of jocose and pleasant Pieces, I was advised to insert a judicious Set of Speeches spoken in Parliament by some of our most celebrated Statesmen and Senators. I have often wondered indeed, that since our Neighbouring Nations have thought it convenient for the Instruaion of their Youth, to publish a sele& Collection of the best Speeches out of Livy, Sallust, Tacitus, 2n. Curtins, and other eminent Authors, none of our Countrymen have either had the inclination or leisure, to make such a Dele&us, out of our own great Masters of Eloquence, than which nothing cou'd be more ad. vantageous to our young Gentlemen, to in. struct them, how to express themselves justly and hansomely in any great Assemblies, to wbich they may be called. Not to revive the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns I am intirely of the Opinion, that we have not fallen much short of them upon these Occasions; and as for our Rivals the French, who pretend to carry the Prize of Eloquence from all the World besides, I would only deGre any unprejudiced Reader to compare their most celebrated Compositions, with what he will find in this Miscellany, to the Honour of our Constitution be it said, which allows our Members of Parliament to express themselves with that Liberty and Vigour, which is wholly unknown to all other Governments : I dare maintain, that my Lord Falkland, and some few of his contemporaries in the long Parlia. ' ment, my Lord Bristol, my Lord Chancellor Hyde, &c. have deliver'd in those Assemblies, Discourfes as full of Warmth and Spirit, purity of Language, and justnefs of Reasoning, as ever Athens or Rome were known to produce, in the most flourishing Periods of thofe two famous Republicks. I have a proper occafion here to mention fome worthy Gentlemen now alive, who are in no refpe& inferiour to their Predeceffors? But the wife Observation of Paterculus hinders me from dwelling upon fo inviting à Subject, who checks'me with Vivo rum ut magna admiratio, ita Censura difficilis. " ment, To relieve the Reader, I thought it not a: miss to entertain him with two or three facetious Speeches, written by the late Loyal and Witty Sir J. Berkenhead, in the time of that long unnatural. Rebellion, fathered upon Alder. man Atkins, and others. As they were out of Print, and hardly to be found any where, but in a few Libraries, I was eafily perswaded to retrieve such valuable Papers froin the unwor: thy Oblivion they had so long been buried under. T HE Restauration, or right will take place, T a Trag. Com. . ;. The Battle of Sedgmoor, a Farce. The Militant Couple ; or, the Husband may thank himself, « Fragment.. 121 A Pindarick Poem on the Death of the Lord 147 Upon Felton, bangʻd in Chains--for the Murder A confolatory Epistle to Captain Julian, the A Character of an ugly Woman ; or, a Hue-and- Upon Nothing, By the Duke of Buckingham, A Tryal of the Poets for the Bays, by the A Satyr upon the Follies of the Men of the Age, Timon, a Satyr on several Plays, by the same. 159 Madam Nelly's Complaint, a Satyr, by Sir Geo. The Lady of Pleasure, a Satyr, by Sir George A Song, by the Earl of Dorset. 174 The Beantiful Lady of the May, by Mr. Dry- A Panegyrick_on King William, by J. How, Letters by the Duke of Buckingham... To the Earl of Arlington. 1.!:5211; 179 To the Lord Berkley. *** *3.5 ibid. A Letter from Nevil Payne, to a Domestick of 169 den beration, Speeches, By the Duke of Buckingham. With a Compleat Collection of the moft the Year 1640. to this present Time. . Speech in the House of Commons, with Reply to Some Questions askt by them. : , : 195 Speech in the House of Lords upon Liberty of Speech at a Conference with the Commons. 204 Speech in the House of Lords, to prove the Para Speech of Tho. Merks, Bishop of Carlisle, about Speech of Queen Elizabeth to ber last Parlie- : ment, ber Resumption of several Grants that 'Were Grievances to the Subject.: 236 Speech of the Lord Falkland in the House of * Commons, against the Lord Keeper Finch, and Speech of the Lord Falkland in the House of * Lords, for carrying on the Impeachment against the Lord Keeper Finch. i . 249 Speech of Archbishop Williams against taking |