UC-NRLF 
 
 
 i 
 
 'J^^ 
 
 ^j^^ITAk; 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ciw.-^ 
 
 M 
 
 i 
 
 . , 111 a i. 1 I 1 i-/!-/ i '-sJ §p 
 
 -r^m-i) 
 
 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i .Hi HI 11 rm-iuii 
 
 
''bTrkelei 
 BRARY 
 
 Uli^lVERSlTY OF 
 
 ^:fh!!^^P Volumes in an Oak Bookcase. 
 
 Price One Guinea. 
 
 " Marvels of clear type and general neatness." — Daily Telegraph 
 
 MORLEY'S 
 
 UNIVERSAL LIBRARY. 
 
 In Monthly Volumes, ONE SHILLING Each. 
 
 READY ON THE 2SlA OF EACH MONTH. 
 
MORLEY'S DNIYERSArnBM: 
 
 Complete in Sixty-Three Volumes, ONE SPIILLING Each, cloth, cut edges; 
 or, Is. 6d. Parchment Back, uncut edges. 
 
 1. SHERIDAN'S PLATS. 
 
 2. PLAYS FROM MOLIERE. By English Dramatists. 
 
 3. MARLOWE'S FAUSTUS & GOETHE'S FAUST. 
 
 4. CHRONICLE OF THE CID. 
 
 5. RABELAIS' GARGANTUA AND THE HEROIC 
 
 DEEDS OF PANTAGRUEL. 
 
 6. THE PRINCE. By Machiavelli. 
 
 7. BACON'S ESSAYS. 
 
 8. DE FOE'S JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR. 
 
 9. LOCKE ON CIVIL GOVERNMENT; WITH 
 
 SIR ROBERT KILMER'S PATRIARGHA. 
 10. BUTLER'S ANALOGY OF RELIGION. 
 ii.'DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. 
 
 12. SIR WALTER SCOTT'S DEMONOLOGY AND 
 
 WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 13. HERRICK'S HESPERIDES. 
 
 14. COLERIDGE'S TABLE TALK: WITH THE 
 
 ANCIENT MARINER AND CHRISTABEL 
 
 15. BOCCACCIO'S DECAMERON. 
 
 16. STERNE'S TRISTRAM SHANDY. 
 
 17. HOMER'S ILIAD, Translated by George Chapman. 
 
 18. MEDIEVAL TALES. 
 
 19. JOHNSON'S RASSELAS; AND VOLTAIRE'S 
 
 CaNDIDE. 
 
 20. PLAYS AND POEMS BY BEN JONSON. 
 
 21. HOBBES'S LEVIATHAN. 
 
 22. BUTLER'S HUDIBRAS. 
 
 23. IDEAL COMMONWEALTPIS : MORE'S 
 
 U70PIA ; BACON'S NE^VS^ ATLANTIS; AND CAM- 
 PANELLA'S CITY OF THE SUN. 
 
 24. CAVENDISH'S LIFE OF WOLSEY. 
 25 and 26. DON QUIXOTE (Two Volumes). 
 
 27. BURLESQUE PLAYS AND POEMS. [lation 
 
 28. DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY. Longfellow's Trans- 
 
 29. GOLDSMITH'S VICAR OF W^AKEFIELD, 
 
 PL.>5#^rA.ND POEMS. 
 
 30. FABLES and PROVERBS from the SANSKRIT. 
 31 CHARLES LAMB'S ESSAYS OF ELIA. 
 
MORLEY'S DNIVERSAL LIBRARY. 
 
 32. THE HISTORY OF THOMAS ELLWOOD, 
 
 Written by Himself. 
 
 33. EMERSON'S ESSAYS, REPRESENTATIVE 
 
 MEN, AND SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE. 
 
 34. SOUTHEY'S LIFE OF NELSON. 
 
 35. DE QUINCEY^S OPIUM EATER, SHAKS-- 
 
 PEARE, GOETHE. 
 
 36. STORIES OF IRELAND. By Maria Edgeworth. 
 
 37. THE PLAYS OF ARISTOPHANES, Translated by 
 
 Frere. • 
 
 38. SPEECHES AND LETTERS. By Edmund Burke. 
 39- THOMAS A KEMPIS' IMITATION OF CHRIST. 
 
 40. POPULAR SONGS OF IRELAND, Collected by 
 
 Thomas Crofton Croker. 
 
 41. THE PLAYS of ^SCHYLUS, Translated by R. Potter. 
 
 42. GOETHE'S FAUST, the Second Part. 
 43- FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 44. SOPHOCLES, Translated by Francklin. 
 
 45. TALES OF TERROR AND WONDER. 
 
 46. VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 
 
 CREATION. 
 
 47. THE BARONS' AVARS, &c. By Michael Drayton. 
 
 48. GOBBETT'S ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN. 
 
 49. THE BANQUET OF DANTE. Translated by Eliza- 
 
 beth Price Sayer. 
 
 50. WALKER'S ORIGINAL. 
 
 51. POEMS AND BALLADS BY SCHILLER. 
 
 52. PEELE'S PLAYS AND POEMS. 
 
 53. HARRINGTON'S OCEANA. 
 
 54. EURIPIDES— ALGESTIS, ETC. 
 
 55. ESSAYS. By Winthrop Mackworth Praed. 
 
 56. TRADITIONAL TALES. Allan Cunningham. 
 
 57. HOOKER'S ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY. 
 
 Books I. to IV. 
 
 58. EURIPIDES— BACCHANALS, ETC. 
 
 59. WALTON'S LIVES OF .DONNE, "WOTTON, 
 
 HOOKER, AND GEORGE HERBERT, ETC. 
 
 60. ARISTOTLE ON GOVERNMENT. 
 
 6r. EURIPIDES— HECUBA, AND OTHER PLAYS. 
 (>2. RABELAIS* HEROIC DEEDS OF PANTA- 
 
 GRUEL. Books ILL, IV., and V. 
 (ix, A MISCELLANY. 
 
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EUINUURGH AND LONDON 
 
FAMOUS PAMPHLETS 
 
 MILTON'S 
 
 STEELE'S 
 
 AREOPAGITICA 
 
 CRISIS 
 
 
 WHATELY'S 
 
 KILLING NO MURDER 
 
 HISTORIC DOUBTS CON- 
 
 
 CERNING NAPOL'EON 
 
 DE FOE'S 
 
 BUONAPARTE 
 
 SHORTEST WAY WITH 
 
 COPLESTON'S 
 
 THE DISSENTERS 
 
 ADVICE TO A YOUNG 
 REVIEWER 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY 
 
 LL.D., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT 
 UNIVFRSITY COLLEGE, LONDON 
 
 LONDON 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 
 
 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL 
 
 NEW YORK: 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE 
 
 1886 
 
MORLEY'S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY. 
 
 1. Sheridan^ s Plays, 
 
 2. Plays from MolQre, By 
 
 English Dramatists. 
 
 3. Marlcnve's Fausttis and 
 
 GoetJies Faust. 
 
 4. Chronicle of the Cid. 
 
 5. Rabelais' Gargantua and the 
 
 Heroic Deeds of Pa7itag7tiel. 
 
 6. MachiavclWs Prince, 
 
 7. Bacon^s Essays. 
 
 8. Defoe^s yournal of the 
 
 Plague Year. 
 
 9. Locke on Civil Government 
 
 and Filnier^s ^''Patriarcha." 
 
 10. Btctler's Analogy of Religion. 
 
 11. Dryden's Virgil. 
 
 12. Scotfs Demonology and 
 
 Witchcraft. 
 
 13. Herriclis Hesperidts. 
 
 14. Coleridge^ s Table- Talk, 
 
 15. Boccaccio^ s Decameron. 
 
 16. Sterne's Tristra?n Shandy. 
 
 17. Chap7}ian's Homer^s Iliad. 
 
 18. Medieval Tales. 
 
 19. Voltaire's Candide, and 
 
 Johnsons Rasselas. 
 
 20. yonson^s Plays and Poems. 
 
 21. Hobbcs's Leviathan. 
 
 22. Samuel Bntler's Htidibras. 
 
 23. /rt'l?^/ Commonwealths, 
 
 24. Cavendishes Life of Wolsey. 
 25 & 26. Z>^;2 Quixote. 
 
 27 . Burlesque Plays and Poems. 
 
 28. Dante's Divine Comedy. 
 
 Longfellow's Translation. 
 
 29. Goldsmith's Vicar of Wake- 
 
 field, Plays, and Poems. 
 
 30. Fables and Proverbs from 
 
 tJie Sanskrit. {Hito^adesa.) 
 
 31. Lamb's Essays of Eha. 
 
 32. 7"/^^ History of Thofnas 
 
 Ellwood. 
 
 33. Emerson's Essays, dr'r. 
 
 34. Southed s Life of Nelson. 
 
 35. Z>^ Quincey's Confessions 
 
 of an Opium-Eater, ^c. 
 
 36. Stories of h-elatid, iJy Miss 
 
 Edgeworth. 
 
 37. Frere's Aristophanes: 
 
 Acharnians, Knights, Birds. 
 
 38. Speeches and Letters by 
 
 Edmund Burke. 
 
 39. 7 hovias ct Kempis. 
 
 40. Popular Songs of Lr el and. 
 
 41. The Plays of ALschylus. 
 
 Potter's Translation. 
 
 42. Goethe's Faust: Part IL. 
 Anster's Translation. 
 
 43. Famous Pamplilets. 
 
 ** Marvels of clear type and general neatness." — Daily Telegraph. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The man who has something to say, and says it in as many words as 
 are necessary to the clear, full and emphatic expression of his thought, 
 must often be unable, without help of tedious impertinences, to spread 
 it in ink over one or two pounds' weight of paper. The weightiest 
 intellectual contribution to the study of some living question may 
 possibly require for its true utterance not more than a dozen or two of 
 printed leaves. Waste words are for some idle brain. Our modern 
 Reviews and Magazines are, in one sense, a device for the collection of 
 short pamphlets worth diffusion into volumes that have such currency as 
 to assure their being widely read, and kept on record. Before there 
 were Reviews established for such periodical collection each pamphlet 
 came alone into the world, and in the days of the first famous pamphlet 
 in this volume, Milton's Areopagitica, burning questions of the day that 
 would now be argued out in leading articles and in reviews, were 
 discussed by pamphlets in which every man fought for himself his 
 battle of opinion, to be answered in pamphlets of opponents, and to be 
 replied to in new pamphlets, until each question of truth and error had 
 lain long enough in the sieve to be thoroughly sifted by the to and fro 
 of opposite opinions. Sometimes, as in the old Church controversy 
 between Whitgift and Cartwright, strong feeling and the wide stretch of 
 the question caused these pamphlets of attack, reply, rejoinder to 
 the reply, &c.,to extend to the form of massive folios, heavy enough to 
 knock down an antagonist if thrown as solid paper at his head. 
 But though there was quick fencing with these folios, and they were 
 produced as promptly as if they had been pamphlets in bulk as they 
 were pamphlets in essence, they were technically volumes. 
 
 Why a work produced only upon a few leaves was called a pamphlet, 
 it is hard to say with any certainty. Some say it was so called from 
 the ¥ rench _patcme and /ein//ef, as a leaf held in the hand. Others say that 
 it was from a woman named Pamphila, who lived about eighteen hundred 
 years ago and wrote many epitomes ; others go for the source of the word 
 to Spanish. 
 
 The most famous pamphlet in our language, and, considering its 
 
 354 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whole aim and the grandeur of some passages, the noblest piece of 
 English prose, is that which stands first in this collection, John Milton's 
 " Areopagitica : A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to 
 the Parliament of England." Henry VI II., when he destroyed the 
 Pope's authority in England, took it to himself. He continued the cen- 
 sorship of books, which had been established for the suppression of 
 opinions hostile to the established faith, and extended censorship over 
 political writings which had not been checked by Rome. Queen 
 Elizabeth allowed printing only to a few known presses in London, 
 Oxford and Cambridge, and that was not the liberty of printing, for 
 there was strict endeavour to suppress utterance of opinion that might 
 disturb the order of the State. A decree of the Star Chamber, in 1637, 
 limited the number of printers in the whole country to twenty and of 
 type-founders to four, with provision for strict censorship of all they 
 uttered to the world. In 1640 the Star Chamber was abolished, but in 
 1643, on the 14th of June, the Parliament adopted the same policy of sup- 
 pression, by an Ordinance for the regulating of printing. Milton at once 
 set himself to reason with the chiefs of his own party, and used all the 
 force of his genius to make them understand that truth can be established 
 only by the freest interchange of thought. The principle for which he 
 contended is that upon which all healthy growth and national prosperity, 
 in its true sense, must depend. He took for his model an oration written 
 to be read, which was addressed by Isocrates to the Areopagus, the 
 Great Council of Athens, and is known as the Areopagitic Discourse. 
 Isocrates called on the Parliament of Athens to undo acts of its own ; 
 Milton was making a like call on the Areopagus of England. He gave 
 to his work the exact form of a Greek oration, with exordium, statement, 
 proof and peroration ; and he put into it the very soul of England, 
 claiming freedom in the search for truth. It was published in November 
 1644. 
 
 The next pamphlet in this collection, "Killing No Murder," was 
 published in 1657, and is, perhaps, in cur political literature, the 
 most famous example of free utterance of free opinion, for it was a direct 
 incitement to the assassination of Oliver Cromwell. It professed upon 
 its title-page to be by William Allen, but its real author seems to have 
 been the Colonel Sexby, a leveller, who had gone over to the Royalists, 
 and in 1656, having come from Flanders to shoot Cromwell, joined the 
 Protector's escort in Hyde Park and almost secured his opportunity. 
 But he went back to Flanders, leaving sixteen hundred pounds of the 
 money entrusted to him for such purposes with a cashiered quarter- 
 master. Miles Sindercombe, who was to do the deed. Sindercombe 
 took a house at Hammersmith in the narrow part of a road through 
 which Cromwell often passed, and began by the .shaping of a battery of 
 
INTRODUCTION. J 
 
 seven blunderbusses. But difficulties came in his way. He resolved then 
 to set fire to Whitehall and in the confusion to kill the Protector as he 
 came out. A hundred swift horses were ready for changes to secure 
 his escape. Many were aiding and abetting, and all was done with 
 knowledge of the prince who ruled afterwards as Charles the Second. 
 But the secret was shared by one too many. Henry Toope, a Life- 
 guardsman, disclosed it. Sindercombe was arrested, tried, convicted, 
 and sentenced to death, but took poison on the day before that which 
 had been appointed for his execution. Then Sexby wrote and printed 
 his pamphlet ; himself travelling about England disguised as a country- 
 man, with a large beard, to secure its distribution. He was after a time 
 arrested and sent to the Tower, where he became mad and died 
 within a year. After the Restoration, Colonel Titus claimed the 
 honour of having written this pamphlet, and it was afterwards reprinted 
 as his, with the doctrine of assassination freshly applied on the title- 
 page to the French king. 
 
 Daniel De Foe's pamphlet, called the *'The vShortest Way with the 
 Dissenters," which comes next in this collection, was first published 
 in 1702, at the beginning of Queen Anne's reign. The party that 
 had no sympathy with the spirit of the English Revolution of 1688-89 
 then had a chance of power. There was a vigorous attack upon 
 dissent, and a Bill had passed the House of Commons (but had been 
 thrown out by the Lords) for disqualifying Dissenters from all civil 
 employments. De Foe, bred a Dissenter, but as little in sympathy 
 with the intolerance of one party as of the other, wrote with a fine 
 irony in the character of a thorough-going Churchman, and argued the 
 theory of persecution to its logical end in the impossible and the absurd. 
 The reader will observe a curious resemblance between the style of 
 argument in " Killing No Murder " — incitement to the assassination of 
 a man — which was meant to be taken seriously, and that in " The 
 Shortest Way with the Dissenters " — incitement to the assassination of a 
 party — which was meant to be taken as satire. De Foe's treatment of 
 intolerance brought him to prison and the pillory. For the writing of 
 this pamphlet, he stood in the pillory on the three last days of July 
 1703, but by a Hymn to the Pillory dispersed among the people, he 
 turned what was meant for his disgrace into a triumph, and transferred 
 the contempt of the people to the men who placed him there. 
 
 For the next pamphlet in this volume, "The Crisis," a defender of 
 English liberties not less in earnest than De Foe, the true-hearted 
 Richard Steele, was expelled from the House of Commons at the end of 
 Queen Anne's reign, on the i8th of March, 17 14, by the same party that 
 at the beginning of the reign had pilloried De Foe. There had been 
 underhand dealings in aid of a second restoration of the Stuarts, and 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the settlement of the relations between Crown and people was in real 
 danger during the last months of the reign of Queen Anne. Steele 
 sought to secure what had been gained, and that in the simplest and 
 directest way. Following the good suggestion of a lawyer that if the 
 English people clearly knew what the Revolution meant they would 
 be ready to defend it, he gave his literary skill and influence as a 
 writer to the work of diffusing an exact knowledge of the latest title- 
 deeds of English liberty. That he might present the documents with- 
 out a thoughtless word of comment, he submitted proofs of his pamphlet 
 to many foremost men, including his friend Addison, before its publica- 
 tion. The reader will find it so difficult to understand the bitterness of 
 party feeling that wreaked its vengeance upon Steele for this calm 
 endeavour to make their own recent history clearly known to the 
 people, that we must suppose his opponents to have stopped their 
 reading at the title-page. The somewhat sudden death of Queen Anne 
 on the first of August next following, before plots were ripe, defeated 
 expectations of reaction, and deprived Steele's adversaries of their 
 power. 
 
 The next pamphlet in this volume — " Historic Doubts respecting 
 Napoleon Buonaparte " — was written by Richard Whately, afterwards 
 Archbishop of Dublin, and first published in 1819, three years after the 
 Battle of Waterloo, and while Napoleon was still living in exile, for he 
 died on the fifth of May 1821. Whately, born in 1787, was thirty-two 
 years old when the pamphlet appeared. He had entered Oriel College, 
 Oxford, in 1805, where Dr. Copleston, afterwards Dean of Chester and 
 Bishop of Llandaff, was his tutor. Whately delighted in the teaching of 
 Copleston, and Copleston in the earnest studies and clear wit of his 
 pupil. Long afterwards Whately said that he remembered with a thrill 
 of pleasure the first words of encouragement from his tutor's lips, '* That 
 is well, Mr. Whately: I see you understand it." In 181 1 Whately was 
 elected Fellow of Oriel. In 1812 he proceeded to the degree of M. A., 
 and he was resident in Oriel as a tutor when he wrote this famous 
 pamphlet, designed as a reduction to the absurd of the too sceptical 
 spirit of inquiry. 
 
 Whately' s tutor, Dr. Copleston, who was by eleven years his senior 
 and had been elected to a Fellowship at Oriel in 1795, wrote also a 
 famous little satirical pamphlet, the "Advice to a Young Reviewer," 
 with which this volume closes. It was published at Oxford in 1807, 
 and was designed as a reduction to the absurd of the censorious spirit 
 of small critics. The great critics are not censorious. 
 
 H. M. 
 
 October 1886. 
 
MILTON'S 
 AREOPAGITICA: 
 
 A DEFENCE OF THE LIBERTY OF 
 UNLICENSED PRINTING. 
 
Areopagitica. 
 
 FOR THE LIBERTY OF UNLICENSED PRINTING. 
 
 They who to States and governors of the Common- 
 wealth direct their speech, High Court of Parliament, 
 or, wanting such access in a private condition, 
 write that which they foresee may advance the 
 public good, I suppose them, as at the beginning of 
 no mean endeavour, not a little altered and moved 
 inwardly in their minds : some with doubt of what 
 will be the success, others with fear of what will be 
 the censure ; some with hope, others with confidence 
 of what they have to speak. And me perhaps each 
 of these dispositions, as the subject was whereon I 
 entered, may have at other times variously affected ; 
 and likely might in these foremost expressions now 
 also disclose which of them swayed most, but that 
 the very attempt of this address thus made, and the 
 thought of whom it hath recourse to, hath got the 
 power within me to a passion, far more welcome than 
 incidental to a preface. Which though I stay not 
 
12 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, ^ 
 
 to confess ere any ask, I shall be blameless, if it be 
 no other than the joy and gratulation which it brings 
 to all who wish and promote their country's liberty ; 
 whereof this whole discourse proposed will be a 
 certain testimony, if not a trophy. For this is not 
 the liberty which we can hope, that no grievance 
 ever should arise in the Commonwealth^ that let no 
 man in this world expect ; but w^hen complaints 
 are freely heard, deeply considered, and speedily 
 reformed, then is the utmost bound of civil liberty 
 attained that wise men look for. To which if I 
 now manifest by the very sound of this which I 
 shall utter that we are already in good part arrived, 
 and yet from such a steep disadvantage of tyranny 
 and superstition grounded into our principles as was 
 beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery, it will 
 be attributed first, as is most due, to the strong 
 assistance of God our deliverer, next to your faith- 
 ful guidance and undaunted wisdom. Lords and 
 Commons of England. Neither, is it in God's 
 esteem the diminution of his glory, when honourable 
 things are spoken of good men and worthy magis- 
 trates ; which if I now first should begin to do, after 
 so fair a progress of your laudable deeds, and such 
 a long obligement upon the whole realm to your 
 indefatigable virtues, I might be justly reckoned 
 among the tardiest and the unwillingest of them 
 that praise ye. Nevertheless there being three 
 principal things, without which all praising is but 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 
 
 T3 
 
 courtship and flattery, first, when that only is 
 praised which is soHdly worth praise : next, when 
 greatest hkelihoods are brought that such things 
 are truly and really in those persons to whom 
 they are ascribed : the other, when he who praises, 
 by showing that such his actual persuasion is of 
 whom he writes, can demonstrate that he flatters 
 not ; the former two of these I have heretofore 
 endeavoured, rescuing the employment from him 
 who went about to impair your merits with a trivial 
 and malignant encomium ; the latter as belonging 
 chiefly to mine own acquittal, that whom I so 
 extolled I did not flatter, hath been reserved oppor- 
 tunely to this occasion. For he who freely magnifies 
 what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare 
 as freely what might be done better, gives ye the 
 best covenant of his fidelity, and that his loyalest 
 affection and his hope waits on ,your proceedings. 
 His highest praising is not flattery, and his plainest 
 advice is a kind of praising ; for though I should 
 affirm and hold by argument, that it would fare 
 better with truth, with learning, and the Common- 
 wealth, if one of your published orders, which I 
 should name, were called in, yet at the same time it 
 could not but much redound to the lustre of your 
 mild and equal Government, when as private 
 persons are hereby animated to think ye better 
 pleased with public advice than other statists have 
 been delighted heretofore with public flattery. And 
 
14 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 men will then see what difference there is betv/een 
 the magnanimity of a triennial Parliament and that 
 jealous haughtiness of prelates and cabin counsellors 
 that usurped of late, when as they shall observe ye 
 in the midst of your victories and successes more 
 gently brooking written exceptions against a voted 
 order than other Courts, which had produced nothing 
 worth memory but the weak ostentation of wealth, 
 would have endured the least signified dislike at any 
 sudden proclamation. If I should thus far presume 
 upon the meek demeanour of your civil and gentle 
 greatness, Lords and Commons, as what your 
 published order hath directly said, that to gainsay, 
 I might defend myself with ease, if any should 
 accuse me of being new or insolent, did they but 
 know how much better I find ye esteem it to imitate 
 the old and elegant humanity of Greece than the 
 barbaric pride of a Hunnish and Norwegian state- 
 liness. And out of those ages, to whose polite 
 wisdom and letters we owe that we are not yet 
 Goths and Jutlanders, I could name him who from 
 his private house wTote that discourse to the Parlia- 
 ment of Athens, that persuades them to change the 
 form of Democracy which was then established. 
 Such honour was done in those days to men who 
 professed the study of wisdom and eloquence, not 
 only in their own country, but in other lands, that 
 cities and seignories heard them gladly and with 
 great respect, if they had aught in public to admonish 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 15 
 
 the State. Thus did Dion Prusaeus, a stranger 
 and a private orator, counsel the Rhodians against 
 a former edict : and I abound with other hke 
 examples, which to set here would be superfluous. 
 But if from the industry of a life wholly dedicated to 
 studious labours, and those natural endowments haply 
 not the worst for two-and-fifty degrees of northern 
 latitude, so much must be derogated as to count me 
 not equal to any of those who had this privilege, I 
 would obtain to be thought not so inferior as your- 
 selves are superior to the most of them who received 
 their counsel : and how far you excel them, be 
 assured. Lords and Commons, there can no greater 
 testimony appear than when your prudent spirit 
 acknowledges and obeys the voice of reason from 
 what quarter soever it be heard speaking ; and 
 renders ye as willing to repeal any act of your own 
 setting forth as any set forth by your predecessors. 
 
 If ye be thus resolved, as it were injury to think 
 ye were not, I know not what should withhold me 
 from presenting ye with a fit instance wherein to 
 show both that love of truth which ye eminently 
 profess, and that uprightness of your judgment 
 which is not wont to be partial to yourselves, by 
 judging over again that order which ye have 
 ordained '' to regulate printing : that no book, 
 pamphlet, or paper shall be henceforth printed, 
 unless the same be first approved and licensed by 
 such," or at least one of such as shall be thereto 
 
1.6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 appointed. For that part which preserves justly 
 every man's copy to himself, or provides for the 
 poor, I touch not, only wish they be not made 
 pretences to abuse and persecute honest and painful 
 men, who offend not in either of these particulars. 
 But that other clause of Licensing Books, which we 
 thought had died with his brother quadragesimal 
 and matrimonial when the prelates expired, I 
 shall now attend with such a homily as shall lay 
 before ye, first the inventors of it to be those whom 
 ye will be loth to own ; next, what is to be thought 
 in general of reading, whatever sort the books be ; 
 and that this order avails nothing to the suppressing 
 of scandalous, seditious^ and libellous books, which 
 were mainly intended to be suppressed ; last, that it 
 will be primely to the discouragement of all learning 
 and the stop of truth, not only by the disexercising 
 and blunting our abilities in what we know already, 
 but by hindering and cropping the discovery that 
 might be yet further made both in religious and 
 civil wisdom. 
 
 I deny not but that it is of greatest concernment 
 in the Church and Commonwealth to have a 
 vigilant eye how books demean themselves as well 
 as men ; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do 
 sharpest justice on them as malefactors : for books 
 are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a 
 potency of life in them to be as active as that soul 
 was whose progeny they are ; nay, they do preserve 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 17 
 
 as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of 
 that living intellect that bred them. I know they 
 are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those 
 fabulous dragons' teeth ; and, being sown up and 
 down, may chance to spring up armed men. And 
 yet on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as 
 good almost kill a man as kill a good book ; who 
 kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's 
 image ; but he who destroys a good book kills 
 reason itself, kills the image of God as it were in 
 the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; 
 but a good book is the precious life-blood of a 
 master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose 
 to a life beyond life. 'Tis true, no age can restore a 
 life, whereof perhaps there is no great loss ; and 
 revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a 
 rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations 
 fare the worse. We should be wary therefore what 
 persecution we raise against the living labours of 
 public men, how we spill that seasoned life of man 
 preserved and stored up in books ; since we see a 
 kind of homicide may be thus committed, sometimes 
 a martyrdom, and, if it extend to the whole impres- 
 sion, a kind of massacre, whereof the execution ends 
 not in the slaying of an elemental life, but strikes at 
 that ethereal and fifth essence, the breath of reason 
 itself, slays an immortality rather than a life. But 
 lest I should be condemned of introducing licence 
 while I oppose licensing, I refuse not the pains to 
 
i8 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 be so much historical as will serve to show what 
 hath been done by ancient and famous Common- 
 wealths against this disorder, till the very time that 
 this project of licensing crept out of the Inquisition, 
 was caught up by our Prelates, and hath caught 
 some of our Presbyters. 
 
 In Athens, where books and wits were ever busier 
 than in any other part of Greece, I find but only 
 two sorts of writings which the magistrate cared 
 to take notice of: those either blasphemous and 
 atheistical, or libellous. Thus the books of Prota- 
 goras were by the judges of Areopagus corximanded 
 to be burnt, and himself banished the territory, for a 
 discourse begun with his confessing not to know 
 *' whether there were gods, or whether not." And 
 against defaming, it was decreed that none should 
 be traduced by name, as was the manner of Vetus 
 Comcedia, w^hereby we may guess how they 
 censured libelling; and this course was quick 
 enough, as Cicero writes, to quell both the desperate 
 wits of other atheists, and the open way of de- 
 faming, as the event showed. Of other sects and 
 opinions, though tending to voluptuousness and the 
 denying of Divine Providence, they took no heed. 
 Therefore, we do not read that either Epicurus, or 
 that libertine school of Cyrene, or what the Cynic 
 impudence uttered, was ever questioned by the laws. 
 Neither is it recorded that the writings of those old 
 comedians were suppressed, though the acting of 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 19 
 
 them were forbid ; and that Plato commended the 
 reading of Aristophanes, the loosest of them all, to 
 his royal scholar Dionysius, is commonly known, 
 and may be excused, if holy Chrysostom, as is 
 reported, nightly studied so much the same author, 
 and had the art to cleanse a scurrilous vehemence 
 into the style of a rousing sermon. That other 
 leading city of Greece, Lacedsemon, considering 
 that Lycurgus their law-giver was so addicted to 
 elegant learning as to have been the first that 
 brought out of Ionia the scattered works of Homer, 
 and sent the poet Thales from Crete to prepare and 
 mollify the Spartan surliness with his smooth songs 
 and odes, the better to plant among them law and 
 civility, it is to be wondered how museless and 
 unbookish they were, minding nought but the feats 
 of war. There needed no licensing of books among 
 them, for they disliked all but their ow"n laconic 
 apophthegms, and took a slight occasion to chase 
 Archilochus out of their city, perhaps for composing 
 in a higher strain than their own soldierly ballads 
 and roundels could reach to ; or if it were for his 
 broad verses, they were not therein so cautious but 
 they were as dissolute in their promiscuous con- 
 versing ; whence Euripides affirms, in ** Andromache," 
 that their women were all unchaste. Thus much 
 may give us light after what sort books were 
 prohibited among the Greeks. The Romans also, 
 for many ages trained up only to a military 
 
20 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 roughness, resembling most of the Lacedaemonian 
 guise, knew of learning little but what their twelve 
 tables and the Pontific College with their augurs 
 and flamens taught them in religion and law, 
 so unacquainted with other learning that when 
 Carneades and Critolaus, with the Stoic Diogenes, 
 coming ambassadors to Rome, took thereby occasion 
 to give the city a taste of their philosophy, they 
 were suspected for seducers by no less a man than 
 Cato the Censor, who moved it in the Senate to 
 dismiss them speedily, and to banish all such Attic 
 babblers out of Italy. But Scipio and others of the 
 noblest senators withstood him and his old Sabine 
 austerity ; honoured and admired the men ; and the 
 Censor himself at last in his old age fell to the study 
 of that whereof before he was so scrupulous. And 
 yet at the same time Naevius and Plautus, the first 
 Latin comedians, had filled the city with all the 
 borrowed scenes of Menander and Philemon. Then 
 began to be considered there also what was to be 
 done to libellous books and authors ; for Nsevius 
 was quickly cast into prison for his unbridled pen, 
 and released by the Tribunes upon his recantation. 
 We read also that libels were burnt, and the makers 
 punished by Augustus. The like severity no doubt 
 was used if aught were impiously written against 
 their esteemed gods. Except in these two points, 
 how the world went in books the magistrate kept no 
 reckoning. And therefore Lucretius without im- 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 21 
 
 peachment versifies his epicurism to Memmius, and 
 had the honour to be set forth the second time by- 
 Cicero so great a father of the Commonwealth, 
 although himself disputes against that opinion in 
 his own writings. Nor was the satirical sharpness 
 or naked plainness of Lucilius, or Catullus, or 
 Flaccus, by any order prohibited. And for matters 
 of State, the story of Titius Livius, though it 
 extolled that part which Pompey held, was not 
 therefore suppressed by Octavius Caesar of the other 
 faction. But that Naso was by him banished in 
 his old age for the wanton poems of his youth was 
 but a mere covert of State over some secret cause ; 
 and besides, the books were neither banished nor 
 called in. From hence we shall meet with little 
 else but tyranny in the Roman Empire, that we 
 may not marvel if not so often bad as good books 
 were silenced. I shall therefore deem to have been 
 large enough in producing what among the ancients 
 was punishable to write, save only which, all other 
 arguments were free to treat on. 
 
 By this time the Emperors were become 
 Christians, whose discipline in this point I do not 
 find to have been more severe than what was 
 formerly in practice. The books of those whom 
 they took to be grand heretics were examined, 
 refuted, and condemned in the General Councils ; 
 and not till then were prohibited, or burnt by 
 authority of the Emperor. As for the writings of 
 
22 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 heathen authors, unless they \Vere plain invectives 
 against Christianity, as those of Porphyrins and 
 Proclus, they met with no interdict that can be cited 
 till about the year 400 in a Carthaginian Council, 
 wherein Bishops themselves were forbid to read the 
 books of Gentiles, but heresies they might read : 
 while others long before them on the contrary 
 scrupled more the • books of heretics than of 
 Gentiles. And that the primitive Councils and 
 Bishops were wont only to declare what books were 
 not commendable, passing no further, but leaving it 
 to each one's conscience to read or to lay by, till 
 after the year 800, is observed already by Padre 
 Paolo, the great unmasker of the Trentine Council. 
 After which time the Popes of Rome, engrossing 
 what they pleased of political rule into their own 
 hands, extended their dominion over men's eyes, as 
 they had before over their judgments, burning and 
 prohibiting to be read what they fancied not ; yet 
 sparing in their censures, and the books not many 
 which they so dealt with, till Martin the Fifth by 
 his Bull not only prohibited, but was the first that 
 excommunicated the reading of heretical books ; for 
 about that time Wyclif and Huss growing terrible, 
 were they who first drove the Papal Court to a stricter 
 policy of prohibiting ; which course Leo the Tenth 
 and his successors followed, until the Council of 
 Trent and the Spanish Inquisition engendering to- 
 gether brought forth or perfected those catalogues 
 
ABEOPAGiriCA, 23 
 
 and expurging indexes that rake through the entrails 
 of many an old good author with a violation worse 
 than any could be offered to his tomb. Nor did they 
 stay m matters heretical, but any subject that was 
 not to their palate they either condemned in a 
 prohibition, or had it straight into the new purgatory 
 of an Index. To fill up the measure of encroachment, 
 their last invention was to ordain that no book, 
 pamphlet, or paper should be printed (as if St. Peter 
 had bequeathed them the keys of the Press also out 
 of Paradise) unless it were approved and licensed 
 under the hands of two or three glutton friars. For 
 example : 
 
 Let the Chancellor Cini be pleased to see if in this 
 present work be contained aught that may withstand 
 the printing. 
 
 Vincent Rabatta, 
 
 Vicar of Florence, 
 
 I have seen this present work, and find nothing 
 athwart the Catholic faith and good manners. In 
 witness whereof I have given, &c. 
 
 NicoLO Cini, 
 
 Chancellor of Florence, 
 
 Attending the precedent relation, it is allowed that 
 this present work of Davanzati may be printed. 
 
 Vincent Rabatta, &c. 
 
 It may be printed, July 15. 
 
 Friar SiMON MoiMPEi d'Amelia, 
 
 Chancellor of the Holy Office in Florence, 
 
24 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 Sure they have a conceit, if he of the bottomless 
 pit had not long since broke prison, that this 
 quadruple exorcism would bar him down. I fear 
 their next design will be to get into their custody the 
 licensing of that which they say Claudius intended, 
 but went not through with. Vouchsafe to see 
 another of their forms, the Roman stamp : 
 
 Imprimatur, If it seem good to the reverend 
 Master of the Holy Palace. 
 
 Belcastro, 
 
 Viceregent. 
 
 Imprimatur, 
 
 Friar NiCOLO RODOLFI, Master of the Holy 
 Palace. 
 
 Sometimes five Imprimaturs are seen together 
 dialoguewise in the piazza of one title-page, compli- 
 menting and ducking each to other with their shaven 
 reverences, whether the author, who stands by in 
 perplexity at the foot of his epistle, shall to the 
 press or to the sponge. These are the pretty 
 responsories, these are the dear antiphonies that so 
 bewitched of late our prelates and their chaplains 
 with the goodly echo they made, and besotted us 
 to the gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from 
 Lambeth House, another from the west end of Paul's ; 
 so apishly Romanizing that the word of command 
 still was set down in Latin, as if the learned 
 grammatical pen that wrote it would cast no ink 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 25 
 
 without Latin ; or perhaps, as they thought, because 
 no vulgar tongue was worthy to express the pure 
 conceit of an Imprimatur ; but rather, as I hope, for 
 that our English, the language of men ever famous 
 and foremost in the achievements of liberty, will not 
 easily find servile letters enough to spell such a dic- 
 tatory presumption English. And thus ye have the 
 inventors and the original of book-licensing ripped 
 up, and drawn as lineally as any pedigree. We have 
 it not, that can be heard of, from any ancient State, 
 or polity, or Church, nor by any statute left us by 
 our ancestors, elder or later ; nor from the modern 
 custom of any reformed city or church abroad ; but 
 from the most antichristian Council, and the most 
 tyrannous Inquisition that ever inquired. Till then 
 books were ever as freely admitted into the world as 
 any other birth ; the issue of the brain was no more 
 stifled than the issue of the womb ; no envious Juno 
 sat cross-legged over the nativity of any man's intel- 
 lectual offspring ; but if it proved a monster, who 
 denies but that it was justly burnt, or sunk into the 
 sea ? But that a book, in worse condition than a 
 peccant soul, should be to stand before a jury ere it 
 be born to the world, and undergo yet in darkness 
 the judgment of Radamanth and his colleagues, ere 
 it can pass the ferry backward into light, was never 
 heard before, till that mysterious iniquity, provoked 
 and troubled at the first entrance of reformation, 
 sought out new limboes and new hells wherein 
 
26 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 they might include our books also within the number 
 of their damned. And this was the rare morsel 
 so officiously snatched up and so ill-favouredly imi- 
 tated by our inquisiturient bishops and the atten- 
 dant minorites their chaplains. That ye like not 
 now these most certain authors of this licensing 
 order, and that all sinister intention was far distant 
 from your thoughts when ye were importuned the 
 passing it all men who know the integrity of your 
 actions, and how ye honour truth, will clear ye 
 readily. 
 
 But some will say, What though the inventors 
 were bad, the thing for all that may be good } It 
 may so ; yet if that thing be no such deep invention 
 but obvious, and easy for any man to light on, and 
 yet best and wisest commonwealths through all ages 
 and occasions have forborne to use it, and falsest 
 seducers and oppressors of men were the first who 
 took it up, and to no other purpose but to obstruct 
 and hinder the first approach of reformation, I am of 
 those who believe it will be a harder alchemy than 
 Lullius ever knew, to sublimate any good use out of 
 such an invention. Yet this only is what I request 
 to gain from this reason, that it may be held a dan- 
 gerous and suspicious fruit, as certainly it deserves, 
 for the tree that bore it, until I can dissect one 
 hy one the properties it has. But I have first to 
 finish as was propounded, what is to be thought in 
 general of reading books, whatever sort they be, and 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 27 
 
 whether be more the benefit or the harm that thence 
 proceeds ? 
 
 Not to insist upon the examples of Moses, Daniel, 
 and Paul, who were skilful in all the learning of the 
 Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Greeks, which could not 
 probably be without reading their books of all sorts, 
 in Paul especially, who thought it no defilement to 
 insert into Holy Scripture the sentences of three 
 Greek poets, and one of them a tragedian, the question 
 was notwithstanding sometimes controverted among 
 the primitive doctors, but with great odds on that 
 side which affirmed it both lawful and profitable, as 
 was then evidently perceived, when Julian the Apos- 
 tate and subtlest enemy to our faith made a decree 
 forbidding Christians the study of heathen learning ; 
 for, said he, they wound us with our own weapons, 
 and with our own arts and sciences they overcome us. 
 And, indeed, the Christians were put so to their shifts 
 by this crafty means, and so much in danger to 
 decline into all ignorance, that the two Apollinarii 
 were fain, as a man may say, to coin all the seven 
 liberal sciences out of the Bible, reducing it into 
 divers forms of orations, poems, dialogues, even to 
 the calculating of a new Christian grammar. But 
 saith the historian Socrates : The providence of God 
 provided better than the industry of Apollinarius and 
 his son by taking away that illiterate law with the 
 life of him who devised it. So great an injury they 
 then held it to be deprived of Hellenic learning; 
 
28 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 and thought it a persecution more undermining and 
 secretly decaying the Church than the open cruelty of 
 Decius or Dioclesian. And perhaps it was with the 
 same politic drift that the Devil whipped St. Jerome 
 in a lenten dream, for reading Cicero ; or else it was 
 a phantasm bred by the fever which had then seized 
 him. For had an angel been his discipliner, unless it 
 were for dwelling too much upon Ciceronianisms, 
 and had chastised the reading, not the vanity, it had 
 been plainly partial, first, to correct him for grave 
 Cicero, and not for scurril Plautus whom he confesses 
 to have been reading not long before, next, to correct 
 him only, and let so many more ancient fathers wax 
 old in those pleasant and florid studies without the 
 lash of such a tutoring apparition ; insomuch that 
 Basil teaches how some good use may be made of 
 " Margites," a sportful poem, not now extant, writ by 
 Homer ; and why not then of " Morgante," an Italian 
 romance much to the same purpose } But if it be 
 agreed we shall be tried by visions, there is a vision 
 recorded by Eusebius far ancienter than this tale of 
 Jerome to the nun Eustochium, and besides has 
 nothing of a fever in it. Dionysius Alexandrinus 
 was about the year 240 a person of great name in 
 the Church for piety and learning, who had wont to 
 avail himself much against heretics by being conver- 
 sant in their books ; until a certain Presbyter laid it 
 scrupulously to his conscience, how he durst venture 
 himself among those defiling volumes. The worthy 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 29 
 
 man, loth to give offence, fell into a new debate with 
 himself what was to be thought ; when suddenly a 
 vision sent from God — it his is own epistle that so 
 avers it — confirmed him in these words : '' Read any 
 books whatever come to thy hands, for thou art 
 sufficient both to judge aright and to examine each 
 matter." To this revelation he assented the sooner, 
 as he confesses, because it was answerable to that of 
 the Apostle to the Thessalonians : " Prove all things ; 
 hold fast that which is good." And he might have 
 added another remarkable saying of the same author: 
 "To the pure all things are pure," not only meats and 
 drinks, but all kind of knowledge whether of good or 
 evil ; the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently 
 the books, if the will and conscience be not defiled. 
 For books are as meats and viands are, some of good, 
 some of evil substance ; and yet God in that unapo- 
 cryphal vision said, without exception, '^ Rise, Peter, 
 kill and eat," leaving the choice to each man's dis- 
 cretion. Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomach 
 differ little or nothing from unwholesome ; and best 
 books to a naughty mind are not unappliable to 
 occasions of evil. Bad meats will scarce breed good 
 nourishment in the healthiest concoction ; but herein 
 the difference is of bad books, that they to a discreet 
 and judicious reader serve in many respects to dis- 
 cover, to confute, to forewarn, and to illustrate. 
 Whereof what better witness can ye expect I should 
 produce than one of your own now sitting in Parlia- 
 
30 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 ment, the chief of learned men reputed in this land, 
 Mr. Selden, whose volume of natural and national 
 laws proves, not only by great authorities brought 
 together, but by exquisite reasons and theorems 
 almost mathematically demonstrative, that all opi- 
 nions, yea, errors, known, read, and collated, are of 
 main service and assistance toward the speedy attain- 
 ment of what is truest. I conceive, therefore, that 
 when God did enlarge the universal diet of man's 
 body, saving ever the rules of temperance, he then 
 also, as before, left arbitrary the dieting and repast- 
 ing of our minds ; as wherein every mature man 
 might have to exercise his own leading capacity. 
 How great a virtue is temperance, how much of 
 moment through the whole life of man ! Yet God 
 commits the managing so great a trust, without 
 particular law or prescription, wholly to the demea- 
 nour of every grown man. And therefore, when 
 He himself tabled the Jews from heaven, that 
 omer which was every man's daily portion of manna 
 is computed to have been more than might have 
 well sufficed the heartiest feeder thrice as many 
 meals. For. those actions, which enter into a man 
 rather than issue out of him and therefore defile not, 
 God uses not to captivate under a perpetual child- 
 hood of prescription, but trusts him with the gift of 
 reason to be his own chooser ; there were but little 
 work left for preaching, if law and compulsion should 
 grow so fast upon those things which heretofore were 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 31 
 
 governed only by exhortation. Solomon informs us 
 that much reading is a weariness to the flesh ; but 
 neither he nor other inspired author tells us that 
 such or such reading is unlawful : yet certainly had 
 God thought good to limit us herein, it had been 
 much more expedient to have told us what was 
 unlawful than what was wearisome. As for the 
 burning of those Ephesian books by St. Paul's 
 converts, it is replied the books were magic, the 
 Syriac so renders them. It was a private act, a 
 voluntary act, and leaves us to a voluntary imita- 
 tion ; the men in remorse burnt those books which 
 were their own ; the magistrate by this example is 
 not appointed; these men practised the books, 
 another might perhaps have read them in some sort 
 usefully. Good and evil we know in the field of 
 this world grow up together almost inseparably ; 
 and the knowledge of good is so involved and inter- 
 woven with the knowledge of evil, and in so many 
 cunning resemblances hardly to be discerned, that 
 those confused seeds, which were imposed on Psyche 
 as an incessant labour to cull out and sort asunder, 
 were not more intermixed. It was from out the rind 
 of one apple tasted that the knowledge of good and 
 evil as two twins cleaving together leapt forth into 
 the world. And perhaps this is that doom which 
 Adam fell into of knowing good and evil, that is to 
 say, of knowing good by evil. As therefore the 
 state of man now is^ what wisdom can there be to 
 
32 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 choose, what continence to forbear, without the 
 knowledge of evil ? He that can apprehend and 
 consider vice with all her baits and seeming plea- 
 sures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet 
 prefer that which is truly better, he is the true 
 warfaring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and 
 cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that 
 never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks 
 out of the race, where that immortal garland is to 
 be run for not without dust and heat. Assuredly 
 we bring not innocence into the world, we bring 
 impurity much rather : that which purifies us is 
 trial, and trial is by what is contrary. That virtue 
 therefore which is but a youngling in the contem- 
 plation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice 
 promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a 
 blank virtue, not a pure ; her whiteness is but an 
 excremental whiteness ; which was the reason why 
 our sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be 
 known to think a better teacher then Scotus or 
 Aquinas, describing true temperance under the 
 person of Guyon, brings him in with his palmer 
 through the cave of Mammon and the bower of 
 earthly bliss, that he might see and know, and yet 
 abstain. Since, therefore, the knowledge and survey 
 of vice is in this world so necessary to the constitu- 
 ting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to 
 the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely 
 and with less danger scout into the regions of sin 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 33 
 
 and falsity, than by reading all manner of tractates, 
 and hearing all manner of reason ? And this is the 
 benefit which may be had of books promiscuously 
 read. But of the harm that may result hence three 
 kinds are usually reckoned : First, is feared the 
 infection that may spread ; but then all human 
 learning and controversy in religious points must 
 remove out of the world, yea, the Bible itself ; for 
 that ofttimes relates blasphemy not nicely, it 
 describes the carnal sense of wicked men not 
 unelegantly, it brings in holiest men passionately 
 murmuring against Providence through all the 
 arguments of Epicurus ; in other great disputes it 
 answers dubiously and darkly to the common 
 reader : and ask a Talmudist what ails the 
 modesty of his marginal Keri, that Moses and all 
 the Prophets cannot persuade him to pronounce the 
 textual Chetiv. For these causes we all know the 
 Bible itself put by the Papist into the first rank of 
 prohibited books. The ancientest Fathers must be 
 next removed, as Clement of Alexandria, and that 
 Eusebian book of Evangelic preparation, trans- 
 mitting our ears through a hoard of heathenish 
 obscenities to receive the Gospel. Who finds not 
 that Irenseus, Epiphanius, Jerome, and others discover 
 more heresies than they well confute, and that oft 
 for heresy which is the truer opinion } Nor boots it 
 to say for these, and all the heathen writers of 
 greatest infection, if it must be thought so, with 
 
 J) 
 
34 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 whom is bound up the life of human learning, that 
 they wrote in an unknown tongue, so long as we are 
 sure those languages are known as well to the worst 
 of men, who are both most able and most diligent 
 to instil the poison they suck, first into the Courts 
 of Princes, acquainting them with the choicest 
 delights and criticisms of sin : as perhaps did that 
 Petronius whom Nero called his Arbiter, the master 
 of his revels ; and that notorious ribald of Arezzo, 
 dreaded, and yet dear to the Italian courtiers. I 
 name not him^ for posterity's sake, whom Harry the 
 Eighth named in merriment his Vicar of Hell. By 
 which compendious way all the contagion that 
 foreign books can infuse will find a passage to the 
 people far easier and shorter than an Indian voyage, 
 though it could be sailed either by the north of 
 Cathay eastward or of Canada westward, while our 
 Spanish licensing gags the English press never so 
 severely. But, on the other side, that infection 
 which is from books of controversy in religion is 
 more doubtful and dangerous to the learned than to 
 the ignorant ; and yet those books must be per- 
 mitted untouched by the licenser. It will be hard 
 to instance where any ignorant man hath been ever 
 seduced by Papistical book in English, unless it 
 were commended and expounded to him by some of 
 that clergy ; and indeed all such tractates, whether 
 false or true, are as the prophecy of Isaiah was to 
 the Eunuch, not to be " understood without a guide." 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 35 
 
 But of our priests and doctors how many have been 
 corrupted by studying the comments of Jesuits 
 and Sorbonnists, and how fast they could transfuse 
 that corruption into the people our experience is 
 both late and sad. It is not forgot since the acute 
 and distinct Arminius was perverted merely by the 
 perusing of a nameless discourse written at Delft, 
 which at first he took in hand to confute. Seeing 
 therefore that those books, and those in great abun- 
 dance, which are likeliest to taint both life and doc- 
 trine, cannot be suppressed without the fall of learn- 
 ing and of all ability in disputation ; and that these 
 books of either sort are most and soonest catching to 
 the learned, from whom to the common people what- 
 ever is heretical or dissolute may quickly be con- 
 veyed ; and that evil manners are as perfectly learnt 
 without books a thousand other ways which cannot 
 be stopped, and evil doctrine not with books can 
 propagate, except a teacher guide, which he might 
 also do without writing and so beyond prohibiting, I 
 am not able to unfold how this cautelous enterprise 
 of licensing can be exempted from the number of 
 vain and impossible attempts. And he who were 
 pleasantly disposed could not well avoid to liken it 
 to the exploit of that gallant man who thought to 
 pound up the crows by shutting his park gate. 
 Besides another inconvenience, if learned men be the 
 first receivers out of books and dispreaders both of 
 vice and error, how shall the licensers themselves be 
 
 B 2 
 
36 * FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 confided in, unless we can confer upon them, or they 
 assume to themselves, above all others in the land, 
 the grace of infallibility and uncorruptedness ? And 
 again, if it be true that a wise man like a good 
 refiner can gather gold out of the drossiest volume, 
 and that a fool will be a fool with the best book, 
 yea, or without book, there is no reason that we 
 should deprive a wise man of any advantage to his 
 wisdom, while we seek to restrain from a fool that 
 which being restrained will be no hindrance to his 
 folly. For if there should be so much exactness 
 always used to keep that from him which is unfit for 
 his reading, we should, in the judgment of Aristotle 
 not only, but of Solomon and of our Saviour, not 
 vouchsafe him good precepts, and by consequence 
 not willingly admit him to good books, as being 
 certain that a wise man will make better use of an 
 idle pamphlet than a fool will do of sacred Scripture. 
 'Tis next alleged we must not expose ourselves to 
 temptations without necessity, and next to that, not 
 employ our time in vain things. To both these 
 objections one answer will serve, out of the grounds 
 already laid, that to all men such books are not 
 temptations nor vanities, but useful drugs and 
 materials wherewith to temper and compose effective 
 and strong medicines, which man's life cannot want. 
 The rest, as children and childish men, who have not 
 the art to qualify and prepare these working minerals, 
 well may be exhorted to forbear, but hindered 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 37 
 
 forcibly they cannot be by all the licensing that 
 sainted Inquisition could ever yet contrive, which is 
 what I promised to deliver next : that this order of 
 licensing conduces nothing to the end for which it 
 was framed, and hath almost prevented me by 
 being clear already while thus much hath been ex- 
 plaining. See the ingenuity of Truth, who, when she 
 gets a free and willing hand, opens herself faster 
 than the pace of method and discourse can overtake 
 her. It was the task which I began with, to show 
 that no nation, or well instituted state, if they valued 
 books at all, did ever use this way of licensing ; and 
 it might be answered, that this is a piece of prudence 
 lately discovered ; to which I return that, as it was 
 a thing slight and obvious to think on, so if it had 
 been difficult to find out there wanted not among 
 them long since who suggested such a course, which 
 they not following, leave us a pattern of their judg- 
 ment, that it was not the not knowing, but the not 
 approving, which was the cause of their not using it. 
 Plato, a man of high authority indeed, but least of all 
 for his Commonwealth, in the book of his laws, 
 which no city ever yet received, fed his fancy with 
 making many edicts to his airy burgomasters, which 
 they who otherwise admire him wish had been rather 
 buried and excused in the genial^ cups of an 
 academic night-sitting ; by which laws he seems to 
 tolerate no kind of learning but by unalterable 
 decree, consisting most of practical traditions, to the 
 
38 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 attainment whereof a library of smaller bulk than his 
 own Dialogues would be abundant. And there also 
 enacts that no poet should so much as read to any 
 private man what he had written, until the judges 
 and law-keepers had seen it and allowed it. But 
 that Plato meant this law peculiarly to that com- 
 monwealth which he had imagined, and to no other, 
 is evident. Why was he not else a lawgiver to 
 himself, but a transgressor, and to be expelled by 
 his own magistrates, both for the wanton epigrams 
 and dialogues which he made, and his perpetual 
 reading of Sophron Mimus and Aristophanes, books 
 of grossest infamy, and also for commending the 
 latter of them, though he were the malicious libeller 
 of his chief friends, to be read by the tyrant Diony- 
 sius, who had little need of such trash to spend his 
 time on ? But that he knew this licensing of poems 
 had reference and dependence to many other 
 provisoes there set down in his fancied republic, 
 which in this world could have no place ; and so 
 neither he himself nor any magistrate or city ever 
 imitated that course, which, taken apart from those 
 other collateral injunctions, must needs be vain and 
 fruitless. For if they fell upon one kind of strict- 
 ness, unless their care were equal to regulate all 
 other things of like aptness to corrupt the mind, that 
 single endeavour they knew would be but a fond 
 labour : to shut and fortify one gate against corrup- 
 tion, and be necessitated to leave others round about 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 39 
 
 Wide open. If we think to regulate printing, thereby 
 to rectify manners, we must regulate all recreations 
 and pastimes, all that is delightful to man. No 
 music must be heard, no song be set or sung, but 
 what is grave and Doric. There must be licensing 
 dancers, that no gesture, motion, or deportment be 
 taught our youth but what by their allowance shall 
 be thought honest ; for such Plato was provided of. 
 It will ask more than the work of twenty licensers 
 to examine all the lutes, the violins, and the guitars 
 in every house ; they must not be suffered to prattle 
 as they do, but must be licensed what they may say. 
 And who shall silence all the airs and madrigals, 
 that whisper softness in chambers } The windows 
 also, and the balconies, must be thought on : there 
 are shrewd books with dangerous frontispieces set 
 to sale ; who shall prohibit them } Shall twenty 
 licensers 1 The villages also must have their visitors 
 to inquire what lectures the bagpipe and the rebec 
 reads, even to the baliatry and the gamut of every 
 municipal fiddler, for these are the countryman's 
 Arcadias and his Montemayors. Next, what more 
 national corruption, for which England hears ill 
 abroad, than household gluttony 1 Who shall be the 
 rectors of our daily rioting ? and what shall be done 
 to inhibit the multitudes that frequent those houses 
 where drunkenness is sold and harboured t Our 
 garments also should be referred to the licensing of 
 some more sober work- masters to see them cut into 
 
40 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 a less wanton garb. Who shall regulate all the 
 mixed conversation of our youth, male and female 
 together, as is the fashion of this country ? who 
 shall still appoint what shall be discoursed, what 
 presumed, and no further ? Lastly, who shall forbid 
 and separate all idle resort, all evil company ? 
 These things will be, and must be ; but how 
 they shall be less hurtful, how less enticing, 
 herein consists the grave and governing wisdom of a 
 State. To sequester out of the world into Atlantic 
 and Utopian polities, which never can be drawn into 
 use, will not mend our condition ; but to ordain 
 wisely as in this world of evil, in the midst whereof 
 God hath placed us unavoidably. Nor is it Plato's 
 licensing of books will do this, which necessarily pulls 
 along with it so many other kinds of licensing, as will 
 make us all both ridiculous and weary, and yet 
 frustrate ; but those unwritten, or at least uncon- 
 straining laws of virtuous education, religious and civil 
 nurture, which Plato there mentions as the bonds and 
 ligaments of the Commonwealth, the pillars and the 
 sustainers of every written statute ; these they be 
 which will bear chief sway in such matters as these, 
 when all licensing will be easily eluded. Impunity 
 and remissness, for certain, are the bane of a Common- 
 wealth ; but here the great art lies to discern in 
 what the law is to bid restraint and punishment, and 
 in what things persuasion only is to work. If every 
 action which is good or evil in man at ripe years, 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 41 
 
 were to be under pittance and prescription and 
 compulsion, what were virtue but a name, what 
 praise could be then due to well-doing, what 
 grammercy to be sober, just, or continent ? Many- 
 there be that complain of Divine Providence for 
 suffering Adam to transgress. Foolish tongues ! 
 When God gave him reason. He gave him freedom to 
 choose, for reason is but choosing ; he had been else 
 a mere artificial Adam, such an Adam as he is in the 
 m.otions. We ourselves esteem not of that obedience 
 or love or gift which is of force : God therefore left 
 him free^ set before him a provoking object, ever 
 almost in his eyes ; herein consisted his merit, 
 herein the right of his reward, the praise of his 
 abstinence. Wherefore did He create passions within 
 us, pleasures round about us, but that these rightly 
 tempered are the very ingredients of virtue ? They 
 are not skilful considerers of human things who 
 imagine to remove sin by removing the matter of 
 sin ; for, besides that it is a huge heap increasing 
 under the very act of diminishing, though some part 
 of it may for a time be withdrawn from some persons, 
 it cannot from all in such a universal thing as books 
 are ; and when this is done, yet the sin remains 
 entire. Though ye take from a covetous man all his 
 treasure, he has yet one jewel left : ye cannot bereave 
 him of his covetousness. Banish all objects of lust, 
 shut up all youth into the severest discipline that can 
 be exercised in any hermitage, ye cannot make them 
 
42 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 chaste that came not thither so ; such great care and 
 wisdom is required to the right managing of this 
 point. Suppose we could expel sin by this means ; 
 look how much we thus expel of sin, so much we 
 expel of virtue : for the matter of them both is the 
 same ; remove that, and ye remove them both alike. 
 This justifies the high providence of God, who 
 though He command us temperance, justice, con- 
 tinence^ yet pours out before us even to a profuseness 
 all desirable things, and gives us minds that can 
 wander beyond all limit and satiety. Why should 
 we then affect a rigour contrary to the manner of God 
 and of Nature, by abridging or scanting those means 
 which books freely permitted are, both to the trial of 
 virtue and the exercise of truth. It would be better 
 done to learn that the law must needs be frivolous 
 which goes to restrain things uncertainly and yet 
 equally working to good and to evil. And were I 
 the chooser, a dram of well-doing should be preferred 
 before many times as much the forcible hindrance 
 of evil-doing. For God sure esteems the growth and 
 completing of one virtuous person more than the 
 restraint of ten vicious. And albeit whatever thing 
 we hear or see, sitting, walking, travelling, or 
 conversing, may be fitly called our book, and is of the 
 same effect that writings are, yet grant the thing to 
 be prohibited were only books, it appears that this 
 order hitherto is far insufficient to the end which it 
 intends. Do we not see, not once or oftener, but 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 43 
 
 weekly that continued Court-libel against the 
 Parliament and City, printed, as the wet sheets can 
 witness, and dispersed among us for all that licensing 
 can do ? Yet this is the prime service a man would 
 think, wherein this order should give proof of itself. 
 If it were executed, you'll say. But certain, if 
 execution be remiss or blindfold now and in this 
 particular, what will it be hereafter and in other 
 books? If then the order shall not be vain and 
 frustrate, behold a new labour. Lords and Commons ! 
 Ye must repeal and proscribe all scandalous and un- 
 licensed books already printed and divulged, after ye 
 have drawn them up into a list, that all may know 
 which are condemned and which not, and ordain that 
 no foreign books be delivered out of custody till they 
 have been read over. This office will require the 
 whole time of not a few overseers, and those no 
 vulgar men. There be also books which are partly 
 useful and excellent, partly culpable and pernicious ; 
 this work will ask as many more officials to make 
 expurgations and expunctions, that the common- 
 wealth of learning be not damnified. In fine, when 
 the multitude of books increase upon their hands, 
 ye must be fain to catalogue all those printers who 
 are found frequently offending, and forbid the im- 
 portation of their whole suspected typography. In 
 a word, that this your order may be exact, and not 
 deficient, ye must reform it perfectly according to the 
 model of Trent and Seville, which I know ye abhor 
 
44 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 to do. Yet though ye should condescend to this, 
 which God forbid, the order still would be but 
 fruitless and defective to that end whereto ye meant 
 it. If to prevent sects and schisms, who is so 
 unread or so uncatechized in story, that hath not 
 heard of many sects refusing books as a hindrance, 
 and preserving their doctrine unmixed for many ages 
 only by unwritten traditions } The Christian faith, 
 for that was once a schism, is not unknown to have 
 spread all over Asia ere any Gospel or Epistle was 
 seen in writing. If the amendment of manners be 
 aimed at, look into Italy and Spain, whether those 
 places be one scruple the better, the honester, the 
 wiser, the chaster, since all the inquisitional rigour 
 that hath been executed upon books. 
 
 Another reason, whereby to make it plain that 
 this order will miss the end it seeks, consider by the 
 quality which ought to be in every licenser. It 
 cannot be denied but that he who is made judge to 
 sit upon the birth or death of books, whether they 
 may be wafted into this world or not^ had need to be 
 a man above the common measure, both studious, 
 learned, and judicious ; there may be else no mean 
 mistakes in the censure of what is passable or not, 
 which is also no mean injury. If he be of such 
 worth as behoves him, there cannot be a more 
 tedious and unpleasing journey-work, a greater loss 
 of time levied upon his head, than to be made the 
 perpetual reader of uncbosen books and pamphlets, 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 45 
 
 ofttimes huge volumes. There is no book that is 
 acceptable unless at certain seasons ; but to be 
 enjoined the reading of that at all times, and in a 
 hand scarce legible, whereof three pages would not 
 down at any time in the fairest print, is an imposi- 
 tion which I cannot believe how he that values time 
 and his own studies, or is but of a sensible nostril, 
 should be able to endure. In this one thing I crave 
 leave of the present licensers to be pardoned for so 
 thinking, who doubtless took this office up looking 
 on it through their obedience to the Parliament, 
 whose command perhaps made all things seem easy 
 and unlaborious to them ; but that this short trial 
 hath wearied them out already, their own expressions 
 and excuses to them who make so many journeys to 
 solicit their licence are testimony enough. Seeing 
 therefore those who now possess the employment by 
 all evident signs wish themselves well rid of it, and 
 that no man of worth, none that is not a plain 
 unthrift of his own hours, is ever likely to succeed 
 them, except he mean to put himself to the salary 
 of a press correcter, we may easily foresee what 
 kind of licensers we are to expect hereafter, either 
 ignorant, imperious, and remiss, or basely pecuniary. 
 This is what I had to show wherein this order can- 
 not conduce to that end whereof it bears the intention. 
 I lastly proceed from the no good it can do to the 
 manifest hurt it causes, in being first the greatest 
 discouragement and affront that can be offered to 
 
46 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 learning and to learned men. It was the complaint 
 and lamentation of prelates upon every least breath 
 of a motion to remove pluralities and distribute more 
 equally Church revenues, that then all learning would 
 be for ever dashed and discouraged. But as for that 
 opinion, I never found cause to think that the tenth 
 part of learning stood or fell with the clergy, nor 
 could I ever but hold it for a sordid and unworthy 
 speech of any churchman who had a competency left 
 him. If, therefore, ye be loth to dishearten utterly 
 and discontent, not the mercenary crew of false pre- 
 tenders to learning, but the free and ingenuous sort 
 of such as evidently were born to study and love 
 learning for itself, not for lucre or any other end but 
 the service of God and of truth, and perhaps that 
 lasting fame and perpetuity of praise which God and 
 good men have consented shall be the reward of 
 those whose published labours advance the good of 
 mankind, then know, that so far to distrust the 
 judgment and the honesty of one who hath but a 
 common repute in learning and never yet offended, 
 as not to count him fit to print his mind without a 
 tutor and examiner, lest he should drop a schism or 
 something of corruption, is the greatest displeasure 
 and indignity to a free and knowing spirit that can 
 be put upon him. What advantage is it to be a man 
 over it is to be a boy at school, if we have only escaped 
 the ferule to come under the fescue of an imprimatur } 
 if serious and elaborate writings, as if they were no 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 47 
 
 more than the theme of a grammar lad under his 
 pedagogue, must not be uttered without the cursory 
 eyes of a temporizing and externporizing licenser ? 
 He who is not trusted with his own actions, his drift 
 not being known to be evil, and standing to the 
 hazard of law and penalty, has no great argument to 
 think himself reputed in the Commonwealth wherein 
 he was born for other than a fool or a foreigner. 
 When a man writes to the world, he summons up all 
 his reason and deliberation to assist him ; he searches, 
 meditates, is industrious, and likely consults and con- 
 fers with his judicious friends ; after all which done 
 he takes himself to be informed in what he writes as 
 well as any that wrote before him ; if in this the most 
 consummate act of his fidelity and ripeness, no years, 
 no industry, no former proof of his abilities can bring 
 him to that state of maturity as not to be still mis- 
 trusted and suspected, unless he carry all his con- 
 siderate diligence, all his midnight watchings, and 
 expense of Palladian oil, to the hasty view of an 
 unleisured licenser, perhaps much his younger, per- 
 haps far his inferior in judgment, perhaps one who 
 never knew the labour of book-writing, and if he 
 be not repulsed or slighted, must appear in print 
 like a puny with his guardian and his censor's hand 
 on the back of his title to be his bail and surety 
 that he is no idiot or seducer, it cannot be but a 
 dishonour and derogation to the author, to the book, 
 to the privilege and dignity of learning. And what 
 
48 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 if the author shall be one so copious of fancy as to 
 have many things well worth the adding come into 
 his mind after licensing, while the book is yet under 
 the press, which not seldom happens to the best and 
 diligentest writers ; and that perhaps a dozen times 
 in one book ? The printer dares not go beyond his 
 licensed copy ; so often then must the author trudge 
 to his leave-giver, that those his new insertions may 
 be viewed, and many a jaunt will be made ere that 
 licenser, for it must be the same man, can either be 
 found, or found at leisure ; meanwhile either the 
 press must stand still, which is no small damage, or 
 the author lose his accuratest thoughts and send the 
 book forth worse than he had made it, which to a 
 diligent writer is the greatest melancholy and vexa- 
 tion that can befall. And how can a man teach 
 with authority, which is the life of teaching, how can 
 he be a doctor in his book as he ought to be, or else 
 had better be silent, when as all he teaches, all he 
 delivers, is but under the tuition, under the correction 
 of his patriarchal licenser to blot or alter what pre- 
 cisely accords not with the hidebound humour which 
 he calls his judgment ; when every acute reader upon 
 the first sight of a pedantic licence, will be ready with 
 these like words to ding the book a quoit's distance 
 from him : — " I hate a pupil teacher, I endure not 
 an instructor that comes to me under the wardship 
 of an overseeing fist ; I know nothing of the licenser, 
 but that I have his own hand here for his arrogance ; 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 49 
 
 who shall warrant me his judgment?" ''The State, sir," 
 replies the stationer ; but has a quick return, " The 
 State shall be my governors, but not my critics ; 
 they may be mistaken in the choice of a licenser as 
 easily as this licenser may be mistaken in an author : 
 this is some common stuff;" and he might add from 
 Sir Francis Bacon, that such authorized books are 
 but the language of the times. For though a licenser 
 should happen to be judicious more than ordinary, 
 which will be a great jeopardy of the next succession, 
 yet his very office and his commission enjoins him to 
 let pass nothing but what is vulgarly received already. 
 Nay^ which is more lamentable, if the work of any 
 deceased author, though never so famous in his life- 
 time and even to this day, come to their hands for 
 licence to be printed or reprinted, if there be found 
 in his book one sentence of a venturous edge, uttered 
 in the height of zeal, and who knows whether it 
 might not be the dictate of a divine spirit, yet not 
 suiting with every low decrepit humour of their own, 
 though it were Knox himself, the reformer of a king- 
 dom, that spake it, they will not pardon him their 
 dash ; the sense of that great man shall to all pos- 
 terity be lost for the fearfulness or the presumptuous 
 rashness of a perfunctory licenser. And to what an 
 author this violence hath been lately done, and in 
 what book of greatest consequence to be faithfully 
 published, I could now instance, but shall forbear till 
 a more convenient season. Yet if these things be 
 
50 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 not resented seriously and timely by them who have 
 the remedy in their power, but that such iron moulds 
 as these shall have authority to gnaw out the choicest 
 periods of exquisitest books^ and to commit such a 
 treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of 
 worthiest men after death, the more sorrow will 
 belong to that hapless race of men whose misfortune 
 it is to have understanding. Henceforth let no man 
 care to learn, or care to be more than worldly v/ise ; 
 for certainly in higher matters to be ignorant and 
 slothful, to be a common steadfast dunce, will be the 
 only pleasant life and only in request. 
 
 And as it is a particular disesteem of every 
 knowing person alive, and most injurious to the 
 written labours and monuments of the dead, so to 
 me it seems an undervaluing and vilifying of the 
 whole nation. I cannot set so light by all the 
 invention, the art, the wit, the grave and solid 
 judgment which is in England, as that it can be 
 comprehended in any twenty capacities how good 
 soever ; much less that it should not pass except 
 their superintendence be over it, except it be sifted 
 and strained with their strainers, that it should be 
 uncurrent without their manual stamp. Truth and 
 understanding are not such wares as to be mono- 
 polized and traded in by tickets and statutes and 
 standards. We must not think to make a staple 
 commodity of all the knowledge in the land, to 
 mark and licence it like our broadcloth and our woo]- 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 51 
 
 packs. What is it but a servitude like that 
 imposed by the Philistines, not to be allowed the 
 sharpening of our own axes and coulters, but we 
 must repair from all quarters to twenty licensing 
 forges. Had any one written and divulged erroneous 
 things and scandalous to honest life, misusing and 
 forfeiting the esteem had cf his reason among men, 
 if after conviction this only censure were adjudged 
 him, that he should never henceforth write but what 
 were first examined by an appointed officer, whose 
 hand should be annexed to pass his credit for him 
 that now he might be safely read, it could not be 
 apprehended less than a disgraceful punishment. 
 Whence to include the whole nation, and those that 
 never yet thus offended, under such a diffident and 
 suspectful prohibition, may plainly be understood 
 what a disparagement it is ; so much the more, 
 when as debtors and delinquents may walk abroad 
 without a keeper, but inoffensive books must not 
 stir forth without a visible gaoler in their title. Nor 
 is it to the common people less than a reproach ; for 
 if we be so jealous over them as that we dare not 
 trust them with an English pamphlet, what do we but 
 censure them for a giddy, vicious, and ungrounded 
 people, in such a sick and weak estate of faith and 
 discretion as to be able to take nothing down but 
 through the pipe of a licenser ? That this is care 
 or love of them we cannot pretend, when as in 
 those Popish places where the laity are most hated 
 
52 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 and despised, the same strictness is used over them. 
 Wisdom we cannot call it, because it stops but one 
 breach of licence, nor that neither, when as those 
 corruptions which it seeks to prevent break in faster 
 at: other doors which cannot be shut. 
 
 And in conclusion it reflects to the disrepute of 
 our Ministers also, of whose labours we should hope 
 better, and of the proficiency which their flock 
 reaps by them, than that after all this light of the 
 gospel which is, and is to be, and all this continual 
 preaching, they should be still frequented with such 
 an unprincipled, unedified, and laic rabble, as that 
 the whiff of every new pamphlet should stagger 
 them out of their catechism and Christian walking. 
 This may have much reason to discourage the 
 Ministers when such a low conceit is had of all their 
 exhortations and the benefiting of their hearers, as 
 that they are not thought fit to be turned loose to 
 three sheets of paper without a licenser ; that all 
 the sermons, all the lectures preached, printed, 
 vented in such numbers and such volumes as have 
 now well-nigh made all other books unsaleable, 
 should not be armour enough against one single 
 enchiridion, without the Castle St. Angelo of an 
 imprimatur. 
 
 And lest some should persuade ye. Lords and 
 Commons, that these arguments of learned men's 
 discouragement at this your order are mere 
 flourishes and not real, I could recount what I have 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 53 
 
 seen and heard in other countries^ where this kind 
 of inquisition tyrannizes ; when I have sat among 
 their learned men, for that honour I had, and been 
 counted happy to be born in such a place of 
 philosophic freedom as they supposed England was, 
 while themselves did nothing but bemoan the servile 
 condition into which learning amongst them was 
 brought ; that this was it which had damped the 
 glory of Italian wits, that nothing had been there 
 written now these many years but flattery and 
 fustian. There it was that I found and visited the 
 famous Galileo, grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisi- 
 tion for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the 
 Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought. And 
 though I knew that England then was groaning 
 loudest under the prelatical yoke, nevertheless I 
 took it as a pledge of future happiness that other 
 nations were so persuaded of her liberty. Yet was 
 it beyond my hope that those worthies were then 
 breathing in her air who should be her leaders to 
 such a deliverance as shall never be forgotten by 
 any revolution of time that this world hath to finish. 
 When that was once begun, it was as little in my 
 fear, that what words of complaint I heard among 
 learned men of other parts uttered against the 
 Inquisition, the same I should hear by as learned 
 men at home uttered in time of Parliament against 
 an order of licensing ; and that so generally, that 
 when I disclosed myself a companion of their 
 
54 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 discontent, I might say, if without envy, that he 
 whom an honest quaestorship had endeared to the 
 Sicilians was not more by them importuned against 
 Verres than the favourable opinion which I had 
 among many who honour ye and are known and 
 respected by ye. loaded me with entreaties and 
 persuasions, that I would not despair to lay together 
 that which just reason should bring into my mind 
 toward the removal of an undeserved thraldom upon 
 learning. That this is not, therefore, the disburden- 
 ing of a particular fancy, but the common grievance 
 of all those who had prepared their minds and 
 studies above the vulgar pitch, to advance truth in 
 others and from others to entertain it, thus much 
 may satisfy. And in their name I shall for neither 
 friend nor foe conceal what the general murmur is ; 
 that if it come to inquisitioning again and licensing, 
 and that we are so timorous of ourselves, and so 
 suspicious of all men, as to fear each book, and the 
 shaking of every leaf, before we know what the 
 contents are, if some who but of late were little 
 better than silenced from preaching, shall come now 
 to silence us from reading except what they please, 
 it cannot be guessed what is intended by some but 
 a second tyranny over learning ; and will soon put 
 it out of controversy that Bishops and Presbyters 
 are the same to us, both name and thing. That 
 those evils of Prelacy, which before from five or six 
 and twenty Sees were distributively charged upon 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 55 
 
 the whole people, will now light wholly upon 
 learning, is not obscure to us : when as now the 
 pastor of a small unlearned parish on the sudden 
 shall be exalted Archbishop over a large diocese of 
 books, and yet not remove, but keep his other cure 
 too, a mystical pluralist. He who but of late cried 
 down the sole ordination of every novice bachelor of 
 art, and denied sole jurisdiction over the simplest 
 parishioner, shall now, at home in his private chair, 
 assume both these over worthiest and excellentest 
 books and ablest authors that write them. This is 
 not the covenants and protestations that we have 
 made, this is not to put down Prelacy : this is but 
 to chop an Episcopacy ; this is but to translate the 
 palace metropolitan from one kind of dominion into 
 another ; this is but an old canonical sleight of 
 commuting our penance. To startle thus betimes 
 at a mere unlicensed pamphlet will after a while be 
 afraid of every conventicle, and a while after will 
 make a conventicle of every Christian meeting. 
 But I am certain that a State governed by the rules 
 of justice and fortitude, or a Church built and 
 founded upon the rock of faith and true knowledge, 
 cannot be so pusilhanimous. While things are yet 
 not constituted in religion, that freedom of writing 
 should be restrained by a discipline imitated from 
 the Prelates and learned by them from the Inquisi- 
 tion, to shut us up all again into the breast of a 
 licenser, must needs give cause of doubt and dis- 
 
S6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 couragement to all learned and religious men ; who 
 cannot but discern the fineness of this politic drift, 
 and who are the contrivers : that while Bishops were 
 to be baited down, then all presses might be open ; 
 it was the people's birthright and privilege in time 
 of Parliament, it was the breaking forth of light. 
 But now the Bishops abrogated and voided out of 
 the Church, as if our reformation sought no more 
 but to make room for others into their seats under 
 another name, the Episcopal arts begin to bud again, 
 the cruise of truth must run no more oil, liberty of 
 printing must be enthralled again under a prelatical 
 commission of twenty, the privilege of the people 
 nullified, and which is worse, the freedom of learning 
 must groan again and to her old fetters, all this the 
 Parliament yet sitting. Although their own late 
 arguments and defences against the Prelates might 
 remember them that this obstructing violence meets 
 for the most part with an event utterly opposite to 
 the end which it drives at : instead of suppressing 
 sects and schisms, it raises them and invests them 
 with a reputation. " The punishing of v. Its enhances 
 their authority," saith the Viscount St. Albans, "and 
 a forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark 
 of truth that flies up in the faces of them who seek 
 to tread it out." This order, therefore, may prove a 
 nursing mother to sects, but I shall easily show how it 
 will be a stepdame to truth : and first by disenabling 
 us to the maintenance of what is known already. 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 57 
 
 Well knows he who uses to consider, that our 
 faith and knowledge thrives by exercise as well as 
 our limbs and complexion. Truth is compared in 
 Scripture to a streaming fountain ; if her waters flow 
 not in a perpetual progression, they sicken into a 
 muddy pool of conformity and tradition. A man 
 may be a heretic in the truth ; and if he believe 
 things only because his pastor says so, or the 
 assembly so determines, without knowing other 
 reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth 
 he holds becomes his heresy. There is not any 
 burden that some would gladlier post off to another 
 than the charge and care of their religion. There 
 be, who knows not that there be, of Protestants and 
 professors who live and die in as arrant an implicit 
 faith as any lay Papist of Loretto. A wealthy man, 
 addicted to his pleasure and to his profits, finds 
 religion to be a traffic so entangled, and of so many 
 peddling accounts, that of all mysteries he cannot 
 skill to keep a stock going upon that trade. What 
 should he do } Fain he would have the name to be 
 religious, fain he would bear up with his neighbours 
 in that. What does he, therefore, but resolve to 
 give over toiling, and to find himself out some factor 
 to whose care and credit he may commit the whole 
 managing of his religious affairs, some divine of note 
 and estimation that must be. To him he adheres, 
 resigns the whole warehouse of his religion, with all 
 the locks and keys, into his custody ; and indeed 
 
58 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 makes the very person of that man his religion, 
 esteems his associating with him a sufficient evidence 
 and commendatory of his own piety. So that a 
 man may say his religion is now no more within 
 hiitiself, but is become a dividual movable, and 
 goes and comes near him according as that good 
 man frequents the house. He entertains him, gives 
 him gifts, feasts him, lodges him ; his religion comes 
 home at night, prays, is liberally supped, and 
 sumptuously laid to sleep ; rises, is saluted, and after 
 the malmsey, or some well-spiced brewage, and better 
 breakfasted than he whose morning appetite would 
 have gladly fed on green figs between Bethany and 
 Jerusalem ; his religion walks abroad at eight, and 
 leaves his kind entertainer in the shop trading all 
 day without his religion. 
 
 Another sort there be who when they hear that 
 all things shall be ordered, all things regulated and 
 settled, nothing written but what passes through 
 the custom-house of certain publicans that have 
 the tunaging and the poundaging of all free spoken 
 truth, will straight give themselves up into your 
 hands ; make them and cut them out what religion ye 
 please. There be delights, there be recreations and 
 jolly pastimes that will fetch the day about from sun 
 to sun, and rock the tedious year as in a delightful 
 dream. What need they torture their heads with 
 that which others have taken so strictly and so 
 unalterably into their own purveying } These are 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 59 
 
 the fruits which a dull ease and cessation of our 
 knowledge v/ill bring forth among the people. How 
 goodly and how to be wished were such an obedient 
 unanimity as this, what a fine conformity would it 
 starch us all into ? Doubtless a staunch and solid 
 piece of framework as any January could freeze 
 together. 
 
 Nor much better will be the consequence even 
 among the clergy themselves. It is no new thing 
 never heard of before for a parochial minister, who 
 has his reward and is at his Hercules' Pillars in a 
 warm benefice, to be easily inclinable, if he have 
 nothing else that may rouse up his studies, to finish 
 his circuit in an English concordance and a topic 
 folio, the gatherings and savings of a sober graduate- 
 ship, a harmony and a catena, treading the constant 
 round of certain common doctrinal heads, attended 
 with their uses, motives, marks and means, out of 
 which as out of an alphabet or sol fa, by forming and 
 transforming, joining and disjoining variously a little 
 book-craft, and two hours' meditation might furnish 
 him unspeakably to the performance of more than 
 a weekly charge of sermoning, not to reckon up the 
 infinite helps of interlinearies, breviaries, synopses, and 
 other loitering gear. But as for the multitude of ser- 
 mons ready printed and piled up, on every text that is 
 not difficult, our London trading St. Thomas in his 
 vestry, and add to boot St. Martin and St. Hugh, 
 have not within their hallowed limits more vendible 
 
6o FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 ware of all sorts ready made ; so that penury he 
 never need fear of pulpit provision, having where so 
 plenteously to refresh his magazine. But if his 
 rear and flanks be not impaled, if his back door be 
 not secured by the rigid licenser, but that a bold 
 book may now and then issue forth, and give the 
 assault to some of his old collections in their 
 trenches, it will concern him then to keep waking, to 
 stand in watch, to set good guards and sentinels 
 about his received opinions, to walk the round and 
 counter-round with his fellow-inspectors, fearing lest 
 any of his flock be seduced, who also then would be 
 better instructed, better exercised and disciplined. 
 And God send that the fear of this diligence which 
 must then be used, do not make us affect the 
 laziness of a licensing Church. 
 
 For if we be sure we are in the right, and do not 
 hold the truth guiltily, which becomes not, if we our- 
 selves condemn not our own weak and frivolous 
 teaching, and the people for an untaught and 
 irreligious gadding rout, what can be more fair than 
 when a man judicious, learned, and of a conscience, 
 for aught we know, as good as theirs that taught 
 us what we know, shall not privily from house to 
 house, which is more dangerous, but openly by 
 writing publish to the world what his opinion 
 is, what his reasons, and wherefore that which is 
 now thought cannot be sound ? Christ urged it as 
 wherewith to justify himself, that He preached 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 6i 
 
 in public ; yet writing is more public than preaching, 
 and more easy to refutation, if need be, there being 
 so many whose business and profession merely 
 it is to be the champions of truth, which, if 
 they neglect, what can be imputed but their sloth or 
 inability ? 
 
 Thus much we are hindered and disinured by this 
 course of licensing towards the true knowledge of 
 what we seem to know. For how much it hurts and 
 hinders the licensers themselves in the calling of 
 their ministry, more than any secular employment, 
 if they will discharge that office as they ought, so 
 that of necessity they must neglect either the one 
 duty or the other, I insist not, because it is a 
 particular, but leave it to their own conscience, how 
 they will decide it there. 
 
 There is yet behind of what I purposed to lay 
 open, the incredible loss and detriment that this 
 plot of licensing puts us to. More than if some 
 enemy at sea should stop up all our havens and 
 ports and creeks, it hinders and retards the impor- 
 tation of our richest merchandise, truth ; nay, it was 
 first established and put in practice by antichristian 
 malice and mystery on set purpose to extinguish, if 
 it were possible, the light of Reformation, and to settle 
 falsehood, little differing from that policy wherewith 
 the Turk upholds his Alcoran by the prohibition 
 of printing. It is not denied, but gladly confessed, 
 we are to send our thanks and vows to heaven louder 
 
62 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 than most of nations for that great measure of truth 
 uriuch we enjoy, especially in those main points 
 between us and the P<q>e with his appurtenances the 
 prelates ; but he who thinks we are to pitch our tent 
 her^ and have attained the utmost prospect of 
 reformation that the mortal glass wherein we 
 contemplate can show us, till we come to beatific 
 vision, that man by this very opinion declares that 
 he is yet far short of truth. 
 
 Truth indeed came once into the world with her 
 Divine Master, and was a perfect shape most 
 glorious to look on ; but when He ascended, and his 
 Apostles after Him were laid asleep, then straight 
 arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story 
 goes of the Egyptian Typhon with his conspirators 
 how they dealt with the good Osiris, took the virgin 
 truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, 
 and scattered them to the four winds. From that 
 time ever since, the sad friends of truth, such as 
 dost appear, imitating the careful search that Isis 
 made for the mangled body of Osiris, went up and 
 down gathering up limb by limb still as they could 
 find them. We have not yet found them all. Lords 
 and Commons, nor ever shall do, till her Master's 
 second coming ; He shall bring together every joint 
 and member, and shall mould them into an immortal 
 feature of loveliness and perfection. Suffer not these 
 licensing prohibitions to stand at .every place of 
 opportunity forbidding and disturbing them that 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 63 
 
 continue seeking, that continue to do our obsequies 
 to the torn body of our martyred saint. We boast 
 our light ; but if we look not wisely on the sun 
 itself, it smites us into darkness. Who can discern 
 those planets that are oft combust, and those stars 
 of brightest magnitude that rise and set with the 
 sun, until the opposite motion of their orbs bring 
 them to such a place in the firmament, where 
 they may be seen evening or morning ? The light 
 which we have gained was given us, not to be ever 
 staring on, but by it to discover onward things more 
 remote from our knowledge. It is not the unfrock- 
 ing of a priest, the unmitring of a bishop, and the 
 removing him from off the Presbyterian shoulders 
 that will make us a happy nation ; no, if other 
 things as great in the Church and in the rule of life 
 both economical and political be not looked into 
 and reformed, we have looked so long upon the 
 blaze that Zuinglius and Calvin hath beaconed up 
 to us, that we are stark blind. There be who per- 
 petually complain of schisms and sects, and make it 
 such a calamity that any man dissents from their 
 maxims. It is their own pride and ignorance which 
 causes the disturbing, who neither will hear with 
 meekness nor can convince ; yet all must be sup- 
 pressed which is not found in their syntagma. 
 They are the troublers, they are the dividers of 
 unity, who neglect and permit not others to unite 
 those dissevered pieces which are yet wanting to the 
 
64 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 body of truth. To be still searching what we know 
 not by what we know, still closing up truth to truth 
 as we find it (for all her body is homogeneal and 
 proportional), this is the golden rule in theology as 
 well as in arithmetic, and makes up the best 
 harmony in a Church, not the forced and outward 
 union of cold and neutral and inwardly divided 
 minds. 
 
 Lords and Commons of England, consider what 
 nation it is whereof ye are and whereof ye are the 
 governors : a nation not slow and dull, but of a 
 quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, 
 subtle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach 
 of any point the highest that human capacity can 
 soar to. Therefore the studies of learning in her 
 deepest sciences have been so ancient and so 
 eminent among us, that writers of good antiquity 
 and ablest judgment have been persuaded that even 
 the school of Pythagoras and the Persian wisdom 
 took beginning from the old philosophy of this 
 island. And that wise and civil Roman, Julius 
 Agricola, who governed once here for Caesar, pre- 
 ferred the natural wits of Britain before the labpured 
 studies of the French. Nor is it for nothing that the 
 grave and frugal Transylvanian sends out yearly 
 from as far as the mountainous borders of Russia and 
 beyond the Hercynian wilderness, not their youth, 
 but their staid men, to learn our language and our 
 theologic arts. Yet that which is above all thi.s, the 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 65 
 
 favour and the love of heaven, we have great 
 argument to think in a peculiar manner propitious 
 and propending towards us. Why else was this 
 nation chosen before any other, that out of her as 
 out of Sion should be proclaimed and sounded forth 
 the first tidings and trumpet of Reformation to all 
 Europe ? And had it not been the obstinate per- 
 verseness of our prelates against the divine and 
 admirable spirit of Wickliff, to suppress him as a 
 schismatic and innovator, perhaps neither the 
 Bohemian Huss and Jerome, no, nor the name 
 of Luther or of Calvin, had been ever known ; the 
 glory of reforming all our neighbours had been 
 completely ours. But now, as our obdurate clergy 
 have with violence demeaned the matter, we are 
 become hitherto the latest and the backwardest 
 scholars, of whom God offered to have made us the 
 teachers. Now once again, by all concurrence of 
 signs and by the general instinct of holy and devout 
 men, as they daily and solemnly express their 
 thoughts, God is decreeing to begin some new and 
 great period in his Church, even to the reforming of 
 Reformation itself. What does He then but reveal 
 himself to his servants, and as his manner is, first to 
 his Englishmen : I say as his manner is, first to us, 
 though we mark not the method of his counsels and 
 are unworthy ? Behold now this vast city : a city 
 of refuge, the mansion house of liberty, encompassed 
 and surrounded with his protection ; the shop of war 
 
66 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to 
 fashion out the plates and instruments of armed 
 justice in defence of beleaguered truth, than there 
 be pens and heads there, sitting by their studious 
 lamps, musing, searching, revolving new notions and 
 ideas wherewith to present as with their homage 
 and their fealty the approaching Reformation, others 
 as fast reading, trying all things, assenting to the 
 force of reason and convincement. What could a 
 man require more from a nation so pliant and so 
 prone to seek after knowledge ? What wants there 
 to such a towardly and pregnant soil but wise and 
 faithful labourers, to make a knowing people, a 
 nation of prophets, of sages, and of worthies ? We 
 reckon more than five months yet to harvest ; there 
 need not be five weeks ; had we but eyes to lift up, 
 the fields are white already. Where there is much 
 desire to learn, there of necessity will be much 
 arguing, much writing, many opinions ; for opinion 
 in good men is but knowledge in the making. 
 Under these fantastic terrors of sect and schism, we 
 wrong the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge 
 and understanding which God hath stirred up in 
 this city. What some lament of, we rather should 
 rejoice at, should rather praise this pious forwardness 
 among" men to reassume the ill deputed care of 
 their religion into their own hands again. A little 
 gene/ous prudence, a little forbearance of one another 
 and some grain of charity, might win all these 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 67 
 
 diligences to join and unite in one general and 
 brotherly search after truth, could we but forego this 
 prelatical tradition of crowding free consciences 
 and Christian liberties into canons and precepts 
 of men. I doubt not, if some great and worthy 
 stranger should come among us, wise to dis- 
 cern the mould and temper of a people and how 
 to govern it, observing the high hopes and aims, 
 the diligent alacrity of our extended thoughts and 
 reasonings in the pursuance of truth and freedom, 
 but that he would cry out as Pyrrhus did, admiring 
 the Roman docility and courage : "If such were my 
 Epirots, I would not despair the greatest design that 
 could be attempted to make a church or kingdom 
 happy." Yet these are the men cried out against for 
 schismatics and sectaries ; as if, while the Temple of 
 the Lord was building, some cutting, some squaring 
 the marble, others hewing the cedars, there should 
 be a sort of irrational men who could not consider 
 there must be many schisms and many dissections 
 made in the quarry and m the timber, ere the house 
 of God can be built. And when every stone is laid 
 artfully together, it cannot be united into a con- 
 tinuity, it can but be contiguous in this world ; 
 neither can every piece of the building be of one 
 form ; nay, rather the perfection consists in this : 
 that out of many moderate varieties and brotherly 
 dissimilitudes that are not vastly disproportional 
 arises the goodly and the graceful symmetry that 
 
 c 2 
 
68 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 commends the whole pile and structure. Let us 
 therefore be more considerate builders, more wise 
 in spiritual architecture, when great reformation is 
 expected. For now the time seems come, wherein 
 Moses the great Prophet may sit in heaven rejoicing 
 to see that memorable and glorious wish of his 
 fulfilled, when not only our seventy elders but all the 
 Lord's people are become prophets. No marvel, 
 then, though some men, and some good men too 
 perhaps, but young in goodness, as Joshua then was, 
 envy them. They fret, and out of their own weak- 
 ness are in agony, lest those divisions and sub- 
 divisions will undo us. The adversary again 
 applauds, and waits the hour ; when they have 
 branched themselves out, saith he, small enough into 
 parties and partitions, then will be our time. Fool ! 
 he sees not the firm root, out of which we all grow 
 though into branches ; nor will beware until he see 
 our small divided maniples cutting through at every 
 angle of his ill-united and unwieldy brigade. And 
 that we are to hope better of all these supposed sects 
 and schisms, and that we shall not need that solici- 
 tude, honest perhaps, though over-timorous of them 
 that vex in this behalf, but shall laugh in the end at 
 those malicious applauders of our differences, I have 
 these reasons to persuade me : 
 
 First, when a city shall be as it were besieged 
 and blocked about, her navigable river infested, in- 
 roads and incursions round, defiance and battle oft 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 69 
 
 rumoured to be marching up even to her walls and 
 suburb trenches, that then the people, or the greater 
 part, more than at other times, wholly taken up 
 with the study of highest and most important 
 matters to be reformed, should be disputing, reason- 
 ing, reading, inventing, discoursing, even to a rarity 
 and admiration, things not before discoursed or 
 written of, argues first a singular goodwill, con- 
 tentedness and confidence in your prudent foresight 
 and safe government, Lords and Commons ; and 
 from thence derives itself to a gallant bravery and 
 well-grounded contempt of their enemies, as if there 
 were no small number of as great spirits among 
 us, as his was, who when Rome was nigh besieged 
 by Hannibal, being in the city, bought that piece of 
 ground at no cheap rate whereon Hannibal himself 
 encamped his own regiment. Next, it is a lively and 
 cheerful presage of our happy success and victory. 
 For as in a body, when the blood is fresh, the spirits 
 pure and vigorous, not only to vital but to rational 
 faculties, and those in the acutest and the pertest 
 operations of wit and subtlety, it argues in what good 
 plight and constitution the body is, so when the 
 cheerfulness of the people is so sprightly up, as that 
 it has not only wherewith to guard well its own free- 
 dom and safety but to spare, and to bestow upon the 
 solidest and sublimest points of controversy and new 
 invention, it betokens us not degenerated, nor droop- 
 ing to a fatal decay, but casting off the old and 
 
70 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 wrinkled skin of corruption to outlive these pangs 
 and wax young again, entering the glorious ways of 
 truth and prosperous virtue, destined to become great 
 and honourable in these latter ages. Methinks I see 
 in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing her- 
 self like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her 
 invincible locks. Methinks I see her as an eagle 
 mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled 
 eyes at the full mid-day beam, purging and un- 
 sealing her long abused sight at the fountain itself of 
 heavenly radiance, while the whole noise of timorous 
 and flocking birds, with those also that love the 
 twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, 
 and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a 
 year of sects and schisms. 
 
 What should ye do then, should ye suppress all 
 this flowery crop of knowledge and new light sprung 
 up and yet springing daily in this city, should ye set 
 an oligarchy of twenty ingrossers over it, to bring a 
 famine upon our minds again, when we shall know 
 nothing but what is measured to us by their bushel "i 
 Believe it, Lords and Commons, they who counsel ye 
 to such a suppressing do as good as bid ye suppress 
 yourselves ; and I will soon show how. If it be 
 desired to know the immediate cause of all this free 
 writing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned 
 a truer than your own mild and free and human 
 government ; it is the liberty, Lords and Commons, 
 which your own valorous and happy counsels have 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 71 
 
 purchased us, liberty which is the nurse of all great 
 wits ; this is that which hath rarefied and enlightened 
 our spirits like the influence of heaven ; this is that 
 which hath enfranchised, enlarged and lifted up our 
 apprehensions degrees above themselves. Ye cannot 
 make us now less capable, less knowing, less eagerly- 
 pursuing of the truth, unless ye first make yourselves, 
 that made us so, less the lovers, less the founders of 
 our true liberty. We can grow ignorant again, 
 brutish, formal, and slavish, as ye found us ; but you 
 then must first become that which ye cannot be, 
 oppressive, arbitrary, and tyrannous, as they were 
 from whom ye have freed us. That our hearts are 
 now more capacious, our thoughts more erected to 
 the search and expectation of greatest and exactest 
 things, is the issue of your own virtue propagated in 
 us ; ye cannot suppress that unless ye reinforce an 
 abrogated and merciless law, that fathers may dis- 
 patch at will their own children. And who shall 
 then stick closest to ye, and excite others ? Not he 
 who takes up arms for cote and conduct and his four 
 nobles of Danegelt. Although I dispraise not the 
 defence of just immunities, yet love my peace better, 
 if that were all. Give me the liberty to know, to 
 utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, 
 above all liberties. 
 
 What would be best advised then, if it be found so 
 hurtful and so unequal to suppress opinions for the 
 newness or the unsuitableness to a customary accept- 
 
72 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 ance, will not be my task to say ; I only shall repeat 
 what I have learnt from one of your own honourable 
 number, a right noble and pious lord, who had he 
 not sacrificed his life and fortunes to the Church and 
 Commonwealth, we had not now missed and bewailed 
 a worthy and undoubted patron of this argument. 
 Ye know him I am sure ; yet I for honour's sake, 
 and may it be eternal to him, shall name him^ the 
 Lord Brook. He writing of Episcopacy, and by the 
 way treating of sects and schisms, left ye his vote, or 
 rather now the last words of his dying charge, 
 which I know will ever be of dear and honoured 
 regard with ye, so full of meekness and breathing 
 charity, that next to his last testament, who be- 
 queathed love and peace to his disciples, I cannot 
 call to mind where I have read or heard words more 
 mild and peaceful. He there exhorts us to hear 
 with patience and humility those, however they be 
 miscalled, that desire to live purely, in such a use of 
 God's Ordinances, as the best guidance of their 
 conscience gives them, and to tolerate them, though 
 in some disconformity to ourselves. The book itself 
 will tell us more at large, being published to the 
 world and dedicated to the Parliament by him who 
 both for his life and for his death deserves that what 
 advice he left be not laid by without perusal. 
 
 And now the time in special is by privilege to 
 write and speak what may help to the further dis- 
 cussing of matters in agitation. The Temple of 
 
AREOPAGITICA, 73 
 
 Janus with his two controversal faces might now not 
 insignificantly be set open. And though all the 
 winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the 
 earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuriously by 
 licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. 
 Let her and falsehood grapple ; who ever knew truth 
 put to the worse in a free and open encounter } 
 Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing. 
 He who hears what praying there is for light and 
 clearer knowledge to be sent down among us^ would 
 think of other matters to be constituted beyond the 
 discipline of Geneva, framed and fabricked already to 
 our hands. Yet when the new light which we beg 
 for shines in upon us, there be. who envy and oppose 
 if it come not first in at their casements. What a 
 collusion is this, when as we are exhorted by the wise 
 man to use diligence, to seek for wisdom as for 
 hidden treasures early and late, that another order 
 shall enjoin us to know nothing but by statute ! 
 When a man hath been labouring the hardest labour 
 in the deep mines of knowledge, hath furnished out 
 his findings in all their equipage, drawn forth his 
 reasons as it were a battle ranged, scattered and 
 defeated all objections in his way, calls out his 
 adversary into the plain, offers him the advantage of 
 wind and sun, if he please, only that he may try the 
 matter by dint of argument, for his opponents then 
 to skulk, to lay ambushments, to keep a narrow 
 bridge of licensing where the challenger should pass, 
 
74 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 though it be valour enough in soldiership, is but 
 weakness and cowardice in the wars of truth. For 
 who knows not that truth is strong next to the 
 Almighty ? She needs no policies, no stratagems, 
 nor licensings to make her victorious ; those are the 
 shifts and the defences that error uses against her 
 power. Give her but room, and do not bind her 
 when she sleeps, for then she speaks not true, as 
 the old Proteus did, who spake oracles only when 
 he was caught and bound ; but then rather she 
 turns herself into all shapes except her own, and 
 perhaps tunes her voice according to the time, as 
 Micaiah did before Ahab, until she be adjured into 
 her own likeness. Yet is it not impossible that she 
 may have more shapes than one. What else is all 
 that rank of things indifferent, wherein truth may be 
 on this side or on the other without being unlike 
 herself.^ What but a vain shadow else is the 
 abolition of those Ordinances, that handwriting 
 nailed to the cross, what great purchase is this 
 Christian liberty which Paul so often boasts of.** 
 His doctrine is, that he who eats or eats not, 
 regards a day or regards it not, may do either to 
 the Lord. How many other things might be 
 tolerated in peace and left to conscience, had we 
 but charity, and were it not the chief stronghold of 
 our hypocrisy to be ever judging one another. I 
 fear yet this iron yoke of outward conformity hath 
 left a slavish print upon our necks ; the ghost of a 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 75 
 
 linen decency yet haunts us. We stumble and are 
 impatient at the least dividing of one visible 
 congregation from another, though it be not in 
 fundamentals ; and through our forwardness to 
 suppress, and our backwardness to recover any 
 enthralled piece of truth out of the grip of custom, 
 we care not to keep truth separated from truth, 
 which is the fiercest rent and disunion of all. We 
 do not see that, while we still affect by all means a 
 rigid external formality, we may as soon fall again 
 into a gross conforming stupidity, a stark and dead 
 congealment of wood and hay and stubble forced 
 and frozen together, which is more to the sudden 
 degenerating of a Church than many subdichotomies 
 of petty schisms. Not that I can think well of 
 every light separation, or that all in a Church is to 
 be expected gold and silver and precious stones ; 
 it is not possible for man to sever the wheat from 
 the tares, the good fish from the other fry ; that 
 must be the angels' ministry at the end uf mortal 
 things. Yet if all cannot be of one mind — as who 
 looks they should be ? — this doubtless is more whole- 
 some, more prudent, and more Christian : that many 
 be tolerated rather than all compelled. I mean not 
 tolerated Popery and open superstition, which as it 
 extirpates all religions and civil supremacies, so 
 itself should be extirpated, provided first that all 
 charitable and compassionate means be used to win 
 and regain the weak and misled ; that also which is 
 
76 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 impious or evil absolutely either against faith or 
 manners no law can possibly permit, that intends 
 not to unlaw itself; but those neighbouring differ- 
 ences, or rather indifferences, are what I speak of, 
 whether in some point of doctrine or of discipline, 
 which though they may be many, yet need not 
 interrupt the unity of spirit, if we could but find 
 among us the bond of peace. In the meanwhile if 
 any one would write, and bring his helpful hand to 
 the slow-moving reformation which we labour under, 
 if truth have spoken to him before others, or but 
 seemed at least to speak, who hath so bejesuited us 
 that we should trouble that man with asking licence 
 to do so worthy a deed ? And not consider this, 
 that if it come to prohibiting, there is not aught 
 more likely to be prohibited than truth itself; 
 whose first appearance to our eyes, bleared and 
 dimmed with prejudice and custom, is more un- 
 sightly and unplausible than many errors, even as 
 the person is of many a great man slight and com- 
 temptible to see to. And what do they tell us vainly 
 of new opinions, when this very opinion of theirs, that 
 none must be heard but whom they like, is the 
 worst and newest opinion of all others ; and is the 
 chief cause why sects and schisms do so much 
 abound, and true knowledge is kept at distance from 
 us } Besides yet a greater danger which is in it : 
 for when God shakes a kingdom with strong and 
 healthful commotions to a general reforming, it is 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 77 
 
 not untrue that many sectaries and false teachers 
 are then busiest in seducing ; but yet more true it 
 is, that God then raises to his own work men of rare 
 abilities and more than common industry, not only 
 to look back and revise what hath been taught 
 heretofore, but to gain further and go on some new 
 enlightened steps in the discovery of truth. For 
 such is the order of God's enlightening his Church, to 
 dispense and deal out by degrees his beam, so as 
 our earthly eyes may best sustain it. Neither is 
 God appointed and confined, where and out of what 
 place these his chosen shall be first heard to speak ; 
 for He sees not as man sees, chooses not as man 
 chooses, lest we should devote ourselves again to set 
 places and assemblies and outward callings of men, 
 planting our faith one while in the old Convocation 
 house and another while in the chapel at West- 
 minster ; when all the faith and religion that shall 
 be there canonized is not sufficient, without plain 
 convincement and the charity of patient instruction, 
 to supple the least bruise of conscience, to edify the 
 meanest Christian, who desires to walk in the spirit 
 and not in the letter of human trust, for all the 
 number of voices that can be there made ; no, 
 though Harry the Seventh himself there, with all his 
 liege tombs about him, should lend them voices 
 from the dead to swell their number. And if the 
 men be erroneous who appear to be the leading 
 schismatics, what withholds us but our sloth, our self- 
 
78 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 will, and distrust in the right cause, that we do not 
 give them gentle meetings and gentle dismissions, 
 that we debate not and examine the matter tho- 
 roughly with liberal and frequent audience ; if not 
 for their sakes, yet for our own, seeing no man who 
 hath tasted learning but will confess the many ways 
 of profiting by those who, not contented with stale 
 receipts, are able to manage and set forth new posi- 
 tions to the world ? And were they but as the dust 
 and cinders of our feet, so long as in that notion 
 they may serve to polish and brighten the armoury 
 of truth, even for that respect they were not utterly 
 to be cast away. But if they be of those whom 
 God hath fitted for the special use of these times 
 with eminent and ample gifts, and those, perhaps, 
 neither among the priests nor among the Pharisees, 
 and we, in the haste of a precipitant zeal, shall make 
 no distinction, but resolve to stop their mouths, 
 because we fear they come with new and dangerous 
 opinions, as we commonly forejudge them ere we 
 understand them, no less then woe to us, while, 
 thinking thus to defend the Gospel, we are found the 
 persecutors. 
 
 There have been not a few since the beginning of 
 this Parliament, both of the Presbytery and others, 
 who by their unlicensed books to the contempt 
 of an imprimatur first broke that triple ice clung 
 about our hearts, and taught the people to see 
 day. I hope that none of those were the per- 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 
 
 79 
 
 suaders to renew upon us this bondage which they 
 themselves have wrought so much good by con- 
 temning. But if neither the check that Moses 
 gave to j^oung Joshua, nor the countermand 
 which our Saviour gave to young John, who was 
 so ready to prohibit those whom he thought un- 
 licensed, be not enough to admonish our elders 
 how unacceptable to God their testy mood of pro- 
 hibiting is, if neither their own remembrance what 
 evil hath abounded in the Church by this let of 
 licensing, and what good they themselves have 
 begun by transgressing it, be not enough, but that 
 they will persuade and execute the most Dominican 
 part of the Inquisition over us, and are already with 
 one foot in the stirrup so active at suppressing, it 
 would be no unequal distribution in the first place to 
 suppress the suppressors themselves, whom the change 
 of their condition hath puffed up more than their 
 late experience of harder times hath made wise. 
 
 And as for regulating the Press, let no man think 
 to have the honour of advising ye better than your- 
 selves have done in that order published next before 
 this : that no book be printed, unless the printer's, and 
 the author's name, or at least the printer's be 
 registered. Those which otherwise come forth^ if 
 they be found mischievous and libellous, the fire and 
 the executioner will be the timeliest and the most 
 effectual remedy that man's prevention can use. 
 For this authentic Spanish policy of licensing books, 
 
8o FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 if I have said aught, will prove the most unlicensed 
 book itself within a short while ; and was the im- 
 mediate image of a Star Chamber decree to that 
 purpose made in those very times when that Court 
 did the rest of those her pious works, for which she 
 is now fallen from the stars with Lucifer. Whereby 
 ye may guess what kind of State prudence, what 
 love of the people, what care of religion or good 
 manners there was at the contriving, although with 
 singular hypocrisy it pretended to bind books to 
 their good behaviour. And how it got the upper 
 hand of your precedent order so well consti- 
 tuted before, if we may believe those men whose 
 profession gives them cause to inquire most, it may 
 be doubted there was in it the fraud of some old 
 patentees and monopolizers in the trade of book 
 selling, who, under pretence of the poor \\\ their 
 company not to be defrauded, and the just retaining 
 of each man his several copy, which God forbid 
 should be gainsaid, brought divers glozing colours 
 to the House, which were indeed but colours, 
 and serving to no end except it be to exercise a 
 superiority over their neighbours, men who do not 
 therefore labour in an honest profession to which 
 learning is indebted, that they should be made other 
 men's vassals. Another end is thought was aimed 
 at by some of them in procuring by petition this 
 order, that having power in their hands, malignant 
 books might the easier escape abroad, as the event 
 
AREOPAGITICA. 8i 
 
 shows. But of these sophisms and elenchs of 
 merchandise I skill not. This I know, that errors 
 in a good government and in a bad are equally 
 almost incident ; for what magistrate may not be 
 misinformed, and much the sooner, if liberty of 
 printing be reduced into the power of a few ? But 
 to redress willingly and speedily what hath been 
 erred, and in highest authority to esteem a plain 
 advertisement more than others have done a 
 sumptuous bribe^ is a virtue (honoured Lords and 
 Commons) answerable to your highest actions, and 
 whereof none can participate but greatest and wisest 
 men. 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, 
 
 BRIEFLY DISCOURSED, IN 
 
 THREE QUESTIONS, FIT FOR PUBLIC VIEW, 
 
 TO DETER AND PREVENT 
 
 TYRANTS FROM USURPING SUPREME POV/ER. 
 
 And all the people of the land rejoiced ; and the city was quiet, after 
 that they had slain Athaliah with the sword. — 2 Chron. xxiii. 21. 
 
 Now after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the 
 Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he 
 fled to Lachish ; but they sent to Lachish after him, and slew him 
 there.~2 Chron. xxv. 27, 
 
TO 
 
 HIS HIGHNESS OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 May it please your Highness, 
 
 How I have spent some hours of the leisure 
 your Highness hath been pleased to give me this 
 following paper will give your Highness an account. 
 How you will please to interpret it I cannot tell ; 
 but I can with confidence say, my intention in it is 
 to procure your Highness that justice nobody yet 
 does you, and to let the people see the longer they 
 defer it the greater injury they do both themselves 
 and you. To your Highness justly belongs the 
 honour of dying for the people ; and it cannot choose 
 but be unspeakable consolation to you in the last 
 moments of your life to consider with how much 
 benefit to the world you are like to leave it. It is 
 then only, my Lord, the titles you new usurp will 
 be truly yours; you will then be indeed the deliverer 
 of your country, and free it from a bondage little 
 inferior to that from which Moses delivered his* 
 
86 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 You will then be that true reformer which you would 
 be thought. Religion shall be then restored, liberty 
 asserted, and Parliaments have those privileges they 
 have fought for. We shall then hope that other 
 laws will have place besides those of the sword, and 
 that justice shall be otherwise defined than the will 
 and pleasure of the strongest ; and we shall then 
 hope men will keep oaths again, and not have the 
 necessity of being false and perfidious to preserve 
 themselves, and be like their rulers. All this we 
 hope from your Highness's happy expiration, who are 
 the true father of your country; for while you live 
 we can call nothing ours, and it is from your death 
 that we hope for our inheritances. Let this con- 
 sideration arm and fortify your Highness's mind 
 against the fears of death, and the terrors of your 
 evil conscience, that the good you will do by your 
 death will something balance the evils of your life. 
 And if in the black catalogue of high malefactor few 
 can be found that have lived more to the affliction 
 and disturbance of mankind than your Highness hath 
 done, yet your greatest enemies will not deny but 
 there are likewise as few that have expired more to 
 the universal benefit of mankind than your Highness 
 is like to do. To hasten this great good is the chief 
 end of my writing this paper ; and if it have the 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. g; 
 
 effects I hope it will, your Highness will quickly be 
 out of the reach of men's malice, and your enemies 
 will only be able to wound you in your memory, 
 which strokes you will not feel. That your High- 
 ness may be speedily in this security is the universal 
 wishes of your grateful country. This is the desires 
 and prayers of the good and of the bad, and it may 
 be is the only thing wherein all sects and factions do 
 agree in their devotions, and is our only common 
 prayer. But amongst all that put in their requests 
 and supplications for your Highness's speedy deliver- 
 ances from all earthly troubles, none is more assi- 
 duous nor more fervent than he who, with the rest 
 of the nation, hath the honour to be. 
 
 May it please your Highness, 
 Your Highness's present slave and vassal, 
 
 W. A. 
 
Killing no Murder. 
 
 It is not any ambition to be m print, when so few 
 spare paper and the press, nor any instigations of 
 private revenge or malice (though few that dare be 
 honest now want their causes), that have prevailed 
 with me to make myself the author of a pamphlet, 
 and to disturb that quiet which at present I enjoy by 
 his Highness's great favour and injustice. Nor am 
 I ignorant to how little purpose I shall employ that 
 time and pains which I shall bestow upon this paper. 
 For to think that any reasons or persuasions of mine, 
 or conviction of their ov/n, shall draw men from any 
 thing wherein they see profit or security^ or to any 
 thing wherein they fear loss or see danger, is to have 
 a better opinion both of myself and them than either 
 of us both deserve. 
 
 Besides, the subject itself is of that nature, that I 
 am not only to expect danger from ill men, but 
 censure and disallowance from many that are good ; 
 for these opinions only looked upon, not looked into 
 (which all have not eyes for), will appear bloody and 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, 89 
 
 cruel ; and these compellations I must expect from 
 those that have a zeal, but not according to know- 
 ledge ; if, therefore, I had considered myself, I had 
 spared whatever this is of pains, and not distasted so 
 many, to please so few as are in mankind the 
 honest and the wise. But at such a time as this, 
 when God is not only exercising us with a usual and 
 common calamity, of letting us fall into slavery that 
 used our liberty so ill, but is pleased so far to bind 
 our understandings and to debase our spirits as to 
 suffer us to court our bondage, and to place it 
 amongst the requests we put up to Him, indignation 
 makes a man break that silence that prudence would 
 persuade him to use, if not to work upon other 
 men's minds, yet to ease his own. 
 
 A late pamphlet tells us of a great design dis- 
 covered against the person of his Highness, and of 
 the Parliament's coming (for so does that Junto 
 profane that name) to congratulate with his Highness 
 his happy deliverance from that wicked and bloody 
 attempt. Besides this, that they have ordered that 
 God Almighty shall be mocked with a day of 
 thanksgiving (as I think, the world is with the plot), 
 and that the people shall give public thanks for the 
 public calamity that God is yet pleased to continue 
 his judgments upon them and to frustrate all means 
 that are used for their deliverance. Certainly none 
 will now deny that the English are a very thankful 
 people. But I think if we had read in Scripture 
 
90 
 
 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 that the Israelites had cried unto the Lord, not 
 for their own deliverance, but the preservation of 
 their task-masters, and that they had thanked God 
 with solemnity that Pharaoh was yet living, and that 
 there was still great hopes of the daily increase of 
 the number of their bricks : though that people 
 did so many things not only impiously and pro- 
 fanely but ridiculously and absurdly, yet certainly 
 they did nothing we should more have wondered at 
 than to have found them ceremoniously thankful to 
 God for plagues, that were commonly so brutishly 
 unthankful for mercies ; and we should have thought 
 that Moses had done them a great deal of wrong if he 
 had not suffered them to enjoy their slavery, and left 
 them to their tasks and garlic. 
 
 I can with justice say, my principal intention in 
 this paper is not to declaim against my Lord 
 Protector or his accomplices ; for, were it not more to 
 justify others than to accuse them, I should think 
 their own actions did that work sufficiently^ and I 
 should not take pains to tell the world what they 
 knew before. My design is, to examine whether if 
 there hath been such a plot as we hear of, and that 
 it was contrived by Mr. Sindercombe against my 
 Lord Protector^ and not by my Lord Protector 
 against Mr. Sindercombe (which is doubtful) ; 
 whether it deserves those epithets Mr. Speaker is 
 pleased to give it, of bloody, wicked, and proceedincr 
 from the Prince of Darkness. I know very well how 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, 91 
 
 incapable the vulgar are of considering what is 
 extraordinary ' and singular in every case, and that 
 they judge of things and name them by their 
 exterior appearances, without penetrating at all into 
 their causes or natures. And without doubt, when 
 they hear the Protector was to be killed^ they 
 straight conclude a man was to be murdered, not a 
 malefactor punished ; for they think the formalities 
 do always make the things themselves, and that it 
 is the judge and the crier that makes the justice, 
 and the gaol the criminal ; and therefore when they 
 read in the pamphlet Mr. Speaker's speech, they 
 certainly think he gives these plotters their right 
 titles, and, as readily as a High Court of Justice, 
 they condemn them, without ever examining whether 
 they would have killed a magistrate or destroyed a 
 tyrant over whom every man is naturally a judge and 
 an executioner, and whom the laws of God, of 
 Nature, and of nations expose like beasts of prey to 
 be destroyed as they are met 
 
 That I may be as plain as I can, I shall first 
 make it a question — which indeed is none — 
 whether my Lord Protector be a tyrant or not ? 
 Secondly, if he be, whether it is lawful to do justice 
 upon him without solemnity, that is, to kill him ? 
 Thirdly, if it be lawful, whether it is like to prove 
 profitable or noxious to the Commonwealth ? 
 
 The civil law makes tyrants of two sorts, "tyrannus 
 sine titulo" and ''tyrannus exercitio." The one is 
 
92 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 called a tyrant because he hath no right to govern ; 
 the other because he governs tyrannically. We will 
 very briefly discourse of them both, and see whether 
 the Protector may not with great justice put in his 
 claim to both titles. 
 
 We shall sufficiently demonstrate who they are 
 that have not a right to govern, if we show who 
 they are that have ; and what it is that makes the 
 power just which those that rule have over the 
 natural liberty of other men. To fathers, within 
 their private families, Nature hath given a supreme 
 power. Every man, says Aristotle, of right governs 
 his wife and children, and this power was necessarily 
 exercised everywhere, whilst families lived dispersed, 
 before the constitutions of Commonwealths ; and in 
 many places it continued after, as appears by the 
 laws of Solon and the most ancient of those of 
 Rome. And indeed, as by the laws of God and 
 Nature^ the care^, defence, and support of the family 
 lies upon every man whose it is, so by the same 
 law there is due unto every man from his family a 
 subjection and obedience in compensation of that 
 support. But several families uniting themselves 
 together to make up one body of a Commonwealth, 
 and being independent one of another, without any 
 natural superiority or obligation, nothing can intro- 
 duce amongst them a disparity of rule and subjection 
 but some power that is over them, which power 
 none can pretend to have but God and themselves. 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 93 
 
 Wherefore all power which is lawfully exercised over 
 such a society of men (which from the end of its 
 institution we call a Commonwealth) must necessarily 
 be derived, either from the appointment of God 
 Almighty, who is Supreme Lord of all and every 
 part, or from the consent of the society itself, who 
 have the next power to his of disposing of their own 
 liberty as they shall think fit for their own good. 
 This power God hath given to societies of men, as 
 well as He gave it to particular persons ; and when 
 He interposes not his own authority, and appoints 
 not himself who shall be his vicegerents and rule 
 under Him, He leaves it to none but the people 
 themselves to make the election, whose benefit is 
 the end of all government. Nay, when He himself 
 hath been pleased to appoint rulers for that people 
 which He was pleased peculiarly to own, He many 
 times made the choice, but left the confirmation and 
 ratification of that choice to the people themselves. 
 So Saul was chosen by God, and anointed king by 
 his prophet, but made king by all the people at 
 Gilgal. David was anointed king by the same 
 prophet, but was afterwards, after Saul's death, 
 confirmed by the people of Judah, and seven years 
 after by the elders of Israel, the people's deputies at 
 Chebron. And it is observable, that though they 
 knew that David was appointed king by God, and 
 anointed by his prophet, yet they likewise knew 
 that God allowed to themselves not only his con- 
 
94 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 firmation, but likewise the limitation of his power ; 
 for before his inauguration they made a league 
 with him — that is, obliged him by compact to the 
 performance of such conditions as they thought 
 necessary for the securing their liberty. Nor is it 
 less remarkable that, when God gives directions 
 to his people concerning their government, He 
 plainly leaves the form to themselves : for He says 
 not, When thou shalt have come into the land which 
 the Lord thy God gives thee, '* statues super te 
 regem," but '^ Si dixeris statuam." God says not, 
 Thou shalt appoint a king over thee ; but if thou 
 shalt say, I will appoint ; leaving it to their choice 
 whether they would say so or no. And it is plain 
 \n that place that God gives the people the choice of 
 their king, for He there instructs them whom they 
 shall choose, '' E medio fratrum tuorum," one out 
 of the midst of thy brethren. Much more might we 
 say, if it were a less manifest truth that all just 
 power of government is founded upon these two 
 bases, of God^s immediate command^ or the people's 
 consent ; and, therefore, whosoever arrogates to him- 
 self that power, or any part of it, that cannot pro- 
 duce one of those two titles, is not a ruler, but an 
 invader, and those that are subject to that power 
 are not governed^ but oppressed. 
 
 This being considered, have not the people of 
 England much reason to ask the Protector this 
 question, " Ouis constituit te virum principem et 
 judicem super nos ?" Who made thee a prince and 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 95 
 
 a judge over us ? If God made thee, make it 
 manifest to us. If the people, where did we meet 
 to do it ? Who took our subscriptions ? To whom 
 deputed we our authority ? And when and where 
 did those deputies make the choice ? Sure these 
 interrogations are very natural, and I believe would 
 much trouble his Highness's Council and his Junto 
 to answer. In a word, that I may not tire my reader, 
 who will not want proofs for what I say, if he wants 
 not memory : if to change the Government without 
 the people's consent ; if to dissolve their representa- 
 tives by force, and disannul their acts ; if to give 
 the name of the people's representatives to con- 
 federates of his own^ that he may establish iniquity 
 by a law ; if to take away men's lives out of all 
 course of law, by certain murderers of his own 
 appointment, whom he names a High Court of 
 Justice ; if to decimate men's estates, and by his own 
 power to impose upon the people what taxes he 
 pleases, and to maintain all by force of arms ; if, I 
 say, all this does make a tyrant, his own impudence 
 cannot deny but he is as complete a one as ever 
 hath been since there have been societies of men. 
 He that hath done, and does all this, is the person 
 for whose preservation the people of England must 
 pray ; but certainly if they do, it is for the same 
 reason that the old woman of Syracuse prayed for 
 the long life of the tyrant Dionysius, lest the devil 
 should come next. 
 
 Now if, instead of God's command, or the people's 
 
96 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 consent, his Highness hath no other title but force 
 and fraud, which is to want all title ; and if to 
 violate all laws, and propose none to rule by but 
 those of his own will, be to exercise that tyranny he 
 hath usurped, and to make his administration con- 
 formable to his claim, then the first question we 
 proposed is a question no longer. 
 
 But before we come to the second, being things 
 are more easily perceived and found by the descrip- 
 tion of their exterior accidents and qualities than 
 the defining their essences, it will not be amiss to 
 see whether his Highness hath not as well the 
 outward marks and characters by which tyrants are 
 known, as he hath their nature and essential 
 properties : whether he hath not the skin of the lion 
 and tail of the fox, as well as he hath the violence 
 of the one and deceit of the other. Now, in this 
 delineation which I intend to make of a tyrant, all 
 the lineaments, all the colours, will be found so 
 naturally to correspond with the life, that it cannot 
 but be doubted whether his Highness be the 
 original or the copy ; whether I have in drawing 
 the tyrant represented him, or in representing him 
 expressed a tyrant And therefore, lest I should be 
 suspected to deal insincerely with his Highness, and 
 not to have applied these following characters, but 
 made them, I shall not give you any of my own 
 stamping, but such as I find in Plato, Aristotle, 
 Tacitus, and his Highness's own evangelist, Machiavel. 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 97 
 
 1. Almost all tyrants have been first Captains 
 and Generals for the people, under pretences of 
 vindicating or defending their liberties. " Ut 
 imperium evertant libertatem praeferunt ; cum per- 
 verterunt, ipsam aggrediuntur," says Tacitus : to 
 subvert the present Government they pretend liberty 
 for the people ; when the Government is down they 
 then invade that liberty themselves. This needs no 
 application. 
 
 2. Tyrants accomplish their ends much more by 
 fraud than force. Neither virtue nor force (says 
 Machiavel) are so necessary to that purpose as ^^una 
 astutia fortunata/' a lucky craft ; which, says he, 
 without force hath been often found sufficient, but 
 never force without that. And in another place he 
 tells us their way is " aggirare i cervelli degU huo- 
 mini con astutia," &c. ; with cunning plausible pre- 
 tences to impose upon men's understandings, and in 
 the end they master those that had so little wit as 
 to rely upon their faith and integrity. It is but 
 unnecessary to say, that had not his Highness had a 
 faculty to be fluent in his tears, and eloquent in his 
 execrations ; had he not had spongy eyes, and a 
 supple conscience ; and besides, to do with a people of 
 great faith but little wit, his courage, and the rest of 
 his moral virtues, with the help of his janissaries, had 
 never been able so far to advance him out of the reach 
 of justice that we should have need to call for any 
 other hand to remove him but that of the hangman. 
 
 D 
 
98 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 3. They abase all excellent persons, and rid out of 
 the way all that have noble minds ; " et terrae filios 
 extollunt," and advance sons of the earth. To put 
 Aristotle into other words, they purge both Parlia- 
 ment and army, till they leave few or none there 
 that have either honour or conscience, either wit, 
 interest, or courage, to oppose their designs ; and 
 in these purgations (saith Plato) tyrants do quite 
 contrary to physicians, for they purge us of our 
 humours, but tyrants of our spirits. 
 
 4. They dare suffer no assemblies, not so much as 
 horse-races. 
 
 5. In all places they have their spies and dilaters ; 
 that is, they have their Broughalls, their St. Johns 
 (besides innumerable small spies), to appear discon- 
 tented, and not to side with them, that under that 
 disguise they may get trust and make discoveries. 
 They likewise have their emissaries to send with 
 forged letters. If any doubt this, let him send to 
 Major-General Brown, and he will satisfy him. 
 
 6. They stir not without a guard, nor his Highness 
 without his Lifeguard. 
 
 7. They impoverish the people, that they may want 
 the power, if they have the will, to attempt anything 
 against them. His Highnesses way is by taxes 
 excise, decimations, &c. 
 
 8. They make war to divert and busy the people, 
 and besides, to have a pretence to raise moneys, and 
 to make new levies, if they either distrust their old 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 99 
 
 forces, or think them not sufficient. The war with 
 Spain serveth his Highness to this purpose, and 
 upon no other justice was it begun at first, or still 
 continued. 
 
 9. They will seem to honour and provide for 
 good men — that is, if the ministers will be orthodox 
 and flatter, if they will wrest and torture the 
 Scriptures to prove his Government lav/ful, and 
 furnish him with title, his Highness will likewise 
 be then content to understand Scripture in their 
 favour, and furnish them with tithes. 
 
 10. Things that are odious and distasteful they 
 make others executioners of; and when the people 
 are discontented, they appease them with sacrificing 
 those ministers they employ. I leave it to his 
 Highness's major-generals to ruminate a little upon 
 this point. 
 
 11. In all things they pretend to be wonderful 
 careful of the public, to give general accounts of 
 the money they receive, which they pretend to be 
 levied for the maintenance of the State and the 
 prosecuting of the wan His Highness made an 
 excellent comment upon this place of Aristotle in 
 bis speech to this Parliament. 
 
 i^. All things set asiile for religious uses they 
 set to sale, that while those things last they may 
 e'xact the less of the people. The Cavaliers would 
 interpret this of the dean and chapter's lands. 
 
 13. They pretend inspirations from God, and 
 
 D 2 
 
loo FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 responses from oracles, to authorize what they do. 
 His Highness hath been ever an enthusiast. And 
 as Hugh Capet in taking the crown pretended to 
 be admonished to it in a dream by St. Vallery and 
 St. Richard, so I believe will his Highness do the 
 same at the instigation of St. Henry and St. Richard, 
 his two sons. 
 
 14. Lastly, above all things they pretend a love 
 to God and religion. This Aristotle calls " Artium 
 tyrannicarum potissimam," the surest and best of 
 all the arts of tyrants ; and we all know his High- 
 ness hath found it so by experience. He hath 
 lound, indeed, that in godliness there is great gain, 
 and that preaching and praying well managed will 
 obtain other kingdoms as well as that of heaven. 
 His, indeed, have been pious arms, for he hath 
 conquered most by those of the Church, by prayers 
 and tears. But the truth is, were it not for our 
 honour to be governed by one that can manage 
 both the spiritual and temporal sword, and. Roman- 
 like, to have our emperor our high-priest, we might 
 have had preaching at a much cheaper rate, and it 
 would have cost us but our tithes which now costs 
 us all. 
 
 Other marks and rules there are mentioned by Aris- 
 totle to know tyrants by, but they being unsuitable 
 to his Highness's actions, and impracticable by his 
 temper, I insist not on them. As among other 
 things, Aristotle would not have a tyrant insolent 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. loi 
 
 in his behaviour, nor strike people ; but his High- 
 ness is naturally choleric, and must call men rogues, 
 and go to cuffs. At last he concludes he should so 
 fashion his manners, as neither to be really good 
 nor absolutely bad, but half one, half the other. 
 Now this half good is too great a proportion for his 
 Highness, and much more than his tempqr will 
 bear. 
 
 But to speak truths more seriously, and to 
 conclude this first question : certainly whatever these 
 characters make any man, it cannot be denied but 
 his Highness is ; and then if he be not a tyrant, we 
 must confess we have no definition nor description of 
 a tyrant left us, and may well imagine there is no 
 such thing in Nature, and that it is only a notion and a 
 name. But if there be such a beast, and we do at 
 all believe what we see and feel, let us now inquire, 
 according to the method we proposed, whether this be 
 a beast of game that we are to give law to, or a 
 beast of prey to destroy with all means which are 
 allowable and fair } 
 
 In deciding this question authors very much differ, 
 as far as it concerns supreme magistrates, who 
 degenerate into tyrants. Some think they are to be 
 borne with as bad parents, and place them in the 
 number of those mischiefs that have no other cure 
 but our patience. Others think they may be 
 questioned by that supreme law of the people, 
 safety ; and that they are answerable to the people's 
 
102 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 representatives for the breach of their trust. But 
 none of sober sense makes private persons judges of 
 their actions, which were indeed to subvert all 
 Government. But, on the other side, I find none 
 (that have not been frighted or corrupted out of 
 their reason) that have been so great enemies to 
 common justice and the liberty of mankind as to 
 give any kind of indemnity to a usurper, who can 
 pretend no title but that of being stronger, nor 
 challenge the people's obedience upon any other 
 obligation but that of their necessity and fear. 
 Such a person as one out of all bonds of human 
 protection all men make the Ishmael, against whom 
 is every man's hand as is his against every man. 
 To him they give no more security than Cain, his 
 fellow murderer and oppressor, promised to himself 
 to be destroyed by him that found him first. 
 
 The reason why a tyrant's case is particular, and 
 why, in that, every man hath that vengeance given 
 him which in other cases is reserved to God and the 
 magistrate, cannot be obscure if we rightly consider 
 what a tyrant is, what his crimes are, and in what 
 state he stands with the Commonwealth, and with 
 every member of it. And certainly if we find him 
 an enemy to all human society, and a subverter of 
 all laws, and one that by the greatness of his 
 villanies secufes himself against all ordinary course 
 of justice, we shall not at all think it strange if then 
 he have no benefit from human society, no protec- 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, 103 
 
 tion from the law^ and if in his case justice dispenses 
 with her forms. We are therefore to consider that 
 the end for which men enter into society is not 
 barely to live, which they may do dispersed, as other 
 animals, but to live happily, and a life answerable 
 to the dignity and excellency of their kind. Out of 
 society this happiness is not to be had, for singly we 
 are impotent and defective, unable to procure those 
 things that are either of necessity or ornament for 
 our lives, and as unable to defend and keep them 
 when they are acquired. To remedy these defects 
 we associate together, that what we can neither joy 
 nor keep singly, by mutual benefits and assistances 
 one of another w^e may be able to do both. We 
 cannot possibly accomplish these ends if we submit 
 not our passions and appetites to the laws of reason 
 and justice. For the depravity of man's will makes 
 him as unfit to live in society as his necessity makes 
 him unable to live out of it. And if that perverse- 
 ness be not regulated by laws, miCn's appetites to the 
 same things, their avarice, their lust, their ambition 
 would quickly make society as unsafe, or more^ than 
 solitude itself, and we should associate only to be 
 nearer our misery and our ruin. That, therefore, by 
 which we accomiplish the ends of a sociable life, is 
 our subjection and submission to laws ; these are the 
 nerves and sinews of every society or Commonwealth, 
 without which they must necessarily dissolve and 
 fall asunder. And, indeed, as Augustine says, those 
 
I04 FAMOUS FAMPHLETS, 
 
 societies where law and justice is not are not Com- 
 monwealths or kingdoms, but "magna latrocinia," 
 great confederacies of thieves and robbers. Those 
 therefore that submit to no law are not to be reputed 
 in the society of mankind, which cannot consist 
 without a law. Therefore Aristotle saich, tyranny is 
 against the law of Nature — that is, the law of human 
 society in which human nature ispreserved. For 
 this reason they deny a tyrant to be "partem 
 civitatis ;" for every part is subject to the whole ; 
 and a citizen, says the same author, is he who is as 
 well obliged to the duty of obeying as he is capable 
 of the power of commanding. And indeed he does 
 obey whilst he does command ; that is, he obeys the 
 Iaw^s, which, says Tully, " magistratibus praesunt, ut 
 magistratus praesunt populo," are above the magis- 
 trates, as the magistrates are above the people. And, 
 therefore, a tyrant that submits to no law, but his 
 will and lust are the law by which he governs him- 
 self and others, is no magistrate, no citizen or 
 member of any society, but an ulcer and a disease 
 that destroys it ; and if it be rightly considered, a 
 Commonwealth by falling into a tyranny absolutely 
 loses that name, and is actually another thing. " Non 
 est civitas quae unius est viri," saith Sophocles : that 
 which is one man's is no city. For there is no 
 longer king and people, or Parliament and people, 
 but those names are changed (at least their natures) 
 into masters and .servants, lords and slaves ; and 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 105 
 
 "servorum non civltas erit sed macrna famllia," says 
 Grotius ; where all are slaves it is not a city, but a 
 great family. And the truth is, we are all members 
 of Whitehall, and when our master pleaseth he may 
 send for us thither, and there bore through our ears 
 at the door-posts. But to conclude : a tyrant, as we 
 have said, being no part of a Commonwealth, not 
 submitting to the laws of it, but making himself 
 above all law, there is no reason he should have the 
 protection that is due to a member of a Common- 
 wealth, nor any defence from laws, that does 
 acknowledge none. He is therefore in all reason to 
 be reckoned in the number of those savage beasts 
 that fall not with others into any herd, that have 
 no other defence but their own strength, making a 
 prey of all that is weaker, and, by the sairie justice, 
 being a prey to all that is stronger than them- 
 selves. 
 
 In the next place, let it be considered that a 
 tyrant making himself above all law, and defending 
 his injustice by a strength which no power of 
 magistrates is able to oppose, he becomes above 
 all punishment, above all other justice than that he 
 receives from the stroke of some generous hand. 
 And, certainly, the safety of mankind were but 
 ill provided for if there were no kind of justice to 
 reach great villanies, but tyrants should be '* im- 
 manitate scelerum tuti," secured by the greatness of 
 their crimes. Our laws would be then but cobwebs 
 
io6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 indeed, made only to catch flies, but not to hold 
 wasps or hornets ; and it might be then said of all 
 Commonwealths what was said of Athens : that 
 there only small thieves were hanged, but the great 
 ones were free, and condemned the rest. But he 
 that will secure himself of all hands must know he 
 secures himself from none ; he that flies justice in 
 the court must expect to find it in the street, and 
 he that goes armed against every man arms every 
 man against himself '* Bellum est in eos, qui 
 judiciis coerceri non possunt," says Cicero ; we have 
 war with those against whom we can have no law. 
 The same author, '' cum duo sint decertandi genera," 
 &c. There being two ways of deciding differences : 
 the one by judgment and arbitration, the other by 
 force ; the one proper to men, the other to beasts ; 
 we must have recourse to the latter when the former 
 cannot be obtained. And, certainly, by the law of 
 Nature, "ubi cessat judicium," when no justice can 
 be had, every man may be his own magistrate, and 
 do justice for himself For the law, says Grotius, 
 that forbids me to pursue my right but by a course 
 of law, certainly supposes "ubi copia est judicii," 
 where law and justice is to be had ; otherwise, that 
 law were a defence for injuries, not one against 
 them, and, quite contrary to the nature of all laws, 
 would become the protection of the guilty against 
 the innocent, not of the innocent against the guilty 
 Now, as it is contrary to the laws of God and 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, 107 
 
 Nature that men who are partial to themselves, and 
 therefore unjust to others, should be their own 
 judges where others are to be had, so it is contrary 
 to the law of Nature and the common safety of 
 mankind that, when the law can have no place, men 
 should be forbidden to repel force by force, and so 
 to be left without all defence and remedy against 
 injuries. God himself left not the slave without 
 remedy against the cruel master ; and what analogy 
 can it hold with reason, that the slave, that is but 
 his master's money and but part of his household- 
 stuff, should find redress against the injuries and 
 insolences of an imperious master, and a free people 
 who have no superior but their God should have 
 none at all against the injustice and oppression of a 
 barbarous tyrant ; and were not the incongruity 
 fully as great, that the law of God permitting every 
 man to kill a thief \{ he took him breaking open 
 his house in the night, because then it might be 
 supposed he could not bring him to justice ; but a 
 tyrant, that is the common robber of mankind, and 
 whom no law can take hold on, his person should 
 be '^ sacrosancta, cui nihil sacrum aut sanctum," to 
 whom nothing is sacred, nothing inviolable ; but the 
 vulgar judge ridiculously like themselves. The glitter 
 of things dazzles their eyes, and they judge of them 
 by their appearances, and the colours that are put 
 on them. For what can be more absurd in Nature, 
 and contrary to all common sense, than to call him 
 
io8 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 thief, and kill him that comes alone or with a few 
 to rob me, and to call him Lord Protector, and 
 obey him, that robs me with regiments and troops ? 
 As if to rove with two or three ships were to be a 
 pirate, but with fifty an admiral ? But if it be the 
 number of adherents only, not the cause, that makes 
 the difference between a robber and a Protector, 
 I wish that number were defined, that we might 
 know where the thief ends and the prince begins, 
 and be able to distinguish between a robbery and a 
 tax. But, surely, no Englishman can be ignorant 
 that it is his birthright to be master of his own 
 estate, and that none can command any part of it 
 but by his own grant and consent, either made 
 expressly by himself, or virtually by a Parliament. 
 All other ways are mere robberies in other names : 
 "Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus im- 
 perium, atque ubi solitudincm faciunt, pacem 
 appellant ; " to rob, to extort, to murder, tyrants 
 falsely call to govern, and to make desolation 
 they call to settle peace. In every assessment we 
 are robbed : the excise is robbery, the custom is 
 robbery, and without doubt, whenever it is prudent, 
 it is always lawful to kill the thieves whom we can 
 bring to no other justice. And not only lawful, 
 and to do ourselves right, but glorious, and to 
 deserve of mankind, to free the world of that 
 common robber, that universal pirate, under whom 
 and for whom these lesser beasts prey. This fire- 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 109 
 
 brand I would have any way extinguished, this 
 ulcer I would have any hand to lance. And I 
 cannot doubt but God will suddenly sanctify some 
 hand to do it, and bring down that bloody and 
 deceitful man, who lives not only to the misery, 
 but the infamy of our nation. 
 
 I should have reason to be much less confident 
 of the justice of this opinion if it were new, and 
 only grounded upon collections and interpretations 
 of my own : but herein, if I am deceived, I shall 
 however have the excuse to have been drawn into 
 that error by the examples that are left us by the 
 greatest and most virtuous, and the opinions of the 
 wisest and gravest men that have left their memoirs 
 to posterity. Out of the great plenty of confirma- 
 tions I could bring for this opinion from examples 
 and authorities, I shall select a very few ; for 
 manifest truths have not need of those supports, 
 and I have as little mind to tire myself as my 
 reader. 
 
 First, therefore, a usurper, that by only force 
 possesseth himself of government, and by force only 
 keeps it, is yet in the state of war with every man, 
 says the learned Grotius ; and therefore everything is 
 lawful against him that is lawful against an open 
 enemy, whom every private man hath a right to kill. 
 '' Hostis hostem occidere volui," says Scasvola to 
 Porsenna, when he was taken, after he had failed m 
 his attempt to kill him ; I am an enemy, and an 
 
no FAJ/OCS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 enemy I would have killed, which every man hath a 
 right to do. 
 
 ** Contra publicos hostes, et majestatis reos, 
 omnis homo miles est," says TertuUian ; against 
 common enemies, and those that are traitors to the 
 Commonwealth, every man is a soldier. This 
 opinion the most celebrated nations have approved, 
 both by their laws and practices. The Grecians, as 
 Xenophon tells us, who suffered not murderers to 
 come into their temples, in those very temples they 
 erected statues to those that killed tyrants, thinking 
 it fit to place their deliverances amongst their gods. 
 Cicero was an eye-witness of the honours that were 
 done such men, '' Graeci homines," &c. The Greeks, 
 saith he, attribute the honours of the gods to those 
 that killed tyrants. What have I seen in Athens, 
 and other cities of Greece ! What religion paid to 
 such men ! what songs ! what eulogies ! by which 
 they are consecrated to immortality, and almost 
 deified ! In Athens, by Solon's law, death was not 
 only decreed for the tyrant that oppressed the 
 State, but for all those that took any charge or 
 did bear any office while the tyranny remained. 
 And Plato tells us the ordinary course they took 
 with tyrants in Greece. If, says he, the tyrant 
 cannot be expelled by accusing him to the citizens, 
 then by secret practices they dispatch him. 
 
 Amongst the Romans the Valerian law was, 
 ** Si quis injussu popuhV &c. Whosoever took 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, iii 
 
 magistracy upon him without the command of the 
 people, it was lawful for any man to kill him. 
 Plutarch makes this law more severe : '' Ut injudi- 
 catum occidere eum liceret, qui dominatum con- 
 cupisceret ; " that it was lawful by that law, before 
 any judgment passed, to kill him that but aspired to 
 tyranny. Likewise the Consular law, wdiich was 
 made after the suppression of the tyranny of the 
 Decemvirate, made it lawful to kill any man that 
 went about to create magistrates, " sine provocatione," 
 &c., without reference and appeal to the people. 
 By these laws, and innumerable testimonies of 
 authors, it appears that the Romans, with the rest 
 of their philosophy, had learned from the Grecians 
 what was the natural remedy against a tyrant: 
 nor did they honour those less that durst apply it, 
 who, as Polybius says, speaking of conspiracies 
 against tyrants, were not " deterrimi civium, sed 
 generosissimi quique, et maximi animi ; " not the 
 worst and meanest of the citizens, but the generous, 
 and those of greatest virtue. So were most of those 
 that conspired against Julius Caesar. He himself 
 thought Brutus worthy to succeed him in the empire 
 of the world ; and Cicero, who had the title of Pater 
 Patrice, if he were not conscious of the design, yet 
 he at least affected the honour of being thought so. 
 **Quae enim res unquam," &c. What act, says he, 
 O Jupiter, more glorious, more worthy of eternal 
 memory, hath been done not only in this city, but 
 
112 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 in the whole world ! In this design, as the Trojan 
 horse, I willingly suffer myself to be included with 
 the princes. In the same place he tells us what all 
 virtuous Romans thought of the fact as well as he. 
 "Omnes boni, quantum in ipsis fiat. Ccxsarem 
 occiderunt : aliis consilium, aliis animus, aliis 
 occasio defuit, voluntas nemini ; " all good men, 
 saith he, as much as in them lay, killed Caesar : 
 some wanted capacity, some courage, others oppor- 
 tunity, but none the will to do it. But yet v/e have 
 not declared the extent of their severity against a 
 tyrant. They exposed him to fraud as well as 
 force, and left him no security in oaths and 
 compacts, that neither law nor religion might 
 defend him that violated both. " Cum tyranno 
 Romanis nulla fides, nulla juris jurandi religio," 
 saith Brutus in Appian ; with a tyrant the 
 Romans think no faith to be kept, observe no 
 religion of an oath. Seneca gives the reason : 
 *^ Quia quicquid erat, quo mihi cohaereret," &c ; 
 for whatever there was of mutual obligation betwixt 
 us, his destroying the laws of human society hath 
 dissolved. So these that thought that there was in 
 "hostem nefas," that a villany might be committed 
 against an enemy ; these that professed, *' non 
 minus juste quam fortiter arma gerere," to manage 
 their arms with justice as well as courage ; these 
 that thought faith was to be kept even with the 
 perfidious, yet they thought a tyrant could receive 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, 113 
 
 no injustice but to be let live, and that the most 
 lawful way to destroy him was the readiest, no 
 matter whether by force or fraud ; for against 
 beasts of prey men use the toil and the net, as 
 well as the spear and the lance. But so great was 
 their detestation of a tyrant, that it made some 
 take their opinions from their passions, and vent 
 things which they could but ill justify to their 
 morality ; they thought a tyrant had so absolutely 
 forfeited all title to humanity, and all kind of 
 protection they could give him or his, that they left 
 his wife without any other guard for her chastity 
 but age and deformity, and thought it not adultery 
 what was committed with her. Many more testi- 
 monies might I bring, for it is harder to make choice 
 than to find plenty ; but I shall conclude with autho- 
 rities that are much more authentic, and examples 
 which we may much more safely imitate. 
 
 The law of God itself decreed certain death to 
 that man that would do presumptuously, and admit 
 to no decision of justice. Who can read this and 
 think a tyrant ought to live } But certainly neither 
 that, nor any other law, were to any effect, if there 
 were no way to put it in execution ; but in a tyrant's 
 case process and citation have no place, and if we 
 will only have formal remedies against him we are 
 sure to have none. There is small hope of justice 
 where the malefactor hath a power to condemn 
 the judge. 
 
114 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 All remedy, therefore, against a tyrant is Ehud's 
 dagger, without which all our laws were fruitless 
 and we helpless. This is that high court of justice 
 where Moses brought the Egyptian, whither Ehud 
 brought Eglon, Samson the Philistines, Samuel Agag, 
 and Jehoiada the she-tyrant Athaliah. 
 
 Let us a little consider in particular these several 
 examples, and see whether they may be proportioned 
 to our purpose. 
 
 First, as to the case of Moses and the Egyptian. 
 Certainly every Englishman hath as much call as 
 Moses, and more cause than he, to slay this 
 Egyptian, that is always laying on burdens, and 
 always smiting both our brethren and ourselves. 
 For as to his call, he had no other that we read of 
 but the necessity his brother stood in of his help. 
 He looked on his brethren's burdens, and, seeing an 
 Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, knowing he was out 
 of the reach of all other kind of justice, he slew 
 him. 
 
 Certainly this was and is as lawful for any man 
 to do as it was for Moses, who was then but a 
 private man, and had no authority for what he did 
 but what the law of Nature gives every man, to 
 oppose force to force, and to make justice where he 
 finds none. As to the cause of that action we have 
 much more to say than Moses had : he .«:aw one 
 Hebrew smitten, we many Englishmen murdered ; 
 he saw his brethren's burdens and their blows, we our 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 115 
 
 brethren's burdens, imprisonments, and deaths. 
 Now sure if it were lawful for Moses to kill that 
 Egyptian that oppressed one man, being there was 
 no way to procure an ordinary course of justice 
 against him, it cannot be but absurd to think it 
 unlawful to kill him that oppresses a whole nation, 
 and one that justice as little reaches as it defends. 
 
 The example of Ehud shows us the natural, and 
 almost the only remedy against a tyrant, and the 
 way to free an oppressed people from the slavery of 
 an insulting Moabite. It is done by prayers and 
 tears, with the help of a dagger : by crying to the 
 Lord, and the left hand of an Ehud. Devotion and 
 action go well together ; for believe it, a tyrant is 
 not of that kind of devil that is to be cast out by 
 only fasting and prayer. And here the Scripture 
 shows us what the Lord thought a fit message to 
 send a tyrant from himself, a dagger of a cubit in 
 his belly ; and every worthy man that desires to be an 
 Ehud, a deliverer of his country, will strive to be the 
 messenger. 
 
 We may here likewise observe in this, and many 
 places of Judges, that when the Israelites fell to 
 idolatry, which of all sins certainly is one of the 
 greatest, God Almighty, to proportion the punish- 
 ment and the offence, still delivered them into the 
 hands of tyrants, which sure is one of the greatest 
 of all plagues. 
 
 In the story of Samson it is manifest that the 
 
Ii6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 denying him his wife, and after the burning her and 
 her father, which, though they were great, yet were 
 but private injuries, he took for sufficient grounds to 
 make war upon the PhiHstines, being himself but a 
 private man, and not only not assisted but opposed 
 by his servile countrymen. He knew what the law 
 of Nature allowed him, where other laws have no 
 place ; and thought it sufficient justification for smit- 
 ing the Philistines hip and thigh, to answer for himself 
 that, as they did unto him, so had he done unto 
 Ihem. 
 
 Now, that which was lawful for Samson to do 
 against many oppressors, why is it unlawful for us 
 to do against one ? Are our injuries less ? Our 
 friends and relations are daily murdered before our 
 faces. Have we other ways for reparation } Let 
 them be named, and I am silenced. But if we have 
 none, the firebrands or the jawbone, the first 
 weapons our just fury can lay hold on may 
 certainly be lawfully employed against that uncir- 
 cumcised Philistine that oppresses us. We have, too, 
 the opposition and discouragements that Samson 
 had, and therefore have the more need of his 
 courage and resolution. As he had the men of 
 Judah, so we have the men of Levi, crying to us 
 out of the pulpit, as from the top of the rock Etam, 
 Know you not that the Philistine is a ruler over 
 you ? The truth is, they would fain make him so, 
 and bind us with Samson in new cords; but we 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, 117 
 
 hope they will become as flax, and that they will 
 either loose from our hands^ or we shall have the 
 courage to cut them. 
 
 Upon the same grounds of retaliation did Samuel 
 do justice with his own hand upon the tyrant Agag. 
 As thy sword, says the prophet, hath made women 
 childless, so shall thy mother be childless amongst 
 women ; nor is there any law more natural, and 
 more just. 
 
 How many mothers has our Agag for his own 
 ambition made childless ? How many children 
 fatherless ? How many have this reason to hew 
 this Amalekite in pieces before the Lord ? And 
 let his own relations, and all theirs that are con- 
 federates with him, beware lest men come at last to 
 revenge their own relations in them. They make 
 many a woman husbandless, many a father childless. 
 Their wives may come at last to know what it is to 
 want a husband, and themselves to lose their chil- 
 dren. Let them remember what their great apostle 
 Machiavel tells them, that in contestations for the 
 preserving their liberty people many times use mode- 
 ration ; but when they come to vindicate it, their 
 rigour exceeds all mean ; like beasts that have been 
 kept up, and are afterwards let loose, they always are 
 more fierce and cruel. To conclude with the 
 example Jehoiada hath left us : six years he hid the 
 right heir of the crown in the house of the Lord, 
 and without all doubt amongst the rest of God's 
 
Ii8 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 services there, he was all that time contriving the 
 destruction of the tyrant, that had aspired to the 
 crown by the destruction of those that had the right 
 to it. Jehoiada had no pretence to authorize this 
 action but the equity and justice of the act itself. 
 He pretended no immediate command from God for 
 what he did, nor any authority from the Sanhedrin, 
 and therefore any man might have done what 
 Jehoiada did as lawfully that could have done it 
 as effectually. Now what citation was given to 
 Athaliah ? What appearance was she called to 
 before any court of justice. Her fact was her trial ; 
 she was without any expostulation taken forth of 
 the ranges, and only let live till she got out of the 
 Temple, that that holy place might not be defiled by 
 the blood of a tyrant, which was fitter to be shed on 
 a dunghill, and so they slew her at the Horse-gate. 
 And by the king's house, the very Whitehall, where 
 she had caused the blood royal to be spilt, and 
 which herself had so long unjustly possessed, there by 
 Providence did she receive her punishment, where 
 she had acted so great a part of her crimes. How 
 the people approved of this glorious action of 
 destroying a tyrant, this chapter tells us at the last 
 verse. And all the people of the land rejoiced, and 
 the city was quiet, after they had slain Athaliah 
 with the sword. And that it may appear they no 
 less honoured the authors of such actions than other 
 nations did, as in his lifetime they obeyed Jehoiada 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 119 
 
 as a king, so after his death, for the good he had 
 done in Israel (saith the Scripture) they buried him 
 amongst the kings. 
 
 I must not conclude this story without observing 
 that Jehoiada commanded that whosoever followed 
 Athaliah should be put to death, letting us see 
 what they deserve that are confederates with tyrants 
 and will side with them, and but appear to defend 
 them, or allow them. His Highness's Council, his 
 Junto, and the agas of his janissaries, may, if they 
 please, take notice of this, and repent, lest they like- 
 wise perish. And likewise his Highness's chaplains 
 and triers, who are to admit none into the ministry 
 that will preach liberty with the Gospel, may, if they 
 think fit, observe that with the tyrant fell Mattan, 
 the priest of Baal. And, indeed, none but Baal's 
 priests will preach for tyrants. And certainly those 
 priests that sacrifice to our Baal, our idol of a 
 magistrate, deserve as well to be hanged before 
 their pulpits as ever Mattan did to fall before his 
 altars. 
 
 I should think now I had said much more than 
 enough to the second question, and should come to 
 the third and last I proposed in my method, but I 
 meet with two objections lying in my way. The 
 first is, that these examples out of Scripture are of 
 men that were inspired of God, and that therefore 
 they had that call and authority for their actions 
 which we cannot pretend to, so that it would be 
 
120 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 unsafe for us to draw their actions into examples 
 except we had Hkewise their justification to allege. 
 
 The other objection is, that there being now 
 no opposition made to the government of his 
 Highness, that the people following their callings 
 and traffic at home and abroad, making use of the 
 laws and appealing to his Highness's courts of 
 justice, that all this argues the people's tacit con- 
 sent to the government, and that therefore now it 
 is to be reputed lawful and the people's obedience 
 voluntary. 
 
 To the first I answer with learned Milton, that if 
 God commanded these things it is a sign they were 
 lawful, and are commendable. But, secondly, as I 
 observed in the relations of the examples themselves, 
 neither Samson nor Samuel alleged any other cause 
 or reason for what they did but retaliation, and the 
 apparent justice of the actions themselves. Nor had 
 God appeared to Moses in the bush when lie slew 
 the Egyptian ; nor did Jehoiada allege any pro- 
 phetical authority or other call to do what he did, 
 but that comm.on call which all men have, to do all 
 actions of justice that are within their power when 
 the ordinary course of justice ceases. 
 
 To the second my answer is, that if commerce 
 and pleadings were enough to argue the people's 
 consent, and give tyranny the name of government, 
 there was never yet any tyranny of many weeks' 
 standing in this world. Certainly, we then 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. .121 
 
 extremely wrong Caligula and Nero in calling 
 them tyrants, and they were rebels that conspired 
 against them, except we will believe that all the 
 while they reigned in Rome they kept their shops 
 shut, and opened not their temples or their courts. 
 We are likewise with no less absurdity to imagine 
 that the whole eighteen years' time which Israel 
 served Eglon, and six years that Athaliah reigned, 
 that the Israelites quite desisted from traffic, plead- 
 ings, and all public acts ; otherwise Ehud and 
 Jehoiada were both traitors, the one for killing his 
 king, the other his queen. 
 
 Having showed what a tyrant is, his marks and 
 practices, I can scarce persuade myself to say any- 
 thing to that I made my third question, whether 
 the removing him is like to prove of advantage to 
 the Commonwealth or not } For methinks it is to 
 inquire whether it is better the man die, or the 
 imposthume be lanced, or the gangrened limb be 
 cut off.'^ But yet there be some whose cowardice 
 and avarice furnish them with some arguments to the 
 contrary, and they would fain make the world 
 believe that to be base and degenerate is to be 
 cautious and prudent ; and what is in truth a ser- 
 vile fear they falsely call a Christian patience. It 
 will not be therefore amiss to make appear that there 
 is indeed that necessity which we think there is of 
 saving the vineyard of the Commonwealth, if possible, 
 by destroying the wild boar that is broke into it. 
 
I2i FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 We have already shown that it is lawful, and now 
 we shall see whether it is expedient. First, I have 
 already told you that to be under a tyrant is not to 
 be a Commonwealth, but a great family, consisting of 
 master and slaves. " Vis servorum nulla est usquam 
 civitas/' says an old poet ; a number of slaves 
 makes not a city. So that whilst this monster lives 
 we are not members of a Commonwealth, but only 
 his living tools and instruments, which he may 
 employ to what use he pleases. " Servi tua est for- 
 tuna, ratio ad te nihil,'* says another ; thy condition 
 is a slave's, thou art not to inquire a reason. Nor 
 must we think we can continue long in the condition 
 of slaves, and not degenerate into the habits and 
 temper that is natural to that condition : our minds 
 will grow low with our fortune, and, by being accus- 
 tomed to live like slaves, we shall become unfit to be 
 anything else. " Etiam fera animalia si clausa teneas 
 virtutis obliviscuntur," says Tacitus ; the fiercest crea- 
 tures by long constraint lose their courage. And 
 says Sir Francis Bacon, the blessing of Issachar and 
 that of Judah falls not upon one people, to be asses 
 couching under burdens and to have the spirit of 
 lions. And with their courage it is no wonder if they 
 lose their fortune, as the effect with the cause, and 
 act as ignominiously abroad as they suffer at home. 
 It is Machiavel's observation that the Roman armies, 
 that were always victorious under Consuls, all the 
 while they were under the slavery of the Decemviri 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 123 
 
 never prospered. And certainly people have reason 
 to fight but faintly where they are to gain the victory 
 against themselves, when every success shall be a 
 confirmation of their slavery and a new link to their 
 chain. 
 
 But we shall not only lose our courage, which is a 
 useless and an unsafe virtue under a tyrant, but by 
 degrees we shall, after the example of our master, all 
 turn perfidious, deceitful, irreligious, flatterers, and 
 whatever else is villanous and infamous in mankind. 
 See but to what a degree we are come to already. 
 Can there any oath be found so fortified by all 
 religious ties which we easily find not a distinction to 
 break, when either profit or danger persuades us to 
 it ? Do we remember any engagements ? Or if we 
 do, have we any shame to break them ? Can any 
 man think with patience upon what we have pro- 
 fessed, when he sees what we vilely do and tamely 
 suflTer ? What have we of nobility amongst us but 
 the name, the luxury, and the vices of it ? Poor 
 wretches ! These that now carry that title are so far 
 from having any of the virtues that should grace, 
 and indeed give them their titles, that they have not 
 so much as the generous vices that attend greatness ; 
 they have lost all ambition and indignation. As for 
 our ministers, what have they, or indeed desire they, 
 of their calling, but the tithes ? How do these 
 horrid prevaricators search for distinctions to piece 
 contrary oaths ? How do they wrack scriptures for 
 
124 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 flatteries, and impudently apply them to his mon- 
 strous Highness ? What is the city but a great tame 
 beast, that eats and carries, and cares not who rides 
 it ? What's the thing called a Parliament but a 
 mock ? Composed of a people that are only suffered 
 to sit there because they are known to have no 
 virtue, after the exclusion of all others that were but 
 suspected to have any, v/hat are they but pimps 
 of tyranny, who are only employed to draw in the 
 people to prostitute their liberty ? What will not 
 the army fight for ? What will they not fight 
 against ? What are they but janissaries ? Slaves 
 themselves, and making all others so ? What are 
 the people in general but knaves, fools, and cowards ; 
 principled for ease, vice and slavery ? This our 
 temper, his tyranny hath brought us to already, and 
 if it continues the little virtue that is yet left to 
 stock the nation must totally extinguish, and then 
 his Highness hath completed his work of reformation. 
 And the truth is till then his Highness cannot be 
 secure. He must not endure virtue, for that will 
 not endure him. He that will maintain tyranny 
 must kill Brutus, says Machiavel. A tyrant, says 
 Plato, must dispatch all virtuous persons or he can- 
 not be safe ; so that he is brought to that unhappy 
 necessity, either to live among base and wicked per- 
 sons, or not to live at all. 
 
 Nor must we expect any cure from our patience. 
 '' Ingannonsi gli huomini," says Machiavel; "credendo 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 125 
 
 con la humilita vincere la superbia;" men deceive 
 themselves that think to mollify arrogancy with 
 humiHty ; a tyrant is never modest but when he is 
 weak ; it is in the winter of his fortune when this 
 serpent bites not. We must not therefore suffer our- 
 selves to be cozened with hopes of his amendment ; 
 for '^nemo unquam Imperium flagitio quaesitum, 
 bonis artibus exercuit ;" never did any man manage 
 that government with justice that got it by villany. 
 The longer the tyrant lives^ the more the tyrannical 
 humour increases in him, says Plato, like those beasts 
 that grow more curst as they grow old. New occa- 
 sions daily happen that necessitate them to new 
 mischiefs, and he must defend one villany with 
 another. 
 
 But suppose the contrary of all this, and that his 
 Highness were **vi dominationis convulsus, et muta- 
 tus," changed to the better by great fortune, of which 
 he yet gives no symptoms, what notwithstanding 
 could be more miserable, than to have no other 
 Security for our liberty, no other law for our safety, 
 than the will of a man, though the most just living 'i 
 We have all our beast within us, and whosoever, says 
 Aristotle, is governed by a man without a law is 
 governed by a man and by a beast. *' Etiam si 
 non sit molestus, Dominus ; tamen est miserrimum 
 posse si velit," says Tully ; though a master does not 
 tyrannize, yet it is a miserable thing that it is in his 
 power to do so if he will. If he be good, so was 
 
126 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 Nero for five years, and how shall we be secure that 
 he w^ill not change? Besides, the power that is 
 allowed to a good man we may be sure will be 
 claimed and taken by an ill. And therefore it hath 
 been the custom of good princes to abridge their 
 own power, it may be distrusting themselves, but 
 certainly fearing their successors, to the chance of 
 whose being virtuous they would not hazard the 
 welfare of their people. An unlimited power there- 
 fore is to be trusted to none, which, if it does not 
 find a tyrant, commonly makes one ; or, if one uses 
 it modestly, it is no argument that others will ; 
 and therefore Augustus Caesar must have no greater 
 power given him than you would have Tiberius take. 
 Cicero's moderation is to be trusted with a con- 
 sideration that there are others to be Consuls as 
 well as he. 
 
 But before I press this business further, if it needs 
 be any further pressed, that we should endeavour to 
 rescue the honour, the virtue and liberty of our 
 nation, I shall answer to some few objections that 
 have occurred to me. This I shall do very briefly. 
 
 Some I find of a strange opinion, that it were a 
 generous and a noble action to kill his Highness in 
 the field, but to do it privately they think it unlaw- 
 ful, but know not why. As if it were not generous 
 to apprehend a thief till his sword were drawn, 
 and he in a posture to defend himself and kill me. 
 But these people do not consider, that whosoever is 
 
KILLING NO MURDER, 127 
 
 possessed of power any time will be sure to engage 
 so many cither in guilt or profit, or both, that to go 
 about to throw him out by open force will very 
 much hazard the total ruin of the Commonwealth. 
 A tyrant is a devil, that tears the body in the exor- 
 cising ; and they are all of Caligula's temper, that if 
 they could they would have the whole frame of 
 Nature fall with them. It is an opinion that 
 deserves no other refutation than the manifest 
 absurdity of itself, that it would be lawful for me to 
 destroy a tyrant with hazard, blood, and confusion, 
 but not without. 
 
 Another objection, and more common, is the fear 
 of what may succeed if his Highness were removed. 
 One would think the world were bewitched. I am 
 fallen into a ditch, where I shall certainly perish if I 
 lie, but I refuse to be helped out for fear of falling 
 into another ; I suffer a certain misery for fear of a 
 contingent one, and let the disease kill me, because 
 there is hazard in the cure. Is not this that ridicu- 
 lous policy, *' Ne moriar, mori ; " to die for fear of 
 dying. Sure it is frenzy not to desire a change, 
 when we are sure we cannot be worse : " et non in- 
 currere in pericula, ubi quiescent! paria metuuntur ; " 
 and not then to hazard when the danger and the 
 mischiefs are the same in lying still. 
 
 Hitherto I have spoken in general to all English- 
 men, now I address my discourse particularly to 
 those that certainly best deserve that name, ourselves, 
 
128 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 that have fought, however unfortunately, for our 
 liberties under this tyrant ; and in the end, cozened 
 by his oaths and tears, have purchased nothing but 
 our slavery with the price of our blood. To us 
 particularly it belongs to bring this monster to 
 justice, whom he hath made the instruments of his 
 villany, and sharers in the curse and detestation that 
 is due to himself from all good men. Others only 
 have their liberty to vindicate, we our liberty and 
 our honour. We engaged to the people with him, 
 and to the people for him, and from our hands they 
 may justly expect a satisfaction of punishment, being 
 they cannot have that of performance. What the 
 people at present endure, and posterity shall suffer, 
 will be all laid at our doors : for only we under 
 God have the power to pull down this Dagon which 
 we have set up. And if we do it not, all mankind 
 will repute us approvers of all the villanies he hath 
 done, and authors of all to come. Shall we that 
 would not endure a king attempting tyranny, shall 
 we suffer a professed tyrant } We that resisted the 
 lion assailing us, shall we submit to the wolf tearing 
 us } If there be no remedy to be found w^e have 
 great reason to exclaim : " Utinam te potius (Carole) 
 retinuissemus quam hunc habuissemus, non quod 
 ulla sit optanda servitus, sed quod ex dignitate 
 Domini minus turpis est conditio servi ; " we wish 
 we had rather endured thee (O Charles) than have 
 been condemned to this mean tyrant ; not that we 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 129 
 
 desire any kind of slavery, but that the quality of 
 the master something graces the condition of the 
 slave. 
 
 But if we consider it rightly what our duty, our 
 engagements, and our honour exact from us, both 
 our safety and our interest oblige us to, and it is as 
 unanswerable in us to discretion, as it is to virtue, to 
 let this viper live. For first, he knows very well it 
 is only we that have the power to hurt him, and 
 therefore of us he will take any course to secure 
 himself: he is conscious to himself how falsely and 
 perfidiously he hath dealt with us, and therefore he 
 will always fear that from our revenge which he 
 knows he hath so well deserved. 
 
 Lastly, he knows our principles, how directly 
 contrary they are to that arbitrary power he must 
 govern by, and therefore he may reasonably suspect 
 that we that have already ventured our lives against 
 tyranny will always have the will, when we have 
 the opportunity, to do the same again. 
 
 These considerations will easily persuade him to 
 secure himself of us, if we prevent him not, and 
 secure ourselves of him. He reads in his practice of 
 piety, "chi diviene patron," &c. : he that makes 
 himself master of a city that hath been accustomed 
 to liberty, if he destroys it not, he must expect to be 
 destroyed by it. And we may read too in the same 
 author, and believe him, that those that are the 
 occasion that one becomes powerful he always ruins 
 
 E 
 
130 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 them if they want the wit and courage to secure 
 themselves. 
 
 Now as to our interest, we must never expect 
 that he will ever trust those that he hath provoked 
 and feared ; he will be sure to keep us down, lest 
 we should pluck down him. It is the rule that 
 tyrants observe when they are in power, never to 
 make much use of those that helped them to it ; and 
 indeed it is their interest and security not to do 
 it, for those that have been the authors of their 
 greatness, being conscious of their own merit, they 
 are bold with the tyrant, and less industrious to 
 please him. They think all he can do for them 
 is their due, and still they expect more ; and when 
 they fail in their expectations — as it is impossible 
 to satisfy them — their disappointment makes them 
 discontented, and their discontent is dangerous. 
 Therefore all tyrants follow the example of Diony- 
 sius, who was said to use his friends as he 
 did his bottles : when he had use for them he kept 
 them by him, and when he had none, that they 
 should not trouble him and lie in his way, he hung 
 them up. 
 
 But, to conclude this already over-long paper : 
 let every man to whom God hath given the spirit 
 of wisdom and courage be persuaded by his honour, 
 his safety, his own good, and his country's, and 
 indeed the duty he owes to his generation and to 
 mankind, to endeavour by all rational means to free 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 131 
 
 the world of this pest. Let not other nations 
 have the occasion to think so meanly of us as if we 
 resolved to sit still and have our ears bored, or that 
 any discouragement or disappointments can ever make 
 us desist from attempting our liberty, till we have 
 purchased it, either by this monster's death or by 
 our own. Our nation is not yet so barren of virtue 
 that we want noble examples to follow amongst 
 ourselves. The brave Sindercombe hath shown as 
 great a mind as any old Rome could boast of ; and 
 had he lived there his name had been registered 
 with Brutus and Cato, and he had had his statues 
 as well as they. 
 
 But I will not have so sinister an opinion of 
 ourselves, as little generosity as slavery hath left us, 
 as to think so great a virtue can want its monuments 
 even amongst us. Certainly in every virtuous mind 
 there are statues reared to Sindercombe. Whenever 
 we read the elegies of those that have died for their 
 country ; when we admire those great examples of 
 magnanimity that have tired tyrants' cruelties ; when 
 we extol their constancies, whom neither bribes nor 
 terrors could make betray their friends ; it is then 
 we erect Sindercombe's statues, and grave him monu- 
 ments, where all that can be said of a great and 
 noble mind we justly make an epitaph for him. 
 And though the tyrant caused him to be smothered, 
 lest the people should hinder an open murder, yet 
 he will never be able either to smother his memory 
 
 E 2 
 
132 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 or his own villany. His poison was but a poor and 
 common device, to impose only on those that under- 
 stood not tyrants' practices, and are unacquainted, if 
 any be, with his cruelties and falsehoods. He may 
 therefore if he please take away the stake from 
 Sindercombe's grave, and if he have a mind it 
 should be known how he died, let him send thither 
 the pillows and feather-beds with which Barkstead 
 and his hangman smothered him. But, to conclude : 
 let not this monster think himself the more secure 
 that he hath suppressed one great spirit ; he may be 
 confident that ^Mongus post ilium sequitur ordo 
 idem petentium decus." 
 
 There is a great roll behind, even of those that are 
 in his own muster-rolls, that are ambitious of the 
 name of the deliverers of their country ; and they 
 know what the action is that will purchase it. His 
 bed, his table, is not secure ; and he stands in need 
 of other guards to defend him against his own. 
 Death and destruction pursue him wheresoever he 
 goes : they follow him everywhere, like his fellow- 
 travellers, and at last they will come upon him like 
 armed men. Darkness is hid in his secret places, a 
 fire not blown shall consume him ; it shall go ill 
 with him that is left in his tabernacle. He shall flee 
 from the iron weapon, and a bow of steel shall strike 
 him through, because he hath oppressed and for- 
 saken the poor, because he hath violently taken away 
 a house which he buildcd not. We may be con- 
 
KILLING NO MURDER. 133 
 
 fident, and so may he, that ere long all this will be 
 accomplished : for the triumphing of the wicked is 
 but short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a 
 moment. Though his Excellency mount up to the 
 heavens, and his head reacheth unto the clouds, yet 
 he shall perish for ever like his own dung. They 
 that have seen him shall say, Where is he ? 
 
THE SHORTEST WAY 
 
 WITH 
 
 THE DISSENTERS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 PROPOSALS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 I 
 
THE 
 
 Shortest Way with the 
 Dissenters ; 
 
 OR, PROPOSALS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 THE CHURCH, 
 
 Sir Roger L'Estrange tells us a story, in his col- 
 lection of fables, of the cock and the horses. The 
 cock was gotten to roost in the stable, among the 
 horses, and there being no racks or other con- 
 veniences for him, it seems he was forced to roost 
 upon the ground. The horses jostling about for 
 room, and putting the cock in danger of his life, he 
 gives them this grave advice : "Pray, gentlefolks, 
 let us stand still, for fear we should tread upon one 
 another." 
 
 There are some people in the world, who, now 
 they are unperched, and reduced to an equality with 
 other people, and under strong and very just 
 apprehensions of being further treated as they 
 deserve, begin, with ^^sop's cock, to preach up peace 
 
138 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 and union, and the Christian duties of modera- 
 tion, forgetting that when they had the power in 
 their hands those graces were strangers in their 
 gates. 
 
 It is now near fourteen years that the glory and 
 peace of the purest and most flourishing Church in 
 the world has been eclipsed, buffeted, and disturbed 
 by a sort of men whom God in his providence has 
 suffered to insult over her, and bring her down. 
 These have been the days of her humiliation and 
 tribulation : she has borne with an invincible patience 
 the reproach of the wicked, and God has at last 
 heard her prayers, and delivered lier from the 
 oppression of the stranger. 
 
 And, now they find their day is over, their power 
 gone, and the throne of this nation possessed by a 
 royal, English, true, and ever-constant member of 
 and friend to the Church of England ; now they 
 find that they are in danger of the Church of 
 England's just resentments ; now they cry out peace, 
 union, forbearance, and charity, as if the Church had 
 not too long harboured her enemies under her wing^ 
 and nourished the viperous brood, till they hiss 
 and fly in the face of the mother that cherished 
 them. 
 
 No^ gentlemen, the time of mercy is past, your 
 day of grace is over ; you should have practised 
 peace, and moderation, and charity, if you expected 
 any yourselves, 
 
SHORTEST WAV WITH DISSENTERS. 130 
 
 We have heard none of this lesson for fourteen 
 years past : we have been huffed and bullied with 
 your Act of Toleration ; you have told us that you 
 are the Church established by law, as well as 
 others ; have set up your canting synagogues at 
 our church-doors, and the Church and members have 
 been loaded with reproaches, with oaths, associations, 
 abjurations, and what not. Where has been the 
 mercy, the forbearance, the charity you have shown 
 to tender consciences of the Church of England, 
 that could not take oaths as fast as you made 
 them ; that having sworn allegiance to their lawful 
 and rightful King, could not dispense with that oath, 
 their King being still alive, and swear to your new 
 hodge-podge of a Dutch Government ? These 
 have been turned out of their livings, and they and 
 their families left to starve ; their estates double 
 taxed, to carry on a war they had no hand in, and 
 you got nothing by. What account can you 
 give of the multitudes you have forced to comply, 
 against their consciences, with your new sophistical 
 politics, who, like new converts in France, sin 
 because they cannot starve 1 And, now the tables are 
 turned upon you, you must not be persecuted ; it is 
 not a Christian spirit ! 
 
 You have butchered one king, deposed another 
 king, and made a mock king of a third ; and yet 
 you could have the face to expect to be employed 
 and trusted by the fourth. Anybody that did not 
 
14^ FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 know the temper of your party, would stand 
 amazed at the impudence as well as folly, to 
 think of it. 
 
 Your management of your Dutch monarch, whom 
 
 you reduced to a mere King of CI s, is enough 
 
 to give any future princes such an idea of your 
 principles as to warn them sufficiently from coming 
 into 3'our clutches ; and, God be thanked ! the Queen 
 IS out of your hands, knows you, and will have a 
 care of you. 
 
 There \s no doubt but the supreme authority of a 
 nation has in itself a power, and a right to that 
 power, to execute the laws upon any part of that 
 nation it governs. The execution of the known laws 
 of the land, and that with but a gentle hand neither, 
 was all that the fanatical party of this land have 
 ever called persecution ; this they have magnified to 
 a height, that the sufferings of the Huguenots in 
 France were not to be compared with. Now, to 
 execute the known laws of a nation upon those who 
 transgress them, after voluntarily consenting to the 
 making those laws, can never be called persecution, 
 but justice. But justice is always violence to the 
 party offending, for every man is innocent in his own 
 eyes. The first execution of the laws against Dis- 
 senters in England was in the days of King James 
 the First. And what did it amount to } Truly, the 
 worst they suffered was, at their own request, to let 
 them go to New England, and erect a new colony, 
 
SHORTEST WAY WITH DISSENTERS. 14I 
 
 and give them great privileges, grants, and suitable 
 powers, keep them under protection, and defend 
 them against all invaders, and receive no taxes or 
 revenue from them. This was the cruelty of the 
 Church of England ! Fatal lenity ! It was the ruin of 
 that excellent prince, King Charles the First. Had 
 King James sent all the Puritans in England away 
 to the West Indies, we had been a national, unmixed 
 Church ; the Church of England had been kept un- 
 divided and entire. 
 
 To requite the lenity of the father, they take up 
 arm.s against the son : conquer, pursue, take, imprison, 
 and at last put to death the anointed of God, and 
 destroy the very being and nature of government, 
 setting up a sordid impostor, who had neither title 
 to govern nor understanding to manage, but supplied 
 that want with power, bloody and desperate councils 
 and craft, without conscience. 
 
 Had not King James the First withheld the full 
 execution of the laws, had he given them strict 
 justice, he had cleared the nation of them^ and the 
 consequences had been plain : his son had never been 
 murdered by them, nor the monarchy overwhelmed. 
 It was too much mercy shown them was the ruin of 
 his posterity, and the ruin of the nation's peace. 
 One would think the Dissenters should not have the 
 face to believe that we are to be wheedled and 
 canted into peace and toleration, when they know 
 that they have once requited us with a civil war, and 
 
142 FAMOt/S PAMPHLETS. 
 
 once with an intolerable and unrighteous persecution 
 for our former civility. 
 
 Nay, to encourage us to be easy with them, it is 
 apparent that they never had the upper hand of the 
 Church but they treated her with all the severity, 
 w^ith all the reproach and contempt as was possible. 
 What peace and what mercy did they show the 
 loyal gentry of the Church of England in the time of 
 their triumphant Commonwealth ? How did they 
 put all the gentry of England to ransom, whether 
 they were actually in arms for the King or not, 
 making people compound for their estates, and starve 
 their families ? How did they treat the clergy of 
 the Church of England ? Sequestered the ministers, 
 devoured the patrimony of the Church, and divided 
 the spoil, by sharing the Church lands among their 
 soldiers, and turning her clergy out to starve. Just 
 such measure as they have meted should be measured 
 them again. 
 
 Charity and love is the known doctrine of the 
 Church of England, and it is plain she has put it in 
 practice towards the Dissenters, even beyond what 
 they ought, till she has been wanting to herself and, 
 in effect, unkind to her own sons, particularly in 
 the too much lenity of King James the First, men- 
 tioned before. Had he so rooted the Puritans from 
 the face of the land, which he had an opportunity 
 early to have done, they had not had the power to 
 vex the Church, as since they have done. 
 
SHORTEST WAY WITH DISSENTERS. 143 
 
 In the days of King Charles the Second, how did 
 the Church reward their bloody doings ? With lenity 
 and mercy. Except the barbarous regicides of the 
 pretended Court of Justice, not a soul suffered for 
 all the blood in an unnatural war. King Charles 
 came in all mercy and love, cherished them, preferred 
 them^ employed them, withheld the rigour of the law, 
 and oftentimes, even against the advice of his Parlia- 
 ment, gave them liberty of conscience. And how did 
 they requite him 1 With the villanous contrivance to 
 depose and murder him and his successor at the 
 Rye Plot ! 
 
 King James, as if mercy was the inherent quality 
 of the family, began his reign with unusual favour to 
 them ; nor could their joining with the Duke of 
 Monmouth against him move him to do himself 
 justice upon them ; but that mistaken Prince thought 
 to win them by gentleness and love, proclaimed a 
 universal liberty to them, and rather discountenanced 
 the Church of England than them. How they 
 requited him all the world knows. 
 
 The late reign is too fresh in the memory of all 
 the world to need a comment ; how, under pretence 
 of joining with the Church in redressing some 
 grievances, they pushed things to that extremity, 
 in conjunction with some mistaken gentlemen, as 
 to depose the late King, as if the grievance of the 
 nation could not have been redressed but by the 
 absolute ruin of the Prince, Here is an instance of 
 
T44 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 their temper, their peace and charity. To what 
 height they carried themselves during the reign of a 
 king of their own ; how they crept into all places of 
 trust and profit ; how they insinuated into the favour 
 of the King, and were at first preferred to the highest 
 places in the nation ; how they engrossed the 
 Ministry, and, above all, how pitifully they managed, 
 is too plain to need any remarks. 
 
 But particularly their mercy and charity, the spirit 
 of union, they tell us so much of, has been remark- 
 able in Scotland. If any man would see the spirit 
 of a Dissenter, let him look into Scotland. There they 
 made entire conquest of the Church, trampled down 
 the sacred orders, and suppressed the Episcopal 
 government, with an absolute and, as they suppose, 
 irretrievable victory, though it is possible they may 
 find themselves mistaken. Now it would be a very 
 proper question to ask their impudent advocate, the 
 Obscrvator : Pray how much mercy and favour did the 
 members of the Episcopal Church find in Scotland 
 from the Scotch Presbyterian Government t and I 
 shall undertake for the Church of England that the 
 Dissenters shall still receive as much here, though 
 they deserve but little. 
 
 In a small treatise of the sufferings of the Epis- 
 copal clergy in Scotland, it will appear what usage 
 they met with ; how they not only lost their livings, 
 but in several places were plundered and abused in 
 their persons ; the ministers that could not conform, 
 
SHORTEST WAY WITH DISSENTERS, 145 
 
 turned out with numerous families, and no mainte- 
 nance, and hardly charity enough left to relieve them 
 with a bit of bread ; and the cruelties of the parties 
 are innumerable, and not to be attempted in this 
 short piece. 
 
 And now, to prevent the distant cloud which they 
 perceived to hang over their heads from England, 
 with a true Presbyterian policy, they put in for a 
 union of nations, that England might unite their 
 Church with the Kirk of Scotland, and their Presby- 
 terian members sit in our House of Commons, and 
 their assembly of Scotch canting long-cloaks in our 
 Convocation. What might have been if our fanatic 
 Whiggish statesmen continued, God only knows ; but 
 we hope we are out of fear of that now. 
 
 It is alleged by some of the faction, and they 
 began to bully us with it, that if we will not unite 
 with them, they w^'U not settle the Crown with us 
 again, but when her Majesty dies will choose a 
 king for themselves. 
 
 If they will not, we must make them, and it is not 
 the first time we have let them know that we are 
 able. The Crowns of these kingdoms have not so 
 far disowned the right of succession but they may 
 retrieve it again, and if Scotland thinks to come off 
 from a successive to an elective state of government, 
 England has not promised not to assist the right 
 heirs, and put them into possession, without any 
 regard to their ridiculous settlements, 
 
146 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 These are the gentlemen, these their ways of 
 treating the Church, both at home and abroad. 
 Now let us examine the reasons they pretend to 
 give why we should be favourable to them, why we 
 should continue and tolerate them among us. 
 
 First, they are very numerous they say, they are 
 a great part of the nation, and we cannot suppress 
 them. 
 
 To this may be answered — i. They are not so 
 numerous as the Protestants in France, and yet the 
 French King effectually cleared the nation of them 
 at once, and we do not find he misses them at home. 
 
 But I am not of the opinion they are so numerous 
 as is pretended ; their party is more numerous than 
 their persons, and those mistaken people of the 
 Church who are misled and deluded by their wheed- 
 ling artifices to join with them, make their party the 
 greater ; but those will open their eyes when the 
 Government shall set heartily about the work, and 
 come off from them, as some animals, which, 
 they say, always desert a house when it is likely 
 
 to fall. ; 
 
 2. The more numerous the more dangerous, and 
 therefore the more need to suppress them ; and God 
 has suffered us to bear them as goads in our sides, 
 for not utterly extinguishing them long ago. 
 
 3. If we are to allow them only because we 
 cannot suppress them, then it ought to be tried 
 whether we can or no ; and I am of opinion it is 
 
SHORTEST WAY WITH DISSENTERS, 147 
 
 easy to be done, and could prescribe ways and 
 means, if it were proper ; but I doubt not the Govern- 
 ment will find effectual methods for the rooting the 
 contagion from the face of this land. 
 
 Another argument they use, which is this, that it 
 is a time of war, and we have need to unite against 
 the common enemy. 
 
 We answer, this common enemy had been no 
 enemy if they had not made him so ; he was quiet, 
 in peace^ and no way disturbed or encroached upon 
 us, and we know no reason we had to quarrel with 
 him. 
 
 But further, we make no question but we are able 
 to deal with this common enemy without their help ; 
 but w^hy must w^e unite with them because of the 
 enemy ? Will they go over to the enemy if we do 
 not prevent it by a union with them ? We are very 
 well contented they should^ and make no question 
 we shall be ready to deal with them and the common 
 enemy too, and better without them than with 
 them. 
 
 Besides, if we have a common enemy, there is the 
 more need to be secure against our private enemies ; 
 if there is one common enemy^ we have the less need 
 to have an enemy in our bowels. 
 
 It was a great argument some people used 
 against suppressing the old money, that it was a 
 time of war, and it was too great a risk for the 
 nation to run ; if we should not master it, we should 
 
148 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 be undone; and yet the sequel proved the hazard 
 was not so great but it might be mastered, and the 
 success was answerable. The suppressing the Dis- 
 senters is not a harder work, nor a work of less 
 necessity to the public : we can never enjoy a 
 settled uninterrupted union and tranquillity in this 
 nation till the spirit of Whiggism, faction, and 
 schism is melted down like the old money. 
 
 To talk of the difficulty is to frighten ourselves 
 with chimeras and notions of a powerful party, 
 which are indeed a party without power; difficulties 
 often appear greater at a distance than when they 
 are searched into with judgment, and distinguished 
 from the vapours and shadows that attend them. 
 
 We are not to be frightened with it ; this age is 
 wiser than that, by all our own experience, and 
 theirs too. King Charles the First had early sup- 
 pressed this party if he had taken more deliberate 
 measures. In short, it is not worth arguing, to talk 
 of their arms ; their Monmouths, and Shaftesburys, 
 and Argylls are gone ; their Dutch Sanctuary is at 
 an end ; Heaven has made way for their destruction, 
 and if we do not close with the divine occasion, 
 we are to blame ourselves, and may remember that 
 we had once an opportunity to serve the Church 
 of England by extirpating her implacable enemies, 
 and, having let slip the minute that Heaven 
 presented, may experimentally complain, *' Post est 
 occasio calva." 
 
SHORTESl^ IV AY WITH DISSENTERS. 149 
 
 Here are some popular objections in the way : 
 
 As first, the Queen has promised them to 
 continue them m their tolerated liberty, and has 
 told us she will be a religious observer of her word. 
 
 What her Majesty will do we cannot help, but 
 what, as the head of the Church, she ought to do, is 
 another case. Her Majesty has promised to protect 
 and defend the Church of England, and if she 
 cannot effectually do that without the destruction of 
 the Dissenters, she must of course dispense with one 
 promise to comply with another. But to answer 
 this cavil more effectually : her Majesty did never 
 promise to maintain the toleration to the destruc- 
 tion of the Church, but it is upon supposition that 
 it may be compatible with the well-being and 
 safety of the Church, which she had declared she 
 would take especial care of. Now, if these two 
 interests clash, it is plain her Majesty's intentions 
 are to uphold, protect, defend, and establish the 
 Church, and this we conceive is impossible. 
 
 Perhaps it may be said that the Church is in no 
 immediate danger from the Dissenters, and there- 
 fore it is time enough ; but this is a weak answer. 
 
 For first, if a danger be real, the distance of it is 
 no argument against, but rather a spur to quicken 
 us to prevention, lest it be too late hereafter. 
 
 And secondly, here is the opportunity, and the only 
 one perhaps that ever the Church had, to secure 
 herself and destroy her enemies. 
 
150 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 The representatives of the nation have now an 
 opportunity ; the time is come which all good men 
 have wished for, that the gentlemen of England 
 may serve the Church of England, now they are 
 protected and encouraged by a Church of England 
 Queen. 
 
 " What will you do for your sister in the day that 
 she shall be spoken for ? '* 
 
 If ever you will establish the best Christian 
 Church in the world ; 
 
 If ever you will suppress the spirit of enthusiasm ; 
 
 If ever you will free the nation from the viperous 
 brood that have so long sucked the blood of their 
 mother; 
 
 If ever you will leave your posterity free from 
 faction and rebellion, this is the time. 
 
 This is the time to pull up this heretical weed of 
 sedition, that has so long disturbed the peace of our 
 Church, and poisoned the good corn. 
 
 But, says another hot and cold objector, this is 
 renewing fire and faggot, reviving the Act " De Heret. 
 Comburendo ; " this will be cruelty in its nature^ 
 and barbarous to all the world. 
 
 I answer, it is cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in 
 cold blood, but the poison of their nature makes it a 
 charity to our neighbours to destroy those creatures, 
 not for any personal injury received, but for preven- 
 tion ; not for the evil they have done, but the evil 
 they may do. 
 
SHORTEST IVA V WITH DISSENTERS, 
 
 151 
 
 Serpents, toads, vipers, &c., are noxious to the 
 body, and poison the sensitive life ; these poison 
 the soul, corrupt our posterity, ensnare our children, 
 destroy the vitals of our happiness, our future felicity, 
 and contaminate the whole mass. 
 
 Shall any law be given to such wild creatures ? 
 Some beasts are for sport, and the huntsmen give 
 them advantages of ground ; but some are knocked 
 on the head by all possible ways of violence and 
 surprise. 
 
 I do not prescribe fire and faggot, but, as Scipio 
 said of Carthage, " Delenda est Carthago," they are 
 to be rooted out of this nation, if ever we will live 
 in peace, serve God, or enjoy our own. As for the 
 manner, I leave it to those hands who have a right 
 to execute God's justice on the nation's and the 
 Church's enemies. 
 
 But if we must be frightened from this justice 
 under the specious pretences, and odious sense of 
 cruelty, nothing will be effected. It will be more 
 barbarous to our own children and dear posterity, 
 when they shall reproach their fathers, as we do 
 ours, and tell us : '' You had an opportunity to 
 root out this cursed race from the world, under the 
 favour and protection of a true English Queen, and 
 out of your foolish pity you spared them, because, 
 forsooth, you would not be cruel, and now our 
 Church is suppressed and persecuted, our religion 
 trampled under foot, our estates plundered, our 
 
152 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 persons imprisoned and dragged to gaols, gibbets, 
 and scaffolds ; your sparing this Amalekite race is 
 our destruction, your mercy to them proves cruelty 
 to your poor posterity." 
 
 How just will such reflections be, when our 
 posterity shall fall under the merciless clutches of 
 this uncharitable generation ; when our Church shall 
 be swallowed up in schism, faction, enthusiasm, and 
 confusion ; when our Government shall be devolved 
 upon foreigners, and our monarchy dwindled into a 
 republic. 
 
 It would be more rational for us, if we must spare 
 this generation, to summon our own to a general 
 massacre, and as we have brought them into the 
 world free, send them out so, and not betray them 
 to destruction by our supine negligence, and then 
 cry it is mercy. 
 
 Moses was a merciful meek man, and yet with 
 what fury did he run through the camp, and cut the 
 throats of three-and-thirty thousand of his dear 
 Israelites, that were fallen into idolatry ; what was 
 the reason } It was mercy to the rest to make 
 these examples, to prevent the destruction of the 
 whole army. 
 
 How many millions of future souls we save from 
 infection and delusion if the present race of poi- 
 soned spirits were purged from the face of the land. 
 
 It is vain to trifle in this matter, the light foolish 
 handling of them by mulcts, fines, &c. ; it is their 
 
SHORTESl^ WAV WITH DISSENTERS, 153 
 
 glory and their advantage. If the gallows instead of 
 the counter, and the galleys instead of the fines, 
 were the reward of going to a conventicle, to preach 
 or hear, there would not be so many sufferers. The 
 spirit of martyrdom is over ; they that will go to 
 church to be chosen sheriffs and mayors, would go 
 to forty churches rather than be hanged. 
 
 If one severe law were made, and punctually 
 executed, that whoever was found at a conventicle 
 should be banished the nation, and the preacher be 
 hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale. They 
 would all com.e to church ; and one age would make 
 us all one again. 
 
 To talk of 5^-. a month for not coming to the 
 Sacrament, and is. per week for not coming to 
 church, this is such a way of converting people as 
 never was know^n ; this is selling them a liberty to 
 transgress for so much money. If it be not a crime, 
 why do not we give them full licence .'^ And if it be, 
 no price ought to compound for the committing it, 
 for that is selling a liberty to people to sin against 
 God and the Government. 
 
 If it be a crime of the highest consequence, both 
 against the peace and welfare of the nation, the 
 glory of God, the good of the Church, and the 
 happiness of the soul, let us rank it among capital 
 offences, and let it receive a punishment in propor- 
 tion to it. 
 
 We hang men for trifles, and banish them fcr 
 
1S4 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 things not worth naming, but an offence against 
 God and the Church, against the welfare of the 
 world and the dignity of religion, shall be bought 
 off for 5 J-. ! This is such a shame to a Christian 
 Government that it is with regret I transmit it to 
 posterity. 
 
 If men sin against God, affront his ordinances, 
 rebel against his Church, and disobey the precepts 
 of their superiors, let them suffer as such capital 
 crimes deserve ; so will religion flourish, and this 
 divided nation be once again united. 
 
 And yet the title of barbarous and cruel will soon 
 be taken off from this law too. I am not supposing 
 that all the Dissenters in England should be hanged 
 or banished, but as in cases of rebellions and insur- 
 rections, if a few of the ringleaders suffer, the 
 multitude are dismissed, so a few obstinate people 
 being made examples, there is no doubt but the 
 severity of the law would find a stop in the com- 
 pliance of the multitude. 
 
 To make the reasonableness of this matter out of 
 question, and more unanswerably plain, let us 
 examine for what it is that this nation is divided 
 into parties and factions, and let us see how they 
 can justify a separation, or we of the Church of 
 England can justify our bearing the insults and 
 inconveniences of the party. 
 
 One of their leading pastors, and a man of as 
 much learning as most among them, in his answer 
 
SHORTEST WAY WITH DISSENTERS. 155 
 
 to a pamphlet, entitled "An Inquiry into the Occa- 
 sional Conformity," hath these words (p. 27): "Do 
 the religion of the Church and the meeting-houses 
 make two religions ? Wherein do they differ ? 
 The substance of the same religion is common to 
 them both, and the modes and accidents are the 
 things in which only they differ." P. 28: "Thirty- 
 nine Articles are given us for the summary of our 
 religion ; thirty-six contain the substance of it, 
 wherein we agree ; three the additional Appendices, 
 about which we have some differences." 
 
 Now if, as by their own acknowledgment, the 
 Church of England is a true Church, and the differ- 
 ence between them is only in a few modes and 
 accidents, why should we expect that they will 
 suffer galleys, corporal punishment, and banishment 
 for these trifles ? There is no question but they will 
 be wiser ; even their own principles will not bear them 
 out in it ; they will certainly comply with the laws, 
 and with reason ; and though, at the first, severity 
 may seem hard, the next age will feel nothing of it ; 
 the contagion will be rooted out ; the disease being 
 cured there will be no need of the operation ; but, if 
 they should venture to transgress, and fall into the 
 pit^ all the world must condemn their obstinacy, as 
 being without ground from their own principles. 
 
 Thus the pretence of cruelty will be taken off, and 
 the party actually suppressed, and the disquiets they 
 have so often brought upon the nation prevented. 
 
156 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 Their numbers and their wealth makes them 
 haughty, and that it is so far from being an 
 argument to persuade us to forbear them, that it is 
 a warning to us, without any more delay, to reconcile 
 them to the unity of the Church, or remove them 
 from us. 
 
 At present, Heaven be praised, they are not so 
 formidable as they have been, and it is our own fault 
 if ever we suffer them to be so. Providence and the 
 Church of England seems to join in this particular, 
 that now the destroyers of the nation's peace may 
 be overturned, and to this end the present oppor- 
 tunity seems to be put into our hands. 
 
 To this end her present Majesty seems reserved 
 to enjoy the Crown, that the ecclesiastic as well as 
 civil rights of the nation may be restored by her 
 hand. 
 
 To this end the face of affairs have received such 
 a turn in the process of a few months as never has 
 been before ; the leading men of the nation, the 
 universal cry of the people^ the unanimous request 
 of the clergy, agree in this, that the deliverance of 
 our Church is at hand. 
 
 For this end has Providence given such a Parlia- 
 ment, such a Convocation, such a gentry, and such a 
 Queen as we never had before. 
 
 And what may be the consequences of a neglect 
 of such opportunities .^ The succession cf the Crown 
 has but a dark prospect ; another Dutch turn may 
 
SHORTEST WAY WITH DISSENTERS. 157 
 
 make the hopes of it ridiculous and the practice 
 impossible. Be the house of our future Princes never 
 so well inclined, they will be foreigners, and many- 
 years will be spent in suiting the genius of strangers 
 to this Crown and the interests of the nation ; and 
 how many ages it may be before the English 
 Throne be filled with so much zeal and candour, 
 so much tenderness and hearty affection to the 
 Church, as we see it now covered with, who can 
 imagine ? 
 
 It is high time, then, for the friends of the Church 
 of England to think of building up and establishing 
 her in such a manner, that she may be no more 
 invaded by foreigners, nor divided by factions, 
 schisms, and error. 
 
 If this could be done by gentle and easy methods, 
 I should be glad ; but the wound is corroded, the 
 vitals begin to mortify, and nothing but amputation 
 of members can complete the cure ; all the ways of 
 tenderness and compassion, all persuasive arguments, 
 have been made use of in vain. 
 
 The humour of the Dissenters has so increased 
 among the people, that they hold the Church in 
 defiance, and the house of God is an abomination 
 among them : nay, they have brought up their 
 posterity in such prepossessed aversions to our holy 
 religion, that the ignorant mob think we are all 
 idolaters and worshippers of Baal, and account it a 
 sin to come within the walls of our churches. 
 
158 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 The primitive Christians were not more shy of a 
 heathen temple, or of meat offered to idols, nor the 
 Jews of swine's flesh, than some of our Dissenters 
 are of the Churchy and the divine service solemnized 
 therein. 
 
 This obstinacy must be rooted out with the 
 profession of it ; while the generation are left at 
 liberty daily to affront God Almighty, and dishonour 
 his holy worship, we are wanting in our duty to God 
 and our mother the Church of England. 
 
 How can we answer it to God, to the Church, 
 and to our posterity, to leave them entangled with 
 fanaticism, error, and obstinacy, in the bowels of the 
 nation ; to leave them an enemy in their streets, 
 that in time may involve them in the same crimes 
 and endanger the utter extirpation of religion in the 
 nation. 
 
 What is the difference betwixt this and being 
 subjected to the power of the Church of Rome, from 
 whence we have reformed } If one be an extreme 
 on one hand, and one on another, it is equally de- 
 structive to the truth to have errors settled among 
 us, let them be of what nature they will. 
 
 Both are enemies of our Church and of our peace, 
 and why should it not be as criminal to admit an 
 enthusiast as a Jesuit } Why should the Papist, 
 with his seven sacraments, be worse than the 
 Quaker with no sacraments at all ? Why should 
 religious houses be more intolerable than meeting- 
 
SHORTEST WAY WITH DISSENTERS. 159 
 
 houses ? Alas ! the Church of England ! What with 
 Popery on one hand, and schismatics on the other, 
 how has she been crucified between two thieves ! 
 
 Now let us crucify the thieves. Let her founda- 
 tions be established upon the destruction of her 
 enemies, the doors of mercy being always open to 
 the returning part of the deluded people ; let the 
 obstinate be ruled with the rod of iron. 
 
 Let all true sons of so holy and oppressed a 
 mother, exasperated by her afflictions, harden their 
 hearts against those who have oppressed her. 
 
 And may God Almighty put it into the hearts of 
 all the friends of truth to lift up a standard against 
 pride and Antichrist, that the posterity of the sons 
 of error may be rooted out from the face of this land 
 for ever. 
 
THE CRISIS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A DISCOURSE REPRESENTING, 
 
 FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC RECORDS, THE JUST 
 
 CAUSES OF THE LATE HAPPY REVOLUTION ; 
 
 THE SEVERAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 OF THE CROWNS OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 
 
 ON HER MAJESTY ; AND ON THE DEMISE OF HER MAJESTY 
 
 WITHOUT ISSUE, UPON THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCESS SOPHIA, 
 
 ELECTRESS AND DUCHESS DOWAGER OF HANOVER, AND THE HEIRS OF 
 
 HER BODY BEING PROTESTANTS ; BY PREVIOUS ACTS OF BOTH 
 
 PARLIAMENTS OF THE LATE KINGDOMS OF ENGLAND 
 
 AND SCOTLAND ; AND CONFIRMED BY THE 
 
 PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 WITH SOME SEASONABLE REMARKS ON THE 
 DANGER OF A POPISH SUCCESSOR. 
 
 Invitus ea tanquam vulnera attingo ; sed nisi tacta tiactataque sanari 
 non possunt. — LiV. 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD STEELE, Esq. 
 1714. 
 
TO THE 
 
 CLERGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 It is with a just deference to your great power 
 and influence in this kingdom, that I lay before you 
 the following comment upon the laws which regard 
 the settlement of the Imperial Crown of Great Britain. 
 My purpose in addressing these matters to you, is to 
 conjure you, as Heaven has blessed you with proper 
 talents and opportunities, to recommend them, in 
 your writings and discourses^ to your fellow- 
 subjects. 
 
 In the character of pastors and teachers, you 
 have an almost irresistible power over us of your 
 congregations ; and by the admirable institution of 
 our laws, the tenths of our lands, now in your 
 possession, are destined to become the property of 
 such others as shall by learning and virtue qualify 
 themselves to succeed you. These circumstances 
 of education and fortune place the minds of the 
 people, from age to age, under your direction. As, 
 therefore, it would be the highest indiscretion in 
 
 F 2 
 
i64 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 Ministers of State of this kingdom to neglect the 
 care of being acceptable to you in their administra- 
 tion, so it would be the greatest impiety in you to 
 inflame the people committed to your charge with 
 apprehensions of danger to you and your con- 
 stitution, from men innocent of any such designs. 
 
 Give me leave, who have in all my words and 
 actions, from my youth upwards, maintained an 
 inviolable respect to you and your order, to observe 
 to you that all the dissatisfactions which have been 
 raised in the minds of the people owe their rise to 
 the cunning of artful men, who have introduced the 
 mention of you and your interest, which are sacred 
 to all good men, to cover and sanctify their own 
 practices upon the affections of the people, for ends 
 very different from the promotion of religion and 
 virtue. Give me leave also to take notice that these 
 suggestions have been favoured by some few unwary 
 men in holy orders, who have made the constitution 
 of their own country a very little part of their study, 
 and yet made obedience and government the frequent 
 subjects of their discourses. 
 
 These men, from the pompous ideas of imperial 
 greatness, and submission to absolute emperor?, 
 which they imbibed in their earlier years, have from 
 time to time inadvertently uttered notions of power 
 and obedience abhorrent from the laws of this their 
 native country. 
 
 I will take the further liberty to say, that if the 
 
THE CRISIS. - 165 
 
 Acts of Parliament mentioned in the following treatise 
 had been from time to time put in a fair and clear 
 light, and been carefully recommended to the perusal 
 of young gentlemen in colleges, with a preference to 
 all other civil institutions whatsoever, this kingdom 
 had not been in its present condition, but the con- 
 stitution would have had, in every member the 
 universities have sent into the world ever since 
 the Revolution, an advocate for our rights and 
 liberties. 
 
 There is one thing which deserves your most 
 serious consideration. You have bound yourselves, 
 by the strongest engagements that religion can lay 
 upon men, to support that succession which is the 
 subject of the following papers ; you have tied down 
 your souls by an oath to maintain it as it is settled 
 in the House of Hanover ; nay, you have gone much 
 further than is usual in cases of this nature, as you 
 have personally abjured the Pretender to this Crown, 
 and that expressly, without any equivocations or 
 mental reservations whatsoever, that is, without any 
 possible escapes, by which the subtlety of temporizing 
 casuists might hope to elude the force of these solemn 
 obligations. You know much better than I do, 
 whether the calling God to witness to the sincerity 
 of our intentions in these cases, whether the swearing 
 upon the holy Evangelists in the most solemn manner, 
 whether the taking of an oath before multitudes of 
 fellow-subjects and fellow-Christians in our public 
 
i66 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 courts of justice, do not lay the greatest obligations 
 that can be laid on the consciences of men. This I 
 am sure of, that if the body of a clergy who con- 
 siderately and voluntarily entered into these engage- 
 ments should be made use of as instruments and 
 examples to make the nation break through them, 
 not only the succession to our Crown, but the very 
 essence of our religion, is in danger. What a triumph 
 would it furnish to those evil men among us who 
 are enemies to your sacred order ? What occasion 
 would it administer to atheists and unbelievers, to 
 say that Christianity is nothing else but an outward 
 show and pretence among the most knowing of its 
 professors ? What could we afterwards object to 
 Jesuits ? What would be the scandal brought upon 
 our holy Church, which is at present the glory and 
 bulwark of the Reformation ? How would our present 
 clergy appear in the eyes of their posterity, and even 
 to the successors of their own order, under a Govern- 
 ment introduced and established by a conduct so 
 directly opposite to all the rules of honour and 
 precepts of Christianity ? 
 
 As I always speak and think of your holy order 
 with the utmost deference and respect, I do not 
 insist upon this subject to insinuate that there is 
 such a disposition among your venerable body, but 
 to show how much your own honour and the interest 
 pf religion is concerned that there should be no cause 
 given for it. 
 
THE CRISIS. i6j 
 
 Under colour of a zeal towards you, men may 
 sometimes act not only with impunity, but popu- 
 larity, what would render them, without that hypo- 
 crisy^ insufferably odious to their fellow- subjects. 
 
 Under this pretence men may presume to prac- 
 tise such arts for the destruction and dishonour of 
 their country as it would be impious to make use 
 of even for its glory and safety ; men may do in the 
 highest prosperity what it would not be excusable 
 to attempt under the lowest necessity ! 
 
 The laws of our country, the powers of the • 
 legislature, the faith of nations, and the honour of 
 God may be too weak considerations to bear up 
 against the popular though groundless cry of the 
 Church. This fatal prepossession may shelter men 
 in raising the French name and Roman Catholic 
 interest in Great Britain, and consequently in all 
 Europe. 
 
 It behoves you therefore, gentlemen, to consider 
 whether the cry of the Church's danger may not 
 at length become a truth ; and, as you are men of 
 sense and men of honour, to exert yourselves in 
 undeceiving the multitude, whenever their affectionate 
 concern for you may prove fatal to themselves. 
 
 You are surrounded by a learned, wealthy, and 
 knowing gentry, who can distinguish your merit, 
 and do honour to your characters. They know 
 with what firmness as Englishmen, with what self- 
 denial as prelates, with what charity as Christians^ 
 
i68 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 the Lords the Bishops, fathers of the Church, have 
 behaved themselves in the public cause ; they know 
 what contumelies the rest of the clergy have under- 
 gone, what discountenance they have laboured 
 under, what prejudice they have suffered in their 
 ministry, who have adhered to the cause of truth; 
 but it is certain that the face of things is now too 
 melancholy to bear any longer false appearances ; 
 and common danger has united men, who not long 
 ago were artfully inflamed against each other, into 
 some regard of their common safety. 
 
 When the world is in this temper, those of our 
 pastors, whose exemplary lives and charitable disposi- 
 tions both adorn and advance our holy religion, will 
 be the objects of our love and admiration ; and 
 those who pursue the gratifications of pride, ambition 
 and avarice, under the sacred character of clergy- 
 men, will not fail to be our contempt and derision. 
 
 Noise and wrath cannot always pass for zeal ; 
 and if we see but little of the public spirit of 
 Englishmen or the charity of Christians in others, 
 it is certain we can feel but little of the pleasure of 
 love and gratitude, and but faint emotions of respect 
 and veneration in ourselves. 
 
 It will be an action worthy the ministers of the 
 Church of England to distinguish themselves for 
 the love of their country ; and, as we have a religion 
 that wants no assistance from artifice or enlarge^ 
 ment of secular power, but is well supported by the 
 
THE CRISIS. 169 
 
 wisdom and piety of its preachers, and its own 
 native truth, to let mankind see that we have a 
 clergy who are of the people, obedient to the same 
 laws, and zealous not only of the supremacy and 
 prerogative of our princes, but of the liberties of 
 their fellow-subjects : this will make us who are 
 your flock burn with joy to see, and with zeal to 
 imitate, your lives and actions. It cannot be 
 expected but that there will be, in so great a body, 
 light, superficial, vain, and ambitious men, who, 
 being untouched with the sublime force of the 
 Gospel, will think it their interest to insinuate 
 jealousies between the clergy and laity, in hopes to 
 derive from their order a veneration which they 
 know they cannot deserve from their virtue. But 
 while the most worthy, conspicuous, learned, and 
 powerful of your sacred function are moved by the 
 noble and generous incentives of doing good to the 
 souls of men, we will not doubt of seeing by your 
 ministry the love of our country, due regard for our 
 laws and liberties, and resentment for the abuse of 
 truth revive in the hearts of men. And as there 
 are no instruments under heaven so capable of this 
 great work, that God would make you such to this 
 divided nation is the hearty prayer of. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most dutiful and most obedient 
 
 humble servant, 
 
 Richard Steele. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I NEVER saw an unruly crowd of people cool by 
 degrees into temper, but it gave me an idea of the 
 original of power and the nature of civil institutions. 
 One particular man has usually in those cases, from 
 the dignity of his appearance, or other qualities 
 known or imagined by the multitude^ been received 
 into sudden favour and authority ; the occasion of 
 their difference has been represented to him, and the 
 matter referred to his decision. 
 
 This first step towards acting reasonably has 
 brought them to themselves ; and when the person, 
 by an appeal to whom they first were taken out of 
 confusion, was gone from amongst them, they have 
 calmly taken further measures from a sense of their 
 common good. 
 
 Absolute unlimited power in one person seems to 
 have been the first and natural recourse of mankind 
 from disorder and rapine, and such a government 
 must be acknowledged to be better than no govern- 
 ment at all ; but all restrictions of power made 
 by laws and participation of sovereignty among 
 
THE CRISIS. 171 
 
 several persons are apparent improvements made 
 upon what began in that unlimited power. This is 
 what seems reasonable to common sense, and the 
 manner of maintaining absolute dominion in one 
 person, wherever it subsists, verifies the observation; 
 for the subjection of the people to such authority 
 is supported only by terrors, sudden and private 
 executions and imprisonments, and not, as with 
 happy Britons, by the judgment, in cases of liberty 
 and property, of the peers and neighbours of men 
 accused or prosecuted. This absolute power in one 
 person as it is generally exercised is not indeed 
 government, but at best clandestine tyranny, sup- 
 ported by the confederates, or rather favourite' 
 slaves, of the tyrant. 
 
 I was glad to find this natural sense of power 
 confirmed \\\ me by very great and good men, 
 who have made government, and the principles on 
 which it is founded, their professed study and 
 meditation. 
 
 A very celebrated author has these words : — 
 ** The case of man's nature standing as it does, 
 some kind of regiment the law of nature doth 
 require ; yet the kinds thereof being many, nature 
 tieth not to any one, but leaveth the choice as a 
 thing arbitrary. At the first, when some certain 
 kind of regiment was once approved, it may be that 
 nothing was then further thought upon for the 
 manner of governing, but all permitted unto their 
 
172 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 wisdom and discretion which were to rule, till by 
 experience they found this for all parts very incon- 
 venient, so as the thing which they had devised for 
 a remedy did indeed but increase the sore which it 
 should have cured. They saw that to live by one 
 man's will became the cause of all men's misery. 
 This constrained them to come unto laws, wherein 
 all men might see their duties beforehand, and know 
 the penalties of transgressing them. Men always 
 knew that when force and injury was offered, they 
 might be defenders of themselves ; they knew that, 
 howsoever men might seek their own commodity, yet 
 if this were done with injury to others it was not to 
 be suffered, but by all men and by all good means to 
 be withstood. 
 
 " Finally, they knew that no man might in reason 
 take upon him to determine his own right, and 
 according to his own determination proceed in 
 maintenance thereof, inasmuch as every man is 
 towards himself, and them whom he greatly affecteth, 
 partial ; and therefore that strifes and troubles would 
 be endless, except they have their common consent 
 all to be ordered by some whom they should agree 
 upon." 
 
 Mr Stanhope, in defence of resistance in cases of 
 extreme necessity, cites this memorable passage from 
 Grotius : — 
 
 " If the king hath one part of the supreme power, 
 and the other part is in the senate or people, when 
 
THE CRISIS, 173 
 
 such a king shall invade that part that doth not 
 belong to him, it shall be lawful to oppose a just 
 force to him, because his power does not extend so 
 far ; which position I hold to be true, even though 
 the power of making war should be vested only in 
 the king, which must be understood to relate only to 
 foreign war ; for, as for home, it is impossible for any 
 to have a share of the supreme power and not to 
 have likewise a right to defend that share." 
 
 An eminent divine, who deserves all honour for 
 the obligations he has laid upon both Church and 
 State by his writings on the subject of govern- 
 ment, argues against unlimited power thus : — 
 
 " The question is, whether the power of the civil 
 magistrate be unlimited — that is, in other words, 
 whether the nature of his office require it to be so. 
 But what ? Is it the end of that office that one 
 particular person may do what he pleaseth without 
 restraint, or that society should be made happy and 
 secure? Who will say the former? And if the latter 
 be the true end of it, a less power than absolute will 
 answer it — nay, an absolute power is a power to 
 destroy that end, and therefore inconsistent with the 
 end itself." 
 
 These passages I thought fit to produce by way 
 of preface to the following discourse, as carrying 
 in them the reason and foundation of government 
 itself and in maintenance of what passed at the 
 Revolution. 
 
1 74 FAMO US PAMPHLETS, 
 
 I shall only beg leave to add to them one very 
 great living authority, the present Lord High 
 Chancellor of Great Britain, who, in a late famous 
 trial, did openly, before Queen, Lords, and Commons, 
 maintain the lawfulness of the Revolution under the 
 notion of resistance, and assert, before the most 
 solemn and august assembly of Europe, that there are 
 extraordinary cases, cases of necessity, which are 
 implied, though not expressed^ in the general rule — 
 that is, which are so plain and so open to the 
 common sense of mankind that, even whilst you are 
 declaring resistance in all cases to be unlawful, you 
 are of necessity understood to mean that resistance 
 in some cases is lawful. I am pleased to observe, 
 that no one ever put the matter so strongly, or 
 carried it so high as this great man did upon that 
 critical occasion. At the same time he was so just 
 to his country as to declare that such a case un- 
 doubtedly the Revolution was, when our late unhappy 
 sovereign then upon the throne, misled by evil coun- 
 sellors, endeavoured to subvert and extirpate the Pro- 
 testant religion and the laws and liberties of the 
 kingdom. 
 
The Crisis. 
 
 It is every man's duty to correct the extrava- 
 gances of his will, in order to enjoy life as becomes 
 a rational being ; but we cannot possess our souls 
 with pleasure and satisfaction except we preserve 
 to ourselves that inestimable blessing which we call 
 liberty. By liberty I desire to be understood to 
 mean the happiness of men's living under laws of 
 their own making, by their personal consent or 
 that of their representatives. 
 
 Without this the distinctions amongst mankind 
 are but gentler degrees of misery ; for as the true 
 life of man consists in conducting it according to his 
 own just sentiments and innocent inclinations, his 
 being is degraded below that of a free agent, which 
 Heaven has made him, when his affections and pas- 
 sions are no longer governed by the dictates of his 
 own mind and the interests of human society, but 
 by the arbitrary unrestrained will of another. 
 
 Without liberty, even health and strength, and all 
 the advantages bestowed on us by Nature and Provi- 
 
176 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 dence, may, at the will of a tyrant, be employed to 
 our own ruin, and that of our fellow-creatures. 
 
 Liberty is essential to our happiness, and they who 
 resign life itself rather than part with it do only a 
 prudent action ; but those who lay it down, and 
 voluntarily expose themselves to death in behalf of 
 their friends and country, do an heroic one. The 
 more exalted part of our species are moved by such 
 generous impulses as these ; but even the com- 
 munity, the mass of mankind, when convinced of 
 the danger of their civil rights, are anxious of 
 preserving to themselves that dearest of all posses- 
 sions, liberty. 
 
 The late kingdoms of England and Scotland 
 have contended for it from age to age with too 
 great a price of blood and treasure to be given 
 for the purchase of any other blessing, but laid 
 out parsimoniously when we consider they have 
 transmitted this to their posterity. 
 
 But since, by I know not what fatality, we are of 
 late grown supine, and our anxiety for it is abated, 
 in proportion to the danger to which it is every 
 day more exposed by the artful and open attacks 
 of the enemies of our Constitution, it is a season- 
 able and honest office to look into our circum- 
 stances, and let the enemies of our present 
 establishment behold the securities which the laws 
 of our country have given those who dare assert 
 their liberties, and the terrors which they have 
 
THE CRISIS. 177 
 
 pronounced against those who dare undermine them. 
 For, whatever is the prospect before our eyes, it is 
 the business of every honest man to look up with a 
 spirit that becomes honesty, and to do what in him 
 lies for the improvement of our present condition, 
 which nothing but our own pusillanimity can make 
 desperate. 
 
 The most destructive circumstance in our affairs 
 seems to be that, by the long and repeated in- 
 sinuations of our enemies, many are worn into a 
 kind of doubt of their own cause, and think with 
 patience of what is suggested in favour of contrary 
 pretensions. The most obvious method of reviving 
 the proper sentiments in the minds of men for what 
 they ought to esteem most dear, is to show that our 
 cause has in it all the sanctions of honour, truth, and 
 justice, and that we are, by all the laws of God and 
 man, instated in a condition of enjoying religion, 
 life, liberty, and property, rescued from the most 
 imminent danger of having them all for ever depend 
 upon the arbitrary power of a Popish prince. 
 
 We should have been chained down in this abject 
 condition in the reign of the late King James, had 
 not God Almighty in mercy given us the late happy 
 Revolution, by that glorious instrument of his 
 providence the great and memorable King William. 
 But though this wonderful deliverance happened 
 as it were but yesterday, yet such is the inadver- 
 tency or ingratitude of some amongst us, that they 
 
178 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 seem not only to have forgotten the deliverer, but 
 even the deliverance itself. Old men act as if they 
 believed the danger which then hung over their 
 heads was only a dream, the wild effects of ill- 
 grounded imaginary fears ; and young men, as if 
 they had never heard from their fathers, nor read of 
 what passed in this kingdom, at a period no farther 
 backward than the space of five-and-twenty years. 
 
 I flatter myself that if the passages which 
 happened in those days, the resolutions of the 
 nation thereupon, and the just provisions made 
 from time to time against our falling into the same 
 disasters, were fairly stated and laid in one view, 
 all indirect arts and mean subtleties practised to 
 weaken our securities would be frustrated, and vanish 
 before the glaring light of law and reason. 
 
 I shall not govern myself on this occasion by the 
 partial relation of particular persons or parties, but 
 by the sense of the whole people, by the sense of the 
 Houses of Lords and Commons, the representative 
 body of the whole nation, in whose resolutions, 
 according to the different state of things, the 
 condition of the kingdom, by those who had the 
 greatest stakes in it, has been from time to time 
 plainly, impartially, and pathetically expressed. 
 
 I shall begin with the Act of Parliament made in 
 England in the second session of the first year of 
 the late King William and Queen Mary, intituled 
 *'An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of 
 
THE CRISIS, 179 
 
 the Subject, and settling the Succession of the 
 Crown." 
 
 It carries in it the noble resentment of a people 
 that had been just rescued from tyranny ; and yet, 
 that they might justify their actions to posterity, 
 it recites all the particular instances of the tyran- 
 nical reign in a plain and dispassionate simplicity. 
 The Act runs as follows : — 
 
 "Whereas, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, 
 and freely representing all the estates of the people 
 of this realm, did upon the i 3th day of February, 
 in the year of our Lord 1688, present unto their 
 Majesties, then called and known by the names and 
 style of William and Mary, Prince and Princess 
 of Orange, being present in their proper persons, 
 a certain declaration in writing, made by the said 
 Lords and Commons in the words following, viz. : — 
 
 " Whereas the late King James the Second, by the 
 assistance of divers evil Counsellors, Judges, and 
 Ministers employed by him, did endeavour to subvert 
 and extirpate the Protestant religion and the laws 
 and liberties of this kingdom ; 
 
 " By assuming and exercising a power of dis- 
 pensing with and suspending of laws and the execu- 
 tion of laws, without consent of Parliament ; 
 
 "By committing and prosecuting divers worthy 
 prelates, for humbly petitioning to be excused from 
 concurring to the said assumed power ; 
 
i8o FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 " By issuing, and causing to be executed, 
 a Commission under the Great Seal for erecting a 
 court called the Court of Commissioners for Eccle- 
 siastical Causes ; 
 
 "By levying money for and to the use of the 
 Crown, by pretence of prerogative, for other time 
 and in other manner than the same was granted by 
 Parliament ; 
 
 "By raising and keeping a standing army within 
 this kingdom in time of peace without consent of 
 Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to 
 law ; 
 
 " By causing several good subjects, being Pro- 
 testants, to be disarmed, at the same time when 
 Papists were both armed and employed, contrary to 
 law ; 
 
 " By violating the freedom of election of members 
 to serve in Parliament ; 
 
 " By prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench 
 for matters and causes cognizable only in Par- 
 liament, and by divers other arbitrary and illegal 
 courses : 
 
 '^And whereas of late years partial, corrupt and 
 unqualified persons have been returned and served 
 on juries, in trials, and particularly divers jurors 
 in trials for high treason which were not free- 
 holders ; 
 
 " And excessive bail hath been required of persons 
 committed in criminal cases, to elude the benefit 
 
I 
 
 THE CRISIS. i8i 
 
 of the laws made for the liberty of the 
 subjects ; 
 
 "And excessive fines have been imposed, 
 ** And illegal and cruel punishments inflicted, 
 "And several grants and promises made of fines 
 ' and forfeitures, before any conviction or judgment 
 against the persons upon whom the same were to be 
 levied ; 
 
 "All which are utterly and directly contrary to 
 the known laws and statutes and freedom of this 
 realm : 
 
 "And whereas the said late King James the Second 
 having abdicated the government, and the throne 
 being thereby vacant, 
 
 " His Highness the Prince of Orange (whom it 
 hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious 
 instrument of delivering this kingdom from Popery 
 and arbitrary power) did (by the advice of the 
 Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and divers principal 
 persons of the Commons) cause letters to be written 
 to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, being Protest- 
 ants, and other letters to the several counties, cities, 
 universities, boroughs, and Cinque ports, for the 
 choosing of such persons to represent them as were 
 of right to be sent to Parliament, to meet and sit at 
 Westminster upon the two and twentieth day of 
 January, in this year one thousand six hundred 
 eighty and eight, in order to such an establishment, 
 as that their religion, laws, and liberties might not 
 
i82 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 again be in danger of being subverted, upon which 
 letters elections having been accordingly made ; 
 
 " And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and 
 Temporal, and Commons, pursuant to their respec- 
 tive letters and elections, being now assembled in a 
 full and free representative of this nation^ taking • 
 into their most serious consideration the best means 
 for attaining the ends aforesaid, do, in the first place, 
 as their ancestors in like case have usually done, 
 for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights 
 and liberties, declare: 
 
 ** That the pretended power of suspending of 
 laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, 
 without consent of Parliament, is illegal ; 
 
 *' That the pretended power of dispensing with 
 laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, 
 as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is 
 illegal ; 
 
 **That the Commission for erecting the late 
 Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, 
 and all other commissions and courts of like nature, 
 are illegal and pernicious ; 
 
 "That levying money for or to the use of the 
 Crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of 
 Parliament, for longer time or in other manner than 
 the same is or shall be granted, is illegal ; 
 
 " That it is the right of the subjects to petition the 
 King, and all commitments and prosecutions for such 
 petitioning are illegal ; 
 
THE CRISIS, 183 
 
 "That the raising or keeping a standing army 
 within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be 
 with consent of Parliament, is against law ; 
 
 "That the subjects which are Protestants may- 
 have arms for their defence suitable to their condi- 
 tions, and as allowed by law ; 
 
 '' That elections of members ought to be free ; 
 
 "That the freedom of speech and debates, or 
 proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be im- 
 peached or questioned in any court or place out of 
 Parliament ; 
 
 "That excessive bail ought not to be required, 
 nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual 
 punishments inflicted ; 
 
 "That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and 
 returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials 
 for high treason ought to be freeholders ; 
 
 "That all grants, and promises of fines, and 
 forfeitures of particular persons before conviction, are 
 illegal and void ; 
 
 " And that for redress of all grievances, and for 
 the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the 
 laws. Parliaments ought to be held frequently ; 
 
 " And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all 
 and singular the premises, as their undoubted rights 
 and liberties ; and that no declarations, judgments, 
 doings, or proceedings to the prejudice of the people 
 in any of the said premises ought in any wise to be 
 drawn hereafter into consequence or example. 
 
i84 FAMOUS PAMPflLETS. 
 
 *' To which demand of their rights they are 
 particularly encouraged by the declaration of his 
 Highness the Prince of Orange, as being the only 
 means for obtaining a full redress and remedy 
 therein ; 
 
 " Having therefore an entire confidence that 
 his said Highness the Prince of Orange will 
 perfect the deliverance so far advanced by him, 
 and will still preserve them from the violation 
 of their rights which they have here asserted, and 
 from all other attempts upon their religion, rights, 
 and liberties ; 
 
 '' The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, assembled at Westminster, do resolve : 
 
 " That William and Mary, Prince and Princess of 
 Orange, be and be declared King and Queen of 
 England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions 
 thereunto belonging ; to hold the Crown and royal 
 dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions, to 
 them the said Prince and Princess during their lives, 
 and the life of the survivor of them ; and that the 
 sole and full exercise of the regal power be only in 
 and executed by the said Prince of Orange in the 
 names of the said Prince and Princess during their 
 joint lives, and after their deceases the said crown 
 and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and 
 dominions to be to the heirs of the body of the 
 said Princess, and, for default of such issue, to the 
 Princess Anne of Denmark and the heirs of her 
 
THE CRISIS. 185 
 
 body; and, for default of such issue, to the heirs of 
 the body of the said Prince of Orange. 
 
 *' And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, do pray the said Prince and Princess to 
 accept the same accordingly. 
 
 " And that the oaths hereafter mentioned be 
 taken by all persons, of whom the oaths of allegiance 
 and supremacy might be required by law, instead of 
 them ; and that the said oaths of allegiance and 
 supremacy be abrogated. 
 
 " * I, A. B. do sincerely promise and swear that I 
 w^ill be faithful and bear true allegiance to their 
 Majesties King William and Queen Mary. So help 
 me God. 
 
 " ' I, A. B. do swear that I do from my heart abhor, 
 detest, and abjure, as impious and heretical, this 
 damnable doctrine and position, that princes excom- 
 municated or deprived by the Pope, or any authority 
 of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered 
 by their subjects, or any other whatsoever. 
 
 "'And I do declare that no foreign prince, person, 
 prelate, state, or potentate hath, or ought to have, 
 any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or 
 authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this 
 realm. So help me God.' 
 
 " Upon which their said Majesties did accept the 
 Crown and royal dignity of the kingdoms of 
 England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions 
 thereunto belonging, according to the resolution and 
 
1 86 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 desire of the said Lords and Commons contained 
 in the said declaration. 
 
 " And thereupon their Majesties were pleased 
 that the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, being the two Houses of Parliament, 
 should continue to sit, and, with their Majesties' 
 royal concurrence, make effectual provision for the 
 settlement of the religion, laws, and liberties of 
 this kingdom ; so that the same for the future 
 might not be in danger again of being subverted ; 
 to which the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 
 and Commons, did agree, and proceed to act 
 accordingly. 
 
 " Now in pursuance of the premises, the said 
 Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in 
 Parliament assembled, for the ratifying, confirming, 
 and establishing the said declaration, and the 
 articles, clauses, matters, and things therein contained 
 by the force of a law made in due form by authority 
 of Parliament, do pray that it may be declared and 
 enacted, that all and singular the rights and 
 liberties asserted and claimed in the said declaration 
 are the true, ancient, and indubitable rights and 
 liberties of the people of this kingdom, and so shall 
 be esteemed, allowed, adjudged, deemed, and taken 
 to be ; and that all and every the particulars afore- 
 said shall be firmly and strictly holden and 
 observed, as they are expressed in the said declara- 
 tion ; and all officers and ministers whatsoever 
 
THE CRISIS, 187 
 
 shall serve their Majesties and their successors 
 according to the same in all times to come. 
 
 " And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, seriously considering how it hath pleased 
 Almighty God, in his marvellous providence and 
 merciful goodness to this nation, to provide and 
 preserve their said Majesties' royal persons most 
 happily to reign over us upon the throne of their 
 ancestors, for which they render unto Him from 
 the bottom of their hearts their humblest thanks 
 and praises, do truly, firmly, assuredly, and in the 
 sincerity of their hearts think, and do hereby 
 recognize, acknowledge, and declare, that King 
 James the Second having abdicated the government, 
 and their Majesties having accepted the Crown and 
 royal dignity as aforesaid, their said Majesties 
 did become, were, are, and of right ought to be by 
 the laws of this realm, our Sovereign Liege Lord 
 and Lady King and Queen of England, France, and 
 Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, 
 in and to whose princely persons the royal state, 
 crown, and dignity of the said realms, with ^11 
 honours, styles, titles, regalities, prerogatives, powers, 
 jurisdictions, and authorities to the same belonging 
 and appertaining, are most fully, rightfully, and 
 entirely invested and incorporated, united and 
 annexed. 
 
 '^And for preventing all questions and divisions 
 in this realm, by reason of any pretended titles to 
 
1 88 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 the Crown, and for preserving a certainty in the 
 succession thereof, in and upon which the unity, 
 peace, tranquillity, and safety of this nation doth, 
 under God, wholly consist and depend ; 
 
 ** The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, do beseech their Majesties, that it may be 
 enacted, established, and declared that the Crown 
 and regal government of the said kingdoms and 
 dominions, with all and singular the premises there- 
 unto belonging and appertaining, shall be and 
 continue to their said Majesties, and the survivor of 
 them, during their lives, and the life of the survivor 
 of them ; and that the entire, perfect, and full 
 exercise of the regal power and government be only 
 in and executed by his Majesty, in the names of 
 both their Majesties during their joint lives ; and 
 after their deceases, the said Crown and premises 
 shall be and remain to the heirs of the body of her 
 Majesty ; and, for default of such issue, to her Royal 
 Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark, and the 
 heirs of her body ; and, for default of such issue, to 
 the heirs of the body of his said Majesty. And 
 thereunto the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 
 and Commons, do, in the name of all the people 
 aforesaid, most humbly and faithfully submit them- 
 selves, their heirs and posterities for ever ; and do 
 faithfully promise that they will stand to, maintain, 
 and defend their said Majesties, and also the limita- 
 tion and succession of the Crown herein specified 
 
THE CRISIS. 189 
 
 and contained, to the utmost of their powers, 
 with their lives and estates, against all persons 
 whatsoever that shall attempt anything to the 
 contrary. 
 
 "And whereas it hath been found by experience 
 that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare 
 of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a 
 Popish prince, or by any King or Queen marrying a 
 Papist ; 
 
 " The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, do further pray that it may be enacted 
 that all and every person and persons that is, are, 
 or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion 
 with the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess 
 the Popish religion, or shall marry a Papist, shall be 
 excluded, and be for ever incapable to inherit, 
 possess, or enjoy the Crown and government of this 
 realm, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto 
 belonging, or any part of the same ; or to have, use, 
 or exercise any regal power, authority, or jurisdic- 
 tion within the same ; and in all, and every such 
 case, or cases, the people of these realms shall be, 
 and are hereby absolved of their allegiance ; and the 
 said Crown and government shall from time to time 
 descend to and be enjoyed by such person or 
 persons, being Protestants, as should have inherited 
 and enjoyed the same, in case the said person or 
 persons so reconciled, holding communion, or pro- 
 fessing or marrying as aforesaid, were naturally dead. 
 
I90 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 "And that every King and Queen of this realm, 
 who any time hereafter shall come to and succeed 
 in the Imperial Crown of this kingdom, shall, on 
 the first day of the meeting of the first Parliament 
 next after his or her coming to the Crown, sitting 
 in his or her throne in the House of Peers, in the 
 presence of the Lords and Commons therein 
 assembled, or at his or her coronation, before such 
 person or persons who shall administer the corona- 
 tion oath to him or her, at the time of his or her 
 taking the said oath (which shall first happen), 
 make, subscribe, and audibly repeat the declaration 
 mentioned in the statute made in the thirtieth year 
 of the reign of King Charles the Second, entitled 
 ' An Act for the more effectual preserving the King's 
 person and government, by disabling Papists from 
 sitting in either House of Parliament/ But if it 
 shall happen that such King or Queen, upon his 
 or her succession to the Crown of this realm, shall 
 be under the age of twelve years, then every such 
 King or Queen shall make, subscribe, and audibly 
 repeat the said declaration at his or her coronation, 
 or the first day of the meeting of the first Parliament 
 as aforesaid which shall first happen after such 
 King or Queen shall have attained the said age of 
 twelve years. 
 
 "All which their Majesties are contented and 
 pleased shall be declared, enacted, and established, 
 by authority of this present Parliament, and shall 
 
THE CRISIS. 191 
 
 stand, remain, and be the law of this realm for 
 ever ; and the same are by their said Majesties, by 
 and with the advice and consent of the Lords 
 Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament 
 assembled, and by the authority of the same, 
 declared, enacted, and established accordingly. 
 
 "And be it further declared and enacted by the 
 authority aforesaid, that, from and after this present 
 session of Parliament, no dispensation by * Non 
 obstante,' of or to any statute, or part thereof, shall 
 be allowed, but that the same shall be held void and 
 of no effect, except a dispensation be allowed of 
 in such statute, and except in such cases as shall 
 be especially provided for by one or more Bill or 
 Bills, to be passed during the present session of 
 Parliament. 
 
 " Provided that no charter, or grant, or pardon, 
 granted before the three and twentieth day of 
 October, in the year of our Lord 1689, shall be any 
 ways impeached or invalidated by this Act, but that 
 the same shall be and remain of the same force and 
 effect in law, and no other, than as if this Act had 
 never been made." 
 
 I have recited the Act at large, that I might on 
 the one hand show the just sense the English nation 
 then had of their deliverance, and their gratitude to 
 their deliverer the glorious King William ; and, on 
 the other hand, avoid being censured for heaping 
 more miscarriages upon that unhappy prince King 
 
192 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 James, than a nation, whose religion, liberties, 
 fortunes, and lives were just snatched from the brink 
 of ruin thought fit to charge him with. And here, 
 that I may do justice to the Scots nation as well as 
 to the English, I shall also set down, as succinctly 
 as I can, what that brave people did in this impor- 
 tant juncture. 
 
 The Convention of the Lords and Commons in 
 the beginning of the year 1689 came to the resolu- 
 tions in substance as follow, viz. : — 
 
 " That whereas King James the Seventh, being a 
 professed Papist^ did assume the royal power, and 
 act as King, without ever taking the oath required 
 by law, whereby every King at his accession to the 
 government was obliged to swear to maintain the 
 Protestant religion, and to rule the people accord- 
 ing to the laudable laws ; and, by the advice of 
 wicked counsellors, did invade the fundamental con- 
 stitution of the kingdom of Scotland, and altered 
 it from a legal limited monarchy to an arbitrary 
 and despotic power ; and in a public proclamation 
 asserted an absolute power to annul and disable all 
 laws, particularly by arraigning the laws establishing 
 the Protestant religion, and exerted that power to 
 the subversion of the Protestant religion, and 
 to the violation of the laws and liberties of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 " By erecting public schools and societies of the 
 Jesuits, and not only allowing Mass to be publicly 
 
THE CRISIS. 193 
 
 said, but also converting Protestant chapels and 
 churches to public Mass houses, contrary to the 
 express laws against saying and hearing Mass ; 
 
 *' By allowing Popish books to be printed and dis- 
 persed by a patent to a Popish printer, designing him 
 printer to his Majesty's household, college, and chapel, 
 contrary to law ; 
 
 '*By taking the children of Protestant noblemen and 
 gentlemen, sending them abroad to be bred Papists, 
 and bestowing pensions upon priests to pervert 
 Protestants from their religion by offers of places 
 and preferments ; 
 
 *' By discharging Protestants, at the same time he 
 employed Papists in places of greatest trust both 
 civil and military, &c., and entrusting the forts and 
 magazines in their hands ; 
 
 " By imposing oaths contrary to lav/ ; 
 
 " By exacting money without consent of Parlia- 
 ment or Convention of Estates ; 
 
 *^ By levying and keeping up a standing army in 
 time of peace, without consent of Parliament; and 
 maintaining them upon free quarter ; 
 
 " By employing the officers of the army as judges 
 throughout the kingdom, by whom the subjects were 
 put to death without legal trial, jury, or record ; 
 
 '' By imposing exorbitant fines to the value of 
 the parties' estates, exacting extravagant bail, and 
 disposing fines and forfeitures before any process or 
 conviction ; 
 
 G 
 
194 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 "By imprisoning persons without expressing the 
 reason, and delaying to bring them to trial ; 
 
 ** By causing several persons to be prosecuted, 
 and their estates to be forfeited, upon stretches of 
 old and obsolete laws, upon weak and frivolous 
 pretences, and upon lame and defective proofs ; as 
 particularly the late Earl of Argyle, to the scandal 
 of the justice of the nation ; 
 
 ** By subverting the rights of the royal boroughs, 
 the third estate of Parliament^ imposing upon them 
 not only magistrates, but also the whole town council 
 and clerks, contrary to their liberties and express 
 charters, without any pretence of sentence, surrender, 
 or consent ; so that the commisioners to Parliament 
 being chosen by the magistrates and councils, the 
 King might in effect as well nominate the estate of 
 Parliament. Besides that, many of the magistrates 
 by him put in were Papists, and the boroughs were 
 forced to pay money for the letters imposing those 
 illegal magistrates upon them ; 
 
 *^ By sending letters to the chief courts of justice, 
 not only ordering the judges to stop * sine die,' but 
 also commanding how to proceed in cases depending 
 before them, contrary to the express laws ; and by 
 changing the nature of the judges' patents *ad 
 vitam ' or ' culpam,' into a commission * de bene 
 placito,' to dispose them to a compliance with arbi- 
 trary courses, and turning them out of their offices if 
 they refused to comply ; 
 
THE CRISIS, 195 
 
 " By granting personal protections for civil debts 
 contrary to law ; 
 
 " All which miscarriages of King James were 
 utterly and directly contrary to the known laws; 
 freedom.s, and statutes of the realm of Scotland. 
 Upon which grounds and reasons the estates of the 
 kingdom of Scotland did find and declare that the 
 said King James had forfeited the Crown, and the 
 throne was become vacant. 
 
 "Therefore in regard his Royal Highness, then 
 Prince of Orange, since King of England, whom it 
 hath pleased God to make the glorious instrument of 
 delivering these kingdoms from Popery and arbitrary 
 power, by advice of several lords and gentlemen of 
 the Scots nation then at London, did call the Estates 
 of this kingdom to meet upon the 14th of March 
 last, in order to such an establishment as that the 
 religion, laws, and liberties might not again be in 
 danger of being subverted ; the said estates being 
 then assembled accordingly, in a full and free repre- 
 sentative of the nation, did in the first place, as their 
 ancestors in like cases had usually done for vindica- 
 ting and asserting their ancient rights and liberties, 
 declare : 
 
 '' That by the law of Scotland no Papist could be 
 King or Queen of the realm, nor bear any office 
 therein ; nor that any Protestant successor could 
 exercise the regal power till they have sworn the 
 coronation oath. 
 
 G 2 
 
196 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 "That all proclamations asserting an absolute 
 power to null and disable laws, in order for erecting 
 schools and colleges for Jesuits, converting Protestant 
 churches and chapels into Mass houses, and the 
 allowing Mass to be said, and the allowing Popish 
 books to be printed and dispersed, was contrary to 
 law. 
 
 "That the taking the children of noblemen, 
 gentlemen, and others, and keeping them abroad to 
 be bred papists ; 
 
 "The making funds and donations to Popish 
 schools and colleges, the bestowing pensions on 
 priests, and the seducing Protestants from their 
 religion by offers of places and preferments, was 
 contrary to law. 
 
 " That the disarming of Protestants, and employing 
 Papists in the greatest places of trust, both civil and 
 military, was contrary to law* 
 
 " That the imposing an oath without authority of 
 Parliament was contrary to law. 
 
 "That the raising of money without consent of 
 Parliament or Convention was contrary to law. 
 
 "That employing the officers of the army as 
 judges was contrary to law. 
 
 "That the imposing extraordinary fines, &c.) was 
 contrary to law. 
 
 "That the imprisoning of persons without ex- 
 pressing the reasons was contrary to law. 
 
 " That the prosecuting, and seizing men's estates 
 
THE CRISIS. 197 
 
 as forfeited upon stretches of old and obsolete laws, 
 &c., was contrary to law. 
 
 *'That the nominating and imposing magistrates, 
 &c., upon boroughs, contrary to their express 
 charters, was contrary to law. 
 
 '' That the sending letters to the courts of justice, 
 ordering the judges to desist from determining of 
 causes, and ordering them how to proceed in causes 
 depending before them, &c., w^as contrary to law. 
 
 '' That the granting of personal protections, &c., 
 was contrary to law. 
 
 ''That the forcing the subjects to depose against 
 themselves in capital causes, however the punish- 
 ments were restricted, was contrary to law. 
 
 "That the using torture without evidence, or in 
 ordinary crimes, was contrary to law. 
 
 " That the sending of an army in a warlike 
 manner into any part of the kingdom in time of 
 peace, and exacting locality and free quarters, was 
 contrary to law. 
 
 '* That the charging the subjects with law 
 boroughs at the King's instance, and imposing bonds 
 without authority of Parliament, and the suspending 
 advocates for not appearing when bonds were 
 offered, was contrary to law. 
 
 ''That the putting garrisons into private houses 
 in time of peace, without authority of Parliament, 
 was illegal. 
 
 " That the opinions of the Lords of the Session in 
 
198 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 the two cases following, were illegal, (viz.) : That 
 the concerting the demand of the supply of a fore 
 faulted person, although not given, was treason ; and 
 that persons refusing to discover their private 
 thoughts in relation to points of treason, or other 
 men's actions, are guilty of treason. 
 
 " That the fining husbands for their wives' with- 
 drawing from Church was illegal. 
 
 '' That prelacy and superiority of an office in the 
 Church above Presbyters is and has been a great 
 and insupportable burden to this nation, and con- 
 trary to the inclinations of the generality of the 
 people ever since the Reformation, they having 
 reformed Popery by Presbytery, and therefore ought 
 to be abolished. 
 
 " That it is the right and privilege of the subject 
 to protest for remedy of law to the King and Parlia- 
 ment, against sentences pronounced by the Lords of 
 the Sessions, provided the same do not stop execu- 
 tions of the said sentences. 
 
 " That it is the right of the subject to petition the 
 King, and that all prosecutions and imprisonments 
 for such petitioning were contrary to law. 
 
 " Therefore for the redress of all grievances, and for 
 the amending, strengthening, and preserving the 
 laws, they claimed that Parliaments ought to be 
 frequently called, and allowed to sit, and freedom of 
 speech and debate allowed the members ; and further 
 claimed and insisted upon all and sundry the pre- 
 
THE CRISIS. 199 
 
 mises, as their undoubted rights and liberties ; and 
 that no declaration or proceedings to the prejudice 
 of the people, in any the said premises, ought in any 
 wise to be drawn hereafter in example ; but that all 
 forfeitures, fines, loss of offices, imprisonments, 
 banishments, prosecutions, and rigorous executions 
 be considered, and the parties redressed. 
 
 "To which demand of their rights, and redress 
 of their grievances, they took themselves to be 
 encouraged by the King of England's declaration for 
 the kingdom of Scotland, in October last, as being 
 the only means for obtaining a full redress and 
 remedy therein. 
 
 " Therefore for as much as they had an entire con- 
 fidence that his Majesty of England would perfect 
 the deliverance so far advanced by him, and would 
 still preserve them from the violation of the rights 
 which they had asserted, and from all other attempts 
 upon their religion, laws, and liberties ; 
 
 "The estates of the kingdom of Scotland had 
 resolved, 
 
 "That William and Mary, King and Queen of 
 England, be declared King and Queen of Scotland, 
 to hold the Crown and royal dignity of the said 
 kingdom, to them the said King and Queen during 
 their lives, and the longer liver of them ; and that 
 the sole and full exercise of the power be only in 
 and exercised by him the said King, in the names 
 of the said King and Queen, during their joint lives ; 
 
200 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 and after their deceases, that the said Crown and 
 royal dignity be to the heirs of the body of the 
 said Queen ; which failing, to the Princess Anne of 
 Denmark, and the heirs of her body ; which also 
 failing, to the heirs of the body of the said William, 
 King of England. And then prayed the said King 
 and Queen to accept the same accordingly." Which 
 being accepted by their Majesties, they were pro- 
 claimed King and Queen of Scotland the same 
 day that they were crowned King and Queen of 
 England. 
 
 The above-mentioned Acts of Settlement of the 
 respective Crowns of England and Scotland ought to 
 be written in the hearts of every true Briton, and 
 engraven on columns of brass, to be erected in all 
 the cities and boroughs of this island, that posterity 
 may know how much their ancestors suffered, and 
 how much more they were in danger of suffering, 
 from a Popish prince ; and that they may with 
 gratitude reverence the memory of their glorious 
 deliverer the immortal King William, to whom, 
 under God, are owing whatever rights, whether 
 religious or civil, they or their latest posterity shall 
 enjoy. 
 
 Thus appear the causes each nation had for the 
 late Revolution, and the just reasons for limiting the 
 entail of their respective Crowns in the manner above 
 mentioned. 
 
 They at that time doubtless hoped they should 
 
\ 
 
 THE CRISIS. 201 
 
 for ever be made happy in a descent of Protestant 
 princes, either from the late Queen Mary, the 
 Princess Anne of Denmark, or the late King 
 William, and therefore saw no necessity for extend- 
 ing the limitation further ; but the death of that 
 incomparable Princess, the late Queen Mary, on the 
 28th of December, 1694, followed by the death of 
 that hopeful Royal infant the Duke of Gloucester, 
 the only surviving issue of the Princess of Denmark, 
 on the 29th of July, 1700, gave fresh alarms to the 
 English nation. 
 
 They saw the entail of the Crown reduced to the 
 lives of the late King William and her present 
 Majesty, then Princess of Denmark. 
 
 They saw the hopes of a Popish Jacobite party 
 taking new spirit, and beginning to revive. 
 
 They saw a long train of Popish princes of the 
 blood next in descent after the demises of the late 
 King William and the Princess of Denmark without 
 issue ; they remembered the danger they had so 
 lately been in from one Popish prince, and therefore 
 thought it high time to take all necessary cautions 
 to prevent the same for the future from a numerous 
 train of Roman Catholic princes, all, or most of 
 whom, were very near in blood to a neighbouring 
 monarch, the most powerful prince in Europe, 
 whose interest, as well as inclination, might engage 
 him to support their pretensions with his whole 
 force. 
 
202 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 This prudent foresight gave birth to another Act 
 of Parliament in England in the I2th and 13th 
 years of the reign of the late King William, entitled 
 " An Act for the further limitation of the Crown, and 
 better securing the rights and liberties of the 
 subject." By this Act the most illustrious Princess 
 Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, 
 is declared the next in succession in the Protestant 
 line to the Crown of England, after the late King 
 William and the Princess Anne of Denmark, and 
 their respective issue ; and that from and after the 
 deceases of his said Majesty and the Princess Anne 
 of Denmark, and the heirs of their respective bodies, 
 the Crown should be, remain, and continue to the 
 said Princess Sophia and the heirs of her body, being 
 Protestants. 
 
 And thereunto the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 
 and Commons, in the name of all the people of this 
 realm, did most humbly and faithfully submit them- 
 selves, their heirs, and posterities ; and did faithfully 
 promise, that after the deceases of his Majesty and 
 her Royal Highness, and the failure of the heirs of 
 their respective bodies, to stand by, maintain, and 
 defend the said Princess Sophia and the heirs of her 
 body, being Protestants, according to the limitation 
 and succession of the Crown in this Act specified 
 and contained, to the utmost of their powers, with 
 their lives and estates, against all persons whatsoever 
 that shall attempt anything to the contrary. 
 
THE CRISIS, 203 
 
 In the 13th and 14th years of the said King two 
 other Acts of Parliament were made, the one en- 
 titled " An Act of attainder of the pretended Prince 
 of Wales of high treason ; " whereby it was enacted 
 '^That he be attainted of high treason, and suffer 
 pains of death, as a traitor ; and that if any subject 
 of England shall, within this realm, or without, after 
 the first of March, 1701, hold, entertain, or keep any 
 intelligence or correspondence, in person or by 
 letters, messages, or otherwise, with the said pre- 
 tended Prince of Wales, or with any person or 
 persons employed by him, knowing such person to 
 be so employed by him, or shall by bill of exchange, 
 or otherwise, remit or pay any sum or sums of 
 money, for the use or service of the said pretended 
 Prince of Wales, knowing such money to be for such 
 use or service, such person so offending, being 
 lawfully convicted, shall be taken, deemed, and 
 adjudged guilty of high treason, and shall suffer and 
 forfeit as in cases of high treason. And where any 
 offence against this Act shall be committed out of 
 this realm, the same may be alleged, laid, inquired 
 of, and tried in any county of this kingdom of 
 England." 
 
 And the other, entitled " An Act for the further 
 security of his Majesty's person, and the succession 
 of the Crown in the Protestant line, and for extin- 
 guishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales, 
 and all other pretenders, and their open and secret 
 
204 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 abettors." Wherein, reciting the said former Acts of 
 Settlement of the Crown, and that the French King, 
 in hopes of disturbing the peace and repose of his 
 Majesty and his kingdoms, and creating divisions 
 therein, had caused the pretended Prince of Wales 
 to be proclaimed King of England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, by the name of James the Third ; and that 
 the said pretended Prince had assumed the said title, 
 in open defiance of the provisions made for the 
 establishment of the title, and succession of the 
 Crown, by the said several Acts of Parliament ; to 
 the intent, therefore, that the said Acts might be 
 for ever inviolably preserved, and that all future 
 questions and divisions, by reason of any pretended 
 titles to the Crown, might be prevented, it was 
 enacted that all and every person and persons, as 
 well Peers as Commoners, that shall bear office, civil 
 or military, or receive pay, fee, or wages, or have 
 command or place of trust from his Majesty, or in 
 the service of his Majesty, Prince George, or 
 Princess Anne of Denmark, all ecclesiastical persons, 
 or members of colleges and halls, of the foundation 
 in either university, being eighteen years old, all 
 persons teaching pupils, all schoolmasters, ushers, 
 preachers, and teachers of separate congregations, 
 persons that shall act as serjeants-at-law, counsellors, 
 advocates, attorneys, solicitors, proctors, clerks, or 
 notaries by practising as such in any court, and all 
 Peers and members of the House of Commons, 
 
THE CRISIS, 20S 
 
 before they can vote in their respective Houses of 
 Parliament, should be obliged to take the oath 
 hereinafter mentioned, commonly called " The Abjura- 
 tion Oath," which oath was expressed in the following 
 words : — 
 
 " I, A. B., do truly and sincerely acknowledge, pro- 
 fess, testify, and declare, in my conscience, before God 
 and the world, that our Sovereign Lord King 
 William is lawful and rightful King of this realm, 
 and of all other his Majesty's dominions and coun- 
 tries thereunto belonging ; and I do solemnly and 
 sincerely declare that I do believe in my conscience, 
 that the person pretended to be Prince of Wales, 
 during the life of the late King James, and since his 
 decease pretending to be and taking upon himself 
 the style and title of King of England, by the name 
 of James the Third, hath not any right or title what- 
 soever to the Crown of this realm, or any other the 
 dominions thereunto belonging ; and I do renounce, 
 refuse, and abjure any allegiance or obedience to 
 him. And I do swear that I will bear faith and 
 true allegiance to his Majesty King William, and 
 him will defend, to the utmost of my power, against 
 all traitorous conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, 
 which shall be made against his person, crown, or 
 dignity ; and I will do my best endeavour to 
 disclose and make known to his Majesty, and his 
 successors, all treasons and traitorous conspiracies 
 which I shall know to be against him or any of 
 
2c6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 them ; and I do faithfully promise, to the utmost of 
 my power, to support, maintain, and defend the 
 limitation and succession of the Crown, against him 
 the said James and all other persons whatsoever, 
 as the same is and stands limited (by an Act 
 entitled ' An Act declaring the rights and liberties 
 of the subject, and settling the succession of the 
 Crown ') to his Majesty, during his Majesty's life, 
 and after his Majesty's decease to the Princess 
 Anne of Denmark, and the heirs of her body, being 
 Protestants, and, for default of such issue, to the 
 heirs of the body of his Majesty, being Protestants ; 
 and as the same by one other Act, entitled 
 'An Act for the further limitations of the Crown, 
 and better securing the rights and liberties of 
 the subject,' is and stands limited after the decease 
 of his Majesty and the Princess Anne of Denmark; 
 and, for default of issue of the said Princess and of 
 his Majesty respectively, to the Princess Sophia, 
 Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and 
 the heirs of her body, being Protestants. And all 
 these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge, 
 and swear, according to these express words by me 
 spoken, and according to the plain and common 
 sense and understanding of these same words, 
 without any equivocation, mental evasion, or secret 
 reservation whatsoever ; and I do make this 
 recognition, acknowledgment, abjuration, renun- 
 ciation, and promise, heartily, willingly, and truly, 
 
THE CRISIS. 207 
 
 upon the true faith of a Christian. So help me 
 God.'* 
 
 And it was thereby also enacted, that if any 
 person or persons, at any time after the 25 th day of 
 March, 1702, should compass or imagine the death 
 of her Royal Highness the Princess Anne of 
 Denmark, or endeavour to deprive or hinder her 
 from succeeding to the Imperial Crown of this 
 realm, and the dominions and territories thereunto 
 belonging, after the demise of his Majesty, and the 
 same maliciously, advisedly, and directly shall at- 
 tempt, by any overt act or deed, every such offence 
 shall be adjudged high treason, and the offender 
 and offenders therein, their abettors, procurers, and 
 counsellors, and all and every their aiders and 
 comforters, knowing the said offence to be done, 
 being thereof convicted, or attainted, according to 
 the laws and statutes of this realm, shall be deemed 
 and adjudged traitors, and shall suffer pains of 
 death, and all losses and forfeitures, as in cases of 
 high treason. 
 
 Thus our great deliverer accomplished his work 
 He would have thought it but half done if he 
 had delivered only one generation from Popery and 
 slavery ; and therefore made it his whole care, and 
 spent the last remains of his invaluable life, in con- 
 triving how the most pure religion and the best 
 laws in the universe might be transmitted to late 
 posterity. 
 
2o8 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 The last mentioned Acts of Parliament, and the 
 legacy that great Prince left the English nation, 
 infinitely more valuable than if he had, without them, 
 left palaces and principalities to each of his 
 subjects. 
 
 The memory of that great benefactor to mankind 
 will always be dear to every Briton, who loves the 
 religion and laws of his country, and is an enemy 
 to Popery and arbitrary power, and to every man 
 who knows the happiness of a limited monarchy, 
 circumscribed and fenced about with the bulwarks of 
 laws which equally guard the subject from the 
 invasion of the prince and the prince from the 
 insults of the subject. 
 
 . His vigilance was not confined to his kingdom 
 of England ; the happiness of the kingdom of 
 Scotland was equally his care and study. He 
 zealously attempted to have had the succession 
 to the Crown of that kingdom settled also on the 
 House of Hanover, in the same manner as that 
 of England was settled, and to have united both 
 kingdoms ; but these high benefits were reserved by 
 Heaven to be numbered amongst the glories of her 
 present Majesty's reign, a reign attended with so 
 many victories obtained by her arms abroad, under 
 the conduct of her renowned general, the Duke of 
 Marlborough ; and with so many acts of bene- 
 volence at home, by the advice of the best and 
 wisest council that ever prince employed, that, as it 
 
THE CRISIS. 209 
 
 has excelled the transactions of all former ages, so it 
 will be a lasting pattern for the imitation of all 
 which shall succeed. 
 
 Her Majesty was but just seated on her throne, 
 when, with the same goodness towards her subjects, 
 in the first year of her reign, she gives the Royal 
 assent to an Act of Parliament, intituled " An Act for 
 enlarging the time for taking the Oath of Abjuration ; 
 and also for recapacitating and indemnifying such 
 persons as have not taken the same by the time 
 limited, and shall take the same by a time to be 
 appointed ; and for the further security of her 
 Majesty's person, and the succession of the Crown in 
 the Protestant line, and for extinguishing the hopes 
 of the pretended Prince of Wales, and all other 
 pretenders, and their open and secret abettors ;" 
 in which, amongst other things, it is enacted : " That 
 if any person or persons, at any time after the 
 first day of March, 1702, shall endeavour to deprive 
 or hinder any person who shall be the next in 
 succession to the Crown, for the time being, according 
 to the limitations in an Act, intituled * An Act 
 declaring the rights and liberties of the subject, and 
 settling the succession of the Crown ;' and according 
 to another Act, intituled ' An Act for the further limi- 
 tation of the Crown, and better securing the rights 
 and liberties of the subject,' from succeeding after the 
 decease of her Majesty, to the Imperial Crown of this 
 realm, and the dominions and territories thereunto 
 
5t6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 belonging, according to the limitations in the before 
 mentioned Acts, that is to say, such issue of her 
 Majesty's body as shall from time to time be next 
 in succession to the Crown, if it shall please God 
 Almighty to bless her Majesty with issue ; and during 
 the time her Majesty shall have no issue, the Princess 
 Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover ; 
 and after the decease of the said Princess Sophia, the 
 next in succession 'to the Crown, for the time being, 
 according to the limitation of the said Acts ; and 
 the same, maliciously, advisedly, and directly shall 
 attempt by any overt act or deed ; every such offence 
 shall be adjudged high treason, and the offender or 
 offenders therein, their abettors, procurers, and 
 comforters, knowing the said offence to be done, 
 being thereof convicted or attainted, according to the 
 laws and statutes of this realm, shall be deemed and 
 adjudged traitors, and shall suffer pains of death, 
 and all losses and forfeitures, as in cases of high 
 treason." 
 
 Her Majesty in the fourth year of her reign gave 
 the Royal assent to an Act, entitled " An Act for the 
 naturalization of the most excellent Princess Sophia, 
 Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the 
 issue of her body ;" by which it is enacted, " That the 
 said Princess Sophia, and the issue of her body, and 
 all persons lineally descending from her, born, or 
 hereafter to be born, be, and shall be, to all intents 
 and purposes whatsoever, deemed, taken, and 
 
THE CRISIS, 211 
 
 esteemed natural born subjects of this kingdom, 
 as if the said Princess, and the issue of her body, 
 and all persons lineally descending from her, born, 
 or hereafter to be born, had been born within this 
 realm of England, any law, statute, matter, or thing 
 whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding, with a 
 proviso that every person who shall be naturalized 
 by virtue of this Act, and shall become a Papist, or 
 profess the Popish religion, shall not enjoy any 
 benefit or advantage of a natural born subject of 
 England, but shall be judged an alien." 
 
 And in the fourth and fifth year of her Majesty's 
 reign another Act passed the Royal assent, intituled 
 *' An Act for the better securing her Majesty's person 
 and government, and of the succession to the Crown 
 of England in the Protestant line ;" by which, amongst 
 other things^ it is enacted, *' That if any person or 
 persons, from and after the 25 th day of March, 1706, 
 shall maliciously, advisedly, and directly, by writing 
 or printing, declare, maintain, and affirm, that our 
 Sovereign Eady the Queen, that now is, is not the 
 lawful or rightful Queen of these realms; or that 
 the pretended Prince of Wales, who now styles him- 
 self King of England by the name of James the 
 Third, hath any right or title to the Crown of these 
 realms ; or that any other person or persons hath 
 or have any right or title to the same, otherwise than 
 according to an Act of Parliament, made in the first 
 year of their late Majesties King William and Queen 
 
212 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 Mary, intituled * An Act declaring the rights and 
 liberties of the subject, and settling the succession of 
 the Crown ;' and one other Act, made in the I2th 
 year of the reign of his said late Majesty King 
 William the Third, intituled ' An Act for the further 
 limitation of the Crown, and better securing the 
 rights and liberties of the subject :' 
 
 '' Or that the Kings or Queens of England, with 
 and by the authority of the Parliament of England, 
 are not able to make laws and statutes of sufficient 
 force and validity, to limit and bind the Crown of 
 this realm, and the descent, limitation, inheritance, 
 and government thereof, every such person or 
 persons shall be guilty of high treason, and being 
 thereof convicted and attainted, according to the laws 
 and statutes of this realm, shall be deemed and 
 adjudged traitors, and shall suffer pains of death, 
 and all losses and forfeitures, as in case of high 
 treason. 
 
 ''And that if any person or persons shall, from 
 and after the said 25th day of March, maliciously 
 and directly, by preaching, teaching, or advised 
 speaking, declare, maintain, and affirm, in manner 
 as aforesaid, every such person or persons, being 
 thereof lawfully convicted, shall incur the danger 
 and penalty of praemunire. 
 
 "And that the Parliament shall not be dissolved 
 by the death or demise of her Majesty, her heirs or 
 successors ; but such Parliament, if sitting at the 
 
THE CRISIS, 213 
 
 time of such demise, may proceed to act for six 
 months, and no longer, unless the same shall be 
 sooner prorogued or dissolved by such person to 
 whom the Crown of this realm of England shall 
 come, according to the Acts for limiting and settling 
 the succession above mentioned. And if the said 
 Parliament shall be so prorogued, then it shall meet 
 and sit on the day unto which it shall be prorogued, 
 and continue for the residue of the said six months, 
 unless sooner prorogued or dissolved as aforesaid. 
 And if there be a Parliament in being, at the time 
 of the death of her Majesty, her heirs or successors, 
 but happens to be separated by adjournment or 
 prorogation, such Parliament shall immediately 
 after such demise meet, and act for six months, and 
 no longer, unless the same shall be prorogued 
 or dissolved, as aforesaid. And in case there is 
 no Parliament in being at the time of such demise, 
 that has met and sat, then the last preceding 
 Parliament shall immediately convene, and sit at 
 Westminster, and be a Parliament to continue as 
 aforesaid ; but subject to be prorogued and dissolved 
 as aforesaid. 
 
 ''That the Privy Council of her Majesty, her 
 heirs, and successors, shall not be dissolved by such 
 death or demise, but shall continue for six months, 
 unless sooner determined by the next successor ; 
 
 '' Nor shall any office, place, or employment, 
 civil or military, become void by such demise, but 
 
214 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 continue also for six months, unless the persons 
 enjoying them shall be sooner removed and dis- 
 charged by the next successor. 
 
 "And if her Majesty shall happen to die 
 without issue, the Privy Council shall with all 
 convenient speed cause the next Protestant suc- 
 cessor entitled to the Crown of England by virtue 
 of the Acts above mentioned, to be openly and 
 solemnly proclaimed in England and Ireland, in 
 usual manner ; and every member thereof wilfully 
 neglecting or refusing to cause such proclamation to 
 be made shall be guilty of high treason ; and every 
 officer, by the Privy Council required to make 
 such proclamations, wilfully neglecting or refusing, 
 shall be guilty of and suffer the penalties of high 
 treason. 
 
 "And for continuing the administration of the 
 government in the name of such Protestant successor, 
 until her or his arrival in England, the Lord Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor or Lord 
 Keeper, Lord High Treasurer, Lord President of the 
 Council, Lord Privy Seal, Lord High Admiral, and 
 Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, at that 
 time being, are thereby appointed Lords Justices 
 of England, until such successor arrive or determine 
 their authority. 
 
 "And the person to succeed in case of her 
 Majesty's death without issue is empowered at any 
 time during her Majesty's life, by three instru- 
 
THE CRISIS. 215 
 
 ments under her or his hand and seal, to appoint 
 so many natural born subjects of England, as she or 
 he shall think fit^ to be added to the above men- 
 tioned Lords Justices, to act with them as Lords 
 Justices of England, who, or the major part, not 
 being fewer than five, shall execute the power of 
 Lords Justices. 
 
 '* The said three instruments to be transmitted into 
 England, to the resident of the person next to 
 succeed (whose credentials shall be enrolled in 
 Chancery), and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
 Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, close sealed up ; 
 and after they are so transmitted, shall be severally 
 put into several covers, and severally sealed by such 
 resident. Archbishop, and Chancellor or Keeper, 
 and severally deposited in the hands of such resident. 
 Archbishop, and Chancellor or Keeper. If the next 
 successor shall think fit to revoke or alter such 
 appointment, and shall by three writings of the same 
 tenor, under her or his hand and seal, require the 
 said instruments so deposited to be delivered up, 
 then the persons with whom deposited^ their execu- 
 tors, administrators, and every other person, in 
 whose custody the said instruments shall happen to 
 be, shall deliver up the same accordingly. And if 
 any of the said persons with whom the said instru- 
 ments shall be so deposited shall die or be removed 
 from their respective offices or employments during 
 her Majesty's life, such person or persons, and in 
 
2i6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 case of any of their deaths their executors and 
 administrators respectively, and every other person 
 in whose custody the same shall happen to be, shall 
 with all convenient speed deliver such of them as 
 shall be in his or their custody to the successor or 
 successors of the person or persons so dying or 
 removed ; which said several instruments so sealed 
 up and deposited shall immediately after the demise 
 of her Majesty without issue be brought before the 
 Privy Council, where the same shall be forthwith 
 opened and read, and afterwards enrolled in the High 
 Court of Chancery. 
 
 " If the persons with whom the said instruments 
 shall be deposited, or others in whose custody the 
 same shall be, after the deceases of any of the said 
 persons, shall open the same, or wilfully neglect or 
 refuse to produce them as aforesaid, such persons 
 shall incur the penalties of praemunire. 
 
 "And if all the said instruments shall not be 
 produced before the said Privy Council, then any 
 one of the said instruments so produced shall be 
 as effectual to give such authority as aforesaid to 
 the persons therein named as if all of them had 
 been produced. And if there be not any nomina- 
 tion by such instruments, then the said seven officers 
 above named, or any five of them, are appointed 
 to be Lords Justices of England. And that the 
 Lords Justices of England shall not dissolve the 
 Parliament, continued and ordered to assemble and 
 
THE CRISIS, 217 
 
 sit as aforesaid, without express direction from such 
 succeeding Queen or King, and are restrained and 
 disabled from giving the Royal assent to any Bill 
 for the repealing or altering the Act for the 
 Uniformity of Public Prayers and Administration 
 of Sacraments, made 13 & 14 Charles II., under 
 the penalty of high treason. And that the said 
 Lords Justices, before they act m their said offices, 
 shall take the oaths mentioned in an Act made 
 I William and Mary, entitled * An Act for abrogating 
 the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and ap- 
 pointing other Oaths,' and also the Abjuration Oath, 
 before the Privy Council ; and all members of both 
 Houses of Parliament, and every member of the 
 Privy Council, and all officers and persons in any 
 offices, places, or employment, civil or military, who 
 shall be by this Act continued as aforesaid, shall 
 take the said oaths, and do all other acts required 
 by the laws of this realm, to qualify themselves to 
 continue in such their respective places, offices, 
 and employments, within such time and in .such 
 manner, and under such penalties and disabilities 
 as they should or ought to do, had they been then 
 newly elected, appointed, constituted, or put into 
 such offices, places, or employments in the usua 
 and ordinary way. And that the Lords Justices 
 shall be deemed as persons executing offices of 
 trust within this kingdom, and shall do all acts 
 requisite by the laws to qualify themselves to be 
 
2x8 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 and continue in their said offices, within such times, 
 and in such manner, and under such penalties and 
 disabilities, as in and by the said Acts are required. 
 
 *' And it is in the said Act provided, amongst 
 other things, that if any of the aforesaid seven 
 offices, other than the office of Lord High Treasurer 
 of England, shall be in commission at the time of 
 such demise of her Majesty, that then the first 
 Commissioner of such respective commission shall 
 be one of the Lords Justices of England. And if 
 there be no Lord High Treasurer of England, and 
 the office of Treasurer of the Exchequer shall be in 
 commission, then the first in that commission shall 
 be one of the Lords Justices of England." 
 
 I have here shown what wonderful concern and 
 care appeared, as well in her Majesty and her 
 Parliament, as in the late King William and his, 
 for settling the succession to the Crown of England 
 in the Protestant line. I come now to the Act of 
 Parliament for uniting the kingdoms of England 
 and Scotland in one kingdom, by the name of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 This had been unsuccessfully attempted by 
 several of her Majesty's predecessors, but the glory 
 of it was reserved for her Majesty, that she might 
 appear as great in her councils as her arms. 
 
 This Act is entitled, " An Act for an Union of the 
 two kingdoms of England and Scotland," and 
 received the Royal assent in the fifth year of the 
 
THE CRISIS. 219 
 
 reign of her Majesty. It recites that Articles of 
 Union were agreed on, the 22nd day of July, in the 
 fifth year of her Majesty's reign, by the Commis- 
 sioners nominated on behalf of the kingdom of 
 England, under the Great Seal of England, dated 
 the loth day of April then last past, in pursuance 
 of an Act of Parliament made in England in the 
 third year of her Majesty's reign, and the Commis- 
 sioners nominated on the behalf of the kingdom of 
 Scotland, under the Great Seal of Scotland, dated 
 the 27th day of February, in the fourth year of her 
 Majesty's reign, in pursuance of the 4th Act of the 
 third session of the then present Parliament of Scot- 
 land, to treat of and concerning a union of the 
 said kingdoms ; and reciting that an Act had 
 passed in the Parliament of Scotland, the i6th day 
 of January, in the fifth year of her Majesty's reign, 
 wherein it is mentioned that the estates of Parlia- 
 ment, considering the said Articles of Union of the 
 two kingdoms, had agreed to and approved thereof 
 with some additions and explanations, and that her 
 Majesty had passed in the same session of Parlia- 
 ment an Act, entitled "Act for securing of the 
 Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Govern- 
 ment," which was appointed to be inserted in any 
 Act ratifying the treaty, and expressly declared to 
 be a fundamental and essential condition of the said 
 treaty or union in all times coming ; 
 
 The tenor of which Articles, as ratified and 
 
226 PAMOt/S PAMPHLETS. 
 
 approved of, is at large recited in the said Act of 
 Union. It concerns our present purpose to mention 
 only the first and second. 
 
 Article I. 
 
 That the two kingdoms of England and Scot- 
 land shall, upon the first day of May, which shall 
 be in the year 1707, and for ever after, be united 
 into one kingdom, by the name of Great Britain, 
 and that the ensigns armorial of the said United 
 Kingdom be such as her Majesty shall appoint, and 
 the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew be con- 
 joined in such manner as her Majesty shall think 
 fit, and used in all flags, banners, standards, and 
 ensigns, both at sea and land. 
 
 Article II. 
 
 That the succession to the monarchy of the 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain, and of the 
 dominions thereto belonging, after her most sacred 
 Majesty, and in default of issue of her Majesty, be, 
 remain, and continue to the most excellent Princess 
 Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, 
 and the heirs of her body being Protestants, upon 
 whom the Crown of England is settled by an Act of 
 Parliament made in England in the twelfth year of 
 the reign of his late Majesty King William the 
 Third, entitled '' An Act for the further limitation 
 of the Crown, and better securing the rights and 
 
THE CRISIS. 221 
 
 liberties of the subject ; " and that all Papists, 
 and persons marrying Papists, shall be excluded 
 from and for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or 
 enjoy the Imperial Crown of Great Britain, and 
 the dominions thereunto belonging, or any part 
 thereof; and in every such case the Crown and 
 Government shall from time to time descend to 
 and be enjoyed by such person, being a Protestant, 
 as should have inherited and enjoyed the same, in 
 case such Papist, or person marrying a Papist, was 
 naturally dead, according to the provision for the 
 descent of the Crown of England, made by another 
 Act of Parliament in England, in the first year of 
 the reign of their late Majesties King William and 
 Queen Mary, entitled "An Act declaring the rights 
 and liberties of the subject, and settling the succes- 
 sion of the Crown." 
 
 But this point is of so great consequence, that I 
 must beg leave to repeat the history and progress of 
 it, which was thus. 
 
 Her Majesty was empowered by two several Acts 
 of Parliament, one of the late kingdom of England 
 and the other of the late kingdom of Scotland, to 
 appoint Commissioners for each kingdom, to treat of 
 a union of the two kingdoms ; but it was expressly 
 provided in each Act that the Commisioners should 
 not treat of or concerning the alteration of the 
 worship, discipline, or government of the Church in 
 either kingdom. 
 
222 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 The Commisioners were accordingly appointed by 
 her Majesty, and twenty-five Articles were agreed 
 upon between them, which Articles were approved 
 and ratified by two several Acts of Parliament of 
 the said late kingdoms of England and Scotland, 
 in which said Acts each kingdom provided for 
 the preservation of the worship, discipline, and 
 government of its respective Church, within their 
 respective parts of the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain, and each Act of Parliament for the preser- 
 vation of the said Churches were agreed to be taken 
 as a fundamental condition of the union, and to 
 be repeated and inserted in any Act of Parliament 
 for agreeing to the said treaty or union betwixt the 
 two kingdoms ; and it was expressly enacted in 
 each of the said Acts, '' that the said Articles and 
 Acts should be and continue in all time coming the 
 sure and perpetual foundation of a complete and 
 entire union of the two kingdoms of England and 
 Scotland." 
 
 After which an Act of Parliament of the United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain was passed, entitled " An 
 Act for an Union of the two Kingdoms of England 
 and Scotland ; " wherein, reciting the said twenty- 
 five Articles of the Union, ratified and confirmed 
 by the respective Acts of Parliament of the 
 kingdoms of England and Scotland, and inserting 
 the said Acts of Parliament for preserving the 
 Worship, discipline, and government of the respective 
 
THE CRISIS. 223 
 
 Churches of each kingdom, it is thereby enacted 
 that the said Acts of Parliament of England and 
 Scotland, for securing their respective Churches, 
 and the said Articles of Union, so as aforesaid 
 ratified, approved, and confirmed, be, and continue in 
 all times coming, the complete and entire union of 
 the two kingdoms of England and Scotland. 
 
 The words, "so as aforesaid ratified, approved, 
 and confirmed," are very material, and ought to be 
 carefully observed, because some of the said Articles 
 are made entire and absolute, and others give a 
 power to the Parliament of Great Britain to alter 
 the same ; so that these words, " so as aforesaid 
 ratified, approved, and confirmed," must be taken 
 *^ reddendo singula singulis," that is^ such of the 
 said Articles as express no power to the Parlia- 
 ment of Great Britain to alter them shall remain 
 entire, and such as carry a power of alteration 
 by the Parliament of Great Britain are not so 
 sacred. 
 
 Amongst the Articles that carry no such express 
 power with them is the second Article for settling 
 the succession of the Crown of Great Britain on the 
 House of Hanover ; so that I humbly offer it to 
 every good subject's consideration, whether this 
 Article is not as firm as the Union itself, and as the 
 settlement of Episcopacy in England and Presbytery 
 in Scotland, 
 
 These were the sacred terms and stipulations 
 
2 24 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 made between the two late kingdoms of England 
 and Scotland, and upon which both kingdoms, 
 by the legal representatives, consented to be 
 dissolved and exist no longer, "but be resolved 
 into, and united in one kingdom, by the name 
 of Great Britain." 
 
 The powers that made this happy union, the 
 Parliaments of England and Scotland, have no 
 longer a being ; and therefore that union, in the 
 express terms thereof, must remain inviolable. The 
 union would be infringed should there be any 
 deviation from these Articles, and what conse- 
 quences that would have no good subject can 
 think of without horror ; for, as I humbly pre- 
 sume there is no possibility of returning into 
 the same state as we were in before this union, 
 it is wild and extravagant to suppose it can be 
 peaceably broken. Two warlike nations that should 
 separate, after being under solemn obligations of 
 perpetual union, would, like two private men of 
 spirit that had broken friendship, have ten thousand 
 nameless and inexplicable causes of anger boiling 
 in their bosoms, which would render them incapable 
 of living quiet neighbours, and one of them must be 
 brought very low, or neither of them could live in 
 peace or safety. What I mean is, that common 
 sense and the nature of things would make one 
 expect that nothing less than a war could attend 
 the dissatisfactions of such a rupture. It becomes 
 
THE CRISIS. 225 
 
 the Englishmen in generosity to be more particu- 
 larly careful in preserving this union. 
 
 For the late kingdom of Scotland had as nume- 
 rous a nobility as England, and the representatives 
 of their Commons were also very numerous. They 
 have by the Articles of Union consented to send 
 only sixteen Peers and forty-five Commons to the 
 Parliament of Great Britain, which hath the same 
 number of Lords and Commons for England that 
 were before the union ; so that the Scots repre- 
 sentatives can make no stand in the defence of all 
 or any of the Articles of the Union, should they be 
 opposed by such unequal numbers of the Lords and 
 Commons of England ; and therefore it is most 
 plain, from the impotence in which so many wise and 
 able men of the Scotch nation left themselves in 
 these particulars, that they understood the points 
 of religion in England and Scotland respectively, 
 the succession to the Crown of Great Britain, and 
 all other Articles of the Union were never to be 
 controverted. 
 
 To guard and protect this settlement of the 
 Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 
 the Protestant line, an Act of Parliament of the 
 United Kingdom passed in the sixth year of her 
 Majesty's reign, intituled '' An Act for the security 
 of her Majesty's person and government, and of the 
 succession to the Crown of Great Britain in the 
 Protestant line," by which the provisions in the 
 
 H 
 
^^26 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 before mentioned Act, entitled **An Act for the 
 better security of her Majesty's person and govern- 
 ment, and of the succession to the Crown of England 
 in the Protestant line," are extended throughout the 
 whole United Kingdom. It is in effect a repetition 
 of that Act, with proper alterations for that purpose. 
 "So that now throughout Great Britain this Act 
 hath made it high treason for any person maliciously, 
 advisedly, and directly, by writing or printing, to 
 maintain and aififirm that our Sovereign Lady the 
 Queen, that now is, is not the lawful and rightful 
 Queen of these realms ; or that the pretended Prince 
 of Wales, who now styles himself King of Great 
 Britain, or King of England, by the name of James 
 the Third, or King of Scotland, by the name of James 
 the Eighth, hath any right or title to the Crown of 
 these realms ; or that any other person or persons 
 hath or have any right or title to the same, other- 
 wise than according to an Act of Parliament made 
 in England, in the first year of the reign of their 
 late Majesties King William and Queen Mary, 
 entitled * An Act declaring the rights and liberties 
 of the subject, and settling the succession of the 
 Crown,' and one other Act made in England, in the 
 twelfth year of the reign of his said late Majesty 
 king William the Third, entitled *An Act for the 
 further limitation of the Crown, and better securing 
 the rights and liberties of the subject,' and the Acts 
 lately made in England and Scotland, mutually for 
 
THE CRISIS, 227 
 
 the union of the two kingdoms ; or that the Kings 
 or Queens of this realm, with and by the authority 
 of Parliament, are not able to make laws and 
 statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and 
 bind the Crown, and the descent, limitation, inheri- 
 tance, and government thereof, every such person or 
 persons shall be guilty of high treason ; and if any 
 person or persons shall maliciously and directly, by 
 preaching, teaching, or advised speaking, declare, 
 maintain, and affirm as aforesaid, such person or 
 persons shall incur the penalty of praemunire." 
 
 Thus did our kingdom of Great Britain begin in 
 the fifth year of her Majesty's reign, and in the year 
 of our Lord 1707. And from this great era, to 
 which it is so easy to look back, every Briton may 
 date this happy conclusion : that all the notions of 
 hereditary right, but that of her Majesty and the 
 heirs of her body, and, in default of such issue, that 
 of the most illustrious Princess Sophia, and the heirs 
 of her body, being Protestants, are at an end. 
 
 And all this hath been done in so open a man- 
 ner, and in so expressive and plain terms, that one 
 cannot but think that our Popish or Jacobite party, 
 who have been of late so bold both in writing and 
 speaking against the settlement of the Crown of 
 Great Britain, in the Protestant line, and cannbt 
 possibly plead ignorance of these things, must have 
 some unaccountable encouragement for their support. 
 But let me inform every Briton that loves his Queen, 
 
 H 2 
 
2 2 8 FA MO US PA MPHLETS. 
 
 religion, laws, and liberties, it is his duty to appear 
 boldly in their defence, and detect and seize those 
 enemies to his country, wherever he finds them. 
 What should any man fear in so just a cause, who 
 acts under the guard and protection of the laws of 
 his country, whilst his opponents act with halters 
 about their necks ? 
 
 It is not material to mention the grand suspicions 
 of the spurious birth of the pretended Prince of 
 Wales ; that it was talked with great assurance by 
 the Papists, that the late King James's Queen was 
 big with a son some months before the pretended 
 birth, for they well knew a daughter would not do 
 their business ; that at the time of the pretended 
 birth the Princess Anne, now our most gracious 
 Queen, was at the bath ; that the Bishops were clapt 
 up in the tower ; that the women about the Queen 
 were Papists ; that the presumptive heir was not pre- 
 sent ; that at the birth of the present French King, 
 the next heir, though a man, was permitted to see the 
 Queen actually delivered ; that in our case it might 
 have been done with much more decency had there 
 been a birth, since the next heir was a woman ; that 
 the late King James and his Queen owning the 
 Pretender is no argument for his not being spurious, 
 considering the bigotry of that Prince, and the great 
 influence the clergy of the Church of Rome have on 
 their laity ; that our own history informs us that 
 the first Queen Mary was prevailed on by her 
 
THE CRISIS. 
 
 229 
 
 Popish priests to feign herself with child, to exclude 
 her Protestant sister, the Lady Elizabeth, from the 
 Crown of England ; that the imposture had been 
 carried on, and a birth been imposed upon the nation, 
 had not King Philip, her husband, wisely considered 
 that the impostor would not only succeed to the 
 Crown of England, but also to that of Spain, and 
 so prevented it. I say these things are altogether 
 insignificant, they are foreign to the purpose. Be 
 the Pretender who he will, or whoever was his father 
 or mother, it concerns not any Briton : he is an 
 attainted person, an enemy to our Queen and 
 country ; and all his aiders and abettors are guilty 
 of high treason. 
 
 Now I am upon the subject of this late settle- 
 ment of the Crown, I cannot forbear to express my 
 wonder that there can be found any Briton weak 
 enough to contend against a power in their own 
 nation which is practised to a much greater degree in 
 other States, and without the least scruple exercised, 
 according to the emergencies of human affairs. 
 How hard is it, that Britain should be debarred the 
 privilege of establishing its own security, even by 
 relinquishing only those branches of the royal line 
 v/hich threaten it with destruction, whilst other 
 nations never scruple, upon less occasions, to go 
 much greater lengths. There have been even in 
 France three different races of their kings ; the first 
 began with Pharamond, the second with Charles 
 
230 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 Martell, and the third with Hugh Capet ; and I doubt 
 whether, if the direct line of the blood royal of France 
 were to be followed, it would make for the title of 
 his present most Christian Majesty. But, to come to 
 fresh instances, in which Great Britain itself hath not 
 been unconcerned, what right, by the contrary rule, 
 could the Duke of Savoy have to the kingdom of 
 Sicily, or the Elector of Bavaria to that of Sardinia ? 
 Can Great Britain help to advance men to other 
 thrones, and have no power in limiting its own ? 
 Has not Louis the Fourteenth given us fresh 
 instances of such innovations in his own family ? 
 Or can men think he is not in earnest in excluding 
 his grandson the King of Spain, and his descen- 
 dants, from the Crow^n of France, and the Dauphin 
 and Duke of Berri, and their descendants, from the 
 Crown of Spain ? And if such sacred things as 
 kingdoms themselves may be thus disposed of out of 
 the right line, not by any resignation that can in any 
 equitable sense be called voluntary, but apparently 
 for mere reasons of state and ambition, certainly the 
 English and Scotch, for preservation of religion, 
 liberty, and property, the essential benefits of life, 
 might with more justice settle their Crown in the 
 Protestant line in the manner they have done, 
 excluding all the nearer princes of the blood that are 
 Papists. 
 
 When I reflect on these many solemn strong 
 barriers of laws and oaths, of policy and religion, of 
 
THE CRISIS. 231 
 
 penalties without, and conscience within, methinks 
 all fear vanisheth before them. It seems a phantom 
 only, that disappears with the light ; and I begin to 
 hope it is as ridiculous and groundless as the artifice 
 of some men endeavours to represent it. But my 
 thoughts will not let me rest here ; I ask myself, 
 before I am aware, what are the marks of a lasting 
 security ? What are our tempers and our hearts at 
 home ? In what hands is power lodged abroad ? 
 Are our unnatural divisions our strength ? Or is it 
 nothing to us which of the Princes of Europe hath 
 the longest sword ? The powerful hand that deals 
 out crowns and kingdoms all around us, may it not 
 in time reach out a king to us too ? Are there no 
 pretensions to our Crown that can ever be revived ? 
 Or are Popery and ambition become tame and quiet 
 neighbours ? 
 
 These uneasy questions are enough to satisfy any 
 Briton that we can neither know our security, 
 nor be sensible of our danger, from any partial view 
 of our condition, or from appearances on one side 
 only. Our condition cannot be judged of but from 
 the circumstances of the affairs of Europe in general, 
 as well as of Great Britain in particular. 
 
 That I may represent this with the more advan- 
 tage, and put everything in its proper view, I cannot 
 but look back on the glorious scene some past years 
 presented us with, a scene too glorious indeed to be 
 forgotten, and yet too affecting to be remembered. 
 
232 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 Ambition, tyranny and oppression seemed not long 
 ago to be just taking their leave of this part of the 
 world, and ready to give place to honour, liberty and 
 justice. The French for near an age had been 
 always triumphant in their encroachments on their 
 neighbours ; from the number of their troops, their 
 early taking the field, the remissness of their enemies, 
 joined with their happy manner of interpreting the 
 sense of their leagues and treaties, they had always 
 succeeded in everything they undertook ; the long 
 series of their good fortune made them arrogate to 
 themselves the titles of intrepid and invincible ; but 
 the destined time came, and they were to their costs 
 as fully convinced of their mistake by the bravery of 
 the British troops, under the conduct of her Majesty's 
 late general, the great Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 As this wonderful instrument of Providence 
 carried in his fortune the fate of the British people, 
 who can forbear to run over the good events that 
 happened under him, and the honours paid to him ; 
 both which are recited not as they are personal to 
 himself, but as they concern the British name and 
 nation, which he represented. 
 
 The first thing that meets my imagination is, the 
 French army broken, routed, flying over the plains 
 of Blenheim, and choosing rather to throw them- 
 selves headlong into the Danube than face about 
 upon their conqueror. I see the just honours done 
 him by the Emperor and the whole empire ; I hear 
 
THE CRISIS, 233 
 
 him with loud acclamations acknowledged the 
 deliverer of Europe. He is introduced into the 
 College of Princes, and takes possession of the 
 principality of Mindelhelm. Triumphant columns 
 are erected in the plains of Blenheim, recording the 
 seasonable assistance of the British arms and the 
 glories of that immortal day. 
 
 The British leader returns from the Danube to the 
 Rhine ; he and his brave companions are the delight 
 of the nations through whom they march, and are 
 styled their good, their guardian angels. After 
 passing so many different nations in a triumphant 
 maimer, he lands in his own country, a humble, 
 unattended subject, honouring and adorning his 
 nation by privacy and modesty at home, much more 
 than by the highest triumphs and ostentations 
 abroad. 
 
 The Queen and Senate pass in religious pomp to 
 thank the Almighty for victory over the then 
 common oppressor. But the prospect does not end 
 here : the plains of Ramillies are a new scene of 
 glory to the Confederate arms^ and a second happy 
 day ends the bondage of many cities ! 
 , :.His most Christian Majesty conceives new hopes 
 from changing his generals, and from the conduct 
 of Vendome promises himself to repair the diminu- 
 tion of his glory by Villeroy. 
 
 The branches of his Royal family, the Dukes of 
 Burgundy and Berri, are to animate the soldiery by 
 
234 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 their presence ; but Vendome, Burgundy, and Berri 
 are not strong enough for the genius of the Dul^e 
 of Marlborough at Oudenard. 
 
 The French still change their general, and Villars 
 IS in command. He soon shares the same fate with 
 his predecessors, by being beaten out of his camp 
 by an inferior number of troops : a camp so strong, 
 by nature and art that, as none but the Duke of 
 Marlborough would have attempted it, so none but 
 that consummate captain at the head of his brave 
 countrymen could have succeeded in it. In short, 
 methinks I see Ostend, Menin, Lisle, Tournay, Mons, 
 Aire, Douay, and innumerable other towns, held 
 impregnable, all besieged, taken, and restored to 
 their lawful Prince and ancient liberties. 
 
 The English General, during the course of ten 
 campaigns, besieged no town but what he took, 
 attacked no army but what he routed, and returned 
 each year with the humility of a private man. 
 
 If beating the enemy in the field, and being 
 too vigilant for their councils in foreign Courts, 
 were effectual means towards ending the war, and 
 reducing them to a condition too low for giving 
 fresh disturbance to Europe, the Duke of Marl- 
 borough took just measures ; but, however un- 
 accountable it may appear to posterity, that General 
 was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his glorious 
 labour ; but, as France changed her generals for 
 want of success in their conduct, so Britain changes 
 
THE CRISIS, :235 
 
 hers after an uninterrupted series of conquest. 
 The minds of the people, against all common sense, 
 are debauched with impressions of the Duke's 
 affectation of prolonging the war for his own glory ; 
 and his adversaries attack a reputation which could 
 not well be impaired without sullying the glory of 
 Great Britain itself. His enemies were not to be 
 softened by that consideration : he is dismissed, 
 and soon after a suspension of arms between Great 
 Britain and France is proclaimed at the head of 
 the armies. The British, in the midst of the 
 enemy's garrisons, withdraw themselves from their 
 confederates. The French, now no longer having 
 the Britons or their great leader to fear, affect no 
 more strong garrisons and fortified camps, but 
 attack and rout the Earl of Albemarle at Denain, 
 9»ifd' necessitate the brave Prince Eugene to abandon 
 Landrecy, a place of such importance that it gave 
 entrance into the heart of France, of which the 
 French King was so sensible that, -before he was 
 recovered from his fright, he acknowledged he in a 
 manner owed his Crown to the suspension of arms 
 between him and Great Britain. The suspension 
 is followed by a treaty of peace at Utrecht. The 
 peace is concluded between Great Britain and 
 France^.* -and between PVance and the States- 
 General. The Emperor and the Empire continue 
 the war. I shall not presume to enter into an 
 examination of the articles of peace between us 
 
236 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 and France ; but there can be no crime in affirming 
 (if it be a truth) that the House of Bourbon is at 
 this juncture become more formidable, and bids 
 fairer for a universal monarchy and to engross 
 the whole trade of Europe, than it did before 
 the war. 
 
 All the world knows with what frankness the 
 Dutch have been treated to deliver up Traerbach to 
 the Imperialists, as an expedient for the French to 
 besiege it, because, forsooth, it lay convenient for 
 their incursions upon the Empire. This extravagant 
 demand must give a melancholy prospect to other 
 nations. 
 
 The most important article between France and 
 England is the demolition of Dunkirk, which they 
 have begun contemptuously and arbitrarily their 
 own way : the mole and harbour, which only are 
 dreadful to us, are yet untouched, and just sus- 
 picions given that they ever will be. 
 
 Landau and Fribourg are taken ; and in case 
 there is no intermediate peace, which may still 
 be more immediately fatal to us, two hundred 
 thousand French may be ready in the spring to 
 invade the Empire, and restore the Duke of Bavaria 
 to his forfeited dominions. 
 
 These incidents happen when the capital of 
 Austria, the residence of his Imperial Majesty, is 
 visited with the plague. The male line of that 
 house is likely to terminate in himself; and should 
 
THE CRISIS, 2it 
 
 it please God to take him off, and no King of the 
 Romans chosen, a Prince of the House of Bourbon 
 would probably bid fair for the Imperial dignity, 
 after which day farewell liberty! Europe would be 
 French. 
 
 But the scene is not yet closed. Portugal, which 
 during the war supplied to us the place of Spain, by 
 sending us vast quantities of gold in exchange for 
 our woollen manufactures, has only at present a 
 suspension of arms for its protection, which suspen- 
 sion may possibly last no longer than till the 
 Catalonians are reduced ; and who knows but the 
 old pretensions of Spain to Portugal may be then 
 revived ? I mention the Catalonians, but who can 
 name the Catalonians without a tear ! Brave, 
 unhappy people ! Drawn into the war by the en- 
 couragement of the maritime powers^ from which 
 only a nation encompassed by land by France 
 and Spain could hope for relief and protection, now 
 abandoned and exposed to the resentment of an 
 enraged Prince, whose person and interest they 
 have always opposed ; and yet still so fond of 
 their ancient liberties, that, though hemmed up in 
 a nook of land by the forces of the two Crowns, 
 and closely besieged in Barcelona, they choose 
 rather, like their countrymen, the famous Saguntines 
 of old, to perish with their wives and children, than 
 live in slavery. Did the French King, with a 
 conquering sword in his hand, ever abandon the 
 
^^^ fAMOl/S PAMPHLETS, 
 
 least and most inconsiderable of all his allies ? No. 
 When these very Catalonians had assisted him 
 against the King of Spain, he did not give up his 
 power of treating till he had made the most honour- 
 able conditions for them ; not a single man amongst 
 them was then hurt either in his person or privileges. 
 But now, poor unhappy Catalonians, worthy of a 
 better fate ! Good and gracious God ! To whom 
 shall be attributed the loss of this brave people ! 
 Dreadful the doom of those who shall in thy sight 
 be esteemed their destroyers. 
 
 But, to bring these several facts and circumstances 
 home, we must observe, that the person who seems 
 to be the most favoured by the fVench King in the 
 late treaties is the Duke of Savoy, who is made King 
 of Sicily ; and, considering also the enlargement of 
 his territories on the Continent by cession from the 
 Emperor, is become the most powerful Prince in 
 Italy. This Prince put in his claim to the Crown 
 of England, in the right of his wife, a daughter of 
 the late Duchess of Orleans, sister to our late King 
 Charles the Second, at the time of settling the Crown 
 of England on the House of Hanover. This Prince, 
 a man of as great address and capacity as any now 
 living, is supposed to have entered into a secret and 
 strict alliance with the House of Bourbon, and may 
 therefore very well add to our fears of a Popish 
 successor. 
 
 Things standing thus, and the House of Bourbon 
 
THE CRISIS. 33.9 
 
 being 111 the actual possession of France and Spain, 
 bidding fair for the conquest of Germany, or in 
 peace and good understanding with it ; what have 
 Great Britain and Holland to hope from but the 
 mercy of France ? What else have we to prevent the 
 Pretender being imposed on us, when France shall 
 think fit — nay, in failure of one pretender, he has 
 in his quiver a succession of them ; the Duchess of 
 Savoy, or her sons, or the Dauphin her grandson. 
 The last named cannot be many years from the 
 throne of France. 
 
 In the next place, how are we disposed at home 
 for the reception of such an attempt ? The passions 
 of many, which were raised so high by an impudent 
 suggestion of the Church's danger, seem to have 
 subsided into a lethargic unconcern for everything 
 else ; harmless men are ashamed to own how grossly 
 they have been imposed upon, and, instead of 
 resenting the abuse, are willing to overlook it, with 
 a certain reluctance against being moved at any- 
 thing else, lest they should fall into the mortifica- 
 tion of being misled a second time. Many, who are 
 above being blinded by popular noise and outcry, 
 yet seem to think the warmth and zeal of a public 
 spirit to be little better than a romantic heat of 
 brain. Treasonable books lately dispersed amongst 
 us, that have apparently struck at the Protestant 
 succession in the House of Hanover, have passed 
 almost without observation from the generality of 
 
240 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 the people ; subtle queries have been published 
 about the birth of a certain person, which certain 
 person everybody knows to be intended for the Pre- 
 tender ; the author of " The Conduct of the Allies " 
 has dared to drop insinuations about altering the 
 succession ; and a late treasonable book, on the 
 subject of Hereditary Right, has published the will 
 of King Henry the Eighth, which seems to be in- 
 tended as a pattern for the like occasion. 
 
 The conversion of the Pretender to our religion 
 has been occasionally reported and contradicted, 
 according to the reception it met with among the 
 soft fools who give that gross story a hearing. 
 The unhappy Prince, whose son the Pretender calls 
 himself, is a memorable instance how much such 
 conversions are to be depended upon. King James, 
 when Duke of York, for a long time professed 
 himself a Protestant ; and even not long before his 
 succession to the Crown, several persons had actions 
 brought against them for saying he was a Papist, 
 and exorbitant damages given and recovered. In a 
 word, from the practice of all Papists that have come 
 to Protestant thrones upon pretence of embracing 
 the reformed religion, we have reason to believe they 
 have dispensations from Rome to personate any- 
 thing for the service of that Church. A Popish 
 Prince will never think himself obliged by the most 
 solemn, even the Coronation Oath, to his Protestant 
 subjects. All oaths are as insignificant, and as soon 
 
THE CRISIS, 241 
 
 forgotten, as the services done by such Protestant 
 subjects. 
 
 King James, when Duke of York, was preserved 
 from the Bill of Exclusion by the Church of England, 
 and particularly its bishops. When he came to the 
 Crown, the Church was soon insulted and outraged by 
 him, and her prelates committed to the Tower. 
 
 Has not a neighbouring Prince cruelly treated and 
 banished his Protestant subjects, who preserved the 
 crown on his head } 
 
 Did not the Princess Mary promise the men of 
 Suffolk, who joined with her against the Lady Jane 
 Grey, that she would make no alteration in the 
 religion established by her brother. King Edward 
 the Sixth } And yet as soon as she came to the 
 Crown, by the assistance even of Suffolk men, she 
 filled all England, and in a particular manner that 
 county, with the flames of martyrs. The cruelties of 
 that reign were such that multitudes of men, women 
 and children were burnt for being zealous professors 
 of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. In short, nothing 
 less than this can be expected from a Popish Prince ; 
 both clergy and laity must share the same fate ; all 
 universally must submit to the fiery trial, or renounce 
 their religion. Our bishops and clergy must all 
 lose their spiritual preferments, or submit to all 
 antichristian tyranny. And, should they submit to 
 everything, they must notwithstanding part from 
 their wives and children, which, according to the 
 
242 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 Church of Rome, are harlots and spurious. The 
 laity, possessed of lands that formerly belonged to 
 the Roman Catholic clergy, must resign their estates, 
 and perhaps be made accountable for the profits 
 received. 
 
 What can be more moving, than to reflect upon the 
 barbarous cruelties of Papists beyond all example ; 
 and these not accidental, or the sudden effects of 
 passion or provocation, but the settled result of their 
 religion and their consciences. 
 
 Above 100,000 men, women and children were 
 murdered in the massacre of Ireland. How hot 
 and terrible were the late persecutions of the Pro- 
 testants in France and Savoy ! How frequent were 
 the massacres of Protestants through the whole king- 
 dom of France^ when they were under the protection 
 of the then laws of that country ! How barbarous, 
 in a particular manner, was the massacre of Paris, 
 at the marriage of the King of Navarre, the French 
 King's grandfather, a Protestant, with the sister of 
 Charles the Ninth, where the famous Admiral of 
 France, the great Coligny, the glorious asserter of 
 the Protestant interest, was inhumanly murdered, 
 and the body of that hero dragged naked about 
 the streets, and this by the direction of the King 
 himself, who had but just before most treacherously 
 given him, from his own mouth, assurance of his 
 protection ! Ten thousand Protestants, without dis- 
 tinction of quality, age, or sex, were put to the 
 
THE CRISIS. 243 
 
 sword at the same time ; the King of Navarre him- 
 self narrowly escaped this disaster, his mother the 
 Queen of Navarre having not long before been 
 poisoned by the same faction. 
 
 These are some instances of what must ever be 
 expected. No obligations on our side, no humanity 
 or natural probity on theirs, are of any weight ; 
 their very religion forces them, upon pain of damna- 
 tion, to forget and cancel the former, and to extin- 
 guish all remains of the latter. Good God ! To 
 what are they reserved, who have nothing to expect 
 but what such a religion can afford them t It can- 
 not therefore be too often repeated. We should 
 consider, over and over again, that should the chain 
 of the Protestant succession be once broke in upon, 
 though the Pretender should be laid aside, the next 
 of the blood royal is the Duchess of Savoy ; after 
 her, her two sons ; after them, the present Dauphin of 
 France ; the next in succession to him, the Queen of 
 Spain, and her heirs ; in default of them, the Duke 
 of Orleans, and his heirs, and most of the other 
 Princes of the blood of France, all Papists, who may 
 be enabled to demand preference to the House of 
 Hanover ; so that, besides the probability of this 
 kingdom being united to, and made a province of 
 France, the train of Popish Princes is so great, that, 
 if one should not complete the utter extirpation of 
 our religion, laws, and liberties, the rest would 
 certainly do it. 
 
244 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 And here I cannot but add what is still of more 
 importance, and ought to be the most prevalent 
 of all arguments, that should there be the least 
 hopes given to a Popish successor, the life of her 
 Majesty will certainly be in most imminent danger ; 
 for there will never be wanting bloody zealots of 
 that persuasion that will think it meritorious to 
 take away her Majesty's life to hasten the accession 
 of such a successor to her throne. 
 
 The only preservation against these terrors are 
 the laws before-mentioned relating to the settlement 
 of the Imperial Crown of Great Britain Thanks 
 be to Heaven for that settlement. The Princess 
 Sophia, and the heirs of her body, being Protestants, 
 are the successors to her present Majesty, upon her 
 demise without issue. The way is plain before our 
 eyes, guarded on the right hand and on the left 
 by all the sanctions of God and man, and by all 
 the ties of law and conscience. Let those who 
 act under the present settlement, and yet pretend 
 to dispute for an absolute hereditary right, quiet 
 themselves with the arguments they have borrowed 
 from Popery, and teach their own consciences the 
 art of dispensing with the most solemn oath to 
 this Establishment, whilst they think themselves 
 bound only till opportunity shall serve to introduce 
 another. God be thanked ! neither we, nor our 
 cause, stand in need of such detestable prevarica- 
 tion. Our cause is our happiness. Our oaths are 
 
THE CRISIS. 245 
 
 our judgment and inclination. Honour and affec- 
 tion call us, without the solemnity of an oath, to 
 defend such an Establishment ; but with it we have 
 every motive that can influence the mind of man- 
 The terrors of God, added to the demands of our 
 country, oblige and constrain us to let our hearts 
 and our hands follow our wishes and our con- 
 sciences ; and, out of regard to our Queen, our reli- 
 gion, our country, our liberty, and our property, to 
 maintain and assert the Protestant succession in the 
 illustrious House of Hanover : it is no time to 
 talk with hints and innuendoes, but openly and 
 honestly to profess our sentiments, before our 
 enemies have completed and put their designs in 
 execution against us. As divided a people as we 
 are, those who are for the House of Hanover are 
 infinitely superior, in number, wealth, courage, and 
 all arts, military and civil, to those that are in the 
 contrary interest ; besides which, we have the laws — 
 I say the laws — on our side. And those who by 
 their practices, whatever their professions are, have 
 discovered themselves enemies to the constitution 
 and friends to the Pretender, cannot make a step 
 farther without being guilty of treason, without stand- 
 ing in broad daylight confessed criminals against 
 their injured Queen and country. 
 
 When the people were in a ferment, when faction 
 ran high, with irresistible prepossessions against 
 everything in its former channel, sanguine m.en 
 
246 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 might conceive hopes of leading them their own 
 way. But the building erected upon that quicksand, 
 the favour of the multitude, will sink, and be swal- 
 lowed up by that treacherous ground on which the 
 foundation was laid. 
 
 It is easy to project the subversion of a people 
 when men see them unaccountably turned for their 
 own destruction ; but not so easy to effect that 
 ruin when they are come to themselves, and are 
 sensibly and reasonably affected with thoughts for 
 their preservation. We cannot help it, if so many 
 thousands of our brave brethren, who laid down 
 their lives against the power of France, have died 
 in vain ; but we may value our own lives dearly, 
 like honest men. Whatever may befall the glory 
 and wealth of Great Britain, let us struggle to the 
 last drop of our blood for its religion and liberty. 
 The banners under which we are to enter this con- 
 flict, whenever we are called to it, are the laws 
 mentioned in this discourse ; when we do not keep 
 them in sight, we have no colours to fly to, no 
 discipline to preserve us, but are devoted, and 
 have given ourselves up to, slaughter and con- 
 fusion. 
 
 While we act manfully under them, we have 
 reason to expect the blessing and assistance of 
 Heaven on its own . cause, which it has so mani- 
 festly acknowledged to be such, by our many won- 
 derful deliverances, when all human assistances and 
 
THE CRISIS, 247 
 
 ordinary means of succour seemed irrevocably re- 
 moved. We have no pretensions to the Divine 
 favour, but from our firm adherence to that settle- 
 ment, which He has, by so many wonders and 
 blessings, after such great difficulties and misfor- 
 tunes, bestowed upon us, and which we have in 
 his sight, and with the invocation of his sacred 
 Name, after preparing ourselves at his altar, so 
 frequently and solemnly sworn to defend. This 
 plain, unperplexed, unalterable rule for our conduct 
 is visibly the work of his hand to a favoured people. 
 Her Majesty's Parliamentary title, and the Succes- 
 sion in the illustrious House of Hanover, is the 
 Ark of God to Great Britain, and, like that of old, 
 carries death to the profane hand that shall dare 
 to touch it. 
 
HISTORIC DOUBTS 
 
 RELATIVE TO 
 
 NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 
 
 " Is not the same reason available in theology and in politics? . . . 
 Will you follow truth but to a certain point ? " 
 
 Vindication of Natural Society^ by a late noble luriter. 
 
Historic Doubts Relative to 
 Napoleon Buonaparte. 
 
 Long as the public attention has been occupied by 
 the extraordinary personage from whose ambition 
 we are supposed to have so narrowly escaped, the 
 subject seems to have lost scarcely anything of its 
 interest. We are still occupied in recounting the 
 exploits, discussing the character, inquiring into the 
 present situation, and even conjecturing as to the 
 future prospects of Napoleon Buonaparte. 
 
 Nor is this at all to be wondered at, if we con- 
 sider the very extraordinary nature of those exploits 
 and of that character, their greatness and extensive 
 importance, as well as the unexampled strangeness 
 of the events, and also that strong additional stimu- 
 lant, the mysterious uncertainty that hangs over the 
 character of the man. If it be doubtful whether any 
 history (exclusive of such as is avowedly fabulous) 
 ever attributed to its hero such a series of wonderful 
 achievements compressed into so small a space of 
 
252 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 time, it IS certain that to no one were ever assigned 
 so many dissimilar characters. It is true indeed 
 that party prejudices have drawn a favourable and 
 an unfavourable portrait of almost every eminent 
 man ; but, amidst all the diversities of colouring, 
 something of the same general outline is always 
 distinguishable, and even the virtues in the one 
 description bear some resemblance to the vices of 
 another ; rashness, for instance, will be called 
 courage, or courage rashness ; heroic firmness and 
 obstinate pride will correspond in the two opposite 
 descriptions, and in some leading features both 
 will agree. Neither the friends nor the enemies of 
 Philip of Macedon or of Julius Caesar ever ques- 
 tioned their courage or their military skill. With 
 Buonaparte, however, it has been otherwise. This 
 obscure Corsican adventurer — a man, according to 
 some, of extraordinary talents and courage ; accord- 
 ing to others, of very moderate abilities and a rank 
 coward — advanced rapidly in the French army^ 
 obtained a high command, gained a series of impor- 
 tant victories, and, elated by success, embarked in an 
 expedition against Egypt, which was planned and 
 conducted, according to some, with the most con- 
 summate skill, according to others, with the utmost 
 wildness and folly. He was unsuccessful, however ; 
 and, leaving the Army of Egypt in a very distressed 
 situation, he returned to France, and found the 
 nation, or at least the army, so favourably disposed 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 253 
 
 towards him, that he was enabled, with the utmost 
 ease, to overthrow the existing Government, and 
 obtain for himself the supreme power ; at first under 
 the modest appellation of Consul, but afterwards 
 with the more sounding title of Emperor. While in 
 possession of this power, he overthrew the most 
 powerful coalitions of the other European States 
 against him, and, though driven from the sea by the 
 British fleets, overran nearly the whole Continent, 
 triumphant. Finishing a v/ar, not unfrequently, in a 
 single campaign, he entered the capitals of most of 
 the hostile potentates, deposed and created kings at 
 his pleasure, and appeared the virtual sovereign of 
 the chief part of the Continent, from the frontiers of 
 Spain to those of Russia. Even those countries we 
 find him invading with prodigious armies, defeating 
 their forces, penetrating to their capitals, and threat- 
 ening their total subjugation ; but at Moscow his 
 progress is stopped : a winter of unusual severity, 
 co-operating with the efforts of the Russians, totally 
 destroys his enormous host ; and the German 
 sovereigns throw off the yoke, and combine to 
 oppose him. He raises another vast arnr'y, which is 
 also ruined at Leipsic ; and again another, with 
 which, like a second Antaeus, he for some time 
 maintains himself in France, but is finally defeated, 
 deposed, and banished to the island of Elba, of 
 which the sovereignty is conferred on him. Thence 
 he returns, in about nine months, at the head of six 
 
254 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 hundred men, to attempt the deposition of King 
 Louis, who had been peaceably recalled. The French 
 nation declare in his favour, and he is reinstated with- 
 out a struggle. He raises another great army to 
 oppose the Allied Powers, which is totally defeated at 
 Waterloo ; he is a second time deposed, surrenders 
 to the British, and is placed in confinement at the 
 island of St. Helena. Such is the outline of the 
 eventful history presented to us ; in the detail of 
 which, however, there is almost every conceivable 
 variety of statement, while the motives and conduct 
 of the chief actor are involved in still greater doubt, 
 and the subject of still more eager controversy. 
 
 In the midst of these controversies, the prelimi- 
 nary question, concerning the existence of this extra- 
 ordinary personage, seems never to have occurred to 
 any one as a matter of doubt ; and to show even the 
 smallest hesitation in admitting it would probably 
 be regarded as an excess of scepticism, on the 
 ground that this point has always been taken for 
 granted by the disputants on all sides, being indeed 
 implied by the very nature of their disputes. But is 
 it in fact found that undisputed points are always 
 such as have been the most carefully examined as to 
 the evidence on which they rest? that facts or 
 principles which are taken for granted without con- 
 troversy, as the common basis of opposite opinions, 
 are always themselves established on sufficient 
 grounds } On the contrary, is not any such funda- 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 255 
 
 mental point, from the very circumstance of its being 
 taken for granted at once, and the attention drawn 
 off to some other question, likely to be admitted on 
 insufficient evidence, and the flaws in that evidence 
 overlooked ? Experience will teach us that such 
 instances often occur : witness the well-known 
 anecdote of the Royal Society, to whom King 
 Charles II. proposed as a question, whence it is 
 that a vessel of water receives no addition of weight 
 from a live fish being put into it, though it does if 
 the fish be dead. Various solutions of great in- 
 genuity were proposed, discussed, objected to, and 
 defended ; nor was it till they had been long 
 bewildered in the inquiry that it occurred to them 
 to try the experiment ; by which they at once 
 ascertained, that the phenomenon which they were 
 striving to account for — which was the acknowledged 
 basis and substratum, as it were, of their debates- 
 had no existence but in the invention of the witty 
 monarch. 
 
 Another instance of the same kind is so very 
 remarkable that I cannot forbear mentioning it. 
 It was objected to the system of Copernicus when 
 first brought forward, that if the earth turned on its 
 axis, as he represented, a stone dropped from the 
 summit of a tower would not fall at the foot of it, 
 but at a great distance to the w^est ; in the same 
 ^manner as a stofte dropped from the masthead of a 
 ship in fidl sail, does not fall at the foot of the mast, 
 
256 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 biU towards the stern. To this it was answered that 
 a stone being a part of the earth, obeys the same 
 laws, and moves with it, whereas it is no part of the 
 ship, of which consequently its motion is indepen- 
 dent. This solution was admitted by some, but op- 
 posed by others, and the controversy went on with 
 spirit ; nor was it till one hundred years after the 
 death of Copernicus that, the experiment being tried, 
 it was ascertained that the stone thus dropped froni 
 the head of the mast, does fall at the foot of it ! ^ 
 
 Let it be observed that I am not now impugning 
 any one particular point, but merely showing gene- 
 rally that what is iinq?icstioned is not necessarily 
 unquestionable ; since men will often, at the very 
 moment when they are accurately sifting the evi" 
 dence of some disputed point, admit hastily, and on 
 the most insufficient grounds, what they have been 
 accustomed to see taken for granted. 
 
 The celebrated Humef has pointed out also the 
 readiness with which men believe, on very slight 
 evidence, any story that pleases their imagination 
 
 * Oi/rws draXatVwpos rots iroWols t) ^iWrjffii r^s aXrjdeiaSf Kal iwl tA 
 ^Toipm fiaWov TpiirovTaL. — Thucyd. B. i. c. 20. 
 
 + ** With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of travellers 
 received, their descriptions of sea and land monsters, their relations of 
 wondeifiil ndventures, strange men, and uncouth manners." — Hume's 
 " Essay on Miracles," p. 179, i2mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo, 
 
 1817. 
 
 N.B. In order to give every possible facility of reference, three editions 
 of Hume's Essays have been generally employed : a i2mo, London, 
 1756, and two 8vo editions. 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 257 
 
 by its admirable and marvellous character. Such 
 hasty credulity however, as he well remarks, is 
 utterly unworthy of a philosophical mind, which 
 should rather suspend its judgment the more in 
 proportion to the strangeness of the account, and 
 yield to none but the most decisive and unimpeach- 
 able proofs. 
 
 Let it then be allowed us, as is surely reasonable, 
 just to inquire, with respect to the extraordinary 
 story I have been speaking of, on what evidence we 
 believe it. We shall be told that it is notorious — 
 i.e.y in plain English, it is very much talked about ; 
 but as the generality of those who talk about 
 Buonaparte do not even pretend to speak from their 
 own authorityy but merely to repeat what they have 
 casually heard, we cannot reckon them as in any 
 degree witnesses, but must allow ninety-nine hun- 
 dredths of what we are told to be mere hearsay, 
 which would not be at all the more worthy of credit 
 even if it were repeated by ten times as many more- 
 As for those who profess to have personally known 
 Napoleon Buonaparte, and to have themselves wit- 
 nessed his transactions, I write not for them : if any 
 snch there be^ who are inwardly conscious of the 
 truth of all they relate, I have nothing to say to 
 them, but to beg that they will be tolerant and 
 charitable towards their neighbours who had not the 
 same means of ascertaining the truth, and who may 
 well be excused for remaining doubtful about such 
 
 I 
 
258 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 extraordinary events, till most unanswerable proofs 
 shall be adduced. 
 
 Let us, however, endeavour to trace up some of 
 this hearsay evidence as far towards its source as we 
 are able. Most persons would refer to the neivs- 
 papers as the authority from which their knowledge 
 on the subject was derived ; so that, generally 
 speaking, we may say, it is on the testimony of the 
 newspapers that men believe in the existence and 
 exploits of Napoleon Buonaparte. 
 
 It is rather a remarkable circumstance, that it is 
 common to hear Englishmen speak of the impudent 
 fabrications of foreign newspapers, and express 
 wonder that any one can be found to credit them, 
 while they conceive that in this favoured land the 
 liberty of the press is a sufficient security for 
 veracity. It is true they often speak contemptuously 
 of such "newspaper stories" as last but a short 
 time ; indeed, they continually see them contra- 
 dicted within a day or two in the same paper, or 
 their falsity detected by some journal of an opposite 
 party ; but still, whatever is long adhered to and often 
 repeated, especially if it also appear in several different 
 papers (and this, though they notoriously copy from 
 one another), is almost sure to be generally believed. 
 Whence this high respect which is practically paid 
 to newspaper authority } Do men think that, 
 because a witness has been perpetually detected in 
 falsehood, he may therefore be the more safely 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 259 
 
 believed whenever he is not detected ? Or does 
 adherence to a story, and frequent repetition of it, 
 render it the more credible ? On the contrary, is it 
 not a common remark in other cases, that a liar will 
 generally stand to and reiterate what he has once 
 said, merely because he has said it ? 
 
 Let us, if possible, divest ourselves of this super- 
 stitious veneration for everything that appears "in 
 print," and examine a little more systematically the 
 evidence which is adduced. 
 
 I suppose it will not be denied that the threq 
 following are among the mosc important points to be 
 ascertained, in deciding on the credibility of wit- 
 nesses : first, whether they have the means of gaining 
 correct information ; secondly, whether they have 
 any interest in concealing truth, or propagating false- 
 hood ; and, thirdly, whether they agree in their 
 testimony. Let us examine the present witnesses 
 upon all these points. 
 
 First, what means have the editors of newspapers 
 for gaining correct information } We know not, 
 except from their own statements. Besides what is 
 copied from other journals, foreign or British (which 
 is usually more than three-fourths of the news 
 published),^ they profess to refer to the authority of 
 
 * " Suppose a fact to be transmitted through twenty persons, thfe 
 first communicating it to the second, the second to the third, &c., and 
 let the probability of each testimony be expressed by nine-tenths (that 
 is, suppose that of ten reports made by each witness nine only are true), 
 then, at every time the story passes from one witness to another, the 
 
 I 3 
 
26o FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 certain private correspondents abroad. Who these 
 correspondents are, what means they have of obtain- 
 ing information, or whether they exist at all, we have 
 no way of ascertaining. We find ourselves in the 
 condition of the Hindoos, who are told by their 
 priests that the earth stands on an elephant, and the 
 elephant on a tortoise, but are left to find out for 
 themselves what the tortoise stands on, or whether it 
 stands on anything at all. 
 
 So much for our clear knowledge of the means of 
 information possessed by these witnesses ; next for 
 the grounds on which we are to calculate on their 
 veracity. 
 
 Have they not a manifest interest in circulating 
 the wonderful accounts of Napoleon Buonaparte and 
 his achievements, whether true or false .'* Few 
 would read newspapers if they did not sometimes 
 find wonderful or important news in them ; and we 
 may safely say that no subject was ever found so 
 inexhaustibly interesting as the present. 
 
 evidence is reduced to nine-tenths of what it was before. Thus, after it 
 has passed through the whole twenty, the evidence will be found to be 
 less than one-eighth." — La Place, *' Essay Philosophique sur les Proba- 
 bilites." 
 
 That is, the chances for the fact thus attested being true will be, 
 according to this distinguished calculator, less than one in eight : very 
 few of the common newspaper stories, however, relating to foreign 
 countries, could be traced, if the matter were carefully investigated, up 
 to an actual eye-witness, even through twenty intermediate witnesses ; 
 and many of the steps of our ladder would, I fear, prove but rotten. 
 Few of the reporters would deserve to have one in ten fixed as the pro- 
 portion of their false account?. 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE, 261 
 
 It may be urged, however, that there are several 
 adverse political parties of which the various public 
 prints are respectively the organs, and who would 
 not fail to expose each other's fabrications.^ Doubt- 
 less they would, if they could do so without at the 
 same time exposing their oivft ; but identity of 
 interests may induce a community of operations up 
 to a certain point ; and, let it be observed, that the 
 object of contention between these rival parties is 
 who shdiW have the administration of public affairs, 
 the control of public expenditure, and the disposal 
 of places ; the question, I say, is, not whether the 
 people shall be governed or not, but by which 
 party they shall be governed — not whether the taxes 
 ^shall be paid or not, but who shall receive them. 
 Now it must be admitted that Buonaparte is a poli- 
 tical bugbear most convenient to any administra- 
 tion. ''If you do not adopt our measures and reject 
 those of our opponents, Buonaparte will be sure 
 to prevail over you ; if you do not submit to the 
 Government, at least under our administration, this 
 formidable enemy will take advantage of your 
 insubordination to conquer and enslave you ; pay 
 
 * ** I need not mention the difficulty of detecting a falsehood in any 
 private or even public history, at the time and place where it is said to 
 happen ; much more where the scene is removed to ever so small a 
 
 distance But the matter never comes to any issue, if trusted to the 
 
 common method of altercation and debate and flying rumours." — 
 Hume's "Essay on Miracles," p. 195, l2mo ; pp. 200, 201, 8vo, 1767 ; 
 p. 127, 8vo, 1817. 
 
262 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 your taxes cheerfully, or the tremendous Buonaparte 
 will take all from you." Buonaparte, in short, was 
 the burden of every song ; his redoubted name was 
 the charm which always succeeded in unloosing the 
 purse-strings of the nation. And let us not be too 
 sure, safe as we now think ourselves, that some occa- 
 sion may not occur for again producing on the stage 
 so useful a personage : it is not merely to naughty 
 children in the nursery that the threat of being 
 " given to Buonaparte " has proved effectual. It is 
 surely probable therefore, that, with an object sub- 
 stantially the same, all parties may have availed 
 themselves of one common instrument. It is not 
 necessary to suppose that for this purpose they 
 secretly entered into a formal agreement — though, 
 by the way, there are reports afloat that the editors 
 of the Courier and Morning Clironide hold amicable 
 consultations as to the conduct of their public warfare. 
 I will not take upon me to say that this is incre- 
 dible ; but at any rate it is not necessary for the 
 establishment of the probability I contend for. 
 Neither again would I imply that all newspaper 
 editors are utterers of forged stories, " knowing them 
 to be forged ; ^' most likely the great majority of 
 them publish what they find in other papers with 
 the same simplicity that their readers peruse it> 
 and therefore, it must be observed, are not at 
 all more proper than their headers to be cited as 
 authorities. 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 263 
 
 Still it will be said, that unless we suppose a 
 regularly preconcerted plan, we must at least expect 
 to find great discrepancies in the accounts pub- 
 lished ; though they might adopt the general outline 
 of facts one from another, they would have to fill 
 up the detail for themselves, and in this, therefore, 
 we should meet with infinite and irreconcilable 
 variety. 
 
 Now this IS precisely the point I am tending to, 
 for the fact exactly accords with the above supposi- 
 tion, the discordance and mutual contradictions of 
 these witnesses being such as would alone throw a 
 considerable shade of doubt over their testimony. 
 It is not in minute circumstances alone that the 
 discrepancy appears, such as might be expected to 
 appear in a narrative substantially true, but in very 
 great and leading transactions, and such as are very 
 intimately connected with the supposed hero. For 
 instance, it. is by no means agre(id whether Buona- 
 parte led in person the celebrat(:d charge over the 
 bridge of Lodi (for celebrated it certainly is, as well 
 as the siege of Troy, whether either event ever 
 really took place or no), or was safe in the rear, 
 while Augereau performed the exploit : the same 
 doubt hangs over the charge of the French cavalry 
 at Waterloo. It is no less uncertain whether or 
 no this strange personage poisoned in Egypt a 
 hospitalful of his own soldiers, and butchered in 
 cold blood a garrison that had surreaidered. But, 
 
264 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 not to multiply instances, the battle of Borodino, 
 which is represented as one of the greatest ever 
 fought, is unequivocally claimed as a victory by 
 both parties ; nor is the question decided at this 
 day. We have official accounts on both sides^ circum- 
 stantially detailed, in the names of supposed respect- 
 able persons professing to have been present on the 
 spot, yet totally irreconcilable. Both these accounts 
 may be false; but since one of them imist be false, 
 that one (it is no matter which we suppose) proves 
 incontrovertibly this important maxim : that it is 
 possible for a narrative — lioivever circumstantial'— 
 hozvever steadily maintained — however public and 
 however important the events it relates — however 
 grave the att^thorit}' on which it is published— to be 
 7ieverthelcss an entire fabrication ! 
 
 Many of the events which have been recorded 
 w-ere probably believed much the more readily and 
 firmly, from the aptparent caution and hesitation with 
 which they were at first published — the vehement 
 contradiction in our papers of many pretended 
 French accounts, and the abuse lavished upon 
 them for falsehood, exaggeration, and gasconade. 
 But is it not possible — is it not indeed perfectly 
 natural — that thi publishers of known falsehood 
 should assume this cautious demeanour, and this 
 abhorrence of exaggeration, in order the more easily 
 to gain credit .^ Is it not also very possible, that 
 those who actunlly believed what they published 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE, 265 
 
 may have suspected mere exaggeration in stones 
 which were entire fictions ? Many men have that 
 sort of simplicity, that they think themselves quite 
 secure against being deceived, provided they beheve 
 only part of the story they hear, when perhaps 
 the whole is equally false. So that perhaps these 
 simple-hearted editors, who were so vehement against 
 lying bulletins and so v/ary in announcing their 
 great news, were in the condition cf a clown who 
 thinks he has bought a great bargain of a Jew, 
 because he has beat down the price, perhaps from a 
 guinea to a crown, for some article that is not really 
 worth a groat. 
 
 With respect to the character of Buonaparte, the 
 dissonance is, if possible, still greater. According to 
 some, he was a wise, humane, magnanimous hero — 
 others paint him as a monster of cruelty, meanness, 
 and perfidy ; some, even of those who are the most 
 inveterate against him, speak very highly of his 
 political and military ability — others place him on 
 the very verge of insanity. But, allowing that all 
 this may be the colouring of party prejudice (which 
 surely is allowing a great deal), there is one point to 
 which such a solution will hardly apply. If there be 
 anything that can be clearly ascertained in history, 
 one would think it must be the personal courage of 
 a military man ; yet here we are as much at a 
 loss as ever : at the very same times, and on the 
 same occasions, he is described by different writers 
 
266 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 as a man of undaunted intrepidity, and as an abso- 
 lute poltroon. 
 
 What, then, are we to believe ? If we are disposed 
 to credit all that is told us, we must believe in the 
 existence not only of one, but of two or three 
 Buonapartes ; if we admit nothing but what is well 
 authenticated, we shall be compelled to doubt of 
 the existence of any.* 
 
 It appears, then, that those on whose testimony the 
 existence and actions of Buonaparte are generally 
 believed, fail in all the most essential points on 
 which the credibility of witnesses depends : first, we 
 have no assurance that they have access to correct 
 information ; secondly, they have an apparent in- 
 terest in propagating falsehood ; and, thirdly, they 
 palpably contradict each other in the most important 
 points. 
 
 Another circumstance which throws additional 
 suspicion on these tales is that the Whig party, as 
 they are called — the warm advocates for liberty, and 
 opposers of the encroachments of monarchical power 
 — have for some time past strenuously espoused the 
 cause and vindicated the character of Buonaparte, 
 who is represented by all as having- been, if not a 
 tyrant, at least an absolute despot. One of the most 
 
 * ** We entertain a suspicion concerning any matter of fact when the 
 witnesses contradict each other, when they are of a suspicious character, 
 when they have an interest in what they affirm." — Hume's ** Essay on 
 Miracles," p. 172, i2mo; p. 176, 8vo, 1767 ; p. 113, Svo, 181 7. 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 267 
 
 forward in this cause is a gentleman who once stood 
 foremost in holding up this very man to public 
 execration — who first published, and long maintained 
 against popular incredulity, the accounts of his 
 atrocities in Egypt. Now that such a course should 
 be adopted, for party purposes, by those who are 
 aware that the whole story is a fiction, and the hero 
 of it imaginary, seems not very incredible ; but if 
 they believed in the real existence of this despot, I 
 cannot conceive how they could so forsake their 
 principles as to advocate his cause and eulogise his 
 character. 
 
 After all, it may be expected that many who 
 perceive the force of these objections, will yet be loth 
 to think it possible that they and the public at large 
 can have been so long and so greatly imposed upon ; 
 and thus it is that the magnitude and boldness of a 
 fraud become its best support : the millions who for 
 so many ages have believed in Mahomet or Brahma, 
 lean, as it were, on each other for support, and not 
 having vigour of mind enough boldly to throw off 
 vulgar prejudices and dare be wiser than the multi- 
 tude, persuade themselves that what so many have 
 acknowledged must be true. But I call on those 
 who boast their philosophical freedom of thought, and 
 would fain tread in the steps of Hume and other 
 inquirers of the like exalted and speculative genius, 
 to follow up fairly and fully their own principles, and, 
 throwing off the shackles of authority, to examine 
 
26S FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 carefully the evidence of whatever is proposed to 
 them, before they admit its truth. That even in 
 this enlightened age, as it is called, a whole nation 
 may be egregiously imposed upon, even in matters 
 which intimately concern them, may be proved (if it 
 has not been already proved) by the following 
 instance. It was stated in the newspapers, that a 
 month after the battle of Trafalgar an English 
 officer, who had been a prisoner of war, and was 
 exchanged, returned to this country from France, 
 and, beginning to condole with his countrymen on 
 the terrible defeat they had sustained, was infinitely 
 astonished to learn that the battle of Trafalgar was a 
 splendid victory : he had been assured, he said, that 
 in that battle the English had been totally defeated, 
 and the French were fully and universally persuaded 
 that such was the fact. Now, if this report of the 
 belief of the French nation was not true, the British 
 public were completely imposed upon ; if it were true, 
 then both nations were at the same time rejoicing in 
 the event of the same battle as a signal victory to 
 themselves, and consequently one or other at least of 
 these nations must have been the dupes of their 
 Government ; for, if the battle was never fought 
 at all, or was not decisive on either side, in that 
 case both parties were deceived. This instance, 
 I conceive, is absolutely demonstrative of the point 
 in question. 
 
 *' But what shall we say to the testimony of those 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 269 
 
 many respectable persons who went to Plymouth on 
 purpose, and saw Buonaparte with their own eyes ? 
 Must they not trust their senses?" I would not 
 disparage either the eyesight or the veracity of 
 these gentlemen. I am ready to allow that they 
 went to Plymouth for the purpose of seeing 
 Buonaparte — nay, more, that they actually rowed out 
 into the harbour in a boat, and came alongside of a 
 man-of-war, on whose deck they saw a man in a 
 cocked hat, who, they zuere told^ was Buonaparte. 
 This is the utmost point to which their testimony 
 goes. How they ascertained that this man in the 
 cocked hat had gone through all the marvellous 
 and romantic adventures with which we have so long 
 been amused, we are not told : did they perceive in 
 his physiognomy his true name and authentic history ? 
 Truly this evidence is such as country people give 
 one for a story of apparitions ; if you discover any 
 signs of incredulity, they triumphantly show the very 
 house which the ghost haunted, the identical dark 
 corner where it used to vanish, and perhaps even the 
 tombstone of the person whose death it foretold. 
 Jack Cade's nobility was supported by the same 
 irresistible kind of evidence. Having asserted that 
 the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, 
 was stolen by a beggar-woman, " became a bricklayer 
 when he came to age," and was the father of the 
 supposed Jack Cade, one of his companions 
 confirms the story, by saying, "Sir, he made a 
 
270 FAMOUS PMAPHLETS. 
 
 chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are 
 alive at this day to testify it ; therefore, deny it 
 not." 
 
 Much of the same kind is the testimony of our 
 brave countrymen, who are ready to produce the 
 scars they received in fighting against this terrible 
 Buonaparte. That they fought and were wounded, 
 they may safely testify ; and probably they no less 
 firmly believe what they were told respecting the 
 cause in which they fought ; it would have been a 
 high breach of discipline to doubt it, and they, I 
 conceive, are men better skilled in handling a 
 musket than in sifting evidence and detecting impos- 
 ture ; but I defy any one of them to come forward 
 and declare, on his ozvn knowledge, what was the 
 cause in which he fought, under whose commands 
 the opposed generals acted, and whether the person 
 who issued those commands did really perform the 
 mighty achievements we are told of. 
 
 Let those, then, who pretend to philosophical 
 freedom of inquiry — who scorn to rest their opinions 
 on popular belief, and to shelter themselves under 
 the example of the unthinking multitude, consider 
 carefully, each one for himself, what is the evidence 
 proposed to himself in particular, for the existence of 
 such a person as Napoleon Buonaparte — (I do not 
 mean whether there ever was a person bearing that 
 name, for that is a question of no consequence, but 
 whether any such person ever performed all the 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 271 
 
 wonderful things attributed to him). Let him then 
 weigh well the objections to that evidence (of which 
 I have given but a hasty and imperfect sketch), and 
 if he then finds it amount to anything more than a 
 probability, I have only to congratulate him on his 
 easy faith. 
 
 But the same testimony which would have great 
 weight in establishing a thing intrinsically probable 
 will lose part of this weight in proportion as the 
 matter attested is improbable ; and, if adduced in 
 support of anything that is at variance with uniform 
 experience,"^ will be rejected at once by all sound 
 reasoners. Let us then consider what sort of a 
 story it is that is proposed to our acceptance. How 
 grossly contradictory are the reports of the different 
 authorities, I have already remarked ; but consider, 
 by itself, the story told by any one of them ; it 
 carries an air of fiction and romance on the very face 
 of it : all the events are great, and splendid, and 
 marvellousf — great armies, great victories, great 
 
 * ** That testimony itself derives all its force from experience seems 
 very certain. . . . The first author we believe, who stated fairly the 
 connection between the evidence of testimony and the evidence of 
 experience, was Hume, in his * Essay on Miracles,' a work .... 
 abounding in maxims of great use in the conduct of life." — Edinburgh 
 Revieiv, Sept. 1814, p. 328. 
 
 t " Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the testimony endeavours 
 to establish partakes of the extraordinary and the marvellous ; in that 
 case the evidence resulting from the testimony receives a diminution, 
 greater or less, in proportion as the fact is more or less un- 
 usual." — Hume's " Essay on Miracles," p. 173, i2mo ; p. 176, 
 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 8vo, 1817. 
 
2 72 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 frosts, great reverses, " hairbreadth 'scapes," empires 
 subverted in a few days — everything happening in 
 defiance of political calculations, and in opposition 
 to the experience of past times ; everything upon that 
 grand scale so common in epic poetry, so rare in 
 real life, and thus calculated to strike the imagina- 
 tion of the vulgar, and to remind the sober-thinking 
 few of the " Arabian Nights." Every event, too, 
 has that roundness and completeness which is so cha- 
 racteristic of fiction ; nothing is done by halves ; 
 we have complete victories — total overthrows — entire 
 subversion of empires — perfect re-establishments of 
 them — crowded upon us in rapid succession. To 
 enumerate the improbabilities of each of the several 
 parts of this history would fill volumes ; but they 
 are so fresh in every one's memory, that there is no 
 need of such a detail. Let any judicious man, not 
 ignorant of history and of human nature, revolve 
 them in his mind, and consider how far they are 
 conformable to experience,"^ our best and only sure 
 guide. In vain will he seek in history for something 
 similar to this wonderful Buonaparte : *' nought but 
 himself can be his parallel." 
 
 Will the conquests of Alexander be compared 
 with his } They were effected over a rabble of 
 
 * **The ultimate standard by which we determine all disputes that 
 may arise is always derived from experience and observation." — 
 Hume's '* Essay on Miracles," p. 172, i2mo ; p. 175, 8vo, 1767; 
 p. 112, 8vo, 181 7. 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 273 
 
 effeminate undisciplined barbarians, else his progress 
 would hardly have been so rapid : witness has father 
 Philip, who was much longer occupied in subduing 
 the comparatively insignificant territory of the war- 
 like and civilized Greeks, notwithstanding their being 
 divided into numerous petty States, whose mutual 
 jealousy enabled him to contend v/ith them sepa- 
 rately. But the Greeks had never made such 
 progress in arts and arms as the great and powerful 
 States of Europe which Buonaparte is represented 
 as so speedily overpowering. His empire has been 
 compared to the Roman. Mark the contrast: he 
 gains in a few years that dominion, or at least 
 control, over Germany, wealthy, civilized, and 
 powerful, which the Romans in the plenitude of 
 their power could not obtain, during a struggle of as 
 many centuries, against the ignorant half-savages who 
 then possessed it ! 
 
 Another peculiar circumstance in the history of 
 this extraordinary personage is that, when it is 
 found convenient to represent him as defeated, 
 though he is by no m.eans defeated by halves, but 
 involved in much more sudden and total ruin than 
 the personages of real history usually meet with ; 
 yet, if it is thought fit he should be restored, it is 
 done as quickly and completely as if Merlin's rod 
 had been employed. He enters Russia with a 
 prodigious army, which is totally ruined by an 
 unprecedented hard winter — everything relating to 
 
2 74 P-AMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 this man is prodigious and unprecedented ; yet in a 
 few months we find him entrusted with another 
 great army in Germany, which is also totally ruined 
 at Leipsic, making, inclusive of the Egyptian, the 
 third great army thus totally lost : yet the French 
 are so good-natured as to furnish him with another, 
 sufficient to make a formidable stand in France. 
 He is, however, conquered, mid presented with the 
 sovei'eignty of Elba. Surely, by-the-by, some more 
 probable way might have been found of disposing of 
 him, till again wanted, than to place him thus on 
 the very verge of his ancient dominions. Thence he 
 returns to France, where he is received with open 
 arms, and enabled to lose a fourth great army at 
 Waterloo. Yet so eager were these people to be 
 a fifth time led to destruction, that it was found 
 necessary to confine him in an island some thousand 
 miles off, and to quarter foreign troops upon ilteni^ 
 lest they should make an insurrection in his 
 favour ! "^ Does any one believe all this, and yet 
 refuse to believe a miracle ? Or rather, what is this 
 but a miracle ? Is it not a violation of the laws of 
 nature 1 For surely there are moral laws of nature 
 as well as physical, which, though more liable to 
 exceptions in this or that particular case, are no less 
 
 * 'H 6a{)^aTo iroWd. 
 
 Kat TTov rt Kal ^porCov ^pipas 
 TUET TON AHAGH AOrON 
 
 AedaLdaX/xivoL ^eiySeci ttoiklXols 
 E^airaTUfVTL IULV0OI. — Pind. *'0]ymp." I. 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 275 
 
 true as general rules than the laws of matter, and 
 therefore cannot be violated and contradicted beyond 
 a certain point, without a miracle.'''^ Nay, there is 
 
 * This doctrine, though hardly needing confirmation from authority, 
 is supported by that of Hume : his Eighth Essay is throughout an 
 argument for the doctrine of philosophical " necessity," drawn entirely 
 from the general uniformity observable in the course of nature with 
 respect to the principles of huinan conduci, as well as those of the 
 material universe ; from which uniformity, he observes, it is that we are 
 enabled, in both cases, to form our judgments by means of Experience. 
 **And if," says he, "we would explode any forgery in history, we 
 cannot make use of a more convincing argument, than to prove that 
 the actions ascribed to any person are directly contrary to the course of 
 nature. . . . The veracity of Quintus Curtius is as suspicious when he 
 describes the supernatural courage of Alexander, by which he was 
 hurried on singly to attack multitudes, as when he describes his super- 
 natural force and activity, by which he was able to resist them. So 
 readily and universally do we acknowledge a uniformity in hwnan 
 motives and actions asivellas in the operatioris of body,'''' — Eighth Essay, 
 p. 131, i2mo; p. 85, 8vo, 1817. 
 
 Accordingly, in the Tenth Essay, his use of the term " miracle," after 
 having called it "a transgression of a law of nature," plainly shows that 
 he meant to include human nature. "No testimony," says he, "is 
 sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a nature 
 that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it 
 endeavours to establish." The term ** prodigy " also (which he all along 
 employs as synonymous with '* miracle") is applied to testimony, in 
 the same manner, immediately after: " In the foregoing reasoning we 
 have supposed .... that the falsehood of that testimony would be a 
 kind of prodigy." Now had he meant to confine the meaning of 
 "miracle" and "prodigy" to a violation of the laws of matter, the 
 epithet ''^ miraculotis^'^ applied, even thus hypothetically, to false 
 testimony, would be as unmeaning as the epithets "green," or " square ;" 
 the only possible sense in which we can apply to it, even in imagination, 
 the term "miraculous," is that of *' highly improbable," — "contrary to 
 those laws of nature which respect human conduct :" and in this sense 
 accordingly he uses the word in the very next sentence : " When any 
 one tells me that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately 
 
276 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 this additional circumstance which renders the con- 
 tradiction of experience more glaring in this case 
 than in that of the miraculous histories which 
 ingenious sceptics have held up to contempt : all 
 the advocates of miracles admit that they are rare 
 exceptions to the general course of nature, but 
 contend that they must needs be so, on account of, 
 the rarity of those extraordinary occasions which are 
 the reason of their being performed : a miracle^ they 
 say, does not happen every day, because a revelation 
 is not given every day It would be foreign to the, 
 present purpose to seek for arguments against this 
 answer : I leave it to those who are engaged in the 
 controversy, to find a reply to it ; but my present 
 object is to point out that this solution does not at^ 
 all apply in the present case. Where is the pecu- 
 liarity of the occasion ? What sufficient reason is there 
 for a series of events occurring in the eighteenth and 
 nineteenth centuries, which never took place before ? 
 
 consider with myself whether it be more probable that this person 
 should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact which he relates 
 should really have happened. I weigh the one 7)iiracle against the 
 other. "^Hume's " Essay on Miracles,'* pp. 176, 177, i2mo; p. 182, 
 8vo, 1767; p. 115, Svo, 1817. 
 
 See also a passage above quoted from the same essay, where he 
 speaks of "the miraatiotis accounts of travellers," evidently using the 
 word in this sense. Perhaps it \a as superfluous to cite authority for 
 applying the term ** miracle " to whatever is highly ** improbable ;" but 
 it is important to the students of Hume, to be fully aware that he uses 
 those two expressions as synonymous ; since otherwise they would 
 mistake the meaning of that passage which he justly calls ** a general 
 maxim worthy of our attention." 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. .-77 
 
 Was Europe at that period peculiarly weak, and 
 in a state of barbarism, that one man could achieve 
 such conquests, and acquire such a vast empire ? On 
 the contrary, she was flourishing in the height of 
 strength and civilization. Can the persevering at- 
 tachment and blind devotedness of the French to 
 this man be accounted for by his being the descen- 
 dant of a long line of kings, whose race was hallowed 
 by hereditary veneration ? No ; we are told he was 
 a low-born usurper, and not even a Frenchman ! 
 is it that he was a good and kind sovereign ? He is 
 represented not only as an imperious and merciless 
 despot, but as most wantonly careless of the lives of 
 his soldiers. Could the French army and people 
 have failed to hear from the wretched survivors of 
 his supposed Russian expedition, how they had left 
 the corpses of above 100,000 of their comrades 
 bleaching on the snow-drifts of that dismal country, 
 whither his mad ambition had conducted them, and 
 where his selfish cowardice had deserted them ? 
 Wherever we turn to seek for circumstances that 
 may help to account for the events of this incredible 
 story, we only meet with such as aggravate its 
 improbability.^ Had it been told of some distant 
 
 , * " Events may be so extraordinary that they can hardly be estab- 
 lished by testimony. We would not give credit to a man who would 
 affirm that he saw an hundred dice thrown in the air, and that they aU 
 fell on the same faces." — Edinburgh Review, Sept. 1814, p. 327. 
 
 Let it be observed that the instance here given is 7niraculous in no 
 other sense but that of being highly improbable. 
 
278 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 country, at a remote period, we could not have told 
 what peculiar circumstances there might have been 
 to render probable what seems to us most strange ; 
 and yet in tJiat case every philosophical sceptic, 
 every free-thinking speculator, would instantly have 
 rejected such a history, as utterly unworthy of credit. 
 What, for instance^ would the great Hume, or any of 
 the philosophers of his school have said, if they had 
 found in the antique records of any nation such a 
 passage as this : '' There was a certain man of 
 Corsica, whose name was Napoleon, and he was one 
 of the chief captains of the host of the French ; and 
 he gathered together an army, and went and fought 
 against Egypt ; but when the King of Britain heard 
 thereof, he sent ships of war and valiant men to 
 fight against the French in Egypt. So they warred 
 against them, and prevailed, and strengthened the 
 hands of the rulers of the land against the French, 
 and drave away Napoleon from before the city of 
 Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and the 
 army that were in Egypt, and fled, and returned 
 back to France. So the French people took 
 Napoleon, and made him ruler over them, and he 
 became exceeding great, insomuch that there was 
 none like him of all that had ruled over France 
 before." 
 
 What, I say, would Hume have thought of this, 
 especially if he had been told that it was at this 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE, 279 
 
 day generally credited ? Would he not have con- 
 fessed that he had been mistaken in supposing there 
 was a peculiarly blind credulity and prejudice in 
 favour of everything that is accounted sacred ;^ for 
 that, since even professed sceptics swallow implicitly 
 such a story as this, it appears there must be a still 
 blinder prejudice in favour of everything that is not 
 accounted sacred ? 
 
 Suppose again we found in this history such 
 passages as the following ; " And it came to pass 
 after these things that Napoleon strengthened him- 
 self, and gathered together another host instead of 
 that which he had lost, and went and warred 
 against the Prussians, and the Russians, and the 
 Austrians, and all the rulers of the north country, 
 which were confederate against him. And the ruler 
 of Sweden also, which was a Frenchman, warred 
 against Napoleon. So they went forth, and fought 
 against the French in the plain of Leipsic. And 
 the French were discomfited before their enemies, 
 and fled, and came to the rivers which are behind 
 Leipsic, and essayed to pass over, that they might 
 escape out of the hand of their enemies ; but they 
 could not, for Napoleon had broken down the 
 
 * " If the spirit of religion join itself to the love of wonder, there is 
 an end of common sense ; and human testimony in these circumstances 
 loses all pretensions to authority." — Hume's "Essay on Miracles," 
 p. 179, i2mo; p. 185, 8vo, 1767 ; p. 117, 8vo, 1817. 
 
2 8o FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 bridges ; so the people of the north countries came 
 upon them, and smote them with a very grievous 
 slaughter." .... 
 
 **Then the ruler of Austria and all the rulers of 
 the north countries sent messengers unto Napoleon 
 to speak peaceably unto him, saying, Why should 
 there be war between us any more t Now Napoleon 
 had put away his wife, and taken the daughter of 
 the ruler of Austria to wife. So all the counsellors 
 of Napoleon came and stood before him, and said, 
 Behold now these kings are merciful kings ; do even 
 as they say unto thee ; knowest thou not yet that 
 France is destroyed } But he spake roughly unto 
 his counsellors, and drave them out from his 
 presence, neither would he hearken unto their voice. 
 And when all the kings saw that, they warred 
 against France, and smote it with the edge of the 
 sword, and came near to Paris, which is the royal 
 city, to take it : so the men of Paris went out, and 
 delivered up the city to them. Then those kings 
 spake kindly unto the men of Paris, saying, Be of 
 good cheer, there shall no harm happen unto you. 
 Then were the men of Paris glad, and said, Napoleon is 
 a tyrant ; he shall no more rule over us. Also all the 
 princes, the judges, the counsellors, and the captains, 
 whom Napoleon had raised up, even from the lowest 
 of the people, sent unto Louis, the brother of King 
 Louis whom they had slain, and made him king 
 over France." .... 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE, 281 
 
 *' And when Napoleon saw that the kingdom was 
 departed from him, he said unto the rulers which 
 came against him, Let me, I pray you, give the 
 kingdom unto my son ; but they would not hearken 
 untQ him. Then he spake yet again, saying, Let 
 ttif^l pray you, go and live in the island of Elba, 
 which is over against Italy, nigh unto the coast of 
 France ; and ye shall give me an allowance for me and 
 my household, and the land of Elba also for a posses- 
 sion. So they made him ruler of Elba." .... 
 
 ** In those days the Pope returned unto his own 
 land. Now the French, and divers other nations of 
 Europe, are servants of the Pope, and hold him in 
 reverence ; but he is an abomination unto the 
 Britons, and to the Prussians, and to the Russians, 
 and to the Swedes. Howbeit the French had taken 
 away all his lands, and robbed him of all that he 
 had, and carried him away captive into France. 
 But when the Britons, and the Prussians, and the 
 Russians, and the Swedes, and the rest of the 
 nations that were confederate against France, came 
 thither, they caused the French to set the Pope at 
 liberty, and to restore all his goods that they had 
 taken ; likewise, they gave him back all his posses- 
 sions ; and he went home in peace, and ruled over 
 his own city as in times past." .... 
 
 " And it came to pass when Napoleon had not 
 yet been a full year in Elba, that he said unto his 
 men of war which clave unto him, Go to, let us go 
 
282 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 back to France, and fight against King Louis, and 
 thrust him out from being king. So he departed, 
 he and 600 men with him that drew the sword, and 
 warred against King Louis. Then all the men of 
 Belial gathered themselves together, and said, God 
 save Napoleon. And when Louis saw that, he fled, 
 and gat him into the land of Batavia ; and Napoleon 
 ruled over France," &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Now if a freethinking philosopher — one of those 
 who advocate the cause of unbiassed reason, and 
 despised pretended revelations — were to meet with 
 such a tissue of absurdities as this in an old Jewish 
 record, would he not reject it at once as too 
 palpable an imposture"^ to deserve even any inquiry 
 into its evidence ? Is that credible then of the 
 civilized Europeans now which could not, if reported 
 of the semi-barbarous Jews 3000 years ago, be 
 established by any testimony ? Will it be an- 
 swered that "there is nothing supernaUiral in all 
 this ? " Why is it, then, that you object to what is 
 supernatural — that you reject every account of 
 miracles — if not because they are improbable ? Surely, 
 
 * " 1 desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, and after serious 
 consideration declare whether he thinks that the falsehood of such a 
 book, supported by such testimony, would be more extraordinary and 
 miraculous than all the miracles it relates." — Hume's ** Essay on 
 Miracles," p. 200, i2mo ; p. 206, 8vo, 1767 ; p. 131, 8vo, 181 7. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind that Hume (as 1 have above remarked) con- 
 tinually employs the terms *' miracle " and ''prodigy " to signify any 
 thing that is highly improbable and extraordinary. 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO I^UONAPARTE. 283 
 
 then, a story equally or still more improbable^ is not 
 to be implicitly received, merely on the ground that 
 it is not miraculous : though in fact, as I have 
 already (in note p. 275) shown from Hume's au- 
 thority, it really is miraculous. The opposition to 
 experience has been proved to be as complete in 
 this case as in what are commonly called miracles ; 
 and the reasons assigned for that contrariety by the 
 defenders of them cannot be pleaded in the present 
 instance. If, then, philosophers, who reject every 
 wonderful story that is maintained by priests^ are 
 yet found ready to believe everything else^ however 
 improbable, they will surely lay themselves open to 
 the accusation brought against them of being unduly 
 prejudiced against whatever relates to religion. 
 
 There is one more circumstance which I cannot 
 forbear mentioning, because it so much adds to 
 the air of fiction which pervades every part of 
 this marvellous tale ; and that is, the nationality 
 of it * 
 
 Buonaparte prevailed over all the hostile States in 
 turn, except England ; in the zenith of his power his 
 fleets were swept from the sea, by England ; his 
 troops always defeat an equal, and frequently even 
 a superior, number of those of any other nation, 
 
 * " The wise lend a very academic faith to every report which favours 
 the passion of the reporter, whether it magnifies his country^ his family, 
 or himself." — Hume's ** Essay on Miraclesi" p. 144, i2mo ; p. 200^ 8vo, 
 1767; p. liB, 8vo, 1817. 
 
284 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 except the English, and with them it is just the 
 reverse ; twice, and twice only^ he is personally 
 engaged against an English coinviandery and both 
 times he is totally defeated, at Acre and at 
 Waterloo ; and, to crown all, England finally crushes 
 this tremendous power, which has so long kept the 
 Continent in subjection or in alarm, and to the 
 English he surrenders himself prisoner ! Thoroughly 
 national to be sure ! It may be all very true ; but 
 I would only ask, if a story had been fabricated for 
 the express purpose of amusing the English nation, 
 could it have been contrived more ingeniously ? It 
 would do admirably for an epic poem ; and indeed 
 bears a considerable resemblance to the Iliad and 
 the -^neid, in which Achilles and the Greeks, 
 ^neas and the Trojans (the ancestors of the 
 Romans), are so studiously held up to admiration. 
 Buonaparte's exploits seem magnified in order to 
 enhance the glory of his conquerors, just as Hector 
 is allowed to triumph during the absence of Achilles 
 merely to give additional splendour to his over- 
 throw by the arm of that invincible hero. Would 
 not this circumstance alone render a history rather 
 suspicions in the eyes of an acute critic, even if it 
 were not filled with such gross improbabilities ; and 
 induce him to suspend his judgment, till very satis- 
 factory evidence (far stronger than can be found in 
 this case) should be produced. 
 
 Is it then too much to demand of the wary 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE, 285 
 
 academic ^ a suspension of judgment as to the " life 
 and adventures of Napoleon Buonaparte?" I do 
 not pretend to decide positively that there is not, 
 nor ever was, any such person ; but merely to 
 propose it as a doubtful point, and one the more 
 deserving of careful investigation from the very 
 iiifcumstance of its having hitherto been admitted 
 without inquiry. Far less would I undertake to 
 decide what is, or has been, the real state of affairs : 
 he who points out the improbability of the current 
 story is not bound to suggest an hypothesis of his 
 ownt- — though it may safely be affirmed that it 
 would be hard to invent any more improbable than 
 the received one. One may surely be allowed to 
 hesitate in admitting the stories which the ancient 
 poets tell, of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions 
 being caused by imprisoned giants, without being 
 called upon satisfactorily to account for those 
 phenomena. 
 
 "'■' Amidst the defect of valid evidence under which, 
 is I have already shown, we labour in the present 
 instance, it is hardly possible to offer more than 
 here and there a probable conjecture ; or to pro- 
 nounce how much may be true, and how much 
 
 _ * "Nothing can be more contrary than such a philosophy" (the 
 academic or sceptical) '* to ihe supine indolence of the mind, its rash 
 arrogance, its lofty pretensions, and its superstitious credulity." — Fifth 
 Essay, p. 68, 12 mo ; p. 41, 8vo, 181 7. 
 
 t See Hume's *' Essay on Miracles," pp. 189, 191, 195, i2mo; 
 pp. I93> 197, 201, 202, 8vo, 1767; pp. 124, 125, 126, 8vo, 1817. 
 
286 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 fictitious, in the accounts presented to us ; for it is 
 to be observed that this case is much more open to 
 sceptical doubts even than some miraculous histories, 
 for some of them are of such a nature that you 
 cannot consistently admit a part and reject the rest, 
 but are bound, if you are satisfied as to the reality 
 of any one miracle, to embrace the whole system, 
 so that it is necessary for the sceptic to impeach the 
 evidence of all of them, separately and collectively : 
 whereas here, each single point requires to be estab- 
 lisJicd separately, since no one of them authenticates 
 the rest. Supposing there be a State prisoner at St. 
 Helena (which, by the way, it is acknowleged many 
 of the French disbelieve), how do we know who he 
 is, or why he is confined there ? There have been 
 State prisoners before now, who were never guilty of 
 subjugating half Europe, and whose offences have 
 been very imperfectly ascertained. Admitting that 
 there have been bloody wars going on for several 
 years past, which is highly probable, it does not 
 follow that the events of those wars were such as we 
 have been told — that Buonaparte was the author 
 and conductor of them, or that such a person ever 
 existed. What disturbances may have taken place 
 in the government of the French people, we, and 
 even nineteen-twentieths of them, have no means of 
 learning but from imperfect hearsay evidence ; but 
 that there have been numerous bloody wars with 
 France under the dominion of the Bourbons we are 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 287 
 
 well assured : and we are now told that France is 
 governed by a Bourbon king of the name of Louis, 
 who professes to be in the twenty-third year of his 
 reign. Let every one conjecture for himself. I am 
 far from pretending to decide who may have been 
 the governor or governors of the French nation, and 
 the leaders of their armies, for several years past. 
 Certain it is, that when men are indulging their 
 inclination for the marvellous, they always show a 
 strong propensity to accumulate upon one individual 
 (real or imaginary) the exploits of many, besides 
 multiplying and exaggerating these exploits a 
 thousandfold. Thus, the expounders of the ancient 
 mythology tell us there were several persons of the 
 name of Hercules (either originally bearing that 
 appellation, or having it applied to them as an 
 honour), whose collective feats, after being dressed 
 up in a sufficiently marvellous garb, were attributed 
 to a single hero. Is it not just possible, that during 
 the rage for words of Greek derivation, the title of 
 " Napoleon " (NaTroXtwv), which signifies " Lion of 
 the Forest," may have been conferred by the 
 popular voice on more than one favourite general, 
 distinguished for irresistible valour ? Is it not 
 also possible that " Buona parte " may have been 
 originally a sort of cant term applied to the " good 
 {i.e.y the bravest or most patriotic) part " of the 
 French army collectively, and have been afterwards 
 mistaken for the proper name of an individual ? I 
 
288 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 do not profess to support this conjecture; but it is 
 certain that such mistakes may and do occur. 
 Some critics have supposed that the Athenians 
 imagined Anastasis (" Resurrection") to be a new 
 goddess, in whose cause Paul was preaching. 
 Would it have been thought anything incredible if 
 we had been told that the ancient Persians, who had 
 no idea of any but a monarchical government, had 
 supposed Aristocratia to be a Queen of Sparta ? 
 But we need not confine ourselves to hypothetical 
 cases : it is positively stated that the Hindoos at 
 this day believe "the Honourable East India 
 Company" to be a venerable old lady of high 
 dignity, residing in this country. The Germans of 
 the present day derive their name from a similar 
 mistake. The first tribe of them who invaded Gaul "^ 
 assumed the honourable title of '' Ger-man,'' which 
 signifies " warrior " — (the words " v/ar " and " guerre," 
 as well as "man," which remains in our language 
 unaltered, are evidently derived from the Teutonic) — 
 and the Gauls applied this as a name to the whole 
 race. 
 
 However, I merely throw out these conjectures 
 without by any means contending that more 
 plausible ones might not be suggested. But what- 
 
 * ** Germanige vocabulum recens et nviper additum ; quoniam, qui 
 primi Rhenum transgress! Gallos expulerint, ac nunc Tungri, tunc 
 Germani vocati sint : ita nationis nomen in nomen gentis evaluisse 
 pauUatim, ut omnes, primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento 
 nomine, Germani vocarentur." — Tacitus, "DeMor. Germ." 
 
DOUBTS RELATIVE TO BUONAPARTE. 289 
 
 ever supposition we adopt, or whether we adopt any, 
 the objections to the commonly received accounts will 
 remain in their full force, and imperiously demand 
 the attention of the candid sceptic. 
 
 I call upon those, therefore, who profess themselves 
 advocates of free inquiry — who disdain to be 
 carried along with the stream of popular opinion, 
 and who will listen to no testimony that runs counter 
 to experience — to follow up their own principles 
 fairly and consistently. Let the same mode of 
 argument be adopted in all cases alike ; and then it 
 can no longer be attributed to hostile prejudice, but 
 to enlarged and philosophical views. If they have 
 already rejected some histories, on the ground of 
 their being strange and marvellous — of their relating 
 facts unprecedented and at variance with the estab- 
 lished course of nature — let them not give credit to 
 another history which lies open to ihe very same 
 objections, the extraordinary and romantic tale we 
 have been just considering. If they have discredited 
 the testimony of witnesses, who are said at least to 
 have been disinterested, and to have braved persecu- 
 tions and death in support of their assertions, can 
 these philosophers consistently listen to and believe 
 the testimony of those who avowedly get money by 
 the tales they publish, and who do not even pretend 
 that they incur any serious risk in case of being 
 detected in a falsehood } If in other cases they have 
 refused to listen to an account which has passed 
 
 K 
 
290 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 through many intermediate hands before it reaches 
 them, and which is defended by those who have an 
 interest in maintaining it ; let them consider through 
 how many and what very suspicious hands tJiis story 
 has arrived to them, without the possibility (as I 
 have shown) of tracing it back to any decidedly 
 authentic source, after all ;* and likewise how strong 
 an interest, in every way, those who have hitherto 
 imposed on them have in keeping up the impos- 
 ture : let them, in short, show themselves as ready to 
 detect the cheats and despise the fables of politicians 
 as of priests. But if they are still wedded to the 
 popular belief in this point, let them be consistent 
 enough to admit the same evidence in other cases 
 which they yield to in this. If, after all that has 
 been said, they cannot bnng themselves to doubt of 
 the existence of Napoleon Buonaparte, they must at 
 least acknowledge that they do not apply to that 
 question the same plan of reasoning which they 
 have made use of in others ; and they are conse- 
 quently bound in reason and in honesty to renounce 
 it altogether. 
 
 * For let it not be forgotten, that these writers themselves refer to no 
 better authority than tliat of an winamed and unknown foreign 
 correspondent. 
 
ADVICE 
 
 YOUNG REVIEWER, 
 
 SPECIMEAT OF THE ART. 
 
Advice to a Young Reviewer. 
 
 You are now about to enter on a profession which 
 has the means of doing much good to society, and 
 scarcely any temptation to do harm. You may 
 encourage genius, you may chastise superficial 
 arrogance, expose falsehood, correct error, and guide 
 the taste and opinions of the age in no small degree 
 by the books you praise and recommend. All this 
 too may be done without running the risk of making 
 any enemies, or subjecting yourself to be called to 
 account for your criticism, however severe. While 
 your name is unknown, your person is invulnerable : 
 at the same time your own aim is sure, for you may 
 take it at your leisure ; aiid your blows fall heavier 
 than those of any writer whose name is given, or 
 who is simply anonymous. There is a mysterious 
 authority in the plural zue^ which no single name, 
 whatever may be its reputation, can acquire ; and 
 under the sanction of this imposing style your 
 strictures, your praises, and your dogmas will 
 
294 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 command universal attention, and be received as the 
 fruit of united talents, acting on one common 
 principle — as the judgments of a tribunal who 
 decide only on mature deliberation, and who 
 protect the interests of literature with unceasing 
 vigilance. 
 
 Such being the high importance of that office, and 
 such its opportunities, I cannot bestow a few hours 
 of leisure better than in furnishing you with some 
 hints for the more easy and effectual discharge of it : 
 hints which are, I confess, loosely thrown together, 
 but which are the result of long experience, and of 
 frequent reflection and comparison. And if any- 
 thing should strike you at first sight as rather 
 equivocal in point of morality, or deficient in 
 liberality and feeling, I beg you will suppress all 
 such scruples, and consider them as the offspring 
 of a contracted education and narrow way of 
 thinking, which a little intercourse with the world 
 and sober reasoning will speedily overcome. 
 
 Now, as in the conduct of life nothing is more to 
 be desired than some governing principle of action, 
 to which all other principles and motives must be 
 made subservient, so in the art of reviewing I would 
 lay down as a fundamental position, which you must 
 never lose sight of, and which must be the main- 
 spring of all your criticisms — zvrite what zvill sell. 
 To this golden rule every minor canon must be 
 subordinate, and must be either immediately de- 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER. 295 
 
 ducible from it, or at least be made consistent with 
 it. Be not staggered at the sound of a precept, 
 which upon examination will be found as honest and 
 virtuous as it is discreet. I have already sketched 
 out the great services which it is in your power to 
 render mankind ; but all your efforts would be 
 unavailing if men did not read what you write. 
 Your utility therefore, it is plain, depends upon your 
 popularity ; and popularity cannot be attained with- 
 out humouring the taste and inclinations of men. 
 
 Be assured that by a similar train of sound and 
 judicious reasoning the consciences of thousands in 
 public life are daily quieted. It is better for the 
 State that their party should govern than any 
 other : the good which they can effect by the 
 exercise of power is infinitely greater than any 
 which could arise from a rigid adherence to certain 
 subordinate moral precepts, which therefore should 
 be violated without scruple whenever they stand m 
 the way of their leading purpose. He who sticks at 
 these can never act a great part in the world, and is 
 not fit to act it if he could. Such maxims may be 
 very useful in ordinary affairs, and for the guidance of 
 ordinary men ; but when we mount into the sphere of 
 public utility, we must adopt more enlarged princi- 
 ples, and not suffer ourselves to be cramped and 
 fettered by petty notions of right and moral duty. 
 
 When you have reconciled yourself to this liberal 
 way of thinking, you will find many inferior advan- 
 
^96 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 tages resulting from it, which at first did not enter 
 into your consideration. In particular, it will greatly 
 lighten your labours to follozu the public taste, instead 
 of taking upon you to direct it. The task of pleasing 
 is at all times easier than that of instructing : at 
 least it does not stand in need of painful research 
 and preparation, and may be effected in general 
 by a little vivacity of manner, and a dexterous 
 morigeration (as Lord Bacon calls it) to the humours 
 and frailties of men. Your responsibility, too, is 
 thereby much lessened. Justice and candour can 
 only be required of you so far as they coincide with 
 this main principle ; and a little experience will 
 convince you that these are not the happiest means 
 of accomplishing your purpose. 
 
 It has been idly said^ that a Reviewer acts in a 
 judicial capacity, and that his conduct should be 
 regulated by the same rules by which the Judge of a 
 civil court is governed : that he should rid himself of 
 every bias ; be patient, cautious, sedate, and rigidly 
 impartial ; that he should not seek to show off 
 himself, and should check every disposition to enter 
 into the case as a partisan. 
 
 Such is the language of superficial thinkers ; but 
 in reality there is no analogy between the two cases. 
 A Judge is promoted to that office by the authority 
 of the State ; a Reviewer by his own. The former 
 is independent of control, and may therefore freely 
 follow the dictates of his own conscience ; the latter 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER, 297 
 
 depends for his very bread upon the breath of public 
 opinion : the great law of self-preservation therefore 
 points out to him a different line of action. Besides, 
 as we have already observed, if he ceases to please 
 he is no longer read, and consequently is no longer 
 useful. In a court of justice, too, the part of 
 amusing the bystanders rests with the counsel : in 
 the case of criticism, if the Reviewer himself does 
 not undertake it, who wull ? Instead of vainly 
 aspiring therefore to the gravity of a magistrate, I 
 would advise him, when he sits down to write, to 
 place himself in the imaginary situation of a cross- 
 examining pleader. He may comment, in a vein of 
 agreeable irony, upon the profession, the manner of 
 life, the look, dress, or even the name of the witness 
 he is examining : when he has raised a contemptuous 
 opinion of him in the minds of the court, he may 
 proceed to draw answers from him capable of a 
 ludicrous turn, and he may carve and garble these to 
 his own liking. This mode of proceeding you v.'ill 
 find most practicable in poetry, where the boldness 
 of the image, or the delicacy of thought, for which 
 the reader's mind was prepared in the original, 
 will easily be made to appear extravagant or 
 affected, if judiciously singled out and detached 
 from the group to which it belongs. Again, since 
 much depends upon the rhythm and the terseness of 
 expression, both of which are sometimes destroyed 
 by dropping a single word, or transposing a phrase, I 
 
298 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 have known much advantage arise from not quoting 
 in the form of a Htcral extract, but giving a brief 
 summary in prose of the contents of a poetical 
 passage ; and interlarding your own language with 
 occasional phrases of the poem, marked with in- 
 verted commas. These, and a thousand other little 
 expedients, by which the arts of quizzing and banter 
 flourish, practice will soon teach you. If it should 
 be necessary to transcribe a dull passage, not very 
 fertile in topics of humour and raillery, you may 
 introduce it as a " favourable specimen of the author's 
 manner." 
 
 Few people are aware of the powerful effects of 
 what is philosophically termed association. Without 
 any positive violation of truth, the whole dignity of 
 a passage may be undermined by contriving to raise 
 some vulgar and ridiculous notions in the mind of 
 the reader ; and language teems with examples of 
 words by which the same idea is expressed, with the 
 difference only that one excites a feeling of respect, 
 the other of contempt. Thus, you may call a fit of 
 melancholy " the sulks," resentment " a pet," a steed 
 *'a nag," a feast "a junketing," sorrow and affliction 
 ''whining and blubbering." By transferring the 
 terms peculiar to one state of society to analogous 
 situations and characters in another, the same object 
 is attained, a drill-sergeant or a cat-and-nine-tails in 
 the Trojan War, a Lesbos smack put in to the Piraeus, 
 the penny-post of Jerusalem, and other combina- 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER. 299 
 
 tions of the like nature, which, when you have a 
 h'ttle indulged that vein of thought^ will readily 
 suggest themselves, never fail to raise a smile, if not 
 immediately at the expense of the author, yet 
 entirely destructive of that frame of mind which his 
 poem requires in order to be relished. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer on this branch of litera- 
 ture, because you are chiefly to look here for 
 materials of fun and irony. Voyages and travels 
 indeed are no barren ground, and you must seldom 
 let a number of your Review go abroad without an 
 article of this description. The charm of this species 
 of writing, so universally felt, arises chiefly from its 
 uniting narrative with information. The interest we 
 take in the story can only be kept alive by minute 
 incident and occasional detail, which puts us in 
 possession of the traveller's feelings, his hopes, his 
 fears, his disappointments, and his pleasures. At 
 the same time the thirst for knowledge and love of 
 novelty is gratified by continual information respect- 
 ing the people and countries he visits. If you wish, 
 therefore, to run down the book, you have only to 
 play off these two parts against each other : when 
 the writer's object is to satisfy the first inclination, 
 you are to thank him for communicating to the 
 world such valuable facts — as whether he lost his 
 way in the night — or sprained his ankle — or had no 
 appetite to his dinner. If he is busied about de- 
 scribing the mineralogy, natural history, agriculture, 
 
300 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 trade, &c., of a country, you may mention a hundred 
 books from whence the same information may be 
 obtained, and deprecate the practice of emptying old 
 musty folios into new quartos, to gratify that sickly 
 taste for a smattering about everything which dis- 
 tinguishes the present age. 
 
 In w^orks of science and recondite learning, the 
 task you have undertaken will not be so difficult 
 as you may imagine. Tables of contents and 
 indexes are blessed helps in the hands of a Re- 
 viewer ; but, more than all, the preface is the field 
 from which his richest harvest is to be gathered. 
 In the preface the author usually gives a summary 
 of what has been written on the same subject 
 before ; he acknowledges the assistance he has 
 received from different sources, and the reasons of 
 his dissent from former writers ; he confesses that 
 certain parts have been less attentively considered 
 than others, and that information has come to his 
 hands too late to be made use of; he points out 
 many things in the composition of his work which 
 he thinks may provoke animadversion, and endea- 
 vours to defend or to palliate his own practice. 
 Here then is a fund of wealth for the Reviewer, 
 lying upon the very surface ; if he knows anything 
 of his business, he will turn all these materials 
 against the author, carefully suppressing the source 
 of his information, and as if drawing from the stores 
 of his own mind, long ago laid up for this very 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER. 301 
 
 purpose. If the author's references are correct, 
 a great point is gained ; for, by consulting a few 
 passages of the original works, it will be easy to 
 discuss the subject with the air of having a previous 
 knowledge of the whole. Your chief vantage-ground 
 is that you may fasten upon any position in the 
 book you are reviewing, and treat it as principal and 
 essential, when perhaps i-t is of little weight in the 
 main argument ; but^ by allotting a large share 
 cf your criticism to it, the reader will naturally 
 be led to give it a proportionate importance, and to 
 consider the merit of the treatise at issue upon that 
 single question. If anybody complains that the 
 greater and more valuable parts remain unnoticed, 
 your answer is that it is impossible to pay attention 
 to all, and that your duty is rather to prevent the 
 propagation of error than to lavish praises upon 
 that which, if really excellent, will work its way 
 in the world without your help. Indeed, if the plan 
 of your Review admits of selection, you had better 
 not meddle with works of deep research and original 
 speculation, such as have already attracted much 
 notice, and cannot be treated superficially without 
 fear of being found out. The time required for 
 making yourself thoroughly master of the subject is 
 so great, that you may depend upon it they will 
 never pay for the reviewing. They are generally 
 the fruit of long study, and of talents concentrated 
 in the steady pursuit of one object ; it is not likely 
 
302 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 therefore that you can throw nuich new light on a 
 question of this nature, or even plausibly combat the 
 author's positions in the course of a few hours, 
 which is all you can well afford to devote to them. 
 And, without accomplishing one or other of these 
 points, your review w^ill gain no celebrity, and of 
 course no good will be done. 
 
 Enough has been said to give you some insight 
 into the facilities with which your new employment/ 
 abounds : I will only mention one more, because 
 of its extensive and almost universal application 
 to all branches of literature — the topic, I mean, 
 which by the old Rhetoricians was called ts evavriwv. 
 That is, when a work excels in one quality, you 
 may blame it for not having the opposite. For 
 instance, if the biographical sketch of a literary 
 character is minute and full of anecdote, you may 
 enlarge on the advantages of philosophical reflection, 
 and the superior mind required to give a judicious 
 analysis of the opinions and works of deceased 
 authors ; on the contrary, if the latter method is 
 pursued by the biographer, ^^you can with equal 
 .ease extol the lively colouring and truth and 
 interest of exact delineation and detail. This 
 topic, you will perceive, enters into style .as ,weU 
 as matter, where many virtues might be named 
 which are incompatible ; and, whichever the author 
 has preferred, it will be the signal for you to 
 .launch forth on .the praisj^s of its .opposite, antJ 
 
Advice To a yoUng reviewer. 303 
 
 continually to hold up that to your reader as the 
 model of excellence in this species of writing. 
 
 You will, perhaps, wonder why all my instruc- 
 tions are pointed towards the censure and not the 
 praise of books ; but many reasons might be given 
 why it should be so. The chief are, that this part 
 is both easier, and will sell better. Let us hear the 
 words of Mr. Burke on a subject not very dis- 
 similar : " In such cases," says he, " the writer has 
 a certain fire and alacrity inspired into him by a 
 consciousness that, let it fare how it will with the 
 subject, his ingenuity will be sure of applause ; and 
 this alacrity becomes much greater, if he acts upon 
 the offensive, by the impetuosity that always accom- 
 panies an attack, and the unfortunate propensity 
 which mankind have to the finding and exaggerat- 
 ing faults," (Pref Vindic. Nat. Soc, p. 6.) You 
 will perceive that I have on no occasion sanctioned 
 the baser motives of private pique, ^wvy^ revenge, 
 and love of detraction ; at least, I have not recom- 
 mended harsh treatment upon any of these grounds; 
 1 have argued simply on the abstract moral prin- 
 ciple which a Reviewer should ever have present to 
 his mind : but if any of these motives insinuate 
 themselves as secondary springs of action, I would 
 not condemn them ; they may come in aid of the 
 grand leading principle, and powerfully second its 
 operation. 
 
 But it is time to close these tedious precepts* and 
 
304 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 to furnish you with what speaks plainer than any 
 precept, a specimen of the art itself, in which several 
 of them are embodied. It is hastily done, but it 
 exemplifies well enough what I have said of the 
 poetical department, and exhibits most of those 
 qualities which disappointed authors are fond of, 
 railing at, under the names of flippancy, arrogance,/ 
 conceit, misrepresentation, and malevolence ; re/ 
 proaches which you will only regard as so man/ 
 acknowledgments of success in your undertaking, 
 and infallible tests of an established fame and 
 rapidly increasing circulation. 
 
 L Allegro : a Poem, By JoHN MiLTON. No 
 Printer's name. 
 
 It has become a practice of late with a certain 
 description of people, who have no visible means 
 of subsistence, to string together a few trite images 
 of rural scenery, interspersed with vulgarisms in 
 dialect and traits of vulgar manners ; to dress up 
 these materials in a sing-song jingle, and to offer 
 them for sale as a poem. According to the most 
 approved recipes, something about the heathen 
 gods and goddesses, and the schoolboy topics of 
 Styx, and Cerberus, and Elysium, is occasionally 
 thrown in, and the composition is complete. The 
 stock-in-trade of these adventurers is in general 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER. 305 
 
 scanty enough, and their art therefore consists in 
 disposing it to the best advantage. But if such be 
 the aim of the writer, it is the critic's business to 
 detect and defeat the imposture ; to warn the 
 pubHc against the purchase of shop-worn goods 
 and tinsel wares ; to protect the fair trader, by 
 exposing the tricks of needy quacks and mounte- 
 banks ; and to chastise that forward and noisy 
 importunity with which they present themselves to 
 the public notice. 
 
 How far Mr. Milton is amenable to this discipline 
 will best appear from a brief analysis of the poem 
 before us. In the very opening he assumes a tone 
 of authority, which might better suit some veteran 
 bard than a raw candidate for the Delphic bays : 
 for, before he proceeds to the regular process of 
 invocation, he clears the way by driving from his 
 presence, with sundry hard names and bitter 
 reproaches on her father, mother, and all the family, 
 a venerable personage, whose age at least, and staid 
 matron-like appearance, might have entitled her to 
 more civil language. 
 
 Hence, loathed Melancholy ; 
 Of Cerberus and blackest midni<;ht born, 
 In Stygian cave forlorn, &c. 
 
 There is no giving rules, however, in these matters, 
 without a knowledge of the case. Perhaps the old 
 lady had been frequently warned off before, and 
 provoked this violence by continuing still to lurk 
 
3o6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 about the poet's dwelling. And, to say the truth, 
 the reader will have but too good reason to remark, 
 before he gets through the poem, that it is one thing 
 to tell the spirit of dulness to depart, and another to 
 get rid of her in reality. Like Glendower's spirits, 
 any one may order them away, "but will they go 
 when you do order them ? " 
 
 But let us suppose for a moment that the Parnas- 
 sian decree is obeyed, and according to the letter of 
 the order, which is as precise and wordy as if Justice 
 Shallow himself had drawn it, that the obnoxious 
 female is sent back to the place of her birth, 
 
 'Mongst horrid shapes, shrieks, sights, &c., 
 
 at which we beg our fair readers not to be alarmed, 
 for we can assure them they are only words of course 
 in all poetical instruments of this nature, and mean 
 no more than the " force and arms," and '' instigation 
 of the devil " in a common indictment. This 
 nuisance then being abated, we are left at liberty to 
 contemplate a character of a different complexion, 
 "buxom, blithe, and debonair," one who, although 
 evidently a great favourite of the poet's, and there- 
 fore to be received with all due courtesy, is notwith- 
 standing introduced under the suspicious description 
 
 of an alias : 
 
 In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne, 
 And by men, heart-easing Mirth. 
 
 Judging indeed from the light and easy deportment 
 of this gay nymph, one might guess there were 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER. 307 
 
 good reasons for a change of name as she changed 
 her residence. 
 
 But of all vices there is none we abhor more than 
 that of slanderous insinuation ; we shall, therefore, 
 confine our moral strictures to the nymph's mother, 
 in whose defence the poet has little to say himself. 
 Here too, as in the case of the namey there is seme 
 doubt : for the uncertainty of descent on the father's 
 side having become trite to a proverb, the author, 
 scorning that beaten track, has left us to choose 
 between two mothers for his favourite^ and without 
 much to guide our choice ; for, whichever we fix 
 upon, it is plain she was no better than she should 
 be. As he seems, however, himself inclined to the 
 latter of the two^ we will even suppose it so to 
 be: 
 
 Or whether (as some sager sing) 
 The frolic wind thai breathes the springs 
 Zephyr with Aurora playing, 
 As he met her once a-Maying; 
 ■ There on beds of violets blue, 
 And fresh-blown roses washed in de'a', &c. 
 
 Some dull people might imagine that the wind 
 was more like the breath of spring, than spring the 
 breath of the wind ; but we are more disposed to 
 question the author's ethics than his physics, and 
 accordingly cannot dismiss these May gambols with- 
 out some observations. 
 
 In the first place, Mr. M. seems to have higher 
 .jiotions of the antiquity of the Maypole than we 
 
3o8 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 have been accustomed to attach to it. Or perhaps 
 he thought to shelter the equivocal nature of this 
 affair under that sanction. To us however, who can 
 hardly subscribe to the doctrine that '* vice loses 
 half its evil by losing all its grossness," neither the 
 remoteness of time nor the gaiety of the season 
 furnishes a sufficient palliation. " Violets blue " and 
 " fresh-blown roses " are, to be sure, more agreeable 
 objects of the imagination than a ginshop in 
 Wapping or a booth in Bartholomew Fair ; but in 
 point of morality these are distinctions without a 
 difference ; or, it may be, the cultivation of mind, 
 which teaches us to reject and nauseate these latter 
 objects, aggravates the case if our improvement in 
 taste be not accompanied by a proportionate im- 
 provement of morals. 
 
 If the reader can reconcile himself to this latitude'^ 
 of principle, the anachronism will not long stand in 
 his way. Much, indeed, may be said in favour of 
 this union of ancient mythology with modern 
 notions and manners. It is a sort of chronological 
 metaphor — an artificial analogy, by which ideas, 
 widely remote and heterogeneous, are brought into 
 contact, and the mind is delighted by this unex- 
 pected assemblage, as it is by the combinations of 
 figurative language. 
 
 Thus in that elegant interlude, which the pen of 
 Ben Jonson has transmitted to us, of the loves of 
 Hero and Leandcr : 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER. 309 
 
 Gentles, that no lunger your expectations may wander, 
 Behold our chief actor, amorous Leander, 
 With a great deal of cloth, lapped about him like a scarf. 
 For he yet serves his father, a dyer in Puddle Wharf; 
 Which place we'll make bold with, to call it our Abydus, 
 As the Bank side is our Sestos, and It it not he denied tis. 
 
 And far be it from us to deny the use of so 
 reasonable a liberty ; especially if the request be 
 backed (as it is in the case of Mr. M.) by the 
 craving and imperious necessities of rhyme. What 
 man who has ever bestrode Pegasus but for an 
 hour, will be insensible to such a claim ? 
 
 Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. 
 
 We are next favoured with an enumeration of the 
 attendants of this " debonair " nymph, in all the 
 minuteness of a German dramatis personae, or a 
 rope-dancer's handbill : 
 
 Haste thee, nymph, aud bring wiih thee 
 Jest, and youthful Jollity ; 
 Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, 
 Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, 
 Such as hang on Hebe's cheek. 
 And love to live in dimple sleek ; 
 Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 
 And Laughter, holding both his sides. 
 
 The author, to prove himself worthy of being admit- 
 ted of the crew, skips and capers about upon " the 
 light fantastic toe," that there is no following him. 
 He scampers through all the categories, in search of 
 his imaginary beings, from substance to quality, and 
 
3 10 FAMO US PA MPHLE TS 
 
 back again ; from thence to action, passion, habit, &c., 
 with incredible celerity. Who, for instance, would 
 have expected cranks, nods, hecks, and ivreatlivd sinilcs 
 as part of a group, in which Jest, Jollity, Sport and 
 Laughter figure away as full- formed entire person- 
 ages ? The family likeness is certainly very strong 
 in the two last, and if we had not been told we 
 should perhaps have thought the act of deriding as 
 appropriate to laughter as to sport. 
 
 But how are we to understand the stage direc- 
 tions ? 
 
 Come^ and trip it as you go. 
 
 Are the words used synonymously ? Or is it meant 
 that this airy gentry shall come in at a minuet step, 
 and go off in a jig ? The phenomenon of a tripping 
 crank is indeed novel, and would doubtless attract 
 numerous spectators. But it is difficult to guess to 
 whom among this jolly company the poet addresses 
 himself, for immediately after the plural appellative 
 [you], he proceeds : 
 
 And in thy right hand lead with thee 
 The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty. 
 
 No sooner is this fair damsel introduced, but 
 Mr. M., with most unbecoming levity, falls in love 
 with her, and makes a request of her companion, 
 which is rather greedy, that he may live with both 
 of them : 
 
 To live with her, and live with thee. 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER. 31 f 
 
 Even the gay libertine who sung, '' How happy could 
 I be with either," did not go so far as this. But we 
 have already had occasion to remark on the laxity of 
 Mr. M.'s amatory notions. 
 
 The poet, intoxicated with the charms of his 
 mistress, now rapidly runs over the pleasures which 
 he proposes to himself in the enjoyment of her 
 society. But though he has the advantage of being 
 his own caterer, either his palate is of a peculiar 
 structure, or he has not made the most judicious 
 selection. To begin the day well, he will have the 
 skylark 
 
 to come in spite of sor7'oiv^ 
 And at his window bid good morrow. 
 
 The skylark, if we know anything of the nature of 
 that bird, must come in spite of something else as 
 well as of sorrow, to the performance of this office. 
 In his next image the natural history is better 
 preserved, and as the thoughts are appropriate to the 
 time of the day, we will venture to transcribe the 
 passage, as a favourable specimen of the author's 
 manner : 
 
 While the cock with lively din 
 Scatters the rear of darkness thin, 
 And to the stack, or the barn-door, 
 Stoutly struts his dames before ; 
 Oft listening how the hounds aixl horn 
 Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, 
 From the side of some hoar hill, 
 Through the high wood echoing shrill. 
 
312 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 Is it not lamentable that, after all, whether it is the 
 cock or the poet that listens^ should be left entirely 
 to the reader's conjecture ? Perhaps also his em- 
 barrassment may be increased by a slight resem- 
 blance of character in these two illustrious personages, 
 at least as far as relates to the extent and numbers 
 of their seraglio. 
 
 After a flaming description of sunrise, on which 
 occasion the clouds attend in their very best liveries, 
 the bill of fare for the day proceeds in the usual 
 manner. Whistling ploughmen, singing milkmaids, 
 and sentimental shepherds are always to be had at 
 a moment's notice, and, if well grouped, serve to 
 fill up the landscape agreeably enough. On this 
 part of the poem we have only to remark, that 
 if Mr. John Milton proposes to make himself merry 
 with 
 
 Russet lawns, and fallows grey, 
 Where the nibbling flocks do stray ; 
 Mountains on whose barren breast 
 The labouring clouds do often rest, 
 Meadows trim with daisies pied, 
 Shallow brooks, and rivers wide, 
 Towers and battlements, &c. (ScC. <Scc., 
 
 he will either find himself egregiously disappointed, 
 or he must possess a disposition to merriment which 
 even Democritus himself might envy. To such a 
 pitch indeed does this solemn indication of joy 
 sometimes rise, that we are inclined to give him 
 
ADVICE TO A YOUNG REVIEWER. 313 
 
 credit for a literal adherence to the Apostolic 
 precept, " Is any merry, let him sing psalms." 
 
 At length, however, he hies away at the sound of 
 bell-ringing, and seems for some time to enjoy the 
 tippling and fiddling and dancing of a village wake ; 
 but his fancy is soon haunted again by spectres and 
 goblins, a set of beings not in general esteemed the 
 companions or inspirers of mirth. 
 
 With stories told of many a feat, 
 How fairy Mab tlie junkets eat ; 
 She was pinched, and pulled, she said ; 
 And he, by friar's lantherii led, 
 Tells how the drudging goblin sweat 
 To earn his cream-bowl duly set ; 
 When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, 
 His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn. 
 That ten day-labourers could not end ; 
 Then lies him down the lubbar fiend, 
 And, stretched out all the chimney's length, 
 Basks at the fire his hairy strength ; 
 And crop-full out of door he flings, 
 Ere the first cock his matin rings. 
 
 Mr. M. seems indeed to have a turn for this species 
 of nursery tales and prattling lullabies ; and if he 
 will studiously cultivate his talent he need not 
 despair of figuring in a conspicuous corner of Mr. 
 Newbury's shop-window ; unless indeed Mrs. Trimmer 
 should think fit to proscribe those empty levities and 
 idle superstitions by which the world has been too 
 long abused. 
 
314 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS, 
 
 From these rustic fictions we are transported to 
 another species oi /mm: 
 
 Towered cities please us then, 
 
 And the busy hum of men, 
 
 Where throngs of knights and barons bold 
 
 In weeds of peace high triumphs hold, 
 
 With store of ladies, whose bright eyes 
 
 Jiain influence^ and judge the prize 
 
 Of wit or arms, while both contend 
 
 To win her grace, whom all commend. 
 
 To talk of the bright eyes of ladies judging the 
 prize of wit is indeed with the poets a legitimate 
 species of humming : but would not, we may ask, 
 the rain from these ladies' bright eyes rather tend to 
 dim their lustre ? Or is there any quality in a 
 shower of influence, which, instead of deadening, 
 serves only to brighten and exhilarate ? Whatever 
 the case may be, we would advise Mr. M. by all 
 means to keep out of the way of these knights and 
 barons bold ; for if he has nothing but his wit to 
 trust to, we will venture to predict that, without a 
 large share of most undue influence, he must be 
 content to see the prize adjudged to his com- 
 petitors. 
 
 Of the latter part of the poem little need be said. 
 The author does seem somewhat more at home 
 when he gets among the actors and musicians, 
 though his head is still running upon Orpheus and 
 Eurydice, and Pluto, and other sombre gentry, who 
 
ADVICE TO A VOVNG REVIEWER, 315 
 
 are ever thrusting themselves in where we least 
 expect them, and who chill every rising emotion of 
 mirth and gaiety. 
 
 He appears, however, to be so ravished with this 
 sketch of festive pleasures, or perhaps with himself 
 for having sketched them so well, that he closes 
 with a couplet, which would not have disgraced a 
 Sternhold : 
 
 These delights if thou canst give, 
 Mirth, with thee I 7)tean to live. 
 
 Of Mr. M.'s good intentions there can be no doubt ; 
 but we beg leave to remind him that in every com- 
 pact of this nature there are two opinions to be 
 consulted. He presumes, perhaps, upon the poetical 
 powers he has displayed, and considers them as 
 irresistible ; for every one must observe in how 
 different a strain he avows his attachment now and 
 at the opening of the poem. Then it was. 
 
 If I give thee honour due, 
 Mirth, admit me of thy crew. 
 
 But having, it should seem, established his preten- 
 sions, he now thinks it sufficient to give notice that 
 he means to live with her, because he likes her. 
 
 Upon the whole, Mr. Milton seems to be possessed 
 of some fancy and talent for rhyming ; two most 
 dangerous endowments, which often unfit men for 
 acting a useful part in life, without qualifying them 
 for that which is great and brilliant. If it be true,' 
 
3i6 FAMOUS PAMPHLETS. 
 
 as we have heard, that he has declined advantageous 
 prospects in business for the sake of indulging his 
 poetical humour, we hope it is not yet too late to 
 prevail upon him to retract his resolution. With the 
 help of Cocker and common industry he may be- 
 come a respectable scrivener ; but it is not all the 
 Zephyrs, and Auroras, and Corydons, and Thyrsises, 
 aye, nor his junketing Queen Mab and drudging 
 goblins, that will ever make him a poet. 
 
 TkIN'TED nv I',AU, AXTYNF, HANSON AND CO. 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
 
George Routledge & Sons' Catalogue. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY— ZOOLOGY. 
 
 Routledg^e's Illustrated Natural History. By the Rev. J. G. 
 
 Wood, M.A. With more than 1500 Illustrations by Coleman, Wolf, 
 Hakrison Wkir, Wood, Zwecker, and others. Thiee Vols., super-royal, 
 cloth, price £1 2.r. The Volumes are also sold separately, viz. : — Mammalia, 
 with 600 Illustrations, 14^. ; Birds, with 500 111-ustrations, 14*, ; Reptiles 
 Fishes, and lusacts, 400 Illustrations, 14^. 
 
 Routledge's Illustrated History of Man. Being an Account 
 
 of the Manners and Customs of the Uncivilised Races of Men. By the 
 Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S. With more than 600 Original Illustrations 
 by ZwECKHR, Danby, Angas, Handlev, and others, engraved by the 
 Brothers Dalziel. Vol. I., Africa, ias.; Vol. II., Australia, New Zealand, 
 Polynesia, America, Asia^ and Ancient Europe, 14*, Two Vols., super- 
 royal 8vo, cloth, 28J, 
 
 The Imperial Natural History. By the Rev. J. G. Wood, 
 
 1000 pages, with 500 Plates, super-royal 8vo, cloth, 15^. 
 An Illustrated Natural History. By the Rev. J. G. Wood. 
 
 With 500 illustrations by Wjlliam Harvhv, and 8 full-page Plates by 
 "Wolf and Hakrison Wbir, Po§t 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, ts. 
 
 A Picture Natural History. Adapted for Young Readers. By 
 the Rev. J. G. Wood. With 700 Illustrations by Wolf, Weir, &c. 410, 
 cloth, gilt edges, , 7*. td. 
 
 The Popular Natural History. By the Rev. J. G. Wood, 
 
 With Hundreds of Illustrations, price 7*. td. 
 
 The Boy's Own Natural History. 
 With 400 Illustrations, 3*. 6d, cloth. 
 
 By the Rev, J. G. Wood. 
 
 Cietcheg and Anecdotes of Animal Life. By the Rev. J. G. 
 Wood. Illustrated by Harrison WerR. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, 3^. td. 
 
 Animal Traits and Characteristics. By the Rev. J . G. Wood. 
 Illustrated by H. Wkir. Fcap., cloth, jj. 6d. 
 
 The Poultry Book. By W. B. Tegetmeier, F.Z.S. Assisted 
 
 by many Eminent Authorities, With 30 full-page lllustration-s of trie 
 difTcrent Varieties, drawn from Life by Harrison Weir, and printed in 
 Colours by Lhighton Brothers ; and numerous Woodcuts. Imperial Svo, 
 half- bound, price su. 
 
 The Standard of Excellence in Exhibition Poultry. By 
 W. P>, Ibgetmbxbr, F.Z.S. Fcap,, cloth, w. 6d, 
 
<GEORGE ROUTLEDGE 6- SOlf!^ 
 
 Natohxl History, continued. 
 Pigeons. By W. B. Tegetmeier, F.Z.S., Assisted by itiai!^ 
 
 Eminent Fanciers. With 27 Coloured Plates, drawn from Life by H arrisom 
 Weir, and printed by Leighton Brothers ; and numerous Woodcuts. Im- 
 perial 8vOt half-bound, \os. 6d. 
 
 The Homing' or Carrier Pigeon : Its History, Management, 
 and Method of Training, By W. B. Tegetmeieu, F.Z.S. is. boards. 
 
 My Feathered Friends. Containing Anecdotes of ♦Bird Lif(% 
 
 more especially Eagles, Vultures, Hawks, Magpies, Rooks, Crows, R,-A'ens, 
 Parrots, Humming Birds, Ostriches, &c., &c. By the Rev. J, G. WooJX 
 With Illustrations by Harrison Weir. Cloth gilt, 3^. 6d, 
 
 British Birds' Eggs and Nests, By the Rev. J. C. Atkik-SON. 
 
 With Original Illustrations by W, S, COLE&tAM, printed in Colours. Fcap., 
 cloth, gilt edges, price 34. 6d, 
 
 The Angler Naturalist. A Popular History of British Fresh- 
 water Fish. By H. Cholmondeley Pennbll* Post 8vo, y. 6d. 
 
 British Conchology. A Familiar History of the Molluscs of 
 
 the British Isles. By G, B. Sowbrby, With ao Pages of Coloured Plates, 
 embracing 150 subjects. Cloth, ss. 
 
 The Calendar of the Months. Giving an Account of the Plants, 
 
 Birds, and Insects that may be expected each Month. With 100 Illustra- 
 tions. Cloth gilt, 3^. 6d. ; Cheap Edition, 2j. 
 
 White's Natural History of Selborne, New. Edition. Edited 
 by Rev. J. G. Wood, with above 200 Illuj.trationsby W."* Harvey. Fcap. 8vog 
 cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
 Dogs and their Ways. Illustrated by numerous Aitecdotes 
 from Authentic Sources, By the Rev. Charles Williams. With Illus- 
 trations. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, .jr. 6d» 
 
 Sagacity of Animals. With 60 Engravings by Harrison Weir. 
 
 Small 4to, 3^. 6^. 
 
 The Young NaturalistiV' By Mrs. Loudon. i6mo, cloth. 
 
 Illustrated, is, 6</. 
 
 The Child's First Book of Natural History. By Miss Bondw 
 
 With 100 Illustrations. x6nio, cloth, i*. 6d» 
 
 The Common Objects of the Country. By the Rev. J. G. 
 
 Wood. With Illustrations by Coleman, containing 150 of the "Objects* 
 
 beautifully printed in Colours. Cloth, gilt edges, pnce 3^. 6d, 
 
 Also a Cheap Edition, price if., in fancy boards, with Plain Plates. 
 
 •Common British Beetles. By the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A. 
 
 With Woodcuts and Twelve pages of Plates of all the Varieties, beautifuily 
 printed in Colours by £dmund Evans. Fcap. 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, pric« 
 3s.6d, 
 
 Westwood's (Professor) British Butterflies and their Trans* 
 
 formations. With numerous Illustrations, beautifully Coloured by Hand* 
 Imperial 8vo, cloth. 12 1. 6d» 
 
BOOKS ON NATURAL HISTORY, cS^. 
 
 Natural History, continued, 
 
 British Butterflies. Figures and Descriptions of every Native 
 Species, with an Account of Butterfly Life. With 71 Coloured Figures of 
 Butterflies, all of exact life-size, and 67 Figures of Caterpillars, Chrysalides, 
 &c. By W. S. Coleman. Fcap., cloth gilt, price 3^. td. 
 ♦*♦ A Cheap Edition, with plain Plates, fancy boards, price if. 
 
 The Common Moths of England. By the Rev. J. G. Wood, 
 M .A. 12 Plates printed rn Colours, comprising 100 objects. Cloth, gilt 
 edges. 3J. dd. 
 *** A Cheap Edition, with plain Plates, boards, u. 
 
 British Entomology. Containing a Familiar and Technical De- 
 scription of the Insects most common to the localities of the British Isles. 
 By Maria E. Catlow. With 16 pages of Coloured Plates. Cloth, ^^s. 
 
 Popular Scripture Zoology. With Coloured Illustrations. By 
 
 Maria E. Catlow. Cloth, 5J. 
 
 The Common Objects of the Sea-Shore. With Hints for 
 
 the Aquarium. By the Rev. J. G. Wood. The Fine Edition, with the 
 Ilhtstrations by G. B. Sovverby, beautifully printed in Colours. Fcap. 8vo, 
 cloth, gilt edges, 3^. dd. 
 %* Also, price u., a Cheap Edition, with the Plates plain. 
 
 British Crustacea : A Familiar Account of their Classification 
 and Habits. By Adam White, F.L.S. so Pages of Coloured Plates, em- 
 bracing 120 subjects. Cloth, %5. 
 
 The Fresh-Water and Salt-Water Aquarium. By the Rev. 
 
 J. G. Wood, M.A. With 11 Coloured Plates, containing 136 Objects. 
 
 Cloth, 3^ . td. 
 
 A Cheap Edition, with plain Plates, boards, is. 
 
 The Aquarium of Marine and Fresh-Water Animals and 
 Plants. By G. B. Sowerbt, F.L.S. With ao Pages of Coloured Plates, 
 embracing 120 subjects. Cloth, «;*. 
 
 FLOWERS, PLANTS, AND GARDENING. 
 
 Gardening at a Glance. By George Glenny. AYith Ilhislra- 
 
 tions. Fcap. 8vo, gilt edges, 3*. 6d, 
 
 Roses, and How to Grow Them. By J. D. Prior. Coloured 
 
 Plates. Cloth gilt, 3^. 6d. 
 
 •»* A Cheap Edition, with plain Plates, fancy boards, i^. 6d. 
 
 Garden Botany. Containing a Familiar and Scientific Descrip- 
 tion of most of the Hardy and Half-hardy Plants introduced into the Flower 
 Garden. By Agnbs Catlow. ao Pages of Coloured Plates, embraciug 67 
 Illustrations. 5c. 
 
ROUTLEDGE'S POCKET LIBRARY. 
 
 IN MONTHLY VOLUMES. 
 
 Cut or unctit ed^es, is. ; Cloth^ unctd edges with gilt tops, is. 6d, 
 Paste grai ft, 2s. 6d, 
 
 *' A series of beautiful little books, tastefully bound.'* — Times. 
 *' Beautifully printed and tastefully bound." — Saturday Review, 
 *' Deserves warm praise for the taste shown in its production. The 
 Library ' ought to be very popular." — A thefianm. 
 
 L BRET HARTE'S POEMS. 
 
 2. THACKERAY'S PARIS SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 3. HOOD'S COMIC POEMS. 
 
 4. DICKENS'S CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 5. POEMS BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 6. WASHINGTON IRVINO'S SKETCH BOOK. 
 
 7. MACAULAY'S LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 
 
 8. THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. 
 
 9. HOOD'S SERIOUS POEMS. 
 
 10. THE COMING RACE. By Lord Lvtton. 
 11. THE BIGLOW PAPERS. 
 
 12. MANON LESCAUT. 
 
 13. LONGFELLOW'S SONG OF HIAWATHA. 
 
 14. STERNE'S SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY. 
 
 15. DICKENS'S CHIMES. 
 
ROUTLEDGE'S EXCELSIOR SERIES 
 
 OF STANDARD AUTHORS, 
 Without Abridgment, Crown 8vo, as. each, in cloth. 
 
 1 The Wide, Wide World, by Miss WetberelL 
 1 Melbourne House, by Miss Wetherell. 
 
 3 The Lamplighter, by Miss Cummins. 
 
 4 Stepping Heavenward, and Aunt Jane's Hero, by B. Prentlu. 
 
 5 Queechy, by Miss Wetherell. 
 
 6 Ellen Montgomery's Bookshelf, by Miss Wetherell. 
 
 7 The Two School Girls, and other Tales, illustrating the Beatitudes, by 
 
 Miss Wetherell. 
 
 8 Helen, by Maria Edgeworth. 
 
 9 The Old Helmet, by Miss Wetherell. 
 18 Mabel Vaughan, by Miss Cummins. 
 
 11 The Glen Luna Family, or Speculation, by Miss Wetherell. 
 
 12 The Word, or Walks from Eden, by Miss Wetherell. 
 
 13 Alone, by Marion Harland. 
 
 14 The Lofty and Lowly, by Miss M*Intosh. 
 
 15 Prince of the House of David, by Rev. J. H. Ingraham. 
 
 16 Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Mrs. Stowe, with a Preface by the Earl of 
 
 Carlisle 
 
 17 Longfellow's Poetical Works, 726 pages, with Portrait. 
 
 18 Burns's Poetical Works, with Memoir by Willmott. 
 
 19 Moore's Poetical Works, with Memoir by Howitt. 
 
 20 Byron's Poetical Works, Selections from Don Juan. 
 
 SI Pope's Poetical Works, Edited by the Rev. H. F. Gary, with a Memoir 
 
 22 Wise Sajrings of the Great and Good, with Classified Index of Subjects 
 
 23 Lover's Poetical Works. 
 
 24 Bret Harte's Poems. 
 
 25 Mrs. Hemans' Poetical Works. 
 
 26 Coleridge's Poetical Works, with Memoir by W. B. Scott 
 
 27 Dodd's Beauties of Shakspeare. 
 
 28 Hood's Poetical Works, Serious and Comic, 456 pages. 
 
 29 The Book of Familiar Quotations, from the Best Authors, 
 
 30 Shelley's Poetical Works, with Memoir ky W. B. Scott, 
 
 31 Keats' Poetical Works, with Memoir by W. B. Scott. 
 
 32 Shakspere Gems. Extracts, specially designed for Youth. 
 
 33 The Book of Humour, Wit, and Wisdom, a Manual of Table Ts^lk. 
 
 34 B. A. Poe's Poetical Works, with Memoir by R. H. Stoddard. 
 
 35 L. E. L., The Poetical Works of (Letitia Elizabeth Landon). Wttb 
 
 Memoir by W. B. Scott. 
 
 37 Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works, with Memoir.. 
 
 38 Shakspere, complete, with Poems and Sonnets, edited by CharVv 
 
 Knight. 
 
 39 Cowper's Poetical Works. 
 
 40 Milton's Poetical Works, from the Text of Dr. Newton. 
 
 41 Sacred Poems, Devotional and Moral. 
 
 4 J Svdney Smith's Essm, from the Edinburgh Review, 
 
 43 Cnoice Poems and Lyrics, from 130 Poets. if9'*fim^m\ 
 
LUAN PtRIOD 1 (2 ^ 
 
 HOME USE 
 
 4 
 
 AU BOOKS MAY BE RECAUEO AFTER 7 
 
 DAYS 
 
 ^t^;;^r;:::7-.:r----- 
 
 DOE AS SrAMPFnRfiovv 
 
 ^N'VE'^SITY Oh CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 BERKELEY, CA 94720 
 S7* Loweli's Poetical wotks. 
 
 ORM NO. DD6 
 
 88 Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreck, 
 So Robin Hood B2.11ads. r^^iteH hv Ritenn 
 
 ®$ I 
 
'd 'JObOO 
 
 ROUTLEDQE'8 STANDARD LIBRARY, 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth, 38. 6d. each. 
 
 I The Arabian Nights, Unabridged, 
 
 8 plates, 
 s Don Quixote, Unabridged. 
 S OU Bias, Adventures of, Un- 
 
 abnidged. 
 
 4 Cariosities of Literature, by Isaac 
 
 D' Israeli, Complete Edition. 
 
 5 A Thousand and One Gems of 
 
 British Poetry. 
 
 6 The Blackfriars Shakspere, edited 
 
 by Charies Knight 
 
 7 Cruden's Concordance, by Carey. 
 
 8 Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson. 
 
 9 The Works of Oliver Goldsmith. 
 XX The Family Doctor, 500 woodcuts. 
 xa Sterne's Works, Complete. 
 
 X3 Ten Thousand Wonderful Things. 
 14 Extraordinary Popular Delusions, 
 by Dr. Mackay. 
 
 16 Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. 
 
 17 The Spectator, by Addison, &c 
 
 Unabridged. 
 
 x8 Routledge's Modem Speaker- 
 Comic — Serious — Dramatic. 
 
 19 One Thousand and One Gems of 
 Prose, edited by C. Mackay. 
 
 ao Pope's Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. 
 
 as Josephus, translated by Whiston. 
 
 24 Book of Proverbs, Phrases, Quota- 
 tions, and Mottoes. 
 
 as The Book of Modem Anecdotes — 
 Theatrical, Legal, and American. 
 
 86 Book of Table Talk, W* C. RusseU. 
 
 27 Junius, Woodfall's edition, 
 
 a8 Charles* Lamb's Works. 
 
 89 Froissart's Chronicles. [mation. 
 
 30 D'Aubigne's Stonr of the Refor- 
 
 3X A History of England, by the Rev. 
 James White. 
 
 3a Macaulay — Selected Essays, Mis- 
 cellaneous Writings. 
 
 33 Carleton's Traits, ist series. 
 
 34 2nd series. 
 
 35 Essays by Sydney Smith. 
 
 36 Dante. Longfellow's translation. 
 51 Prescott's Biographical and Critical 
 
 Essays. 
 5a Napier's History of the Peninsular 
 War, 1807-10. 53 i8io-ia. 
 
 54 White's Natural History of Sel. 
 
 borne, with many illustrations. 
 
 55 Dean Milman's History of the Jews. 
 
 56 Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry. 
 
 57 Chaucer's Poetical Works. 
 
 58 Longfellow's Prose Works. 
 
 59 Spenser's Poetical Works, 
 
 60 Asmodeus, by Le Sage. 
 
 61 Book of British Ballads, S.C Hall. 
 6« Plutarch's Lives (Langhorae'sed,) 
 
 64 Book of Epigrams, W. D. Adaai. 
 
 65 Longfellow's Poems (Comp. cd.) 
 
 66 Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, 
 
 67 Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. 
 
 68 Father Front's Works, edited by 
 
 C. Kent. 
 
 69 Carleton's Traits and Stories. 
 
 Complete in one volume. 
 
 70 Walker's Rhyming Dictionarr. 
 
 71 Macfarlane's Hist, of British India. 
 7a Defoe's Journal of the Plague and 
 
 the Great Fire of London, with 
 illustrations on steel by George 
 Cruikshank. 
 
 73 Glimpses of the Past, by C. Knight, 
 
 74 Michaud's History of the Crusades, 
 
 vol I. 
 75 vol 8. 76 vol. 3. 
 
 77 A Thousand and One Gems of 
 
 Song, edited by C. Mackay. 
 
 78 Motley's Rise of the Dutch Re- 
 
 public. [Complete. 
 
 79 Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, 
 80 Conquest of Mexico. Comp. 
 
 81 — — Conquest of Peru. Comp. 
 
 82 Charies the Fifth. 
 
 83 — PhiUp the Second. Vols. 
 
 X and a in I vol. 
 
 84 Vol 3 and Essays In I vol 
 
 85 Jeremy Taylor's Life of Christ 
 
 86 Traditions of Lancashire, by John 
 
 Roby, vol. I. 87 vol s. 
 
 88 "The Breakfast Table Scries"— 
 
 The Autocrat— The Professor— 
 The Poet— by Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, with steel pOTtrait. 
 
 89 Romaine's Life, Walk, and Tri- 
 
 umph of Faith. 
 
 90 Napier's History of the Peninsular 
 
 War, 1812-14. [tion. 
 
 91 Hawker's Poor Man's Dally Pop- 
 93 Chevreul on Colour, with 8 co- 
 loured plates. 
 
 93 Shakspere, edited by C. Knight, 
 large type edition, with full-page 
 illustrations, vol. i. 
 
 94 vol a. 95 voL «. 
 
 96 The Spectator, large type ed. ,vori. 
 
 97 vol a. 98 vol a. 
 
 99 R.W. Emerson's Complete Works. 
 100 Boswell's Life of Johnson and 
 
 Tour to the Hebrides, vol. x. 
 
 xoi — ^ vol 8. loa vol. 3. 
 
 *X03 S. Knowles* Dramatic Works. 
 X04 Rosct->e's (W.) Lorenro de Medici 
 
 105 (W.) Life of Leo X.. voL i. 
 
 106 T«L a. 
 
 X07 Berington's Literary HiMtarf of 
 
 the Middle Ages.