A Letter to a Friend.  
PErhaps Mankind might not be the worse for parting with some of the Mysteries of Priest-craft; but the Morality of the Decalogue makes it as Convenient, as it is Divine. It will be a difficult Thing to maintain good Order in Families, if Children may Disobey and Dishonour their Parents; Property, if all have a Licence to steal; Truth, if it is no longer a fault to belie and bear false witness against our Neighbours. I know a Prince that has conquered all Sense of these Commandments, has coveted and wears his Neighbour's, his ' Father's Crown, and taken God's Name in his Mouth, and in Vain, to colour over the Murders he with his Armies, Judges, and Juries commits, and the Perjuries to which he enslaves others, and Clergymen themselves, who ought to have been Innocent and Unspotted, that their Conversations, as well as their Pulpits, might have taught their Flocks. I wish, for the sake of the World, the Examples of Princes and Priests, may not be too prevalent; or, that they would publish, what School-distinction makes these Things lawful for them, that are prohibited to Subjects and the Laity: Religion is useful here, as well as promises Happiness hereafter. I would have that Sacred awe, that due regard to it, kept up in the Minds of Men, that is necessary to our Wellbeing in this, and our hopes of a better Life. I should be sorry to see the World fully persuaded, that it is a Juggle between the Learned and the Great, and am sorry that a late Change gives too much Umbrage for such a Suggestion. I had rather have a comprehensive Archbishop, and that he should never pass through Water Baptism, nor believe the Athanasian Creed, than that he should pair off moral Virtue, or leave us less than Heathens. Parricide was not used in all their Panegyrics to finish the Hero, Oaths were held Sacred, and Alliances too: Nor do I remember one Instance, where there was such complicated Villainy committed, as I could give a fresh Instance of, to obtain Greatness; no, it was their severe Philosophy, their Justice, their Honour, as well as the Discipline of their Armies, made way for the Roman Conquests: They seldom taught the Subjects of Neighbouring Princes to Rebel, irritated them to Discontents and Faction, or invited them to their Banners: Paganism was not instructed in this Art of War, but it is the peculiar Discovery of some late Reformers, who are not much the better for their Christianity. But I shall leave every Body to their own Reflections, and they may easily find how agreeable these Things are to Religion, and how much it is mended: Yet, by the way, I have still one remaining Fear in Church Matters; If the Gentleman that could not be chosen Prolocutor to the Convocation, can now, in his greater Post, influence the Clergy into State Articles and State Discipline, Comprehension is worse, both for the Church of England Men and Dissenters, for neither of them then will unmixedly, and conscientiously enjoy their own Opinions; and though the Communion will be enlarged, it will be by making both Parties Hypocrites; and though those that are left out of the Project may have Liberty for a time, yet that will be in Danger, unless the Spirit of the Presbyterians is sweetened farther of late, than was common heretofore with that Sect; who, because they think Men predestinated to eternal Punishment in the next World, begin that doom with them here, as soon as they who are God's Ministers, or rather Executioners have Power. But let us see how much our Constitution is amended, by all the steps that our Patriots have taken. A Disputed Election, and such a one as the whigs never liked before, recommended Mr. paul to the Speaker's Chair. I do not know whether it will be allowed to publish my private Sense concerning the Authority of Parliaments; I think them rather deputed by the People, under the Instructions of our Common Laws, and bounded by our Common Rights, than such Plenipotentiary Powers as may give away at their Pleasure the Lives and Liberties of the Subject. Therefore I have seriously questioned whether that Parliament which was of K. W. and Self creation, (and in its own Nature a Convention, summoned without Writs, I had like to have said without Authority,) I say, I have questioned whether the Members of that Parliament did not exceed their Commission, whilst, contrary to the known Laws of England, they suspended the Habeas Corpus, (which was the Right of every English Man by Writ, before it was by Statute,) and enacted Martial Law. These Things were done by that Convention, and the present Parliament lets them all pass: I must confess I am unwilling to allow even a Parliament Omnipotent and Infallible: There was an ancient Custom for the Electors to give their Representatives Instructions when they chose them; I wish it had been revived at the beginning of this Revolution, perhaps there had not been then such Infractions made upon our Constitution; our Government had not been changed into Elective; our Liberties prostituted to the Will of Six Privy Counselors; nor a poor Fellow Hanged, who, for his Family's sake, deserted his Captain, who had listed him when he was Drunk; nor so many Shot and Hanged for trivial Crimes. I think they may as well make a Law to kill every Old Man that is past serving the Commonwealth, and drown all Ill-favoured Children, or enact any other extravagant Thing that seems good to them and their King; and they may take away two thirds of every Man's Estate, that has not a very good and powerful Friend in the House. Indeed I must allow, if they may act as they please and uncontrollably, these Things they may do. But this Thought of raising Money, as unreasonably as they please, puts me in mind of a new Project, I hear is to be offered at the next Session of this Parliament. King James indeed had none; but how much did we complain in King Charles the Second Time of Polls and Subsidies: But to this Gentleman we have paid two Polls, and near half our Incomes, considering the scarcity of Trade and of Money; and now the new Project is for a General Excise. If Mr. Hampden advised the laying aside Chimny-money, because it was popular so to do, he ought to speak earnestly against this; That indeed viewed our Funnels, but this visits our Chests, and our Wardrobes, our Cellars, and Larders, every Thing we eat, we drink, or we wear. Must our Tables be spoiled that the Dutch may keep better? Must the ancient Hospitality of England be destroyed, by a Hogan Mogan Art of Taxing? Must we not only pay Yearly and Monthly Contributions, but every Market Day, every time we buy a pair of Shoes, a Hat, Butter, or Eggs? Is this the Deliverance we were promised? We shall be delivered indeed from our Plenty, and our Cash; at this rate we must not lust after the fleshpots of Old England, but like the Boars of Holland feed upon Onions and Roots: This benefit indeed we shall have, Temperance will be a Virtue much in practice, though perhaps it will be to make a Virtue of Necessity. There is a certain Prince in the World found Methods to subjugate a Neighbouring Commonwealth, and to put an end to the flourishing Condition, that true Liberty, to which the most universal Spirit, the Noble de Wit had brought his Country: A Man that could make his own Countrymen Slaves; could trample upon their Liberties, where native Soil, old Acquaintance, and the Constitution under which he was bred, pleaded against him; may from being a real King in Holland, though without the Name, be else where under that Name, a thorough Tyrant. His kindness to us has been seen in many Instances, by the Care taken to let so many Thousands perish in Ireland, under Schombergh, for want of Provisions, and on Board the Fleet by bad; by the daily Exportation of our Coin, by the putting Embargoes upon all our Ships this time two Years, whilst another People sent their Merchantmen well convoyed to all Parts of the World; and now at last, to mention no more, he will show it by setting forward such a Taxation, as was never known in these Nations: But Ruling is all his Aim, and that with a high hand too; he has chosen such Ministers as are fit for the Design. But there is no Ruling this Nation in such an Arbitrary manner, without Impoverishing it first; and since it is not quite time of day to set up for it by his Foreign Troops, he employs his Emissaries to wheedle Mankind into Poverty, and he knows that will end where he would wish. I have only hinted at this new Project to awaken the Genius of the People; I know it is yet only talked of in Cabals, and by the Confidents of the Court: But if I find these Knave's proselyte Fools; I shall, for my Country's sake, take a more particular Care to publish something to expose this last and true Impression of Slavery. The Members in Parliament indeed may make it easy enough for their own Interest, may perhaps nominate Collectors, put in their Friends, and their poor Kindred, and may be themselves, or place their Sons in some of the better Offices; but we may expect the rest of the World will be left out in the Benefit, and will share in the Burden, and more than share too, unless the Officered Parliament will quit the Pentions these Impositions must pay. But there is yet behind a more fatal Inconvenience; Land Taxes are used to cease, but this will be hard to get back; and you are never to hope it, unless you make it one of the Terms of another Revolution. Perhaps you will say it shall be only a Temporary Assessment, and during this War, and that there shall be good Provision made against a Continuance: But I know a Gentleman that could have reduced Ireland very easily at first, but was advised it was better to make that Country a good pretence to keep an Army on foot, and so exhaust our Pockets. We have all along had the same Precedent of our Councils, and a Nest Egg may be left to hatch a Tumult withal, if so convenient a Branch of the Revenue should be in danger of going off.  
The Protector began the Excise of Ale and Beer, and you see Three succeeding Kings have continued it; and if a General Excise is once granted, it will as certainly be continued in all Reigns. All Kings will struggle for it: It will not only prodigiously increase their Revenues, but strengthen their Authority: It will be a Prerogative Tax: It will regulate Corporations with a witness, and root up the ancient Foundations of our English Government. The Influence that the Officers which will be sent into every Man's House and Shop will have upon Elections of Members, will make even our Parliaments more the Representatives of the Excise Office, than of the Kingdom; and considering how many it will employ, no Prince that has it need have any other standing Army; by a moderate Computation it will not employ much less than Sixty five Thousand Men, who will be Slaves to the Crown, and join to make us so. It is now we want a brave Jack Ayloffe, to put a Wooden Shoe into the Speaker's Chair.  
Thus, Sir, you see I have, with the freedom you Commanded, sent you my Thoughts of public Affairs.  
I am Yours, etc. June 4. 1691.  
FINIS.