[Footnote 1:  No. 44 in the reprint. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 2:  To Stella, about this time, Swift wrote giving a decided hint of the end of his term on “The Examiner.”  Under date June 7th, 1711, he says:  “As for the ‘Examiner,’ I have heard a whisper, that after that of this day, which tells what this Parliament has done, you will hardly find them so good.  I prophesy they will be trash for the future; and methinks in this day’s ‘Examiner’ the author talks doubtfully, as if he would write no more” (vol. ii., pp. 192-3 of present edition). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 3:  “Great is the power, great the name, of a Senate which is unanimous in its opinions.”—­H.T.  RILEY, [T.S.]]

[Footnote 4:  See No. 24, ante, and note on p. 145. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5:  The session did not actually close till June 12th. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 6:  The House of Commons had resolved on January 16th, 1710/1, to provide for converting all non-specie exchequer bills into specie. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 7:  The Act for licensing and regulating hackney coaches, etc. (9 Ann. c. 16) provided that a sum of L103,003 11_s._ 4_d._ should be distributed among those proprietors and inhabitants of Nevis and St. Christopher’s who had suffered “very great losses by a late invasion of the French.” [T.S.]]

[Footnote 8:  See note on p. 264. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 9:  A petition was presented to the House of Commons on January 15th, 1710/1, against the Palatines as likely to spread disease and to become chargeable to the parish. [T.S.]

The exactions of the French armies in the Palatinate, in the year 1709, drove from their habitations six or seven thousand persons of all descriptions and professions, who came into Holland with a view of emigrating to British America.  It was never accurately ascertained, with what view, or by whose persuasions, their course was changed, but, by direction from the English ministers, they were furnished with shipping to come to England.  In the settlements, they would have been a valuable colony; but in the vicinity of London, this huge accession to the poor of the metropolis was a burthen and a nuisance.  They were encamped on Blackheath, near Greenwich, where, so soon as their countrymen heard that they were supported by British charity, the number of the fugitives began to increase by recruits from the Continent, till government prohibited further importation.  A general Naturalization Act, passed in favour of the French Protestants, greatly encouraged this influx of strangers.  This matter was inquired into by the Tory Parliament, who voted, that the bringing over the Palatines was an oppression on the nation, and a waste of the public money, and that he who advised it was an enemy to his country.  The unfortunate fugitives had been already dispersed; some of them to North America, some to Ireland, and some through Britain.  The pretence alleged for the vote against them, was the apprehension expressed by the guardians of the poor in several parishes, that they might introduce contagious diseases; but the real reason was a wish to gratify the prejudice of the common people against foreigners, and to dimmish the number of Dissenters. [S.]]