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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A97059 A letter from a citizen of London to his friend in the country. J. W. 1692 (1692) Wing W58A; ESTC R186092 3,748 2

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A LETTER from a Citizen of LONDON to his Friend in the COUNTRY SIR I Must number amongst your underserved Favours your sending for my thoughts concerning the Request of the Citizens of London in Common-Hall assembled to their Representatives in Parliament I will not by Excuses tho' I might ●ery justly unqualify my self for the performance of your Commands You have so often shewn a sort of Satisfaction in perusing my Scrowls that it is fitter for me readily to obey whatsoever you exact than either to suspect your Candour or dispute my own Abilities I have not so little sense of Liberty nor have I so little reflected how it was preserved under the Roman Commonwealth by the People's having of right a great share in all things that were there transacted as to think it improper for the Common-Hall of our Metropolis to interest themselves as far as by Law they may in our Publick affairs upon every occasion that seems to them important I know their Wealth and how considerable many of them are I remember likewise that had not the City interposed and invigorated the Parliament in the late times notwithstanding that they were so generally well inclin'd they had done but half their Reformation-work they had never secur'd their Rights and Liberties from the Designs of the Malignants of those Days But after I have hinted all this in the behalf of those worthy Citizens that met at Guildhall upon the twenty ninth of the last Month yet I know that they themselves will allow that they are capable of being sometimes misguided that they are not Infallible in their Conjectures and that it is possible that their Zeal may fly at too mean a quarry The Assassination was so unnatural to our Climate so contrary to the innate Bravery of English minds and so fenced against by our Laws that all the Burroughs ●ities and Shires of England as well as the City of London have long since expressed their Abhorrence of it But when the true Sources of the decay of our Trade and Credit are to be inquired after I am much afraid that that inconsiderable Party of Men the Non-Jurors will be found as little able to bring such mighty Mischeifs about as all thinking Men are sure they are by their interest to bring home their King Indeed the Cavaliers formerly were a very Large and Comprehensive Body included the whole Church of England and most of the Nobility and Gentry but for the Non-Jurors amongst us they have not four hundred Clergy-men not ten Lawyers nor ten Noblemen amongst Traders and the Yeomanry scarce any and but few amongst the Gentry They are if any ever was so a Sect so small for number that they need not be fear'd nor regarded and being uncapable of all Places of trust and Power are thereby incapacitated for doing any great Mischeifs They may bring themselves into danger but cannot us And therefore it is to be wish'd that the Citizens may not be put upon a false Scent This Game is not like that of the old Cavaliers and Malignants and a Man may therefore Reasonably suspect that the very Men who have been able to embarrasse things and who for their own private ends have done it have under-hand misguided the Zeal of the Common-Hall to call them off from the persuit of the true destroyers of their Countrey I will Sir to you recollect some few of those Steps which I have observed have been taken to destroy us and in which the Non-Juring handful could have no part I don't set them down to purge that sort of Men but that I may lay before you the truth of things To begin with the nature of our War Was it not our interest to have had our part Naval Would not a Naval War have rather encreased than diminished the number of our Seamen Would not half our Taxes have built such a Fleet as the World never saw nor could resist would not almost all the Expences of a Sea-War circulated at home and consequently could such a War have so exhausted us in such a space of time was there any other necessity to give time for and prolong the Insurrections in Ireland but only that there might be a pretence to raise Land Forces would not a good Fleet and the Militia made as it might have been serviceable have secured us against the whole World We ought to have taken the whole Naval part upon our selves and not to have transported one Man or one Farthing into Foreign Countries and had we warred in this manner Navally tho' the French should have over-run the Dutch upon the Continent yet we should not have need to have been afraid of theirs and the French Fleet joyned together We can never be entirely safe till we are strong enough for them both at Sea Had we acted only Navally we should have been so long before this time and then we had had no need to be solicitous who has made and who are likely to make a seperate Peace But in the next place let us see how the Fleet we have is managed It has been indeed managed by an amphibious sort of Creatures called Land-Admirals chosen rather to look after the House of Commons than our Ships How have these Admirals who have learnt to sail as the Vertuosi teach Men to swim upon a Table managed our Fleet They have even Mann'd them as they could because they have Officer'd them from Locket's and not from Wapping amongst the Beaux and not the Tarpaulins But to speak the Truth the Admirals Officers and Orders are much alike The Folly the Ignorance the Corruption and Knavery of that Board has so long appear'd gross that Commission has been so long and so palpably irreclaimable that honest Mr. Sacheverell Sir Michael Wharton Sir Richard Onslow and others have one after another quitted it They were too good Patriots to sit and see the very Walls and Fortifications of this Island and their Country mouldring and tumbling down under their Administration They soon saw it was not work for any but such as had been bred up trhough all the Gradations of the Employment and yet they found their Fellow-Commissioners would neither be instructed by nor make use of those brave old Men who were the Seamen of the late times and offer'd to serve under this Government How few of Mr. Sacheverell's List of Wealthy Captains that would have serv'd without pay were taken in is a Story that will never be forgotten nor perhaps forgiven to the Managers of our Admiralty We will now come to our Trade Have not all Advantages been given to the Dutch to undermine it Have not Embargoes been laid upon our Merchants whllst the Dutch have gone and fill'd all Foreign Markets Have not our Merchants been unsupplyed with Convoys and been Huff'd by the Land-Admirals when they have complained of it I appeal here to many of those honest Citizens who subscribed this very Request for the truth of what I say Was not the