Criminals and expofed the State to Ruin, rather than give them up to Justice. Thus the Fatt ftands in Hiftory. Let the Obfervator now confider whether it would be very difficult to make certain Applications of it, which he would not like. I doubt thefe Applications would appear much more appofite than That, which is faid to be intended, in his Paper, of the Character of the great and much injured Camillus. He fucceeds, you fee, but ill, when He meddles with Facts; and I do not find that He pretends much to Reafon. The rest of his Paper contains little more than Fool, Knave, Libeller, Incendiary, &c. I fhall therefore take Notice of but one Thing more; and That is the Advantage He would make of a Mistake in Printing. He must have perceived, or He can perceive nothing, that it was a Mistake in Printing. If the Mean ing of my Letter had been, that the Craftsman might destroy the whole Proof of Arrogance brought against Him, by answering in the Negative all the Questions asked in the Paragraph referr'd to, it should have been faid five filly Questions; for They are five, not four's but the Truth is that no Regard was had to the two introductory Questions; and that the three main Queftions, which follow, were alone meant. A Writer must be reduced very low, by his Caufe, or be very low in his Character, who catches at fuch an impertinent Opportunity of being what He imagines Smart. I should fay a Word or two to the profound Mr. Osborne, who hath been pleas'd to let us know that He prefers the abfolute Monarchy of Auguftus to the free State of the Roman Commonwealth. He prefers likewife, I fuppofe, (at leaft his Difcourfe leads one to think fo) the Violence, the Treachery, and the bloody Maffacres, on which this abfolute Monarchy was founded, to the civil Disorders, which were occafion ed N° 220. ed by establishing and maintaining an equal Commonwealth. I fhould defire him to compare the Reigns of a Caligula, a Nero, a Domitian, an Heliogabalus, (which had never happen'd, if the Ufurpation of Auguflus had never happen'd) with the glorious fourth and fifth Centuries of the Republick of Rome; but I have not, at prefent, Time for This. I hope you, Mr. D'Anvers, will give Him fome falutary Corrections at your Leifure, and make Him afhamed of having prophaned the Language of a free People in so proftitute a Manner, and to fuch flavish Purposes ! Advise Him to learn better Notions of Government from Mr. Gordon's excellent Difcourfes, prefix'd to his Translation of Tacitus; in which He will find his Favourite Auguftus fet in a true Light, and prov'd to be an infamous Tyrant, though fomewhat more artful than his Succeffors. He must certainly acknowledge the Obligation; fince you cannot be fufpected of doing it on any Account but That of a charitable Difpofition towards Him. If He was capable of impofing on the dulleft Quidnunc in any Coffee-house, or of feducing the most raw Boy, that ever eloped from School, you might be fufpected of fome farther and deeper Design; but when you write against fo harmless a Creature, your Efforts must pass, and ought to pass, for the pure Effects of the most difinterested, the most refined Charity. Let me only ask the Favour of you to touch three Points, amongst others, whenever you condefcend to meddle with Squire Oborne. One is to affure him, in my Name, (and, if you please, in your own) that a good Minifter ought not to be abused; nay more, that he, who abuses him is a Rogue, a Rafcal, an impudent (I had almost faid, for I conform to his Dialect, a traiterous) Fellow; and might have juftified myfelf by the Authority of a Writer on Mr. Osborne's Side, who talk'd of Allegiance to Minifters; but let this impor important Author know, at the fame Time, that we defy him to make the least Use of these Conceffions against any one Sentence, any one Word in any Craftsman, that hath been published. There are two other Things, of which I defire you likewise to take Notice. One is fcandalously impudent; the other infamously unfair. When his Patron is commended by any honest Man in Britain, it is done most certainly with a Sneer. The great Man is an Expreffion, which hath undoubtedly occafion'd more Sneers than this Nation had feen in a Century before; but it is faucy and impudent in Mr. Osborne to fuppofe that one, who speaks of the King and royal Family with all the Respect that is due to Them, means a Sneer. The other Thing, which I defire you to take Notice of, is the malicious and mean Comment made on an Expresion in my laft Letter to you, where I called his prefent Majesty a formidable Rival of the Pretender. Mr. Osborne is pleafed, out of the Abundance of his Loyalty, to refent This as an Infult on the King. Now though, in Strictnefs of Fact and Propriety of Language, his Majesty neither is a Rival to any Body, nor can have a Rival, being our rightful and lawful King, by the Confent of his People in Parliament; (the only good Title to the Crown of these Realms;) yet in Pretenfion there is a Rivalry; and I may defy Mr. Osborne to give any other Reason for keeping up fo large an Army in Times of Peace. You will obferve, Mr. D'Anvers, that the only Defign of this Letter is to make fome short Observations on two filly Papers, which have been publish'd against my former Letters to you. You are now defired to apply the old Gentleman's general Pofitions to the Englife Hiftory from the Minutes, which I have fent you, and which I believe will be as agreeable to the PubVOL. VII. D lick, lick, as it was to the Company, in which he deliver'd Mr. D'Anvers Was alarm'd, the other Morning, with the violent I prefent Situation made me apprehend to be for Volunteers against the Emperor'; but upon looking out of my Window, I found it to be only a Summons for the Westminster Militia to make their annual Appearance in TothillFields. Now, though I have the utmost Regard for that antient Order of Soldiery, which I look upon as the most natural Guard of a free People; yet fincè it is judg'd neceffary to keep up a standing Army of near twenty thousand regular Forces in this Kingdom, I think it very hard that we poor House-keepers should be obliged, at this dead Time of the Year, to contribute any Thing towards this ridiculous Pageantry (for fo it is become ) of a Militia Review; it being of no other Ufe, that I can apprehend, than to give fome Smart, dapper Officers, like Captain King, an Opportunity of ftrutting, with their fine Feathers in their Caps, at the Head of their Companies. I could, make feveral Observations on this Subject but, for want of Time, muft defer them to fome other Opportunity, and am, N. Dear Caleb, The Strand, July 7.1740. Your bumble Servant, No 221. SATURDAY, Sept. 26, 1730. M Y good old Friend and Correfpondent, Humphry Oldcastle, being gone into the Country, for fome Time, upon particular Bufinefs, hath fent me his Minutes of the fucceeding Converfations, mention'd in his last Letter, upon the Subject of Liberty and Faction; in which the general Pofitions, laid down in his former, and illuftrated by feveral Inftances in the Roman Government, are apply'd to the English Hiftory, from the Conqueft to this Time. I have great Reason to wish that his Affairs had allowed Him to digest these Materials into Form; being very fenfible of my own Inability, even with the Advantage of his Affiftance, to follow fuch an excellent Mafter of History and political Reasoning; but fince He hath done me the Honour to commit this Truft. into my Hands, I will exert my best Endeavours to execute it as it deferves, and in the Manner, which He hath directed; by dividing his Remarks into felect Differtations and publishing them, from Time to Time, as Occafion requires. I flatter ny felf that fuch Effays may be render'd entertaining, as well as inftructive. They will continually bring the Reader back to the general Doctrines, establish'd in my Friend's firft Letter. The Principles of Liberty will be thus conftantly inculcated; and frequent Opportunities will be furnifh'd of expofing Men, who call Themfelves Whigs, whilft They are actually renouncing all the Principles of Whiggifm in their Conduct and Writings. D 2 In |