the fundamental principles of a sound whig?
But let me suppose a very possible case. Here is a person sent to govern Ireland, whose unfortunate weak side it happens to be, for several reasons abovementioned, that he has encouraged the attendance of one or two gentlemen distinguished for their taste, their wit, and their learning; who have taken the oaths to his majesty, and pray heartily for him: yet, because they may perhaps be stigmatized as quondam tories by Pistorides and his gang, his excellency must be forced to banish them, under the pain and peril of displeasing the zealots of his own party; and thereby be put into a worse condition than every common good fellow, who may be a sincere protestant and a loyal subject, and yet rather choose to drink fine ale at the pope's head, than muddy at the king's.
Let me then return to my suppositions. It is certain, the highflown loyalists, in the present sense of the word, have their thoughts, and studies, and tongues, so entirely diverted by political schemes, that the zeal of their principles has eaten up their understandings; neither have they time from their employments, their hopes, and their hourly labours, for acquiring new additions of merit, to amuse themselves with philological converse or speculations, which are utterly ruinous to all schemes of rising in the world. What then must a great man do, whose ​ill stars have fatally perverted him to a love, and taste, and possession of literature, politeness, and good sense? Our thoroughsped republick of whigs, which contains the bulk of all hopers, pretenders, expecters, and professors, are beyond all doubt most highly useful to princes, to governors, to great ministers, and to their country; but at the same time, and by necessary consequence, the most disagreeable companions to all who have that unfortunate turn of mind peculiar to his excellency, and perhaps to five or six more in a nation.
I do not deny it possible, that an original or proselyte favourite of the times, might have been born to those useless talents, which in former ages qualified a man to be a poet or a philosopher. All I contend for is, that where the true genius of party once enters, it sweeps the house clean, and leaves room for many other spirits to take joint possession, until the last state of that man is exceedingly better than the first.
I allow it a great errour in his excellency, that he adheres so obstinately to his old unfashionable academick education; yet so perverse is human nature, that the usual remedies for this evil in others, have produced a contrary effect in him; to a degree, that I am credibly informed, he will, as I have already hinted, in the middle of a session, quote passages out of Plato and Pindar at his own table to some booklearned companion without blushing, even when persons of great stations are by.
I will venture one step farther; which is, freely to confess, that this mistaken method of educating youth in the knowledge of ancient learning and language, is too apt to spoil their politicks and ​principles; because the doctrine and examples of the books they read, teach them lessons directly contrary in every point to the present practice of the world: and accordingly Hobbes most judiciously observes, that the writings of the Greeks and Romans, made young men imbibe opinions against absolute power in a prince, or even in a first minister, and embrace notions of liberty and property.
It has been therefore a great felicity in these kingdoms, that the heirs to titles and large estates, have a weakness in their eyes, a tenderness in their constitutions; are not able to bear the pain and indignity of whipping; and as the mother rightly expresses it, could never take to their books, yet are well enough qualified to sign a receipt for half a year's rent, to put their names (rightly spelt) to a warrant, and to read pamphlets against religion and highflying; whereby they fill their niches, and carry themselves through the world with that dignity which best becomes a senator and a 'squire.
I could heartily wish his excellency would be more condescending to the genius of the kingdom he governs; to the condition of the times, and to the nature of the station he fills. Yet if it be true, what I have read in old English storybooks, that one Agesilaus (no matter to the bulk of my readers whether I spell the name right or wrong) was caught by the parson of the parish riding on a hobbyhorse with his children; that Socrates a heathen philosopher was found dancing by himself at fourscore; that a king called Cæsar Augustus (or some such name) used to play with boys, whereof some might possibly be sons of tories; and that two great men called Scipio and Lælius, (I forget their christian names, ​and whether they were poets or generals) often played at duck and drake with smooth stones on a river: Now I say, if these facts be true (and the book where I found them is in print) I cannot imagine why our most zealous patriots may not a little indulge his excellency in an infirmity, which is not morally evil; provided he gives no publick scandal; which is by all means to be avoided: I say, why he may not be indulged twice a week to converse with one or two particular persons; and let him and them con over their old exploded readings together, after mornings spent in hearing and prescribing ways and means from and to his most obedient politicians for the welfare of the kingdom; although the said particular person, or persons, may not have made so publick a declaration of their political faith in all its parts, as the business of the nation requires: still submitting my opinion to that happy majority, which I am confident is always in the right; by whom the liberty of the subject has been so frequently, so strenuously, and so successfully asserted; who, by their wise counsels, have made commerce to flourish, money to abound, inhabitants to increase, the value of lands and rents to rise; and the whole island put on a new face of plenty and prosperity.
But, in order to clear his excellency more fully from this accusation of showing his favours to highfliers, tories, and jacobites, it will be necessary to come to particulars.
The first person of a tory denomination, to whom his excellency gave any marks of his favour, was doctor Thomas Sheridan. It is to be observed, that this happened so early in his excellency's government, as it may be justly supposed he had not been ​informed of that gentleman's character upon so dangerous an article. The doctor being well known, and distinguished for his skill and success in the education of youth, beyond most of his profession for many years past, was recommended to his excellency on the score of his learning, and particularly for his knowledge in the Greek tongue; whereof, it seems, his excellency is a great admirer, although for what reasons I could never imagine. However, it is agreed on all hands, that his lordship was too easily prevailed on by the doctor's request, or indeed rather from the bias of his own nature, to hear a tragedy acted in that unknown language by the doctor's lads, which was written by some heathen author; but whether it contained any tory or high church principles, must be left to the consciences of the boys, the doctor, and his excellency; the only witnesses in this case, whose testimonies can be depended upon.
It seems, his excellency (a thing never to be sufficiently wondered at) was so pleased with his entertainment, that some time after he gave the doctor a church living to the value of almost one hundred pounds a year, and made him one of his chaplains; from an antiquated notion that good schoolmasters ought to be encouraged in every nation professing civility and religion. Yet his excellency did not venture to make this bold step without strong recommendations from persons of undoubted principles fitted to the times; who thought themselves bound in justice, honour, and gratitude, to do the doctor a good office, in return for the care he had taken of their children, or of those of their friends. Yet the catastrophe was terrible; for the doctor, in the height of his felicity ​and gratitude, going down to take possession of his parish, and furnished with a few led sermons, whereof as it is to be supposed the number was very small, having never served a cure in the church, he stopped at Cork to attend on his bishop; and going to church on the Sunday following, was, according to the usual civility of country clergymen, invited by the minister of the parish to supply the pulpit. It happened to be the first of August; and the first of August happened that year to light upon a Sunday: and it happened that the doctor's text was in these words; Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; and lastly, it happened that some one person of the congregation, whose loyalty made him watchful upon every appearance of danger to his majesty's person and government, when service was over, gave the alarm. Notice was immediately sent up to town; and by the zeal of one man of no large dimensions of body or mind, such a clamour was raised, that we in Dublin could apprehend no less than an invasion by the pretender, who must be landed in the south. The result was, that the doctor must be struck out of the chaplains list, and appear no more at the castle; yet whether he were then, or be at this day, a whig or a tory, I think is a secret; only it is manifest, that he is a zealous Hanoverian at least in poetry, and a great admirer of the present royal family through all its branches. His friends likewise assert, that he had preached this sermon often under the same text; that not having observed the words, till he was in the pulpit, and had opened his notes, as he is a person a little abstracted, he wanted ​presence of mind to change them: and that in the whole sermon there was not a syllable relating to government or party, or to the subject of the day.
In this incident there seems to have been a union of events, that will probably never happen again to the end of the world; or is, at least, like the grand conjunction in the heavens; which, I think, they say can arrive but once in twenty thousand years.
The second gentleman (if I am right in my chronology) who, under the suspicion of a tory, received some favour from his excellency, is Mr. James Stopford; very strongly recommended by the most eminent whig in England, on the account of his learning and virtue, and other accomplishments. He had passed the greatest part of his youth in close study, or in travelling, and was either not at home, or not at leisure to trouble his thoughts about party; which I allow to be a great omission, although I cannot honestly place him in the list of tories: and therefore think his excellency may be fairly acquitted for making him vicar of Finglass, worth about one hundred pounds a year.
The third is doctor Patrick Delany. This divine lies under some disadvantage; having in his youth received many civilities from a certain person, then in a very high station here; for which reason I doubt the doctor never drank his confusion since; and what makes the matter desperate, it is now too late; unless our inquisitors will be content with drinking confusion to his memory. The aforesaid eminent person, who was a judge of all merit, except that of party, distinguished the doctor among other ​juniors in our university, for his learning, virtue, discretion, and good sense. But the doctor was then in too good a situation at his college, to hope, or endeavour at a better establishment, from one who had no power to give it him.
Upon the present lord lieutenant's coming over, the doctor was named to his excellency by a friend among other clergy of distinction, as persons whose characters it was proper his excellency should know, and by the truth of which the giver would be content to stand or fall in his excellency's opinion; since not one of those persons were in particular friendship with the gentleman who gave in their names. By this, and some other incidents, particularly the recommendation of the late archbishop of Dublin, the doctor became known to his excellency; whose fatal turn of mind toward heathenish and outlandish books and languages, finding, as I conceive, a like disposition in the doctor, was the cause of his becoming so domestick, as we are told he is, at the castle of Dublin.
Three or four years ago, the doctor grown weary of an academick life, for some reasons best known to the managers of the discipline in that learned society (which it may not be for their honour to mention) resolved to leave it; although, by the benefit of the pupils, and his senior fellowship, with all its perquisites, he received every year between nine hundred and a thousand pounds. And a small northern living, in the university's donation, of somewhat better than one hundred pounds a year falling at the same time with the chancellorship of Christchurch, to about equal the value, in the gift of his ​excellency; the doctor ventured into the world in a very scanty condition; having squandered away all his annual income in a manner which, although perhaps proper enough for a clergyman without a family, will not be for the advantage of his character to discover, either on the exchange or at a banker's shop.
About two months ago, his excellency gave the doctor a prebend in St. Patrick's cathedral; which being of near the same value with either of the two former, will add a third part to his revenues, after he shall have paid the great encumbrances upon it: so that he may now be said to possess of church preferments in scattered tithes three hundred pounds a year; instead of the like sum of infallible rents from a senior fellowship, with the offices annexed; beside the advantage of a free lodging, a great number of pupils, and some other easements.
But since the doctor has not, in any of his writings, his sermons, his actions, his discourse, or his company, discovered one single principle of either whig or tory; and that the lord lieutenant still continues to admit him; I shall boldly pronounce him ONE OF US: but, like a new freemason, who has not yet learned all the dialect of the mystery. Neither can he justly be accused of any tory doctrines; except perhaps some among those few, with which that wicked party was charged during the height of their power, but have been since transferred, for the most solid reasons, to the whole body of our firmest friends.
I have now done with the clergy: and upon the strictest examination, have not been able to find above one of that order, against whom any party suspicion can lie; I mean the unfortunate gentleman doctor ​Sheridan, who, by mere chance-medley, shot his own fortune dead with a single text.
As to the laity, I can hear of but one person of the tory stamp, who, since the beginning of his excellency's government, did ever receive any solid mark of his favour: I mean sir Arthur Acheson, reported to be an acknowledged tory; and what is almost as bad, a scholar into the bargain. It is whispered about, as a certain truth, that this gentleman is to have a grant of a certain barrack upon his estate within two miles of his own house; for which the crown is to be his tenant, at the rent of sixty pounds per annum; he being only at the expense of about five hundred pounds, to put the house in repair, build stables, and other necessaries. I will place this invidious mark of beneficence conferred on a tory in a fair light, by computing the costs and necessary defalcations: after which it may be seen how much sir Arthur will be annually a clear gainer by the publick: notwithstanding his unfortunate principles, and his knowledge in Greek and Latin.
| For repairs, &c. 500l. the interest |
| whereof per ann. | 30 0 0 |
| For all manner of poultry to furnish the troopers, |
| but which the said troopers must be at the labour |
| of catching, valued per ann. | 5 0 0 |
| For straggling sheep | 8 0 0 |
| For game destroyed five miles round | 6 0 0 |
| | 49 0 0 |
| Rent paid to sir Arthur | 60 0 0 |
| Deduct | 49 0 0 |
| Remains clear | 11 0 0 |
It is true, there is another advantage to be expected, which may fully compensate the loss of cattle and poultry; by multiplying the breed of mankind, and particularly that of good protestants, in a part of the kingdom, half depopulated by the wild humour among the farmers there, of leaving their country. But I am not so skilful in arithmetick, as to compute the value.
I have reckoned one per cent below the legal interest for the money that sir Arthur must expend; and valued the damage in the other articles very moderately. However, I am confident he may with good management be a saver at least; which is a prodigious instance of moderation in our friends toward a professed tory: whatever merit he may pretend, by the unwillingness he has shown to make his excellency uneasy in his administration.
Thus I have, with the utmost impartiality, collected every single favour (farther than personal civilities) conferred by his excellency on tories, and reputed tories, since his first arrival here, to the 30th day of April in the year of our Lord 1730, giving all allowance possible to the arguments on the other side of the question: and the account will stand thus:
Disposed of preferments and employments to tories, or reputed tories, by his excellency John, lord ​Carteret, lord lieutenant of Ireland, in about the space of six years:
| To doctor Thomas Sheridan, in a rectory near Kinsale, per annum | 100 0 0 |
| To sir Arthur Acheson, baronet, a barrack, per ann. | 11 0 0 |
| | 110 0 0 |
Give me leave now to compute in gross the value of the favours done by his excellency to the true friends of their king and country, and of the protestant religion.
It is to be remembered, that although his excellency cannot be properly said to bestow bishopricks, commands in the army, the place of a judge, or commissioner in the revenue, and some others; yet they are for the most part disposed upon his recommendation, except where the persons are immediately sent from England by their interest at court; for which I have allowed great defalcations in the following accounts. And it is remarkable, that the only considerable station conferred on a tory since his present excellency's government, was of this latter kind.
And indeed it is but too notorious, that in a neighbouring nation (where this dangerous denomination of men is incomparably more numerous, more powerful, and of consequence more formidable) real tories can often with much less difficulty obtain very high favours from the government, than ​their reputed brethren can arrive to the lowest in ours. I observe this with all possible submission to the wisdom of their policy; which however will not, I believe, dispute the praise of vigilance with ours.
| WHIG account. |
| To persons promoted to bishopricks or removed | 10050 0 0 |
| to more beneficial ones, computed per ann. | |
| To civil employments | 9030 0 0 |
| To military commands | 8436 0 0 |
| | 27516 0 0 |
| TORY account. |
| To tories | 111 0 0 |
| Balance | 27405 0 0 |
I shall conclude with this observation, that as I think the tories have sufficient reason to be fully satisfied with the share of trust, power, and employments, which they possess under the lenity of the present government; so, I do not find how his excellency can be justly censured for favouring none but high church, highflyers, termagants, laudists, sacheverellians, tiptopgallonmen, jacobites, tantivies, antihanoverians, friends to popery and the pretender and to arbitrary power, disobligers of England, breakers of DEPENDENCY, inflamers of quarrels between the two nations, publick incendiaries, enemies to the king and kingdoms, haters of TRUE ​protestants, laurelmen, annists, complainers of the nation's poverty, ormondians, iconoclasts, antiglorious-memorists, antirevolutioners, white-rosalists, tenth-a-junians, and the like; when, by a fair state of the account, the balance, I conceive, seems to lie on the other side.
* ↑ The four last years of queen Anne, when lord Oxford was minister, were so called by the whigs.
* ↑ A famous Italian ropedancer.
* ↑ The first of August is the anniversary of the Hanoverian family's accession to the crown of Great Britain.
* ↑ Sir Constantine Phipps, lord chancellor of Ireland when queen Anne died.
* ↑ The author.