Masham. It is to be questioned if Marlborough would have had to
undergo the ordeal of this debate had it not been for the animosity
against him on the part of this lady and her royal mistress, so deftly
aroused by Harley. [T.S.]]

Some time after, Mr. Cardonnell,[5] a Member of Parliament, and
secretary to the general in Flanders, was expelled the House, for the
offence of receiving yearly bribes from those who had contracted to
furnish bread for the army; and met with no further punishment for a
practice, voted to be unwarrantable and corrupt.

These were all the censures of any moment which the Commons, under so
great a weight of business, thought fit to make, upon the reports of
their commissioners for inspecting the public accounts. But having
promised, in the beginning of this History, to examine the state of the
nation, with respect to its debts; by what negligence or corruption they
first began, and in process of time made such a prodigious increase;
and, lastly, what courses have been taken, under the present
administration, to find out funds for answering so many unprovided
incumbrances, as well as put a stop to new ones; I shall endeavour to
satisfy the reader upon this important article.

By all I have yet read of the history of our own country, it appears to
me, that the national debts, secured upon parliamentary funds of
interest, were things unknown in England before the last Revolution
under the Prince of Orange. It is true, that in the grand rebellion the
king's enemies borrowed money of particular persons, upon what they
called the public faith; but this was only for short periods, and the
sums no more than what they could pay at once, as they constantly did.
Some of our kings have been very profuse in peace and war, and are
blamed in history for their oppressions of the people by severe taxes,
and for borrowing money which they never paid:[6] but national debts was
a style, which, I doubt, would hardly then be understood. When the
Prince of Orange was raised to the throne, and a general war began in
these parts of Europe, the King and his counsellors thought it would be
ill policy to commence his reign with heavy taxes upon the people, who
had lived long in ease and plenty, and might be apt to think their
deliverance too dearly bought: wherefore one of the first actions of the
new government was to take off the tax upon chimneys, as a burthen very
ungrateful to the commonalty. But money being wanted