Stalls, without end, anticipate the doom
Of British chargers, forced to march, at noon,
Beneath their riders' weight and scorching sun."
Swinney then gives in a note what he calls the genuine queries proposed by Prince Ferdinand, with Sackville's answer: which answer is nearly as void of distinct meaning as the poetry, but in favour I think of risking a battle. The general purport, however, foreshadows what Swinney's conclusion would have been—that Sackville, the friend of the British soldier, protested against the frauds by which they were robbed and starved; protested against their being called on to do all the work, and run all the risks of the campaign; and disdains to humour or flatter Prince Ferdinand. These were, in brief, the explanations given by Sackville's friends as the cause of his disgrace—Granby the favoured, a gallant soldier indeed, but a mere soldier, being comparatively indifferent about such commissarial matters, and much more easily deceived by the cunning of the selfish Germans and English. This intention is made still more clear in another note, wherein Swinney states:
"We may be enabled to account for a certain disgraceful event, in some future observation of ours, equally to the honour of the person disgraced, and to the innocent cause of that disgrace."
Under these circumstances there can be little doubt that Sidney Swinney, D.D., was the party alluded to by Junius; as little, I think, that Swinney had before, and long before, spoken to Lord George Sackville,—must have been dear to Sackville, as one of the few who had served under, and yet had a kind word to say for him,—had said it indeed, and was about to repeat it emphatically. That Swinney was the fool Junius asserted, the extract already given must have abundantly proved; but I will conclude with one other, in which he not only anticipated Fitzgerald, but anticipated the burlesque exaggerations in the "Rejected Addresses:"
"Horse, Foot, Hussars, or ere they march review'd.
...
The Foot, that form the first and second line,
All smartly drest, like Grecian heroes shine;