Neither does it follow, as our authors urge, that an unalterable succession supposes England to be the king’s estate, and the people his goods and chattels on it.  For the preservation of his right destroys not our propriety, but maintains us in it.  He has tied himself by law, not to invade our possessions; and we have obliged ourselves as subjects to him, and all his lawful successors:  by which irrevocable act of ours, both for ourselves and our posterity, we can no more exclude the successor, than we can depose the present king.  The estate of England is indeed the king’s; and I may safely grant their supposition, as to the government of England:  but it follows not, that the people are his goods and chattels on it; for then he might sell, alienate, or destroy them as he pleased:  from all which he has tied himself by the liberties and privileges which he has granted us by laws.

There is little else material in this pamphlet:  for to say, “I would insinuate into the king a hatred to his capital city,” is to say, he should hate his best friends, the last, and the present Lord Mayor, our two honourable Sheriffs, the Court of Aldermen, the worthy and loyal Mr Common Serjeant, with the rest of the officers, who are generally well affected and who have kept out their factious members from its government.  To say, I would insinuate a scorn of authority in the city, is, in effect, to grant the parallel in the play:  for the authority of tumults and seditions is only scorned in it,—­an authority which they derived not from the crown, but exercised against it.  And for them to confess I exposed this, is to confess, that London was like Paris.

They conclude with a prayer to Almighty God, in which I therefore believe, the poet did not club.  To libel the king through all the pamphlet, and to pray for him in the conclusion, is an action of more prudence in them than of piety.  Perhaps they might hope to be forgiven, as one of their predecessors was by king James; who, after he had railed at him abundantly, ended his lampoon with these two verses: 

  Now God preserve our king, queen, prince and peers,
  And grant the author long may wear his ears[42].

To take a short review of the whole.—­It is manifest, that there is no such parallel in the play, as the faction have pretended; that the story would not bear one where they have placed it; and that I could not reasonably intend one, so contrary to the nature of the play, and so repugnant to the principles of the loyal party.  On the other side, it is clear that the principles and practices of the public enemies, have both formerly resembled those of the League, and continue to hold the same resemblance.  It appears by the outcry of the party before the play was acted, that they dreaded and foresaw the bringing of the faction upon the stage:  and by the hasty printing of Mr Hunt’s libel, and the Reflections, before the tragedy was published, that they were infinitely