their great unanimity, not to be broken by all the arts of a malicious and cunning faction; their unfeigned duty to the queen; and lastly, that representation made to her majesty from the house of commons, discovering such a spirit and disposition in that noble assembly to redress all those evils, which a long maleadministration had brought upon us. It is probable, that trusting only to my memory, I may have omitted many things of great importance; neither do I pretend farther in the compass of this paper, than to give the world some general, however imperfect idea, how worthily this great assembly has discharged the trust of those who so freely chose them; and what we may reasonably hope and expect from the piety, courage, wisdom, and loyalty of such excellent patriots, in a time so fruitful of occasions to exert the greatest abilities. And now I conceive the main design I had in writing these papers is fully executed. A great majority of the nation is at length thoroughly convinced, that the queen proceeded with the highest wisdom in changing her ministry and parliament; that under a former administration the greatest abuses of all kinds were committed, and the most dangerous attempts against the constitution for some time intended. The whole kingdom finds the present persons in power, directly and openly pursuing the true service of their queen and country; and to be such, whom their most bitter enemies cannot tax with bribery, covetousness, ambition, pride, insolence, or any pernicious principles in religion or government. For For my own particular, those little barking curs, which have so constantly pursued me, I take to be of no farther consequence to what I have written, than the scoffing slaves of old, placed behind the chariot to put the general in mind of his mortality; which was but a thing of form, and made no stop or disturbance in the show. However, if those perpetual snarlers against me had the same design, I must own they have effectually compassed it; since nothing can well be more mortifying than to reflect, that I am of the same species with creatures, capable of uttering so much scurrility, dulness, falsehood, and impertinence, to the scandal and disgrace of human nature *. For the Forty-fifth number of the Examiner, see the Eighteenth Volume of this Collection. SOME SOME ADVICE HUMBLY OFFERED TO THE MEMBERS OF THE OCTOBER CLUB. In a Letter from a Person of Honour *, Supposed at that time to have been lord Harcourt. In the Political State, Feb. 1711-12, is an alphabetical list of the gentlemen who formed the club. They met at the Bell Tavern, in King street, Westminster. |