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must be the doom of thofe, who hindered these people from fubmitting to the gentle terms offered them by their Prince! and who, although they be confcious of their own inability to furnish one fingle fhip, for the fupport of the Catalans, are, at this inftant, fpurring them on to their ruin, by promises of aid and protection!

Thus much in anfwer to Mr. Steele's account of the affairs of Europe; from which he deduceth the univerfal monarchy of France, and the danger of I know not how many popish fucceffors to Britain. His political reflections are as good as his facts. "We muft obferve, fays he, that the "perfon, who feems to be the moft favoured by "the French King, in the late treaties, is the "Duke of Savoy." Extremely right; for whatever that Prince got by the peace, he owes entirely to her Majefty, as a juft reward for his having been fo firm and useful an ally; neither was France brought, with more difficulty, to yield any one point, than that of allowing the Duke fuch a barrier as the Queen insisted on.

He is become the most powerful prince in Italy. I had rather fee him fo, than the Emperor. He is Supposed to have entered into a fecret and strict alliance with the houfe of Bourbon. This is one of thofe facts, wherein I am moft inclined to believe the author, because it is what he muft needs be utterly ignorant of, and therefore may poffibly be true.

I thought, indeed, we fhould be fafe from all popish fucceffors, as far as Italy, because of the

prodigious

prodigious clutter about fending the Pretender thither. But they will never agree where to fix their longitude. The Duke of Savoy is the more dangerous for removing to Sicily: he adds to our fears for being too near. So, whether France conquer Germany, or be in peace and good understanding with it, either event will put us and Holland at the mercy of France, which hath a quiver full of Pretenders at its back, whenever the Chevalier fhall die.

This was juft the logic of poor Prince Butler, a fplenetic madman, whom every body may remember about the town. Prince Pamphilio in Italy, employed emiffaries to torment Prince Butler here. But what if Prince Pamphilio die? Why then he had left in his will, that his heirs and executors torment Prince Butler for ever.

:

I cannot think it a misfortune, what Mr. Steele affirms, that "treafonable books, lately difperf❝ed among us, ftriking apparently at the Hano"ver fucceffion, have paffed almoft without ob"fervation from the generality of the people;" because it seems a certain fign, that the generality of the people are well difpofed to that illuftrious family but I look upon it as a great evil, to fee feditious books difperfed among us, apparently striking at the Queen and her adminiftration, at the conftitution of church and ftate, and at all religion; yet passing without obfervation from the generality of those in power: but whether this remiffness be imputed to Whitehall, or Weftminsterhall, is other mens bufinefs to enquire. Mr. Steele VOL. II. knows

may

Ff

knows in his confcience, that the Queries concerning the Pretender, iflued from one of his own party. And as for the poor nonjuring clergyman, who was trufted with committing to the prefs a late book, on the subject of hereditary right, by a strain of the fummum jus, he is now, as I am told, with half a fcore children, ftarving and rotting among thieves and pick-pockets, in the common room of a ftinking jail *. I have never feen either the book or the publisher;. however, I would fain ask one fingle perfon† in the world a question; why he hath fo often drank the abdicated King's health upon his knees?--But the transition is natural and frequent, and I fhall not trouble him for an answer.

It is the hardeft cafe in the world, that. Mr. Steele fhould take up the artificial reports of his own faction, and then put them off upon the world as additional fears of a popish fucceffor. I can affure him, that no good subject of the Queen, is under the leaft concern, whether the Pretender be converted or no, farther than their wishes, that all men would embrace the true religion. But, reporting backwards and forwards upon this point, helps to keep up the noife, and is a topic for Mr. Steele to enlarge himfelf upon, by fhewing how little we can depend on such converfions, by collecting a lift of popish cruelties, and repeating,

*

Upon his conviction, he was committed to the Marshalfea, and, at his fentence, to the Queen's Bench, for three years, Hawkef

† Parker, afterward Lord Chancellor.

ing, after himself, and the bishop of Sarum, the dismal effects likely to follow, upon the return of that fuperftition among us.

But as this writer is reported, by those who know him, to be what the French call journalier, his fear and courage operating according to the weather, in our uncertain climate; I am apt to believe, the two last pages of his Crisis were written on a fun-fhine day. This I guefs from the general tenor of them; and, particularly, from an unwary affertion, which, if he believes as firmly as I do, will, at once, overthrow all his foreign and domeftic fears of a popish fucceffor. As divided a people as we are, those who ftand for the houfe of Hanover, are INFINITELY fuperior in number, wealth, and courage, and all arts, military and civil, to those in the contrary intereft; befides which, we have the laws, I fay, the laws on our fide. The laws, I fay, the laws. This elegant repetition is, I think, a little out of place; for the stress might better have been laid upon fo great a majority of the nation; without which, I doubt the laws would be of little weight, although they be very good additional fecurities. And, if what he here afferts be true, as it certainly is, although he affert it, (for I allow even the majority of his own party to be against the Pretender) there can be no danger of a popish fucceffor, except from the unreasonable jealoufies of the best among that party, and from the malice, the avarice or ambition of the worft; without which, Britain would be able to defend her fucceffion against all her enemies, both at home and Ff2 abroad.

abroad. Most of the dangers from abroad, which he enumerates, as the confequences of this very bad peace, made by the Queen, and approved by parliament, must have subsisted under any peace at all; unless, among other projects equally feafible, we could have ftipulated, to cut the throats of every popish relation to the royal family.

Well, by this author's own confeffion, a number infinitely fuperior, and the best circumftantiated imaginable, are for the fucceffion in the house of Hanover. This fucceffion is established, confirmed, and fecured, by feveral laws; her majefty's repeated declarations, and the oaths of all her fubjects, engage both her and them to preferve what thofe laws have fettled. This is a fecurity, indeed, a fecurity adequate, at leaft, to the importance of the thing; and yet, according to the whig fcheme, as delivered to us by Mr. Steele and his coadjutors, is altogether infufficient; and the fucceffion will be defeated, the Pretender brought in, and popery eftablifhed among us, without the farther affiftance of the writer and his faction.

And what fecurities have our adverfaries fubftituted in the place of these? A club of politicians, where Jenny Man prefides; a Crisis written by Mr. Steele; a confederacy of knavifh ftockjobbers, to ruin credit; a report of the Queen's death; an effigies of the Pretender, run twice through the body, by a valiant peer; a speech, by the author of the Crifis; and, to fum up all, an unlimited freedom of reviling her Majefty, and thofe the employs..

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