The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 3/The Examiner, Number 43
NUMBER XLIII.
THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1711.
Scilicet, ut posses curvo dignoscere rectum.
That hence you may distinguish right from wrong.
HAVING been forced in my papers to use the cant words of whig and tory, which have so often varied their significations for twenty years past, I think it necessary to say something of the several changes those two terms have undergone since that period; and then to tell the reader what I have always understood by each of them, since I undertook this work. I reckon that these sorts of conceited appellations, are usually invented by the vulgar; who, not troubling themselves to examine thoroughly the merits of a cause, are consequently the most violent partisans of what they espouse, and in their quarrels usually proceed to their beloved argument of calling names, until at length they light upon one which is sure to stick: and in time, each party grows proud of that appellation, which their adversaries at first intended for a reproach. Of this kind were the prasini and veneti, the guelfs and gibelines, hugonots and papists, roundheads and cavaliers, with many others of ancient and modern date. Among us, of late, there seems to have been a barrenness of invention in this point; the words whig and tory, although they be not much above thirty years old, having been pressed to the service of many successions of parties, with very different ideas fastened to them. This distinction, I think, began toward the latter part of king Charles the second's reign, was dropped during that of his successor, and then revived at the Revolution; since which it has perpetually flourished, although applied to very different kinds of principles and persons. In that convention of lords and commons, some of both houses were for a regency to the prince of Orange, with a reservation of style and title to the absent king, which should be made use of in all publick acts: others, when they were brought to allow the throne vacant, thought the succession should immediately go to the next heir, according to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, as if the last king were actually dead. And although the dissenting lords (in whose house the chief opposition was) did at last yield both those points, took the oaths to the new king, and many of them, employments; yet they were looked upon with an evil eye, by the warm zealots of the other side; neither did the court ever heartily favour any of them, although some of them were of the most eminent for abilities and virtue, and served that prince, both in his councils and his army, with untainted faith. It was apprehended at the same time, and perhaps it might have been true, that many of the clergy would have been better pleased with the scheme of a regency, or at least an uninterrupted lineal succession, for the sake of those whose consciences were truly scrupulous; and they thought there were some circumstances in the case of the deprived bishops, that looked a little hard, or at least deserved commiseration.
These, and other the like reflections, did, as I conceive, revive the denominations of whig and tory.
Some time after the Revolution, the distinction of high and low church came in, which was raised by the dissenters, in order to break the church party by dividing the members into high and low; and the opinions raised, that the high joined with the papists, inclined the low to fall in with the dissenters.
And here I shall take leave to produce some principles, which, in the several periods of the late reign, served to denote a man of one or the other party. To be against a standing army in time of peace, was all highchurch, tory, and tantivy; to differ from a majority of bishops, was the same. To raise the prerogative above law for serving a turn, was low church and whig. The opinion of the majority in the house of commons, especially of the country party or landed interest, was high-flying and rank tory. To exalt the king's supremacy beyond all precedent, was low-church, whiggish, and moderate. To make the least doubt of the pretended prince's being suppositious, and a tiler's son, was in their phrase top and topgallant, and perfect jacobitism. To resume the most exorbitant grants that were ever given to a set of profligate favourites, and apply them to the publick, was the very quintessence of toryism; notwithstanding those grants were known to be acquired by sacrificing the honour and the wealth of England.
In most of these principles, the two parties seem to have shifted opinions, since their institution under king Charles the second; and indeed to have gone very different from what was expected from each, even at the time of the Revolution. But as to that concerning the pretender, the whigs have so far renounced it, that they are grown the great advocates for his legitimacy: which gives me the opportunity of vindicating a noble duke, who was accused of a blunder in the house, when, upon a certain lord's mentioning the pretended prince, his grace told the lords, he must be plain with them, and call that person, not the pretended prince, but the pretended impostor: which was so far from a blunder in that polite lord, as his ill-willers give out, that it was only a refined way of delivering the avowed sentiments of his whole party.
But to return: this was the state of principles, when the queen came to the crown; some time after which, it pleased certain great persons, who had been all their lives in the altitude of tory profession, to enter into a treaty with the whigs, from whom they could get better terms than from their old friends; who began to be resty, and would not allow monopolies of power and favour, nor consent to carry on the war entirely at the expense of this nation, that they might have pensions from abroad; while another people, more immediately concerned in the war, traded with the enemy as in times of peace; whereas the other party, whose case appeared then as desperate, was ready to yield to any conditions that would bring them into play. And I cannot help affirming, that this nation was made a sacrifice to the immeasurable appetite of power and wealth in a very few, that shall be nameless, who, in every step they made, acted directly against what they had always professed. And if his royal highness the prince[1] had died some years sooner (who was a perpetual check in their career) it is dreadful to think how far they might have proceeded.
Since that time, the bulk of the whigs appears rather to be linked to a certain set of persons, than any certain set of principles; so that, if I were to define a member of that party, I should say, he was one who believed in the late ministry. And therefore, whatever I have affirmed of whigs in any of these papers, or objected against them, ought to be understood, either of those who were partisans of the late men in power, and privy to their designs; or such, who joined with them from a hatred to our monarchy and church, as unbelievers and dissenters of all sizes; or men in office, who had been guilty of much corruption, and dreaded a change, which would not only put a stop to farther abuses for the future, but might perhaps introduce examinations of what was past; or those, who had been too highly obliged to quit their supporters with any common decency; or lastly, the money-traders, who could never hope to make their markets so well of premiums, and exorbitant interest, and high remittances, under any other administration.
Under these heads, may be reduced the whole body of those, whom I have all along understood for whigs; for I do not include within this number any of those, who have been misled by ignorance, or seduced by plausible pretences, to think better of that sort of men than they deserve, and to apprehend mighty danger from their disgrace; because I believe the greatest part of such well-meaning people, are now thoroughly converted.
And indeed it must be allowed, that the two fantastick names of whig and tory, have, at present, very little relation to those opinions, which were at first thought to distinguish them. Whoever formerly professed himself to approve the Revolution, to be against the pretender, to justify the succession in the house of Hanover, to think the British monarchy not absolute, but limited by laws which the executive power could not dispense with, and to allow an indulgence to scrupulous consciences; such man was content to be called a whig. On the other side, whoever asserted the queen's hereditary right, that the persons of princes were sacred, their lawful authority not to be resisted on any pretence; nor even their usurpations, without the most extreme necessity; that breaches in the succession were highly dangerous; that schism was a great evil, both in itself and its consequences; that the ruin of the church would probably be attended with that of the state; that no power should be trusted with those who are not of the established religion; such a man was usually called a tory. Now, although the opinions of both these are very consistent, and I really think are maintained at present by a great majority of the kingdom; yet according as men apprehend the danger greater, either from the pretender and his party, or from the violence and cunning of other enemies to the constitution, so their common discourses and reasonings turn either to the first, or second set of these opinions, I have mentioned; and they are consequently styled either whigs or tories. Which is as if two brothers apprehended their house would be set upon, but disagreed about the place whence they thought the robbers would come, and therefore would go on different sides to defend it; they must needs weaken and expose themselves by such a separation; and so did we, only our case was worse; for, in order to keep off a weak remote enemy, from whom we could not suddenly apprehend any danger, we took a nearer and a stronger one into the house. I make no comparison at all between the two enemies; popery and slavery are without doubt the greatest and most dreadful of any; but I may venture to affirm, that the fears of these have not, at least since the Revolution, been so close and pressing upon us, as that from another faction; excepting only one short period; when the leaders of that very faction invited the abdicating king to return; of which I have formerly taken notice.
Having thus declared what sort of persons I have always meant under the denomination of whigs, it will be easy to show whom I understand by tories. Such, whose principles in church and state are what I have above related; whose actions are derived thence, and who have no attachment to any set of ministers, farther than as they are friends to the constitution in all its parts; but will do their utmost to save their prince and country, whoever be at the helm.
By these descriptions of whig and tory, I am sensible those names are given to several persons very undeservedly; and that many a man is called by one or the other, who has not the least title to the blame or praise I have bestowed on each of them, throughout my papers.