prosperity."
"An Answer to the Occasional Writer." [T.S.]]

Another part of the report concerned the Duke of Marlborough, who had
received large sums of money, by way of gratuity, from those who were
the undertakers for providing the army with bread.[3] This the Duke
excused, in a letter to the commissioners, from the like practice of
other generals: but that excuse appeared to be of little weight, and the
mischievous consequences of such a corruption were visible enough; since
the money given by these undertakers were but bribes for connivance at
their indirect dealings with the army. And as frauds, that begin at the
top, are apt to spread through all the subordinate ranks of those who
have any share in the management, and to increase as they circulate: so,
in this case, for every thousand pounds given to the general, the
soldiers at least suffered fourfold.

[Footnote 3: See "The Examiner," Nos. 17 and 28, in vol. ix. of this
edition. [W.S.J.]]

Another article of this report, relating to the Duke, was yet of more
importance. The greatest part of Her Majesty's forces in Flanders were
mercenary troops, hired from several princes of Europe. It was found
that the Queen's general subtracted two and a half _per cent_, out of
the pay of those troops, for his own use, which amounted to a great
annual sum. The Duke of Marlborough, in his letter already mentioned,
endeavouring to extenuate the matter, told the commissioners, "That this
deduction was a free gift from the foreign troops, which he had
negotiated with them by the late King's orders, and had obtained the
Queen's warrant for reserving and receiving it: That it was intended for
secret service, the ten thousand pounds a year given by Parliament not
proving sufficient, and had all been laid out that way." The
commissioners observed, in answer, "That the warrant was kept dormant
for nine years, as indeed no entry of it appeared in the secretary of
state's books, and the deduction of it concealed all that time from the
knowledge of Parliament: That, if it had been a free gift from the
foreign troops, it would not have been stipulated by agreement, as the
Duke's letter confessed, and as his warrant declared, which latter
affirmed this stoppage to be intended for defraying extraordinary
contingent expenses of the troops, and therefore should not have been
applied to secret services." They submitted to the House, whether the
warrant itself were legal, or duly countersig