The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 10: Historical WritingsSwift, Jonathan
History
The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 10: Historical Writings
Swift, Jonathan
Anne, Queen of Great Britain, 1665-1714; Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714; Spanish Succession, War of, 1701-1714
This also hath been the occasion that your Majesty hath
been straitened in your convoys for trade; your coasts have been
exposed, for want of a sufficient number of cruisers to guard them; and
you have been disabled from annoying the enemy, in their most beneficial
commerce with the West Indies, from whence they received those vast
supplies of treasure, without which they could not have supported the
expenses of this war.
"That part of the war which hath been carried on in Flanders, was at
first immediately necessary to the security of the States General, and
hath since brought them great acquisitions, both of revenue and
dominion; yet even there the original proportions have been departed
from, and, during the course of the war, have been sinking by degrees on
the part of Holland; so that in this last year, we find the number in
which they fell short of their three-fifths, to your Majesty's
two-fifths, have been twenty thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven
men: we are not unmindful, that in the year one thousand seven hundred
and three, a treaty was made between the two nations, for a joint
augmentation of twenty thousand men, wherein the proportions were
varied, and England consented to take half upon itself. But it having
been annexed as an express condition to the grant of the said
augmentation in Parliament, that the States General should prohibit all
trade and commerce with France, and that condition having not been
performed by them, the Commons think it reasonable, that the first rule
of three to two ought to have taken place again, as well in that as in
other subsequent augmentations, more especially when they consider, that
the revenues of those rich provinces which have been conquered, would,
if they were duly applied, maintain a great number of new additional
forces against the common enemy; notwithstanding which, the States
General have raised none upon that account, but make use of those fresh
supplies of money, only to ease themselves in the charge of their first
established quota.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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