am not surprised that those who contrived a parliamentary sponge for their crimes, are now afraid of a new revolution sponge for their money and if it were possible to contrive a sponge that could only affect those who had need of the other, perhaps it would not be ill employed.

No. XVIII.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1710.

Quippe ubi fas versum atque nefas; tot bella per orbem ;
Tam multæ scelerum facies

Where sacred order, fraud and force confound;
Where impious wars and tumults rage around.

I AM often violently tempted to let the world freely know who the author of this paper is; to tell them my name and titles at length; which would prevent abundance of inconsistent criticisms I daily hear upon it. Those who are enemies to the notions and opinions I would advance, are sometimes apt to quarrel with the Examiner, as defective in point of wit, and sometimes of truth. At other times, they are so generous and candid to allow, it is written by a club, and that very great hands have fingers in it. As for those who only appear its adversaries in print, they give me but very little pain. The paper I hold lies at my mercy, and I can govern it as I please; therefore, when I begin to find the wit too bright, the learning too

deep, and the satire too keen for me to deal with, (a very frequent case, no doubt, where a man is constantly attacked by such shrewd adversaries,) I peaceably fold it up, or fling it aside, and read no more. It would be happy for me to have the same power over people's tongues, and not be forced to hear my own work railed and commended fifty times a-day; affecting all the while a countenance wholly unconcerned, and joining, out of policy or good manners, with the judgment of both parties: this, I confess, is too great a hardship for so bashful and unexperienced a writer.

But, alas, I lie under another discouragement of much more weight. I was very unfortunate in the choice of my party, when I set up to be a writer. Where is the merit, or what opportunity to discover our wit, our courage, or our learning, in drawing our pens for the defence of a cause which the queen and both Houses of Parliament, and nine parts in ten of the kingdom, have so unanimously embraced? I am cruelly afraid we politic authors must begin to lessen our expenses, and lie for the future at the mercy of our printers. All hopes are now gone of writing ourselves into places or pensions. A certain starveling author, who worked under the late administration, told me, with a heavy heart, about a month ago, that he, and some others of his brethren, had secretly offered their service, dog-cheap, to the present ministry, but were all refused; and are now maintained by contribution, like Jacobites or fanatics. I have been of late employed, out of perfect commiseration, in doing them good offices: for, whereas some were of opinion, that these hungry zealots should not be suffered any longer, in their malapert way, to snarl at the present course of public proceedings; and whereas others proposed, that they should be limited to a

certain number, and permitted to write for their masters, in the same manner as counsel are assigned for other criminals, that is, to say all they can in defence of their client, but not reflect upon the court; I humbly gave my advice, that they should be suffered to write on, as they used to do; which I did purely out of regard to their persons; for I hoped it would keep them out of harm's way, and prevent them from falling into evil courses; which, though of little consequence to the public, would certainly be fatal to themselves. If I have room at the bottom of this paper, I will transcribe a petition to the present ministry, sent me by one of these authors, in behalf of himself and fourscore others of his brethren.

For my own part, nothwithstanding the little encouragement to be hoped for at this time from the men in power, I shall continue my paper, till either the world or myself grow weary of it: the latter is easily determined; and for the former, I shall not leave it to the partiality of either party, but to the infallible judgment of my printer. One principal end I designed by it, was to undeceive those well-meaning people, who have been drawn unawares into a wrong sense of things, either by the common prejudices of education and company, the great personal qualities of some party leaders, or the foul misrepresentations that were constantly made of all who durst differ from them in the smallest article. I have known such men struck with the thoughts of some late changes, which, as they pretend to think, were made without any reason visible to the world. In answer to this, it is not sufficient to allege, what nobody doubts, that a good and wise prince may be allowed to change his ministers, without giving a reason to his subjects; because it is probable, that he will not make such a

change, without very important reasons; and a good subject ought to suppose, that in such a case there are such reasons, although he be not apprised of them; otherwise he must inwardly tax his prince of capriciousness, inconstancy, or ill-design. Such reasons indeed may not be obvious to persons prejudiced, or at a great distance, or short thinkers; and therefore, if there be no secrets of state, nor any ill consequences to be apprehended from their publication, it is no uncommendable work in any private hand, to lay them open for the satisfaction of all men. And if what I have already said, or shall hereafter say, of this kind, be thought to reflect upon persons, although none have been named, I know not how it can possibly be avoided. The queen in her speech, mentions with great concern, that "the navy and other offices are burdened with heavy debts; and desires that the like may be prevented for the time to come." And if it be now possible to prevent the continuance of an evil that has been so long growing upon us, and is arrived to such a height, surely those corruptions and mismanagements must have been great which first introduced them, before our taxes were eaten up by annuities.

If I were able to rip up, and discover in all their colours, only about eight or nine thousand of the most scandalous abuses that have been committed in all parts of public management, for twenty years past, by a certain set of men and their instruments, I should reckon it some service to my country and posterity. But, to say the truth, I should be glad the authors' names were conveyed to future times, along with their actions. For although the present age may understand well enough the little hints we give, the parallels we draw, and the characters we describe, yet all this will be lost to the next. How

ever, if these papers, reduced into a more durable form, should happen to live till our grand-children be men, I hope they may have curiosity enough to consult annals, and compare dates, in order to find out what names were then intrusted with the conduct of affairs, in the consequences whereof themselves will so deeply share; like a heavy debt in a private family, which often lies an incumbrance upon an estate for three generations.

But, leaving the care of informing posterity to better pens, I shall, with due regard to truth, discretion, and the safety of my person from the men of the new-fangled moderation, continue to take all proper opportunities of letting the misled part of the people see how grossly they have been abused, and in what particulars. I shall also endeavour to convince them, that the present course we are in is the most probable means, with the blessing of God, to extricate ourselves out of all our difficulties..

Among those who are pleased to write or talk against this paper, I have observed a strange manner of reasoning, which I should be glad to hear them explain themselves upon. They make no ceremony of exclaiming, upon all occasions, against a change of ministry, in so critical and dangerous a conjuncture. What shall we, who heartily approve and join in those proceedings, say in defence of them? We own the juncture of affairs to be as they describe we are pushed for an answer; and are forced at last freely to confess, that the corruptions and abuses in every branch of the administration, were so numerous and intolerable, that all things must have ended in ruin, without some speedy reformation. This I have already asserted in a former paper; and the replies I have read or heard, have been in plain terms to affirm the direct con