[Footnote 69:  Erasmus Lewis, in the letter already cited, refers to Buys, and gives the opinion of the gentlemen who had read the “History,” on this matter, as follows:  “They think the transactions with Mr. Buys might have been represented in a more advantageous light, and more to the honour of that administration; and, undoubtedly they would have been so by your pen, had you been master of all the facts.”  And yet the facts as related by Swift in this and the last book of this “History” are substantially the facts as disclosed in Bolingbroke’s Political Correspondence. [T.S.]]

The Emperor, upon many powerful reasons, was utterly averse from all counsels which aimed at putting an end to the war, without delivering him the whole dominion of Spain; nay, the Elector of Hanover himself, although presumptive heir to the crown of England, and obliged by all sorts of ties to cultivate Her Majesty’s friendship, was so far deceived by misrepresentations from hence, that he seemed to suffer Monsieur Bothmar, his envoy here, to print and publish a Memorial in English, directly disapproving all Her Majesty’s proceedings; which Memorial, as appeareth by the style and manner of it, was all drawn up, or at least digested, by some party pen on this side of the water.[70]

[Footnote 70:  See Swift’s “Some Free Thoughts upon the Present State of Affairs,” and the note on p. 410 of vol. v. of present edition. [T.S.]]

Cautious writers, in order to avoid offence or danger, and to preserve the respect even[71] due to foreign princes, do usually charge the wrong steps in a court altogether upon the persons employed; but I should have taken a securer method, and have been wholly silent in this point, if I had not then conceived some hope, that his Electoral Highness might possibly have been a stranger[72] to the Memorial of his resident:  for, first, the manner of delivering it to the secretary of state was out of all form, and almost as extraordinary as the thing itself.  Monsieur Bothmar having obtained an hour of Mr. Secretary St. John, talked much to him upon the subject of which that Memorial consists; and upon going away, desired he might leave a paper with the secretary, which he said contained the substance of what he had been discoursing.  This paper Mr. St. John laid aside, among others of little consequence; and a few days[73] saw a Memorial in print,[74] which he found upon comparing to be the same with what Bothmar had left.

[Footnote 71:  Edition of 1775 has “ever due.” [W.S.J.]]

[Footnote 72:  P. Fitzgerald says “If I had not very good reason to believe that his Electoral Highness was altogether a stranger.” [W.S.J.]]

[Footnote 73:  Edition of 1775 has “a few days after.” [W.S.J.]]

[Footnote 74:  This was published as a broadside, with the title:  “The Elector of Hanover’s Memorial to the Queen of Great-Britain, relating to the Peace with France.”  It was dated 28th of Nov/9th of Dec., 1711. [W.S.J.]]