tax his prince of capriciousness, inconstancy, or ill-design. Such reasons indeed may not be obvious to persons prejudiced, or at a great distance, or short thinkers; and therefore, if there be no secrets of state, nor any ill consequences to be apprehended from their publication, it is no uncommendable work in any private hand, to lay them open for the satisfaction of all men. And if what 1 have already said, or shall hereafter say, of this kind, be thought to reflect upon persons, although none have been named, I know not how it can possibly be avoided. The queen in her speech, mentions with great concern, that "the navy and other offices are burdened with heavy debts; and desires, that the like may be prevented for the time to come." And if it be now possible to prevent the continuance of an evil, that has been so long growing upon us, and is arrived to such a height; surely those corruptions and mismanagements must have been great, which first introduced them, before our taxes were eaten up by annuities.
If I were able to rip up, and discover in all their colours, only about eight or nine thousand of the most scandalous abuses, that have been committed in all parts of publick management, for twenty years past, by a certain set of men and their instruments, I should reckon it some service to my country and posterity. But, to say the truth, I should be glad the authors names were conveyed to future times, along with their actions. For although the present age may understand well enough the little hints we give, the parallels we draw, and the characters we describe; yet all this will be lost to the next. However, if these papers, reduced into a more durable
