Jonathan Swift

“ But to invite helpless families, by thousands, into a kingdom inhabited like ours, without lands to give them, and where the laws will not allow that they should be part of the property as servants, is a wrong application of the maxim, and the same thing, in great, as infants dropped at the doors, which are only a burthen and charge to the parish. The true way of multiplying mankind to public advantage, in such a country as England, is to invite from abroad only able handicraftsmen and artificers, or such who bring over a sufficient share of property to secure them from want ”

“ The Marquis de Torcy, secretary to the Most Christian King, was the minister with whom the Duke was to treat, as having been the first who moved his master to apply to the Queen for a peace, in opposition to a violent faction in that kingdom, who were as eagerly bent to continue the war, as any other could be either here or in Holland.
It would be very unlike a historian, to refuse this great minister the praise he so justly deserveth, of having treated, through the whole course of so great a negotiation, with the utmost candour and integrity ”

“ If the people had no other idea of those whom Her Majesty trusts in her greatest affairs, than what is conveyed by the passions of such as would compass sea and land for their destruction, what could they expect, but to be torn in pieces by the rage of the multitude? How necessary therefore was it, that the world should, from time to time, be undeceived by true representations of persons and facts, which have kept the kingdom steady to its interest, against all the attacks of a cunning and virulent faction. ”

“ Now I name him, I mean Lord Oxford, let me ask you if it be true, that you are going to print a History of the Four Last Years of the Queen? if it is, will not you let me see it before you send it to the press? Is it not possible that I may suggest some things that you may have omitted, and give you reasons for leaving out others? The scene is changed since that period of time: the conditions of the peace of Utrecht have been applauded by most part of mankind, even in the two Houses of Parliament: should not matters rest here, at least for some time? ”

“ Though this weak, ill-advised, and ill-fated prince, in every sense of the word, with Romans and English, and to all intents and purposes, abdicated, yet can he, in no sense, be called abdicated; unless the people's asserting their rights, and defending themselves against a king, who broke his compact with his subjects, and overturned their government, can be called abdication in them; which no man in his senses can be hardy enough to support upon any principle of reason or the laws of England. ”

“ When the French assert a proximity of blood gives a divine right, as some of their ministers, who ought to be more wise or honest, have lately advanced in this very case, to the title of Spain; do they not, by allowing a French succession, make their own kings usurpers? Or, if the salique law be divine, is it not of universal obligation, and consequently of force, to exclude France from inheriting by daughters? ”

“ I loved my lord your father better than any other man in the world, although I had no obligation to him on the score of preferment, having been driven to this wretched kingdom, to which I was almost a stranger, by his want of power to keep me in what I ought to call my own country, although I happened to be dropped here, and was a year old before I left it, and to my sorrow did not die before I came back to it again. As to the History, it is only of affairs which I know very well and had all the advantages possible to know, when you were in some sort but a lad. ”

“ He likewise declared to the commanders in chief of the foreign troops, in the Queen's pay, and in the joint pay of Britain and the States, with how much surprise Her Majesty had heard, "That there was the least doubt of their obeying the orders of the Duke of Ormonde; which if they refused, Her Majesty would esteem it not only as an indignity and affront, but as a declaration against her; and, in such a case, they must look on themselves as no farther entitled either to any arrear, or future pay or subsidies." ”

“ The defection of nobles and other people to the Duke was so great, that men generally thought if it had come to a battle, the King would have lost both the victory and his crown. But Robert, upon his return to Normandy after this dishonourable peace, grew out of all reputation with the world, as well as into perfect hatred and contempt among his own subjects, which in a short time was the cause of his ruin. ”

“ But, however, since the Most Christian King had agreed that his grandson should be forced, in case of a refusal, to make his choice immediately, Her Majesty could not endure to think, that perhaps some thousands of lives of her own subjects and allies might be sacrificed, without necessity, if an occasion should be found or sought for fighting a battle; which, she very well knew, Prince Eugene would eagerly attempt, and put all into confusion, to gratify his own ambition, the enmity of his new masters the Dutch, and the rage of his court. ”

“ His knowledge in government reaches no farther than that of his own country, by which he forms and cultivates matters of state for the rest of the world. His reasonings upon politics are with great profusion at all meetings; and he leaves the company with entire satisfaction that he hath fully convinced them. He is well provided with that inferior sort of cunning, which is the growth of his country, of a standard with the genius of the people, and capable of being transferred into every condition of life among them, from the boor to the burgomaster. ”

“ Buys the many millions we owed, he would advance it as a maxim, that it was for the interest of the public to be in debt: which perhaps may be true in a commonwealth so crazily instituted, where the governors cannot have too many pledges of their subjects' fidelity, and where a great majority must inevitably be undone by any revolution, however brought about: but to prescribe the same rules to a monarchy, whose wealth ariseth from the rents and improvements of lands, as well as trade and manufactures, is the mark of a confined and cramped understanding. ”

“ It is now too late to publish a pamphlet, and too early to publish a History. "It was always my opinion, that the best way of doing honour to the treasurer, was to write a History of the Peace of Utrecht, beginning with a short preamble concerning the calamitous state of our debt, and ending with the breaking our army, and restoring the civil power; that these great things were completed under the administration of the Earl of Oxford, and this should be his epitaph. ”

“ It will have an odd sound in history, and appear hardly credible, that in several petty republics of single towns, which make up the States General, it should be formally debated, whether the Queen of Great Britain, who preserved the commonwealth at the charge of so many millions, should be suffered to enjoy, after a peace, the liberty granted her by Spain of selling African slaves in the Spanish dominions of America! But there was a prevailing faction at The Hague, violently bent against any peace, where the Queen must act that part which they had intended for themselves. ”

“ Harley's instructions to the Queen's plenipotentiaries were, "That they should press those of France, to open themselves as far as possible, in concerting such a plan of a general peace, as might give reasonable satisfaction to all the confederates, and such as her Parliament would approve: That the people of England believed France would consent to such a plan; wherein if they found themselves deceived, they would be as eager for prosecuting the war as ever." ”

“ It was then the States first began to view their affairs in another light; to consider how little the vast promises of Count Zinzendorf were to be relied on; to be convinced that France was not disposed to break with Her Majesty, only to gratify their ill humour, or unreasonable demands; to discover that their factious correspondents on this side the water had shamefully misled them; that some of their own principal towns grew heartily weary of the war, and backward in their loans ”

“ And yet I cannot find the least inconsistence with conscience or honour, upon the death of so excellent a princess as her late Majesty, for a wise and good man to submit, with a true and loyal heart, to her lawful Protestant successor; whose hereditary title was confirmed by the Queen and both Houses of Parliament, with the greatest unanimity, after it had been made an article in the treaty, that every prince in our alliance should be a guarantee of that succession. ”

“ That being determined to accept no advantages to herself, repugnant to their interests, nor any peace, without their reasonable satisfaction, the figure she had made during the whole course of the war, and the part she had acted, superior to any of the allies, who were more concerned in danger and interest, might justly entitle her to settle the concerns of Great Britain, before she would consent to a general negotiation. ”

“ He was a prince hardly equalled by any in his time for valour, conduct, and courtesy; but his ruin began from the easiness of his nature, which whoever knew how to manage, were sure to be refused nothing they could ask. By such profusion he was reduced to those unhappy expedients of remitting his rights for a pension, of pawning his towns, and multiplying taxes, which brought him into hatred and contempt with his subjects; neither do I think any virtue so little commendable in a sovereign as that of liberality, where it exceeds what his ordinary revenues can supply ”

“ As to Britain, the plenipotentiaries were to insist, "That Nieuport, Dendermonde, Ghent, and all places which appear to be a barrier rather against England than France, should either not be given to the Dutch, or at least in such a manner, as not to hinder the Queen's subjects free passage to and from the Low Countries.
"That the seventh article of the Barrier Treaty, which empowers the States, in case of an attack, to put troops at discretion in all the places of the Low Countries, should be so explained as to be understood only of an attack from France. ”

“ It must be confessed that oaths of fealty in this Prince's reign were feeble ties for binding the subject to any reasonable degree of obedience; and the warmest advocates for liberty cannot but allow, from those examples here produced, that it is very possible for people to run upon great extremes in this matter, that a monarch may be too much limited, and a subject too little; whereof the consequences have been fully as pernicious for the time as the worst that can be apprehended from arbitrary power in all its heights, although not perhaps so lasting or so hard to be remedied ”

“ We are here to meet to-day, in the name of God, to enter upon a treaty of general peace, between the high allies and the King your master. We bring sincere intentions, and express orders from our superiors, to concur, on their part, with whatever may advance and perfect so salutary and Christian a work. On the other side, we hope you have the same disposition; and that your orders will be so full, as to be able, without loss of time, to answer the expectation of the high allies, by explaining yourselves clearly and roundly upon the points we shall have to settle in these conferences ”

“ He long knew the author, and was no stranger to his politics, connections, tendencies, passions, and the whole economy of his life. He has long been hardily singular in condemning this great man's conduct amid the admiring multitude, nor ever could have thought of making an interest in a man, whose principles and manners he could by no rule of reason or honour approve, however he might have admired his parts and wit.
Such was judged the disposition of the man, whose history of the most interesting period of time in the annals of Britain are now, herein, offered to the reader. ”

“ When the Prince of Orange was raised to the throne, and a general war began in these parts of Europe, the King and his counsellors thought it would be ill policy to commence his reign with heavy taxes upon the people, who had lived long in ease and plenty, and might be apt to think their deliverance too dearly bought: wherefore one of the first actions of the new government was to take off the tax upon chimneys, as a burthen very ungrateful to the commonalty. ”