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TO THE
A U T H 0 R
OF THE
THISTLE.

Sed magis amica veritas.

NOTHING, in my Opinion, Sir, is more seasonable than your Undertaking. Since the Welfare and Prosperity of a Nation depends upon their having a due Regard to the Preservation of their Liberty, and the Improvement of their natural Advantages,

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no Wonder, if we, who have neglected both, be in a languishing State. We have long been the Dupes of Men in Power, who, to carry on their Designs, have been still able to lead our great Cities in Chains: And the Methods used to bring this about, have been the bestowing Favours on some of the leading Men, who, instead of encouraging Trade and Manufactures, have encouraged Faction ; and, to amuse the World, have given the Title of Patriots to their Benefactors.
   NOTHING to me appears to have a greater Resemblance to our present Situation, than that of the Parisians in the Time of the Contests betwixt the Parliament for Liberty, and Cardinal Mazarine for Power, in the Minority of Lewis XIV. when (as Cardinal de Retz observes) they were, by long Oppression, become so low spirited, as to wish Success rather to the Queen and Cardinal, than to the Parliament, who bravely disputed for their Liberties, because the other had the Purse, to gratify them with their own Money. We see other Instances of this Kind in Life; for no Body is more trusted by the Man in reduc'd Circumstances, than he who hath cheated him of his Money; he and the Wife's

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Gallant is commonly most trusted by the Husband.
   I'M glad to say, that there appears a Concern for the Publick Good, and a Spirit for Industry and Improvement; which, if it were more universal, might in Time make us a flourishing People : But how much is it to be regretted, that so many of us have no Regard for their Country, but study only a little present Benefit for themselves. These, when in publick Employment, ought to be look'd upon as the worst of Men : For, as my Lord Verulam observes, What a Thief or a Robber gets, one Man but loseth ; but the Chance is not fair with the publick Sicarii, for Thousands in this Generation, and as many in the succeeding, suffer for what they get. But still the Generality are so insensible, that you shall hear them say of our present Disputes, that the only Question is, Who shall be in, and who shall be out ? and it is the same Thing to us who rideth; as if we had been born with Saddles on our Backs! You shall see others inclin'd to trust those Persons, who have lately gone into a Scheme to overturn our Liberties, and those of our Neighbours, us'd us as the House-Dog did, who, for a Piece of

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Bread, suffer'd his Master's House to be robb'd.
   BUT the Design of your Paper, Sir, is, to let us see, that the present Contests are not about Persons, but Measures; and to remedy these Evils by which the Trade, the Manufacture, and the Honour of Britain is sunk, and its Liberty in Danger : To let us know what the Sense of our Neighbours is, in these Particulars, that we may know how to behave at this critical Juncture, so critical, that 'tis possible we may not have another. You observe, Sir, that we are much in the Dark as to these Matters. No Wonder then! The Post is monopolized, and an Attempt hath been made to monopolize the Press.
   SINCE I'm upon these Subjects, I can't forbear mentioning a Train for enslaving this Country, as subtile as any cou'd be devis'd, which is the erecting the New Bank, under the Management of Persons generally at the Beck of the Minister. It is plain, if the Old Bank had given Way, (which all Sorts of Methods have been used to bring about) and the Credit of the New so extended, as to have had in their Hands the Bonds of all the Gentlemen who have Occasion to borrow Money of the Bank (which, I'm sorry to say, includeth

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a great Part of the Land Interest) it is easy to guess, what Use wou'd have been made of them at an Election. And, in Prosecution, I suppose, of the same Scheme, I hear that the scanty Funds allotted for encouraging our Fisheries and Manufactures, which are too small for an annual Allowance, have, by the Interest of these concern'd in the New Bank, who are the major Part of the Trustees, been managed in such a niggardly Way, as to have sav'd Sixteen thousand Pounds Sterl. intended to be lent out to the New Bank to enlarge their Credit. I leave it to the World to judge, if it were not better Management, to have lent this Sum, at a small Interest, to such as wou'd have found good Security to employ it in Manufactures, and furnished the Hands of the Industrious with a Stock ; if the Way to encourage Manufactories, be to starve them in their Infancy, or if the Way to get our Funds enlarg'd by Parliament, be to hide our Talent in a Napkin. We are inform'd the Trustees of the Linen Manufacture in Ireland, chuse rather to run in Debt to encourage useful Projects, and were always sure to be reliev'd by this Method. Any new Project will be surer to succeed by encouraging the Spirit, and by gaining ten or twelve Years. All the Benefit of a national Improvement

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is obtain'd by such Methods. The Surplus of the Malt-Tax, so much talkt of, is made a Handle to enslave us; and the Royal Bank, which ( at the setting of it up ), we were told was to lend Money to Manufactures, at low Interest, as is done in some other Places, doth, in place of that, swallow up the Sums allotted for that Purpose. I need not mention the Fourteen thousand Pound given at the Union, for encouraging the Woollen Manufacture, which lies in the New Bank, nor the Attempt that hath been made for discouraging the Woollen Manufacture, since that is sufficiently detected already.

SCOTUS.

0 V E R TUR E.

THAT the Royal Bank give Bond or Receipt to the Trustees, for the Sixteen thousand Pounds of the publick Money, which they intended to lend out, and the Bank to be obliged to lend out the same at one per Cent. per annum, to such Manufactures as the Trustees shall appoint, the Borrower satisfying the Bank

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in their Security, and to repay that Money as follows, viz. After the first five Years, the Manufacturers shall be obliged to pay in yearly at the Rate of Thirteen or Twenty per Cent. including the one to the Bank for their Trouble, and the rest to be imputed yearly toward extinguishing the principal Sum; in which Method the Bank would be no Losers, the Manufactures vastly encouraged, and the Trustees, after the first five Years, would be enabled, by the Payments, to circulate these after the same Manner, or to what other Purposes they might think more conducive to the said Manufactures; and if this, or such other Method, could be fallen upon, to fill the Hands of the Industrious (Industry not being so much wanted as Stock for carrying it on) then would there be no more Crying in our Streets, nor Aspersions cast on the Trustees and the New Bank.

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