Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/327

Rh court; and if any body ſhould aſk whether that parliament preſerved the ballance of power in the three branches of our conſtitution, in the due diſtribution ſome have mentioned? I am not afraid to anſwer in the negative. And why, even to this day, are gentlemen ſo fond of ſpending their eſtates to ſit in the Houſe, that ten thouſand pounds have been ſpent at a time to be choſen, and now that way of procuring elections is at an end, private briberies, and clandeſtine contrivances are made uſe of to get into the Houſe? No man would give a groat to ſit, where he cannot get a groat himſelf for ſitting, unleſs there were either parties to gratify, profits to be made, or intereſt to ſupport. In this caſe it is plain a people may be ruined by their repreſentatives, and the firſt law of nature, ſelf-preſervation, give the people a right to reſent public encroachments upon their valuable liberties.’

In the ſame volume is a tract entitled The Shorteſt Way with the Diſſenters, which contained reflexions againſt ſome eccleſiaſtics in power, for breathing too much a ſpirit of perſecution. He became obnoxious to the miniſtry on this account, and was obliged to juſtify himſelf by writing an explanation of it. Mr. De Foe in his preface to the ſecond volume of his works, collected by himſelf, takes occaſion to mention the ſevere hardſhips he laboured under, occaſioncd by thoſe Printers, more induſtrious than himſelf, who make a practice of pirating every work attended with ſucceſs. As an inſtance of this kind of oppreſſion, he mentions the True Born Engliſhman, by which, had he enjoyed the full profit of his own labours, he muſt have gained near a thouſand pounds; for beſides nine editions which paſſed under his own inſpection, this poem was twelve times pirated: but the inſolence of thoſe fraudulent dealers did not ſtop here.