Title: A Seasonable Warning and Caution against the Insinuations of Papists and Jacobites in favour of the Pretender - Being a Letter from an Englishman at the Court of Hanover
Author: Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731
Language: English
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memory of Steven Gibbs (1938-2009).



[Transcriber's Note: This e-book, a pamphlet by Daniel Defoe, was
originally published in 1712, and was prepared from _The Novels and
Miscellaneous Works of Daniel De Foe_, vol. 6 (London: Henry G. Bohn,
1855). Archaic spellings have been retained as they appear in the
original, and obvious printer errors have been corrected without
note.]



A Seasonable

WARNING

And CAUTION

Against the

INSINUATIONS

Of _Papists_ and _Jacobites_

In Favour of the

PRETENDER.

Being a LETTER from an _ENGLISHMAN_ at the Court of _HANOVER_.


_And thou shalt teach these Words diligently unto thy Children, and
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy House, and when thou
walkest by the Way._ Deut. vi. 7.

_And what thou seest write in a Book._ Rev. i. 11.


_LONDON_: Printed for _J. Baker_, at the _Black-Boy_ in
_Pater-Noster-Row_. 1712.



A SEASONABLE

WARNING AND CAUTION

AGAINST THE

INSINUATIONS OF PAPISTS AND JACOBITES IN FAVOUR OF THE PRETENDER.


Why how now, England! what ailest thee now? What evil spirit now
possesseth thee! O thou nation famous for espousing religion, and
defending liberty; eminent in all ages for pulling down tyrants,[1]
and adhering steadily to the fundamentals of thy own constitution:[2]
that has not only secured thy own rights, and handed them down
unimpaired to every succeeding age, but has been the sanctuary of
other oppressed nations;[3] the strong protector of injured subjects
against the lawless invasion of oppressing tyrants.

[Footnote 1: Edward II., Richard II., Richard III., James II.]

[Footnote 2: In the several barons' wars in the reign of King Stephen,
King John, &c.]

[Footnote 3: Especially of the persecuted protestants in the Low
Countries, in Queen Elizabeth.]

To thee the oppressed protestants of France owed, for some ages ago,
the comfort of being powerfully supported, while their own king,[4]
wheedled by the lustre of a crown, became apostate, and laid the
foundation of their ruin among themselves; in thee their posterity[5]
find a refuge, and flourish in thy wealth and trade, when religion and
liberty find no more place in their own country.

[Footnote 4: Henry IV., who turned papist, and with much difficulty
granted liberty to his protestant subjects by the edict of Nantes.]

[Footnote 5: The French refugees, who being received here, are grown
rich and wealthy by our trade.]

To thee the distressed Belgii[6] owe the powerful assistance by which
they took up arms in defence of liberty and religion, against Spanish
cruelty, the perfidious tyranny of their kings, and the rage of the
bloody Duke d'Alva.

[Footnote 6: The Flemings, when threatened with the inquisition from
Spain, under the reign of Philip II.]

From thee the confederate Hollanders[7] received encouragement to join
in that indissoluble union which has since reduced the invincible
power of the Spaniards, and from whence has been raised the most
flourishing commonwealth in the world.

[Footnote 7: Under William Henry, the first Prince of Orange, who
formed the revolt of the Dutch provinces, and laid the foundation of
the States General and their commonwealth.]

By thy assistance they are become the bulwark of the protestant
religion, and of the liberties of Europe; and have many times since
gratefully employed that force in thy behalf; and, by their help,
thou, who first gavest them liberty, hast more than once rescued and
preserved thy own.

To thee the present protestant nations[8] of Europe owe their being at
this day freed from the just apprehensions of the growing greatness of
France; and to thy power, when acting by the glorious protector of thy
liberty, King William, is the whole Christian world indebted for
depriving the French tyrant of the hopes and prospect of universal
monarchy.

[Footnote 8: The circles of Swabia and Franconia, the Palatinate, and
the countries of Hessia, Wirtemberg, and others.]

To thy blood, thy treasure, the conduct of thy generals, and the
vigour of thy councils, are due, the glory, the fame, the praises, and
the advantages of twenty years' war, for the establishing and
restoring the liberty and religion of Europe.

When posterity shall inquire into the particulars of this long and
bloody war; the battles, sieges, and stupendous marches of armies,
which, as well with loss as with victory, have been the subject of thy
history; it will for ever be frequent in their mouths; HERE the
British troops, fighting with dreadful fury, and their usual
constancy, shed their blood in defence of the protestant cause, and
left a bloody victory to God's enemies and their own; as at Steenkirk,
Landen, Camaret, Almanza, Brihenga, and the like: or, HERE the British
troops, with their usual valour, carried all before them, and
conquered in behalf of the protestant interest, and Europe's
liberties; as at Blenheim, Ramilies, Barcelona, Oudenard, Sarragossa,
Blaregnies, &c. Here the British navies triumphed over French
greatness; as at Cherburgh, La Hogue, Gibraltar, &c. There their land
forces reduced the most impregnable fortresses; as at Namur, Lisle,
Menin, Tournay, &c.

And wherefore has all this English and British blood been spilt?
Wherefore thy nation exhausted; thy trade sunk and interrupted; thy
veins opened? Why hast thou struggled thus long, and with so much
vigour, as well with French tyranny abroad, as popish factions at
home, but to preserve entire the religion and liberties of Europe, and
particularly of this nation, and to preserve our posterity from
slavery and idolatry? Principles truly noble, worthy a nation's blood
to protect, and worthy a nation's treasure to save.

But what has all this been for? And to what intent and purpose was all
this zeal, if you will sink under the ruin of the very fabric ye have
pulled down? If ye will give up the cause after ye have gained the
advantage, and yield yourselves up after you have been delivered; to
what purpose then has all this been done? Why all the money expended?
Why all this blood spilt? To what end is France said to be reduced,
and peace now concluded, if the same popery, the same tyranny, the
same arbitrary methods of government shall be received among you
again? Sure your posterity will stand amazed to consider how lavish
this age has been of their money, and their blood, and to how little
purpose; since no age since the creation of the world can show us a
time when ever any nation spent so much blood and treasure to end just
where they begun: as, if the hearts of our enemies prevail, we are
like to do.

Let us reason a little together on these things, and let us inquire a
little, why, and for what reason Britain, so lately the glory of
Europe; so lately the terror of France, the bulwark of religion, and
the destroyer of popery, should be brought to be the gazing-stock of
the world? And why is it that her neighbours expect every hour to hear
that she is going back to Egypt, and having given up her liberty, has
made it her own choice to submit to the stripes of her taskmasters,
and make bricks without straw.

We that are Englishmen, and live from home among the protestants of
other nations, cannot but be sensible of this alteration, and we bear
the reproaches of those who speak freely of the unhappy change which
appears in the temper of our countrymen at home. It is astonishing to
all the world to hear that the common people of England should be
turned from the most rivetted aversions, to a coldness and
indifferency in matters of popery and the pretender: that they, who
with so unanimous a resolution deposed the late King James, as well
for his invasions of their liberty as of their religion; and who with
such marks of contempt drove him and his pretended progeny out of the
nation, should without any visible alteration of circumstances, be
drawn in to favour the return of that race with all the certain
additions of popish principles in religion; French principles in
government; revenge for family injuries; restoration of abdicated and
impoverished votaries; and the certain support of a party at home,
whose fortunes and losses must be restored and repaired out of the
ruins of their country's liberties.

To what purpose was the revolution? Why did you mock yourselves at so
vast an expense? Why did you cry in your oppressions to God and the
Prince of Orange to deliver you? Why did you rise as one man against
King James and his popish adherents? Why was your fury so great, and
your opposition so universal, that although he had a good army of
veteran, disciplined troops, and a powerful assistance from France
ready to fall in and join him, yet they durst not, when put all
together, venture to look you in the face, but fled like darkness
before the sun, like guilt before the sword of justice; or as a
murderer from the avenger of blood? Was it all, that you might the
better weaken yourselves by ages of war, and they might return again,
and bind you like Samson, when your strength was departed?

When this was done, why did ye mock God with a thanksgiving,[9] and
banter the world with your pretended praises to heaven for your
deliverance? Why, when you appeared by your representatives in
convention and in parliament, did you make so many fast days,[10] and
days of prayer for the success of the arms you took up, and the war
you carried on for the finishing and securing this great work, called
the pulling down of popery? Was it all, that after having spent twenty
years of war, and a sea of blood, ruined trade, exhausted your
treasure, and entailed vast debts on your posterity; you should calmly
open your doors to the fugitives you had found out, and let in again
the popish tyranny you had driven away?

[Footnote 9: The Thanksgiving for the Revolution.]

[Footnote 10: Monthly fasts appointed the first Wednesday of every
month during the war in King William's time.]

For what reason was it that you presented the crown to your
benefactor, called him your deliverer, and made him your king; and
having done so, maintained him upon the throne with so much vigour,
fought under his banner in so many battles, and with so great
animosity, and professed to stand by him against all his enemies at
home and abroad? Why is he in so many addresses[11] styled the rescuer
of this nation from popery and slavery? Why in so many acts of
parliament[12] is he called the great deliverer of the nation? Why in
so many sermons preached to men, and prayers put up to God, has he the
title of "the instrument blessed by heaven to free these nations from
popery and arbitrary government?" Was all this done, that your
posterity being brought back into the bondage their fathers were
delivered from, should with the same alacrity call him an invader, an
usurper, a parricide, and their fathers, rebels and revolters?

[Footnote 11: Vid. The Collection of Addresses in King William's
reign.]

[Footnote 12: Act for Offering the Crown; The Claim of Right; Act for
Security of his Majesty's Person and Government, &c.]

Why was the crown entailed by so many provisoes, reserves, and
limitations? Why the names of every person that should succeed, so
expressly and particularly mentioned and set down?[13] Why so many
acts of parliament[14] to secure that entail, and punish with death
those who should reject or oppose it? Why was the settlement of the
crown thought to be of so much consequence to the public good, that
the two daughters of King James, the late blessed Queen Mary, and her
present royal majesty, thought themselves bound to agree to the same
for the safety and peace of their country, though it was in prejudice
of the right and possession of their own father? Was it all, that the
return of these things might be made upon the people with the greater
weight, and that posterity might be prejudiced against the memory of
the two royal sisters, as accessary to the ruin of their own father?

[Footnote 13: Vid. The several Prayers ordered to be read in Churches
upon the occasion of the Fasts in King William's time.]

[Footnote 14: Vid. The Act of the Settlement, and the Act of the
Union; the Act to extinguish the hopes of the Jacobites; and the Act
for farther securing her Majesty's Person and Government.]

Why was King James and his popish posterity entirely excluded for ever
from enjoying the imperial crown of these realms?[15] Why were so many
acts of parliament made to extinguish the hopes of his race, and of
their party, and for farther security of her majesty's person and
government? Why was the settlement of the succession in a protestant
line made the principal reason of uniting the two kingdoms together?
And why was that union so vigorously opposed by all those that adhered
to the jacobite interest? Was this to illustrate the return of the
abdicated line, and by the greatness of the nation's endeavour for
keeping out the pretender, to justify his using them accordingly when
he comes in?

[Footnote 15: Vid. The Act of Parliament for settling the Succession
of the Crown on the illustrious House of Hanover.]

Why was the union declared to be unalterable, and, as some say, the
power thereby taken out of the hands of the British parliament to
change the settlement of the crown, or to name any other persons than
those of the illustrious house of Hanover to succeed; and, above all,
why was that severest of all oaths, the abjuration, contrived; by
which it is rendered impossible for this nation, upon any pretence
whatsoever, to receive the pretender but with the black stigma of an
abominable perjury? Was this that, with the greater reverence to laws,
and the greater regard to the solemnity of a national oath, we might
all turn tail upon our principles, and in defiance of God and the
laws, bow our knees to an abjured pretender?

For God's sake, Britons, what are you doing? And whither are you
going? To what dreadful precipices are ye hurrying yourselves? What!
are you selling yourselves for slaves to the French, who you have
conquered; to popery, which you have reformed from; and to the
pretender, whom you have forsworn? Is this acting like Britons; like
protestants, like lovers of liberty? Nay, is it acting like men of
reasonable souls, and men who have the light of common sense to act
by?

That we may move you, then, to consider a little the grossness and
absurdity of what you are doing, dear countrymen, be prevailed upon to
debate a little with yourselves the state of your own case, which I
shall briefly and plainly lay before you, thus:--

The government having thought fit, for reasons of state which I have
no room to speak of in this place, to separate from the confederates,
as well in the field as in treating with the French, and unhappily, I
doubt, to make a separate peace; among the several improvements made
of this by the enemies of Britain, this is one, viz., to encourage and
increase the friends and interest of the pretender, and this they do
upon several foundations. 1. Upon a supposition, or suggestion rather,
that the ministry, because they have not thought fit to carry on the
war, are therefore coming so entirely into the interest of France,
that they must of necessity comply with the French king's demand of
restoring the pretender. 2. Upon a like ill-grounded suggestion that
the people of England and Scotland are more inclined to receive the
pretender than they were formerly; in both which suppositions they
grossly impose upon you, and yet by both they subtly carry on their
crafty designs to delude the more ignorant part of the people of this
nation, and to prepare them, as they think, for the coming of the
pretender: as appears thus:--

1. By persuading the common people that the ministry are for the
pretender, they, as far as in them lies, make a breach, a
misunderstanding, and lay a foundation of jealousy and distrust
between the people and the government, enraging all those who are
zealous for the Hanover succession, against the ministers of state,
and so increasing the dangerous divisions that are among us, the
closing and healing whereof is so much the duty and interest of all
faithful subjects, that they may the more unanimously and sincerely
join together against the pretender and all his adherents.

2. They intimidate those great numbers of people who, not so much
acting by principle as example, are unwilling to show themselves in
any cause which they have reason to fear is declining, and therefore
act with the less zeal for the true interest, by how much they see, or
think they see, the great ones of the nation fall off from it.

3. By suggesting that the common people of Great Britain are more
inclined to the pretender than they were formerly, they think they
bring them really to be so, and encourage all the endeavours of those
who labour indefatigably all over the nation to have it so.

To undeceive the good people of Britain, therefore, in these things,
dear countrymen, I beseech you to consider,

1. That whatever we may dislike of the proceedings of the ministry,
and of the government, of which this is not the place to speak, there
is no greater cheat can be put upon you than this is; for, whatever
the jacobite party may promise themselves from the ministry, the
ministry do not yet own their measures to tend that way; they do not
act avowedly for the pretender; they do all things yet upon the
supposition of the protestant succession, and carry it as in the
interest of the house of Hanover; and to say they are for the
pretender, is to charge them with the greatest treachery and
hypocrisy, and is such an insolence in the jacobites, as the ministry
ought to show their resentment at them for, and we hope they will do
so; besides, there is a manifest difference between the fears of
honest men, as that the measures of the ministry may encourage the
friends of the pretenders and on the other hand, the insolent way of
the jacobites claiming the ministry to be acting in their behalf;
while therefore the ministry appear to act under the scheme of the
Hanover succession, whether they are sincere or no, it is a good
answer to a jacobite, whatever it is to another, to say, it is an
unjustifiable assurance, and an affront to the government, to boast of
the ministry being in the interest of the pretender.

It is also well worthy the consideration of the good people of
Britain, that at the same time these men would have you believe that
the ministers of state are bringing in the pretender, they would also
have the ministers of state made believe, that the generality of the
people are inclined to receive the pretender; by which double-faced
fraud they endeavour to restrain you, the people of Britain, from
appearing against the pretender, for fear of offending the government;
and to restrain the said government in the same case, for fear of the
people.

As they go on in these things with too much success, it is a very sad
consideration to all true British protestants to find that a party of
men among us, who yet call themselves protestants, fall in with them
in many things, fomenting the divisions and breaches that are among
us, weakening the constitution, and pursuing such principles as tend
to destroy our liberties; by whose arts, and by the subtle management
of which party, the revolution wears every day more and more out of
date; the principles of liberty decay; the memory of King William
sinks in our esteem; the heroic actions of that prince, which were
once the just admiration of all the honest people of Great Britain,
begin to be lost upon us, and forgotten among us, and to become as a
mark of infamy to the nation!

Every considering protestant cannot but observe with horror, what
swarms of popish priests from abroad, and jacobite emissaries at home,
are spread about among us, and busily employed to carry on these
wicked designs; how in disguise they run up and down the countries,
mingling themselves in all companies, and in coffee-houses, and
private conversation, endeavouring to insinuate with all possible
subtlety, favourable notions of the pretender into the minds of the
people, thereby to pave the way, and to prepare you for receiving him;
such as, that he is the lawful son of King James; that he is a
protestant in his heart; that he will abjure the errors of popery as
soon as he has an opportunity; that the late King William promised to
prove him a bastard, but never could do it; that it is hard to reject
him for what was none of his own fault, and the like.

Although thinking men can and do see through these things, yet, as
they are calculated and prepared to deceive the ignorant people in the
country, it is earnestly desired of those who have their eyes open to
the said popish delusions, that they would endeavour to undeceive
their brethren and neighbours, and earnestly persuade them not to be
imposed upon by the jesuitical insinuations of the popish faction,
furnishing the poor honest people with just reasons for their adhering
to the protestant settlement, and full answers to those who go about
to deceive them: which answers are such as follow:--

1. It seems absolutely necessary to remind them of the reason of the
late revolution; how King James II., by his popish counsellors,
priests, and jesuits, had laid the foundation of overwhelming all our
liberties, in an arbitrary, tyrannical government, ruling us without a
parliament to redress our grievances, and, by a standing army, to
execute forcibly his absolute commands; how he had engaged in the
overthrow of our religion, by undermining the constitution of the
Church of England, erecting an arbitrary ecclesiastical commission to
dispossess our universities, and displace our ministers in every
parish, and then to establish popery throughout the whole nation.

2. That in this distress, the whole nation applied themselves to the
Prince of Orange, whose right to the succession made him justly appear
as the proper person to assist and relieve this oppressed people;
which prince came over at our invitation, was blessed with success,
and all the favourers of popery and tyranny sunk at once; King James
fled with his queen, and that person whom he called his son, and whom
we now call justly the pretender.

3. Concerning the birth of this person, the nobility and gentry of
England who invited over the prince, as may be seen by the memorial
they presented to his highness, alleged, that there were violent
presumptions that he was not born of the queen's body, which, however,
they desired to leave to examination in a free parliament; which also
the said prince expressed in his declaration, and that he was willing
to leave the same to a free parliament.

4. That before a free parliament could be obtained, King James
withdrew himself, and carried away his pretended son into the hands of
the ancient enemies of this nation, and of our religion, the French,
there to be educated in the principles of popery and enmity to this
his native country.

By which action he not only declined to refer the legitimacy of his
said son to the examination of the parliament, as the Prince of Orange
had offered in his said declaration, but made such examination
altogether useless and impracticable, he himself (King James) not
owning it to be a legal parliament, and therefore not consenting to
stand by such examination.

By the said abdication, and carrying away his said pretended son into
the hands of the French to be educated in popery, &c., he gave the
parliament of England and Scotland abundant reason for ever to exclude
the said King James and his said pretended son from the government of
these realms, or from the succession to the same, and made it
absolutely necessary for them to do so, if they would secure the
protestant religion to themselves and their posterity; and this
without any regard to the doubt whether he was the lawful son of King
James or no, since it is inconsistent with the constitution of this
protestant nation to be governed by a popish prince.

So that there is now no more room to examine whether the said
pretender be the lawful son of King James, or whether he is, or will
turn to be a protestant, the examination of the legitimacy by
parliament which was offered by the Prince of Orange in his
declaration, having been declined by his father, and himself having
been delivered up into the hands of the sworn enemies both of our
religion, constitution, and nation.

If King James would have expected he should be received as his son,
and succeed to his crowns, he should have suffered his birth to have
been legally determined by the English and Scotch parliament at that
time, and have left him in good protestant hands to have been educated
in the protestant religion, and in the knowledge of the laws and
constitutions of his country; in which case it was more than probable,
had his birth appeared clear, and his hereditary right just, the
parliament might have set the crown upon his head, and declared him
king under the protection of their deliverer, the Prince of Orange:
but to talk of it now, when his birth has never been examined or
cleared up, and while he has been bred up to man's estate in popery,
and that the worst sort, viz., French popery; and after the parliament
of the respective kingdoms uniting in one, have by an unalterable,
indissolvable union, settled and entailed the crown upon another head,
viz., the present queen, and entailed it after her majesty in the most
illustrious house of Hanover, the next of blood in a protestant line:
to talk now of proving the birth of the pretender, and of his abjuring
his errors and turning protestant, this is a fraud so absurd and
ridiculous, that we hope the people of Great Britain can never be
blinded with it.

Especially considering the party who talk of these things to us: and
this ought to move the good people of Britain to receive the proposals
of the pretender with indignation; for who are they, dear
fellow-protestants! that persuade you to these things? Are they not
the friends of France and Rome? Do not all the papists join with them?
Do not all those who hated the revolution, and who long to restore
arbitrary government, join with them?

Why, if he will abjure the Romish errors and turn protestant, why, I
say, do the papists speak in his favour? Do any sect of religion love
apostates! Those who forsake them and abjure them as heretical and
erroneous! If they were not well assured that whatever appearing
change he may make, he will still retain a secret affection to popery,
they could not be rationally supposed to speak in his behalf.

But if that is not sufficient, what do they say to you as to his love
of the liberty of his country? Has he been bred up in a tyrannical
absolute court for nothing? Can he have any notion of government there
but what is cruel, oppressive, absolute, and despotic? What principles
of government will he come over with? and as he has sucked in tyranny
with his milk, and knows no government but that of the most absolute
monarch in the world, is this the man they would bring in to preserve
the liberties and constitution of Britain?

When set upon the British throne, who are his allies and confederates?
Will he be so ungrateful as not to be always at the devotion and
command of the French king? a prince that took his father in a
fugitive, an abdicated and ruined prince, when his fortunes were
overthrown, and his crown taken from him; that made so many efforts to
restore him, and hazarded his whole kingdom for it: if he forgets the
kindness shown to his father, can he be so ungenerous, so unthankful,
as to forget how the king of France nourished him from a child; how,
after his father's death, he hazarded a second war to proclaim him
king of Great Britain, and what expense he has been at to put him in
possession of it? Should he forget all these obligations, he must be
unfit to be called a Christian, much less a prince.

If he can act so barbarously to the French king, his benefactor, what
must you Britons expect from him, who have done nothing to oblige him,
but have for twenty-four years kept him and his father in exile, and
treated them both with unsufferable indignity? If he can be ungrateful
to the king of France, who has done so much for him, what must he be
to you, who have done so much against him?

Again: if gratitude and honour have any influence upon him, if he has
any sense of his obligation to the French king, will he not for ever
be his most hearty, obedient, humble servant? Will he not always be in
his interest, nay, ought he not to be so? Is he not tied by the laws
of friendship and gratitude to be so?

Think, then, dear Britons! what a king this pretender must be; a
papist by inclination; a tyrant by education; a Frenchman by honour
and obligation: and how long will your liberties last you in this
condition? And when your liberties are gone, how long will your
religion remain? When your hands are tied; when armies bind you; when
power oppresses you; when a tyrant disarms you; when a popish French
tyrant reigns over you; by what means or methods can you pretend to
maintain your protestant religion?

How shall the Church of England stand, when in subjection to the
Church of Rome? You are now mixed with dissenters, and some are uneasy
enough with them too; but our church will then be but a dissenting
church; popery will be the establishment; the mass will succeed our
common prayer, and fire and fagot instead of toleration, as you know
was our case before; for it is not the first time the papists have
been tried.

Nor did Queen Mary promise, nay, swear less than is now promised for
the pretender; for she swore to the Gospellers of Suffolk to make no
alteration in religion; and they, like the blinded protestants of this
age, brought her in, for which they were the first that felt the fury
and rage of the popish party, and so we have great cause to believe it
would be again.


THE CONCLUSION.

Consider, then, honest countrymen and protestants, what you are doing;
look on your families; consider your innocent children, who you are
going to give up to be bred in abominable superstition and idolatry;
look on your dear country, which you are preparing to make the seat of
war, blood, and confusion; look on your neighbours, who, while they
are resisting this inundation, for you may be assured honest men will
resist it to the last, you are to fight with, whose throats you must
cut, and in whose blood you must dip your hands; and, lastly, consider
yourselves; how free, how quiet, how in peace, plenty, and in
protestant liberty you now live, but are with your own hands pulling
down upon you, so far as you entertain thoughts of the pretender, the
walls of your own security, viz., the constitution, and making way for
your French popish enemies to enter; to whom your religion, your
liberties, your estates, your families, and your posterity, shall be
made a sacrifice, and this flourishing nation be entirely ruined.

In the last place, all that have any concern left for the good of
their country, and for the preserving the protestant religion, will
remember how much it is in the power of the people of Britain for ever
to discourage all the attempts to be made in favour of these popish
enemies, and to overthrow them in the execution; and it is on this
foundation that this paper is made public. The late letter from Douay,
written by some of that side, who very well understood the pretender's
true interest, acknowledges this, and that if the people of England
could not be wheedled and deluded into the design, it was never to be
done by force.

And is this your case, Britons! Will you be ruined by a people whom
you ought to despise? Have they not been twenty years trying your
strength, till they find it impossible for them to master you? And are
they brought to such a condition as to use all their arts and shifts
to bring on a peace; and will you be brought now in cool thoughts, and
after so long a struggle, to do that yourselves which you would never
let them do; and which, without your most stupid negligence of
yourselves, they could never do.

For this reason, I say, these lines are written, and this makes them
just, and the argument rational. If I were to move you to what was not
in your power, I should easily be answered, by being told, you could
not do it; that you were not able, and the like; but is it not evident
that the unanimous appearance of the people of Great Britain against
the pretender would at once render all the party desperate, and make
them look upon the design as utterly impracticable. As their only hope
is in the breaches they are making in your resolutions, so if they
should see they gain no ground there, they would despair, and give it
over.

It would not be worth notice to inquire who are, and who are not for
the pretender; the invidious search into the conduct of great men,
ministers of state and government, would be labour lost: no ministry
will ever be for the pretender, if they once may but be convinced that
the people are steady; that he gets no ground in the country; that the
aversions of the common people to his person and his government are
not to be overcome: but if you, the good people of England, slacken
your hands; if you give up the cause; if you abate your zeal for your
own liberties, and for the protestant religion; if you fall in with
popery and a French pretender; if you forget the revolution, and King
William, what can you expect? who can stand by you then? Who can save
them that will destroy themselves?

The work is before you; your deliverance, your safety is in your own
hands, and therefore these things are now written: none can give you
up; none can betray you but yourselves; none can bring in popery upon
you but yourselves; and if you could see your own happiness, it is
entirely in your power, by unanimous, steady adhering to your old
principles, to secure your peace for ever. O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!


END OF A SEASONABLE WARNING AND CAUTION.





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "A Seasonable Warning and Caution against the Insinuations of Papists and Jacobites in favour of the Pretender - Being a Letter from an Englishman at the Court of Hanover" ***

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