more beneficial to us than the Oftend trade; and that our right to keep thofe important poffeffions, which were yielded to us in the moft folemn and authentic manner, is come, by dint of negotiation, from being indifputable, to be called in queftion. In a word, that to restore the public tranquillity, and to fettle our own interefts, we muft engage in a new war and conclude a new peace: that you have contrived to make it impoflible for us to do one, without fighting against the very principle for which we have fought ever fince the revolution, or to attempt the other without lying under the particular circumftance, that our principal allies will be as much in earneft as our enemies to wreft out of our hands the chief advantages which we obtained by the treaty of Utrecht. At the time when thefe treaties were made, continue they, your great minister cried aloud and spared not. He complained, as much as any man, that the exorbitant power of France was not fufficiently reduced; and that the barriers of our allies, on the Rhine and in the Netherlands, were left too weak and is it under his adminiftration that we are to fee a pretence given to the French, and an opportunity thrown into their hands, of ftrengthening their power, and of extending their barriers? When I tell thefe objectors that your brother anfwers for the court of France, they laugh in my face, and reply, "Well he may, and fo might any of thofe, who were in the French interest, have done at the time when the triple alliance was broken, and France was encouraged by England to fall upon the Dutch." The minifters, who are answered for, would be as weak as he, who anfwers for them, if they did not fee the advantage in the prefent juncture, and did not take a fecret malicious pleasure in making us, who contributed fo much to reduce their power, become the inftruments of raifing it again. In the cafe of a war then,

we

we have, according to this reafoning, which really, Sir, has an air of truth, nothing fo much to fear as the affiftance of our chief ally; and in the cafe of a treaty, not only France, but Holland likewife, must be against us in that important article of Gibraltar and Port-Mahon, and in all particular advantages of commerce, which we have enjoyed, and may find it reasonable to pretend to. The late Duke of Orleans, as dear a friend as he was to ús, infifted ftrenuously, that we fhould give up the places before-mentioned; pretended a promife to this effect, and himself obliged in honor to fee this promife kept. Every one, who knows any thing of the tranfactions of thofe times, knows with how envious an eye the Dutch beheld the feparate privileges in trade, and the sole poffeffion of Gibraltar, and of the island of Minorca, which we obtained at the last peace; and what lengths they would have gone to facilitate the negotiations, which at that time they oppofed, if they might have been admitted to a fhare in thefe advantages.

The danger of an immediate invafion, and the engagements entered into by the emperor and the king of Spain to infult us with their fleets, and to conquer Great Britain and Ireland for the pretender, have been very induftrioufly propagated by thofe who are already in your pay, and by me, who stand a candidate for this honor, but am hitherto a volunteer in your fervice. I am forry to tell you, Sir, but Heaven forbid that I fhould conceal fo material a circumftance from your knowledge, we do not fucceed. We raife a fpirit, but this fpirit turns against you. There are more people than ever against the pretender; and zeal for fupporting the prefent establishment never ran higher. But this zeal is not any longer without knowledge: it is directed to its proper object, and there is no poffibility of leading it hoodwinked, to ferve any other pur

pofes.

poses. Some incredulous wretches there are, who fmile when we talk to them of invafions and the pretender, and who content themfelves to reply, that the machine is very feasonably introduced, and according to the rules of art. The greater number take fire, and lay this new diftrefs, which we threaten them with, at your door; for, they fay, that we difobliged Spain fome years ago, to tie the emperor the more firmly to us, and that we have fince that time difobliged the emperor, by affecting a closer correfpondence, and greater union of councils with France than ever was known between the two nations. They send us to that excellent treatise, "The Barrier Treaty vindicated," to learn our true and lafting intereft in foreign alliances, and there. they pretend that we shall find the condemnation of all your measures they lament the miferable scene, which they apprehend may foon be opened, his majesty's foreign dominions expofed to all the calamities of war, and perhaps in danger of being loft; we ourselves ftruggling against domestic enemies, and defending our coafts against invafions: these mifchiefs brought upon us by a conjunction of the emperor, our ally, old with the king of Spain his rival; a conjunction fo unnatural, that nothing but the highest resentment at our behavior to them both could have brought it about: in fhort, to finish up the picture, Great Britain reduced in this distress to lean folely upon France, and the faith of that court to become our chief fecurity.

Upon the whole matter, your enemies, Sir, the fubftance of whofe private converfation I have now honestly reported to you, conclude very infolently, that you have filled up the measure of your iniquity and your folly, and that you must fink, or the nation muft fink, under the weight of that calamity which you have brought and fuffered to be brought upon her.

As

As fhocking as this account must be to your ears, I promise myself that the fincerity and plainness with which I have given it, will be agreeable to you; and that you will receive into your bofom a man whofe affection for your perfon and zeal for your service, must be above all fufpicion, after giving you intelligence of fo high a nature, without any ftipulation for the discovery.

I expect to hear from you in eight days from the date hereof; if I do not, you fhall hear again from him, who is,

THE

OCCASIONAL WRITER.

NUMBER II.

TO THE SA M E.

MOST NOBLE SIR,

I THINK myself obliged in honor to let the world

know, that you have treated all my propofals to write in your fervice, with a contempt unufual from one in your station; for I have feen the times when every little paultry proftitute of his pen found countenance and encouragement. Thefe wretches are fure of both, whenever there are any bad measures to be justified, or any bold ftrokes to be given; and the croaking of thefe ravens has always, in my imagination, boded fome mifchief or other to the commonwealth.

For this reafon, I took upon me the character of a most infamous libeller, in my first address to you, that I might be able to make a furer judgment of our prefent condition, and know better what expectations to entertain; fo that I own I am most agreeably disappointed in not receiving any letter or

meffage