can a prince hope for his person, or his crown, or even for the monarchy itself? He must expect to see his best friends brought to the scaffold, for asserting his rights; to see his prerogative trampled on, and his treasure applied to feed the avarice of those, who make themselves his keepers; to hear himself treated with insolence and contempt; to have his family purged at pleasure by their humour and malice; and to retain even the name and shadow of a king, no longer than his ephori shall think fit.

These are the inevitable consequences of such a change of affairs, as that envenomed party is now projecting; which will best be prevented by your firmly adhering to the present ministry, until this domestick enemy is out of all possibility of making head any more.

THE

PUBLICK SPIRIT

OF THE

W HIG S.

SET FORTH IN THEIR GENEROUS ENCOURAGEMENT

OF THE AUTHOR OF THE CRISIS.

WITH

Some Observations on the Seasonableness, Candour, Erudition, and Style of that Treatise. 1713-14.

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 Majesty, offering a reward of three hundred pounds for discovering him.

THE

PUBLICK SPIRIT

OF THE

WHIG S.

I CANNOT, without some envy, and a just resentment against the opposite conduct of others, reflect upon that generosity and tenderness, wherewith the heads, and principal members of a struggling faction, treat those 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 scratch out a pamphlet, they desire 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 shall be well and certainly paid; you shall be paid beforehand; every one of the party who is able to read, and can spare a shilling, shall be a subscriber; several thousands of each production, shall be sent among their friends through the kingdom: the work shall be reported admirable, sublime, unanswerable; shall serve to raise the sinking clamours, and confirm the scandal VOL. III.

T

of