The enemies of our happy establishment seem at, present to copy out the piety of this seditious prophet, and to have recourse to his laudable method of clublaw, when they find all other means of enforcing the absurdity of their opinions to be ineffectual. It was usual among the ancient Romans, for those, who had saved the life of a citizen, to be dressed in an oaken garland; but, among us, this has been a mark of such well-intentioned persons, as would betray their country, if they were able, and beat out the brains of their fellow subjects. Nay, the leaders of this poor, unthinking rabble, to show their wit, have lately decked them out of their kitchen-gardens in a most insipid pun, very well suited to the capacity of such followers.

This manner of proceeding has had an effect quite contrary to the intention of these ingenious demagogues; for, by setting such an unfortunate mark on their followers, they have exposed them to innumerable drubs and contusions. They have been cudgelled most unmercifully in every part of London and Westmin ster; and over all the nation have avowed their principles to the unspeakable damage of their bones. In short, if we may believe our accounts both from town and country, the noses and ears of the party are very much diminished, since they have appeared under this unhappy distinction.

The truth of it is, there is such an unaccountable phrensy and licentiousness spread through the basest of the people, of all parties and denominations, that if their skirmishes did not proceed to too great an extremity, one would not be sorry to see them bestowing so liberally, upon one another, a chastisement which they so richly deserve. Their thumps and bruises might turn to account, and save the government a great deal of trouble, if they could beat each other into good

manners.

Were not advice thrown away on such a thoughtless rabble, one would recommend to their serious consideration what is suspected, and indeed known to be

the cause of these popular tumults and commotions in this great city. They are the Popish missionaries, that lie concealed under many disguises in all quarters of the town, who mix themselves in these dark scuffles, and animate the mob to such mutual outrages and insults. This profligate species of modern apostles divert themselves at the expence of a government, which is opposite to their interests, and are pleased to see the broken heads of heretics, in what party soever they have listed themselves. Their treatment of our silly countrymen, puts me mind of an account in Tavernier's Travels through the East Indies. This author tells us, there is a great wood in those parts, very plentifully stocked with monkeys; that a large highway runs through the middle of this wood; and that the monkeys, who live on the one side of this highway, are declared enemies to those who live on the other. When the inhabitants of that country have a mind to give themselves a diversion, it is usual for them to set these poor animals together by the ears; which they do after this manner. They place several pots of rice in the middle of the road, with great heaps of cudgels in the neighbourhood of every plot. The monkeys, on the first discovery of these provisions, descend from the trees, on either side, in prodigious numbers, take up the arms, with which their good friends have furnished them, and belabour one another with a storm of thwacks, to the no small mirth and entertainment of the beholders. This mob of monkeys act, however, so far reasonably in this point, as the victorious side of the wood find, upon the repulse of their enemies, a considerable booty on the field of battle; whereas our party-mobs are betrayed into the fray without any prospect of the feast.

If our common people have not virtue enough left among them, to lay aside this wicked and unnatural hatred which is crept into their hearts against one another, nor sense enough to resist the artifice of those incendiaries, who would animate them to the destruc

tion of their country; it is high time for the government to exert itself in the repressing of such seditious tumults and commotions. If that extraordinary lenity and forbearance, which has been hitherto shown on those occasions, proves ineffectual to that purpose, these miscreants of the community ought to be made sensible, that our constitution is armed with a sufficient force for the reformation of such disorders, and the settlement of the public peace.

There cannot be a greater affront to religion, than such a tumultuous rising of the people, who distinguish the times set apart for the national devotions by the most brutal scenes of violence, clamour, and intemperance. The day begins with a thanksgiving, and ends in a riot. Instead of the voice of mutual joy and gladness, there is nothing heard in our streets but opprobrious language, ribaldry, and contention.

As such a practice is scandalous to our religion, so it is no less a reproach to our government. We are become a by-word among the nations for our ridiculous feuds and animosities, and fill all the public prints of Europe with the accounts of our midnight brawls and confusions.

The mischiefs arising to private persons, from these vile disturbers of the commonwealth, are too many to be enumerated. The great and innocent are consulted by the scum and refuse of the people. Several poor wretches, who have engaged in these commotions, have been disabled, for their lives, from doing any good to their families and dependants; nay, several of them have fallen a sacrifice to their own inexcusable folly and madness. Should the government be wearied out of its present patience and forbearance, and forced to execute all those powers with which it is invested for the preservation of the public peace; what is to be expected by such heaps of turbulent and seditious men!

These and the like considerations, though they may have no influence on the headstrong, unruly multitude,

ought to sink into the minds of those who are their abettors, and who, if they escape the punishment here due to them, must very well know that these several mischiefs will be one day laid to their charge.

No. 51. FRIDAY, JUNE 15.

Quod si in hoc erro, libenter erro; nec mihi hunc errorem, quo delector, dum vivo, extorqueri volo. CICERO.

As there is nothing which more improves the mind of man, than the reading of ancient authors, when it is done with judgment and discretion; so there is nothing which gives a more unlucky turn to the thoughts of a reader, when he wants discernment, and loves and admires the characters and actions of men in a wrong place. Alexander the Great was so inflamed with false notions of glory, by reading the story of Achilles in the Iliad, that, after having taken a town, he ordered the governor, who had made a gallant defence, to be bound by the feet to his chariot, and afterwards dragged the brave man round the city, because Hector had been treated in the same barbarous manner by his admired hero. :

Many Englishmen have proved very pernicious to their own country, by following blindly the examples of persons to be met with in Greek and Roman history, who acted in conformity with their own governments, after a quite different manner, than they would have acted in a constitution like that of ours. Such a method of proceeding is as unreasonable in a politician, as it would be in a husbandman to make use of Virgil's precepts of agriculture, in managing the soil of our country, that lies in a quite different climate, and under the influence of almost another sun.

Our regicides, in the commission of the most exe-' crable murder, used to justify themselves from the conduct of Brutus, not considering that Cæsar, from VOL. IV. Ff

the condition of a fellow citizen, had risen by the most indirect methods, and broken through all the laws of the community, to place himself at the head of the government, and enslave his country. On the other side, several of our English readers, having observed that a passive and unlimited obedience was paid to Roman emperors, who were possessed of the whole legislative, as well as executive power, have formerly endeavoured to inculcate the same kind of obedience, where there is not the same kind of authority.

Instructions therefore to be learned from histories of this nature, are only such as arise from particulars agreeable to all communities, or from such as are common to our own constitution, and to that of which we read. A tenacious adherence to the rights and liberties transmitted from a wise and virtuous ancestry, public spirit and a love of one's country, submission to established laws, impartial administrations of justice, a strict regard to national faith, with several other duties, which are the supports and ornaments of government in general, cannot be too much admired among the states of Greece and Rome, nor too much imitated by our own community.

But there is nothing more absurd, than for men, who are conversant in these ancient authors, to contract such a prejudice in favour of Greeks and Romans, as to fancy we are in the wrong in every cir cumstance whereby we deviate from their moral or political conduct. Yet nothing hath been more usual, than for men of warm heads to refine themselves up into this kind of state pedantry: like the country schoolmaster, who, being used for many years to admire Jupiter, Mars, Bacchus, and Apollo, that appear with so much advantage in classic authors, made an attempt to revive the worship of the heathen gods. In short, we find many worthy gentlemen, whose brains have been as much turned by this kind of reading, as the grave knights of Mancha were by his unwearied application to books of knight-errantry.