pears: The Place was fitter for an Alderman, than a Commoner, or Citizen. So, an Alderman must be prefered by the Conclave!

COMPARE this with the Alderman's Propofal, and fee which is most advantageous and fafe. If the later, You can not justly deny this Citizen, the Benefit of his Proposal.

Do not imagine, I am folliciting a Favor for a Friend: I principally mean to promote the Intereft of the City, at the fame Time. that I would do Juftice to the worst, though the most cauflefs, Enemy, I have.

GIVE me Leave, MY FRIENDS, to inform You, that there are Matters of much greater Moment, that will come properly under your Confideration, in this Assembly.

By the Death of Alderman Pearfon, which, by the Reports of his Brethren, and their folliciting for, or difpofing of, his Employ. ments, feems certain, there are three moft important Places become vacant, which You have the Right and Power to fill; I mean the Place of an Alderman, that of Receiver-General of the City Revenues, and the SEAT in PARLEMENT.

BESIDES, there is an other Alderman's Place, actually, vacant, or, elfe You have but one Sherif. And, as both Sherifs are but one, in the Eye of the Law, You can hold no Affembly, if one be an Alderman.

THIS is easily determined, by asking your Sherifs, if either of them be an Alderman? If You are answered in the Negative, You have two indifputable Vacancies, at the Board; if in the Affirmative, the Alderman-Sherif is to quit the Houfe; for, by the New-Rules, no Alderman can fit with the Commons; fo your Aflembly is void.

BUT, as I prefume You will be answered in the Negative, it is your Duty to procede to the Election of an Alderman, or two, directly. This, in fpight to all that oppofed You, will bring the Merits of the Caufe, to an immediate Trial: For, it muft, then, be determined, in whom, the Right of electing Aldermen, refides.

THE next Step, is to choose a Receiver-General. This is an Office of the utmoft Confequence to the City. And nothing could be more happy, than electing one, in the Intereft of the Commons and Citizens: For, he must best know the State of the Lands and Revenues of the Corporation, and may inform You of many Matters of the utmost Confequence to be made public, which, by the Aldermen and their Creatures, will ever be kept fe

cret.

IN all thefe Attempts, You may expect every Kind of Oppofition. But, remember your Duty! remember your Oaths! If You can look upon your felves, as pliant Slaves, fervile Creatures, of the Cardinals, You are to fit together, like fo many muzzled Affes, and do nothing, but what your Tafk-Mafters bid or permit You. But, on the contrary, if You look upon your felves, as the chofen Reprefentatives of the Citizens, and bound by the moft folemn Obligations, to promote the Honor and Intereft of your Con

flituents,

flituents, in all Points, You can do nothing, untill You recover and eftablish these fundamental Privileges, without tacitly, flavishly, perfidiously yielding and fubmitting to the lawless Tyranny of Ufurpers. And, thus, You prove your felves, FREE and FAITHFUL REPRESENTATIVES, or fervile Tools and perjured Slaves!

BUT, of this, You give a further, the great Proof, in your CHOICE of a Member to represent You in PARLEMENT.

To enable You to judge aright, and to elect freely, and upon juft Principles, I have already taken fome Pains.

In my Addreffes to You, I have traced the Conftitution of our Country, from the firft Inftitution of civil Society, to the prefent happy Eftablishment; and fhewed the Strength and Weakness of the great Body Politic.

I SHALL, in like Manner, trace out and explane the Conftitution of the City, and fhew the several Breaches made therein, and by whom, as foon as I can publish the GREAT CHARTER, which has coft me much Time and Labor, and, which is now in the Prefs.

THEN I shall endeavor to explane more fully, the Office and necelary Qualifications of a Member of Parlement, together with the Duty and Qualification of ELECTORS and returning Officers.

By this Means, I hope to be able to put thoie, who have not had equal Opportunity, nor taken the like Pains, with me, in fuch-like Refearches, into a juft and rational Method of judging of, and electing, the Persons most fit for their Purposes.

Do You, MY FRIENDS and FELLOW-CITIZENS, keep your felves FREE, abfolutely difengaged from Promifes. If there be any among You, who have, heretofore, been led, inadvertently, to bind your felves, by Promises, to vote for any one Man, remember You have an other Vote; and, fure the onely Attonement You can make the Public, the onely Satisfaction You can give your selves, for that Miftake, or Proftitution, is to give the other Vote, as your unbiaffed Confciences direct.

FAREWELL! and do me the Juftice to believe me, at all Events,

MY BEST BELOVED BRETHREN AND FRIENDS,

LETTER II.

A

SI must ever rejoice at every Circumstance, that tends to the Welfare and Honor of MY FRIENDS and FELLOWCITIZENS, I must take this Opportunity of congratulating You, upon YOUR unexpected, and, indeed, unparallelled Succefs, on Friday laft.

WHEN I found, upon fpeaking to fome of my Acquaintance, that You, GENTLEMEN of the COMMONS, were, as usual, but partially fummoned; when I found, in a principal Street in this City, in which feveral Brothers live, who are of the Commons, that but fome of thefe Brothers had the Difgrace to be summoned, for, I muft fuppofe, none were called, but fuch, as were deemed Vaals enough to do what the Conclave of Cardinals commanded, I muft honeftly confefs to You, that mine Heart ached for MY BRETHREN and FELLOW-CITIZENS; fearing, from former melancholy Examples, that a few would have been unwarily trepanned into the Ruin of the City, and the indelible Disgrace of the abfent, as well, as the attending, Commons.

BUT, when I found You all juftly alarmed at the destructive Plot, when the Commons, unfummoned, unexpected, by the Rulers, bravely, nobly, virtuously attended, ready to affert their own Honor, and the Rights of their Conflituents, how my Soul exulted, is more easily conceived by generous Minds, than by me expreffed.

SOME may imagine, that, thus, idly convoking and difmiffing You, may be an Infult upon the Commons: And, I believe, the Conclave vanely intended it fuch. But, give me Leave to fhew, it is a greater Honor, than ever the Conclave payed the Commons, fince, by the Hell-invented New-Rules of Berkeley and Effex, and the Aldermannic New-Rules of the Conclave, the Aldermen got a Hand in their Nomination.

UNTILL now, the Conclave did nothing, but infult and grofsly affront You: However freely, however honorably, You might have been chofen, by the refpective Corporations You reprefent, being felected, or rather, called out of the double Return, by the Conclave, was onely, upon a Prefumption, that You were the fitteft, in the Return, for their Purposes; that is, that You were the vaneft and fondeft of City Honors, the weakeft, moft ftupid and fenfeless Dolts, the moft pliant, paffive Slaves and Sycophants, the moft temporifing Tools, and the moft daftardly Fools and Cowards, in the whole Set.

THIS was all the Rulers had to truft to: But, Thanks be to DIVINE PROVIDENCE! the Tyrants are fallen into the Pit-falls they dug for others! And, You, MY MOST HONORED FELLOWCITIZENS of the COMMONS, have vindicated your felves and your Conftituents, from their foul Imputations, and proved your felves good Subjects, good Citizens, and FAITHFUL REPRESENTATIVES!

Now, MY FRIENDS, fee how your tyrannical Tafk-Mafters, honor, revere and dread You! See how AWFUL VIRTUE, in low Station, can discountenance Vice, in the highest! and make the Sumptuous Banquet and the coftly Purple, of no Strength, no Security, to Ufurpers!

THE mixed Council, the motley Committee, of Cardinals and Commons, or a fufficient Set for the Purpose, for ought We know, a Sub-Committee of Cardinals onely, met and agreed to Alderman Cuftom's Propofal. A Poft-Affembly was called, for Form-Sake, to receive and ratify the Report of the Committee; to fign which, many of the Members were called, upon a few Minutes Notice.

By this Time, the honeft, the unexpected, the dreaded Faces of the EREE COMMONS, appeared, in fuch Numbers, as to quash the moft fanguine Hopes of the Conclave. They viewed You. They trembled. They retired. You faw them no more. They fent You nothing to do: For, they found You were qualified to do nothing for their Purpose.

WHAT became of your Sherifs?-Sherifs, alas! You have not. One of them has got into the Conclave; and, Ambo-dexter, would now head and lord it over, the Commons, in à double Capacity, both as a Sherif, and as an Alderman! This is not the onely Inftance, in which the Conclave break through the very Powers, which fupport their insatiable Tyranny, the New-Rules: These pofitively prohibit any Alderman's fitting with the Commons; yet, the Aldermen, finding You are not to be actuated by their Weight, or Influence, in the next Room, would fend one of their goodly Corps, to be, not onely, a Spy, but a Ruler over You, in your Room!

You spoiled this Gentleman's Sport: For, he finds, You will not, You can not, admit him to fit among You, without confeffing the Truth, which is not always reckoned convenient, that he is not an + Alderman; upon which, нE, and his new, though late abufed, Brethren, dread, You will ELECT and SUPPORT ONE LEGAL ALDERMAN in your City.

WHEN your Enemies are fhewn You, You may easily find out your Friends. Among these, You must ever remember, with due Refpect and Gratitude, that Sherif, that worthy Citizen, that good Man, who difdained the Offers of the Purple, while he was one of the PRESIDENTS of the Commons.

+ Before this Gentleman's Promotion, he was remarkable for throwing Dirt at the whole Board of Aldermen.

AND,

1

AND, here, I can not help congratulating You, upon the public Declaration of one of your Sherifs Elect, who, with juft Indignation, refented his being called to fign Alderman Toll's Report, upon a fhort Warning, and fayed, he never would fign any Pater of fuch Confequence, under a Month's Confideration. More Difappointments to your Inflavers!-If this Spirit rifes but a little higher, Tyranny is not far from the Agonies of Death. Some late Struggles of the Faction, would induce one to think them the laft Convulfions and Howlings of Dogs diffected alive.-Do You, MY FRIENDS, like TRUE PHYSICIANS to your City, make the proper Ufe of the Diffedion, and when You have learned the Anatomy, or Structure, of this Monster, and confidered the Manner of it's Mushroom-like Generation among You, prevent the begetting, or raifing, fuch an other.

By your careful Attendance, on Friday laft; by the generous Refolution You have fhewn, to oppofe all finifter Jobs; by the firm Determination You manifefted, to discharge the Duty of good Citizens and righteous Commons; by the afferting and vindicating the Honor and Intereft, the Rights and Liberties, of your Conftituents and felves, You have confered a moft lasting Obligation on the Public, in general; You have fhewn your Inflavers, that you are not for their Purposes; You have fhewn your Conftituents, that You are faithful and zealous in the Discharge of the Truft in You reposed; † You have prevented fome poor, unfortunate Families being fet a Drift, by making a Monopoly of the Tolls and Cuffoms, and the City, from being spoiled of thofe Revenues, THE laft Confideration, prefents to my View, an other of the manifold, deftructive Abufes and Errors, in the prefent Government of the City, which is, partly, in your Power to rectify.

EVERY fenfible Man muft confefs, that the fureft and beft Means of making Officers and Servants juft to their Employers or Mafers, are giving them reasonable Sallaries or Wages. And, that, on the contrary, pinching Penury, in these Instances, makes many a Man, meanly ftoop to the venial Frauds, which pafs currently, under the fashionable Denomination of Perquifites, who would fcorn them, had he sufficient Subfiftence without them.

NOTWITHSTANDING this, all the Officers and Servants of this City, are either fiinted to the fmalleft Allowance, or, actually farm their Employments.

THESE Toll-gatherers, or Cuftom-collectors, for Example, are each allowed, as I am informed, but twenty Pounds a Year, for attending in their Station every Day, from three of the Clock in the Morning, untill twelve at Night, befides keeping a Servant, or Affiftant. The very Officers-at-Mace, rent their Places; so does

Notwithstanding this, these very Commons were afterwards induced, not onely to grant this Leafe, but to cenfure this Letter, as will appear by the Sequel.

the