unfortunate in the choice of my party when I set up to be a writer;
where is the merit, or what opportunity to discover our wit, our courage,
or our learning, in drawing our pens for the defence of a cause, which
the Queen and both Houses of Parliament, and nine parts in ten of the
kingdom, have so unanimously embraced? I am cruelly afraid, we politic
authors must begin to lessen our expenses, and lie for the future at the
mercy of our printers. All hopes now are gone of writing ourselves into
places or pensions. A certain starveling author who worked under the late
administration, told me with a heavy heart, above a month ago, that he
and some others of his brethren had secretly offered their service
dog-cheap to the present ministry, but were all refused, and are now
maintained by contribution, like Jacobites or fanatics. I have been of
late employed out of perfect commiseration, in doing them good offices:
for, whereas some were of opinion that these hungry zealots should not be
suffered any longer in their malapert way to snarl at the present course
of public proceedings; and whereas, others proposed, that they should be
limited to a certain number, and permitted to write for their masters, in
the same manner as counsel are assigned for _other_ criminals; that is,
to say all they can in defence of their client, but not reflect upon the
court: I humbly gave my advice, that they should be suffered to write on,
as they used to do; which I did purely out of regard to their persons:
for I hoped it would keep them out of harm's way, and prevent them from
falling into evil courses, which though of little consequence to the
public, would certainly be fatal to themselves. If I have room at the
bottom of this paper, I will transcribe a petition to the present
ministry, sent me by one of these authors, in behalf of himself and
fourscore others of his brethren.

For my own part, notwithstanding the little encouragement to be hoped for
at this time from the men in power, I shall continue my paper till either
the world or myself grow weary of it: the latter is easily determined;
and for the former, I shall not leave it to the partiality of either
party, but to the infallible judgment of my printer. One principal end I
designed by it, was to undeceive those well-meaning people, who have been
drawn unaware into a wrong sense of things, either by the common
prejudices of education and company, the great personal qualities of some
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