our public credit continues unimpaired, and if we are in want of bullion, it lies in our own power to supply ourselves. The old Roman general, when he heard his army complain of thirst, showed them the springs and rivers that lay behind the enemy's camp. It is our own case: the rout of a Spanish army would make us masters of the Indies. If prince Eugene takes upon him the command of the confederate forces in Catalonia, and meets with that support from the alliance, which they are capable of giving him, we have a fair prospect of reducing Spain to the entire obedience of the house of Austria. The Silesian fund (to the immortal reputation of those generous patriots who were concerned in it) enabled that prince to make a conquest of Italy, at a time when our affairs were more desperate there, than they are at present in the kingdom of Spain. When our parliament has done their utmost, another public-spirited project of the same nature, which the common enemy could not foresee nor prepare against, might, in all probability, set king Charles upon the throne for which he hath so long contended. One pitched battle would determine the fate of the Spanish continent. Let us, therefore, exert the united strength of our whole island, and by that means put a new life and spirit into the confederates, who have their eyes fixed upon us, and will abate or increase their preparations according to the example that is set them. We see the necessity of an augmentation if we intend to bring the enemy to reason, or rescue our country from the miseries that may befall it; and we find ourselves in a condition of making such 238 PRESENT STATE OF THE WAR, ETC. an augmentation as, by the blessing of God, cannot but prove effectual. If we carry it on vigorously, we shall gain for ourselves and our posterity, a long, a glorious, and a lasting peace; but if we neglect so fair an opportunity, we may be willing to employ all our hands, and all our treasures, when it will be too late; and shall be tormented with one of the most melancholy reflections of an afflicted heart, that it was once in our power to have made ourselves and our children happy. THE LATE TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF COUNT TARIFF'. THE whole nation is at present very inquisitive after the proceedings in the cause of Goodman Fact, plaintiff, and count Tariff, defendant; as it was tried on the eighteenth of June, in the thirteenth year of her majesty's reign, and in the year of the Lord 1713. I shall therefore give my countrymen a short and faithful account of that whole matter. And in order to it, must in the first place premise some particulars relating to the person and character of the said plaintiff, Goodman Fact. Goodman Fact is allowed by everybody to be a 1 This humorous paper relates to the Tariff, as it is called, or treaty of commerce, declaring the duties of import and export, which the ministry had agreed to at the peace of Utrecht. A bill, which the commons had ordered to be brought in, for the confirmation of that treaty, occasioned great debates, and was at length thrown out by a small majority. This fate of the Tariff was thought to reflect no small disgrace on the makers of the peace, and was matter of great triumph to the whig party. See the particulars in Burnet, under the year 1713, and in Tindal's Continuation. HURD. VOL. III. Y |