to the Lord Mayor or themselves, that a CommonCouncil would meet in a better Temper than before; and that no Application had been made to his Lordship fince the laft Common-Council, but by the aforefaid unjuftifiable Demand; and that, not till an Address had been figned by his Lordfhip, many Aldermen, Common-Council Men, and other eminent Citizens ; they, by a great Majority, advised his Lordship not to call a Common-Council,under fuch Uncertainty.

Accordingly an Addrefs was figned by his Lordfhip, the Aldermen, Recorder, Sheriffs, about a Hundred of the Common-Council, and by many Thousands of the most wealthy Merchants and other fubftantial Citizens.

On Saturday (the 8th of July) according to his Majesty's Appointment, the Lord Mayor, accompany'd by the Aldermen, Recorder, Sheriffs, many of the Common-Council Men, and a very great Number of other loyal Citizens, eminent Merchants and Traders, proceeded from Guildhall, to attend his Majesty with the faid Addrefs. The Number was fo great, and the Proceffion fo folemn, as was never equalled on any fuch Occafion; and altho' it happen'd on a Day when the most wealthy Citizens ufually retire into the Country,yet there were near 400 Gentlemen's Coaches, the greatest Part with 4 in a Coach. They arrived at St. James's about two, in very good Order, and were fo numerous, that the Court was hardly large enough to contain them. And notwithstanding the vaft Num ber of People and the Heat of the Weather, their Majefties were both gracioufly pleafed to give eve ry one the Honour of kiffing their Hands; and to confer the Honour of Knighthood on the two She riffs Elect, viz. Richard Grofvenor, and Thomas Lombe, Efqrs;

Thus was his Majesty pleafed to favour the Zeal of the loyal Citizens; and thus impolitickly have thofe Gentlemen acted, who with the Duty of an Addrefs of CONDOLANCE and CONGRATULATION would have mix'd indecent Refleflections, and dilating Advice.

Thus

Thus far the Apologift for the City's COUNTER-ADDRESS: On the other hand, about the fame time, the ingenious Author of the Crafts-man publifh'd the following LUCUBRATION on Addreffes, viz.

SIR,

To CALEB D'ANVERS, Efq;

HILST all parts of the Kingdom are daily W fending up their Compliments of condolance and congratulation to his prefent Majefty on the Death of his royal Father and his own happy Acceffion to the Throne, and feem to vye with one another in the moft loyal and dutiful Addreffes, it cannot be thought unfeasonable to prefent the Reader with fome curfory Obfervations on that Subject.

As I write in great hafte, it cannot be expected that I fhould afcertain the particular period of time, in which this laudable custom took its rife, or deduce the regular Progrefs which it made from its first origin, to that general vogue in which it now prevails; for this would require fuch a careful review of the Englife Hiftory, as the prefent fhortnefs of time will not, allow. I fhall therefore only obferve, as to this point, that it hath been the practice, time out of mind, for the City of London, the two Univerfities, the Societies of the Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, as well as other confiderable Bodies of this Kingdom to perition or addrefs the Throne upon all great and extraord nary emergences; in which they have been imitated, for fome reigns paft, by most of the inferior Corporations, who have certainly an equal right to do it, if they think proper.

rdi

The defign of this practice was manifeftly to make the Prince regnant acquainted with the genuine fenfe, and opinions of his people, fo that he might know how to regulate his mea fures, according to their true Inte reft and wishes, which will always confirm them in their Allegiance, and procure him their unfeigned affection. This defign therefore was of the most excellent and ufeful nature; for as Sovereign Princes, by the eminence of their station and that Majefty which E 2

*The Craftsman's Lucubration on Addreffes.

it

are in

it is neceffary for them to maintain in their deportment, manner fecluded from the World, and cannot have the advantage of hearing the various fentiments of mankind, by mingling in ordinary converfation, it is highly expedient that the general fenfe of their Subjects fould be communicated to them in this publick manner, upon all great Occafions, in or der to direct their judgment and fecure them against the Mifreprefentations of felff and it defigning Minifers.

This being the true Intention of addressing, it follows that all declarations of that kind ought to be perfectly voluntary and free from every fort of influence direction or management what foever; for addreffes procured in another manner can ferve only to mislead the judgment of the Prince instead of informing it, and to alienate the affections of his People, by pursuing meafures, which in his apprehenfion, were recommended to him by their concurrent voice.

Artifices of this kind, which are of the most dange rous Nature, and deferve the most infamous Name, have been frequently practiced in fome late Reigns, in which the People have been unwarily or knavishly made the Tools and Inftruments of ambitious men, contrary to their own Intereft, Judgment, or Incli

nation.

My Lord Clarendon, and other Hiftorians inform us that, in the beginning of the Civil Wars, feveral factious Petitions, Memorials, and Remonftrances were fet on foot in the City by the contrivances of artful men, and figned by vaft multitudes of Apprentices, Porters, and others of the fame Rank, which greatly contributed to the Troubles of thofe times.

After the Restoration, the Court, who had obferved the influence which thofe papers had on the Nation, and what differvice they had been of to the Royal Caufe, refolved, if poffible, to turn the ftream, and to fpirit up Subfcriptions of the fame kind in favour of their proceedings; in which they were fo fuccefsful, that in a few Years, all the faction, malevolence and difcontent, which ufed to iffue from thence, to the great annoyance of the Court, was turned into the groffeft

In

groffeft Flattery, Panegyrick and Adulation. that Reign it was a common practice for the Minifters, when they had any favourite point to carry, or any flagrant measures to palliate, to get them recommended by a loyal Addrefs from the City of London, which I have been told used to be managed in this manner. They first of all made it their Bufinefs by their influence in the City (which indeed was not half fo confiderable in thofe Times, as it is at prefent) to get a majority in the Court of Aldermen; by the fame methods they ufually prevailed in the election of fuch perfons for Sheriffs as were at their Devotion, and fome other leading Men were also retained in their Intereft, by Penfions, Places, or large Dealings on the Crown account. Whenever therefore they had done any vile Action, and thought it convenient to be juftified and flattered, they drew up fuch an ADDRESS as they thought proper themselves, and gave it to one of their trufty Friends and Creatures to broach it in the City, to get it fign'd by a fufficient number of Hands, and prefented in form. The fame Gentleman (who, I found, had been privy to fome of these transactions) told me that he had feen Addreffes of thofe times, which had been fuborn'd and promoted in the most vigorous manner, figned by Coblers, Porters, and the meanest of the Rabble; for as the number of hands was the chief point in View, they cared but little of what rank or condition they were. He farther obferved that upon looking over fome of the Rolls, he faw but few subscribers, whom he had ever heard of before, that feveral odd Names feemed to be written by the fame hand, and feveral others in difguifed and counterfeited Cha

racters.

It is obvious to take notice, in this place, of the different ftate of the City at that and the prefent Time, when it is fo far from being under Management, or adapting itself, as it formerly did, to the Views or Inclinations of the Court, that they have lately taken the Liberty to exprefs their warmest Zeal and Affection for his Majefty's Perfon and Go vernment, without any of thofe Compliments on

men in Power, which ufed to fwell the Addreffes of former Reigns.

It is, indeed, to be lamented that any Diffentions fhould arife, in the Performance of fo neceffary a Duty, and that the Congratulations of this loyal City fhould be lefs univerfal than their Joy feemed to be on his Majesty's acceffion.

Far be it from me to make myfelf a Judge of the difpute between the Court of Aldermen and Common Council, or to determine the diftin&t Privileges of those two great Bodies; though I have been inform'd that the concurrence of the latter hath been always, hitherto, thought neceffary in every Addrefs to the Throne; and I confeis, that Right feems to be established by an Act of the 13th of King Charles the Second, in which it is provided, that no Perfon fhould follicit, in the City of London, any Address to the King, unless the Matter thereof have been first confented unto and ordered by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Commons, in COMMON COUNCIL

SEMBLED.

As to the ADDRESS, which hath made fo much Noife, and given fo much Offence to fome Gentlemen, I cannot, upon the ftri&teft examination, fee any thing in it, which can be justly esteemed inconfiftent with the character of the most loyal Subject, or the trueft Lover of his Country; and if any part of it fhould be thought to bear the leaft reflection on the late Adminitration, yet, as it breathes fuch a fpirit of Loyalty and Affection to his present Majefty, fuch an early Teftimony of commendable Zeal ought not furely to have been fuppreffed on that recount; for as the Tenour of all Addreffes fhould be directed to the Perfon of the Prince, fo every virtuous Minifter, who prefers his Mafter's intereft to his own, will fcorn to take offence at any little exceptions to his conduct, which he knows himself able to justify.

And as to thofe Gentlemen, who have thought fit to cenfure this Addrefs, as dictating measures to his Majefty, tho' we can fee no foundation for that objection, we fhall refer them to a certain juncture of time, when the Bank of England, (which is but a fmall part of this

opulent