NUMBER XLIII.

Thursday, May 31, 1711.

Scilicet, ut poffis curvo dignofcere rectum.

HAVING been forced in my papers to ufe the cant-words of whig and tory, which have fo often varied their fignifications for twenty years paft; I think it neceflary to fay fomething of the feveral changes thofe two terms have undergone fince that period; and then to tell the reader what I have always understood by each of them, fince I undertook this work. I reckon that these forts of conceited appellations are ufually invented by the vulgar; who, not troubling themselves to examine thoroughly the merits of a caufe, are confequently the most violent partifans of what they efpoufe, and in their quarrels usually proceed to their beloved argument of calling names, until at length they light upon one which is fure to stick: and in time each party grows proud of that appellation, which their adverfaries at first intended for a reproach. Of this kind were the Prafini and Veneti, the Guelfs and Gibelines, Hugonots and Papifts, Round-beads

and

and Cavaliers, with many others of ancient and modern date. Among us of late there feems to have been a barrennefs of invention in this point; the words whig and tory, al- ́ though they are not much above thirty years old, having been preffed to the fervice of many fucceffions of parties, with very different ideas faftened to them. This diftinction, I think, began towards the latter part of king Charles the fecond's reign, was dropt during that of his fucceffor, and then revived at the revolution; fince which it hath perpetually flourished, although applied to very different kinds of principles and perfons. In that convention of lords and commons, fome of both houses were for a regency to the prince of Orange, with a refervation of ftyle and title to the abfent king, which fhould be made ufe of in all publick acts: others, when they were brought to allow the throne vacant, thought the fucceffion fhould immediately go to the next heir, according to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, as if the last king were actually dead. And although the diffenting lords (in whofe houfe the chief oppofition was) did at last yield both thofe points, took the oaths to the new king, and many of them employments; yet they were looked upon with an evil eye by the warm zealots of the other fide; neither did the court ever heartily favour any of them, although fome of them were of the most eminent for abilities and virtue, and ferved that

prince both in his councils and his army with untainted faith. It was apprehended at the fame time, and perhaps it might have been true, that many of the clergy would have been better pleafed with the fcheme of a re gency, or at leaft an uninterrupted lineal fucceffion, for the fake of those whofe confciences were truly fcrupulous; and they thought there were fome circumftances in the cafe of the deprived bishops, that looked a little hard, or at least deserved commiferation.

Thefe and other the like reflexions did, as I conceive, revive the denominations of awbig and tory.

Some time after the revolution, the distinction of high and low church came in, which was raifed by the diffenters in order to break the church party by dividing the members into high or low; and the opinions raised, that the high joined with the papists, inclined the low to fall in with the dijenters.

And here I fhall take leave to produce fome principles, which in the feveral periods of the late reign ferved to denote a man of one or the other party. To be against a standing army in time of peace was all bigbchurch, tory, and tantivy, to differ from a majority of bishops was the fame. To raife the prerogative above law for ferving a turn, was low-church and whig. The opinion of the majority in the house of commons, efpecially of the country party or landed intereft, was high-flying and rank tory. To ex

alt

alt the king's fupremacy beyond all precedent, was low-church, whiggish, and moderate. To make the leaft doubt of the pretended prince's being fuppofititious and a tiler's fon, was, in their phrafe, top and topgallant, and perfect jacobitism. To refume the most exorbitant grants, that were ever given to a fet of profligate favourites, and apply them to the publick, was the very quinteffence of toryifm; notwithstanding those grants were known to be acquired by facrififing the honour and the wealth of England.

In most of these principles the two parties feem to have shifted opinions, fince their inftitution under king Charles the fecond; and indeed to have gone very different from what was expected from each, even at the time of the revolution. But as to that concerning the pretender, the whigs have fo far renounced it, that they are grown the great advocates for his legitimacy which gives me the opportunity of vindicating a noble duke, who was accused of a blunder in the house, when, upon a certain lord's mentioning the pretended prince, his grace told the lords, he must be plain with them, and call that perfon, not the pretended prince, but the pretended impoftor: which was fo far from a blunder in that po→ lite lord, as his ill-willers give out, that it was only a refined way of delivering the avowed fentiments of his whole party.

But

But to return: this was the state of principles, when the QUEEN came to the crown; fome time after which it pleafed certain great Perfons, who had been all their lives in the altitude of tery profeffion, to enter into a treaty with the whigs, from whom they could get better terms than from their old friends, who began to be refty, and would not allow monopolies of power and favour, nor confent to carry on the war intirely at the expence of the nation, that they might have Penfions from abroad; while another people, more immediately concerned in the war, traded with the enemy as in times of peace; whereas the other party, whofe cafe appeared then as defperate, was ready to yield to any conditions that would bring them into play. And I cannot help affirming, that this nation was made a facrifice to the unmeafurable appetite of power and wealth in a very few, that shall be nameless, who, in every step they made, acted directly against what they had always profeffed. And if his royal highness the prince [y] had died fome years fooner (who was a perpetual check in their career) it is dreadful to think how far they might have proceeded.

Since that time the bulk of the whigs appeareth rather to be linked to a certain fet of perfons, than any certain fet of principles; fo that if I were to define a member of that

[y] Prince George of Denmark.

party,