the law. For the Lilliputians think nothing can be more unjuft, than for people, in fubfervience to their own appetites, to bring children into the world, and leave the burden of fupporting them on the public. As to perfons of quality, they give fecurity to appropriate a certain fum for each child, fuitable to their condition; and thefe funds are always managed with good husbandry, and the most exact juftice. The cottagers and labourers keep their children at home, their bufinefs being only to till and cultivate the earth, and therefore their education is of little confequence to the public: but the old and difeafed among them are fupported by hofpitals: for begging is a trade unknown in this empire. And here it may perhaps divert the cu rious reader, to give fome account of my domeftics, and my manner of living in this country, during a refidence of nine months and thirteen days. Having a head mechanically turned, and being likewife forced by neceffity, I had made for myfelf a table and chair convenient enough out of the largest trees in the royal park. Two hundred fempftreffes were employed to make me fhirts, and linen for my bed and table, all of the strongest and coaríeft kind they could get; which however they were forced to quilt together in feveral folds, for the thickeft was fome degrees finer than lawn. Their linen is ufually three inches wide, and three feet make a piece. The fempftreffes took my measure as I lay on the ground, one standing on my neck, and another at my mid-leg, with a ftrong cord extended, that each held by the end, while a third measured the length of the cord with a rule of an inch long. Then they measured my right thumb, and defired no more; for by a mathematical computation, that twice round the thumb is once round the wrift, and fo on to the neck and the waift, and by the help of my old fhirt, which I difplayed on the ground before them for a pattern, they fitted me exactly. Three hundred taylors were employed in the fame manner to make me clothes; but they had another contrivance for taking my meafure. I kneeled down, and they railed a ladder from the ground to my neck; upon this ladder one of them mounted and let fall a plumb-line from my collar to the floor, which juft anfwered the length of my coat: but my waift and arms I measured myfelf. When my clothes were finished, which was done in my houfe (for the largest of theirs would not have been able to hold them) they looked like the patch-work made by the ladies in England, only that mine were all of a colour. I had three hundred ccoks to dress my victuals in little convenient huts built about my houfe, where they and their families lived, and prepared me two dithes a-piece. I took up twenty waiters in my hand, and placed them on the table; an hundred more attended below on the ground, fome with dishes of meat, and fome with barrels of wine and other liquors, flung on their fhoulders; all which the waiters above drew up, as I wanted, in a very ingenious nanner, by certain cords, as we draw the bucket up a well in Europe. A difh of their meat was a good mouthful, and a barrel of their liquor a reafonable draught. Their mutton yields to ours, but their beef is excellent. I have had a firloin fo large, that I have been forced to make three bits of it; but this is rare. My fervants were aftonished to fee me eat it, bones and all, as in our country we do the leg of a lark. Their geefe and turkies I usually eat at a mouthful, and I must confefs they far exceed ours. Of their fmaller fowl I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my knife." They One day his imperial majesty, being informed of my way of living, defired that himself and his royal confort, with the young princes of the blood of both fexes, night have the happiness (as he was pleafed to call it) of dining with me. came accordingly, and I placed them in chairs of fate upon my table, juft overagainst me, with their guards about them. Flimnap, the lord-high-treafurer, attended there likewife with his white staff; and I obferved he often looked on me with a four countenance, which I would not feem to regard, but eat more than ufual, in honour to my dear country, as well as to fill the court with admiration. I have fome private reafons to believe, that this vifit from his majetty gave Flimnap an opportunity of doing me ill offices to his matter. That minifter had always been my secret enemy, though he outwardly carefled me more than was usual to the morofenels of his nature. He reprefented to the emperor the low condition of his treafury; that he was forced to take up money at great difcount; that exchequer bills would not circulate under nine per cent. below par; that I had coft his majefty above a million and a half of prugs (their greatest gold coin, 3 R 2 about about the bignefs of a fpangle) and upon the whole, that it would be advifeable in the emperor to take the first fair occafion of difmifling me. I am here obliged to vindicate the reputation of an excellent lady, who was an innocent fufferer upon my account. The treasurer took a fancy to be jealous of his wife, from the malice of fome evil tongues, who informed him that her grace had taken a violent affection for my perfon; and the court-fcandal ran for fome time, that she once came privately to my lodging. This 1 folemnly declare to be a most infamous falfhood without any grounds, farther than that her grace was pleafed to treat me with all innocent marks of freedom and friendfhip. I own the came often to my house, but always publicly, nor ever without three more in the coach, who were ufually her fifter and young daughter, and fome particular acquaintance; but this was common to many other ladies of the court. And I ftill appeal to my fervants round, whether they at any time faw a coach at my door, without knowing what perfons were in it. On those occafions, when a fervant had given me notice, my cuftom was to go immediately to the door; and, after paying my respects, to take up the coach and two horfes very carefully in my hands (for, if there were fix horfes, the poftillion always unharneffed four) and placed them on a table, where I had fixed a moveable rim quite round, of five inches high to prevent accidents. And I have often had four coaches and horfes at once on my table full of company, while I fat in my chair, lean ing my face towards them; and, when I was engaged with one fet, the coachmen would gently drive the others round my table. I have paffed many an afternoon very agreeably in thefe converfations. But I defy the treasurer, or his two informers (I will name them, and let them make their beft of it) Cluftril and Drunlo, to prove that any perfon ever came to me incognito, except the fecretary Reldrefal, who was fent by exprefs command of his imperial majefty, as I have before related. I should not have dwelt fo long upon this particular, if it had not been a point wherein the reputation of a great lady is fo nearly concerned, to fay nothing of my own, though I then had the honour to be a nardac, which the treasurer himief is not; for all the world knows, that he is only a glumglum; a title inferior by one degree, as that of a marquis is to a ake in England; yet I allow he preceded me in right of his poft. These falle informations, which I afterwards came to the knowledge of by an accident not pro per to mention, made the treasurer fhew his lady for fome time an ill countenance and me a worse; and although he was at laft undeceived and reconciled to her, yet I loft all credit with him, and found my intereft decline very fast with the emperor himself, who was indeed too much governed by that favourite. CHAP. VII. The author, being informed of a defign to a cuje him of high treafon, maketh bis escape to Blefufcu. His reception there. Before I proceed to give an account of my leaving this kingdom, it may be proper to inform the reader of a private intrigue, which had been for two months forming against me. I had been hitherto all my life a ftranger to courts, for which I was unqualified by the meannefs of my condition. I had indeed heard and read enough of the difpo fitions of great princes and ministers; but never expected to have found fuch terrible effects of them in fo remote a country, governed, as I thought, by very different maxims from thofe in Europe. When I was juft preparing to pay my attendance on the emperor of Blefufcu, a confiderable perfon at court (to whom I had been very ferviceable, at a time when he lay under the higheit difpleasure of his imperial majefly) came to my houfe very privately at night in a clofe chair, and, without fending his name, defired admittance: the chairmen were difmiffed; I put the chair, with his lordship in it, into my coat-pocket; and, giving orders to a trufy fervant to fay I was indifpofed and gone to fleep, I faftened the door of my houfe. placed the chair on the table according to my ufual custom, and fat down by it. Af ter the common falutations were over, ob ferving his lordship's countenance full et concern, and enquiring into the reafon, be defired I would hear him with patience in a matter that highly concerned my honour and my life. His fpeech was to the following effect, for I took notes of it as foon as he left me. You are to know, faid he, that feveral committees of council have been lately called in the most private manner on your ac count; and it is but two days fince his majelty came to a full refolution. You c You are very fenfible that Skyresh Bolgolam (gaibet, or high-admiral) hath been your mortal enemy almost ever fince your arrival: his original reafons I know not; but his hatred is increafed fince your great fuccefs againt Blefufcu, by which his glory, as admiral, is much obfcured. This lord, in conjunction with Flimnap the hightreasurer, whofe enmity against you is notorious on account of his lady, Limtoc the general, Lalcon the chamberlain, and Balmuff the grand justiciary, have prepared articles of impeachment against you for treafon, and other capital crimes. This preface made me fo impatient, being conscious of my own merits and innocence, that I was going to interrupt: when he entreated me to be filent, and thus proceeded: Out of gratitude for the favours you have done me, I procured information of the whole proceedings, and a copy of the articles; wherein I venture my head for your fervice. c tor against his moft aufpicious, ferene, imperial majesty, did petition to be excufed from the laid fervice, upon pretence of unwillingness to force the confciences, or deftroy the liberties and lives of an innocent people.* ARTICLE III. That, whereas certain ambasadors arrived from the court of Blefufcu to fue for peace in his majefty's court: he the faid Fleftrin did, like a falfe traitor, aid, abet, comfort, and divert the faid ambaffadors, although he knew them to be fervants to a prince who was lately an open enemy to his imperial majefty, and in open war against his faid majesty. ARTICLE IV. to the duty of a faithful fubject, is now That the faid Quinbus Fleftrin, contrary preparing to make a voyage to the court and empire of Blefufcu, for which he hath received only verbal licence from his imperial majefty; and under colour of the Articles of Impeachment against Quinbus Flef- faid licence doth falfely and traitorously trin, the Man-mountain. Whereas by a ftatute made in the reign of his imperial majefty Calin Deffar Plune, it is enacted, that whoever shall make water within the precincts of the royal palace, fhall be liable to the pains and penalties of high treaton: notwithstanding, the laid Quinbus Fleftrin, in open breach of the faid law, under colour of extinguishing the fire kindled in the apartment of his majefty's mott dear imperial confort, did maliciously, traitorously, and devilishly, by difcharge of his urine, put out the faid fire kindled in the laid apartment, lying and being within the precincts of the faid royal palace, against the itatute in that cafe provided, c. against the duty, &c. ARTICLE II. That the faid Quinbus Fleftrin having brought the imperial fleet of Blefufcu into the royal port, and being afterwards commanded by his imperial majefty to feize all the other fhips of the faid empire of Blefufcu, and reduce that empire to a province to be governed by a vice-roy from hence, and to deftroy and put to death not only all the big-endian exiles, but likewife all the people of that empire, who would not immediately forfake the big-endian herefy he the faid Fleftrin, like a falfe trai intend to take the faid voyage, and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the emperor of Blefufcu, fo late an enemy, and in open war with his imperial majefty aforefaid. There are fome other articles, but thefe are the most important, of which I have read you an abstract. In the feveral debates upon this impeachment it must be confefied that his majefty gave many marks of his great leity, often urging the fervices you had done him, and endeavouring to extenuate your crimes. The treafurer and admiral infifted that you fhould be put to the most painful and ignominious death, by fetting fire on your houfe at night, and the general was to attend with twenty thousand men armed with poifoned arrows to fhoot you on the face and hands. Some of your fervants were to have private orders to strew a poisonous juice on your thirts and sheets, which would foon make you tear your own fleth, and die in the utmoft torture. The general came into the fame opinion; fo that for a long time there was a majority against you: but his majefty refolving, if poffible, A lawyer thinks himself honeft if he does the beft he can for his client, and a ftaterman if he promotes the intereft of his country; but the dean here inculcates an higher notion of right and wrong, and obligations to a larger community. 3 R 3 to to fpare your life, at laft brought off the chamberlain. Upon this incident Reldrefal, principal fecretary for private affairs, who always approved himself your true friend, was commanded by the emperor to deliver his opinion, which he accordingly did: and therein juftified the good thoughts you have of him. He allowed your crimes to be great, but that ftill there was room for mercy, the most commendable virtue in a prince, and for which his majefty was fo justly celebrated. He faid, the friendship between you and him was fo well known to the world, that perhaps the most honourable board might think him partial; however, in obedience to the command he had received, he would freely offer his fentiments. That if his majefty, in confideration of your fervices, and purfuant to his own merciful difpofition, would pleafe to fpare your life, and only give order to put out both your eyes, he humbly conceived, that by this expedient juftice might in fome mealure be juftified, and all the world would applaud the lenity of the emperor, as well as the fair and generous proceedings of thofe who have the honour to be his counfeilors. That the lofs of your eyes would be no impediment to your bodily ftrength, by which you might fill be ufeful to his majefty that blindnefs is an addition to courage, by concealing dangers from us; that the fear you had for your eyes, was the greatest difficulty in bringing over the enemy's fleet; and it would be fufficient for you to fee by the eyes of the minifters, fince the greatest princes do no more. This propofal was received with the utmoft difapprobation by the whole board. Bolgolam the admiral could not preferve his temper; but rifing up in fury faid, he wondered how the fecretary durft prefume to give his opinion for preferving the life of a traitor; that the fervices you had performed were, by all true reafons of ftate, the great aggravation of your crimes; that you, who was able to extinguish the fire by difcharge of urine in her majefty's apartment (which he mentioned with horror) might at another time raife an inundation by the fame means to drown the whole palace; and the fame ftrength, which enabled you to bring over the enemy's fleet, might ferve upon the firft difcontent to carry them back: that he had good reafons to think you were a Big endian in your heart; and as treafon begins in the heart before it appear in overt-acts, fo he accufed you as a traitor on that account, and therefore infifted you should be put to death. The treasurer was of the fame opinion: he fhewed to what ftreights his majefty's revenue was reduced by the charge of maintaining you, which would foon grow infupportable: that the fecretary's expe dient of putting out your eyes was fo far from being a remedy against this evil, that it would probably increase it, as is manifeft from the common practice of blinding fome kind of fowl, after which they fed the faller and grew fooner fat: that his facred majefty and the council, who are your judges, were in their own confciences fully convinced of your guilt, which was a fufficient argument to condemn you to death, with out the formal proofs required by the frict letter of the law. But his imperial majefty, fully deter mined against capital punishment, was graciously pleafed to fay, that fince the council thought the lofs of your eyes too ealy 2 cenfure, fome other may be inflicted hereafter. And your friend the fecretary, humbly defiring to be heard again, in anfwer to what the treasurer had objected concerning the great charge his majesty was at in maintaining you, faid, that his excellency, who had the fole difpofal of the emperor's revenue, might eafily provide againft that evil, by gradually leliening your eftablishment; by which, for want of fufficient food, you would grow weak and faint, and lofe your appetite, and confume in a few months; neither would the stench of your carcafe be then fo dangerous, when it should become more than half diminished, and immediately upon your death, five or fix thoufand of his majefty's fubjects might in two or three days cut your fleth from your bones, take it away by cart loads, and bury it in diftant parts to prevent infection, leaving the skeleton as a monument of admiration to pofterity. Thus by the great friendship of the fe There is fomething fo odious in whatever is wrong, that even thofe whom it does not fubject to punishment endeavour to colour it with an ap fuccefsful, and only betrays a confciousness of pearance of right; but the attempt is always un deformity by fhewing a defire to hide it. Thus the Lilliputian court pretended a right to difpente with the ftri&t letter of the law to put Gulliver only he could be convicted of a crime; the interto death, though by the ftrict letter of the law tion of the ftatute not being to fuffer the palace rather to be burnt than piffed upon. cretary cretary the whole affair was compromifed. It was strictly enjoined, that the project of ftarving you by degrees fhould be kept a fecret, but the fentence of putting out your eyes was entered on the books; none diffenting except Bolgolam the admiral, who, being a creature of the emprefs's, was perpetually inftigated by her majefty to infift upon your death, the having borne perpetual malice against you on account of that infamous and illegal method you took to extinguish the fire in her apartment. In three days, your friend the fecretary will be directed to come to your houfe, and read before you the articles of impeachment; and then to fignify the great lenity and favour of his majefty and council, whereby you are only condemned to the lofs of your eyes, which his majefty doth not queftion you will gratefully and humbly fubmit to; and twenty of his majesty's fergeons will attend in order to fee the operation well performed, by difcharging very sharp-pointed arrows into the balls of your eyes, as you lie on the ground. I leave to your prudence what meafures you will take; and, to avoid fufpicion, I muft immediately return in as private a manner as I came. His lordship did fo, and I remained alone under many doubts and perplexities of mind. It was a cuftom introduced by this prince and his ministry (very different, as I have been affured, from the practices of former times) that after the court had decreed any cruel execution, either to gratify the mo. narch's refentment, or the malice of a favourite, the emperor always made a speech to his whole council, expreffing his great lenity and tenderness, as qualities known and confeffed by all the world. This fpeech was immediately published through the kingdom; nor did any thing terrify the people fo much as thofe encomiums on his majefty's mercy; because it was obferved, that, the more thefe praifes were enlarged and infifted on, the more inhuman was the punishment, and the fufferer more inno. cent. Yet as to myself, I must confefs, having never been defigned for a courtier, either by birth or education, I was fo ill a judge of things, that I could not difcover the lenity and favour of this fentence, but conceived it (perhaps erroneouly) rather to be rigorous than gentle. I fometimes thought of flanding my trial; for, although I could not deny the facts alledged in the feveral articles, yet I hoped they would admit of fome extenuation. But having in my life perufed many statetrials, which I ever obferved to terminate as the judges thought fit to direct, I durft not rely on fo dangerous a decifion, in fo critical a juncture, and against fuch powerful enemies. Once I was strongly bent upon refiftance, for, while I had liberty, the whole ftrength of that empire could hardly fubdue me, and I might eafily with ftones pelt the metropolis to pieces; but I foon rejected that project with horror, by remembering the oath 1 had made to the emperor, the favours I had received from him, and the high title of nardas he conferred upon me. Neither had I fo foon learned the gratitude of courtiers, to perfuade myfelf, that his majefty's prefent feverities acquitted me of all paft obligations. At laft I fixed upon a refolution, for which it is probable I may incur fome cenfure, and not unjustly; for I confefs I owe the preferving mine eyes, and confequently my liberty, to my own great rafhnefs, and want of experience; becaufe, if I had then known the nature of princes and minifters, which I have fince obferved in many other courts, and their methods of treating criminals lefs obnoxious than myself, I should with great alacrity and readiness have submitted to fo eafy a punishment. But hurried on by the precipitancy of youth, and having his imperial majelty's licence to pay my attendance upon the emperor of Blefufcu, I took this opportunity, before the three days were elapfed, to fend a letter to my friend the fecretary, fignifying my refolution of fetting out that morning for Blefufcu, purfuant to the leave I had got; and, without waiting for an answer, I went to that fide of the island where our fleet lay. I feized a large man of war, tied a cable to the prow, and, lifting up the anchors, I ftript myself, put my cloaths (together with my coverlet, which I carried under my arm) into the veffel, and drawing it after me, between wading and swimming arrived at the royal port of Blefufcu, where the people had long expected me; they lent me two guides to direct me to the capital city, which is of the fame name. I held them in my hands, till I came within two hundred yards of the gate, and defired them to fignify my arrival to one of the fecretaries, and let him know, I there waited his majesty's command. I had an answer, in about an hour, that his majefty, attended |