Majefty to judge, what Effect this intire Change of your Minifters will have among your Allies abroad, and how well this War is like to be carried on, in their Opinion, by those who have all along oppofed and obftructed it, and who will like any Peace the better, the more it leaves France at liberty, to take their time of impofing the Pretender upon this Country.

Thefe Confiderations muft certainly make Holland run immediately into a separate Peace with France, and make your Majefty lofe all the Honour, and all the Reputation your Arms had acquired by the War; and make the Kingdom lofe all the Fruits of that vaft Expence which they have been at in this War, as well as all the Advantage and Safety which they had fo much Need of and had fo fair a Profpect of obtaining by it. And can any body imagine that after fo great a Difappointment of the Kingdom, there will not be an Inquiry into the Caufes of it; and who have been the Occafion of fo great a Change in your Majefty's Measures and Counfels, which had been fo long fuccefsful, and gotten you fo great a Name in the World? I am very much afraid your Majefty will find, when it is too late, that it will be a pretty difficult Task for any body to ftand against such an Inquiry. I am fure if I did not think all thefe Confequences inevitable, I would never give your Majefty the Trouble and Uneafinefs of laying them before you. But, perfuaded as I am that your Majefty will find them fo, it is my indifpenfible Duty to do it out of pure Faithfulness and Zeal for your Majefty's Service and Honour. Your Majefty having taken a Refolution of fo much Confequence to all your Af

fairs both at Home and Abroad, without acquainting the Duke of Marlborough or me with it, till after you had taken it, is the leaft Part of my Mortification in this whole Affair. Though perhaps the World may think the long and faithful Services we have conftantly and zealously endeavoured to do your Majefty, might have deferved a little more Confideration. However, for my own Part, I moft humbly beg leave to. affure your Majefty, I will never give the leaft Obftruction to your Meafures, or to any Minifters you fhall pleafe to employ. And I must beg further, to make two humble Requests to your Majefty, the one, that you will allow me to pass the Remainder of Life always out of London, where I may find moft Eafe and Quiet. The other, that you would keep this Letter and read it again about next Chriftinas, and then be pleaf-. ed to make your own Judgment, who hath given you the best and most faithful Advice.

New-market, April 15, 1710.

I am, &c.

LETTER LXXIV.

Duke of Marlborough to Queen Anne on bis Difmiffion.

Madam,

Am very fenfible of the Honour your Majefty does me in difmiffing me from your Service by a Letter of your own Hand, though I find

F 4

by

by it that my Enemies have been able to prevail with your Majefty to do it in the Manner that is moft injurious to me. And if their Malice and Inveteracy against me had not been more powerful with them than the Confideration of your Majefty's Honour and Justice, they would not have influenced you to impute the Occafion of my Difmiffion to a falfe and malicious Infinuation contrived by themselves, and made public, when there was no Opportunity for me to give in my Answer; which, they must needs be confcious would fully detect the Falfhood and Malice of their Afperfions, and not leave them that Handle for bringing your Majesty to such Extremities against me.

But I am much more concerned at an Expreffion in your Majefty's Letter, which seems to complain of the Treatment you had met with. I know not how to understand that Word, nor what Conftruction to make of it. I know I have always endeavoured to ferve your Majefty faithfully and zealously, through a great many undeferved Mortifications. But if your Majefty does intend by that Expreffion to find fault with my not coming to the Cabinet Council, I am very free to acknowledge that my Duty to your Majefty and my Country would not give me leave to join in the Counsel of a Man, who, in my Opinion, puts your Majefty upon all manner of Extremities. And it is not my Opinion only, but the Opinion of all Mankind, that the FriendShip of France must needs be Destructive to your Majefty: there being in that Court a Root of Enmity irreconcilable to your Majesty's Government, and the Religion of thefe Kingdoms. I wish your Majefty may never find the Want of fo

faithful

faithful a Servant, as I have always endeavoured to approve myself to you. I am with the greateft Duty and Submiffion,

Madam,

Your Majesty's most dutiful and

Obedient Subject,

MARLBOROUGH

1

LETTER LXXV.

Dennis to Walter Moyle Efq;

Dear Sir,

γου

OU know a grave Fellow affures us, that upon the Ceflation of Oracles, lamentable Cries were heard in the Air, proclaiming along the Coafts the Death of the great Pan and have not you, upon this Death of good Sense, and this Ceffation of Wit, tell me truly, have not you heard

Thefe Sounds upon the Cornish Shore,

The Sage* Will. Urwine is no more.

Gone is the univerfal Lord of Wit! he to whom all the Wits paid Homage; for whom his Subjects fet a Tax upon Words, and laid exorbitant Cuftoms on Thoughts: he's dead; alas, he's dead!

Dead, I mean, Sir, in a legal Capacity; that is, out-law'd and gone into the Friars; to go into which, is once more to out-law himfelf: he has

* A Coffee-Man in Covent-Garden.

F. 5

done

done it, Sir, and ill Fortune has brought him to be a Felo de fe that way. For fince the Law thought it but juft to put Will out of its Protection, Will thought it but prudent to put himfelf out of its Power. And fince the Law could ufe him with fo much Contempt, as to declare to all the World that it does not care for Will. Urwine; Will, who is extremely ftout in Adverfity, has declar'd by his Actions, that he does not care for the Law. Virgil tells us in his fixth Book, that the Souls in Hell were bufied about the fame things in which they were employed upon Earth; even so does Sage Will ufe the fame Nutmeg-grater, and the fame Tea-pot in the Friars, that he handled before in Bow-ftreet. Thus has he left the Wits without any Sorrow, tho' he loves them, and without taking any Leave of them. For Will thinks they cannot be long from him; and he lays, he expects that in a very little time his old Company fhould be conftant at his New House. And doft not thou think that they too have reafon to expect the very fame Thing? For as the Death of any Man ought to put all his Friends in mind, that he went before but to lead them the Way; fo Will's Departure from this miferable Life, this lewd Covent-garden Life, and his ferrying from Somerfet-ftairs to the infernal Shore of Alfatia, fhould be a Memento to the rest of the Wits, that he is but gone whither they all muft follow.

To leave off poetical Similes, this Body Politic is in a curfed Condition, and cannot keep long together without a Head. The Members are at present in a grave Debate how to get one. Tomorrow the whole House will refolve itself into a grand