ready poffeffed of more power, than an equal balance will allow, fhall continue to think they have not enough, but by cramping the hand that holds the balance, and by impeachments or diffenfions with the nobles, endeavour ftill for more; I cannot poffibly fee, in the common courfe of things, how the fame caufes can produce different effects and confequences among us, from what they did in Greece and Rome. The 53 The PUBLIC SPIRIT of the WHIGS, fet forth in their generous encouragement of the author of the CRISIS *. With fome obfervations on the feasonablenefs, can. dor, erudition, and style of that treatise. I Upon the first publication of this pamphlet, all the Scotch Lords, then in London, went in a body, and complained to Queen ANNE of the affront put on them and their nation by the author of this treatise. Whereupon a proclamation was published by her Majefty, offering a reward of 300 1. to dif cover him. The reason for offering fo fmall a fum was, that the Queen and miniftry had no defire to have the author taken into cuftody.] Cannot, without fome envy, and a just refentment against the oppofite conduct of others, reflect upon that generofity and tenderness, wherewith the heads and principal members of a struggling faction treat those who • It was written in the year 1712, by the confent if not the encouragement of the minifters of that æra, in answer to the Crifis, by Sir Richard Steele. Orrery. The noble commentator who appears in another instance to have given an account of the works of his author, from a perufal of no more than a title † in the Dublin editions, has been betrayed into mistakes, which, if he had read the piece, he would have efcaped. This tract, in the title which his Lordship confulted, is faid to have been written in the year 1912: but in that part of it which most deserves the notice of a critic, because it occafioned a complaint in the house of Lords, mention is made of a motion to diffolve the union, which did not happen till 1713 The complaint, which is faid in the note to happen upon the + See the note on Voyage to Brobdingnag, chap. 6. vol. 4. E fir who will undertake to hold a pen in their defence. And the behaviour of these patrons is yet the more laudable, because the benefits they confer are almost gratis. If any of their labourers can fcratch out a pamphlet, they defire no more; there is no question offered about the wit, the style, the argument. Let a pamphlet come out upon demand in a proper juncture, you fhall be well and certainly paid; you fhall be paid beforehand; every one of the party who is able to read, and can spare a fhilling, fhall be a fubfcriber; feveral thousands of each production shall be sent among their friends through the kingdom; the work fhall be reported admirable, fublime, unanswerable; shall ferve to raise the finking clamours, and confirm the fcandal of introducing Popery and the pretender upon the Queen and her minifters. Among the prefent writers on that fide I can recollect but three of any great distinction, which are the Flying Poft, Mr Dunton, and the author of the Crifis*. The first of these seems to have been much funk in reputation, fince the fudden retreat of the only true genuine original author, Mr Ridpath, who is celebrated by the Dutch gazetteer as one of the best pens in England. Mr Dunton hath been longer and more converlant in books than any of the three, as well as more voluminous in his productions: however, having employed his ftudies in fo great a variety of other fubjects, he hath, I think, but lately turned his genius to politics. Hie famous tract, first publication, was made the 2d of March 1713-14, and the pamphlet, according to the custom of printers, was dated 17:14. Hawkef In the style and conduct, this is one of the boldeft, as well as one of the most masterly tracts that Świft ever wrote. And I cannot help obferving, that on whatever topic he employs his pen, the fubject which he treats of is always fo excellently managed, as to feem to have been the whole study and 'application of his life: fo that he appears the greatest master, through a greater variety of meterials, than perhaps have been difcuffed by any other author. Orrery. • Mr Steele was expelled the houfe of Commons for this pamphlet, at the very fame time that the house of Lords was moved against the Dean for the reply. 'Hawkes. intitled intitled, Neck or nothing, must be allowed to be the fhrewdeft piece, and written with the most spirit of any, which hath appeared from that fide fince the change of the ministry: it is indeed a moft cutting fatire upon the Lord Treafurer and Lord Bolingbroke, and I wonder none of our friends ever undertook to answer it. I confefs I was at firft of the fame opinion with several good judges, who, from the ftyle and manner, fuppofe it to have iffued from the fharp pen of the Earl of Nottingham; and I ain ftill apt to think it might receive his Lordship's last hand. The third and principal of this triumvirate is the author of the Crifis; who, although he muft yield to the Flying Poft in knowledge of the world, and fkill in politics, and to Mr Dunton in keennels of fatire and variety of reading, hath yet other qualities enough to denominate him a writer of a fuperior class to either; provided he would a little regard the propriety and difpofition of his words, confult the grammatical. part, and get fome information in the subject he intends to handle. Omitting the generous countenance and encouragement that have been fhewn to the perfons and productions of the two former authors, I fhall here only confider the great favour conferred upon the laft. It hath been advertised for several months in the Englishman, and other papers, that a pamphlet, called the Crifis, fhould be published at a proper time in order to open the eyes of the nation. It was propofed to be printed by fubscrip tion, price a fhilling. This was a little out of form; becaufe fubfcriptions are ufually begged only for books of great price, and fuch as are not likely to have a general fale. Notice was likewife given of what this pamphlet should contain; only an extract from certain acts of parliament relating to the fucceffion, which at least muft finknine pence in the fhilling, and leave but three pence for the author's political reflections; fo that nothing very wonderful or decifive could be reasonably expected from this performance. But a work was to be done, a hearty writer to be encouraged, and accordingly many thousand A paper written by the fame author in favour of the preceding adminiftration. Hawkef. E 2. copies copies were befpoke. Neither could this be fufficient for when we expected to have our bundles delivered us, all was ftopt; the friends to the caufe fprang a new project; and it was advertised that the Crifis could not ap pear, till the ladies had fhewn their zeal against the pretender, as well as the men; againft the pretender in the bloom of his youth, reported to be handfome, and endued with an understanding exactly of a fize to please the fex. I fhould be glad to have seen a printed lift of the fair fubfcribers prefixed to this pamphlet; by which the Chevalier might know, he was fo far from pretending to a monarchy here, that he could not fo much as pretend to a miftrefs. At the destined period, the first news we hear, is of a huge train of dukes, earls, vifcounts, barons, knights, efquires, gentlemen, and others, going to Sam. Buckley's the publisher of the Crifis to fetch home their cargoes, in order to tranfmit them by dozens, fcores, and hundreds into the feveral counties, and thereby to prepare the wills and understandings of their friends against the approachIng feffions. Afk any of them, whether they have read it they will anfwer, No; but they have fent it every where, and it will do a world of good. It is a pamphlet, and a pamphlet, they hear, against the ministry; talks of flavery, France, and the pretender: they defire no more; it will fettle the wavering, confirm the doubtful, inftruct the ignorant, inflame the clamorous, although it never be once looked into. I am told by those who are expert in the trade, that the author and bookfeller of this twelve-penny treatife will be greater gainers, than from one edition of any folio that hath been published these twenty years. What needy writer would not folicit to work under fuch mafters, who will pay us beforehand, take off as much of our ware as we please at our own rates, and trouble not themselves to examine either before or after they have bought it, whether it be staple or no? But, in order to illuftrate the implicit munificence of thefe noble patrons, I cannot take a more effectual me thod than by examining the production itself; by which we fhall easily find that it was never intended, further than from the noife, the bulk, and the title of Crifis, ta do |