Though the French King's resources had been enfeebled, and he might reasonably have been expected to desire peace, he did not care for the welfare of France so much as for his own glory; he would fight to gain his purpose while there was a pistole in his treasury, and we must not expect Paris to be taken in a week.

Nothing could be more admirable than Godolphin's management of our own Treasury; he deserved almost more credit than the Duke himself.

"Your Treasurer has been your general of generals; without his exquisite management of the cash the Duke of Marlborough must have been beaten." The Sacheverell incident, which ultimately led to the overthrow of the Ministry, gave Defoe a delightful opening for writing in their defence.
A collection of his articles on this subject would show his controversial style at its best and brightest.

Sacheverell and he were old antagonists.

Sacheverell's "bloody flag and banner of defiance," and other High-flying truculencies, had furnished him with the main basis of his _Shortest Way with the Dissenters_.