building fifty new churches
in or about London and Westminster. On May 8th it fixed the amount at a
sum "not exceeding L350,000." In pursuance of this a Bill was introduced
on May 18th, which received the Royal Assent on June 12th (9 Ann. c. 17).
This Bill granted L350,000 (to be raised by a duty on coals) for building
fifty new churches in London and Westminster.

In this connection it is interesting to remember that Swift, two years
before, had recommended the building of more churches as part of his
suggestions for "the advancement of religion." See his "Project for
the Advancement of Religion" (vol. iii., p. 45 of present edition).
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 4: In their Address, on April 9th, 1711, the House of Commons
said: "Neither the long expensive war, in which we are engaged, nor the
pressure of heavy debts, under which we labour, shall hinder us from
granting to your Majesty whatever is necessary, to accomplish so
excellent a design, which, we hope, may be a means of drawing down
blessings from Heaven on all your Majesty's other undertakings, as it
adds to the number of those places, where the prayers of your devout and
faithful subjects will be daily offered up to God, for the prosperity of
your Majesty's government at home, and the success of your arms abroad."
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 5: "Natural and Political Observations ... upon the Bills of
Mortality." By John Graunt, 1662. The writer says in chap. x. that
Cripplegate parish was two hundred times as big as some of the parishes
in the city. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 6: An abbreviation of _modus decimandi_, a composition in lieu
of payment of tithes. [T.S.]]

NUMB. 44.[1]

FROM THURSDAY MAY 24, TO THURSDAY MAY 31, 1711.

_Scilicet, ut possem curvo dignoscere rectum._[2]

Having been forced in my papers to use the cant-words of Whig and Tory,
which have so often varied their significations, for twenty years past; I
think it necessary to say something of the several changes those two
terms have undergone since that period; and then to tell the reader what
I have always understood by each of them, since I undertook this work. I
reckon that these sorts of conceited appellations, are usually invented
by the vulgar; who not troubling themselves to examine through the merits
of a cause, are consequently the most violent partisans of what they
espouse; and in their quarrels, usually proceed to their beloved argument
of _calling names_, till at length they light u