manag'd. And, that notwithstanding nothing has been given for so many years, yet a competent provision is still made for all expences of the publick, if not so large as might be wish'd, yet at least as much as is necessary. And I can tell my Author for his farther mortification, that at present no money is furnish'd to his Majesties Occasions, at such unconscionable Usury as he mentions. If he would have the Tables set up again, let the King be put into a condition, and then let eating and drinking flourish, according to the hearty, honest and greasie Hospitality of our Ancestors. He would have the King have recourse to Parliaments, as the only proper Supply to a King of England, for those things which the Treasury in this low Ebb cannot furnish out: but when he comes to the Conditions, on which this money is to be had, they are such, that perhaps forty in the Hundred to a Jew Banquer were not more unreasonable. In the mean time, if a Parliament will not give, and others must not lend, there is a certain story of the Dog in the Manger, which out of good manners I will not apply.

The Vote for not prosecuting Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws; which at this time is thought to be a Grievance to the Subject, a weakning of the Protestant Religion, and an Incouragement to Popery, is a matter more tenderly to be handled. But if it be true what has been commonly reported since the Plot, that Priests, Jesuits, and Friars, mingle amongst Anabaptists, Quakers, and other Sectaries, and are their Teachers, must not they be prosecuted neither? Some men would think, that before such an uniting of Protestants, a winnowing were not much amiss; for after they were once sent together to the Mill, it would be too late to divide the Grist. His Majesty is well known to be an indulgent Prince, to the Consciences of his dissenting Subjects: But whoever has seen a Paper call'd, I think, An intended Bill for uniting, &c. which lay upon the Table of every Coffee-House, and was modelling to pass the House of Commons, may have found things of such dangerous concernment to the Government, as might seem not so much intended to unite Dissenters in a Protestant Church, as to draw together all the Forces of the several Fanatick Parties, against the Church of England. And when they were encouraged by such a Vote, which they value as a Law; (for so high that Coin is now inhaunc'd) perhaps it is not unreasonable to hold the Rod over them. But for my own part, I heartily wish, that there may be no occasion for Christians to persecute each other. And since my Author speaks with some moderation, candor, and submission to his Mother Church, I shall only desire him and the dissenting Party, to make the use they ought, of the King Gracious Disposition to them, in not yet proceeding with all the violence which the penal Laws require against them. But this calm of my Author, was too happy to last long. You find him immediately transported into a storm about the business of Fitz-Harris, which occasion'd the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford: and accusing, according to his sawcy Custom, both his Majesty, and the House of Lords, concerning it. As for the House of Lords, they have already vindicated their own right, by throwing out the Impeachment: and sure the People of England ought to own them as the Assertors of the publick Liberty in so doing; for Process being before ordered against him at Common Law, and no particular Crime being laid to his Charge by the House of Commons, if they had admitted his Cause to be tryed before the Lordships, this would have grown a President in time, that they must have been forc'd to judge all those whom the House of Commons would thrust upon them, till at last the number of Impeachments would be so increas'd; that the Peers would have no time for any other business of the Publick: and the Highest Court of Judicature would have been reduc'd to be the Ministers of Revenge to the Commons. What then would become of our ancient Privilege to be tryed per pares? Which in process of time would be lost to us and our posterity: except a proviso were made on purpose, that this judgment might not be drawn into farther President; and that is never done, but when there is a manifest necessity of breaking rules, which here there was not. Otherwise the Commons may make Spaniels of the Lords, throw them a man, and bid them go judge, as we command a Dog to fetch and carry. But neither the Lords Reasons, nor the King first having possession of the Prisoner, signifie any thing with our Author. He will tell you the reason of the Impeachment was to bring out the Popish Plot. If Fitz-Harris really know any thing but what relates to his own Treason, he chuses a fine time of day to discover it now, when 'tis manifestly to save his Neck, that he is forc'd to make himself a greater Villain; and to charge himself with new Crimes to avoid the punishment of the old. Had he not the benefit of so many Proclamations, to have come in before, if he then knew any thing worth discovery? And was not his fortune necessitous enough at all times, to catch at an impunity, which was baited with Rewards to bribe him? 'tis not for nothing that Party has been all along so favourable to him: they are conscious to themselves of some other matters than a Popish Plot. Let him first be tryed for what he was first accus'd: if he be acquitted, his Party will be satisfied, and their strength increas'd by the known honesty of another Evidence: but if he be condemn'd, let us see what truth will come out of him, when he has Tyburn and another World before his Eyes. Then, if he confess any thing which makes against the Cause, their Excuse is ready; he died a Papist, and had a dispensation from the Pope to lie. But if they can bring him silent to the Gallows, all their favour will be, to wish him dispatch'd out of his pain, as soon as possibly he may. And in that Case they have already promis'd they will be good to his Wife, and provide for her, which would be a strong encouragement, for many a woman, to perswade her Husband to digest the Halter. This remembers me of a certain Spanish Duke, who commanding a Sea-Port-Town, set an Officer of his, underhand to rob the Merchants. His Grace you may be confident was to have the Booty, and the Fellow was assur'd if he were taken to be protected. It fell out, after some time, that he was apprehended: His Master, according to Articles, brought him off. The Rogue went again to his vocation, was the second time taken, delivered again, and so the third. At last the matter grew so notorious, that the Duke found, it would be both scandalous and difficult to protect him any longer; But the poor Malefactor sending his Wife to tell him that if he did not save him he must be hanged to morrow, and that he must confess who set him on: His Master very civilly sent him this Message; Prithee suffer thy self to be hanged this once to do me a Courtesie, and it shall be the better for thy Wife and Children.

'But that which makes amends for all, says our Author, is the Kings resolution to have frequent Parliaments. Yet this, it seems, is no amends neither: for he says Parliaments are like Terms, if there be Ten in a Year, and all so short to near no Causes, they do no good.'

I say on the other hand, If the Courts will resolve beforehand to have no Causes brought before them, but one which they know they cannot dispatch; let the Terms be never so long, they make them as insignificant as a Vacation.

The Kings Prerogative, when and where they should be call'd, and how long they should sit, is but subservient, as our Friend tells us, to the great design of Government; and must be accommodated to it, or we are either denyed or deluded of that Protection and Justice we are born to.

My Author is the happiest in one faculty, I ever knew. He is still advancing some new Position, which without proving, he slurs upon us for an Argument: though he knows, that Doctrines without proofs will edifie