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tion and Reft, upon a Medium, in any natural Day of above fourteen Months fucceffively. During which Time, he was forced to let moft of thefe Papers go to Prefs, upon one flight, curfory reading, and many of them, without having Time to give them a reading; but, Sheet by Sheet, as fait as they were written, he was obliged to fend them to the Press; the Correction of which, could have been no better attended to, than the reading, and for the fame Reafons.

THESE Confiderations, it is hoped, will plead the Author's Excufe for common Errors in Stile, or Diction, or in ill-chofen, or unguarded Expreffions. He makes none Apology for fuch Matters, as he afferts for Facts, or Truth; let them fpeak for them felves, upon the strictest Examination, that Juftice and Candor can admit.

It is probable, it will be expected, that he should, in this Preface, fay fomething in his own Defence, or in Confutation of the Calumnies and Afperfions thrown upon him and his Writings by the Parlement, as well as by private Hands.

BUT, he humbly apprehends, that, when the Accufations againft him are fet forth in the strongest Light and fulleft Force, every impartial and difpaffionate Reader will find them more than answered, in the very condemned Papers. He then, onely defires, that whofoever reads the Condemnation of the Author and his Papers, will learn his real Character from honeft and difinterested Men, and read the condemned Papers them felves before Judgement is passed upon

either.

THE Accufations, on all Sides, trumped up against the Author and his Writings, are very large and voluminous, as well as grave and weighty. I fhall recite them in their utmoft Force, that the Juft and Generous may be able to form his Judgement aright, and to ftrike a true Balance.

IT is judged proper, for Decency, to omit all the groundless Scandal and Invective thrown out against

the

the Author, by every venal, anonymous Slave, that might be hired to put on a Mask, and to affaffinate the Characters, as well as the Perfons of Men. Therefore, the Procedings of the Principals in the open Perfecution of the Author, under the Color of Law, fhall alone be recited, as fufficient for the Purpose.

To begin with the chief Agent in the Perfecution, he that was culled out for the Execution of the Author, and for his performed and intended Services to that Purpose, was afterwards, pursuant to a previous Agreement, made Collector of Cork, one Cox; he wrote feveral Papers before and after the Seffion of Parlement, to which he dared not put his Name, though he fathered them among his Junto; he made feveral Speeches in private Clubs and Factions raised against the Author, as well as in the House of Commons, where his whole Force, though not his Virulence, is fummed up in the Complaint he depofited and supported there, upon which, a Committee of the whole House, on the 16th of October, 1749, refolved,

I. THAT it is the Opinion of this Committee, that the feveral printed Papers, complaned of, by Cox, of the 16th of this Month, to wit, a Dedication to the King, a first, a second, a fourth, an eighth, a tenth, an eleventh, and a fiveteenth Addrefs to the Free-Citizens and Free-Holders of the City of Dublin, fubfcribed C. Lucas, contain feveral Paragraphs, highly, falsely, and Scandalously reflecting on the Lord Lieutenant of this Kingdom, and tending to promote Sedition and Infurrections, and openly to justify the feveral horrid and bloody Rebellions which have been raifed in this Kingdom, and to create Jealoufies in his Majesty's Subjects.

II. THAT it appears, that Charles Lucas, of the City of Dublin, Apothecary, is Author of the Sayed printed Papers.

III. THAT it appears, that the fayed Charles Lucas, bas, in fome of the fayed printed Papers, fcandaloufly and maliciously misreprefented the Procedings of the fayed Houfe

1

of Commons, and highly reflected on the Honor and Dignity thereof.

UPON this being reported, the whole House unanimously refolved,

I. THAT the fayed Charles Lucas, is an Enemy to his Country.

II. THAT the Lord Lieutenant be addressed to order the King's Attorney-General to profecute this Enemy to his Country, for thefe, his Offences.

III. THAT for his Breach of the Privilege of the Houfe, be be, upon Mr. Speaker's Warrant, committed a clofe Prifoner to the common Goal.

I MEAN not by this or any Thing heretofore or hereafter fayed to this Purpose, to reflect upon all the Members of the present House of Commons of Ireland. That would be moft unjust and unpardonable, when I know, there was not a third, and believe, there was not a fourth of the Members then affembled, and when I am perfwaded, there are many uncorrupt and incorruptible Patriots in that House.

UPON thefe Procedings, to which, I fhall here fay no more, than, that the Author was not permitted to hear the Evidence against him, nor to speak a Word in his own Defence, or Juftification, the celebrated. Lawyer and reputed Patriot, Mr. Stannard, made a moft pompous Harangue, published by an Emanuenfis of his, under the Titule of, The Honeft Man's Speech, in which, he charges the Author with Temerity, Madness, Folly, Enthufiafm, Uncharitableness, Cruelty, general Immorality, Licentioufnefs and Sedition; and juftifies and applauds the Conduct of the House against him.

THE next Accufation of any Weight, and that with which it may be proper to close, comes from no less a Man than the great Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. A Man, who has the Modefty, or Servility, to decline the Titule of his Office, while he exercises Powers utterly incompatible with it.

To fet the Means this worthy Gentleman has taken to traduce and ruin the Author, in a proper Light,

would

would require a Volume. But, it shall be confined to the nearest Compass, by touching onely on the most material Points.

It is neceffary to observe, that this is the Chief Juftice, against whofe open and peremptory Denial of Law and fuftice, the Author has complained *, first to the Lord Lieutenant, and then to the King. And though this high Juftice, upon many Occafions, manifefted the Malice and Rancor, he bore the Author; and though the last cenfured Paper was wrote and published in March, 1748; yet, did not his Lordship give vent to his perfecuting Fury, until he found, that he had not onely the Concurrence of the Commons, the powerful Precedent of the Judgement of a fuperior Court, but also, the Commands of the Lord Lieutenant to prosecute him a-new, in this inferior Court, for the fame Crimes, for which, the utmost Punishment of a free Subject, that of being voted an Enemy to his Country, was already inflicted, in a fuperior.

THIS great Justice found he could not now make his Court more effectually, than by using every indirect, as well as direct Means, to ruin the Author in his Fortune and Reputation. And judging, an Ipfe dixit, or a bare Infinuation, from a Man of his Authority, enough for this Purpose, he prepared a pompous Speech, or Charge, for the firft Grand Juries, that were to be impaneled before him, after the Lord Lieutenant and Commons had committed the further Perfecution of the Author, to his Lordship's Care. Of which Charge, in order to give his Employers the most manifeft Proof of his Zeal, he licenced the Publication.

Ir must be confeffed, that his Highness made no more Mention of the Author's Name, in his Charge from the Bench, than his late Mafter did, in his Speech from the Throne. But, both took Care to inftruct their several Minions privately, and by affix

* See the COMPLAINTS of Dublin, 1747, and the DEDICATION of the City Charter to the KING, 1749.

ing the Name, though clandeftinely, to their respective unmeaning and unintelligible Pourtraits, left no Room to their Tools to doubt whom they respectively intended to have represented by their dirty Daubings.

OUR great Justice's pofitive Charge against this honored Object of his Malice, is no less, than daring to menace the King, and to calumniate and traduce both Houfes of Parlement, the King's Minifters, and all Ranks and Degrees of Magiftrates; daring to attempt the general Subverfion of the Conftitutions, and to induce Anarchy and Confufion, publicly declaming against the Laws and the Power of the Legislature; endeavoring to overturn the established Religion, and to plant, in it's Stead, that of the Independents; then by Infinuations, his procuring an Army to lead on any Emergency he shall think fit, in order to put to Death the Collectors of the Duties of Customs, Excife and Hearth-Money, whom he declares Pirates and Robbers; and the Acts of Parlement they are empowered by, made in Ireland, in the Reign of Charles II. to be anti-conftitutional and void; or to prevail upon Us to renounce our Connection with Great-Britain. And upon bis Lordship's bare Affertion or Infinuation of those Charges against a Perfon, whom he names no further, than in calling him, feveral Times, a most infamous, inconfiderable, and impudent Scribbler, this Impoftor, this Seducer, this Garret Scribbler, Mountebank Politician, political Preacher, &c. and comparing him to Lambert Symnol, to Perkin Warbeck, to the pretended Prince of Paffau, to Jack Straw, Wat Tyler, Jack Cade, and the like, he procured feveral Prefentments to be made, as may be seen in the Notes on the Addreffes, particularly, Address XII.

BUT, the better to complete the Schemes of his Perfecutors, an Information was filed against the Author, in the King's-Bench, under the Direction of this high and mighty Juftice. Here the Charge is more copious, ftronger fhaded, and more deeply colored, though but upon the fame Plan and Drawing. In this, the Author is fet forth, as a pernicious, malicious, and feditious Man, of a depraved Mind and wicked Dif pofition; charged with intending unlawfully, falfely, mali

ciously,

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