antagonist, or to reflect any praise in an oblique manner upon the Letter to the Examiner:' I have no private confiderations to warp me in this controversy, fince my first entering upon it. But before I proceed any further, because it may be of great ufe to me in this difpute, to ftate the whole nature of nonfense; and because it is a fubject entirely new, I must take notice that there are two kinds of it, viz. high nonsense and low nonsense.

Low nonfenfe is the talent of a cold phlegmatic temper, that in a poor difpirited ftile creeps along fervitely through darknefs and confufion. A writer of this complexion gropes his way foftly amongft felf-contradictions, and grovels in abfurdities.

Videri vult pauper, & eft pauper.

He has neither wit nor fenfe, and pretends to none. On the contrary, your high nonfenfe blusters and makes a noife: it thakes upon hard words, and rattles through polyfyllables. It is loud and fonorous, smooth and periodical. It has fomething in it like manliness and force, and makes one think of the name of Sir ·Hercules Nonfenfe in the play called, the Neft of Fools." In a word, your high nonfenfe has a majestic appearance, and wears a moft tremendous garb, like fup's afs cloathed in a lion's skin.

When Ariftotle lay upon his death-bed, and was afked whom he fhould appoint for his fucceffor in the school, two of his fcholars being candidates for it; he called for two different forts of wine, and by the character which he gave of them, denoted the different qualities and perfections that fhewed themfelves in the ftile and writings of each of the competitors. As rational writings have been reprefented by wine; I fhall reprefent thofe kind of writings we are now speaking of, by fmall-beer.

Low nonfenfe is like that in the barrel which is altogether flat, taftelefs, and infipid. High nonfenfe is like that in the bottle, which has in reality no more ftrength

and

and spirit than the other, but frets, and flies, and bounces, and by the help of a little wind that is got into it, imitates the paffions of a much nobler liquor.

We meet with a low groveling nonfenfe in every Grub-freet production; but I think there are none of our prefent writers who have hit the fublime in nonfenfe, befides Doctor Sacheverell in divinity, and the author of this letter in politics; between whofe character in their respective profeflions, there feems to be a very nice resemblance.

There is still another qualification in nonfenfe which I muft not pass over, being that which gives it the last finishing and perfection, and eminently difcovers itself in the letter to the Examiner.-This is when an author without any meaning, feems to have it; and fo impofes upon us by the found and ranging of his words, that one is apt to fancy they fignify fomething. Any one who reads this letter, as he goes through it, will lie under the fame delufion; but after having read it, let him confider what he has learnt from it, and he will immediately discover the deceit. I did not indeed at firft imagine there was in it fuch a jargon of ideas, fuch an inconfiftency of notions, fuch a confufion of particles, that rather puzzle than connect the sense, which in fome places he feems to have aimed at, as I found upon my nearer perufal of it: Nevertheless, as no body writes a book without meaning fomething, though he may not have the faculty of writing confequentially, and expreffing his meaning; I think I have with a great deal of attention and difficulty found out what this Gentleman would say, had he the gift of utterance. The fyftem of his politics, when difembroiled and cleared of all thofe incoherences and independent matters that are woven in this motley piece, will be as follows: The conduct of the late miniftry is confidered first of all in refpect to foreign affairs, and fecondly to domeftic: As to the firft he tells us, that the motives which engaged Britain in the prefent war, were both wife and generous;' fo that the miniftry is cleared as to that particular.

particular. These motives he tells us were to restore the Spanifb monarchy to the house of Auftria, and to regain a barrier for Holland. The last of these two motives, he says, was effectually answered by the reduction of the Netherlands in the year 1706, or might have been fo by the conceffions which it is notorious that the enemy offered.' So that the miniftry are here blamed for not contenting themselves with the barrier they had gained in the year 1706, nor with the conceffions which the enemy then offered. The other motive of our entering into the war, viz. The reftoring the Spanife monarchy to the houfe of Auftria,' he tells us, remained ftill in its full force; and we were told,' fays he, that though the barrier of Holland was fecured, the trade of Britain and the balance of power in Europe would be ftill precarious: Spain therefore must be conquered.' He then lofes himself in matter foreign to his purpose: But what he endeavours in the fequel of his difcourfe, is to fhew, that we have not taken the proper method to recover theSpanish monarchy: that the whole ftrefs of the war has been wantonly laid where France is beft able to keep us at a bay; that the French King has made it impoffible for himself to give up Spain, and that the Duke of Anjou has made it as impoffible for us to conquer it: Nay, that inftead of regaining Spain, we fhall find the Duke of Anjou in a condition to pay the debt of gratitude, and fupport the grandfather in his declining years, by whofe arms in the days of his infancy he was upheld' He then intimates to us, that the Dutch and the Emperor will be fo very well fatisfied with what they have already conquered, that they may probably leave the houfe of Bourbon in the quiet poffeffion of the Spanish monarchy.

This ftrange huddle of politics has been fo fully anfwered by General Stanhope, that if the author had delayed the publishing of his letter but a fortnight, the world would have been deprived of this elaborate production. Notwithstanding all that the French King or

the

the Duke of Anjou have been able to do, notwithstanding the feeble efforts we have made in Spain, notwithstanding the little care the Emperor takes to fupport King Charles,' notwithstanding the Dutch might have been contented with a larger and better country ⚫ than their own already conquered for them,' that victorious General at the head of English and Dutch forces, in conjunction with those of the Emperor, has wrested Spain out of the hands of the houfe of Bourbon; and added the conquests of Navarre, Arragon, and Caftile, to thofe of Catalonia, Bavaria, Flanders, Mantua, Milan, Naples, Sicily, Majorca, Minorca, and Sardinia. Such a wonderful series of victories, and those astonishing returns of ingratitude which they have met with, appear both of them rather like dreams than realities: They puzzle and confound the present age, and it is to be hoped they will not be believed by pofterity. Will the trifling author of this letter fay, that the ministry did not apply themselves to the reduction of Spain, when the whole kingdom was twice conquered in their adminiftration? The letter-writer fays, that the Dutch had gained a good barrier after the battle of Ramilliés

in the Year 1706. But I would fain afk him, whether he thinks Antwerp and Bruffels, Ghent and Bruges, could be thought a stronger barrier, or that thofe important conquefts did not want feveral towns and forts to cover them? but it seems our great General on that fide has done more for us than we expected of him, and made the barrier too impregnable. But, fays the letterwriter, the ftrefs of the war was laid in the wrong place. But if the laying the stress of the war in the Low-Countries drew thither the whole ftrength of France; if it weakened Spain, and left it exposed to an equal force; if France, without being preffed on this fide, could have affifted the Duke of Anjou with a numerous army; and if by the advantage of the fituation, it could have fent and maintained in Spain ten regi 'ments with as little trouble and expence as England could two regiments; every impartial judge would VOL. II. Р

think

think that the ftrefs of the war has been laid in the right place.

The author of this confufed differtation on foreign affairs, would fain make us believe, that England has gained nothing by these conquefts, and put us out of Lumour with our chief allies, the Emperor and the Dutch. He tells us, they hoped England would have ⚫ been taken care of, after having fecured a barrier for Holland: As if England were not taken care of by this very fecuring a barrier for Holland; which has always been looked upon as our bulwark, or as Mr. Waller expreffes it, our outguard on the continent;' and which, if it had fallen into the hands of the French, would have made France more ftrong by fea than all Europe befides. Has not England been taken care of by gaining a new mart in Flanders, by opening our trade into the Levant, by fecuring ports for us in Gibraltar, Minorca and Naples, and by that happy profpect we have of renewing that great branch of our commerce into Spain, which will be of more advantage to England, than any conqueft we can make of towns and provinces? not to mention the demolishing of Dunkirk, which we were in a fair way of obtaining during the laft parliament, and which we never fo much as propofed to ourselves at our firft engaging in this war.

As for this author's afperfions of the Dutch and Germans, I have fometimes wondered that he has not been complained of for it to the fecretary of ftate. Had he not been looked upon as an infignificant fcribbler, he muft have occafioned remonftrances and memorials: Such national injuries are not to be put up, but when the offender is below refentment. This puts me in mind of an honeft Scotchman, who, as he was walking along the streets of London, heard one calling out after him, Scot, Scot, and cafting forth in a clamorous manner a great deal of opprobious language againft that ancient nation: Sarney turned about in a great paffion. and found, to his furprise, that the person who abufed him was a faucy parrot that hung up not far

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