In justification of the two Votes against lending or advancing Money to the King, he falls to railing, like a Sophister in the Schools, when his Syllogisms are at an end.  He arraigns the Kings private manner of living, without considering that his not being supplied has forc’d him to it.  I do not take upon me to defend any former ill management of the Treasury; but, if I am not deceiv’d, the great grievance of the other party at present, is, that it is well manag’d.  And, that notwithstanding nothing has been given for so many years, yet a competent provision is still made for all expences of the publick, if not so large as might be wish’d, yet at least as much as is necessary.  And I can tell my Author for his farther mortification, that at present no money is furnish’d to his Majesties Occasions, at such unconscionable Usury as he mentions.  If he would have the Tables set up again, let the King be put into a condition, and then let eating and drinking flourish, according to the hearty, honest and greasie Hospitality of our Ancestors.  He would have the King have recourse to Parliaments, as the only proper Supply to a King of England, for those things which the Treasury in this low Ebb cannot furnish out:  but when he comes to the Conditions, on which this money is to be had, they are such, that perhaps forty in the Hundred to a Jew Banquer were not more unreasonable.  In the mean time, if a Parliament will not give, and others must not lend, there is a certain story of the Dog in the Manger, which out of good manners I will not apply.

The Vote for not prosecuting Protestant Dissenters upon the Penal Laws; which at this time is thought to be a Grievance to the Subject, a weakning of the Protestant Religion, and an Incouragement to Popery, is a matter more tenderly to be handled.  But if it be true what has been commonly reported since the Plot, that Priests, Jesuits, and Friars, mingle amongst Anabaptists, Quakers, and other Sectaries, and are their Teachers, must not they be prosecuted neither?  Some men would think, that before such an uniting of Protestants, a winnowing were not much amiss; for after they were once sent together to the Mill, it would be too late to divide the Grist.  His Majesty is well known to be an indulgent Prince, to the Consciences of his dissenting Subjects:  But whoever has seen a Paper call’d, I think, An intended Bill for uniting, &c. which lay upon the Table of every Coffee-House, and was modelling to pass the House of Commons, may have found things of such dangerous concernment to the Government, as might seem not so much intended to unite Dissenters in a Protestant Church, as to draw together all the Forces of the several Fanatick Parties, against the Church of England.  And when they were encouraged by such a Vote, which they value as a Law; (for so high that Coin is now inhaunc’d) perhaps it is not unreasonable to hold the Rod over them.  But for my own part, I heartily wish, that there may