ied with such a monarch, deserve to be abandoned
of God, and have the devil sent to reign over them. Yet such there are,
(pity they should wear human forms, or breathe the free air of Britain!)
who are so scandalously fickle, that if God himself was to reign, they
would yearn after their darling monarch the prince of darkness.

These are they who fly in the face of majesty, who so abuse the liberty
of the press, that from a benefit it becomes an evil, and demands
immediate regulation.

Not against your majesty only, but against many of your loyal subjects,
are arrows shot in the dark, by lurking villains who wound the
reputations of the innocent in sport. Our public newspapers, which ought
to contain nothing but what is instructive and communicative, being now
become public nuisances, vehicles of personal, private slander, and
scandalous pasquins.

Let the glory be yours, most gracious sovereign! to suppress this
growing evil; and if any hints from your most faithful subject can be of
the least use, I live but to serve, to admire, and pray for your
majesty.

Who am,
Most gracious Sovereign,
Your Majesty's
Most loyal, most dutiful, most obedient
subject and servant,

ANDREW MORETON.

THE PREFACE.

Nothing is more easy than to discover a thing already found out. This is
verified in me and that anonymous gentleman, whom the public prints have
lately complimented with a Discovery to Prevent Street Robberies;
though, by the by, we have only his vain _ipse dixit_, and the
ostentatious outcry of venal newswriters in his behalf.

But to strip him of his borrowed plumes, these are to remind the public,
that about six months ago, in a treatise, entituled, Augusta Triumphans:
or, the Way to make London the most flourishing City in the Universe, I
laid down a plain and practicable scheme for the total suppression and
prevention of street robberies, which scheme has been approved of by
several learned and judicious persons.

Oh! but say the advocates of this second-hand schemist, our project is
to be laid before the parliament. Does that make his better, or mine
worse? Have not many silly projects been laid before parliaments ere
now? Admit it be not the same (as I have but too much reason to fear it
is,) cannot the members of both houses read print as well as written
hand? Or does he think they are so prejudiced to dislike a thin