of

"ters, and there shooting their envenomed ar"rows." As to myself; I neither owe you vengeance, nor make use of such weapons: but it is your weakness, or ill-fortune, or perhaps the fault your constitution, to convert wholesome remedies into poison; for you have received better and more frequent instructions than any minister of your age and country, if God had given you the grace to apply them.

I dare promise you the thanks of half the kingdom, if you please to perform the promise you have made of suffering the Craftsman and company, or whatever other infamous wretches and execrable villains you mean, to take their vengeance only on your own sacred ministerial person, without bringing any of your brethren, much less the most remote branch of the royal family, into the debate. This generous offer I suspected from the first; because there were never heard of so many, so unnecessary, and so severe prosecutions as you have promoted during your ministry, in a kingdom where the liberty of the press is so much pretended to be allowed. But, in reading a page or two, I found you thought it proper to explain away your grant; for there you tell us, that "these "miscreants" (meaning the writers against you) 66 are to remember that the laws have ABUNDANT

LY LESS generous, less mild and merciful senti"ments" than yourself; and into their secular hands the poor authors must be delivered to fines, prisons, pillories, whippings, and the gallows. Thus your promise of impunity, which began somewhat jesuitically, concludes with the mercy of a Spanish inquisitor.

If it should so happen that I am neither abettor,

patron,

patron, protector, nor supporter of these imaginary invectives" against the king, her majesty, or any "of the royal family," I desire to know what satisfaction I am to get from you, or the creature you employed in writing the libel which I am now answering? It will be no excuse to say, that I differ from you in every particular of your political reason and practice; because that will be to load the best, the soundest, and most numerous part of the kingdom with the denominations you are pleased to bestow upon me, that they are jacobites, wicked "miscreants, infamous wretches, execrable villains, " and defamers of the king, queen, and all the royal

family," and "guilty of high treason." You cannot know my style; but I can easily know your works, which are performed in the sight of the sun. Your good inclinations are visible; but I begin to doubt the strength of your credit, even at court, that you have not power to make his majesty believe me the person which you represent in your libel; as most infallibly you have often attempted, and in vain, because I must otherwise have found it by the marks of his royal displeasure. However, to be angry with you, to whom I am indebted for the greatest obligation I could possibly receive, would be the highest ingratitude. It is to you I owe that reputation I have acquired for some years past of being a lover of my country and its constitution: to You I owe the libels and scurrilities conferred upon me by the worst of men, and consequently some degree of esteem and friendship from the best. From You I learned the skill of distinguishing between a patriot and plunderer of his country: and from you

I hope in time to acquire the knowledge of being a loyal, faithful, and useful servant to the best of princes, king George the Second; and therefore I can conclude, by your example, but with greater truth, that I am not only with humble submission and respect, but with infinite gratitude, Sir, your most obedient and most obliged servant,

W. P.

AN

APPENDIX

TO THE

CONDUCT OF THE ALLIES*.

Nihil est aliud in fædere, nisi ut pia et æterna pax sit.

CICERO, pro C. Balbo.

Jan. 16, 1712-13.

I BEGIN to think, that though perhaps there may be several very exact maps of Great Britain to be had at the shops in Amsterdam or The Hague; and some shining genii in that country can, it may be, look out the most remarkable places in our ifland, especially those upon the seacoast or near it, as Portsmouth, Chatham, Torbay, and the like; yet it is highly necessary, that " Chamberlaine's Pre"sent State," or some other good book of that sort, were carefully translated into Dutch, in usum illustrissimorum ordinum, or with any other sounding and pompous title, only signifying, that it was done for the use of our good allies, and to set them right in

"I gave the Examiner a hint about this prorogation; and to "praise the queen for her tenderness to the Dutch, in giving them "still more time to submit. It suited the occasion at present." Journal to Stella, Jan. 15, 1712-13.

the

the nature of our government, constitution, and laws; with which they do not appear to be so well acquainted as might be expected. I am sensible that as things now stand, if a manifesto or memorial should be sent them, humbly representing to their high mightinesses; That Great Britain is an independent monarchy, governed by its own laws: that the queen is supreme over all orders of the realm: that no other prince, prelate, state, or potentate, has, or ought to have, any authority and jurisdiction over us that where the queen, lords, and commons, solemnly consent, it is a law; and where the collective body of the people agree, it is the sense of the nation that the making war and peace is the prerogative of the crown; and that all alliances are to be observed only so far as they answer the ends for which they were made: in such a case, it is not unlikely but the Amsterdam Gazette, or some other paper in the Seven Provinces, would immediately answer all this, by publickly protesting, that it came from the jacobites and frenchified highfliers, and therefore ought not to be admitted as genuine : for, of late, that celebrated writer, and two or three of his seconds, have undertaken to tell us poor Britons, who are our best subjects, and how we ought to behave ourselves toward our allies. So that, in this unhappy juncture, I do not see when we shall come to a right understanding. On the other hand, suppose we agreed to give them the precedence, and left the first proposal for overtures of accommodation to their management; this perhaps might quickly bring us to be better acquainted. Let them therefore lay aside all clumsy pretences to address; tell us no more of former battles, sieges, and glories; nor VOL. XVI. make

X