Some time

cient for the fupport of 1724 Lilliputians. àfter afking a friend at court, how they came to fix on that determinate number; he told me, that his Majesty's mathematicians having taken the height of my body by the help of a quadrant, and finding it to exceed theirs in the proportion of twelve to one, they concluded from the fimilarity of their bodies, that mine must contain at least 1724 of theirs, and confequently would require as much food as was neceffary to fupport that number of Lilliputians. By which the reader may conceive an idea of the ingenuity of that people, as well as the prudent and exact oeconomy of fo great a prince.

CHA P. IV.

Mildendo, the metropolis of Lilliput, def.ribed, together with the Emperor's palace. A converfation between the author and a principal fecretary concerning the affairs of that empire. The author's offers to ferve the Emperor in his wars.

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HE firft requeft I made, after I had obtained my liberty, was, that I might have licence to see Mildendo, the metropolis; which the Emperor eafily granted me, but with a special charge to do no hurt either to the inhabitants or their houses. The people had notice by proclamation of my defign to vifit the town. The wall, which encompaffed it, is two feet and an half high, and at least eleven inches broad, fo that a coach and horfes may be driven very fafely round it; and it is flanked with ftrong towers at ten feet distance. I ftept over the great western gate, and paffed very gently, and fideling, thro' the two principal streets, only in my fhort waift-coat, for fear of damaging the roofs and eves of the houses with the fkirts of my coat. I walked with the utmoft circumfpection to avoid treading on any ftragglers, who might remain in the streets; altho' the orders were very ftrict, that all people should keep in their houses at their own peril. The garret-windows and tops of houfes were fo crouded with spectators, that I thought in all my travels I had not seen a more populous place. The city is an exact square, each fide of the wall being five hun

dred

dred feet long. The two great ftreets, which run cross, and divide it into four quarters, are five feet wide. The lanes and alleys, which I could not enter, but only viewed them as I paffed, are from twelve to eighteen inches. The town is capable of holding five hundred thousand fouls: the houfes are from three to five ftories: the shops and markets well provided.

THE Emperor's palace is in the center of the city, where the two great ftreets meet. It is inclosed by a wall of two feet high, and twenty feet distance from the buildings. I had his Majefty's permiffion to step over this wall; and the space being fo wide between that and the palace, I could eafily view it on every fide. The outward court is a fquare of forty feet, and includes two other courts: in the inmoft are the royal apartments, which I was very defirous to fee, but found it extremely difficult; for the great gates, from one fquare into another, were but eighteen inches high, and seven inches wide. Now the buildings of the outer court were at least five feet high, and it was impoffible for me to ftride over them without infinite damage to the pile, tho' the walls were ftrongly built of hewn ftone, and four inches thick. At the fame time the Emperor had a great defire, that I fhould fee the magnificence of his palace; but this I was not able to do till three days after, which I spent in cutting down with my knife fome of the largest trees in the royal park, about an hundred yards diftance from the city. Of these trees I made two ftools, each about three feet high, and strong enough to bear my weight. The people having received notice a second time, I went again thro' the city to the palace with my two ftools in my hands. When I came to the fide of the outer court, I ftood upon one ftool, and took the other in my hand; this I lifted over the roof, and gently fet it down on the fpace between the first and the fecond court, which was eight feet wide. I then ftept over the building very conveniently from one ftool to the other, and drew up the first after me with a hooked flick. By this contrivance I got into the inmost court; and, lying down upon my fide, I applied my face to the windows of the middle ftories, which were left open on purpose, and difcovered the most fplendid apartments that can be VOL. II. imagined.

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imagined. There I faw the Empress and the young Princes in their feveral lodgings with their chief attendants about them. Her Imperial Majefty was pleafed to fmile very graciously upon me, and gave me out of the window her hand to kifs,

BUT I fhall not anticipate the reader with farther defcriptions of this kind, becaufe I referve them for a greater work, which is now almoft ready for the press, containing a general description of this Empire, from its firft erection thro' a long feries of princes, with a particular account of their wars and politics, laws, learning, and religion, their plants and animals, their peculiar manners and cuftoms, with other matters very curious and ufeful; my chief defign at prefent being only to relate fuch events and tranfactions, as happened to the public or to myself, during a refidence of about nine months in that empire.

ONE morning, about a fortnight after I had obtained my liberty, Reldrefal, principal fecretary (as they ftile him) for private affairs, came to my houfe attended only by one fervant. He ordered his coach to wait at a diftance, and defired I would give him an hour's audience; which I readily confented to, on account of his quality and perfonal merits, as well as of the many good offices he had done me during my follicitations at court. I offered to lie down, that he might the more conveniently reach my ear; but he chofe rather to let me hold him in my hand during our converfation. He began with compliments on my liberty; faid, he might pretend to fome merit in it: but however added, that, if it had not been for the prefent fituation of things at court, perhaps I might not have obtained it fo foon. For, faid he, as flourishing a condition as we may appear to be in to foreigners, we labour under two mighty evils; a violent faction at home, and the danger of an invafion by a moft potent enemy from abroad. As to the first, you are to understand, that for above feventy moons past there have been two struggling parties in this empire, under the names of Trameckfan, and Slameckfan*, from the high and low heels of their fhoes,

High-Church and Low-Church, or Whig and Tory. As every accidental difference between man and man in perfon and circum

stances,

fhoes, by which they distinguish themselves. It is alledged, indeed, that the high heels are moft agreeable to our antient conftitution; but, however this be, his Majefty hath determined to make use only of low heels in the administration of the government, and all offices in the gift of the crown, as you cannot but obferve; and particularly, that his Majesty's imperial heels are lower at leaft by a drurr than any of his court (drurr is a measure about the fourteenth part of an inch.) The animofities between thefe two parties run fo high, that they will neither eat, nor drink, nor talk with each other. We compute the Trameckfan, or high-heels, to exceed us in number; but the power is wholly on our fide. We apprehend his Imperial Highness, the heir to the crown, to have fome tendency towards the high-heels; at least, we can plainly discover, that one of his heels is higher than the other, which gives him a hobble in his gate. Now, in the midst of these intestine difquiets we are threatened with an invafion from the island of Blefufcu, which is the other great empire of the univerfe, almoft as large and powerful as this of his Majefty. For, as to what we have heard you affirm, that there are other kingdoms and states in the world inhabited by human creatures as large as yourself, our philofophers are in much doubt, and would ra ther conjecture that you dropped from the moon, or one of the stars; because it is certain, that an hundred mortals of your bulk would in a fhort time destroy all the fruits and cattle of his Majesty's dominions: befides, our histories of fix thousand moons make no mention of any other regions, than the two great empires of Lilliput and Blefufcu. Which two mighty powers have, as I was going to tell you, been engaged in a moft obftinate war for fix and thirty moons paft. It began upon the following occafion it is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs, before we eat them, was upon the larger end; but his prefent Majefty's grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according

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ftances, is by this work rendered extremely contemptible; fo fpeculative differences are fhewn to be equally ridiculous, when the zeal with which they are oppofed and defended, too much exceeds their importance. Hawkef

cording to the antient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the Emperor, his father, published an edict, commanding all his fubjects, upon great penalties, to break the fmaller end of their eggs. The people fo highly refented this law, that our hiftories tell us, there have been fix rebellions raised on that account; wherein one Emperor loft his life, and another his crown. Thefe civil commotions were conftantly fomented by the Monarchs of Blefufcu; and, when they were quelled, the exiles always fled for refuge to that empire. It is computed that eleven thousand perfons have at several times fuffered death, rather than fubmit to break their eggs at the fmaller end. Many hundred large volumes have been pu blished upon this controverfy; but the books of the Bigendians have been long forbidden, and the whole party rendered incapable by law of holding employments During the course of these troubles, the Emperors of Blefufcu did frequently expoftulate by their ambassadors, accufing us of making a fchifm in religion by offending against a fundamental doctrine of our great prophet Luftrog, in the fifty fourth chapter of the Blundecral (which is their -Alcoran. This however is thought to be a mere ftrain upon the text; for the words are thefe: That all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end. And which is the convenient end, feems in my humble opinion to `be left to every man's confcience, or at least in the power of the chief magiftrate to determine. Now, the Big-endian exiles have found fo much credit in the Emperor of Blefufcu's court, and fo much private affiftance and encouragement from their party here at home, that a bloody war hath been carried on between the two empires for fix and thirty moons, with various fuccefs; during which time we have loft forty capital fhips, and a much greater number of fmaller veffels, together with thirty thousand of our beft feamen and foldiers; and the damage received by the enemy is reckoned to be fomewhat greater than ours. However, they have now equipped a numerous fleet, and are juft preparing to make a defcent upon us; and his. Imperial Majefty, placing great confidence in your valour and strength, hath commanded me to lay this account of his affairs before you.

I defired the fecretary to prefent my humble duty to

the