The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/No One Is Obliged by his Principles as a Whig to Oppose the Queen
SOME
REASONS
TO PROVE
THAT NO ONE IS OBLIGED,
BY HIS PRINCIPLES AS A WHIG,
TO OPPOSE THE QUEEN:
IN A LETTER TO A WHIG LORD,
TO WHICH IS ANNEXED,
A SUPPOSED LETTER
FROM THE PRETENDER TO A WHIG LORD.
BOTH FIRST PRINTED IN 1712.
"Things are now in the way of being soon in the extremes of well or ill: I hope and believe the first. Lord Wharton is gone out of town in a rage; and curses himself and friends for ruining themselves in defending lord Marlborough and Godolphin, and taking Nottingham into their favour. He swears he will meddle no more during this reign; a pretty speech at sixty-six; and the queen is near twenty years younger, and now in very good health! Read the Letter to a Whig Lord[1]."
"To day there will be another Grub: A Letter from the Pretender to a Whig Lord. Grub street has but ten days to live; then an act of parliament takes place that ruins it, by taxing every halfsheet at a halfpenny."
SOME
REASONS, ETC.
MY LORD,
THE dispute between your lordship and me has, I think, no manner of relation to what in the common style of these times are called principles; wherein both parties seem well enough to agree, if we will but allow their professions. I can truly affirm, that none of the reasonable sober whigs I have conversed with did ever avow any opinion concerning religion or government, which I was not willing to subscribe; so that, according to my judgment, those terms of distinction ought to be dropped, and others introduced in their stead, to denominate men, as they are inclined to peace or war, to the last or the present ministry: for whoever thoroughly considers the matter will find these to be the only differences that divide the nation at present. I am apt to think your lordship would readily allow this, if you were but aware of the consequence I intend to draw: for it is plain, that the making peace and war, as well as the choice of ministers, is wholly in the crown; and therefore the dispute at present lies altogether between those who would support and those who would violate the royal prerogative. This decision may seem perhaps too sudden and severe; but I do not see how it can be contested. Give me leave to ask your lordship, whether you are not resolved to oppose the present ministry to the utmost? and whether it was not chiefly with this design, that, upon the opening of the present session, you gave your vote against any peace till Spain and the West Indies were recovered from the Bourbon family[2]? I am confident your lordship then believed, what several of your house and party have acknowledged, that the recovery of Spain was grown impracticable by several incidents, as well as by our utter inability to continue the war upon the former foot. But you reasoned right, that such a vote, in such a juncture, was the present way of ruining the present ministry. For, as her majesty would certainly lay much weight upon a vote of either house, so it was judged that her ministers would hardly venture to act directly against it; the natural consequence of which must be a dissolution of the parliament, and a return of all your friends into a full possession of power. This advantage the lords have over the commons, by being a fixed body of men, where a majority is not to be obtained, but by time and mortality, or new creations, or other methods which I will suppose the present age too virtuous to admit. Several noble lords, who joined with you in that vote, were but little inclined to disoblige the court, because it suited ill with their circumstances: but the poor gentlemen were told it was the safest part they could act; for it was boldly alleged, that the queen herself was at the bottom of this affair; and one of your neighbours[3], whom the dread of losing a great employment often puts into agonies, was growing fast into a very good courtier, began to cultivate the chief minister, and often expressed his approbation of present proceedings, till that unfortunate day of trial came, when the mighty hopes of a change revived his constancy, and encouraged him to adhere to his old friends. But the event, as your lordship saw, was directly contrary to what your great undertaker had flattered you with. The queen was so far from approving what you had done, that, to show she was in earnest, and to remove all future apprehensions from that quarter, she took a resolute necessary step[4], which is like to make her easy for the rest of her reign; and which, I am confident, your lordship would not have been one of those to have put her upon, if you had not been most shamefully misinformed. After this, your party had nothing to do but sit down and murmur at so extraordinary an exertion of the prerogative, and quarrel at a necessity, which their own violence, inflamed by the treachery of others, had created. Now, my lord, if an action so indisputably in her majesty's power requires any excuse, we have a very good one at hand. We alleged, that the majority you hardly acquired with so much art and management, partly made up from a certain transitory bench, and partly of those whose nobility began with themselves, was wholly formed during the long power of your friends; so that it became necessary to turn the balance, by new creations; wherein, however, great care was taken to increase the peerage as little as possible[5], and to make a choice against which no objection could be raised, with relation to birth or fortune, or other qualifications requisite for so high an honour.
There is no man hath a greater veneration than I for that noble part of our legislature, whereof your lordship is a member; and I will venture to assert, that, supposing it possible for corruptions to go far in either assembly, yours is less liable to them than a house of commons. A standing senate of persons nobly born, of great patrimonial estates, and of pious learned prelates, is not easily perverted from intending the true interest of their prince and country; whereas we have found, by experience, that a corrupt ministry, at the head of a monied faction, is able to procure a majority of whom they please, to represent the people. But then, my lord, on the other side, if it has been so contrived, by time and management, that the majority of a standing senate is made up of those who wilfully or otherwise mistake the publick good; the cure, by common remedies, is as slow as the disease: whereas a good prince, in the hearts of his people, and at the head of a ministry who leaves them to their own free choice, cannot miss a good assembly of commons. Now, my lord, we do assert that this majority of yours has been the workmanship of about twenty years: during which time, considering the choice of persons in the several creations; considering the many arts used in making proselytes among the young nobility who have since grown up; and the wise methods to prevent their being tainted by university principles: lastly, considering the age of those who fill up a certain bench, and with what views their successions have been supplied; I am surprised to find your majority so bare and weak, that it is not possible for you to keep it much longer, unless old men be immortal: neither perhaps would there be any necessity to wait so long, if certain methods were put in practice, which your friends have often tried with success. Your lordship plainly sees by the event, that neither threats nor promises are made use of, where it is pretty well agreed that they would not be ineffectual. Voting against the court, and indeed against the kingdom, in the most important cases, has not been followed by the loss of places or pensions, unless in very few particulars, where the circumstances have been so extremely aggravating, that to have been passive would have argued the lowest weakness or fear. To instance only in the duke of Marlborough; who,, against the wholesome advice of those who consulted his true interest much better than his flatterers, would needs put all upon that desperate issue, of destroying the present ministry, or falling himself.
I believe, my lord, you are now fully convinced, that the queen is altogether averse from the thoughts of ever employing your party in her councils or her courts. You see a prodigious majority in the house of commons of the same sentiments; and the only quarrel against the treasurer is an opinion of more mildness toward your friends than it is thought they deserve; neither can you hope for better success in the next election, while her majesty continues her present servants, although the bulk of the people were better disposed to you than it is manifest they are. With all the advantages I lately mentioned, which a house of lords has over the commons, it is agreed that the pulse of the nation is much better felt by the latter than the former, because those represent the whole people; but your lordships (whatever some may pretend) do represent only your own persons. Now it has been the old complaint of your party, that the body of country gentlemen always leaned too much (since the revolution) to the tory side: and as your numbers were much lessened about two years ago, by a very unpopular quarrel[6], wherein the church thought itself deeply concerned; so you daily diminish, by your zeal against peace, which the landed men, half ruined by the war, do so extremely want and desire.
It is probable that some persons may, upon occasion, have endeavoured to bring you over to the present measures. If so, I desire to know whether such persons required of you to change any principles, relating to government either in church or state, in which you have been educated? or did you ever hear that such a thing was offered to any other of your party? I am sure, neither can be affirmed; and then it is plain, that principles are not concerned in the dispute. The two chief or indeed the only topicks of quarrel are, whether the queen shall choose her own servants; and, whether she shall keep her prerogative of making peace? And I believe there is no whig in England that will openly deny her power in either. As to the latter, which is the more avowed, her majesty has promised that the treaty shall be laid before her parliament; after which, if it be made without their approbation, and proves to be against the interest of the kingdom, the ministers must answer for it at their extremest peril. What is there in all this that can possibly affect your principles as a whig? or rather, my lord, are you not, by all sorts of principles lawful to own, obliged to acquiesce and submit to her majesty upon this article? But I suppose, my lord, you will not make a difficulty of confessing the true genuine cause of animosity to be, that those who are out of place would fain be in; and that the bulk of your party are the dupes of half a dozen, who are impatient at their loss of power. It is true, they would fain infuse into your lordship such strange opinions of the present ministry and their intentions, as none of themselves at all believe. Has your lordship observed the least step made toward giving any suspicion of a design to alter the succession, to introduce arbitrary power, or to hurt the toleration, unless you will reckon the last to have been damaged by the bill lately obtained against occasional conformity, which was your own act and deed[7], by a strain of such profound policy, and the contrivance of so profound a politician, that I cannot unravel it to the bottom.
Pray, my lord, give yourself leave to consider whence this indefatigable zeal is derived, that makes the heads of your party send you a hundred messages, accost you in all places, and remove Heaven and earth to procure your vote upon a pinch, whenever they think it lies in their way to distress the queen and ministry. Those who have already rendered themselves desperate have no other resource than in an utter change. But this is by no means your lordship's case. While others were at the head of affairs, you served the queen with no more share in them than what belonged to you as a peer; although perhaps you were inclined to their persons or proceedings, more than to those of the present set. Those who are now in power cannot justly blame you for doing so: neither can your friends out of place reproach you, if you go on to serve her majesty and make her easy in her government, unless they can prove that unlawful or unreasonable things are demanded of you. I cannot see how your conscience or honour are here concerned; or why people who have cast off all hope should desire you to embark with them against your prince, whom you have never directly offended. It is just as if a man who had committed a murder, and was flying his country, should desire all his friends and acquaintance to bear him company in his flight and banishment. Neither do I see how this will any way answer your interest; for, though it should possibly happen that your friends would be again taken into power, your lordship cannot expect they will admit you to the head of affairs, or even in the secret. Every thing of consequence is already bespoke. I can tell you who is to be treasurer, who chamberlain, and who to be secretaries. These offices, and many others, have been some time fixed; and all your lordship can hope for, is only the lieutenancy of a county, or some other honorary employment, or an addition to your title; or, if you were poor, perhaps a pension. And is not the way to any of these as fully open at present? and will you declare you cannot serve your queen unless you choose her ministry? Is this forsaking your principles? But that phrase is dropped of late, and they call it forsaking your friends. To serve your queen and country, while any but they are at the helm, is to forsake your friends. This is a new party figure of speech, which I cannot comprehend. I grant, my lord, that this way of reasoning is very just, while it extends no farther than to the several members of their juntoes and cabals; and I could point out half a score persons, for each of whom I should have the utmost contempt if I saw them making any overtures to be received into trust. Wise men will never be persuaded that such violent turns can proceed from virtue or conviction: and I believe you and your friends do in your own thoughts most heartily despise that ignominious example of apostacy[8], whom you outwardly so much caress. But you, my lord, who have shared no farther in the favour and confidence of your leaders than barely to be listed of the party, cannot honourably refuse serving her majesty, and contributing what is in your power to make her government easy, though her weighty affairs be not trusted to the hands where you would be glad to see them. One advantage your lordship may count upon by acting with the present ministry is, that you shall not undergo a state inquisition into your principles; but may believe as you please, in those points of government wherein so many writers perplex the world with their explanation. Provided you heartily renounce the pretender, you may suppose what you please of his birth; and if you allow her majesty's undoubted right, you may call it hereditary or parliamentary, as you think fit. The ministers will second your utmost zeal for securing the indulgence to protestant dissenters. They abhor arbitrary power as much as you. In short, there is no opinion properly belonging to you as a whig, wherein you may not still continue, and yet deserve the favour and countenance of the court; provided you offer nothing in violation of the royal prerogative, nor take the advantage in critical junctures to bring difficulties upon the administration, with no other view but that of putting the queen under the necessity of changing it. But your own party, my lord, whenever they return into play, will not receive you upon such easy terms, although they will have much more need of your assistance: they will vary their political catechism as often as they please; and you must answer directly to every article, as it serves the present turn. This is a truth too visible for you to call in doubt. How unanimous are you to a man in every point, whether of moment or no! whereas, upon our side, many stragglers have appeared in all divisions, even among those who believed the consequence of their dissent would be the worst we could fear; for which the courage, integrity, and moderation, of those at the helm cannot be sufficiently admired; though I question whether, in good politicks, the last ought always to be imitated.
If your lordship will please to consider the behaviour of the tories during the long period of this reign while their adversaries were in power, you will find it very different from that of your party at present. We opposed the grant to the duke of Marlborough till he had done something to deserve so great a reward; and then it was granted, nemine contradicente. We opposed repealing the test; which would level the church established with every snivelling sect in the nation. We opposed the bill of general naturalization, by which we were in danger to be overrun by schismaticks and beggars. The scheme of breaking into the statutes of colleges, which obliged the fellows to take holy orders; the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell; the hopeful project of limiting clergymen what to preach; with several others of the same stamp, were strenuously opposed, as manifestly tending to the ruin of the church. But you cannot give a single instance, where the least violation hath been offered to her majesty's undoubted prerogative, in either house, by the lords or commons of our side. We should have been glad indeed to have seen affairs in other management; yet we never attempted to bring it about by stirring up the city, or inviting foreign ministers to direct the queen in the choice of her servants, much less by infusing jealousies into the next heir. Endeavours were not publickly used to blast the credit of the nation, and discourage foreigners from trusting their money in our funds: nor were writers suffered openly, and in weekly papers, to revile persons in the highest employments. In short, if you can prove where the course of affairs, under the late ministry, was any way clogged by the church party, I will freely own the latter to have so far acted against reason and duty. Your lordship finds I would argue from hence, that even the warmest heads on your side, and those who are deepest engaged, have no tolerable excuse for thwarting the queen upon all occasions; much less you, my lord, who are not involved in their guilt or misfortunes, nor ought to involve yourself in their resentments.
I have often wondered with what countenance those gentlemen, who have so long engrossed the greatest employments, have shared among them the bounties of the crown and the spoils of the nation, and are now thrown aside with universal odium, can accost others, who either never received the favours of the court, or who must depend upon it for their daily support; with what countenance, I say, these gentlemen can accost such persons in their usual style: "My lord, you were always with us; you will not forsake your friends: you have been still right in your principles: let us join to a man, and the court will not be able to carry it!" and this frequently in points where whig and tory are no more concerned, than in the length or colour of your periwigs. Why all this industry to ply you with letters, messages, and visits, for carrying some peevish vote, which only serves to display inveterate pride, ill nature, and disobedience, without effect? Though you are flattered, it must possibly make the crown and ministry so uneasy, as to bring on the necessity of a change; which however is at best a design but ill becoming a good subject, or a man of honour. I shall say nothing of those who are fallen from their heights of power and profit, who then think all claim of gratitude for past favours cancelled. But you, my lord, upon whom the crown has never cast any peculiar marks of favour or displeasure, ought better to consider the duty you owe your sovereign, not only as a subject in general, but as a member of the peerage, who have been always the strenuous asserters of just prerogative against popular encroachments, as well as of liberty against arbitrary power! So that it is something unnatural, as well as unjust, for one of your order to oppose the most mild and gracious prince that ever reigned, upon a party pique, and in points where prerogative was never disputed.
But, after all, if there were any probable hopes of bringing things to another turn by these violent methods of your friends, it might then perhaps be granted that you acted at least a politick part: but surely the most sanguine among them could hardly have the confidence to insinuate to your lordship the probability of such an event during her majesty's life. Will any man of common understanding, when he has recovered his liberty after being kept long in the strictest bondage, return of his own accord to gaol, where he is sure of being confined for ever? This her majesty and millions of her subjects firmly believe to be exactly the case; and whether it be so or no, it is enough that it is so believed: and this belief is attended with as great an aversion for those keepers as a good christian can be allowed to entertain, as well as with a dread of ever being again in their power; so that, whenever the ministry may be changed, it will certainly not be to the advantage of your party, except under the next successor, which I hope is too remote a view for your lordship to proceed by; though I know some of your chiefs who build all their expectations upon it.
For indeed, my lord, your party is much deceived, when they think to distress a ministry for any long time, or to any great purpose, while those ministers act under a queen who is so firmly convinced of their zeal and ability for her service, and who is at the same time so thoroughly possessed of her people's hearts. Such a weight will infallibly at length bear down the balance: and, according to the nature of our constitution, it ought to be so; because, when any one of the three powers whereof our government is composed proves too strong for the other two, there is an end of our monarchy. So little are you to regard the crude politicks of those who cried out, "The constitution was in danger," when her majesty lately increased the peerage; without which it was impossible the two houses could have proceeded, with any concert, upon the most weighty affairs of the kingdom.
I know not any quarrels your lordship, as a member of the whig party, can have against the court, except those which I have already mentioned; I mean, the removal of the late ministry, the dismission of the duke of Marlborough, and the present negotiations of peace. I shall not say any thing farther upon these heads; only as to the second, which concerns the duke of Marlborough, give me leave to observe, that there is no kingdom or state in Christendom where a person in such circumstances would have been so gently treated. But it is the misfortune of princes, that the effects of their displeasure are frequently much more publick than the cause: the punishments are in the face of the world, when the crimes are in the dark; and posterity, without knowing the truth of things, may perhaps number us among the ungrateful populace of Greece and Rome, for discarding a general, under whose conduct our troops have been so many years victorious; whereas it is most certain, that this great lord's resolution against peace upon any terms whatsoever did reach the ministry at home as much as the enemy abroad: nay, his rage against the former was so much the more violent of the two, that, as it is affirmed by skilful computers, he spent more money here upon secret service in a few months, than he did for many years in Flanders. But, whether that be true or false, your lordship knows very well, that he resolved to give no quarter, whatever he might be content to take when he should find himself at mercy. And the question was brought to this issue, whether the queen should dissolve the present parliament, procure a new one of the whig stamp, turn out those who had ventured so far to rescue her from insolence and ill usage, and invite her old controllers to resume their tyranny with a recruited spirit of vengeance? or, whether she should save all this trouble, danger, and vexation, by only changing one general for another?
Whatever good opinion I may have of the present ministry, I do not pretend, by any thing I have said, to make your lordship believe that they are persons of sublime abstracted Roman virtue: but, where two parties divide a nation, it usually happens, that, although the virtues and vices may be pretty equal on both sides, yet the publick good of the country may suit better with the private interest of one side than of the other. Perhaps there may be nothing in it but chance; and it might so have happened, if things were to begin again, that the junto and their adherents would have found it their advantage to be obedient subjects, faithful servants, and good churchmen. However, since these parts happen to be acted by another set of men, I am not very speculative to inquire into the motives; but, having no ambition at heart to mislead me, I naturally side with those who proceed most by the maxims wherein I was educated. There was something like this in the quarrel between Cæsar and Pompey: Cato and Brutus were the two most virtuous men in Rome; the former did not much approve the intentions of the heads on either side; and the latter, by inclination, was more a friend to Cæsar: but, because the senate and people generally followed Pompey, and as Cæsar's party was only made up of the troops with which he conquered Gaul, with the addition of some profligate deserters from Rome, those two excellent men, who thought it base to stand neuter where the liberties of their country was at stake, joined heartily on that side which undertook to preserve the laws and constitution, against the usurpations of a victorious general, whose ambition was bent to overthrow them.
I cannot dismiss your lordship without a remark or two upon the bill for appointing commissioners to inquire into the grants since 1688, which was lately thrown out of your house, for no other reason than the hopes of putting the ministry to a plunge. It was universally known, that the lord treasurer had prevailed to wave the tack in the house of commons, and promised his endeavours to make the bill pass by itself in the house of lords. I could name at least live or six of your noble friends, who, if left to the guidance of their own opinion, would heartily concur to an entire resumption of those grants; others assure me they could name a dozen: yet, upon the hope of weakening the court, perplexing the ministry, and shaking the lord treasurer's credit in the house of commons, you went on so unanimously, that I do not hear there was one single negative in your whole list, nor above one whig lord guilty of a suspicious absence, who, being much in your lordship's circumstances, of a great patrimonial estate, and under no obligations to either side, did not think himself bound to forward a point, driven on merely to make the crown uneasy at this juncture, while it no way affected his principles as a whig, and which I am told was directly against his private judgment. How he has since been treated as an apostate and betrayer of his friends, by some of the leaders and their deputies among you, I hope your lordship is ashamed to reflect on: nor do I take such open and sudden declarations to be very wise, unless you already despair of his return, which, I think, after such usage, you justly may. For the rest, I doubt, your lordship's friends have missed every end they proposed to themselves in rejecting that bill. My lord treasurer's credit is not any way lessened in the house of commons. In your own house, you have been very far from making a division among the queen's friends; as appeared manifestly a few days ago, when you lost your vote by so great a majority, and disappointed those who had been encouraged to hire places, upon certain expectations of seeing a parade to the Tower[9]. Lastly, it may probably happen, that those who opposed an inquisition into the grants will be found to have hardly done any very great service to the present possessors. To charge those grants with six years purchase to the publick, and then to confirm the title by parliament, would, in effect, be no real loss to the owners, because, by such a confirmation, they would rise in value proportionably, and differ as much as the best title can from the worst. The adverse party knew very well, that nothing beyond this was intended; but they cannot be sure what may be the event of a second inspection, which the resentment of the house of commons will probably render more severe, and which you will never be able to avert when your number lessens, as it certainly must; and when the expedient is put in practice, without a tack, of making those grants part of a supply. From whence it is plain, that the zeal against that bill arose, in a great measure, from some other cause, than a tenderness to those who were to suffer by it.
I shall conclude, my lord, with putting you in mind, that you are a subject of the queen, a peer of the realm, and a servant of your country; and, in any of these capacities, you are not to consider what you dislike in the persons of those who are in the administration, but the manner of conducting themselves while they are in: and then I do not despair but your own good sense will fully convince you, that the prerogative of your prince, without which her government cannot subsist; the honour of your house, which has been always the great asserter of that prerogative; and the welfare of your country, are too precious to be made a sacrifice to the malice, the interest, and the ambition, of a few party leaders.
- ↑ Dr. Birch, in a note on this passage, supposes it to allude to the Letter from the Pretender, which however is not dated till July 8. It evidently relates to the larger letter.
It is not very clear whether this letter was addressed to any particular lord, or to a whig lord in general. By what is said p. 123, it seems intended for the earl of Nottingham; but there are some other particulars in it which contradict that supposition. If it was really addressed to an individual, it was probably to Richard Lumley, earl of Scarborough, with whom the circumstances of being of a very ancient family and of not having had any office under the queen will agree. - ↑ A clause to this purpose, proposed by the earl of Nottingham, and seconded by the earl of Scarborough, to be added to an address to the queen, Dec. 7, 1711, was earned by a majority of not above two voices.
- ↑ Charles Seymour, duke of Somerset.
- ↑ The creation of twelve new peers.
- ↑ This promotion was so ordered, that a third part were of those, on whom, or their posterity, the peerage would naturally devolve; and the rest were such, whose merit, birth, and fortune, could admit of no exception. Swift.
- ↑ The impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell.
- ↑ This bill was brought in Dec. 15, 1711, under a disguised title, by Daniel Finch, earl of Nottingham.
- ↑ If the earl of Nottingham is here meant, it will amount to a proof that this letter was designed for another peer.
- ↑ "We got a great victory last Wednesday [May 28], in the house of lords, by a majority, I think, of twenty-eight; and the whigs had desired their friends to take places, to see lord treasurer carried to the Tower." Journal to Stella, May 31, 1712. — The motion was, "To address her majesty, that she would be pleased to send orders to her general [the duke of Ormond] to act, in concert with her allies, offensively against France, in order to obtain a safe and honourable peace," This passing in the negative, a protest was entered, and signed by twenty-seven lords; but the reasons for it were ordered to be expunged from the journals on the 13th of June following.