ment be overturn'd, he has nothing to lose but an old Standifh.

I queftion not but the Reader will conceive a Refpect for the Author of this Paper from the Title of it; fince, he may be fure, I am fo confiderable a Man, that I cannot have lefs than forty Shillings a Year.

I have rather chofen this Title than any other, because it is what I moft glory in, and what moft effectually calls to my mind the Happiness of that Government under which I live. As a British Free-Holder, I fhould not fcruple taking place of a French Marquis; and when I fee one of my Countrymen amufing himself in his little Cabbage-Garden, I naturally look upon him as a greater Perfon than the Owner of the richest Vineyard in Champagne.

The Houfe of Commons is the Reprefentative of Men in my Condition. I confider myfelf as one who gives my Confent to every Law which paffes: A Free-Holder in our Government being of the nature of a Citizen of Rome in that famous Commonwealth; who, by the Election of a Tribune, had a kind of remote Voice in every Law that was enacted. So that

Free-Holder is but one Remove from a Legiflator, and for that Reafon ought to ftand up in the Defence of those Laws which are in fome degree of his own making. For fuch is the Nature of our happy Conftitution, that the Bulk of the People virtually give their Approbation to every thing they are bound to obey, and prefcribe to themselves thofe Rules by which they are to walk.

At the fame time that I declare I am a FreeHolder, I do not exclude myself from any other Title. A Free-Holder may be either a Voter,

or

or a Knight of the Shire; a Wit, or a Foxhunter; a Scholar, or a Soldier; an Aldermar, or a Courtier; a Patriot, or a Stock-Jopper. But I choose to be diftinguifh'd by this Denomination, as the Free-Holder is the Basis of all other Titles. Dignities may be grafted upon it; but this is the fubftantial Stock that conveys to them their Life, Tafte, and Beauty; and without which they are no more than Bloffoms, that would fall away with every Shake of Wind.

And here I cannot but take occafion to congratulate my Country upon the Increase of this happy Tribe of Men, fince, by the Wisdom of the prefent Parliament, I find the Race of FreeHolders fpreading into the remotest Corners of the Ifland. I mean that Act which pass'd in the late Seffion for the Encouragement of Loyalty in Scotland: By which it is provided, That all and every Vaffal and Vaffals in Scotland, who fball continue peaceable, and in dutiful Allegiance to His Majefty, His Heirs and Succeffors, bolding Lands or Tenements of any Offender [guilty of High-Treafon] who holds fuch Lands or Tenements immediately of the Crown, shall be vefted and feized, and are hereby enacted and ordained to bold the faid Lands or Tenements of His Majefty, His Heirs and Succeffors, in Fee and Heritage for ever, by fuch manner of holding, as any Juch Offender held fuch Lands or Tenements of the Crown, &c.

By this means it will be in the Power of a Highlander to be at all times a good Tenent, without being a Rebel; and to deserve the Character of a faithful Servant, without thinking himself obliged to follow his Mafter to the Gallows.

How can we fufficiently extol the Goodness of His prefent Majefty, who is not willing to have a

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fingle

fingle Slave in his Dominions! Or enough rejoice in the exercise of that Loyalty, which, instead of betraying a Man into the most ignominious Servitude, (as it does in fome of our neighbouring -Kingdoms) entitles him to the highest Privileges of Freedom and Property! It is now to be hoped, that we fhall have few Vaffals, but to the Laws of our Country.

When thefe Men have a Taste of Property, they will naturally love that Conftitution from which they derive fo great a Bleffing. There is an unfpeakable Pleafure in calling any Thing one's Own. A Free-Hold, tho' it be but in Ice and Snow, will make the Owner pleas'd in the Poffeffion, and ftout in the Defence of it; and is a very proper Reward of our Allegiance to our prefent King, who (by an unparallel'd Instance of Goodness in a Sovereign, and Infatuation in Subjects) contends for the Freedom of his People against themselves; and will not fuffer many of them to fall into a State of Slavery, which they are bent upon with fo much Eagernefs and Obftinacy.

A Free-Holder of Great-Britain is bred with an Averfion to every thing that tends to bring him under a Subjection to the arbitrary Will of another. Of this we find frequent Inftances in all our Hiftories; where the Perfons, whofe Characters are the most amiable, and ftrike us with the highest Veneration, are those who stood up manfully against the Invafions of Civil Liberty, and the complicated Tyranny which Popery impofes upon our Bodies, our Fortunes, and our Minds. What a defpicable Figure then must the prefent Mock-Patriots make in the Eyes of Pofterity, who venture to be hang'd, drawn and quartered, for the Ruin of those Civil Rights which

their Ancestors, rather than part with, chofe to be cut to pieces in the Field of Battle? And what an Opinion will After-ages entertain of their Religion, who bid fair for a Gibbet, by endeavouring to bring in a Superftition, which their Forefathers perifhed in Flames to keep out?

But how inftructive foever the Folly of these Men may prove to future Times, it will be my Bufinefs more immediately to confult the Happinefs of the Age in which I live. And fince fo many profligate Writers have endeavoured to varnish over a bad Cause, I fhall do all in my Power to recommend a good One, which indeed requires no more than barely to explain what it is. While many of my gallant Countrymen are employed in purfuing Rebels half difcomfited through the Confciousness of their Guilt, I fhall labour to improve thofe Victories to the Good of my Fellow-Subjects; by carrying on our Succeffes over the Minds of Men, and by reconciling them to the Caufe of their King, their Country, and their Religion.

To this end, I fhall in the Courfe of this Paper (to be published every Monday and Friday) endeavour to open the Eyes of my Countrymen to their own Intereft, to fhew them the Privileges of an English Free Holder, which they enjoy in common with myself, and to make them fenfible how thefe Bleffings are fecured to us by His Majefty's Title, his Administration, and his Perfonal Character.

I have only one Requeft to make to my Readers, that they will peruse these Papers with the fame Candour and Impartiality in which they are written; and shall hope for no other Prepoffeffion in favour of them, than what one would think fhould be natural to every Man, a Defire to be happy,

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happy, and a Good-will towards those who are the Inftruments of making them fo.

N° 2 Monday, December 26.

Non de Domino, fed de Parente loquimur. Intelligamus ergo bona noftra, dignofque nos illius ufu probemus: atque identidem cogitemus, fi majus principibus præfemus obfequium, qui fervitute civium, quàm qui libertate lætantur.

Plin.

We are not speaking of a Mafter, but a Parent: let us therefore understand our own Good, and approve ourselves worthy of him; and let us confider, which have the best Claim to our Obedience, thofe Princes who delight in the Slavery, or those who take pleasure in the Liberty of their Subjects.

HAVING in my firft Paper fet forth the

Happiness of my Station as a Free-Holder of Great-Britain, and the Nature of that Property which is fecur'd to me by the Laws of my Country, I cannot forbear confidering, in the next place, That Perfon who is intrufted with the Guardianfhip and Execution of thofe Laws. I have lived in one Reign, when the Prince, instead of invigorating the Laws of our Country, or giving them their proper Course, affumed a Power of difpenfing with them: And in another, when the Sovereign was flatter'd by a Set of Men into a Perfuafion, that the Regal Authority was unlimited and uncircumfcribed. In either of these Cafes, good Laws are at best but a dead Letter; and by Thewing the People how happy they ought to be,

only