"Men of Wit have their Proportion of this "Wine, (if they must have it) and take the "Inconveniences of it; but fhall we fet up "for a Nation of Wits? Let us endeavour at a little Difcretion, and drink of fuch Wines, in fuch Proportions, and at fuch Times, as fhall anfwer the Defign of this "great Bleffing to Mankind; that is, fo as to "make it most conducive to our Health; " which, I pofitively aver, in English Confti"tutions, generally speaking, is better preferv"ed by a proper Ufe of Portugal than of French

"Wines.

THIS Argument of the Doctor's made the greater Impreffion on the Company, for that we knew him to be no way concerned in Merchandize; and that, as his Age and Profeffion had given him Opportunity to make Obfervations of the Matter he fpoke of, fo the entire Love he has for his Country will not fuffer him to advance any Propofition, which he thinks is not for the Good <of it.

SIR, I am the more ready to communicate to you the Sum of this Conversation, for that I remember about thirty Years fince, • when London Claret (as it was then called) was in Fashion, the Mafter with whom í then lived in the City, with many others, • made that Wine, by mixing Bourdeaux with Red of the Spanish Grape, which gave a Compofition more grateful to the Palate, and lefs injurious to the Stomach, than the French Wine was of it felf. These Hands of mine have thus brewed many a Ton.

I

I hope it may not be amifs if I endeavour, as far as in me lies, to fet forth in a proper Light this great Errour in our Liquors, and from good and undeniable Arguments beat down that impetuous, humoursome, unreafonable, overweening Love for Claret, which, to the great Prejudice of the English Nation, does fo much prevail among us; and fhew that we act in this, as in too many other Particulars, as if our Welfare and Happiness were the leaft Part of our Care.

I have heard a very experienced Vintner fay, That he had obferved great Difference between the Tempers of his Claret and Port-Customers. The old Age of the Claret-Drinker is generally peevish and fretful; that of him who 4ufes Port calm, and at the worst dull. The Blood of a Claret Drinker grows Vinegar, that of your Port-man Mum. The Effe&t of Claret is to make Men reftlefs, of Port .6 to make them fleepy. But Port, moderately ufed, had all the good Effects which can come from the best Claret, and none of the ill Effects which flow from the immoderate Use of it felf.

I am, SIR,

Your most bumble Servant,

Ruburb Hearty.

Monday,

N° 9. Monday, May 10.

I

Nefas animum præferre pudori.

*Juv.

Have found by following the Whispers of the Town, that my Paper Number 4. which bore at the top of it the fame Piece of Latin which I have affixed to this, has very much revived a Sort of Feeling, which for fome time had been utterly loft among many People, and is commonly called the Teftimony of a good Confcience. My Difcourfe on that Day was taken from a Hint of Machiavil, and explained that State of Mind which that great Politician calls Nonsense to the Confcience. The Defcription I gave there is this, Nonfenfe to the Confcience is when the Party bas arrived to fuch a Difregard to Reason and Truth, as not to follow it, or acknowledge it when it prefents it felf to him. All the Impudent, to a Man, are Mafters of this great Qualification for rifing in the World. Whoever is the Author of the Paper called The Weekly Packet, let him look to it; for he has printed a Speech as if fpoken by his Sicilian Majefty, which begins with a Paragraph in the most fublime Degree formed from Nonfenfe of Confcience. The faid Packet of April the 24th has it thus:

SICILY.

ON the 22d of March, the States of Sicily met, and the King being feated on the Throne, made the following Speech to

• them.

• THE

HE ardent Defire we had to provide for the Neceffities and Advantage of this faithful Kingdom, the Dominion whereof we acknowledge we have received at the Hand of God, made us very willingly dif regard, not only the Difficulties of the Voyage, but alfo all the other Motives, which 'the Condition of the rest of our Dominions might have furnished for inducing us to retard our Coming, and defer the Satisfaction we have in this Affembly.

OUR Pleafure of feeing the Reprefentatives of the Kingdom here affembled, is fo much the greater, in that we have found . you full of Zeal and Affection towards us, and convinced of the Affurance you ought 6 to have of being look'd upon with a Fatherly Love.

IT is certain this was never fpoken, for if it had, it had been the most folemn Banter that ever was put upon any Affembly of People. All the World knows that the Contingences in the Interefts of European Princes produced that Alotment of Empire to the Duke of Savoy; and no Man can suppose that a Prince of his good Understanding, without regard to Facts fo notoriously known, would Map dah put his Divine Right and fatherly

Love

Love upon a Crowd of reafonable Creatures, who knew well enough who made him their King, and that he was become their Father. without their Adoption. No Man fhall make me believe this Speech was ever fpoken; for if it had, it had been a Stroak of Paffive Obedience in the Subject to the Divine Right of Sicily, not to have laughed out in the Prefence of their new-made Monarch. There is fomething fo great in the Nature of Men, that they are not to be ruled but upon the Principles of Reafon and Justice, and Abfolute Power cannot poffibly fubfift without the Extirpation of Arts and Sciences, without the Atrictest Adminiftration of Justice, to which if a Monarch ties himself, it is for his Eafe and Glory to govern by Laws of his Peoples own making. All Demagogues keep themfelves in Fashion by the Force of Nonfenfe to the Confcience; but Politicians know they are undone when they are reduced to it. Shame and Confufion for hard Ufage of their Fellow-Creatures, arifing from a Deference they owe to them as rational, would difable their Progress upon any manifeft falfe Step in which they should be detected. But Demagogues are never confounded by their Errours, but from their Nonfenfe of Confcience go on in committing more under the manifest DifJike of all the World, and are infenfible of any thing that is Criminal which paffes with Impunity. Men of fuch coarfe and infenfible Spirits, can fancy themselves in an happy Condition as long as they can deceive the Vulgar; and would prefer a Power over a Crowd

03

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