or bribe his jury, he was grievously mistaken; that he must, in all probability, forfeit his goods and chattels, die an ignominious death, and be cursed by posterity; -would not such a gentleman justly think himself highly injured, although his lordship did not affirm, that the said gentleman had picklocks or combustibles ready; that he had attempted his daughter, and drawn his sword against his father in order to stab him; whereas, in the other case, this writer affirms over and over, that all attempts for introducing popery and slavery are already made, the whole business concerted, and that little less than a miracle can prevent our ruin.

Thirdly, I could heartily wish his lordship would not undertake to charge the opinions of one or two, and those probably nonjurors, upon the whole body of the nation that differs from him. Mr Lesley writ a “ Proposal for a Union with the Gallican Church:" somebody else has "carried the necessity of priesthood, in the point of baptism, farther than popery:" a third has "asserted the independency of the church on the state, and in many things arraigned the supremacy of the crown;" then he speaks in a dubious insinuating way, as if some other popish tenets had been already advanced and at last concludes in this affected strain of despondency: "What will all these things end in? and on what design are they driven? Alas, it is too visible! it is as clear as the sun, that these authors are encouraged by the ministry, with a design to bring in popery; and in popery all these things will end."

I never was so uncharitable as to believe, that the whole party, of which his lordship professes himself a member, had a real formed design of establishing atheism among us.

The reason why the Whigs have taken the

atheists, or freethinkers, into their body, is, because they wholly agree in their political scheme, and differ very little in church power and discipline. However, I could turn the argument against his lordship, with very great advantage, by quoting passages from fifty pamphlets, wholly made up of whiggism and atheism, and then conclude, "What will all these things end in? and on what design are they driven? Alas, it is too visible!"

Lastly, I would beg his lordship not to be so exceedingly outrageous upon the memory of the dead; because it is highly probable, that, in a very short time, he will be one of the number. He has, in plain words, given Mr Wharton the character of a most malicious, revengeful, treacherous, lying, mercenary villain. To which I shall only say, that the direct reverse of this amiable description is what appears from the works of that most learned divine, and from the accounts given me by those who knew him much better than the bishop seems to have done. I meddle not with the moral part of his treatment. God Almighty forgive his lordship this manner of revenging himself! and then there will be but little consequence from an accusation which the dead cannot feel, and which none of the living will believe.

THE

IMPORTANCE OF THE GUARDIAN

CONSIDERED;

IN

A SECOND LETTER

TO THE

BAILIFF OF STOCKBRIDGE.

BY A FRIEND OF MR STEELE.

FIRST PRINTED IN 1713.

ALTHOUGH the demolition of Dunkirk was one of the chief advantages stipulated for England by the peace of Utrecht, the court of France made some efforts to evade or suspend the performance of that article. Monsieur Tugghe was sent a deputy from the inhabitants of the place, to solicit the queen to spare at least the mole and harbour of Dunkirk. Being a person of that perseverance which his very name seems to imply, he was not satisfied with a single refusal, but presented a second memorial, of most ornate composition, in which he prays her majesty " to cause her thunderbolts to fall only on the martial works, which might have incurred her displeasure," but to spare" the mole and dikes, which, in their naked condition, could for the future be only an object of pity." Steele, who was then engaged in the conduct of the Guardian, took fire at the undaunted and reiterated solicitations of Monsieur Tugghe; and, in No. 128, printed an animated reply to his memorial, in a letter to Nestor Ironside, signed English Tory. In this letter he desires Mr Ironside to inform Monsieur Tugghe,

"That the British nation expect the immediate demolition of it.

"That the very common people know, that within three* months after the signing of the peace, the works toward the sea were to be demolished, and within three months after it, the works toward the land.

"That the said peace was signed the last of March, O. S.

"That the parliament has been told from the queen, that the equivalent for it is in the hands of the French king.

"That the Sieur Tugghe has the impudence to ask the queen to remit the most material part of the articles of peace betwixt her majesty and his master.

"That the British nation received more damage in their trade from the port of Dunkirk, than from almost all the ports of France, either in the Ocean or the Mediterranean."

The letter proceeds, in the same authoritative and earnest strain, to set forth the dangers of delay in this matter; and it is no less than thrice reiterated, that" the British nation expect the immediate demolition of Dunkirk." The Examiner, and other Tory writers, thundered against the mode of expression adopted by the Guardian, as insulting to the queen, and amounting to little less than treason. Steele, who was just returned one of the members for the borough of Stockbridge, in Dorsetshire, for the new parliament, then about to meet, reprinted the letter, in a pamphlet, entitled, “The Importance of Dunkirk considered, in a Defence of the Guardian, in a Letter to the Bailiff of Stockbridge.”

Swift, whose ancient friendship for Steele had long given way to political antipathy, and who, perhaps, beheld with no favourable eye his promotion as a member of the legislature, took an opportunity to humble any pride he might derive from his seat in parliament, by the following violent attack upon his person, as well as his principles.

This pamphlet was, with great difficulty, recovered by the exertions of Mr Nichols, who advertised for it without effect for some time. It was written after Swift's return from Ireland in 1713, and seems to have been published just before the sitting of parliament in that year.

* A mistake for "two" months.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

MR STEELE, in his "Letter of the Bailiff of Stockbridge," has given us leave " to treat him as we think fit, as he is our brother scribbler; but not to attack him as an honest man," p. 40. That is to say, he allows us to be his critics, but not his answerers; and he is altogether in the right, for there is in his letter much to be criticised, and little to be answered. The situation and importance of Dunkirk are pretty well known. Mons. Tugghe's memorial, published and handed about by the Whigs, is allowed to be a very trifling paper; and, as to the immediate demolishment of that town, Mr Steele pretends to offer no other argument but the expectations of the people, which is a figurative speech, naming the tenth part for the whole; as Bradshaw told King Charles I., that the people of England expected justice against him. I have therefore entered very little into the subject he pretends to treat; but have considered his pamphlet partly as a critic, and partly as a commentator; which, I think, is "to treat him only as my brother scribbler," according to the permission he has graciously allowed me.

66 Dunkirk, or Dover,"

*Toland, the deist, in a tract, entitled, retorted this charge; alleging, that Tugghe's memorial was printed and hawked through the streets by express authority of an agent of the ministers.