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Since I am grown a little pedantick upon the Subject of Slavery, I will put you in Mind of the ridiculous, the miferable Figure which a MockSenate makes: You have two beautiful Sketches of fuch Affembles in Juvenal, proper to excite your Laughter and Indignation. In one you have the Prime Minifter deftroy'd at once, on his Mafter's Letter: the World agrees in an Opinion, Sejanus was guilty, but Juftice would expect fome Proof of it: Tiberius had too loyal a Senate to wait for any Evidence: Their Tyrant fignified his Pleasure; and that ferved for Demonftration to that very Senate which had voted Statues to that very Prime Minifter. The other Scene is the merry one, where they take into Confideration the over-grown Turbet: Nothing can be more fantaftick than the blind Haranguer making a florid Speech in Praise of it, and unfortunately turning his Face from it to the contrary Side of the Room, in order to point out and defcant upon its Beauties. Such are the Ardua Negotia Imperii proper to be. laid before a Parliament of Slaves. Such are the

Arcana fit for them to debate on.

LETTER XVI.

Mar. 20, 1710-11.

F Victory has not made us or our Allies too infolent, it is impoffible that the great Folks at Gertruydenburgh should fail to fettle the Repofe of Europe. But if we over-value ourfelves, and under-rate our Grand Enemy, we fhall find that he is an abfolute Prince, and a proud one too, and rather

ther than ftoop too low, he will give us an Opportunity to buy more Laurels at too dear a Rate; to purchase more coftly Hangings for WestminsterHall. But we have fought enough for Glory, and for Profit too; for we may make good Bargains now, if we think fit (after our furprizing Succeffes) to make Peace Sword in Hand.

The D

of M

has been rewarded, for

his glorious Victories in this War, in a most extraordinary Manner, as indeed he deferved; but Envy will not let him enjoy his Honours in Peace, it is the ufual Fate of fuperlative Merit,

Comperit invidiam fupremo fine domari.

To be raised by the Smiles of their Prince above their Equals, happens to feveral Favourites in every Court, in every Generation: But for a British Subject, a Proteftant, to have a Fief, a Principality of the Empire conferred on him, by a RomanCatholick Emperor of Germany, and not only to be promoted to the highest Honours by his Sove reign that are in her Power to beftow, but alfo to have his tranfcendent Merit proclaimed by the united Voice of the Legislature, and tranfcendently rewarded by an ample Recital of his famous Exploits, and by the Gift of a Princely Revenue, and Royal Manor to him, with an unusual Limitation of those, and of his Honours, in Favour of his Pofterity; these I fay, are Circumstances of human Grandeur which few Subjects in many Ages will be seen to attain to: A Pinacle above which a Man of rational Senfe would not endeavour to foar.

All the little Sallies of Satire against him will be buried in Oblivion, when the Statute that re

cites

cites his Victories, and entails a Royal Inheritance to reward them, fhall record his Glory to late Pofterity. There is nothing wanting to compleat his Character, but this, that he fhall be as willing to let his Country enjoy the Fruits of his Victories, as he has been able to gain them; that he fhew himself as grateful to England, as She has been to him; that he may judge a Princely Fortune (a Fortune unrivalled by any other Subject) to be fufficient for him and his Family; and that he may not defire to make a Trade of War, because he profits by it, tho' at the fame Time it confumes whole Nations, and his Mother Great-Britain among the rest.

LETTER XVII.

April 13, 1710.

YOU rightly obferve, that this hot-headed Priest

has coft both Houfes more Time and Trouble than his Head is worth. What matters it if he has been too peremptory in the Pulpit, on a Subject he might better have let alone. Some Parts of his Sermons are little better than Nonfense, but the general Doctrine may be fupported by the Authority of all our most eminent Divines, and correfponds with that Maxim in Law, that the King can do no Wrong.

I think the Doctor and his Profecutors have fplit on the fame Rock; an extraordinary Cafe, like the Revolution, is quite out of the ordinary Rules of Law, and not defined among the general Learning of the Cafuifts concerning the Obedience

Obedience of Subjects to their Sovereign. The Doctor ought not to have drawn the Revolution into the Debate, nor ought we to fancy, that the Maxims of the Laws of God, of Nature, and of the Land, are changed by that extraordinary Occafion and Event. Tho' I am perfuaded the fame Tenet has been taught ever fince our Reformation, yet this Gentleman's Manner of teaching it is indifcreet; and his Warmth has been fingular feveral Years ago. Defoe, in his Hymn to the Pillory, has long fince juftly celebrated the Doctor's intemperate Zeal against the Diffenters; (I think Defoe had been then exalted for writing The shortest Way with the Diffenters) he wishes, that all who merit equal Punishment, might stand there along with him; and then defcending to Particulars, fays he,

There wou'd the fam'd Sachev'rel stand,
With Trumpet of Sedition in his Hand,
Sounding the firft Crufado in the Land,
He from a Church-of-England Pulpit first,
All his Diffenting Brethren curft,
Doom'd them to Satan, for a Prey,
And firft found out The forteft Way.

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But the Confequence of this mighty Eclat is, that most People are apt to confider a Sentence against this Preacher, (not as a Condemnation of his Temerity by inftancing the Revolution upon . an improper Occafion, and of his unwarrantable pronouncing Damnation against the Diffenters, but) as an Establishment of the difcretionary Refiftance of the Subject, and as a Degradation of kingly Power in England, to the Condition of the Confular in Rome, controled by the Senate, Tribunes, and People; and all this, by a folemn

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Judgment of the Lords at the Demand of the Commons.

Our political Penmen, who fwarm in every Age, will not fail hereafter to magnify every take, every Slip, in every Administration; and even to call Virtue, Vice; Sweet, Bitter; and Good, Evil. Algernon Sidney's Treatife of Government will pass upon many for the Law of the Land; and those who approve most of the Revolution, may live to fee this latitudinarian Allegiance (which the mifguided People will be apt to learn) become troublefome under the beft Princes.

I fhould think therefore this Profecution cannot have been a very agreeable Entertainment to the Queen, nor a pleafant Speculation to those who are in the Course of Succeffion to the Crown.

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In the mean time, Converfation runs as low with us in Town as you describe it in the Country. You can hardly find a rational Creature to talk to, or a rational Topic to talk upon. where you will, you meet the Doctor. Be it pro

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or con, it is ftill the Doctor. The devout Adherers to the literal Construction of Holy Writ, fay, that the facred Volume is in Peril; and ejaculate their Apprehenfions in Metre. One of their Paf quins closes thus,

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Tho' all the Fathers, great and small,
From good St. Austin, back to Paul,
Did juftify the Criminal;

Yet nothing cou'd acquit the Prieft,
Nor Father Paul, nor Jefus Chrift:
Look to your Doctrine, Paul and Jesus,
Sachev'rell's Sermons do not please us,

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