Thefe are my Queftions, which I make the Teft of Men and Opinions; and if a Man does a thing that may advance the Intereft of the Pretender or his Friends, and can no 'way do Good to the House of Hanover,' he may fwear to his laft Breath that he is for that 'Houfe, before he fhall make me believe him. In like Manner, if People talk to me of hereditary Right, and then follow it with Profeffions for the Houfe of Hanover, which can have no additional Security from the urging of hereditary Right, I fhall no more believe 'them Hanoverians, than I fhould think a Man religious who fhould make a blafphemous 'Difcourfe, and clofe it with the Rehearsal of 'the Creed.

I fpeak all this because I am much afraid. of the Pretender; and my Fears are encreafed, because many others laugh at the Danger. I prefume to fay, thofe who do laugh ~6 at it either do not think at all, or think it will be no Day of Danger to themfeves. But 1 thus early let go my Fire against the Pretender's Friends, becaufe I think my felf a very good Judge of Men's Mein and Air, and fee what they intend at a Distance. I own I have nothing to fay for the Liberty 1 take now, or the Book I put out to Day, when no Body elfe talks in the fame Stile, but what the Sailor did when he fired out of the StageCach upon Highway-Men before they cried • Stand; Would you have me stay till they have • boarded us?

<

My Adverfaries must make the Examiner one of the Miniftry, before they can bring the firft of thefe Paragraphs within their Complaint.

I cannot fuppofe that any Englishman can think me to blame for expreffing my Love to my Country in the ftrongeft Terms, as I have here 'done. As to the Rules by which I profefs to govern my Judgment, they are, I fuppofe, what none will controvert, as being of the Nature of Maxims or firft Principles, which can admit of no Difpute. The Paragraph that follows them is nothing elfe, but the Application of these general and undifputed Maxinis to a particular Cafe. I cannot imagine why any Gentleman fhould mark it in particular, unlefs for the Sake of the Word Hereditary; a Word that teems with fo many Difputes, and which, according to my Notion of it, is inconfiftent with the Succeffion in the House of Hanover, which cannot be come at but by paffing over many of those who are the next Heirs in Blood. But it happens that I have explained my felf as to this Point in the Englishman Nuinber 5, where I fay,

The unhappy Animofities which have reigned amongst us, have made each Side reduce it felf to an Abfurdity, from their Vi⚫olence of oppofing each other. While the one urges a Parliament Title, his Warmth betrays him into Expreffions difrefpe&ful to the Sovereignty; and his Opponent expreffes his Indignation at Principles too near the Sentiments of Common-wealths-Men, with carrying too far the Terms Hereditary and Indefeafible. Let them both agree that the Queen is vefted in all the Rights inherent in the Crown of England, and in Default of Iffue, the fame Titles devolved upon the Houfe of Hanover. When we talk of Hereditary M 2

'in

in general, all who can be perfwaded that the Pretender is the Son of James II, may be infnared to conclude that his Title is fuperior to that of any other upon Earth: But when we allow that the A&t of Settlement, and the other fubfequent A&ts, have well vefted all 'poffible Title in Her Majefty and the Houfe of Hanover, the Englishman has but one View before him; and any Title of the Pretender, of whomfoever born, is as remote as that of the Tudors or Plantagenets, or any other extin& Family.

In this plain Rule for the Direction of our 'Obedience, we have nothing to divert our "Thoughts from purfuing the real Interest of · our Queen and Country; and all, as one 'Man, will join in a common Indignation against those who would perplex our Obedience, as faithful Subjects and Englishmen.

The last Paragraph expreffes my Fears of the Pretender, which I muft ftill acknowledge; at leaft I can fee nothing criminal in them, till fuch Time as it shall be made a Crime to fay that the Proteftant Succeffion is in Danger. I thought I had reafon to apprehend this Danger, from the Power of one who had declared himfelf the Friend and Patron of the Pretender, from his present Refidence with a Prince, who has been ineffectually applied to for his Removal; from the Apprehenfions of a whole Houfe of Commons in another Kingdom, where Men have been actually lifted for his Service; from Addreffes fent out of North Britain; from Books written and published in Vindication of his Title. I thought my Fears were not too early, when the Danger appeared To imminent

and

and I believe every Gentleman will concur with me, that it is more for the Safety of the Publick we should, in this great Cafe, be affrighted with imaginary Danger, than lulled into imaginary Security.

Icome now, Sir, to thofe Paffages which are marked in the Dedication to the CRISIS. The first Paragraph runs thus:

I will take the further Liberty to fay, That if the Acts of Parliament mentioned in the following Treatife, had been from Time to • Time put in a fair and clear Light, and had ⚫ been carefully recommended to the Perufal of young Gentlemen in Colleges, with a Preference to allother Civil Inftitutions whatfoever, this Kingdom had not been in its prefent Condition, but the Conftitution would have had, in every Member the Univerfities have fent into the World fince the Revolution, an Advocate for our Rights and Liberties.

1 fuppofe, Sir, thofe who have marked this Paflage, would fetch an inuendo out of it that I fpeak difrefpe&fully of the Universities; an Imputation which I thought could never be laid to my Charge, as may appear by innumerable Paffages that may be drawn out of Books which I have published. It would take up the Time of this Houfe too much, thould I defire that all thofe Paffages fhould be read; I shall therefore only beg Leave to make ufe of that Work which is intitled The Englishman, to vouch for me in this Particular. In the Paper of that Name, Number 12, I thus exprefs my felf:

Our wholfome Laws, large Provifions, and the exemplary Characters of our Divines,

Written by Mr.
Steele himself.

M 3:

place

place them above the Neceffity of practising falfe Arts, to be in themfelves, their Families, and their Pofterity, the most happy · as well as the most eminent of the People. If therefore they will at any Time feparate themselves from the common Interest of their Country, fuch Errors in them muft neceffarily render them, in Inftances which ' might be indifferent in others, to a Degree Schifmaticks in the Church, and Rebels in the 'State.

And I alfo fay in the Englishman Number 34, 'I have ever been of Opinion, that our Univerfities, as they have been the frongeft 'Support of our Church, will

Written by a Correfpondent of Mr. Steele.

be no lefs zealous for the De'fence of our Civil Liberties, 'whenever they fhall fee them 6 openly attacked. One of thofe illuftrious Societies cannot yet have forgot, "when, by a moft unexampled Piece of Cruelty, Six and twenty of her Members, for refufing to be guilty of dire&t Perjury,and bravely oppofing an illegal Commiffion, were all of them deprived of their Fellowships, made incapable of any Ecclefiaftical Dignity; and fuch of them as were not then in holy Orders. declared and adjudged incapable of being ever admitted into the fame. I fhall conclude ⚫ with this Obfervation, That these noble Foun"dations and Monuments of the Virtue of our

Ancestors, are in their very Nature directly 'oppofite to Tyranny and unlimited Power; fince as Ignorance is a natural Confequence of Slavery, Arts and Sciences may be properly called the eldest Daughter of Liberty,