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Printed for W. BOREHAM, at the Angel in Pater-Noster-Row, where Advertisements and Letters from Correspondents are taken in.

Numb.  XXVI.

THE

THEATRE.

By Sir JOHN FALSTAFFE.

To be Continued every Tuesday and Saturday.

Price Two-pence.

    _—­Jam nunc debentia dici
    Pleraq; differat, & praesens in tempus omittat._

    Hor.

Saturday, May 14. 1720.

My first Entertainment in a Morning is to throw my Eyes over the Papers of the Day, by which I am informed, with very little Trouble, how Things are carried in the great World.  I look upon the printed News to be the Histories of the Times, in which the candid and ingenious Authors, out of a strict Regard to Truth, deliver Facts in such ambiguous Terms, that when you read of a Battle betwixt Count Mercy, and the Marquis De Lede, you may give the Victory to that Side, which your private Inclination most favours.  I have seen in one Paragraph the precise number of the kill’d and wounded adjusted; and in the next, the Author seems doubtful in his Opinion, whether there has been any Battle fought.  In Domestick Affairs, our Writers are somewhat more bold in their Intelligence; and relate Things with a greater Air of Certainty, when they lie most under the Suspition of delivering false History.  Thus it happens, that I have seen a great Fortune married in the Evening Post two Years after her Death; and a Man of Quality has had an Heir laid to him, before he himself, or the Town, ever knew that he was married.  Thus they kill and marry whom they please, knowing well, that every Circumstance, whether true, or false, serves to fill up a Paragraph.

As nothing can effect the Safety, and Welfare of the People, so much as the Resolutions of our House of Commons, I read over the Votes with a diligent Concern.  ’Tis there that every Man aggrieved is to find Redress; from their Proceedings is it, that Peace abroad, or Unity at home, must be expected:  and should they be byass’d, or deceived, their Error must involve Millions in Misfortunes. Horace’s Observation has ever prevailed, and will continue to do so, while this is a World. Delirant Reges, plectuntur Achivi.

I read a Resolution of that Honourable House lately, which gave me no little satisfaction, and which I had long expected from their Wisdom:  viz. that all Methods of raising Money by Voluntary Subscriptions are prejudicial to Trade.  This is a Truth which every Man in Trade has already felt; and yet, tis amazing to observe how little Effect it has had upon the Publick.  Whereas by this Resolution it should have been expected, that such prejudicial Subscriptions were worth nothing, the Price of these Bubbles immediately rose, and their Reputation and Number of Subscribers encreased in a greater Proportion, than before they were under any Censure from the State:  It is hard to account for this Paradox:  either the Authority of Parliament has become a Jest, or we are under the strongest Infatuation that these Kingdoms ever felt.