[Footnote 23:  A large number of petitions to the House of Commons concerning controverted elections had been considered in December, 1710. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 24:  Towards the close of the very long representation addressed to the Queen on June 4th, the Commons said:  “We ... beseech your Majesty ... that you would employ in places of authority and trust such only, as have given good testimonies of their duty to your Majesty, and of their affection to the true interest of your kingdom.” [T.S.]]

[Footnote 25:  In a Roman triumph a slave accompanied the victorious general to whisper in his ear:  “Remember that thou art but a man.” [T.S.]]

NUMB. 46.[1]

FROM THURSDAY JUNE 7, TO THURSDAY JUNE 14, 1711.[2]

  Melius non tangere clamo.[3]

When a general has conquered an army, and reduced a country to obedience, he often finds it necessary to send out small bodies, in order to take in petty castles and forts, and beat little straggling parties, which are otherwise, apt to make head and infest the neighbourhood:  This case exactly resembles mine; I count the main body of the Whigs entirely subdued; at least, till they appear with new reinforcements, I shall reckon them as such; and therefore do now find myself at leisure to Examine inferior abuses.  The business I have left, is, to fall on those wretches that will be still keeping the war on foot, when they have no country to defend, no forces to bring into the field, nor any thing remaining, but their bare good-will towards faction and mischief:  I mean, the present set of writers, whom I have suffered, without molestation, so long to infest the town.  Were there not a concurrence from prejudice, party, weak understanding, and misrepresentation, I should think them too inconsiderable in themselves to deserve correction:  But as my endeavour hath been to expose the gross impositions of the fallen party, I will give a taste, in the following petition, of the sincerity of these their factors, to shew how little those writers for the Whigs were guided by conscience or honour, their business being only to gratify a prevailing interest.

“To the Right Honourable the present M[inist]ry, the humble Petition of the Party Writers to the late M[inist]ry.

“HUMBLY SHEWETH,

“That your petitioners have served their time to the trade of writing pamphlets and weekly papers, in defence of the Whigs, against the Church of England, and the Christian religion, and her Majesty’s prerogative, and her title to the crown:  That since the late change of ministry, and meeting of this Parliament, the said trade is mightily fallen off, and the call for the said pamphlets and papers, much less than formerly; and it is feared, to our further prejudice, that the ‘Examiner’ may discontinue writing, whereby some of your petitioners will be brought to utter distress, forasmuch as through false quotations, noted absurdities, and other legal abuses, many of your petitioners, to their great comfort and support, were enabled to pick up a weekly subsistence out of the said ‘Examiner.’