dextrous artifice and management, until the people began to apprehend their properties, their religion, and the monarchy itself in danger; then we faw them greedily laying hold on the firft occafion to interpofe. But of this mighty change in the dispofitions of the people, I fhall difcourfe more at large in fome following paper; wherein I fhall endeavour to undeceive, or difcover, thofe deluded, or deluding perfons, who hope or pretend, it is only a fhort madness in the vulgar, from which they may foon recover; whereas, I believe, it will appear to be very different in its caufes, its fymptoms, and its confequences; and prove a great example to illuftrate the maxim I lately mentioned; that truth (however fometimes late) will at last prevail.

NUMBER XV.

Thursday, November 16, 1720.

-medioque ut limite curras,

Icare, ait, moneo: ne fi demiffior ibis,
Unda gravet pennas; fi celfior, ignis adurat.

-My boy, take care

To wing thy courfe along the middle air;
If low, the furges wet thy flagging plures;
If high, the fun the melting wax confumes.

T must be avowed that for fome years paft, there

have been few things more wanted in England than fuch a paper as this ought to be: and fuch I will endeavour to make it as long as it fhall be found of any ufe, without entering into the violences of either

party.

party. Confidering the many grievous misrepresentations of perfons and things, it is highly requifite at this juncture, that the people throughout the kingdom should, if poffible, be fet right in their opinions by fome impartial hand; which has never been yet attempted; those, who have hitherto undertaken it, being, upon every account, the leaft qualified of all human kind, for fuch work.

We live here under a limited monarchy, and under the doctrine and difcipline of an excellent church. We are unhappily divided into two parties, both which pretend a mighty zeal for our religion and government, only they difagree about the means. The evils we must fence against, are, on one fide, fanaticism and infidelity in religion, and anarchy, under the name of a commonwealth, in government; on the other fide, popery, flavery, and the pretender from France. Now, to inform and direct us in our fentiments upon these weighty points, here are, on one fide, two ftupid illiterate fcriblers, both of them fanaticks by profeffion, I mean the Review, and Obfervator; on the other fide, we have an open Nonjuror, whofe character and perfon, as well as learning and good fenfe, difcovered upon other fubjects, do indeed deferve refpect and efteem; but his Rehearfal, and the rest of his political papers, are yet more pernicious than thofe of the former two. If the generality of the people know not how to talk or think, until they have read their leffon in the papers of the week, what a misfortune is it, that their duty fhould be conveyed to them through fuch vehicles as thofe ?

For, let fome gentlemen think what they please, I cannot but fufpect, that the two worthies I first mentioned, have, in a degree, done mischief among us; the mock authoritative manner of the one, and the infipid mirth of the other, however insupportable to reasonable ears, being of a level with great numbers among the lowest the lowest part of mankind. Neither was the author of the Rehearfal, while he continued that paper, lefs infectious to many perfons of better figure, who perhaps, were as well qualified, and much less prejudiced, to judge for themselves.

It was this reafon, that moved me to take the matter out of those rough, as well as thofe dirty hands; to let the remote and uninftructed part of the nation fee, that they have been mifled on both fides, by mad ridiculous extremes, at a wide distance on each fide from the truth; while the right path is fo broad and plain, as to be easily kept, if they were once put into it.

Farther: I had lately entered on a resolution to take little notice of other papers, unless it were fuch, where the malice and falfhood had fo great a mixture of wit and spirit, as would make them dangerous: which, in the prefent circle of fcriblers, from twelve-pence to a halfpenny, I could eafily foresee would not very frequently occur. But there again I am forced to difpenfe with my refo lution, although it be only to tell my reader what measures I am likely to take on fuch occafions for the future. I was told, that the paper called The Obfervator, was twice filled laft week with remarks upon a late Examiner. These I read with

the

the first opportunity, and, to speak in the newswriters phrase, they gave me occafion for many fpeculations. I obferved, with fingular pleasure, the nature of those things which the owners of them ufually call anfwers, and with what dexterity this matchlefs author had fallen into the whole art and cant of them. To tranfcribe here and there three or four detached lines of least weight in a difcourse, and by a foolish comment mistake every fyllable of the meaning, is what I have known many, of a fuperior clafs to this formidable adverfary, entitle an Answer. This is what he has exactly done, in about thrice as many words as my whole * difcourfe; which is fo mighty an adyantage over me, that I fhall by no means engage in fo unequal a combat; but, as far as I can judge of my own temper, entirely difmifs him for the fu ture; heartily wishing he had a match exactly of his own fize to meddle with, who fhould only have the odds of truth and honefty; which, as I take it, would be an effectual way to filence him for ever. Upon this occafion, I cannot forbear a short story of a fanatic farmer, who lived in my neighbourhood, and was fo great a difputant in religion, that the fervants in all the families thereabouts reported, how he had confuted the bishop and all his clergy. I had then a footman, who was fond of reading the Bible and I borrowed a comment for him, which he ftudied fo clofe, that in a month or two I

This is neither grammar, nor fenfe; it should be-as my whole difcourfe contains.

thought him a match for the farmer. They difputed at feveral houfes, with a ring of fervants and other people always about them; where Ned explained his texts fo full* and clear to the capacity of his audience, and fhewed the infignificancy of his adversary's cant to the meaneft understanding, that he got the whole country on his fide, and the farmer was cured of his itch of difputation for ever after.

The worst of it is, that this fort of outrageous party-writers I have fpoken of above, are like a couple of make-bates, who inflame small quarrels by a thousand stories, and by keeping friends at a distance, hinder them from coming to a good understanding; as they certainly would, if they were fuffered to meet and debate between themselves: for let any one examine a reasonable honest man, of either fide, upon thofe opinions in religion and government, which both parties daily buffet each other about; he shall hardly find one material point in difference between them. I would be glad to ask a queftion about two great men of the late miniftry, How they came to be Whigs? and by what figure of fpeech, half a dozen others, lately put into great employments, can be called Tories? I doubt, whoever would fuit the definition to the perfons, muft make it directly contrary to what we understood it at the time of the Revolution.

*It should be, fo fully and clearly.

† Would, here, is improperly ufed for, boul.

In