Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/133

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^[1], 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^[2], 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

1. Charles Seymour, duke of Somerset.
2. The creation of twelve new peers.