ture generous and charitable to all, who want or deserve ; and, in order to exercise those virtues, denying herself all entertainments of expense which many others enjoy. Then, if we look abroad, at least in Flanders, our arms have been crowned with perpetual success in battles and sieges; not to mention several fortunate actions in Spain. These facts being thus stated, which none can deny, it is natural to ask, how we have improved such advantages, and to what account they have turned? I shall use no discouraging terms. When a patient grows daily worse by the tampering of mountebanks, there is nothing left but to call in the best physicians, before the case grows desperate. But I would ask, whether France, or any other kingdom, would have made so little use of such prodigious opportunities? the fruits whereof could never have fallen to the ground without the extremest degree of folly and corruption; and where those have lain, let the world judge. Instead of aiming at peace, while we had the advantage of the war, which has been the perpetual maxim of all wise states, it has been reckoned factious and malignant even to express our wishes for it; and such a condition imposed, as was never offered to any prince, who had an inch of ground to dispute; que enim est conditio pacis, in qua ei, cum quo pacem facias, nihil concedi potest?

It is not obvious to conceive what could move men, who sat at home, and were called to consult upon the good of the kingdom, to be so utterly averse from putting an end to a long, expensive war, which the victorious, as well as conquered, side, were heartily weary of. Few, or none of them, were men of the sword; they had no share in the honour; they had made large fortunes, and were at the head of all affairs. But they well knew

by what tenure they held their power; that the queen saw through their designs; that they had entirely lost the hearts of the clergy; that the landed men were against them; that they were detested by the body of the people; and that nothing bore them up but their credit with the bank, and other stocks, which would be neither formidable nor necessary, when the war was at an end. For these reasons, they resolved to disappoint all overtures of a peace, until they and their party should be so deeply rooted, as to make it impossible to shake them. To this end they began to precipitate matters so fast, as in a little time must have ruined the constitution, if the crown had not interposed, and rather ventured the accidental effects of their malice, than such dreadful consequences of their power. And indeed if the former danger had been greater than some hoped or feared, I see no difficulty in the choice, which was the same with his, who said, he would rather be devoured by wolves than by rats. I therefore still insist, that we cannot wonder at, or find fault with the army for concurring with the ministry, which was for prolonging the war. The inclination is natural in them all; pardonable in those who have not yet made their fortunes; and as lawful in the rest, as love of power, or love of money can make it. But, as natural, as pardonable, and as lawful as this inclination is, when it is not under check of the civil power, or when a corrupt ministry joins in giving it too great a scope, the consequence can be nothing less than infallible ruin and slavery to the

state.

After I had finished this paper, the printer sent me two small pamphlets, called "The Management of the War"; written with some plausibility, much artifice, and abundance of misrepresentations, as well as direct falsehoods in point of fact. These I have thought worth examining, which I shall accordingly do, when I find an opportunity.

No. XXIV.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1710-11.

Parva momenta in spem metumque impellunt animos.

The merest trifles influence the human mind, and impel it to hope or fear.

HOPES are natural to most men, especially to sanguine complexions; and among the various changes that happen in the course of public affairs, they are seldom without some grounds. Even in desperate cases, where it is impossible they should have any foundation, they are often affected to keep a countenance, and make an enemy think we have

* Dr Hare, chaplain to the Duke of Marlborough, published at separate times four pamphlets upon "The Management of the War," entitled, Letters to a Tory member. The two first of these tracts are here alluded to.

some resource which they know nothing of. This appears to have been for several months past the condition of those people, whom I am forced, for want of other phrases, to call the ruined party. They have taken up, since their fall, some real, and some pretended hopes. When the Earl of Sunderland was discarded, they hoped her majesty would proceed no farther in the change of her ministry; and had the insolence to misrepresent her words to foreign states. They hoped nobody durst advise the dissolution of the parliament. * When this

was done, and farther alterations made in court, they hoped, and endeavoured to ruin the credit of the nation. They likewise hoped, that we should have some terrible loss abroad, which would force us to unravel all, and begin again upon their bottom. But, of all their hopes, whether real or assumed, there is none more extraordinary than that in which they now would seem to place their whole confidence that this great turn of affairs was only occasioned by a short madness of the people, from which they will recover in a little time, when their eyes are open, and they grow cool and sober enough to consider the truth of things, and how much they have been deceived. It is not improbable, that some few of the deepest sighted among these reasoners are well enough convinced, how vain all such hopes must be: but for the rest, the wisest of them seem to have been very ill judges of the people's dispositions; the want of which knowledge was a principal occasion to hasten their ruin; for surely, had they suspected which way the popular current inclined, they never would have run

* Which hope has been the feeble crutch of many a falling ministry.

against it by that impeachment. I therefore conclude, they generally are so blind as to imagine some comfort from this fantastical opinion; that the people of England are at present distracted, but will shortly come to their senses again.

For the service therefore of our adversaries and friends, I shall briefly examine this point, by showing what are the causes and symptoms of a people's madness; and how it differs from their natural bent and inclination.

It is Machiavel's observation, that the people, when left to their own judgment, do seldom mistake their true interests; and indeed they naturally love the constitution they are born under; never desiring to change, but under great oppressions. However, they are to be deceived by several means. It has often happened in Greece, and sometimes in Rome, that those very men who have contributed to shake off a former tyranny, have, instead of restoring the old constitution, deluded the people into a worse and more ignominious slavery. Besides, all great changes have the same effects upon commonwealths that thunder has upon liquors, making the dregs fly up to the top; the lowest plebeians rise to the head of affairs, and these preserve themselves, by representing the nobles, and other friends to the old government, as enemies to the public. The encouraging of new mysteries and new deities, with the pretences of farther purity in religion, has likewise been a frequent topic to mislead the people. And, not to mention more, the promoting false reports of dangers from abroad, has often served to prevent them from fencing against real dangers at home. By these and the like arts, in conjunction with a great depravity of manners, and a weak or corrupt administration, the madness of the people has risen to such a height, as to break in