A Farther ARGUMENT AGAINST
Ennobling Foreigners,
IN ANSWER To the Two Parts of the State Anatomy: With a Short Account of the Anatomizer.
T—l—nd
Blasphemes the Holy-Ghost,
The Bribed of Bribes Accuses;
Of Foreign Rogues the Traytor Boasts,
The King, who was
Your Lord of Hosts,
That Ra—l
How
Abuses.
A Letter to a Member of Parliament.
LONDON:
Printed for
E. Moore
near St.
Paul
's, 1717. Price 6
d.
Where may be had the first Part, Price 1
s.
A Farther Argument,
&c.
INTRODUCTION.
SUCH is the Pride and invincible Obstinacy of Mankind, that nothing is more against Nature than to
acknowledge their mistakes
: Not the power of their Reason, not the sence of Modesty, no not the influence of secret Convictions can prevail with them ever to own themselves
in the wrong:
No, altho' they know it, and discover to every own they converse with that they do so. Hence the innumerable Writings of Men obstinate in error, have in a great measure proceeded, and the World has been fill'd with the labours of
Hereticks,
who have in all Ages broach'd false Doctrines, and infamous
Opinions,
even so gross, as
Satan
himself never had the front to suggest; and yet rather than be thought to recant what they had once advanc'd, they have thought fit to maintain those false Doctrines and infamous Opinions, at the expence of Religion, Conscience, and all manner of Reputation.
This I take to be the Case, in due proportion to Circumstances, of the Author of the late Libel, entituled, the
State Anatomy
; such I must call it, because it Libels and Slanders Persons, Governments, and Nations. And as this has long been his practise in other things, for which a certain Author of Note said of him, That he had made the World believe him a worse Heretick than he is:
So
I see a great deal of ground to think he has gone upon the same foundation in bringing forth now a second part of his Libel in vindication of the first; notwithstanding it is manifest that he was so convinc'd of the Error of the first, that the very nature of the thing now, extorts a Confession, That he had been justly reprov'd. An example of this (to make things clear as I go) is in nothing more evident than in the great bustle he makes in his second Libel, to clear himself of his having most scandalously forespoken the House of Lords, telling us positively, before their Lordships had so much as debated it, that they
really would
receive more Foreigners into their Body, and pointing out to them who should be the Men. This he will not have call'd
leading
or
dictating
to the House, tho' there are innumerable precedents when the House have thought otherwise, and resented it accordingly, as well from greater as smaller Persons than this Author.
This hard task however he undertakes, tho' most People think he will as ill come off, as he did from endeavouring to prove himself no Heretick, when yet he owns himself to be of some Opinions contrary to Orthodox Christians.
It is nevertheless to be acknowledged to him (for I shall do him justice, tho' he does no justice to others) I say, it is to be acknowledg'd to him, that he grants leading and dictating to so illustrious a Body as the House of Lords, is an unjustifyable practise; but when he comes to wash his hands of the Fact,
Hoc opus, Hic labor est
: I shall examine it by it self presently; but before I enter upon that part, it is meet to attack his
detach'd Parties,
which he has prepar'd to Satyrize those he intends to fight with; for it is to be observ'd, that he takes a new method with Mankind, scarce ever practis'd by any Man before; and this is, to find out an Author who he thinks fit for his encounter, and call him the Writer of the Book which he contends with, (it matters not with him whether he is the Man or no) and thus having drest up this
Man of Straw,
he begins the fight. This he has done in the Case before me, where finding it greatly for his purpose, that
De Foe,
Author of the
True born Englishman,
should pass for the Author of the
Argument
against enabling Foreigners,
&c. he has singled him out, and fallen upon him in a most merciless manner; for he has recommended him to the Revenge of his Foreigners, (what mercy he will find there may be guessd at.) He has also, as far as his good Wishes may have effect, recommended him to the Resentment of the Government. He has expos'd, ridicul'd, banter'd, and in a word, as far as in him lies, murther'd the Man; and yet all this while, this Man, as I find, was no more Author of this Book than the Man in the Moon: Nay,
as I hear,
for I have no Knowledge of the Man, he has been sick in his Bed all the while. In carrying on this
Tragi comedy,
he takes care to summon for Evidence, all that this
D. F.
has said upon the same subject in his Pamphlets and Poems formerly written; and to confront this with what I have said now; whereas if it were true that the said
D. F.
had been Author of all those things, and those too, it had amounted to no more than this; either that he had been
wrong before,
and was now
better inform'd
; or
second,
that he had contradicted himself, and wrote one time one thing, and one time another, a fault which Modesty should have taught
Toland
to have pass'd over in silence, that it might not be retorted upon himself; and after all, neither of these things would prove at all that what Mr.
Toland
had said was right, or would have made his Libel one jot better than it was before, besides the Scandal of having taken a wrong aim, and charging a Man falsly with writing this Book, who really has no manner of concern in it or about it. In the next place, I observe Mr.
Toland
is of Opinion that I should not have publish'd his Name when I answer'd his Libel: The Truth is, he should have taken care to have had the Secret better kept, knowing how ill his Name recommends any Cause he embarks in the defense of, and how much disadvantage it is to those he serves, to have him known to be their Advocate; upon these Considerations I should have forborn his Name, had it not been made publick before by his Eccho, Mr.
Boyer,
who in his Monthly Fables, call'd falsly
the Political State,
harang'd for him, thinking (
by mistake
) to make his Book sell. This Man openly told his Name, for which, I hear, the Bookseller
ow'd him no thanks.
Since then his own Friend did him that injury, for I hear it gave a great check to the sale of his Book; why should he blame the Author of the
Answer,
who only nam'd him at second Hand, after it was no more a Secret, and who, even then, did it with caution too, knowing how scandalous a sorger of Names to Books that same
Boyer
was, and how little was to be built
for truth
upon what he had publish'd, who is the easiest Man to be impos'd upon, the most unconcern'd at doing any innocent Man an Injury, and the backwardest to do Justice when he was convinc'd of it, of any Man alive; which I shall prove in a part by it self.
CHAP. I.
A farther Confirmation of
the visible Design
there has been for some time carry'd on among
a Party
to propose the Introducing
FOREIGNERS
among the Nobility; and a little of the Liberty Mr.
TOLAND
takes with Truth.
MR.
Toland
begins this Subject for me with two notable
Falsities; first he says boldly,
Page 30. (these are his words)
I never knew or heard of any such Design, as he affirms there was to introduce these two Noblemen or any other Foreigners into the House of Peers.
Stop there, and go back to Page 26. see his words again,
My proposal,
says he,
contains nothing
new or strange,
with respect either to the Dispensation or the
Persons. How can this be if such a Design was never heard of before,
Oportet Mendacem.
The next
Falsity
is as evident as the former, and is taken from his own words also, Page 25. (
viz.
)
As to the two foreign Noblemen, in consideration of whose service, I propos'd a legal Dispensation with the fifth limitation of the
Act of Succession, an out-cry was immediately rais'd, as if all the Foreigners in
Christendom
were to be prefer'd here
; whereas
I expresly
confin'd my Proposal
to those two Persons
: Here again Mr.
Toland
lets us see
that great Wits have short Memories
; for either he did not write the Memorial call'd the
Anatomy,
or else he had forgot himself strangely; for look into his said
Anatomy,
Page 57, he expresly recommends Monsieur
Robethon
by Name thus, (
viz.
)
nor can it enter into my Thoughts, but that a way will be found out to recompence the Merit of the no less able and indefatigable Mr.
Robethon; there's
one more
plainly propos'd by Name: And to let us see that even this is not all that is desired,
he modestly adds,
Page 58,
I am far from extending this to
many
others,
pray observe, not to
many others
; this, I think, strongly acknowledges he is for extending it
to some few others
: And yet this Man has the Front to say in his
Second Part,
Page 25. that he
expresly confin'd his Proposals to two Persons.
Is this the Man that charges
D. F.
with falshood, and gives him the
Lie
in publick Print! was ever any thing more notorious! and is this the Man that disowns their being
a Design laid
to propose the bringing in Foreigners! and
more
Foreigners than he names into the Peerage! whereas he here acknowledges there is a Design to bring in some, but not
many:
Thus he confesses in one Book, and denies in the other; talks honestly
per accident,
and knavishly
per incident:
But this is not the first time Mr.
Toland
has discover'd himself to be
Ambo dexter
in his Arguments, as well as in other things; and tho' I will have nothing to do with the quarrel between
D. F.
and him, (for by his treating
D. F.
there must be some Malice among them) yet when I am observing the Liberty Mr.
Toland
takes with
Truth,
I cannot pass by one of the Coursest Shuffles that I have ordinarily met with in the World. It is in his fighting with his Man of Straw aforesaid. After he has plaid the Buffoon with him a great while, as if he was bringing him instantly to the
Old Bayly
or
Westminster
to be Arraign'd, and that he was to be the Informer against him, he then falls to down right giving him the
Lie,
as a Man who there was no measures to be us'd with, and he proves
D. F.
a Lyar in this quaint method.
He complains that
D. F.
had said in some of his writings, that
he had seen the original Letter which he
(Toland)
had sent to the Dissenters
; this is a
Lie
says
Toland,
for it was only
written by an Amanuensis, I kept the original by me.
Now would one not think that
Toland
might have learnt, ever since he was expell'd the University, a little more justice in Dispute than this? Let his Enemy be who he will, real, or imaginary, I shall only ask him in a few Words,
whether,
let it be written by a Servant or not by a Servant,
was not the Letter which he actually sent to the Dissenting Ministers, properly the Original?
I'll give him a particular Case, (
viz.
) as in drawing Writings. The rough Draught of a Lease or
Indenture
is drawn by the Attorney or Scrivener, and it is afterwards written over fair or engross'd by a Clerk or
Amanuensis,
yet that Ingrossment
being executed,
is call'd the
Original Deed,
and it would be look'd upon a most egregious Shuffle, for any Man who had seen the said Writing, to say, if he was
legally ask'd,
that he had not seen the
Original
because he had not seen the
Draught.
If Mr.
Toland
drew a Draught of a Letter
to the Dissenters,
and then caused his Servant or
Amanuensis
to draw it out fair,
The first perhaps having alterations, interpolations,
&c.
in it,
and on viewing the fair Copy, caused his Name to be set to it, which is Executing it, and then sent away; I desire to know which is
the Original,
That which is first finished and executed, or that which is Drawn out rough, to be redrawn out for such finishing?
But this is
by
the
by
: I Note it as a Specimen of his sincere way of Arguing, and his bold giving
the LYE
on such Grounds as these: And I have remarked this, that the World may see what Advocates such a Cause as this has singled out among Mankind to defend it.
Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis.
Tempus eget—
However I shall say the less of this here, because I may yet give a Compleater History of the Character of this Mr.
Toland,
to undeceive the World about him, and also of his fellow Labourer in this Drudgery; That
French
Papist in disguise, who flattering every Side in his turn, Writes now for a Tory Ministry, now for a Whig, and under the pretence of serving the Whigs, has always been the first to Publish the Manifestos of Rebels, Declarations of the Pretender, and such like stuff, of whom I say, together with an Account of Mr.
Toland,
the
Publick,
not the
Secret History,
is as ready for the Press as needful for the Publick; and to which I shall refer for the most Execrable Practises that any have been suffer'd to be guilty of unpunish'd in a Christian Government.
CHAP. II.
Of Leading, Dictating or Prescribing to the House of Lords, by the Pamphlet call'd
The State Anatomy.
FOR the Reasons already Given, I leave for a while talking any more of the Person of this Author, and come back to his Discourse; I find him very much concern'd to wash off what sticks to him in this Article of
Dictating to the House of Lords,
it will soon appear whether he does this to purpose, or not to purpose: I need spend no time to prove that Leading and Dictating to the House of Lords, is a Scandalous, Insolent and Offensive Practice, and what the House has always thought fit to resent;
Toland
has given me up that Point in his
Second Libel,
which therefore according to my Title I must Anatomise here.
Pag.
5. his Words aae these:
They must be mad themselves, who can think any Man else mad enough to prescribe to any Publick Assembly, much less to the Legislative Body of the Nation?
Thus the Point is Granted, and there needs no more dispute about that: It lies then before us to enquire whether what Mr.
Toland
in his Lybel has offer'd to the
House of Lords,
can be call'd
Dictating to them,
and Leading them, or no.
I will abate him all he says, to recommend the Gentlemen; This I will call only
Proposing to the Lords,
which he says any Man may do. But when he comes to say, there is no need to fear but that the Lords
will do it,
p. 57. and again, that it would
savour of Ingratitude and Partiallity not to do it,
p.
ibid.
What shall we say to that modest Part! Is this Prescribing to and Leading the House of Peers, or is it not?
Let me be allow'd to make a short Comment upon this worthy Text,
The House of Lords will Consent to make Baron
Bothmar
and Count
Bernsdorf Peers, they cannot Honourably refuse it, and they would be ungrateful and unjust,
for to be Partial is to be Ʋ njust,
if they should not. These are Words well deserving to be Remark'd: I would be very glad to hear when ever such Words were spoken of the House of Lords and not resented; and yet
this Man is not so mad as to Dedicate to the Parliament
▪ as if telling them they must do a Certain thing,
or be Ʋ ngrateful
and
Partial,
was not Dictating: For the farther asscertaining then what
is, or is not
Dictating to the House, I appeal to that Illustrious and most Honourable Assembly, whose Journals are full of Eminent Precedents, as well in Cases where Men have Offended in the Point of Dictating,
&c.
as also of the constant resentment of the House in such Cases.
Has this most Venerable Body been so Jealous of their Privileges, and so Nice, as to forbid any Lybeller or Author, so much as to Print the Name of a Peer, and to make the Offender Lyable to an Action of
Scandalum Magnatum,
tho' he said nothing offensive; nay, tho' he spoke in the praise of the Person named: And shall it not be an Offence against the Privileges of the House, to reproach them in Print with
Ingratitude
and
Partiality,
if they do not do this or that which the Libeller says is fit to be done!
Shall the House be so Jealous of their Privileges, as to make a Fence round their Actions (like the Rails in ancient Times to keep off the People from approaching Mount
Sinai
) so that Authors are forbid to Print and Write any thing that is said or done within their Walls at their Peril; and shall it be no Subject of Resentment to pretend, in Print, that they
will certainly
do this or that, before they have so much as Debated it or spoken a Word about it? Is not Mr.
Redpath
and Mr.
Walker,
and others, now in Custody of the
Black Rod,
for but an unwary Trespass of this kind; and shall
Toland
publickly say they
shall or will
do
this or that,
and
cannot omit to do it without Ingratitude and Partiallity?
and yet wipe his Mouth and say,
He has given their Lordships no Offence.
I will not say the House cannot omit taking him up without Partiallity; but I may say, that if it were any body but Mr.
Toland
I should wonder at his Impudence, and should say that if he escaped he would have very good Luck.
CHAP. III.
Of the great Succcess of the PROPOSAL; The great Service done by the ANATOMIZER to the Interest which he pretends to assist; And an Enquiry into the real Advance of their Cause by it.
WERE the People who they Write for, and those who both of them think they please, made but once sensible of the just Characters of the Persons who have,
whether Mercenarily
or
Officiously
undertaken their Cause: Were they made sensible how they Perform, and how they Expose, rather than Assist the Cause they undertake, they wou'd be asham'd of them, and say to them, as was lately said by a Noble Lord to a certain Author who claim'd some Reward for his great Services in vindicating his Lordship,
You will extremely oblige me, Sir, if you will be pleas'd to say no more about me.
Let a Judgment be made only by the Success of the present Undertaking; and let Mr.
Toland
ask himself sedately, Whether he thinks that the Cause he has espoused has gain'd or lost by him? Let him go to the Baron
Bothmar
and Count
Bernsdorff,
and ask of those Noble Persons, Whether they think he has serv'd them or not; and whether they think themselves nearer or farther off from a Peerage by his Argument?
It cannot be true that he himself believes he has better'd their Cause; it appears that he thinks otherwise, by his shifting off from them the Scandal of Employing him; taking the Blame of it all upon himself; declaring they know nothing of it, and that they are so far from desiring him to do it, that they do not so much as Court or Desire the Honour of being Peers, or to that purpose. Now if he found, upon his starting the Proposal, that the Nation came generally and readily into it, he would never strive with so much Earnestness to conceal the Design; endeavour to bring in the Proposal as a Brat of his own private Conjectures, hatch'd for not bodies particular Interest, directed by no body, and only offered by a fortuitous Efflux of Thought, without the Assistance, or so much as the Approbation, of the Persons named or pointed at.
If this were the Truth of the Story,
he must acknowledge himself mighty Officious,
and that he has Run before he was Sent.
I doubt he will find as few People to believe this Part, as he has found to approve the Proposal it self:
But be that as it will,
if his projected Scheme of Enobling these two Foreigners, with his Suggestion of
one
afterwards,
which he names,
and his
not many others,
which he slily insinuates are to follow; I say, if the Method he has taken to introduce these, has effected the Thing; if the Generality of the Nation approve the Proposal, and he sees the Game sure before them; Why should they oblige him to acknowledge thus, that they disown him and his Schemes? Why is he not rather publickly Caress'd, and his Book acknowledg'd? But on the contrary, the Heads are pull'd back, no body cares to own him, and he himself applies diligently to clear those Noble Persons of having any hand in the Conspiracy with him, as indeed I believe he has reason to do.
No body cares to own a Plot when it has miscarried; and if
Toland
designed to do his Principals a Service by the Proposal, if it had succeeded; he is the Honester, and cannot be blam'd to do them a Service by keeping them out of it now it proves Abortive.
Perhaps he will say I triumph without a Victory,
very like so
; but let him speak for himself, whether it be a Victory or no; if he has the Victory, if he is as sure of the Success as he thought himself at first, why is he so concern'd, and why does he keep such a Bustle to wash the Dirt off of any; and why so apprehensive least the World should think they were in the Conspiracy? Why so forward to take all upon himself? I think I may, without any boasting, say, he has not so good an Opinion of his Cause as he had when he began it; let him deny it if he can.
Nor will the fulsome Encomiums of a Vain
French
Scribbler assist him in this Point at all, I think I may venture to say, That all Mr.
Toland
has said in this Case, has but served to make it more difficult than he found it; and the Gentlemen who he has named,
if it is, as he says, without their Consent,
no question if they know what a Champion they have that has espous'd,
in meer Knight Errantry,
their Cause, would civilly desire him
to say no more about them.
Now having brought it to the Question of his Success, he joins Issue with him on his own Merit also; and then the remaining Question in Debate is, Whether has the Design miscarried by the scandalous Nature of the Proposal, or by the scandalous Name of the Proposer? Would ever Men of any Forecast have singled out a Man scandalous among Christians, to have started their Friends Cause into the World! He says he is not a
Socinian,
and perhaps he may not be to now; but let him tell them what he was Expelled the University of — for, and how he comes to obtain the general Title of a Heretick in Principles, if he had given no occasion for it?
Not that Reproach always argues Guilt,
but let him tell the World himself the occasion if he thinks fit; I forbear it, because it is not the present Business; I shall find another Time for it.
As to the present Case, I cannot but observe how I have heard many People who were not much concern'd to enquire about it before, start at the Proposal now, because it is handed into the World by such an Agent; and I leave it to universal Judgment, whether the Manner, the arrogant Manner of proposing it, has not justly shock'd the Nobility and Gentry of
England,
as to the Proposal it self; to have them told
they will do it
before they were ever so much as asked! To have them told it will
savour of Ingratitude and Partiallity not to do it,
before ever they so much as denied! Is not this Bullying the Peers into it? Is it not a Bussoonry upon the Nation? If this has made the Case better than it was, or has not rather justly filled many Minds with Resentment, who were neither prepossessed one way or other, let any reasonable Person determine.
In the mean time I can assure him, it is a very great Satisfaction to many good and impartial Men, that this Design of proposing the breaking down the Pale of our Nobility, is thus Detected and Exposed: But I must confess, that when some Gentlemen came to me the other Day, and gave me thanks for the Service I had done, in setting it out in so clear a Light as is done in the
Argument, &c.
I told them frankly the Thanks were all due to Mr.
Toland,
who by so insolent an Attempt, had justly alarm'd and open'd the Eyes of almost as many as had read his Libel; and had even
in denying,
proved effectually that this Proposal of his was
no new Thing
No indeed,
it has been no new Thing either, that some Persons aimed at being so Enobled, or that a Party aimed at complying,
and
getting those who alone could do it, to comply with their Desire
; and this is a sufficient Reason to be given for what I own'd in the
Argument,
namely, That
it had been Digested for some time, viz.
as long as I had understood from good Hands that there was such a thing intended, and which I thought it my indispensible Duty to Oppose and Expose.
CHAP. IV.
Of the Nature of Malice, and of the unjust Suggestions of Mr.
TOLAND
in his Second
ANATOMY,
in order to Expose the Author of
the Argument
to the Resentment of the Government.
I Despise all the sly and knavish insinuations of this Malicious, Envenom'd Lybeller, in order, if he could, to expose me as a
Jacobite
; I wish all that are blindly and ignorantly
Jacobites,
may in Heavens due time
be better inform'd
; and all that are Maliciously so, and from principles of Hatred to the Protestant Succession, and the Person of King
George,
were as
Toland
is,
viz. Contemn'd, and Expos'd
: I wish them, like him, Expell'd from the Society of the best of Men, and made to know their Crime by their Punishment. There is not one Sentence or Syllable in the Book entiuled
An Argument, &c.
which is intended as a Reflection or Disrespect to the Person, or Government, or Conduct of King
George
; and of that Sentence which he maliciously wrests,
P.
28. viz.
Till at length Posterity may be offer'd two Turks,
I say to him
Honi soit qui Mal y Pense,
I know no Venom in it, nor can he without infinite
Sarcasm,
and Lybelling the most Innocent Actions of the King, say, or suggest that there is any room for a Satyr in them.
All his boasted Advantage, and the Tryumph he makes upon Quotations out of
De Foes
Pamphlet, Require no other Answer than has been given already,
viz.
That
De Foe
has no Concern one way or other in that Book; and if Mr.
Baker
the Publisher were not just at the point of Death while this is at the Press, a particular Account of that Part would be given: But it is none of my business to vindicate
De Foe
however injuriously he may be treated; all I have to say is, That if Mr.
Toland
is disposed to make Honourable Amends for the insolent Language which he gives
ME,
under the Cover of Charging the Work upon a Fellow that neither He nor I know any thing of, he shall at any time have the Occasion to know who is not Concern'd in this Work, by knowing Face to Face who is Concern'd in it: And I say the same to that Cowardly
Frenchman Boyer
also.
I repeat again what I have said, That there is not the least Design or Intention of Disrespect to the Person or Government of
King George
in all my Answer to
Toland
's Lybel, but a single and disinterested Zeal for the Liberties of my Country: I Honour with the profoundest Duty, not the King only as on the Throne, but all his Royal Posterity, and Raee, as Capable of, and Design'd by Heaven to Reign in their Courses of time; and yet it is no impeachment of this Duty and Zeal,
to say,
that from the best of Kings have proceeded the worst of Tyrants: Our Laws are made as Fences and Securities, not against good, but bad Kings. Were the Divine Genius to be Immortal, as I said in the
Argument,
were all the Kings who shall proceed from the Loyns of His present Majesty, to Inherit King
George
's Principles, his Justice, Moderation, Love to his People, and Knowledge as well as Desire of their Wellfare and Prosperity; I would be as Easie to give up all our Constitution to him, and to be Governed by his meer Will and Discretion, as I would be to any Man that ever wore a Crown.
But as Vertue, Honour, Probity, Wisdom, Judgment, do not descend by Inheritance, and are no Entail with the Crown, but Kings may hereafter arise that
knew not Joseph
; it is a Duty to our Posterity, that we endeavour to preserve the Fences of our Liberties unbroken, and hand forward those invaluable Rights to our Children, Entire as we Receive them.
But this Mercenary, this bringer of a Railing Accusation, he is for breaking down this Fence, and dispensing with this Law, making a precedent to serve a present
Turn,
and
Party,
which may hereafter be an Argument to bring in all the Instruments of Tyranny, which an Arbitrary unguided Prince may stand in need of, for the Destruction of the Kingdom; and this, tho',
as I said before, without the least design'd Reflection,
they were of any Nation or Religion, even
Turks,
and
Mahometans
; whether those who are for thus breaking in upon our Constitution to gratify
Foreigners,
or they who are for preserving our Constitution whole and unbroken, are the best Patriots, let impartial Posterity inquire.
Nor am I in this, offering in the least to derogate from the just Esteem due to the Honourable Persons who he mentions;
but I ask him this Question,
Is there no Reward can be suitable to the Character and Merit of those Gentlemen, but that of being made Lords? Can the King be at a loss, and is the Kingdom of
Great-Britain
empty of means to Reward these Persons however great their Merit? Is there no way to make them amends but this one Method? Will nothing else satisfy them, or be suitable to their Deservings, that
this Libeller
should say,
not to do it, would be to be Ʋ ngrateful and Partial?
I remember when the Glorious
King William
intending to Reward the late E. of
Portland
with a vast Grant, no less than the Revenue of the
Principality of Wales
; and the House of Commons applied to His Majesty not to do it, the King readily acquiesc'd, and expressing his Royal Gratitude to the E. of
Portland
for his many signal Services, His Majesty said, He would think of
Rewarding those Services some other way.
I shall make no Comparisons, but believe the Libeller himself will not pretend, that any Man can have deserv'd better of his Present Majesty, than the late E. of
Portland
had deserv'd of King
William
; yet when he found the way he had design'd to Reward him gave any uneasiness to his People, His Majesty Resolv'd to Reward those Eminent Services some other way; and I dare say, the Posterity of that Noble Person do not Complain of the King's being unkind to them.
I am ready to grant that the Services of these Noble Persons now Propos'd, are as great as my Opposer pleases to suppose them; yet I say, without lessening those Suppositions, That
Great-Britain
is able to Reward them fully, tho' they are not receiv'd into our Peerage, and yet not merit to be Libell'd by
Toland
as partial and ungrateful.
But be that as it will,
Let His Majesty propose to his Parliament what he thinks fit, the Parliament will always act as becomes them; the House of Peers will never act undutifully to the King,
no,
not in those things which they cannot Grant; nor will they act unfaithfully to their Country,
no,
not in those things which they cannot Refuse: But this is not to the Case in hand; for it does not appear that the King has any desire to have this thing done; nay, Mr.
Toland
does not pretend to it: But let us see here how the vain Man exposes himself; for while he acknowleges no body to be privy to the Proposal but himself, he Contradicts and Confounds himself most pitiously; He protests, pa. 30.
That he never knew or heard of any Design to introduce those two Noble Men, or any other Foreigners into the House of Peers, Exore tuo:
Call Mr.
Toland
to detect Mr.
Toland,
pa. 26.
My Proposal Contain'd nothing NEW with Respect either to the Thing, or to the Persons
; these are the Words quoted before, but are absolutely necessary to be brought in again here, because this Man can have the Assurance to pretend after this, to be believ'd upon his Word, That no body ever heard of this before.
But suppose we should believe him for once, and imagine that neither the King intended to Enoble these Persons, that these two Persons did not desire to be Enobled, or that the House of Peers ever intended to Repeal or Dispence with the Act for this End; How then can he have the Front to tell the House of Peers to their Faces, that if they do not do it,
it savours of Ingratitude and Partiality?
He may be defy'd to show an Impudence like this, since the Liberty of the Press, which we now groan under, has Plagu'd us: I am sorry to use such Words in Print, but when we are talking to such Men, such Language is forc'd out of our Mouths as only proper to People of such Flagrant Merit.
Again,
If neither the King, the House of Lords, or the two foreign Noblemen themselves, have so much as had any Thoughts of this matter, how will this
false Accuser
make good his Charge, that the opposing it, is pointed at the Government, or the Ministry? The Charge is pointed at those Conspirators who are in the Design, and as he declares, neither the King, the Ministry, or the Parliament are acquainted with it, then they are not pointed at: But we know who are in it perhaps better than he pretends to know, and as they are not too big to be charg'd, so I must
ell him it is not his Raillery, and pretending it Points at the Government, who are not concern'd in it, that will wipe it off.
The Case is
in short
this, the Design is blown, the Plot is discover'd, and thereby defeated; he thought it was Ripe before it was so, and brought it out too soon: He knows it well enough, for his own Friends blame him for it, and now he has no Remedy, but to cry out
Jacobitism
and
Treason
in his opposers, as if all the Men who are not for recommending
Foreigners
to the Nobility must be
Jacobites
; or that all those who were not for a
Standing-Army
in time of Peace were for the Pretender; and yet he confesses that I declar'd I was for an Army when there was any Danger of the Pretender, and while either a foreign Enemy or private Disturbance threatned the Country.
But the Man is enrag'd because he is frustrated: He had said the House of Lords
will
open the Door to Foreigners, and now he is assur'd they
wont
; nay, he knows he may with much more title to modesty say
they
will not,
than he could before say
they will
; and this makes him raving at every body that comes in his way.
But let him Rave, the Nation is awake.
Britains
may be surpriz'd into such things as may be dangerous in their Examples
like this,
but
in vain is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird
; while they are awake, and there Eyes are open, they are in no Danger.
I observe that this
Toland
makes himself merry with
De Foe
's Verses from
The True born Englishman:
I have only this to say in that Case, that if that Satyr was Just upon our Country and Nobility, it certainly infers, that as we are now arriv'd to an Excellence which we believe is not
out-done
by other Nations, either in Science or Religion, and moral Virtue,
we should keep were we are,
and mix no farther
if we can help it,
unless we are sure to improve;
but to let that go for a jest, as it was intended,
our business is not now so much about mixing of Blood,
tho' that is not insignificant,
but about mixing our Politicks: The Argument which I brought from the Treatment we gave to the
Scots,
Nobility at the late Treaty of
Ʋ nion,
is good Sence, and to the present purpose, and the
Scots
Nobility are not now insensible of the weight of it, tho' this
unfair Cavilling
Libeller Bustoons it, and pretends that I alledge they were kept out
as Foreigners.
Had he been in Temper to understand common Sense, he would have seen the contrary. He absurdly suggests, that I hint they were kept out
as Foreigners; No, no,
he cannot but allow that
I
and
every one else
knows, that after the
Ʋ nion
they were no more Foreigners but united; but the Argument is just, nevertheless,
a fortiori,
if these, though our own Brethren, were not allow'd to sit in the House of Lords, but with such nicety restrain'd to a
Representative,
and this in especial manner, because of our
Judicature
being reposited with the Peers; how much more then should we be backward to bring Strangers and real Foreigners to partake of that supreme Authority which the
Scotish
Nobility were deny'd.
Let any Man but observe the wretched Temper of this slanderous
Libeller:
The Author of
Mercurius Politicus,
has called this a new Argument. This Book, he says,
De Foe has the chief hand in also,
which upon good enquiry, and good evidence, I am assur'd is false too; but let the Author be who he will, I say he has call'd this a
new Argument,
which forsooth
Toland
will not only not allow, but says 'tis
nonsence.
Let us see the
nonsence
of it, and if it be not a
new Argument,
let him tell us when it was made use of before. Be it new or old, the force of it is full against him.
The
Scots
Nobility, antient beyond History, and illustrious beyond Objection, yet was deny'd upon the late
Coalition
of natural Priviledges, were deny'd, I say, to be admitted into the
English
Peerage
other than by a Representative
; because it was not thought that the supream Judicature of
England
could be communicated
with justice,
to those who had not an equal concern in the Interest of the People of the Nation.
Now to add a Word or two to that Part: Would it not appear
Partial
against our Brethren of
Scotland,
especially now, after they are our Brethren, that while they are excluded,
Foreigners shall be admitted?
Let him give a just Reason for this if he can.
But to carry this a little farther, because his Ignorance suffers him to pretend, that the Reasons for admitting the
Scots
Nobility
only by a Representative number
was, to Assert the proportion only to the value of Estates. He shews by this, that he has Folly and gross Ignorance equal to his Dishonesty; for
though it is true, that
the proportioning the value,
&c.
was regarded in the asserting the Number of the
Scots
Representitives
in the House of Commons,
yet this was the least Consideration,
if any at all,
in fixing the Number of the Peers, for the limiting of which there were Reasons not proper to recite here; and had he not been perfectly void of any Notion of what was then doing, he would have known something of those Reasons.
But not to resume the Debates of those Days, seeing he puts me to it, I shall start another Case as new as the former, and yet as pungent as can be desired to the present point of admitting Foreigners: At the time of the
Treaty of Ʋ nion,
notwithstanding the whole
Scots
Nation was to be incorporated into one body with the
English,
and that the Subjects of both were to enjoy
equal Priviledges,
yet so resolutely did our
English
Nobility insist upon not encorporating the Peerage of
Scotland
with themselves, so jealous were they of pulling down the Fence about their own incommunicable Judicature, that the Union is said, not to allow even the Crown it self to create a
Scots
Peer,
already a Peer,
a Lord by an
English
Title, so as to make him
an Hereditary Lord of Parliament.
This is eminent in the Case of the late Duke
Hamilton,
as Duke of
Brandon
; and albeit the
Scots
do dispute this Point, we do not find the House of Lords take yet any notice of that Dispute.
And shall this Libeller tell us, the House of Peers will be
Partial
and
Ʋ ngrateful
if they admit not
Germans
and Strangers into their Body; while at the same time they have barr'd the Door against their own encorporated Brethren of
Scotland?
Let
Toland
or any of the Conspirators
tell us
what was the Reason of this nicety, if it was not that the
English
Nobility had seen Reason to think they ought to be exceeding cautious of ever making more mixtures,
by Creation at least,
with the Blood of their Nobility: Rather let him prove that it would not be
Partial
and
Ʋ ngrateful
to the
Scots
Nobility, if Foreigners should be receiv'd, while the
Scots
are excluded; and where is the general kindness which was promis'd, and
exhorted to from the
Throne to be preserv'd and cultivated between the two united Kingdoms; I say, where is this mutual kindness, if such Partiality should be practis'd on our Side?
If indeed an
encorporate Ʋ nion
shall come to be treated between his Majesty's Foreign Dominions and the Island of
Great Britain,
then the Case will be alter'd, and we should be all willing and ready,
no doubt,
to receive a Representative of the
Hanover Nobility
into the Body of ours, such as to the King and Parliament shall seem convenient: But as to the Ennobling Foreigners, it is firmly Provided against by the Constitution, and our
Libel-maker
Prosesses that neither does he know that his Majesty intends it, or these Foreign Noble Persons, who
he has presum'd to Name,
desire it; I am sure the House of Peers have not Debated it. What Assurance then must He, and the Party who Dictate to him, who for that Reason I justly call Conspirators,
I say,
what assurance must they have, to be Officious in a thing of this Consequence to their Country!
It has been suggested, and I have Reason to believe it is so far true, that the thing is in its
Embrio,
that the Scheme is young, and that the People concern'd were willing to let the Proposal take wind,
this way,
to see how it would Relish with the
British
Gentry, and it was no imprudent step I acknowledge to do so; for had they made the attempt at once, before they had made a judgment of things, they would have run the hazard of a Miscarriage much more to their Disadvantage.
Be it as it will,
they have now made the Experiment, and I dare say they will not find, upon telling Noses, that they have made one Convert by Mr.
Toland
's
Anatomy
; on the contrary, there are some testimony of many Eyes being opened, by the Detecting and justly Exposing the Traiterous Contrivance; and I leave them to the Tryal, when they will find the Persons Concern'd in another Condition to Repel them than perhaps they expected.
It might be worth while to note here, how Quaintly he would make it Criminal in me, to speak of SOME
Honest and Loyal Patriots REMAINING in the Administration,
as if I thereby insinuated that
some there
were otherwise, and that there were
misunderstandings
amongst the Ministry; That I would have it thought they were not all of a Piece, and he would have this be thought Malicious. Now, by what has since hapned in the Ministry, it may be asked without any Reflection, whether, if I had look'd that way,
tho' that is not granted,
I were in the Right or not? But it has been this Man's Talent many Years, to be
an Accuser of the Brethren,
and if it be true, that he was Expell'd a University for
Faction
and
Error,
if it be true
as I have heard,
that he once impiously attempted to draw up a new Gospel, no wonder he would now frame a new Constitution; but this I shall have a farther occasion to talk with him about.
All the residue of his Book,
viz.
His Answer to the Clergy-man, his Letters to the Arch-bishop, and to the Dissenters, and his wrangling and unseemly Language upon
De Foe,
are worth no Notice at all, either by me, or any one else: Perhaps such Language may be suitable to the Foreign
Noble Lord without a Name,
who he pretends to write to, and who,
if he be any body,
it's like is one of the
not many more,
who he pretends to sollicit for after these are got in, and who are
all
to be
British
Peers,
ad Graecos Calendas.
FINIS.