bution he carries with him.

And this charge,

if briefs should happen to be frequent, would be enough to undo many a poor clergyman in the kingdom.

Sixthly, We obferve in the said brief, that the provost and fellows of the university, judges, officers of the courts, and profeffors of laws common and civil, are neither willed, required, nor commanded to make their contributions; but that fo good a work is only recommended to them. Whereas we conceive, that all his Majesty's fübjects are equally obliged, with or without his Majefty's commands, to promote works of charity according to their power; and that the clergy, in their ecclefiaftical capacity, are only liable to fuch commands as the rubric, or any other law fhall enjoin, being born to the fame privileges of freedom with the rest of his Majefty's fubjects.

We cannot but obferve to your Grace, that in the English act of the fourth year of Queen Anne, for the better collecting charity-money on briefs by letters- patent, &c. the minifters are obliged only to read the briefs in their churches, without any particular exhortations; neither are they commanded to go from houfe to houfe with the church-wardens, nor to fend the money collected to their refpective chancellors, but to pay it to the undertaker or agent of the fufferer: So that, we humbly hope, the clergy of this kingdom fhall not, without any law in being, be put

to

to greater hardfhips in this cafe than their brethren in England, where the legiflature, intending. to prevent the abuses in collecting charity-money on briefs, did not think fit to put the clergy under any of those difficulties we now complain of, in the present brief by letters-patent, for the relief of Charles McCarthy aforefaid.

The collections upon the Lord's day are the: principal support of our own numerous poor in our several parishes; and therefore every fingle brief, with the benefit of a full collection over the whole kingdom, muft deprive feveral thou-fands of poor of their weekly maintenance, for the fake only of one perfon, who often becomes a fufferer by his own folly or negligence, and is fure to overvalue his loffes double or treble : So that, if this precedent be followed, as it certainly will if the prefent brief fhould fucceed, we may probably have a new brief every week; and thus, for the advantage of fifty-two perfons,. whereof not one in ten is deferving, and for the interest of a dozen dextrous clerks and secreta-ries, the whole poor in the kingdom will be likely to ftarve.

We are credibly informed, that neither the officers of the Lord Primate, in preparing the report of his Grace's opinion, nor thofe of the great feal, in paffing the patent for briefs, will remit any of their fees, both which do amount to a confiderable fum: And thus the good intentions of well-difpofed people are in a great mea-fure disappointed, a large part of their charity

being anticipated, and alienated by fees and gra

tuities.

Laftly, We cannot but represent to your Grace our great concern and grief, to see the pains and labour of our church-wardens fo much encreafed, by the injunctions and commands put upon them in this brief, to the great disadvantage of the clergy and the people, as well as to their own trouble, damage, and loss of time; to which great additions have been already made, by laws appointing them to collect the taxes for the watch and the poor-house, which they bear with great unwillingness; and if they fhall find themfelves further laden with fuch briefs as this of M'Carthy, it will prove fo great a difcouragement, that we shall never be able to provide honest and sufficient perfons for that weighty office of churchwarden, fo neceffary to the laity, as well as the clergy, in all things that relate to the order and regulations of parishes.

Upon all these confiderations, we humbly hope that your Grace, of whofe fatherly care, vigilance, and tenderness, we have had so many and great inftances, will reprefent our cafe to his Moft Excellent Majefty, or to the Chief Governor in this kingdom, in fuch a manner, that we may be neither under the neceffity of declining his Majefty's command in his letters-patent, or of taking new and grievous burthens upon ourselves and our church-wardens, to which neither the rubric, nor any other law in force, oblige us to fubmit.

AN

A N

ANSWER TO BICKERSTAFF.

Some REFLECTIONS upon Mr Bickerstaff's Predictions for the year 1708*,

BY A PERSON OF QUALITY.

HAVE not observed, for fome years past, any infignificant paper to have made more noife, or be more greedily bought, than that of thefe predictions. They are the wonder of the common people, an amufement for the better fort, and a jeft only to the wife; yet, among thefe laft, I have heard fome very much in doubt, whether the author meant to deceive others, or is deceived himself. Whoever he was, he feems to have with great art adjufted his paper, both to pleafe the rabble, and to entertain perfons of condition. The writer is, without queftion, a gentleman of wit and learning, although the piece feems haftily written in a fudden frolic, with the fcornful thought of the pleasure he will have, in putting this great town into a wonderment about nothing: Nor do I doubt, but he, and his friends

See vol vi. p. 10

in

.

in the fecret, laugh often and plentifully in a corner, to reflect how many hundred thousand fools they have already made. And he has them faft for fome time: For fo they are like to continue, until his prophecies begin to fail in the events. Nay it is a great question, whether the miscarriage of the two or three firft will fo entirely undeceive people, as to hinder them from expecting the accomplishing of the reft. I doubt not but fome thousands of these papers are carefully preferved by as many perfons, to confront with the events, and try whether the aftrologer exactly keeps the day and the hour. And thefe I take to be Mr Bickerstaff's choiceft cullies, for whose fake chiefly he writ his amusement. Meanwhile he has feven weeks good, during which time the world is to be kept in fufpenfe; for it is fo long before the almanack-maker is to die, which is the first prediction: And, if that fellow happens to be a splenetic vifionary fop, or has any faith in his own art, the prophecy may punctually come to pass by very natural means; as a gentleman of my acquaintance, who was ill used by a mercer in town, writ him a letter in an unknown hand, to give him notice that care had been taken to convey a flow poison into his drink, which would infallibly kill him in a month; after which the man began in earnest to languifh and decay, by the mere ftrength of imagination, and would certainly have died, if care had not been taken to undeceive him before

the