Surgeons, who deal in Blood; I dare be pofitive, not one will affirm it. As to his other Extra

vagance, that one would almoft fay her Body thoughtpray, who would venture to fay it, except a Poet? And the Reafon is plain, becaufe Poets may say anything.- Another Poet, fpeaking of a beautiful Woman, fays

Young bathing Angels wanton'd in ber Eyes.

And a third,

Grace was in all her Steps; Heaven in her Eye.

I prefume no Man living believes one Word of all this; but, what then? Suppofe any Body fhould take it into their Heads, to call the Poets to Account, and to tax them with writing Falfhoods, wou'd not fuch a Critick be counted a Madman, or what is worfe, moft fhamefully ignorant of all thofe Rights and Liberties annex'd to the Profeffion of a Poet, and which are comprehended under the Licentia Poetica.

If, therefore, I were to undertake to prove, that all our Affairs, for fome Years paft, have been conducted with great Wisdom and Dexterity, and, that all the Measures that have been taken, have evidently tended to the Publick Good, I wou'd begin, by afferting pofitively, that there was a larger Demand than ever for our Home Manufactures; that our Trade was more extenfive than formerly; that there was a greater Quantity of Species in the Kingdom than heretofore; and that the Publick Debts were confiderably decreas'd within a few Years; which Facts being granted me, I would infer, that, the Conduct which brought them to pafs must be wife of Course, and that the Facts should be granted me, I

T 2

wou'd

wou'd produce my Licentia Minifteria, or Privilege for L-ng.

With Submiffion to thofe two profound Wits Meffieurs Osborn and Walfingham, I cannot help thinking, that they committed one Error at their first commencing Political Writers; they

fhou'd in my humble Opinion have had it fettled by Way of Preliminary, betwixt themfelves and the Publick, that every thing they advanced, however prepofterous or improbable thou'd be receiv'd as felf-evident, like thofe Propofitions which ftand in Need of no Explication or Illuftration to prove them; had this Step been taken, I am perfuaded, they would not have been treated in the contemptuous Manner by the publick that we have feen them, and thrown by as the Affertors of the moft impudent Falfhoods.

Upon the whole, I am now of Opinion, that the Publick has treated thefe two Gentlemen, and indeed all thofe of the fame Side of the Queftion, with a little too much Severity; they are accused every Day of afferting and denying the fame Facts; they are charg'd with difproving and contradicting their own Arguments; and fo People talk them felves into a Paffion against Gentlemen, for their very Vertues.

It wou'd be very hard, if, in a Land of Liberty, like this, a Gentleman fhou'd not be allowed to do what he pleafes with his own Arguments. Is there any thing that a Man can with more Right call his own than his Thoughts, his Words, and his Writings? Are they not his Property, as If any Man

much as his Houfe or his Land?

takes it into his Head to alter his Houfe, or even to pull down his Houfe, is he for fo doing call'd Slave, and Sycophant, and Fool, and Knave? Why therefore may he not knock-down his own Arguments?

But

But it is plain, the People are blinded with the Prejudice of Party; I fay, they must be so when they cannot perceive the Virtues which are in these Gentlemen. Did not the greatest Philofophers of ancient Greece and Rome, advife Men to know themfelves, correct themselves, and contradict themselves? And was not this counted the Perfection of Wisdom? Nay, if, at any Time hereafter, even Minifters of State fhould think fit to correct themselves, or have the Goodness to contradict themfelves every Month, wou'd it not be the greatest Proof they cou'd give us of their Wifdom? And wou'd it not alfo fhew, that the Vertue of Humility was theirs? and ought it not to put thofe to fhame who fhou'd charge them with growing infolent with Power? if there fhou'd be fuch Incendiaries.

Another Charge that I have heard brought against the aforefaid Gentleman, is, that it is their conftant Cuftom to lull their few Readers to Skep, in which Charge Mr. Ulrick D'Ypres and the other Wits his Confederates and Affiftants (who fometimes lay their Heads together to make the Daily Courant fhine) are alfo included; but I can plainly fee that this Clamour is rais'd by the Apothecaries, who (if they had their Will) would fuffer no Perfons to adminifter Opiates but themselves, Man (I fay) but an Apothecary wou'd be angry with Gentlemen for giving People Rest. Sleep is the great Reftorer of Health, and Nourisher of Life itself, and for another Man to be angry at receiving fo fignal a Benefit as a Doze over his Coffee, wou'd be the Italian Proverb exactly, Lamentarfi di Brodo grofo, like a Man's complaining that his Miftrefs was too fair, his Soup too fat, or in fhort anything too good in its Kind; befides, it is obferv'd, that the Writings of the Craftsman, as well as thofe of fome other Authors which for particular Reafons, I don't care to name, have a quite contrary

Ꭲ ;

Effe&

Effect upon their Readers; the very Authors themselves, as well as their Partizans, have as good as owned, that they write with a Defign of keeping the People awake; how much therefore ought the Publick to think itfelf obliged to those Gentlemen, who are every Day offering Remedies againft the Malignity contained in thofe Writings! and what Pity it is, that the People fhou'd fhew as ftrong an Antipathy to thefe Remedies, as any other Medicine, the most naufeous! and that they fhou'd refufe to take what wou'd do them fo much Good!

Another Cavil that is often made against thefe Gentlemen, is, that they are not only ferious without Senfe, or Argument, but that they attempt to rally without Wit, and this laft Charge is moft particularly levell'd at Ulrick, who they fay is a Kind of a Drole by Profeffion, and is always acting the Part of the faux Plaifant -but this Cavil is eafily anfwer'd, for we are told that the greatest Folly a Writer can be guilty of, is, to fhew a Wafte or Superfluity of Wit, and a moft excellent Critick and Poet of our Nation fays, rather than all be Wit, let there be none the Gentlemen of whom we are fpeaking have exactly follow'd this Advice, and fo that is answer'd. But, pray, why may not Gentlemen be grave with-out Senfe, and arch without Wit, if they can? Is there any Law in Force againft it? God long preferve our wife and able M

There are some Things which appear pretty good, when they are fpoke, and lofe all their Senfe and Spirit when they come to be printed; for Example, if a Gentleman fhou'd make a Speech, accompanied with the arch Leer of the Eye, if he fhou'd be spitting in the Face of the Man next him all the While, fcratching his Head with one Hand, and pulling up his Breeches with the other, with a hundered other arch Geftures, it muft certainly give Graces to his Difcourfe, which cannot be convey'd

to

to the Readers, and therefore Ulrick thou'd always harangue, but never print. If it be ask'd, where lies the Wit of all this? my Anfwer is, who expects any? This, I am fure of, that I never heard any Perfon fpeak in the Manner before explain'd, but all that were prefent thought it a very good Feft, and that they were much diverted with the Speaker, without troubling their Heads with what he deliver❜d.

I muft defer the farther Profecution of this important Subject to fome other Occafion.

T

SATURDAY, June 5, 1731.

HERE are feveral charitable and good-natur'd old Ladies in Great Britain, who having ftudy'd fomething of the Materia medica, and having arrived at a competent Skill in making Plaifters for broken Shins, and Ointments for the Itch, very generoufly give them away gratis to fuch of their poor Neighbours as fall under the Circumftances to stand in Need of them.

This kind of Charity, or Cuftom of giving Things away, is of late Years much encreas'd. It extends itself particularly to Books, Pamphlets, and Papers, which have been plentifully diftributed gratis, and difpers'd with great Industry both in Town and Country, not to the Poor only, but to the Rich alfo, nay, to any Perfons that would receive them; and as they are of thofe Kinds of Works which the Bookfellers call Drugs, I really believe fome Old Women have had a Hand in the greatcft Part of them.

There