he natural or affected fears
of Popery and the Pretender make any part of the conversation; I
presume, because neither Homer, Plato, Aristotle, nor Cicero have made
any mention of them.

These I freely acknowledge to be his Excellency's failings: Yet I think
it is agreed by philosophers and divines, that some allowance ought to
be given to human infirmity, and the prejudices of a wrong education.

I am well aware how much my sentiments differ from the orthodox opinion
of one or two principal patriots, (at the head of whom I name with
honour Pistorides.[147]) For these have decided the matter directly
against me, by declaring that no person who was ever known to lie under
the suspicion of one single Tory principle, or who had been once seen at
a great man's levee in the worst of times,[148] should be allowed to
come within the verge of the Castle; much less to bow in the
antechamber, appear at the assemblies, or dance at a birth-night.
However, I dare assert, that this maxim hath been often controlled, and
that on the contrary a considerable number of early penitents have been
received into grace, who are now an ornament, happiness, and support to
the nation.

Neither do I find any murmuring on some other points of greater
importance, where this favourite maxim is not so strictly observed.

To instance only in one. I have not heard that any care hath hitherto
been taken to discover whether Madam Violante[149] be a Whig or Tory in
her principles, or even that she hath ever been offered the oaths to the
Government; on the contrary I am told that she openly professes herself
to be a high-flyer, and it is not improbable, by her outlandish name she
may also be a Papist in her heart; yet we see this illustrious and
dangerous female openly caressed by principal persons of both parties,
who contribute to support her in a splendid manner, without the least
apprehensions from a grand jury, or even from Squire Hartley Hutcheson
himself, that zealous prosecutor of hawkers and libels.[150] And as
Hobbes wisely observes, so much money being equivalent to so much power,
it may deserve considering with what safety such an instrument of power
ought to be trusted in the hands of an alien, who hath not given any
legal security for her good affection to the government.

I confess, there is one evil which I could wish our friends would think
proper to redress. There are many Whigs in this Kingdom of the
old-fashioned stamp, of whom we m