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who draw'd in the Reft with falfe Counfels, falle Affurances, falfe Promises, and falfe Performances; there followed Imprisonment, Attainders, Executions of Gentry and Nobility, voluntary Banifhments, the prefent Royal Family being more firmly establish'd

than ever.

It was certainly an Infatuation, to think that the Body of the People would be brought to dethrone a Proteftant King, in Favour of a Papift, who, but two Reigns before, had invited the Prince of Orange, a Prince who had no hereditary Right to the Crown, to come from Holland, and deliver them from that Papift King, James the Second, of inglorious Memory; I fay this very People, who had elected the Prince of Orange, and after the Death of Queen Anne, fix'd the Succeffion in the Houfe of Hanover not as being Hereditary Heirs, but Proteftants, there being at that Time several Pretenders before the Houfe of Brunfwick, only being as Papifts incapable of Ruling, according to our prefent good and wholfome Laws, this Proteftant People of Great Britain, &c. it was Folly to imagine, that they should alter fo madly for a total Change, lofe all Security for the publick Debt, and pay those enormous ones contracted with foreign popish Courts, and the Pope's Court, by the Pretender.

Their imaginary Notion of finding all the Papists here in his Intereft, was quite groundless; there were, and are, to our certain Knowledge, many Families, who never wish to see the Pretender King of these Imperial Realms, and that would refift him with their Fortunes and Lives, and who have Freedom in themselves all that is neceffary to take the Oaths of Abjuration of the Pretender and faithful Allegiance to the King, without any mental Reservation; but they cannot (it being a Contradiction) deny the Supremacy

premacy and Infallibility of the Pope: This to a Papift is impoffible with Chriftian Verity and without Perjury to do. But fome there are among Papifts, who wish there was a Teft for the prefent King and Abjuration for the Pretender feparate from the other, and that would fairly diftinguish, that all the Nonjurors to the Oath of Allegiance and Abjuration were those in his Intereft, and the Nonjurors to the Oath of Supremacy only were Papifts, in the Intereft of the prefent King George and his Royal Family.

After the Defeat at Prefton Mr. Pope, very much concern'd not at the Success of the King's Forces and Counfels, but at the Distress of his fo very dear Friend, writes a Letter of Comfort and Condoleance dated March 20, 1715-16.

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Dear Sir,

Find that a real Concern is not only a Hindrance to fpeaking, but to writing too: The more Time we give ourselves to think over one's own, or a Friend's Unhappiness, the more unable we grow to exprefs the Grief that proceeds from it. It is as natural to delay a Letter at fuch a Seafon as this, as to retard a melancholy Vifit to a Perfon one cannot relieve. One is afhamed in that Circumftance, to pretend to entertain People with trifling infignificant Affectations of Sorrow on the one Hand, or unfeafonable and forced Gaieties on the other. "Tis a Kind of Profanation of Things facred, to treat so folemn a Matter as a generous voluntary Suffering, with Compliments on Heroick Gallantries. Such a Mind as your's has no Need of being fpirited up into Honour, or, like a weak Woman, praifed into an Opinion of its own Virtue. 'Tis enough to do and fffer what we ought; and Men fhould know, that

the

the noble Power of fuffering bravely, is as far above that of enterprifing greatly, as an unblemish'd Confcience and inflexible Refolution are above an accidental Flow of Spirits, or a fudden Tide of Blood. If the whole religious Business of Mankind be included in Refignation to our Maker, and Charity to our Fellow-Creatures, there are now fome People, who give us an Opportunity of affording as bright an Example in practifing the one, as themselves have given an infamous Inftance of the Violation of the other. Whoever is really brave, has always this Comfort when he is opprefs'd, that he knows himfelf to be fuperior to those who injure him: For the greatest Power on Earth can no fooner do him that Injury, but the brave Man can make himself greater by forgiving it.

If it were generous to feek for alleviating Confolations in a Calamity of fo much Glory; one might fay that to be ruined thus in the Grofs, with a whole People, is but like perishing in the general Conflagration, where nothing we can value is left behind

us.

Methinks in our prefent Condition, the moft heroick Thing we are left capable of doing, is to en deavour to lighten each other's Load, and (fupprefs'd as we are) to fuccour fuch as are yet more opprefs'd. If there are too many who cannot be affifted but by what we cannot give, our Money, there are yet others who may be relieved by our Counfel, by our Countenance, and even by our Chearfulness. The Misfortunes of private Families, the Mifunderstandings of People whom Diftreffes make fufpicious, the Coldneffes of Relations, whom Change of Religion may difunite, or the Neceffities of half-ruin'd Eftates render unkind to each other; thefe, at least, may be foftened in fome Degree, by a general well

manag'd

manag'd Humanity among ourselves, if all thofe who have your Principles of Belief, had alfo your Senfe and Conduct. But, indeed, moft of them have given lamentable Proofs of the contrary; and it is to be apprehended, that they who want Senfe, are only religious thro' Weakness, and good-natur'd thro' Shame: Thefe are narrow minded Creatures, that never deal in Effentials; their Faith never looks beyond Ceremonials, nor their Charity beyond Relations. As poor as I am, I would gladly relieve any diftrefs'd confcientious French Refugee at this Inftant: What must my Concern then be, when I perceive fo many Anxieties now tearing thofe Hearts which I have defired a Place in, and Clouds of Melancholy rifing on thofe Faces, which I have long look'd upon with Affection? I begin already to feel both what fome apprehend, and what others are yet too ftupid to apprehend. I am grieved with the Old for fo many additional Inconveniences and Chagrins, more than their fmall Remain of Life feem deftined to undergo; and with the Young, for fo many of thofe Gayeties and Pleafures, (the Portion of Youth) which they will by this Means be deprived of. This brings into my Mind one or other of thofe I love beft, and among them the Widow and Fatherless, late of. As I am certain no People living had an earlier and truer Senfe of others Misfortunes, or a more generous Refignation, as to what might be their own; fo I earneftly wifh, that whatever Part they must bear, may be rendered as fupportable to them, as it is in the Power of any Friend to make it.

But I know you have prevented me in this Thought, as you always will in any Thing that's good or generous. I find by a Letter of your Lady's, (which I have feen) that their Eafe and Tranquillity is Part of

your

your Care. I believe there's fome Fatality in it, that you fhould always, from Time to Time, be doing thofe particular Things that make me enamonr'd of you.

I write this from Windfor Foreft, of which I am come to take my laft Look. We here bid our Neighbours adieu, much as thofe who go to be hang'd do their Fellow Prisoners, who are condemn'd to follow them a few weeks after. I parted from honest Mr. D with Tenderness; and from old Sir William Trumball, as from a venerable Prophet, foretelling, with lifted Hands, the Miferies to come, from which he is just going to be remov'd himself,

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Perhaps, now I have learn'd fo far as

-Nos dulcia linquimus arva

my next Leffon may be

Nos patriam fugimus

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Let that, and all elfe be as Heaven pleafes! I have provided juft enough to keep a Man of Honours. believe you and I fhall never be afham'd of each other. I know I wish my Country well; and if it undoes me, it fhall not make we wifh otherwise.

Mr. Blount, though we can't find him bufy in any Action, and as to his mixing with People fufpected, it was faid in his Favour, he actually did it to perfuade them from fuch treasonable and headlong Courses, yet he thought proper to leave England, and not remain any longer where a ftrict Eye was kept over every Body. Mr. Pope writes to him abroad a Letter dated Sept. 8, 1717:

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Dear Sir,

Think your leaving England was like a good Man's leaving the World, with the bleffed Confcience

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