anted for T. COX, at the LA M B under the Royal-Exchange;
and T. ASTLEY, at the ROSE in St. Paul's Church-Yard.

THE

PREFACE.

W

E'fhould not have troubled our Readers with any Preface to this Volume, had we not been impudently attack'd by a little, bufy, pragmatical Fellow, who calls himfelf Sylvanus. Urban, and has the Afurance to pretend to know what paffes in the Political Club better than their Secretary, from whom we have our Account of the Proceedings and Debates of that Club. This little Fellow has long made himself remarkable for thrufting his Head into every Ring of Gentlemen that happen to affemble at any Coffee-Houfe or Place of publick Rendezvous, and from what he thus bears, fets up for a Statesman and Politician; but how he can pretend to know what paffes in the Political Club we cannot imagine, for we are well affured, he was never admitted into that Club, nor into the Converfation of any Gentleman belonging to it.

WHAT he means by putting the Words of one Statesman into the Mouth of another, is beyond our Comprehenfion, for there are no Statesmen in the Club whofe Debates we give an Account of; and as little do we know what he means by our being ignorant of the Number of Speakers, when in the Title-Page of every one of our Magazines it is exprefsly declared, That all the Speeches made in the Club are not inferted, nor, indeed, would it be poffible to afford Room in our Magazine for one Half of them, therefore we are obliged to give only the moft remarkable.

1

IF we fhould fhew a Contempt of our Readers by giving them fuch Tittle-Tattle as he entertains his with, in what he calls, The Debates of his Lilliputian Senate, we might eafily give the Names, and fuch as he calls Speeches, of twenty or thirty Speakers in every Magazine; but this would not be fo much as a Reprefentation of the foJemn and inftructive Debates, in the Political Club.

THE Speeches he gives, except when he fteals from us, may moft justly be called Lilliputian Speeches, and therefore, they may be proper enough for a Lilliputian Senate; but furely he has not the Impudence to palm his empty and unmeaning, or nonfenfical Stuff upon his Readers, as the Debates of the Political Club, or of any other Affembly of Gentlemen in this Kingdom.

IT

IT would be endlefs to point out the Bundles of Nonfenfe wrapt up in every Speech he makes, for they can be made by none but himfelf, and therefore we shall take Notice only of the firft three or four Paragraphs of what he calls the Hurgo Quadrett's Speech in his Magazine for October laft.

PARAGRAPH I. Prefcribe the Course of publick Enquiries, is Nonfenfe. If he means any Thing, he means, and ought to have faid, Prefcribe a Method of proceeding in all publick Inquiries.

PARAGRAPH 2. Because I SHALL not be easily fufpected, is Nonfenfe. He fhould have faid, I CANnot be fufpected.

PARAGRAPH ditto. And to recover that Confidence in the Government, without which no Happiness is to be expected, without which the beft Meafures will always be obftructed by the People, and the jufteft Remonftrances difregarded by the Court, is Nonfenfe. If he means any Thing, he fhould have faid, And to recover that Confidence between the Governors and Governed, without which, &c

PARAGRAPH 3. Means To which we are invited to concur, is Nonfenfe. He fhould have faid, Means IN which we are invited to

PARAGRAPH 4. The Caution with which our Ancestors proceeded, and the Certainty they required in Evidence, Is univerfally known, is ungrammatical. He fhould have faid, ARE univerfally known. And as to what follows in this Paragraph, we defy any Man to make Senfe of it, or to guess what the Author means,

THESE are not Errors or Inaccuracies of Stile which proceed from Inadvertency, and are therefore excufable in one who writes in a Hurry, as moft of our periodical Writers do. They muft proceed from a Defect in the Understanding, and, if we may be allowed the Expreffion, ought to be called Nonfenfe prepenfe. As there are innumerable fach in his Speeches, it fhews his Genius to be Lilliputian as well as his Senate; and as little Minds are generally crammed with Envy, therefore, we hope, all Gentlemen of Senfe or Tafte will defpife any Fallhoods his Envy may prompt him to propagate, and continue to give us the fame Encouragement they have done hitherto, for which we fhall always be thankful, and which we shall endea vour, as much as poffible, to deserve..... ,,

WHAT we have faid will, we hope, fuffice to give Gentlemen a juft Idea of our little Rival's Performance, and therefore we shall, for the future, forbear to take Notice of any Criticisms he may think fit to publifh, because, we know, he thereby defigns to provoke us to puff his Magazine, which, if neglected by us, will probably, in a fhort Time, fink by the Weight of its own Stupidity.