A New Year's Gift for Sir BARTHOLOMEW SHEWER.  
SIR,  
I Have hitherto chosen to succumb, and that for a long time, under Ill Usage and Great Oppression, rather than to trouble the World with the History of the Life of so inconsiderable a Person as I esteem myself; but you having now laid me under a necessity of doing it, by vilifying me as you did the last Night in the Committee of the House of Commons: I shall set about it, and essay my Vindication against the wicked Misrepresentations of a foul-mouthed Orator, and the hard Thoughts of some Good Men who have not rightly understood me and my Case. And as an Introduction to it, do here lay before you and the World, the underwritten Copy of a Letter, wrote by that Great and Good Man the late Archbishop of Canterbury, to the truly Honourable the late Lord Chief Baron Atkins; and when you have perused that, you stand obliged to pardon me, that I subjoin a short Relation of some of the Pranks of Mr. Barth. Shower, which gave him the Honour of Knighthood, and were the Ladder to his Preferment; and as I ever thought, so I now tell you, that 'twas great Pity (to borrow from the late Earl of Nottingham) that you had not had another sort of Advancement: And I should rejoice to see you promoted according to your Demerit. Not to enlarge at present, rest assured that I shall exert myself to quit Scores with you; though now I remain  
Yours highly indebted, Tho. percival. Ult. Decemb. 1695.   

London, April 28. 1685.  
Honoured SIR,  
I Think myself obliged to give you some account of the Matter formerly referred to yourself and me, concerning my Lady Russel and Mr. percival, against whom I had entertained some Prejudice upon the Reports concerning him; but having now together with one Mr. Samuel Faircloth, made up the Account so long depending between them, except some Law Matters which are referred to the final Determination of Mr. Folkes and Mr. Rawlinson: I must do Mr. percival that right as to assure you, that he carried himself very fairly in this Matter; was ready to rectify all Mistakes, and to yield to Justice and Reason in all things we could desire him: And as he hath a very good Understanding, so for any thing that appeared in this Matter, I believe a just and honest Mind. All that I can blame him for is want of Care in making up timely and punctual Accounts, whereby there happened several Mistakes and Omissions to his own Prejudice as well as my Lady's; which I hope are now rectified on both sides to their mutual Satisfaction. This Testimony I do willingly give to Mr. percival, to set him right in your Opinion, fearing lest what I said of him to you upon Report, might have done him some Prejudice in your Esteem. I am hearty sorry for your late great Loss; and rest, SIR,  
Your most Obliged and Humble Servant, Jo. Tillotson.  
To the Honourable Sir Edward Atkins, one of the Barons of the Exchequer.   


A Copy of Mr. BARTHOLOMEW SHOWER's Address to King Charles the Second, as in Gazette the 23d of June, 1681.  
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty.  
The Humble ADDRESS of the Loyal Society of the Middle Temple.  
May it please Your Majesty,  
WE Your Majesty's most Loyal and Dutiful Subjects, being sensible of the great Blessings which this Kingdom hath enjoyed, ever since Your Majesty's Restauration, under your most Gracious and Indulgent Government, and most especially in the constant preservation of the established Religion, our Laws and Liberties; and this our Satisfaction being lately renewed by your Majesty 's MOST GRACIOUS DECLARATION, whereby your Majesty hath been pleased further to assure us of your continued Resolutions to have frequent Parliaments, and govern according to the Laws: Which just Resolution of your Majesty, we doubt not but your Majesty will continue, and constantly maintain, and therefore think it our bounden Duty to declare to your Majesty and the whole World, our Affection and Zeal for your Majesty's Person and Government, both in Church and State by Law established, and that we will not be wanting with our Lives and Fortunes, to serve your Majesty against your Majesty's and the Kingdoms Enemies, who under specious Pretences, and by poisessing the People with groundless Fears and Jealousies, would bring us back into Confusion and Anarchy. That your most Sacred Majesty may happily disperse and confound the wicked Contrivances of evil and unquiet Men, who endeavour to disturb the Peace and Tranquillity of your Majesty's Government; and that your Majesty may continue a long and happy Reign over us, shall ever be the constant Prayer of your Loyal and Obedient Subjects,  
Barth. Shower, etc.   
Now good Sir Bat, (for after this Famous Address, you ceased to be plain honest Bat. Shewer) bear with me that I do a little interrogate you about this your Address, and in all Love answer me these few Questions.  
1. Was there not Collusion in the Title of this your Address? What was this your Society of the Middle Temple, did it in truth consist of more than your own Self, and a very small Number of Irish Gentlemen and others not above 12 in the whole?  
2. Whether was not that very Gracious Declaration, a high Violation of the Laws, and a Libel upon three of the greatest Parliaments the Nation ever saw?  
3. As to Life and Fortunes? Whether you did not in strictness of Law forfeit the first, by Signing that Address; and whether at that time the latter had been worth the begging?  
4. Whom did you then deem the Kingdoms Enemies, answer without Evasion or Reserve, did not you intent the great and invaluable Earl of Essex, Lord Russel, Col. Algernon Sidney, etc. whom such Addresses animated that your indulgent King to murder, nay further did not you also mean the Lords and Commons of the Oxford Parliament? Speak plainly Man and fear not, for to your Comfort, there is an Act of Indemnity.  
5. Did not that Learned and Honourable Society detest your fawning pernicious Address, and manifest their Abhorrence thereof and of your Practice, by a Counter Address? If so, was not that proposed and voted in the Middle Temple Hall, and signed by almost the whole Body of that Famous Society?  
Sir, in your answering these Interrogatories, please to allow a Friend to caution you to have a special regard to Truth, especially in what you say to the last, for you know I had the Honour to be one of that Assembly, and to put my Hand and Heart to that Address, to the incurring your high Displeasure, nay to the hazard of my Life and Fortune, which was then at least as good as yours: By my next (for I find you and I are to fall into a close Carrespondence) I shall send you a Copy of it; and then shall remember you, for what good Services you risen in the World, and were in a way of getting the Devil and All, had not the Happy Revolution stopped your Career. I know whom you succeeded as Recorder of London; why that great Man threw it up; to what end you were put in; and how you did the Drudgery of that Day to such Content, that you were to have taken a Seat by the most remarkable Lord Chief Justice that ever sat in the Court of King's Bench (Tresilian himself not excepted) I mean Wright; had not his Majesty's, the then Prince of Orange's Glorious Expedition dashed all your Hopes. Now seeing you were not found upon the Bench, it had been a Raree Show to have seen you brought to the Bar together. Mistake me not, I should not have rejoiced to have heard that you died together in Newgate, but how could I have prevented it had you been ordered to be conveyed thence to—  
But you having happily escaped by the Lenity of his Majesty's most Benign Government, have since been again aspiring to that honourable Place of Recorder of our Metropolis; and I care not if I take this occasion to tell the World what you already know, and therefore spit your Poison at me, that I myself in a Scrip of Paper, entered a Caveat against you, and you obtained not what you then aimed at.  
Before I conclude, I shall remark upon the Accusation you bring against me: You say I have been a riding Commissioner for the late Elections. It is to this Day remembered that I was taken up by your Friend Atterbury, and at the Council Board criminated (as now I am) by the Lord Keeper North. He upbraided me that I had been riding over the Kingdom to busy myself in Elections, to the Disturbance of the King's Government.  
I confess to you Sir, If it must be termed busying myself, I have done ut potui, in abundance of Elections, for above 20 years past, as is well known to many Members of this Parliament: But withal challenge you and all Mankind to show that I ever acted for an ill Man, though in the Days of Yore, we saw too many such in Parliament. Now to reason the Case with you; why I beseech you, may not I as lawfully solicit for a good Man, as you plead for any Man? 'Tis surely at least as commendable to be industrious in the Service of Ones Country, as for its Destruction. I defy you and all the World to prove that I have menaced, or bribed any one Man for obtaining his Vote; nay that I have misrepresented or disparaged any Man, further than by calling a Spade a Spade. I am very sure that I myself stand at this instant at such a distance from Bribery, that I can and do affirm, that in about four months' Fatigue, I have got nothing beyond the comfortable Reflection, that I have engaged, totis viribus, in the Service of my Generation, though you now take the Freedom to vilify me for doing it.  
Your next Charge upon me is that I drank King James 's Health; What now if I should digress a little, and tell you a pleasant Passage: Being lately in Company with one who usually associates with your old Gang; I began King William 's Health, and Prosperity to his Government: The Tory having chatted on, and forgot the Health and what Company he was in; very innocently, I verily think, took up the Glass, and clapping his next Neighbour on the Shoulder, said, Come here's King James' his Health, but instantly perceiving his Mistake was not a little confounded. To return now to what we were upon, the heavy Charge of my drinking King James 's Health. The Story in short was this, finding there were some at East-Grinstead smelled rank of Popery, more of Jacobitism, I had a mind to try the Parson, and in a jocose Humour said to him, Come Doctor what if you and I should drink King James 's Health? you here have the Truth of the Tale, and make your best of it.  
Sir, I have intimated how I fell under your Displeasure; and having mentioned the infamous Lord Chief Justice Wright, shall briefly declare how I incurred his. In several Elections in the Counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridg, in the blessed Reign of your Gracious King, I met and to his Face ever boldly opposed this Sir Rob. Wright, and the Tory Interest, which he ever espoused. The Wretch, to the astonishment of all good Men, (as a reward of his Villainies) stepping gradatim through all the Courts of Westminster, to the Seat of the Lord Chief Justice, made me feel the effect of his Fury, whereof my next shall give you a full Relation, and indeed not only his own Revenge, but the Rage of Jeffries irritated him against me, for clapping into Nath. Thompson's Popish Intelligence, an idle Tale of an untimely Female squint-eyed Child. I am however still, a sincere Lover of my Country.  
And Your Debtor, T. P.