this article, than an humble proposal, that
those who cry this root at present in our streets of Dublin, may be
compelled by the justices of the peace, to pronounce turnip, and not
turnup; for, I am afraid, we have still too many snakes in our bosom;
and it would be well if their cellars were sometimes searched, when the
owners least expect it; for I am not out of fear that _latet anguis in
herba_.

Thus, we are zealous in matters of small moment, while we neglect those
of the highest importance. I have already made it manifest, that all
these cries were contrived in the _worst of times_, under the ministry
of that desperate statesman, Robert, late Earl of Oxford, and for that
very reason ought to be rejected with horror, as begun in the reign of
Jacobites, and may well be numbered among the rags of Popery and
treason: Or if it be thought proper, that these cries must continue,
surely they ought to be only trusted in the hands of true Protestants,
who have given security to the government.

[Having already spoken of many abuses relating to signposts, I cannot
here omit one more, because it plainly relates to politics; and is,
perhaps, of more dangerous consequence than any of the city cries,
because it directly tends to destroy the succession. It is the sign of
his present Majesty King George the Second, to be met with in many
streets; and yet I happen to be not only the first, but the only,
discoverer of this audacious instance of Jacobitism. And I am confident,
that, if the justices of the peace would please to make a strict
inspection, they might find, in all such houses, before which those
signs are hung up in the manner I have observed, that the landlords were
malignant Papists, or, which is worse, notorious Jacobites. Whoever
views those signs, may read, over his Majesty's head, the following
letters and ciphers, G. R. II., which plainly signifies George, King the
Second, and not King George the Second, or George the Second, King; but
laying the point after the letter G, by which the owner of the house
manifestly shews, that he renounces his allegiance to King George the
Second, and allows him to be only the second king, _inuendo_, that the
Pretender is the first king; and looking upon King George to be only a
kind of second king, or viceroy, till the Pretender shall come over and
seize the kingdom. I appeal to all mankind, whether this be a strained
or forced interpretation of the inscription, as it now stands i