of the French King and the Duke of Anjou, and how of our greatest Allies, the Emperor of Germany and the States General. In the mean while the French King has withdrawn his troops from Spain, and has put it out of his power to restore that monarchy to us, was he reduced low enough really to defire to do it. The Duke of Anjou has had leisure to take off those whom he fufpected, to confirm his friends, to regulate his revenues, to increafe and form bis troops, and above all, to roufe that spirit in the Spanish nation, which a fucceffion of lazy and indolent Princes had lulled afleep. From hence it appears probable enough, that if the war continue much longer on the prefent foot, instead of regaining Spain, we hall find the Duke of Anjou in a condition to pay the Debt of gratitude, and support the grandfather in his declining years; by whofe arms, in the days of his infancy, he was upheld. What expreffions of tendernefs, duty and fubmiffion! The Panegyric on the Duke of Anjou, is by much the beft written part of this whole Letter; the Apology for the French King, is indeed the fame which the Poft-boy has often made, but worded with greater deference and refpect to that great Prince. There are many ftrokes of the Author's good-will to our confederates, the Dutch and the Emperor, in feveral parts of this notable Epiftle; I fhall only quote one of them, alluding to the concern which the Bank, the States-General, and the Emperor, expreffed for the Miniftry by their humble applications to Her Majefty in thefe words.

Not daunted yet, they refolve to try a new expe dient, and the interest of Europe is to be represented as infeparable fram that of the Minifters.

Haud

Haud dubitant equidem implorare quod ufquam eft ; Flectere fi nequeunt Superos, Acheronta movebunt.

The members of the Bank, the Dutch, and the Court of Vienna, are called in as confederates to the Miniftry. This, in the mildeft English it will bear, runs thus. They are refolved to look for help whereever they can find it; if they cannot have it from heaven, they will go to hell for it; That is, to the members of the Bank, the Dutch, and the Court of Vienna. The French King, the Pope, and the Devil, have been often joined together by a well-meaning Englishman; but I am very much furprised to fee the Bank, the Dutch, and the Court of Vienna, in fuch company. We may ftill fee the Gentleman's principles in the accounts which he gives of his own country; fpeaking of the G---1, the quondam T---r and the f--to, which every one knows comprehends the Whigs, in their utmoft extent; he adds, in oppofition to them, For the Queen and the whole body of the British Nation,

:

Nos Numerus fumus.

In English,

We are Cyphers.

How properly the Tories may be called the whole body of the British nation, I leave to any one's judging and wonder how an author can be fo difrefpectful to Her Majefty, as to separate Her in fo faucy a manner from that part of her people, who according to the Examiner himself, have engrofjed

N 4

groffed the riches of the nation; and all this to join her, with fo much impudence, under the common denomination of We, that is, WE Queen and Tories are cyphers. Nos numerus fumus is a scrap of Latin more impudent than Cardinal Woolfey's Ego & Rex meus. We find the fame particle W E, ufed with great emphafis and fignificancy in the eighth page of this Letter; But, nothing decifive, nothing which had the appearance of earneft, has been fo much as attempted, except that wife expedition to Thoulon, which WE fuffered to be defeated before it began. Whoever did, God forgive them: there were indeed feveral ftories of discoveries made, by letters and messengers that were fent to France.

Having done with the Author's party and principles, we fhall now confider his performance, under the three heads of Wit, Language, and Argument. The first lafh of his Satire falls upon the Cenfor of Great-Britain, who, fays he, refembles the famous Cenfor of Rome, in nothing but efpoufing the caufe of the vanquished. Our Letter-writer here alludes to that known verfe in Lucan,

Victrix caufa Diis placuit, fed victa Catoni.

The Gods efpoufed the cause of the conquerors, but Cato efpoufed the Caufe of the vanquished. The misfortune is, that this verfe was not written of Cato the Cenfor, but of Cato of Utica. How Mr. Bickerstaff, who has written in favour of a party that is not vanquished, resembles the younger Cato, who was not a Roman Cenfor, I do not well conceive, unless it be in ftruggling for the liberty of his country. To fay therefore, that the Cenfor of Great Britain refembles that famous Cenfor of

Rome

Rome in nothing but espousing the cause of the vanquifhed; is just the fame as if one fhould fay, in regard to the many obfcure truths and fecret hiftories that are brought to light in this Letter, that the Author of thefe new revelations, refembles the ancient Author of the Revelations in nothing but· venturing his head. Befides that there would be no ground for fuch a refemblance, would not a man be laughed at by every common Reader, fhould he thus miftake one St. John for another, and apply that to St. John the Evangelift which relates to St. John the Baptift, who died many years before him?

Another fmart touch of the Author we meet with in the fifth page, where, without any preparation, he breaks out all on a sudden into a vein of poetry; and instead of writing a letter to the Examiner, gives advice to a painter in thefe ftrong lines: Paint, Sir, with that force which you are mafter of, the prefent ftate of the war abroad; and expofe to the public view thofe principles upon which, of late, it has been carried on, fo different from thofe upon which it was originally entered into. Collect fome few of the indignities which have been this year offered to Her Majefly, and of those unnatural truggles which have betrayed the weakness of a battered conftitution. By the way, a man may be faid to paint a battle, or if you please, a war; but I do not fee how it is poffible to paint the prefent ftate of a war. So a man may be faid to defcribe or to collect accounts of indignities and unnatural ftruggles; but to collect the things them-felves, is a figure which this Gentleman has introduced into our English profe. Well, but what will be the ufe of this picture of a ftate

of the war? and this collection of indignities and fruggles? It feems the chief defign of them is to make a dead man blufh, as we may fee in those inimitable lines which immediately follow: And when this is done, D--n fhall blufh in his grave among the dead, W--le among the living, and even Vol---e shall feel fome remorse. Was there ever any thing, I will not fay fo ftiff and fo unnatural, but fo brutal and fo filly! this is downright hacking and hewing in Satire. But we fee a masterpiece of this kind of writing in the twelfth page; where without any refpect to a Dutchefs of Great-Britain, a Princefs of the Empire, and one who was a bofom-friend of her Royal Miftrefs, he calls a great lady an infolent woman, the worst of her fex, a jury, an executioner of divine vengeance, a plague; and applies to her a line which Virgil writ originally upon Alecto. One would think this foul-mouthed writer muft have received feme particular injuries, either from this great Lady or from her husband; and thefe the world fhall be foon acquainted with, by a book which is now in the prefs, entitled, An Effay towards proving that gratitude is no virtue.

This Author is full of Satire, and is fo angry with every one that is pleafed with the Duke of Marl borough's victories, that he goes out of his way to abufe one of the Queen's finging-men, who it feems did his beft to celebrate a thanksgiving day in an Anthem; as you may fee in that paffage : Towns have been taken and battles have been won; the mob has buzza'd round bonfires, the Stentor of the chapel has ftrained his throat in the gallery, and the Stentor of S--m has deafned his audience from the pulpit. Thus you fee how like a true fon of

the