tices have been
made use of upon this Occasion. A certain Country Gentleman begun to
_tapp_ upon the first Information he received of Sir ROGER'S Death; when
he sent me up word, that if I would get him chosen in the Place of the
Deceased, he would present me with a Barrel of the best _October_ I had
ever drank in my Life. The Ladies are in great Pain to know whom I
intend to elect in the Room of WILL. HONEYCOMBE. Some of them indeed are
of Opinion that Mr. HONEYCOMBE did not take sufficient care of their
Interests in the Club, and are therefore desirous of having in it
hereafter a Representative of their own Sex. A Citizen who subscribes
himself _Y. Z._ tells me that he has one and twenty Shares in the
_African_ Company, and offers to bribe me with the odd one in case he
may succeed Sir ANDREW FREEPORT, which he thinks would raise the Credit
of that Fund. I have several Letters, dated from _Fenny Man's_, by
Gentlemen who are Candidates for Capt. SENTRY'S Place, and as many from
a Coffee-House in _Paul's_ Church-yard of such who would fill up the
Vacancy occasioned by the Death of my worthy Friend the Clergyman, whom
I can never mention but with a particular Respect.

Having maturely weighed these several Particulars, with the many
Remonstrances that have been made to me on this Subject, and considering
how invidious an Office I shall take upon me, if I make the whole
Election depend upon my single Voice, and being unwilling to expose my
self to those Clamours, which, on such an Occasion, will not fail to be
raised against me for Partiality, Injustice, Corruption, and other
Qualities which my Nature abhors, I have formed to my self the Project
of a Club as follows.

I have thoughts of issuing out Writs to all and every of the Clubs that
are established in the Cities of _London_ and _Westminster_, requiring
them to chuse out of their respective Bodies a Person of the greatest
Merit, and to return his name to me before _Lady-day_, at which time I
intend to sit upon Business.

By this means I may have Reason to hope, that the Club over which I
shall preside will be the very Flower and Quintescence of all other
Clubs. I have communicated this my Project to none but a particular
Friend of mine, whom I have celebrated twice or thrice for his Happiness
in that kind of Wit which is commonly known by the Name of a Punn. The
only Objection he makes to it is, that I shall raise up Enemies to my
self if I act with so regal an Air