channel of trade and return of bullion, which now enriches the enemies of both, had been ours; and as the wealth, so the strength of the world had been in Protestant hands. Spain, whoever had it, must then have been dependent upon us. The house of Bourbon would have found it so poor without us as to be scarce worth fighting for, and the people so averse to them, for want of their commerce, as not to make it ever likely that France could keep it.

This was the foundation I ever acted upon with relation to the peace. It is true that when it was made, and could not be otherwise, I thought our business was to make the best of it, and rather to inquire what improvements were to be made of it, than to be continually exclaiming at those who made it; and where the objection lies against this part, I cannot yet see.

While I spoke of things in this manner, I bore infinite reproaches from clamouring pens, of being in the French interest, being hired and bribed to defend a bad peace, and the like; and most of this was upon a supposition of my writing, or being the author of, abundance of pamphlets which came out every day, and which I had no hand in. And, indeed, as I shall observe again by-and-by, this was one of the greatest pieces of injustice that could be done me, and which I labour still under without any redress; that whenever any piece comes out which is not liked,

I am immediately charged with being the author; and very often the first knowledge I have had of a book being published, has been from seeing myself abused for being the author of it, in some other pamphlet published in answer to it.

Finding myself treated in this manner, I declined writing at all, and for a great part of a year never set pen to paper, except in the public paper called the Review. After this I was long absent in the north of England; and, observing the insolence of the Jacobite party, and how they insinuated fine things into the heads of the common people of the right and claim of the Pretender, and of the great things he would do for us if he was to come in; of his being to turn a Protestant, of his being resolved to maintain our liberties, support our friends, give liberty to Dissenters, and the like; and finding that the people began to be deluded, and that the Jacobites gained ground among them by these insinuations, I thought it the best service I could do the Protestant interest, and the best way to open the people's eyes to the advantages of the Protestant succession, if I took some course effectually to alarm the people with what they really ought to expect if the Pretender should come to be king. And this made me set pen to paper again.

And this brings me to the affirmative part, or to what really I have done; and in this, I am sorry to

say, I have one of the foulest, most unjust, and unchristian clamours to complain of that any man has suffered, I believe, since the days of the tyranny of King James the Second. The fact is thus:

In order to detect the influence of Jacobite emissaries, as above, the first thing I wrote was a small tract, called "A Seasonable Caution;" a book sincerely written to open the eyes of the poor, ignorant country people, and to warn them against the subtle insinuations of the emissaries of the Pretender; and that it might be effectual to that purpose, I prevailed with several of my friends to give them away among the poor people, all over England, especially in the north. And several thousands were actually given away, the price being reduced so low, that the bare expense of paper and press was only preserved, that every one might be convinced that nothing of gain was designed, but a sincere endeavour to do a public good, and assist to keep the people entirely in the interest of the Protestant succession.

Next to this, and with the same sincere design, I wrote two pamphlets, one entitled, "What if the Pretender should Come?" the other, "Reasons against the Succession of the House of Hanover."

Nothing can be more plain than that the titles of these books were amusements, in order to put the books into the hands of those people whom the

Jacobites had deluded, and to bring the books to be read by them.

Previous to what I shall farther say of these books, I must observe that all these books met with so general a reception and approbation among those who were most sincere for the Protestant succession, that they sent them all over the kingdom, and recommended them to the people as excellent and useful pieces; insomuch that about seven editions of them were printed, and they were reprinted in other places. And I do protest, had his present Majesty, then Elector of Hanover, given me a thousand pounds to have written for the interest of his succession, and to expose and render the interest of the Pretender odious and ridiculous, I could have done nothing more effectual to those purposes than these books were.

And that I may make my worst enemies, to whom this is a fair appeal, judges of this, I must take leave, by-and-by, to repeat some of the expressions in these books, which were direct and need no explication, and which I think no man that was in the interest of the Pretender, nay, which no man but one who was entirely in the interest of the Hanover succession, could write.

Nothing can be severer in the fate of a man than to act so between two parties that both sides should be provoked against him. It is certain the Jacobites cursed those tracts and the author, and

when they came to read them, being deluded by the titles according to the design, they threw them by with the greatest indignation imaginable. Had the Pretender ever come to the throne, I could have expected nothing but death, and all the ignominy and reproach that the most inveterate enemy of his person and claim could be supposed to suffer.

On the other hand, I leave it to any considering man to judge, what a surprise it must be to me to meet with all the public clamour that informers could invent, as being guilty of writing against the Hanover succession, and as having written several pamphlets in favour of the Pretender.

No man in this nation ever had a more riveted aversion to the Pretender, and to all the family he pretended to come of, than I, a man that had been in arms under the Duke of Monmouth, against the cruelty and arbitrary government of his pretended father; that for twenty years had to, my utmost opposed him (King James) and his party after his abdication; and had served King William to his satisfaction, and the friends of the Revolution after his death, at all hazards and upon all occasions; that had suffered and been ruined under the administration of high-flyers and Jacobites, of whom some at this day counterfeit Whigs. It could not be! The nature of the thing could by no means allow it; it must be monstrous; and that the wonder may