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out it. They add some other circumstances, of the arts by which it was obtained, and the person by whom it was inserted. Surely such people do not consider, that the penal laws against dissenters, were made wholly ineffectual, by the connivance and mercy of the government; so that all employments of the state, lay as open to them as they did to the best and most legal subjects. And what progress they would have made, by the advantages of a late conjunction, is obvious to imagine; which I take to be a full answer to that objection.

I remember, upon the transmission of that bill with the test-clause inserted, the dissenters and their partizans, among other topicks, spoke much of the good effects produced by the lenity of the government: that the presbyterians were grown very inconsiderable in their number and quality, and would daily come into the church, if we did not fright them from it by new severities. When the act was passed, they presently changed their style, and raised a clamour through both kingdoms, of the great numbers of considerable gentry who were laid aside, and could no longer serve their queen and country; which hyperbolical way of reckoning, when it came to be melted down into truth, amounted to about fifteen country justices, most of them of the lowest size, for estate, quality, or understanding. However, this puts me in mind of a passage told me by a great man, although I know not whether it be any where recorded: That a complaint was made to the king and council of Sweden, of a prodigious swarm of Scots, who, under the condition of pedlars, infested that kingdom to such a degree, as, if not suddenly prevented, might in time prove dangerous to the state,

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by joining with any discontented party. Meanwhile the Scots, by their agents, placed a good sum of money, to engage the officers of the prime minister in their behalf; who, in order to their defence, told the council, "He was assured they were but a few incon"siderable people, that lived honestly and poorly, " and were not of any consequence." Their enemies offered to prove the contrary: whereupon an order was made to take their numbers, which was found to amount, as I remember, to about thirty thousand. The affair was again brought before the council, and great reproaches made to the first minister for his ill computation; who, presently taking the other handle, said, "He had reason to believe, the number yet greater than what was returned;" and then gravely offered to the king's consideration, "Whether it was "safe to render desperate so great a body of able men, "who had little to lose, and whom any hard treat"ment, would only serve to unite into a power capable of disturbing, if not destroying, the peace " of the kingdom." And so they were suffered to continue.

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SOME FEW

THOUGHTS

CONCERNING

THE REPEAL OF THE TEST.

THOSE of either side who have written upon this subject of the test, in making or answering objections, seem to fail, by not pressing sufficiently the chief point, upon which the controversy turns. The arguments used by those who write for the church, are very good in their kind; but will have little force under the present corruptions of mankind, because the authors treat this subject tanquam in republicâ Platonis, et non in fæce Romuli.

It must be confessed, that considering how few employments of any consequence, fall to the share of those English who are born in this kingdom, and those few very dearly purchased, at the expense of conscience, liberty, and all regard for the publick good, they are not worth contending for: and if nothing but profit were in the case, it would hardly cost me one sigh, when I should see those few scraps thrown among every species of fanaticks, to scuffle for among themselves.

And this will infallibly be the case, after repealing the test. For every subdivision of sect will, with

equal

equal justice, pretend to have a share; and, as it is usual with sharers, will never think they have enough, while any pretender is left unprovided. I shall not except the quakers; because, when the passage is once let open for sects to partake in publick emoluments, it is very probable the lawfulness of taking oaths, and wearing carnal weapons, may be revealed to the brotherhood: which thought, I confess, was first put into my head by one of the shrewdest quakers in this kingdom *.

* The quaker hinted at by Dr. Swift was Mr. George Rooke, a linen-draper, a man who had a very good taste for wit, had read abundance of history, and was, perhaps, one of the most learned quakers in the world. He was author of an humourous pastoral in the quaker style. In a letter to Mr. Pope, Aug. 30, 1716, Dr. Swift says, "There is a young ingenious quaker in "this town who writes verses to his mistress, not very correct, "but in a strain purely what a poetical quaker should do, com"mending her look and habit, &c. It gave me a hint, that a set of quaker pastorals might succeed, if our friend Gay would

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fancy it; and I think it a fruitful subject: pray hear what "he says." This hint produced from Mr. Gay, "The Espousal, "a sober eclogue, between two of the people called quakers," in which their peculiarity is well delineated.

A

TREATISE

'ON

GOOD MANNERS AND GOOD BREEDING*•

GOOD Manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse.

Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy is the best bred in the company.

As the best law is founded upon reason, so are the best manners. And as some lawyers have introduced unreasonable things into common law, so likewise many teachers have introduced absurd things into common good manners.

One principal point of this art is, to suit our behaviour to the three several degrees of men; our superiours, our equals, and those below us.

For instance, to press either of the two former to eat or drink, is a breach of manners; but a tradesman or a farmer must be thus treated, or else it will be difficult to persuade them that they are welcome.

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* Which lord Chesterfield thus defines, "the respect of much good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the "sake of others, and with a view to obtain the same indulgence " from them." See Letter clxviii, the whole of which is professedly on this subject.

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