ution and double meaning, in
order to prevent prosecution, delivered under so thin a cover, or so
unartificially made up as this; whether it were from an apprehension of
his readers' dullness, or an effect of his own. He hath transcribed the
very phrases of the Speaker, and put them in a different character, for
fear they might pass unobserved, and to prevent all possibility of being
mistaken. I shall be pleased to see him have recourse to the old evasion,
and say, that I who make the application, am chargeable with the abuse:
let any reader of either party be judge. But I cannot forbear asserting,
as my opinion, that for a m[inist]ry to endure such open calumny, without
calling the author to account, is next to deserving it. And this is an
omission I venture to charge upon the present m[inist]ry, who are too apt
to despise little things, which however have not always little
consequences.

When this paper was first undertaken, one design, among others, was, to
_Examine_ some of those writings so frequently published with an evil
tendency, either to religion or government; but I was long diverted by
other enquiries, which I thought more immediately necessary, to
animadvert upon men's actions, rather than their speculations: to shew
the necessity there was of changing the ministry, that our constitution
in Church and State might be preserved; to expose some dangerous
principles and practices under the former administration, and prove by
many instances, that those who are now at the helm, are entirely in the
true interest of prince and people. This I may modestly hope, hath in
some measure been already done, sufficient to answer the end proposed,
which was to inform the ignorant and those at distance, and to convince
such as are not engaged in a party, from other motives than that of
conscience. I know not whether I shall have any appetite to continue this
work much longer; if I do, perhaps some time may be spent in exposing and
overturning the false reasonings of those who engage their pens on the
other side, without losing time in vindicating myself against their
scurrilities, much less in retorting them. Of this sort there is a
certain humble companion, a French _maitre de langues_,[13] who every
month publishes an extract from votes, newspapers, speeches and
proclamations, larded with some insipid remarks of his own; which he
calls "The Political State of Great Britain:"[14] This ingenious piece he
tells us himself, is