370 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.
Tan I'mpefi is a fteady friend to the houfeoF^/w^'-/. He can recount the prodigies that have appeared in the flcy, and the calamities that have aflided the nation every year from the revolution, and is of opinion, that if the exiled family had co/i- tinued to reign, there would have neither been worms in our Ihips nor caterpillars in our trees. He wonders that the nation was not awaked by the hard froll to a revo- cation of the true king, and is hourly afraid that the whole liland will be loft in the fea. He believes that king William burned White- hall that" he might Ileal the fur- niture, and that Tiilocfon died an atheill. Of queen Anne he fpeaks with more tendernefs, owns that ihe meant well, and can tell by whom and why fne was poifoncd. In the fucceediog reigns ail has been corruption, malice, and de- fign. He believes that nothing ill has ever happened for thefe forty years by chance or error. He holds that the battle of Dettingen was won by miilake, and that of Fon- tenoy loft by contrail ; that the Viaorf was funk by a private or- der ; that Cornhill was burnt by erniflaries from the council ; and the arch of Weftminfter- bridge was fo contrived as to fink on purpofe that the nation might be put to charge. He confiusr. the new road to lAington as an encroachment on liberty, and often afiTerts^ that broad I'jicels will be the ruin of England.
torn is generally vehement and noify, but neverthelefs has fome fecrets which he always communi- cates in a whifper. Many and many a. time has Tom told mc, in a cor- ner, that our miferies were almoll at »ft end, and that we fnould fee.
in a month, another monarch on the throne : the time elapfes with- out a revolution ; Tom meets m« again with new intelligence ; the whole fcheme is now fettled, and we fhall fee great events in another month.
Jack Sneaker is a hearty adherent to the prefent ellablilhment ; he hat known thofe who faw the bed into which the pretender was conveyed in a warming pan. He often re- joices that the nation was not en- flaved by the Irifh. He believes that king William never loll a battle, and that if he had lived one year longer he would have con- quered France. He holds that Charles the Firil was a papift. He allows there were fome good mca in the reign of queen Anne, but the peace of Utrecht brought a blaft upon the nation, and has been the caufe of 4II the evil that we have fufFered to the prefent hour. He believes that the fcheme of the South Sea was weli intended, but that it raifcarried by the infiuence of France. He confiders a Hand- ing army as the bulwark of liberty, thinks us fecured from corrup- tion by feptennial parliaments, re- lates how we are enriched and ilrengthened by the electoral do- minions, and declares that the public debt is a bleffing to the nation.
Yet amidft all this profperity, poor Jack is hourly dillurbed by the dread of popery. He wonders that fome ftridler laws are not made againlt papilts, and is fometimes afraid that they are bufy with French gold among the bidops and judges.
He cannot believe that the non- jurors are fo quiet for nothing, they mull certainly be forming fome plot
for
