he did not give up his Power of Treating 'till he had made the most Honourable Conditions for them, not a fingle Man amongst them was then hurt either in his Perfon or Privileges; but now---Poor unhappy Catalonians, worthy of a better Fate! Good and gracious God! to whom fhall be attributed the Lofs of this brave People! dreadful the Doom of thofe who hall in thy fight be esteemed their Destroyers.

But to bring these several Facts and Circumftances home, we muft obferve, that the Per fon who seems to be the most favoured by the French King in the late Treaties is the Duke of Savoy, who is made King of Sicily; and confidering alfo the Enlargement of his Territories on the Continent, by Ceffion 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 Dutchefs of Or leans, Sister to our late King Charles the Second, at the time of fettling the Crown of England on the Houfe of Hanover. This Prince, a Man of as great Addrefs and Capacity as any now living, is fuppofed to have entred into a fecret and ftri& Alliance with the Houfe of Bourbon, and may therefore very well add to our Fears of a Popish Succeffor.

Things ftanding thus, and the House of Bourbon being in the actual Poffeffion 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 elfe have we to prevent the Pretender's being impofed on us, when France fhall think fit;

nay,

nay, in failure of one Pretender, he has in his Quiver a Succeffion of them; the Dutchess of Savoy, or Her Sons, or the Dauphin her Grandfon. The last named cannot be many Years from the Throne of France.

In the next place how are we difpofed at. Home, for the Reception of fuch an Attempt? The Paffions of many, which were raised fo high by an Impudent Suggeftion of the Church's Danger, feem to have fubfided into a Lethargick Unconcern for every thing elfe; harmless Men are ashamed to own, how grofly they have been impofed upon; and inftead of refenting the Abuse, are willing to overlook it, with a certain reluctance against being moved at any thing elfe; leaft they thould fall into the Mortification of being mif-led a fecond time. Many who are above being blinded by popular Noife and Outcry, yet feein to think the Warmth and Zeal of a publick Spirit to be little better than a Romantick Heat of Brain. Treafon. able Books lately difperfed amongst us, that have apparently truck at the Proteftant Succeffion in the Houfe of Hanover, have paffed almost without Obfervation from the Generality of the People; Subtle Queries have been Published, about the Birth of a certain Perfon, which certain Perfon every Body knows to be intended for the Pretender; the Author of the Conduct of the Allies has dared to drop Infinuations about altering the Succeffion; and a late Treasonable Book, on the Subject of Hereditary Right, has published the Will of King Henry the Eighth, which feems to be intended as a Pattern for the like Qccafion

The Converfion of the Pretender to our Religion, has been occafionally Reported, and 13 Con

Contradicted, according to the Reception it met with among the foft Fools, who give that grofs Story a hearing: The unhappy Prince, whofe Son the Pretender calls himself, is a memorable Inftance, how much fuch Converfions are to be depended upon. King James, when Duke of York, for a long time profeffed. himfelf a Proteftant; and even not long before his Succeffion to the Crown, feveral Perfons had Actions brought against them for faying he was a Papift, and exorbitant Damages given and recovered; in a word, from the Practice of all Papifts, that have come to Proteftant Thrones, upon pretence of embracing the Reformed Religion, we have reafon to believe they have Difpenfations from Rome to perfonate any thing, for the Service of that Church. A Popish Prince will never think himself obliged by the moft Solemn, even the Coronation Oath, to his Proteftant Subjects. All Oaths are as infignificant and as foon forgotten, as the Services done by fuch Proteftant Subjects.

King James, when Duke of York, was preferved from the Bill of Exclufion by the Church of England, and particularly its Bishops; when he came to the Crown, the Church was foon infulted and outraged by him, and Her Prelates committed to the Tower.

Has not a Neighbouring Prince cruelly treated and banished his Proteftant Subjects, who preferved the Crown on his Head?

Did not the Princefs Mary promise the Men of Suffolk, who joined with her against the Lady Fane Grey, that he would make no Alteration in the Religion established by her Brother, King Edward the Sixth? And yet as foon as the came to the Crown, by the Affiftance e

ven of Suffolk Men, the filled all England, and in a particular manner that County, with the Flames of Martyrs. The Cruelties of that Reign were fuch, that Multitudes of Men, Women and Children were burnt for being Zealous Profeffors of the Gospel of the Lord Jelus. In thort, nothing less than this can be expected from a Popish Prince; both Clergy and Laity muft fhare the fame Fate, all uni. verfally muft fubmit to the fiery Trial, or renounce their Religion. Our Bishops and Clergy must all lofe their Spiritual Preferments, or fubmit to all Antichriftian Tyranny: And fhould they fubmit to every thing, they must notwithftanding part from their Wives and Children; which, according to the Church of Rome, are Harlots and Spurious. The Laiety, poffeffed of Lands that formerly belonged to the Roman Catholick Clergy, muft refign their Eftates, and perhaps be made accountable for the Profits received.

What can be more moving than to reflect upon the barbarous Cruelties of Papifts beyond all Example: And these not accidental,or the fudden Effects of Paffion or Provocation, but the fettled Refult of their Religion and their Confciences.

Above 10coco Men, Women and Children were murdered in the Maffacre of Ireland. How hot and terrible were the late Perfecutions of the Proteftants in France and Savoy? How frequent were the Maffacres of Proteftants through the whole Kingdom of France, when they were under the Protection of the then. Laws of that Country? How barbarous, in a particular manner, was the Maffacre of Paris, at the Marriage of the King of Navarre the French King's Grandfather, a Proteflant, with the Sifter of Charles the Ninth, where the I 4

Fa

Famous Admiral of France, the great Coligny, the glorious Afferter of the Proteftant Intereft, was inhumanly Murdered, and the Body of that Heroe dragged Naked about the Streets, and this by the Direction of the King himself, who had but just before moft treacherously given him, from his own Mouth, Affurance of his Prote ation? Ten thoufand Proteftants, without Diftinction of Quality, Age or Sex, were put to the Sword at the fame time; the King of Navarre himself narrowly escaped this Difafter, his Mother the Queen of Navarre having not long. before been poyfoned by the fame Faction.

Thefe are fome Inftances of what must ever be expected. No Obligations on our fide, no Humanity or Natural Probity on theirs, are of any weight; their very Religion forces them, upon Pain of Damnation, to forget and cancel the former, and to extinguish all remains of the latter. Good God! To what are they referved, who have nothing to expect but what fuch a Religion can afford them? It cannot therefore be too often repeated. We fhould confider, over and over again, that thould the Chain of the Proteftant Succeffion be once broke in upon, tho' the Pretender should be laid afide, the next of the Blood Royal is the Dutchefs of Savoy; after her Her two Sons; after them, the prefent Dauphin of France; the next in Succeffion to him, the Queen of Spain, and her Heirs; in Default of them, the Duke of Orleance, and his Heirs, and most of the o ther Princes of the Blood of France, all Papifts, who may be enabled to demand Preference to the House of Hanover; fo that befides the Probability of this Kingdom's being United to, and

made