To conclude, the whigs have a natural faculty of bringing in pretenders, and will therefore probably endeavour to bring in the great one at last. How many pretenders to wit, honour, nobility, politicks, have they brought in these last twenty years; In short, they have been sometimes able to procure a majority of pretenders in parliament; and wanted nothing to render the work complete, except a pretender at their head.
NUMBER XL.
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1711.
Dos est magna parentum virtus.
The virtue of parents is a large dowry to their children.
I TOOK up a paper[1] some days ago in a coffeehouse; and if the correctness of the style, and a superiour spirit in it, had not immediately undeceived me, I should have been apt to imagine I had been reading an Examiner. In this paper there were several important propositions advanced. For instance, that Providence raised up Mr. Harley to be an instrument of great good, in a very critical juncture, when it was much wanted. That his very enemies acknowledge his eminent abilities, and distinguished merit, by their unwearied and restless endeavours against his person and reputation; that they have had an inveterate malice against both; that he has been wonderfully preserved from some un-
- ↑ The speaker's congratulation of Mr. Harley in the name of the house, on his escape and recovery. See the next number.
