Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/287

Rh are lodged in the Tower, but out of some common printed copy. I grant there is nothing material in all this, farther than to show the generosity of our adversaries, in encouraging a writer, who cannot furnish out so much as a titlepage, with propriety or common sense.

Next follows the dedication to the clergy of the church of England, wherein the modesty, and the meaning of the first paragraphs, are hardly to be matched. He tells them, he has made a comment upon the acts of settlement, which he lays before them, and conjures them to recommend, in their writings and discourses, to their fellow-subjects: and he does all this, out of a just deference to their great power and influence. This is the right whig scheme of directing the clergy what to preach. The archbishop of Canterbury's jurisdiction extends no farther, than over his own province; but the author of the Crisis constitutes himself vicar general over the whole clergy of the church of England. The bishops, in their letters or speeches to their own clergy, proceed no farther than to exhortation; but this writer, conjures the whole clergy of the church, to recommend his comment upon the laws of the land, in their writings and discourses. I would fain know, who made him a commentator upon the laws of the land; after which it will be time enough to ask him, by what authority he directs the clergy to recommend his comments from the pulpit or the press?

He tells the clergy, there are two circumstances which place the minds of the people under their direction; the first circumstance, is their education; the second circumstance, is the tenths of our lands. Rh