'Twill be necessary that I trouble the House with an account of the Time and Occasion whence this Payment of Two and Half per Cent. by the Foreign Troops commenced.
During the last War, the Allowance by Parliament for the Contingencies of the Army, of which that of Secret Service is the principal, was Fifty Thousand Pounds per Annum; but this Allowance fell so far short of the Expense on that Head, that upon the Prospect of this War's breaking out, the Late King assured me, That this part of the Service never cost him less than Seventy Thousand Pounds a year; However the Allowance of Parliament for the whole Contingent Service during this War, has been but Ten Thousand Pounds per annum; Three Thousand Pounds of which, or thereabouts, has generally gone for other Contingencies, than that of Intelligence. The Late King being unwilling to come to Parliament for more Money on that Head of the Service, proposed this Allowance from the Foreign Troops, as an Expedient to assist that part of the Service, and Commanded me to make the Proposition to them; which I did accordingly, and it was readily Consented to. By this Means a New Fund of about Fifteen Thousand Pounds per annum, was provided for carrying on the Secret Service, without any Expense to the Publick, or grievance to the Troops from whom the Allowance was made: For when the Publick pays, those Troops are not at all affected, or one Farthing increased in Consideration of this Deduction; nor is there in any Conventions for them any weight laid upon it, the Hire of Foreign Troops being governed by settled Rules and Treaties, and the Convention of the States for them, being in the same Terms.
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The true design of this Deduction being to supply the Secret Service, Gentlemen, I hope, you will observe that this, together with the Article of the Allowance by Parliament, when put together, doth fall short of the Allowance given by Parliament, in the last War, upon this Head.
THE TORIES AND THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (1712).
Source.—Swift: The Conduct of the Allies. Vol. v., pp. 66-72. Swift's Works, Bohn edition.
At the Revolution, a general war broke out in Europe, wherein many princes joined in an alliance against France, to check the ambitious designs of that monarch; and here the emperor, the Dutch, and England were principals. About this time the custom first began among us of borrowing millions upon funds of interest: It was pretended, that the war could not possibly last above one or two campaigns; and that the debts contracted might be easily paid in a few years, by a gentle tax, without burthening the subject. But the true reason for embracing this expedient, was the security of a new prince, not firmly settled on the throne: People were tempted to lend, by great premiums and large interest, and it concerned them nearly to preserve that government, which they trusted with their money. The person[30] said to have been author of so detestable a project, is still living, and lives to see some of its fatal consequences, whereof his grandchildren will not see an end. And this pernicious counsel closed very well with the posture of affairs at that time: For, a set of upstarts, who had little or no part in the Revolution, but valued themselves by their noise and pretended zeal when the work was over, were got into credit at court, by the merit of becoming undertakers and projectors of loans and funds: These, finding that the gentlemen of estates were not willing to come into their measures, fell upon those new schemes of raising money, in order to create a monied interest, that might in time vie with the landed, and of which they hoped to be at the head.
The ground of the first war, for ten years after the Revolution, as to the part we had in it, was, to make France acknowledge the late king, and to recover Hudson's Bay. But during that whole war, the sea was almost entirely neglected, and the greatest part of six millions annually employed to enlarge the frontier of the Dutch. For the king was a general, but not an admiral; and although King of England, was a native of Holland.
After ten years fighting to little purpose; after the loss of above an hundred thousand men, and a debt remaining of twenty millions, we at length hearkened to the terms of a peace, which was concluded with great advantages to the empire and Holland, but none at all to us;[31] and clogged soon after by the famous treaty of partition;[32] by which, Naples, Sicily, and Lorrain, were to be added to the French dominions; or if that crown should think fit to set aside the treaty, upon the Spaniards refusing to accept it, as they declared they would, to the several parties at the very time of transacting it; then the French would have pretensions to the whole monarchy. And so it proved in the event; for the late King of Spain reckoning it an indignity to have his territories cantoned out into parcels, by other princes, during his own life, and without his consent, rather chose to bequeath the monarchy entire to a younger son of France: And this prince[33] was acknowledged for King of Spain both by us and Holland.
It must be granted, that the counsels of entering into this war were violently opposed by the church-party, who first advised the late king to acknowledge the Duke of Anjou; and particularly, 'tis affirmed that a certain great person,[34] who was then in the church interest, told the king in November, 1701, That since His Majesty was determined to engage in a war so contrary to his private opinion, he could serve him no longer, and accordingly gave up his employment; though he happened afterwards to change his mind, when he was to be at the head of the Treasury, and have the sole management of affairs at home; while those abroad were to be in the hands of one, whose advantage, by all sorts of ties, he was engaged to promote.