f^gU- pdliticfii pt'dgre/s of Britain. 4j 



To Dr Swift, chiefly', we are indebted for having 

 escaped the destruction of another campaign. Hia 

 pamphlet, distinguiftjed for boldnefs, perspicuity, and 

 clafsical simplicity, excited a sort of political earth- 

 quake ; and, more than all his admirable verses, muit 

 endear him to distant posterity. Yet, even at this day, 

 we are deafened about the glorious victories of the 

 duke of Marlborough, and though by the death of 

 the emperor Joseph, the object of dispute was utter- 

 ly extinguifiied, a crowd of authors, even at this day, 

 lament that our commander was c!;iecked in the ca- 

 reer of pillage and butchery. Happy might it have 

 been for this country, had IMarlborcugh, with all his 

 forces, periflied on the field of Blenheim ; since it 

 may be supposed, that such a stroke would at once 

 have blasted our crusades upon the continent. As if 

 his Grace had not enjoyed sufficient opportunities of 

 plundering the treasury flf the nation, as if the ma- 

 nor of Woodstock, the palace of Blenheim *, and an 

 hundred thousand pounds a-year f, had not been a- 

 dequate to the services of himself and his dutchefs ^ 

 we are saddled with an annual payment of five thou- 

 sand pounds to his family for ever. When a consti- 

 tution, deserving that name, fhall succeed our present 

 political anarchy. It is not difficult to foresee some of 

 the first objects of reformation. The earl of Cha- 

 tham enjoys four tliousand pounds a-year, because 



• Dr Swift estimates Woodstock at forty thousand pounds, and adds, 

 that Blenheim hou3-2 had cost two hundred thousand pounds, and was aC 

 the time of h's writing u/tfvijhcd. 



t Thj sum h,'.s been ataVid h'g'-er, but SJch comp'Jtatioa* are always 

 in part at randona. 



