If it fhould be urged, that the Incumbrances on the Sugar Trade were not occafioned by an Excife, I am ready to grant it, but my Anfwer is, that all Incumbrances will fink Traffick, let them proceed from what Cause they will.

In respect to Goods imported, the Merchant will find a great Difference betwixt a Duty and an Excife; allowing the Sum levied to be the fame, the Excife will not ease him of any of his Charges in carrying on his Trade; fuch as Offices, Fees, Servants, &r. but it will occafion other Expences, from which he was free before; he muft keep perhaps an additional Servant or Servants to wait upon the Officers, in the frequent Vifits they will make to overlook and examine his Stock; his own Trouble, and Interruption from the Pursuit of his Affairs, must also be thrown into the Account, for all which he must have a Confideration in the Value of his Goods, which must be paid by the Confumer, and will be a Clog upon Trade.

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Upon the Whole, (fays this Writer) I fhall venture to affert one Thing, upon the belt Information, That the East India Company has loft, and that the Revenue is not increas'd, by an Excife being laid upon Tea; and in fine, that no Body is a E Gainer by it, except the Smuglers and the Projector.

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Patron may fleep in Peace. Poor old Caleb will die of the Spleen, for Want of publick Errors to animadvert upon. You very foon fatisfied thefe Gentlemen that they were miftaken in this Point. You convinced

them that our domeftick Affairs flood in as much Need of a ftrict Enquiry, and an immediate Amendment, as our late Affairs abroad. I am likewife afraid you must be now convinced that you have engaged yourself in an impracticable Defign. What Herculean Labours have you undertaken? Where will you begin? Where will you end? What an Augaan Stable is Corruption? What a deformed Monster is a Standing Army in a free Country? What a many-headed Hydra is a General Excife?

I profefs myself, Mr. D'Anvers, an Enemy to Companies, as you have often done; i.e. to all trading Confederacies, invefted with exclufive Powers. I not only look on these Monopolies as deftructive to all free Commerce, but as wealthy Combinations, which may prove fatal to Liberty.

I wou'd not be understood to mean the boneft Creditors of the Publick; to whom the tendereft Regard ought always to be paid, as they lent their Money for the Service, and on the Faith of the Government. For this Reason, their Interest will always be confider'd; and if ever they fhould fuffer, it must be wholly owing to the wicked Management of thofe, who have been intrufted with the Power over their Properties.

I am forry to obferve that you, Sir, have been too prophetical in your Remarks on this Subject; and had any Credit been given to your Predictions, They might have been of fome Ufe to the unhappy Proprie

Craftsman, Jan. 13. N° 341. Of two famous Companies. Correfpondent compliments F D'Anvers on fome of his former Productions. We remember very well, fays he, on the Conclufion of the late Treaty of Vienna, how loudly your Adverfaries exulted; the Vanity of their Hearts dilated, and they triumphed in Concert. G You have often explained the evil They cry'd aloud, now Mr. D'Anvers must drop his Pen. Affairs are quite fettled abroad; and our

tors.

Confequences, which muft attend the Power given to the Directors, to coin Money, in the Shape of Bonds;

to enter into chimerical Projects of
Trade; to permit, perhaps, to con-
nive at, and be themselves concern'd
with the Company's Super-Cargoes,
Factors and Captains, in the Frauds
and Embezzlements of their Effects.
You fet out very early, even fix A
Years ago, in explaining fome Frauds
in the E. India Company; and foon
after you hinted at fome others, in
the Method of buying and felling the
Company's Goods. You made fome
proper Obfervations on the Practice
of putting falfe Samples on their B
Goods, at the publick Saless by

which means Thofe, who were let
into the Secret, made infamous Gains
at the Company's Expence, and to
the Prejudice of the boneft Buyer.

Have not all these Charges against them been fince made good! ---Have C not fome late Discoveries proved the Truth of them, even to Demonstration ?

After this, you took Notice of the 5. S. Company. You expreffed, very early likewife, your Sentiments with relation to the Managers of that Corporation. You obferved that the Affiento Trade was a lofing Contract; and that the annual Ship, which was granted to the Company as an Equivalent for it, produced no Advantages to the Company, whatever it might do to Directors, Captains, and Supercargoess befides the general Difadvantage it brought upon our African and American Trade, occafion'd by their Tenders, Sloops, and Factories fettled there.

Hath not all you have faid of this Company proved true? Have not the Directors themselves been forc'd to own, that they have fuitain'd great Loffes in Trade,and that great Frauds have been committed in it?

One of these Societies made fome Applications to Parliament laft Sef fion, which will probably bring them there again; and we have been told that the other hath Thoughts of ap plying there for fome Indulgence,

without which they find it impoffible to continue their Trade with Advantage.

The Cafe of the Charitable Corporation is likewife ftill depending before that auguft Affembly, and the Gentlemen of the York-Buildings Company feem'd refolved to feek Relief, or Juftice, in the fame Place.

Daily Courant, Jan. 18.

Reflections on the antiministerial Wri

ters.

Author) give us long and

'HE News-Writers (fays this

pompous Accounts of the Refolutions that have been taken by the Merchants and Tradefmen in divers Parts of the Kingdom, to oppofe, by all dutiful Methods, any Propofal that may be offered to Parliament, for changing the Duties upon any Commodities at the Custom House into an Excife; and feveral Memorials or Remonftrances are faid to have been delivered to their RepresentaDtives, in Pursuance of the fame Refolutions. Several ingenious Pictures and Ballads have been likewife published upon the fame Occafion, in Order to make out in Wit and Humour what is wanting in Argument.

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But I do not understand how the Gentlemen who have been so induftrious to raise fuch a Clamour thro' the Nation, can juftify the Honesty of their Proceedings, in endeavouring to enflame the Minds of People against the Administration, upon the bare Suppofition of a Project, beF fore they know what it is, and which poffibly may never have had a Being but in their own Imagination. And I will venture to fay, that fuch a Thing as they have reprefented it to be, viz. a general Excife, was Gnever, could never be intended by any Perfon in the Administration.

Taking it for granted to be true, that there is a real Design to extend the Excife Laws to Wines and Tobacco

(for

(for if there is, I never heard it from
any but themfelves,) what Tendency
has this to a General Excife? which
I apprehend to be an Excife upon
all the common Neceffaries of Life,
as well as upon thofe Things which
we can fubfift very well without: A
But no Body will pretend to fay,
that he can't live without he drinks
Wine, or fmoaks Tobacco; he may
as well aver, that unless he wears
Velvet he can't keep himself warm ;
or, that he is in a starving Condition,
because his Meals are not ferved up
to him in Plate or China.

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Cato conftantly prevailed against him there; but the Multitude, the unreprefented Multitude, were always open to his Bribes, and yielding to his Wishes.

When the Genius of the Times becomes thus depraved, those who wifh well to Mankind will endeavour to fecure their Affections for the publick Intereft; if they cannot entirely fupprefs their Corruptions, they will turn them to the belt Advantage, and labour to fave the State by the Means which its Enemies employ to ruin it. When Cæfar ftood for the Confulfhip, even Cato himself thought it lawful to bribe the Populace, in order to bridle that bold afpiring Man; and accordingly the Nobility railed an immenfe Sum to carry the Election of a powerful Colleague. In fhort, the feverest Virtue cannot complain, if the Arms of Vice are turned upon itself; nor can a People repine if they fell their Voice to their own Advantage; happy and honourable would they be Dindeed, did they not extort fuch Terms; 'twould be a golden Age, would Men do their Duty without being paid for it: But who deferves the Blame, if the Cafe is otherwife?

The Gentlemen that write on the other Side never pretended to foretell what would be done, till now. I am fenfible Mr. Caleb D'Anvers is a very fhrewd, fmoaky, old Fellow; but I always took him for an honeft C Man, and a good Proteftant, tho' fomething touchy and captious with Age and Infirmities; but by his late Declamations against Excifes, one would think he dealt with the Devil.

I have heard that Daniel De Foe indeed would write an Anfwer to Books before they were publifhed; and that once he writ an Answer to a Book that was never published at all; but I never thought Mr. D'Anvers would have followed the Example of a mercenary Writer, for whom he takes every Occafion to exprefs E fo great a Contempt.

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That wife Governours did always recur to the readieft Means of faving their Conntry, every History will abundantly prove. Even Q. Elizabeth was known to have Penfioners in the Courts of France and Rome: and if he had few at home, it was because the lively Horrors of Popery worked up the Paffions of her People fo much, that they came into any Measures to keep it out. Much has been faid of her Frugality, yet it must be allowed, that the Indies were then but difcovered as of Yefterday, and the People who had never been ufed to Excefs, were content with GModeration. This was ever seen in the Infancy of States, when the Minds of Men are pure and undebauched; but a long and extensive

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Intercourfe with other Nations commonly brings home the Vices of every Climate: Here Luxury begins, and hence Fraud and Rapine enfue.

The Reign of Charles II. was fcandalous on Account of thofe Mi

hifters who became Penfioners and A Hirelings to foreign Courts. The Times are altered fince, and we have allowed large Subfidies and Penfions to our Neighbours, which, however juft, have been greatly clamoured at. Large and immense Sums were given to this End in QB Anne's Time, and I never heard them cenfured; thofe were given to fupport a War, the other to fave one; and 'tis generally agreed, that a Prevention is better than a Remedy, efpecially as it must alfo be allowed that the Hardfhips and Expences of C a War are much greater, and more grievous than that Charge which has hitherto preferved our Peace.

Grufirect Journal. Jan. 13. N° 160.

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AVIUS here publishes Notes D of his Society on the Ode for New Year's Day, (which fee in the Poetry for this Month;) among which are the following,

Ver. 3. Melodious, foft, and fweetly gay.] Having begged the Sicilian Ladies to affift him with divine Sounds; E leil thefe Sounds, tho' divine, fhould not be fuitable to the Subject, he defires they may be melodious, faft, and fweetly gay: Which laft Expreffion is by a Figure put for gayly Sweet as is evident from the firft Word of the next Verfe, Sweet as, F &c.

Now fince foft and fweet, when applied to mufical Sounds, fignify the very fame Thing with melodious, the Qualities defired in these Sounds are, that they fhould be divine, and feft, and fift, and gayly foft. So that, in this and the pre- G ceding Verfe, two beautiful Figures, in great Requeft with the Moderns, are happily exemplified, the Anticlimax, and the Tautology.

Ver. 7. Infpire the warbling String.] It was objected to the Word infpire, that it could not be used properly in Relation to any Inftruments but those of Wind-mufick. To inspire a Flute, a Hautboy, or a Trumpet, is intelligible enough: But how a String can be infpired is incomprehenfible. To this Mr. Poppy answered, That the Strings of mufical Inftruments were made of the Guts of Animals; that Guts might be literally inspired; and that when they were fo, they were moft apt to warble. That the only plaufible Objection to this must be from the Continuity and Clofenefs of the Gut, when dried into a String : But this was cafily folved, by fuppofing a small imperceptible Paffage till remaining, which the Muses, who are Goddeffes, might well be fuppofed able to infpire.

Ver. 10. Sing, fing to George's gentle Sway.] One of our Members expreffed his Diflike of this figurative Repetition. He owned it might be more poetical; but thought it would have been more naturally faid, as it would be certainly more naturally done by Englishmen, to drink, than to fing to their Monarch's Sway. At least it was unreasonable, that they should fing three Times, without drinking once; which laft Action would be a greater Teftimony of their Loyalty than the other, as being fomewhat more than empty Words. He therefore infifted, that the second Sing fhould be changed into Drink: Which no Body opposed.

Ver. 28. As Freedom, &c. A Member in a thread-bare Coat seemed to wonder, that fo precious a Jewel could be bought by old Battle Array; and was for reading bold, inftead of old. But he was answered, that the Meaning was, that it was bought of old by Battle Array. To which he replyed; Then if I tell you, that this Coat was bought by an old Morning Gown, you will think I meant, that it was bought of old

by

by a Morning Gown; tho' perhaps I bought it but Yesterday.

Be ingenuous, and confefs; Is there any Pleasure in this tranfitory Reign that can equal the folid Happiness of the other? Can your being the Admiration of the vain Part of our Sex, enter into Competition with your making one Man of Senfe happy, or giving Life to a Race of Children, in whom (fince you lay fo mnch ftrefs on Beauty) you will fee revived the fame Form that charm'd your Husband. Obferve the Boxes round, and view the Difcontent that appears in the Faces of the Lindamira's of the laft Age: Like You thefe were the Toafts of the Gay and Young: Like You they were, like Them you will be. How much more eligi ble is the Condition of their contemporary Beauties, whofe Offspring are C now the Admiration of our Youth, and who have the Satisfaction once more to please, in the Perfons of their Children!

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Ver. 38. In vacal Foy your golden Days confefs.] If we fuppofe the Swains, to whom this is addreffed, to be the Hinds, who in ver. 32. are faid to fhew Sadness for their Plen- A ty, it cannot be imagined that they will follow the Poet's Advice. Their plentiful Crops, in the prefent Situation of Affairs, are not to them the Caufe of golden Days. It is therefore more probable, that having fpoken of the Country Swains or Hinds, in the preceding Air, he addreffes himfelf here to the City Swains; who for several Years paft, by Means of Stock-jobbing, &c. have literally injoyed golden Days, The country Swains indeed may poffibly fee fome fuch, before the Year expires; the Dawn of a new Election is a certain Fore-runner of them; nay, it is faid they have begun to fhine already: However, it is juftly hoped, that our Laureate, in his next New-Year's Ode, will not importune D them to confefs these golden Days in vocal Joy.

Advice to LINDAMIRA. AS to your Beauty, Madam, I take your Word for it, and believe you to be perfectly so: But then you E must give me Leave to fay, you are equally conceited; and if one makes you the Admiration of our Sex in general, the other makes you the Ridicule of the wifer Part of it. Beauty, not tempered with Humility, is its own greatest Enemy; and, F like Valour wlthout Prudence, deftroys itself. You are ambitious of being admir'd; but whether had you rather be fo, under the infignificant Character of a Toaft, or those valuable ones of an affectionate Wife, or tender Mother? If under the firft, G let me beg you to confider how precarious your Empire is; fince a Fit of Sickness may, and a few Years will, infallibly put an End to it.

Univerfal Spellator, Jan. 20, N° 224. An extraordinary Petition to Parlia ment, from feveral Ladies of Quality, &c.

T firft fet forth in general, The

many and great Inconveniencies which accrue to the Publick from the

Obfervation of Sunday: For which Reasons the Petitioners humbly hoped that the Wisdom and Authority of Parliament would interpofe, to deliver the good People of England from fo terrible a Restraint, That the Petitioners, especially, were in the utmost Perplexity and Distress how to contrive Means to render tbat Day tolerable to them; and that fince Cards, Plays, Opera's, Balls, Masquerades, &c. were all prohibited, they were inevitably, on that Day, either asleep or in the Vapours. It then proceeded to declare, particularly, That the Dutchefs of Maydew had been conftantly indifpos'd every Sunday, for upwards of forty Years; and that, tho' fhe Cz had