English Advice to the Freeholders of England (Classic Reprint) PDF Download

Author: Francis Atterbury
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781330997482
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description
Excerpt from English Advice to the Freeholders of England I am firmly persuaded that there is not in their way a better Sett of Men, generally speaking, than the Freeholders of England. They are a brave, open, plain and direct People, and when fairly left to themselves to chuse their Representatives, always chuse such as are, or appear to be, true Friends to their Country. I could instance several Elections formerly, and one or two of late, where the Temper of the People, without any Assistance or Countenance from Court or Treasury, carried it for Honest Men under great Temptations to the contrary; and I cannot recollect one bad Parliament, but may be easily accounted for from the Electors being Bribed, and notoriously Tamper'd with, from false Returns made by Sheriffs and other Officers, or lastly from some extravagant Prejudices scattered and cultivated among the People, who wanting proper Means of Information are obliged to take Things at second Hand, and are therefore liable to gross Mistakes. As the Cafe now stands, the honest Part of the Nation is to wrestle with each of these Disadvantages in a higher degree than perhaps was ever known; and we can scarce expect Things will take a happy Turn, unless one Side abates considerably of their Zeal, and the other recovers new Spirit: Neither of which seems very promising as yet; since nothing is omitted on the one hand to Poison the Country, and on the other scarce any Thing is attempted by way of Antidote. Not that there is wanting a good Disposition in the People: In many Places several of the ordinary Sort have the heroic Vertue to refuse Thirty, Forty, a Hundred Pounds a Man for their Votes; and indeed throughout the whole Kingdom they seem fully allarmed at the present Posture of Affairs: But I don't know how, there is a Defect somewhere, the Whigs outdo us in Industry as much as in Money: Neither are are we as active and bold in publishing the Truth, as they in inventing Falsehoods. They go on securely, without Fear or Remorse, to tell you there was formed and settled a Scheme by the late Ministry, and the chief of the Church Party, with the Queen at the Head of them, to set the Protestant Succession aside, and introduce the Pretender: This they say loudly, in their Clubs, Coffee-Houses, Addresses, and, by what appears, have thereby made an Impression on the Minds of those, who might be better informed if they would please to hear more than one Side. The Press smarms with these and the like monstrous Forgeries; but not one single Proof is attempted, only a parcel of Invectives and Libels against those, who have no Crime to answer for, but too great Lenity when in Power, and too supine a Neglect of themselves; Faults indeed that could never justly be imputed to their Antagonists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.