will not prevent corruptions from within, and ftates are more often ruined by these than the other. To conclude: whether the propofals I have offered towards a reformation, be fuch as are moft prudent and convenient, may probably be a queftion; but it is none at all, whether fome reformation be abfolutely neceffary; because the nature of things is fuch, that, if abufes be not remedied, they will certainly increafe, nor ever ftop till they end in the subverfion of a commonwealth. As there muft always of neceffity be fame corruptions, fo in a well-inftituted ftate the executive power will be always contending against them, by reducing things (as Machiavel fpeaks) to their firft principles, never letting abufes grow inveterate, or multiply fo far that it will be hard to find remedies, and perhaps impoffible to apply them. As he, that would keep his houfe in repair, muft attend every little breach or flaw, and fupply it immediately, elfe time will bring all to ruin; how much more the common accidents of forms and rain? he must live in perpetual danger of his houfe falling about his ears; and will find it cheap. er to throw it quite down, and build it again from the ground, perhaps upon a new foundation, or at least in a new form, which may neither be fo fafe nor fo convenient as the old. A LET Received your letter, wherein you tell me on your fide of the water. The inftance you are pleased to mention is that of the prefbyterian miffionary, who, according to your phrafe, hath been lately perfecuted at Drogheda for his religion: This tract was reprinted in Ireland in 1735, when the attempt to repeal the facramental test was revived. There was an explanatory advertisement -prefixed, religion: but it is easy to obferve, how mighty industrious fome people have been, for three or four years paft, to hand about stories of the hardships, the merits, the number, and the power of the prefbyterians in Ireland, to raife formidable ideas of the dangers of popery there, and to tranfmit all for England, improved by great additions, and with special care to have them inferted with comments in those infamous weekly papers, that infest your coffee-houfes. So, when the claufe enacting a facramental teft was put in execution, it was given out in England, that half the justices of the peace through this kingdom had laid down their commiffions: whereas, upon examination, the whole number was found to amount only to a dozen or thirteen, and those generally of the lowest rate in fortune and understanding, and fome of them fuperannuated. So, when the earl of Pembroke was in Ireland, and the parliament fitting, a formal ftory was very gravely carried to his exceltency by fome zealous members, of a priest newly arrived from abroad to the north-west parts prefixed, which is faid by lord Orrery to have been dictated, or strictly revised, by the Dean himself: but there are inaccuracies in it, which may well be thought fufficient to deftroy its authenticity: that which in the first paragraph is called the following treatife is afterwards faid to be an extract of a difcourfe, and it is immediately added, that this extract is the whole, except fome paffages of no confequence a thefe are included in a parenthesis. parts of Ireland, who had publicly preached to his people to fall a murthering the proteltants; which, though invented to serve an end they were then upon, and are still driving at, was prefently handed over, and printed with fhrewed remarks by your worthy fcribblers. In like manner the account of that perfon, who was lately expelled our university for reflecting on the memory of king William; what a duft it raifed, and how foully it was re lated, is fresh enough in memory. Neither would people be convinced till the university was at the pains of publishing a Latin paper to justify themselves. And, to mention no more, this story of the perfecution at Drogheda, how it hath been fpread and aggravated, what confequences have been drawn from it, and what reproaches fixed on those who have leaft deferved them, we are already informed, Now, if the end of all this proceeding were a fecret and mystery, I fhould not pretend to give it an interpretation; but fufficient care hath been taken to explain it, first, by addreffes artificially (if not illegally) procured, to fhew the miferable state of the diffenters in Ireland by reafon of the facramental teft, and to defire the queen's interceffion, that it might be repealed. Then, it is manifeft, that * our fpeaker, when he was last year in England, follicited in perfon feveral members of both houses to have it repealed by an act there; though * Mr. Allen Broderick, afterwards chancellor of Ireland, and lord Middleton, though it be a matter purely national, that cannot poffibly interfere with the trade and intereft of England; and though he himself appeared formerly the moft zealous of all men against the injuftice of binding a nation by laws, to which they do not confent. And Laftly, thofe weekly libellers, whenever they get a tale by the end relating to Ireland, without once troubling their thoughts about the truth, always end' it with an application against the facramental teft, and the abfolute neceffity there is of repealing it in both kingdoms. I know it may be reckoned a weaknefs to fay any thing of fuch trifles, as are below a serious man's notice; much leis would I difparage the understanding of any party, to think they would chufe the vilest and most ignorant among mankind, to employ them for the affertors of a caufe. I fall only fays that the fcandalous liberty thofe wretches take, would hardly be allowed, if it were not mingled with opinions that fome men would be glad to advance. Befides, how infipid foever thofe papers are, they feem to be levelled to the understandings of a great number; they are grown a neceffary part in the coffee-house furniture, and fome time or other may happen to be read by customers of all ranks for curiofity and amusement, because they lie always in the way. One of thefe authors (the fellow that was pilloried, I have forgot his name) *The fellow that was pilloried. was Daniel Defoe, whose name Swift well knew and remembered, but the |