THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

[DANIEL DEFOE]

Atalantis Major

(1711)

_Introduction by_

JOHN J. PERRY

PUBLICATION NUMBER 198WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARYUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES1979

GENERAL EDITOR David Stuart Rodes, _University of California, Los Angeles_

EDITORS Charles L. Batten, _University of California, Los Angeles_ George Robert Guffey, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Maximillian E. Novak, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Thomas Wright, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

ADVISORY EDITORS Ralph Cohen, _University of Virginia_ William E. Conway, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_ Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_ Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_ Earl Miner, _Princeton University_ Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_ James Sutherland, _University College, London_ Robert Vosper, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY Beverly J. Onley, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Frances M. Reed, _University of California, Los Angeles_

INTRODUCTION

_Atalantis Major_ is a thinly veiled allegory describing the November1710 election of the representative Scottish peers. The circumstanceswhich surrounded this election were produced by the outcome of theprevious month's General Election--a landslide for the Tories--and, tounderstand these circumstances, the impact of that Tory victory must beseen within the context of the political events of 1710. 

By early in 1710 it had become obvious that the Whig Ministry of SidneyGodolphin was unable or unwilling to negotiate an end to the long, expensive, and consequently, unpopular war with France. The quarrelbetween Queen Anne and her confidante, the Duchess of Marlborough, smouldered until, on 6 April 1710, the breach between them becamefinal. The Queen's confidence in the Duke of Marlborough began to erodeas early as May 1709 when he sought to be appointed "Captain-Generalfor Life. " Godolphin's decision to impeach the popular Rev. Dr. HenrySacheverell for preaching "a sermon which reasserted the doctrine ofnon-resistance to the will of the monarch" was ill-advised, for notonly did it give the High-Church Tories a martyr, it also gave theAdministration the appearance of being against the Church. In securingthe impeachment of Sacheverell on 20 March 1710, the Whigs discoveredthat they had lost the support and the confidence of both theParliament and the country. 

Dissention within and intrigue from without further hastened the fallof the Administration. Godolphin, a moderate, had, after the GeneralElection of 1708, found himself allied with the "Junto" of fivepowerful Whig Lords--Wharton, Sommers, Halifax, Orford, andSunderland--but it was, at best, an uneasy alliance. Throughout 1709and into the early months of 1710, personal jealousies drove theGodolphin-Marlborough interest farther and farther away from the Junto. Robert Harley and the Dukes of Somerset and Shrewsbury, in theirdetermination to overthrow the Administration, exploited every chanceto widen the rifts between Anne and her Ministers and between the twoministerial factions. Abigail Hill Masham, who soon became an agent ofHarley, replaced the Duchess of Marlborough as Anne's confidante. 

When the Ministry fell, it fell like a house of cards. On 14 April 1710Shrewsbury was made Lord Chamberlain over the unavailing protests ofGodolphin. Two months later, at the instigation of Somerset, the Queenreplaced Sunderland with the Tory Lord Dartmouth as Secretary of State. Finally, on 8 August, Godolphin was ordered to break the White Staff ofhis office and Harley was appointed Treasurer. One by one the remainingJunto Ministers were replaced by Tories. By September the work wascomplete. The Duke of Marlborough alone remained, in command of thearmy, but this was only to be until the new Ministry could negotiate apeace and his services would no longer be required. 

It had been Harley's intention to govern by means of a "moderate"Administration, a "Queen's Ministery above party, " but he had notreckoned on the outcome of the General Election called in October. "Onthe day Godolphin fell, Harley expounded his 'moderate' programme in aletter to the Duke of Newcastle: 'The Queen is assured you will approveher proceedings, which are directed to the sole aim of making anhonourable and safe peace, securing her allies, reserving the libertyand property of the subject, and the indulgence to Dissenters inparticular, and to perpetuate this by really securing the succession ofthe House of Hanover. '"[1]

Alone, either the antagonism to the war or the intensity of feeling forthe High-Church cause which the Sacheverell affair engendered, wouldhave been sufficient to sweep the Whigs from power. Together, andcombined as they were with the prestige of the Queen's public supportof Harley and the newly appointed Tory Ministers, these issues wereirresistible. Harley found himself with an "immoderate" House ofCommons. The Tories held 320 seats, the Whigs only 150, and there were40 seats whose votes were "doubtful. "[2] Many of the newParliamentarians were High-Church zealots, and most were anxious toturn the nation away from the policies of the Whig Administration ofGodolphin. 

The House of Lords, however, remained a bastion of Whig strength. As anhereditary body the House of Lords was simply not subject to the sameopportunity for change as the elected House of Commons. Consequently, in 1710, as a result of the Glorious Revolution, the long reign ofWilliam III, and the Godolphin Ministry, the majority of the members ofthe House of Lords were of Whig or Revolution Settlement policies. Therein lay Harley's problem in late October of 1710: to obtain a Lordsto match the Commons he had been given. 

Any early eighteenth-century Ministry--Whig or Tory--could count onhaving the support of those peers whose poverty made them dependent ongovernmental subsidies, but this number would not have given Harleyeven a bare majority in the strongly Whig House of Lords. And thereHarley needed at least enough strength to ensure success for some ofthe measures designed to satisfy the demands of the newly Tory House ofCommons, particularly if his Ministry was to be able to negotiate asatisfactory treaty of peace with France. 

To obtain a Tory majority in the House of Lords commensurate with theone in Commons, Harley could have seen to the creation of a sufficientnumber of new peerages; but this would have alienated too many factionsand the recently completed Union with Scotland (1707) offered whatappeared to be a far simpler expedient. The Act of Union provided forthe election of sixteen Scottish peers who would represent all of theScottish nobility in the House of Lords. [3] If he could ensure that allsixteen of these peers were Tory, Harley would be certain of a largeblock of loyal votes in the upper house, or, at worst, he would have toarrange for the creation of only a few new peers to neutralize theWhigs' strength. To John Campbell, the second Duke of Argyll, Harleyassigned the task of orchestrating a Tory sweep in this election. 

The Duke of Argyll sat in the House of Lords as the Earl of Greenwich(an English title), not as one of the elected peers, and, as such, hewas not elegible to stand as a candidate or to vote in this election. Argyll had supported the Whig Junto and held the rank of LieutenantGeneral under Marlborough in France, but in 1710 (seeing the directionthe political tide was taking) he abandoned his support of Godolphin'sMinistry. So that, "by the time the [Sacheverell] Trial was finished, it was known that the great chief of the Campbells and of the ScottishWhigs had gone into opposition to the Government [of Godolphin] inleague with Harley, although he voted for the Doctor's condemnation.... "[4]

Argyll and the sixteen representative peers (if they were all Tories), together with the votes of those peers who were dependant uponGovernment subsidies would give the new Ministry of Harley enough votesin the upper house for almost any eventuality--even the impeachment ofMarlborough. It is possible to speculate that this was theplum--command of the British armies in Europe--that induced Argyll'schange from Whig to Tory in 1710. Argyll's jealousy and resentment ofhis commander had been a well known bit of gossip for some time, and itis very possible that Argyll saw a new Government as his chance tosteal a march on Marlborough. Although Harley's Ministry did give theOrder of the Garter to Argyll on 20 December 1710, he was neverpromoted over Marlborough, but that was not due to any lack of successin assuring a Tory victory in the election of the peers. Argyll'sheavy-handed management of that election is the subject of Defoe's_Atalantis Major_. 

By birth and education Daniel Defoe was a member of the mercantilemiddle class. He was a Dissenter and his political and economicsympathies generally coincided with those of the moderate Whigs. Alimited monarchy, the destruction of France's commercial empire, liberty of conscience for Dissenters and Nonconformists, and aProtestant (that is, Hanover) Succession were the imperatives which laybehind much of his political and economic thinking and writing. From asearly as 1694 he had served William III as a pamphleteer-propagandistfor the vigorous prosecution of the war with France. After hisfive-month imprisonment in 1703 for writing _The Shortest Way withDissenters_, Defoe was employed as an agent and pamphleteer of theGovernment. First, in the service of Robert Harley, Godolphin'sSecretary of State during the early moderate years of the GodolphinAdministration (1704-08), and thereafter working for Godolphin himself, Defoe's _Review_ preached the gospel of national unity above partyfaction. When Harley replaced Godolphin as Treasurer in 1710, Defoereturned to his service. 

Although it may appear from this that Defoe's pen was for hire bywhichever party was in power, in point of fact, Defoe's political viewswere remarkably congruent with those of both Harley and Godolphin. Allthree were staunch supporters of England's commercial interests, theHanoverian Succession, liberty of conscience for Dissenters andNonconformists, and the terms of the Revolution Settlement. It must beremembered that Godolphin and Harley were both moderates, each tryingto chart his course between the extremes of the parties. They, likeDaniel Defoe, saw their loyalty being to England and to the Queen, notto a party. Like Defoe, they both discovered that politics often makestrange bedfellows. Godolphin, faced with a large Whig majority in theHouse of Commons after the General Election of 1708, found that hisfortunes were bound to those of the Junto. Harley, after the GeneralElection of 1710, discovered the necessity of courting the High-ChurchTories far more than he would have liked. 

Argyll's slate of Scottish peers for the November election included menwho were even more extreme in their Toryism than the majority ofHigh-Church English Tories. Most of the sixteen were High-Church, manyhad strong Catholic leanings; all of them were against increasing thereligious liberties of the Scottish Presbyterians (and thus those ofthe English Dissenters and Nonconformists). Several of these peers hadbeen openly professed Jacobites and all were, in some degree, sympathetic to France. To have men with such beliefs in Parliamentmeant, to Defoe, the chance that Marlborough's victories in Francewould be negotiated away, the loss of what the Toleration Act of 1689had gained, and finally, the spector of the Pretender on the throne. Inshort, such men could mean the loss of all that the Revolution and thewar with France had won. Yet, in the late autumn of 1710, Defoe foundhimself in Edinburgh, the agent and propagandist of the man on whosebehalf Argyll had engineered the election of men of such politics. 

Defoe's mission in Edinburgh that autumn was to allay the fears of thePresbyterian clergy and Whig merchants about the new Tory Ministry. Hismessage to them was, in Professor Sutherland's words, that

 What the country needed ... Was steady, moderate men, whether they called themselves Whig or Tory, men who would uphold the Protestant succession and avoid extreme measures; and that on the whole was what it had now got [appearances to the contrary notwithstanding]. The Ministry was not going to give way to the clamours of the High Tory rank and file; and the Queen would certainly not countenance any form of persecution. [5]

In short, Defoe was charged with convincing his Scottish friends andassociates (and, by means of the _Review_, the nation at large) theopposite of all that Argyll's actions and words bespoke of Harley'sintentions. 

Defoe wrote Harley from Edinburgh on 18 November (eight days after theelection of the peers) to voice his dismay at the tactics that had beenused by Argyll. By them his own mission on Harley's behalf had beenimpaired:

 I hint this Sir to Confirm my Censure of the Conduct aforesaid as Imprudent and as what has rendred [sic] the quieting these people, which was Easy before, Very Difficult now. [6]

Further, he suggests that Harley's heretofore moderate allies, theSquadrone, have been pushed by Argyll into league with the old CourtParty that had supported the Godolphin Ministry. This letter alsocontains a brief summary of the main events which were to form the plotof _Atalantis Major_, but it does not attack Argyll with the samebitterness that the longer work does. Defoe writes:

 In the late Election, the Conduct of the D of 60 [Argyll], the E of 163 [Islay], and the Earle of 194 [Mar] is Very Perticular.... [They] Declared Openly [that] the Quallification of those to be Chosen ... [was] their agreeing to Impeach 140 [Godolphin] and 193 [Marlborough], Nor did the Impudence End there, but On all Occasions to Say in So Many Words They had her Majties Orders to Choose Such and Such and it must be don: This was So abandonning all Reserves, that it has disgusted the Generallity, and has Put them Upon Measures of Uniteing, which may shut the door upon all future Measures, what Ever the Occasion may be.... 

 Now they have Returnd their Number, it were to be Wished they Could have Avoided a few who are Declar'd profest Jacobites, Such as 197 [Marischal], Kilsyth, Blantire, Hume &c. Who are known to aim in all they do at the Pretender, and whose being Now Chosen has many ill Effects here What Ever may be as to Over-ruleing them in England, I mean as to Encreasing the Insolence of Jacobitisme in the North, where its Strength is far from being Contemptible. [7]

What Defoe hoped to obtain from Harley by this and succeeding letterson this subject is not clear. He may have been seeking Harley's publicrepudiation of the Jacobite peers, or at least some private assurancesthat what Argyll had told the peers did not represent the newMinistry's policies. Whatever it was he sought, by late December it wasobviously not forthcoming from Harley or his Ministry. And on 20December Argyll was made a Knight of the Garter. It was during thisDecember that the bulk of _Atalantis Major_ was written, most probablybetween 30 November and 26 December. On 26 December 1710 Defoe wroteHarley of the existence of "Two Vile Ill Natur'd Pamphlets ... Both ofwhich have fallen into My hands in Manuscript, and I think I haveprevented both their Printing. The first Was advertised in the Gazettehere and Called the Scots atalantis[8] ... The Other Pamphlet is called_Atalantis Major_. " The letter concludes with a short description ofthe work, a disavowal of any knowledge of its authorship, and the hopethat he can suppress its publication:

 The Other Pamphlet is called _Atalantis Major_; and is a Bitter Invective against the D of Argyle, the E of Mar, and the Election of the Peers. It is Certainly Written by Some English man, and I have Some Guess at the Man, but dare not be positive. I have hitherto kept this also from the Press, and believe it will be Impossible for them to get it printed here after the Measures I have Taken. The Party I Got it of pretends the Coppy Came from England, But I am of Another Opinion. I shall Trouble you no farther about it because if possible I can get it Coppyed, I will Transmit the Coppy by Next post, for I have the Originall in My hand. They Expect I shall Encourage and assist them in the Mannageing it, and Till I can Take a Coppy I shall not Undeciev them. [9]

There is no evidence to suggest that Harley doubted Defoe's disclaimeror that Defoe sent the copy to Harley. 

Since Defoe was back in London on 13 February 1711, _Atalantis Major_must have been seen through the press sometime between 26 December andthe end of January, not, as Moore lists it, "before 26 December1710. "[10] Internal evidence suggests an even narrower range ofprobable dates of publication. The last four pages of _Atalantis Major_deal with the Duke of Argyll being given command of the English forcesin Spain and the singular lack of grace with which he undertook thiscommand. Since Argyll was not given command of the Peninsula campaignuntil 11 January 1711, it could not be until after this date that themanuscript could have been finished and printed. 

The work bears few signs of being hastily printed. There are only ninetypographical errors, [11] and four of these are catchwords. There is noevidence to suggest that there was more than one printing of thepamphlet, [12] and the use of several Scotticisms[13] seems to offersupport for the contention that the pamphlet was intended for aprimarily Scottish audience. 

William Lee was the first to ascribe the work to Defoe, and thisascription has been accepted by both Dottin and Moore. [14] The evidencefor assigning this work to Defoe seems to rest on the two letters toHarley quoted above. Another proof of Defoe's authorship of _AtalantisMajor_ is to be found in the remark it contains, "That the SouthernPart of the Island [that is, England] was the most remarkable of any, as to the Policy of their Government, and the Character of the People;and excepting _Englishmen_ and _Polanders_, there is not such anotherNation in the World" (p. 12). In 1704 Defoe had written _The Dyet ofPoland_, a poem in which he had made a similar unflattering comparisonbetween England and Poland. A far more substantial case for Defoe'sauthorship can be made from the existence of the anecdote of JohnWhite, Edinburgh's hangman, in both a letter to Harley (18 November1710) and the _Review_ (for 30 November 1710), as well as in _AtalantisMajor_ (pp. 22-3). 

Key to Names and Characters in _Atalantis Major_

In the thinly disguised allegory of _Atalantis Major_, _Atalantis_ is, of course, Britain. _Olreeky_, or _Old Reeky_, or simply _Reeky_, isstill used as an affectionate local term for the city of Edinburgh, prone as it is to be enshrouded in mists and smoke in the earlymorning. _Tartary_ is France, and the French are referred to as eitherthe _Tartarians_ or the _Barbarians_. Jacobites are also indicated bythe name _Tartarians_, since the Pretender's cause was activelysupported by Louis XIV. _Japan_ is Spain and _China_ stands forHolland. The characters who appear in _Atalantis Major_ are (in theorder that they are mentioned):

 _The Duke de Sanquarius_ (p. 14) is James Douglas, second Duke of Queensberry and Duke of Dover (1662-1711);

 _The Earl of Stairdale_ (p. 15) is John Dalrymple, second Earl of Stair (1673-1747);

 _The Earl of Crawlinfordsay_ (p. 16) is John Lindsay, nineteenth Earl of Crawford (d. 1713);

 _The Prince of Greeniccio of the ancient Blood of Argyllius_ (p. 17) is John Campbell, second Duke of Argyll, Baron Chatham and Earl of Greenwich (1678-1742);

 _The Earl of Marereskine_ (p. 18) is John Erskine, eleventh Earl of Mar of the Erskine line (1675-1732);

 _The Prince de Heymuthius_ (p. 18) is John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough and Baron Churchill of Aymouth (1650-1722);

 _The Earl of Dolphinus_ (p. 18) is Sidney Godolphin (1645-1712);

 _Bellcampo, Lord of the Isles_ (p. 19) is Archibald Campbell, first and only Earl of Islay (pronounced "Isle-ah") and brother and heir of the second Duke of Argyll (1682-1761);

 _One of the Ministers_ (p. 22) is Thomas Miller of Kirkliston;

 _John ----, his Majesty's Hangman_ (p. 22) is John White;

 _Bradalbino_ (p. 24) is John Campbell, first Earl of Breadalbane (1635-1716);

 _Leslynus_ (p. 24) is David Leslie, third Earl of Leven (1660-1728);

 _One of the family of Boiilio_ (p. 24) is David Boyle, first Earl of Glasgow (1666-1733);

 _The Prince de Rosymonte_ (p. 34) is James Graham, fourth Marquis and first Duke of Montrose (d. 1742). 

The fact that, in several cases, the names used by Defoe are developedfrom family names and not the title seems to offer support for thecontention that _Atalantis Major_ was intended primarily for a Scottishaudience. Further, Defoe's name for Marlborough--_Heymuthius_--comesfrom his one Scottish title, Baron Aymouth (now Eyemouth, a fishingtown on the southeast coast of Scotland), and not from his better-knownEnglish title, the Duke of Marlborough. 

State University CollegeBrockport, New York

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

 1. George Macaulay Trevelyan, _England Under Queen Anne_ (London:Longmans, Green and Co. , 1948), III, 68. 

 2. These are Trevelyan's figures (_op. Cit. _, 73). W. A. Speck (_Toryand Whig_ [London: Macmillan, 1970], p. 123) gives the Tories 332 seatsand 181 seats to the Whigs in this election. 

 3. In point of fact, Harley's concern for the loyalty of therepresentative peers is unique in the history of these elections. Insubsequent Parliaments, the Scottish peers seldom, if ever, votedagainst the Government--even at the trial of Lord Lovat in 1745-6. Forone thing, almost without exception, the representative peers weredependent on governmental subsidies and this dependence increasedduring the course of the eighteenth century (see J. H. Plumb, _TheGrowth of Political Stability in England_ [London: Penguin, 1973], p. 180; and Geoffrey Holmes, _British Politics in the Age of Anne_[London: Macmillan, 1967], p. 393). The practice of electing arepresentative peerage for Scotland was discontinued after 1782 (seeTrevelyan, _op. Cit. _, 235). 

 4. Trevelyan, _op. Cit. _, 58. 

 5. James R. Sutherland, _Defoe_ (London: Methuen, 1950), p. 179. 

 6. _The Letters of Daniel Defoe_, ed. By George Harris Healey (Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1955), p. 296. 

 7. _Ibid. _, pp. 294-295. 

 8. Healey reports that "in such issues as I have been able to find ofthe _Scots Postman, or the New Edinburgh Gazette_, there is no mentionof the _Scots Atalantis_" (_Letters_, p. 306, n. 1). The title of thiswork and of Defoe's _Atalantis Major_ are derived from Mrs. Manley's_New Atalantis or Secret Memoirs and Manners of several Persons ofQuality of both Sexes from the New Atalantis, an island in theMediterranean_ (1709). The OED records that the word _atalantis_enjoyed a brief currency in the eighteenth century with the meaning, "asecret or scandalous history. "

 9. _Letters_, p. 307. 

10. John Robert Moore, _A Checklist of the Writings of Daniel Defoe_(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1960), p. 82. 

11. Page 12, line 5: _do_ is omitted before _this_; page 16, line 24:_an_ for _on_; page 17, line 6: _Grandfathers_ for _Grandfather's_;page 19, the catch-word, _the_ for _this_; page 20, line 5: _run_ for_ran_; page 22, line 22: _of_ for _off_; page 28, the catch-word, _they_ for _the_; page 36, the catch-word, _Cha-_ for _Courage_; page37, the catch-word, _Lansd_ for _Lands_. In addition, there are severalplaces where the printer uses eighteenth-century variant spellings suchas _ballances_ (pp. 5, 8), _mannaged_ (p. 2), _quallifie_ (p. 8), _Soveraign_ (p. 41) and _steddy_ (p. 15). Eighteenth-centuryorthographic practice would have permitted such spellings. The word_entitled_, however, appears on page five as both _entituled_ and_intituled_. 

12. None of the various copies I have examined contains typographicaldifferences--even in the case of the typographical errors. 

13. On page 38, line 25, the word _Big_ is used where _Large_ wouldhave been the English usage; on page 42, line 3, the word _Bann'd_ isused for _Swore_ and defined in the text as an "Atalantic word"; onpage 43, line 4, the word _evite_ is used instead of _avoid_. 

14. William Lee, _Daniel Defoe: His Life, and Recently DiscoveredWritings_ (London: Hotten, 1869), I, 177; Paul Dottin, _Daniel Defoe_, trans. Louise Ragan (New York, Macaulay, 1929), p. 155; John RobertMoore, _Daniel Defoe, Citizen of the Modern World_ (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1958), p. 191; and Moore, _A Checklist of theWritings of Daniel Defoe_(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962), p. 82. 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

_Atalantis Major_ is reproduced from a copy of the first edition(1711) in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Shelf Mark:*PR/3404/A851). A typical type-page (p. 4) measures 158 × 82 mm. 

Atalantis Major. 

Printed in _Olreeky_, the Chief City of the North Part of _AtalantisMajor_. 

_Anno Mundi_ 1711. 

Atalantis Major. 

There having been a large Account given to the World of severalremarkable Adventures which happened lately in the famous _Atalantis_, an Island, which the ingenious Authors found placed in the_Mediterranean_ Sea; the Success of which Accounts, but especially theUsefulness of the Relation, to the Ends for which they were designed, having been very remarkable, I thought it could not be unacceptable tothe World, (especially to those who _have been Already so delighted_with News from that Island) to give a particular Historical Narrationof some remarkable Transactions which happened in the Great Island, called, _Atalantis Major_, a famous well known Island, tho' muchfarther North, lying in the _Ducaledonian_ Ocean, which Island it wasmy good Fortune to winter at, the last time I returned North about from_China_, by the Streights of _Nassau_ and _Wygates_, and the EasternCoast of _Grand Tartary_. 

I have nothing to do to enquire, whether our late Authors mistook ornot, in placing the Island _Atalantis_ in the _Mediterranean_ Sea, or, whether they might find some small Island of that Name among theinfinite Crowd of Islands of the _Egean_ Sea: But as the mightyTransactions of which my History shall be the faithful Relator, are oftoo great Consequence in the World to be brought forth on so mean aStage; so the Place, and the mighty People, and by whom this Revolutionof Affairs have been mannaged, are all suitable to the Greatness andGlory of the Actions themselves. 

As Geographers have no doubt given a full Description of this famousIsland, and allowed it due Place in the Globes, where it stands notedfor the biggest of the Kind in the Northern World, I need spend none ofyour Time in the Description of the Place, excepting such as shall fallnaturally in my Way, as I come to treat of the People, and historicallyof their Behaviour. 

The Island is possest by a brave, generous, powerful and wealthyNation, truly Great in their natural Gallantry of Spirit, terrible inthe Field, rich in the Product of their Lands, more in their generalCommerce, most of all in their Manufactures, Industry and Application:They have some few Errors in their Conduct, which seems owing to theClimate, which is cold and moist, or to their Diet, which is strong andluxurious, and particularly to their way of Living, which in Eating andDrinking, is high, to an Excess. 

This makes them Cholerick, Envious, and above all Contentious, so thatthe Nation is ever divided into Parties and Factions: They pursue theirFeuds with the most eagerness imaginable in their Turns, commit allKinds of Errors even on both Sides alternately, as they get uppermost. 

This occasions much Heat, tho' the Country is Cold, little Charity, andabove all, (which the Climate has the blame off) they are by their ownConfession, of short Memories, partly as to Injuries, but especially asto Kindnesses, Services and inherent Merit. Hence, Gratitude is not thenational Virtue, nor is encouraging Virtue any Branch of theManufacture of the Place; long Services often meet here with unjustCensures; overgrown Merit with necessary Contempt: He must be a boldMan that dares oblige them; he is sure to provoke them by it to use himvery severely. 

If they are reduc'd to any extreme Distress, he must be weary of hisLife that Attempts to rescue them from the Danger; he is as sure to Diefor it as they are sure to be Unjust: It is Natural to the Blood of theRace, if they are obliged beyond the Power of Payment, they presentlyhate, because they scorn to be in Debt. Hence also Benefactors are themost abhorr'd People in the World, they Walk always alone, for everyMan keeps at a distance from them. 

If a Man happens to be bound Apprentice to his own generous Spirit, andresolves to do them good, he must do it to God, to do it to them is towork to the Devil; he must be sure to run the Gauntlet, and bear theLashes of Ten thousand Tongues, the Reproach of all those he serves, and will Die unpitied. 

If ever they do relent, if ever they acknowledge Services, 'tis alwaysafter the Man is dead, that he may not upbraid them with it. An eminentgreat Man among them, and rich to a Prodigy, had been almost drowned, but was taken up in the Interval by a poor Man; when he came tohimself, he gave the poor Man Six-pence, but could never abide thesight of him after: The poor Man afterwards had the Dissaster of beingdrowned himself, and then the rich Man bewail'd that he had not madehim a better Return, wherefore, in abundant Gratitude, he settled uponthe Widow and her Six Children, a noble Pension of 20 _s. Per Annum_. 

It was a saying of One of their great and wise Men, of a poor Servantthat had saved his Life; he saved my Life, _said he_, and therefore Ihate to see him, for it is an intolerable Life to have always aCreditor in my Sight that I cannot ballance Accounts with. 

But all this is by the By. The Inhabitants of this Great Island are, those things excepted, a Noble, Gallant, Ancient, Wealthy People; and aStranger may very well winter among them. I could say more in theirPraise but the ensuing History calls me off from that Subject. 

There happen'd in that famous Island, when I was last there, anOccasion upon some State Affairs to assemble an extraordinary Councilof the Nobility, to consult together with the Sovereign; wholeHereditary Councellors they were by the Constitution of the Place:These were not chosen by the Inhabitants, as in such Cases among us ourParliament Men are chosen; but were by Birth and Blood, or byDignities, High-Offices, _&c. _ entitled to sit in the aforesaidCouncil, except one Part of the Island, who had by some formerConstitution been a several distinct Government, and had a certainNumber of Nobility of their own. This Part having by some ancientTreaty been join'd to the other, their whole Nobility were notintituled to the Right of sitting in Council as above; but they usuallymet by themselves upon such Occasions, and chose a certain Number torepresent the whole Body. This Number was, as near as I can remember, Sixteen or thereabouts, not reckoning some who were singled out by theSovereign to be advanc'd by new Titles, to be Members of the Great Bodyof the Hereditary Nobility; a Favour, which by the Stipulations of thesaid Agreement, was reserv'd to the Sovereign of that whole Island. 

Now there happening, as I have noted, an Occasion to assemble thisGreat Council; the Nobility of that Part of the Island which were thusparticularly constituted, behoved to meet, _as said is_, to elect theNumber that were to represent them in the great Assembly; and theHistory of that Meeting having so many strange Circumstances in it, andmaking so much Noise in that Country, it cannot but be useful for us tobe inform'd of it. 

The Nobility of that Island, as I find it too much the Fate of all theNobility in the World, were unhappily divided into Factions andseparate Interests, and therefore before I proceed to the Relation, itwill be necessary to give you a brief Account of these severalDivisions, and as to the Characters of the Persons, it will necessarilyfall into the Course of the Story. 

The Divisions and Animosities which, as I say, were among the Nobility, were very unhappily occasion'd upon two several Foundations, andtherefore consisted of two several Kinds. 

This Island, it seems, was govern'd by a very glorious Queen, whohowever she was of the ancient Royal Blood of that Country, was yet forReasons more especially respecting the Safety of the Country, plac'dupon the Throne by the Suffrage of the Nobility and People, withoutRegard to her Father or his Male Children, who for like Reasons ofSafety they had Depos'd and render'd incapable: There being, it seems aPower reserv'd by the Constitution of that Place, to the said Nobilityand People so to do a thing so like what we call in _England_Parliamentary Limitation, that it gives me great Reason to think thePower of Parliaments limiting the Crown is a natural Principle, andfounded upon meer Original Light, since it should be so exactlyestablish'd in a Country so remote and so entirely excluded fromCorrespondence with _Europe_, as this of the Island of _Atalantis_. 

The Queen of this Island, by the Assistance of exquisite Councellors, Punctual Management, and a mild merciful Administration, had obtain'dthe entire Affection of Her Subjects at Home, and as long as shecontinued the Administration in those Hands she preserv'd thatAffection very entire to herself; She had also, by the Conduct ofeminent and most glorious Commanders, rendered her self Victoriousabroad, in a long, terrible and expensive War, against the barbarous_Tartarian_ Emperor, whose growing Greatness, had forced herPredecessor, in Conjunction with several neighbouring Nations, to haverecourse to Arms, to keep up a Ballance of Power in that Part of theWorld, as long as those fortunate Generals commanded, her Affairs wereblest by Sea and Land; till the _Barbarians_ began to stoop theirPride, to be humbled, and they sought Peace, made great Offers ofrestoring the Kingdoms they had usurped, and of establishing a lastingTranquillity in those Parts of the World. 

How the Face of Affairs there altered, how some Factions prevailing atHome, made a Breach in all this blessed Harmony, how the faithfulCouncellors at Home were dismiss'd and disgrac'd, the victoriousGenerals Abroad ill used and ungratefully treated, by which the PublickCredit sunk at Home, the great Confederates of this glorious Queen werediscouraged and allarmed, the _Barbarians_ encouraged to hold out, carry on the War, and reject the Terms of Peace, they would before havecomplied with: These are Things perhaps my stay in that Place notpermitting me to get a full Account of, much less see the Issue of, Ishall for the present omit, perhaps my next Voyage may more fullyquallifie me to inform you. 

My present Relation refers more especially to the Affair of theElection of those representing Nobles, which, as before, the NorthernPart of the Island, by a late Treaty of Coalition, were obliged to sendup as often as the Soveraign of the Country thought fit to Summon herHereditary Council to meet, which Summons was generally once in ThreeYears. 

To let you into the Nature of the unhappy Strife which is the Subjectof my present Relation, it may be necessary to descend to a HistoricalRelation of some Facts for a few Years past, and to give the Charactersof some Persons who have the principal Conduct in the present Affairs. 

There had been a Contention in the last Election in the same Place, (weshall go no further back) of something of the like Nature with this;wherein the same Heat was unhappily breaking out against the Friendsand Favourites of the great Queen of the Island, as had now come to afull height; it is too true, That the Factions which then agitated theNobility being between the Court-Party then so called, and a flyingSquadron of Noblemen, who were of the same general Denomination withthemselves, that Breach tended so much to the dividing their Interest, that they could never effectually joyn it again, they made thatSeperation of Affection then which they could never unite, let in thoseEnemies then which they could never get removed again, brought thoseCharges and Accusations against one another then which their Enemieshave since made use off, and which they cannot now deny but are fatalto them. 

The Parties are so naturally resembling our unhappy Divisions in_Britain_, have been so exactly pursued by our Methods, are so properlyadapted to Persons as well as Things, so alike in Temper, Manners, Management and Design, to our Parties, of _Tory_, _Whig_, _HighChurch_, _Low Church_, _Old Whig_, _New Whig_, _High Flyer_, _Dissenter_, _Jacobite_, _Court_, _Country_, _Revolution_, _Union_, andthe like. That to give the more lively Representation of them to yourMinds, and to avoid the barbarous Words used in the Country, where theLanguage is altogether unknown to us, and unlike ours, I shall evencall them by the same Names, giving a brief Description as I go on, andalways desiring you to add a Subintelligitur for the word _Atalantick_to them all; as the _Atalantick Whigs_, _Atalantick Tories_, _Atalantick High Church_, and so of all the rest: And whenever you meetwith the Names or Distinctions of _Whig_, _Tory_, _High Church_, _LowChurch_, _&c. _ in this Discourse, the Author provides against any otherSuggestion or Meaning, than that of the _Whigs_, _Tories_, _HighChurch_, _Low Church_, _Old Whig_, _New Whig_, _High Flyers_, _Dissenters_, _Jacobites_, _&c. _ who are Inhabitants of the famousIsland of _Atalantis Major_, situate beyond the North Cape, between theDegrees of 42 and 80 of Northern Latitude, as you sail from _China_into _Europe_, by the Streights of _Nassau_, the Island of _NovaZembla_, (if it be an Island) and the like, being what we call theNorth-East Passages: And you cannot blame me for being thus Particularin this early Protestation, if you consider how ready the Men of thisAge are to Censure, Condemn and Reproach, the Meaning of Authors, whether they themseves have any meaning or no. If any Man shall presumeto say, there is no such Place, I may as readily answer theirPresumption, by another less Criminal, _viz. _ That they never have pastthat Way to _China_, and consequently cannot demonstrate the Truth ofwhat they say. 

Having thus premised what I think necessary, to fence this Work againstthe Malice of the Times, I am next to tell you, That I shall confinethis Part of my Account to the Transactions of the Northern Part ofthis great Island, and therein to what happened in this Case of theElection of their Noble Councellors only; yet I must Hint a little atwhat had been transacting in the Southern Parts of the Island; and thisis absolutely necessary, in order to make the other Accountsintelligible. 

In order to this, you are to understand, That the Southern Part of theIsland was the most remarkable of any, as to the Policy of theirGovernment, and the Character of the People; and excepting _Englishmen_and _Polanders_, there is not such another Nation in the World: Herethey reckoned about Fifty three several Sects, Divisions, and espousedOpinions in Religion, upon most of the Heads whereof the Peopleactually seperated from one another; such as, (1. ) _Churchmen_, andamong them _High Church_, _Low Church_, _Non Jurors_, _Prelatists_, _Socinians_, _Arians_, _Arminians_, _Deists_, _Atheists_, _Immoralists_, _Flyers_, _Soul-Sleepers_, _Prophets_, _&c. _ (2. )_Presbyterians_, and under that head all kind of Dissenters, _Cameronians_, _Independants_, _Anabaptists_, _Baptists_, _Seventh-Day-Men_, _Sabatarians_, _Donatists_, _Gnosticks_, _Antiprelatists_, _Muggletonians_, and various undistinguishable_Quakers_ both wet and dry, _Sweet Singers_, _Family of Love_, _Christian Jews_, _Jewish Christians_, and the like. In the State, theDivisions were no less Fatal, or the variety greater in Proportion, these we may, as I said before, call by the Names which the likeFactions are distinguish'd by here; such as _Tory_, _Whig_, _LowChurch_, _Hot_ _Whig_, _Old Whig_, _Modern Whig_, _High Flyer_, _HighChurch_, _High Tory_, a _Gillicranky_, a _Tantivy_, _Tackers_, _NonJurors_, _Assassinators_, _Junto's_, _Squadroni_, _Court_, _Country_, _Revolutionists_, _Non Resisters_, _Passive Obedience Men_, and thelike. 

You may understand, that the Queen of the Island had thought fit tochange Hands in the Administration just before I came there, and tho'it was given out that the change would not be from what we call here aWhig to a Tory Ministry, in effect it past for no other, especially forthat the Whigs were generally laid by in every publick Matter, and theTories, or at least such as had appear'd with them were all taken in. 

Among the Persons turn'd out of Employ, or very much envy'd in it, wefind two great Personages, Men of the greatest Eminency in theirStation that the Age had produc'd in that Island, their Country had noError to find in their Conduct except it were that it was so much indebt to their Services, that they could not be capable of rewarding it, therefore like the corrupted Nature of the whole Race of Man, they hatethe Men, as a late Author says, because they hate to be in debt beyondthe Power of Payment. 

One of these presided over the Treasure, the other over the Army, andexcept what may have happen'd since those days, their very Enemies hadnot been able to assign any Reason from their own Behaviour, why theydismist them. Of these more in the Process of the Story. 

For the present it shall suffice to tell you, without other Preamble, both these were by the Artifice of their Enemies, dispossess'd of theQueen of the Island's Favour, and that with them fell the Juncto's andSquadrons of their Friends in most Part of the Southern _Atalantis_. 

In the North Part of the Island the Divisions of the Court had notextended so far, at least they had not been push'd so vigorously, thegreat Officers kept their Posts, whether Civil or Military, not theleast Alteration was made, except of a few inferiour Officers, andthose but casually; all seem'd to stand at a Stay till the Election ofthe noble Councellors aforesaid, and till the sitting of the greatCouncil, as above. 

There were some of the Nobility of these Northern Parts that had verymuch the Favour of their Prince, and by whom she had always beendirected in those things that related to that Part of Her Dominions, These were, 1. The Duke _de Sanquarius_, a Northern Prince of great Reputation whohad the principal Trust in the Management of the late Coalition, which, as is noted already, had formerly been made between this Northern Partof the Island and the Southern. This Prince was a Person of greatPrudence and Policy, perfect Master of the Interest, Temper andConstitution of the Country and People; great and as a Master of hisown Passions, that had an Insight into Persons as well as things, andwas, without Dispute, the best qualify'd to manage that uneasy People, of any Man in that Part of the Island: He had a leading Interest amongthem, and us'd it with such Temper and such Clearness of Judgment, asseldom failed to bring to pass whatever he undertook. He was Viceroy inthe great Meeting of the States of that Country, several times; inwhich he behav'd to the Satisfaction of his Sovereign and the generalGood, even to the Confession of his Enemies, after the separateGovernment of that Part of the Island ceas'd he was receiv'd verygraciously by the Queen, and made principal Secretary of State. 

2. The Earl of _Stairdale_ was another, a Nobleman of extraordinaryMerit, distinguish'd for a thousand good Qualities; affable, generous, exceeding curteous, steddy in a sound Principle, wise above his Age, brave above his Neighbours. His Family had been famous for the Gown, hewas like to make it more so by the Sword: He had at this time a veryhonourable Command in the Armies of _Atalantis Major_, and being thesame thing as we call a Lieutenant General, was employed against the_Tartarians_. 

3. The Earl of _Crawlinfordsay_ a Nobleman of a most ancient Race, being the first of his Degree in the whole _Atalantis Major_, anhonest, bold, gallant Person; he had so much Goodness in his Temper, Courage in his Heart, and Honesty in his Face, that made all Men lovehim; he was true to his Sovereign, and tho' his Fortunes too dependedupon the _Court_, being Captain of the Queen's Guards, yet so true tohis Honour, that he scorn'd to sacrifice his Principle to his Interest;had too much Courage to be bully'd, and too much Honesty to be brib'd;too much Wit to be wheedl'd and too much Warmth to forbear telling itin the Teeth of those that try'd all those ways to bring him into theirParty. 

4. The Prince of _Greeniccio_ of the ancient Blood of _Agyllius_. Thiswas a young Nobleman of great Hopes, and from whom great things wereexpected, an account of the very Race he was descended from. Had heinherited the Principles of his Family as he did the Honour and Estate, he must have been the Head of that very Party he now acted against, being the same for whose Cause two of his greatest Ancestors at leasthad both ventured and lost their Lives, but Grace not going byGeneration, nor Vertue by Inheritance any more in that Country than inours. He neither own'd their Cause or imitated their Vertue, but gavehimself up first to all Manner of Vice, and then with his Moralsabandoned his Principles, flew in the Face of his Grandfathers injured_Grave_, join'd with his Murtherers, and the abhorr'd Betrayers of hisCountry, and plac'd himself at the Head of that very Party who hadtrampled on the Blood of his Family as well as Nation. He was in Temperbrave but rash, had more Courage than Generosity, more Passion thanPrudence, and more Regard to his Resentment than to his Honour; he wasproud without Merit, ambitious without Prospect, revengeful withoutInjury; he would resent without Affront, and quarrel without Cause, would embroil himself without Reason, and come out of it withoutHonour: His Courage was rather in his Blood than in his Head, and ashis Actions run often before his Thoughts, so his Thoughts often runbefore his Reason; yet he was pushing and that supply'd very much hisWant of Policy; but he discover'd the Errors of his Judgment by theWarmth of his Behaviour in every thing he did he sought no Disguise, every Man knew him better than himself, and he never could be in a Plotbecause he conceal'd nothing. 

He was a General in the Armys of _Atalantis Major_ and excepting thechief Command of an Army, was very well fitted for the Field: He hadbehav'd himself very well on several Occasions against the_Tartarians_, and unless his ill Fate should place him above beingcommanded, he might in time be a great Man; at present, having all theFire of a General without the Flegm, his great Misfortune and the onlyThing that can ruin him is, That he thinks himself qualifyed toCommand, and cannot bear the Lustre of their Merit that excel him. 

5. The E. Of _Marereskine_: This was a Nobleman whose Character is notso easy to describe; he appear'd in the Service of the Queen of theIsland, but was suspected to lean to the _Tartars_, whose Interest hewas known formerly to espouse; He was proud, peevish, subtle anddiligent, affected more the Statesman than the Soldier, and thereforeaim'd at the Place the Duke _de Sanquharius_ enjoy'd of Secretary ofState, but had not yet had his Ambition gratifyed. 

You are to note also that the Queen of the Island had for several Yearscommitted the Administration of her Affairs to two extraordinaryPersons, Natives of the South Parts of the Island. The Prince _deHeymuthius_ and the E. Of _Dolphinus_, their Characters may be confin'dto this: In short, the first commanded all the Armies of _AtalantisMajor_, and was Captain General and Commander in Chief; the other, HighKeeper of the Treasury of the Island, the greatest General and thegreatest Minister of State the Island ever knew, who had raised theGlory of their Mistress, and the Honour of their Country, to thegreatest Pitch the Age has ever seen; whose Merit I can no moredescribe than the Nation can requite. 

Tho' these Characters seem to take up too much room in this Tract, yetit could not be avoided, it being impossible to let you into a trueNotion of the Farce that was acted afterwards if the Actors had notbeen thus described. 

_Greeniccio_ was a Peer of the whole Island, and therefore had no Votein the Northern Election, being one of the Hereditary Councilaforesaid; but taking upon him the absolute Direction of the Affair, tho' he had really, as above, nothing to do with it, he rendred himselfat the City Reeky, the Capital of that Part of the Kingdom a few Daysbefore the Election. 

_Marereskine_, who had really a Voice in the Election, was there beforehim, and had busily embark'd _Bellcampo_, Lord of the Isles, andBrother to _Greeniccio_, to make Parties, and prepare Parties, sollicite Votes, get Proxies, and the like, about the Countries. 

This _Bellcampo_, Lord of the Isles, was an insinuating self-interestedMan, had little Fortune of his own, but resolved to raise himself whichside soever got upmost: He run with every Stream, kept fair with everySide, spoke smoothly to all, meant Service to none, his dear Selfexcepted. By this means he got up from one Step to another to some goodEmployments, which his Interest and Diligence procured for him ratherthan his Sincerity; for he was first made a Peer on the Side he nowacted against, and now a Judge acting against the Side made him a Peer, and the like. 

These were the Instruments of the Fate of North _Atalantis_;_Marereskine_ acted one Part, _Greeniccio_ another: And here it is, asI said before, that the differing Parties, appeared so like our _Whig_and _Tory_, _Episcopal_ and _Presbyterian_, that I cannot betterdescribe them to you than by the same Names, only with this Difference, That all the _Tories_ and _Episcopal_ People in North _Atalantis_ were_Tartarians_ profestly, and boldly owned themselves for the _Tartarian_Emperor. 

And now the two last mentioned Engines, having acted covertly for sometime, which they had the better opportunity to do, because they hadboth appeared among the other Party, _which now I'll call Whigs_;before, the first of these carried it stiff and forward when he talkedwith the great Officers, or such Lords as had some Dependance upon theCourt: He told them of what the Queen expected from them, what wastheir Duty to do, that they would find it their Interest to do so andso, that they might consider in Time what they had to do, and the like:When he talk'd with any of the _Whig_ Lords, for there was a Squadronof them left, that had a great sway yet in the Country, then he wouldtalk of him, and Party and Queen, as one Knot, in the plural Number, most haughtily, thus: We are resolved to do so and so, and we must havenone but such or such. 

The _Lord of the Isles_, at the same time acted his usual Flattery onboth Sides, insinuating to the _Whigs_, that they were in No Danger;that there was not the least Design against them or their Liberties;that the Queen was resolved to change Hands, but would not changePrinciples; that their Church should not be touched, that theirPriviledges should not in the least be infringed, and that they neednot fear. One time, this Politick Peer, as he would be thought, wasvery handsomely met with, the Story is this, whether designedly or noit matters not. He was one Day in Company with some of the North_Atalantis_ Ministers, for there just as here, they have one Churchestablished in the North, and another in the South of the Island; Heused all his Art in persuading the Ministers that they should be easie, that they should fear nothing, that there was no Design to give themthe least Disturbance; that this was a Politick Turn, not a Religious, and that they should do well to be satisfied, and to satisfie theirPeople that they were in no Danger, and should fear nothing. One of theMinisters, who had heard him very patiently, but saw easily through allhis cunning; returns, Thus my Lord, shall I tell your Lordship a Story, and then he goes on with it. We had in former times, one _John_ ----who had the Honour to be his Majesty's Hangman in this City. This goodMan had a most gentle easie Way of executing his Office; for when thepoor People came into his Hands, and were to Die by his Operations, asmany honest Men did in those cruel Days, (this by the way was home tohis Lordship, for that this very _John_ cut off his LordshipsGrandfather's Head) all the while he was a fitting Things for theExecution of his Office, he would smile upon them, talk kindly to them, bid them not be afraid, Come, come, fear nothing, trust God, and thelike: Then bringing them to the foot of the Ladder, he would still say, Be not afraid, come, come, fear nothing, step up one step, do not fear, trust in God, and so to another step and another; and just thus hecarried 'em on, till at last, with the very Words in his Mouth, Fearnothing, he turn'd them off. 

The honest Minister made no Application of the Story, much less tookNotice, how his Lordship's own Grandfather not only fell by the sameHangman, but by the same Party that he then espoused: But he had toomuch Sense, and was too closely touch'd with the Story, not to make theApplication himself; so he left the Ministers, giving no Reply at allto the Story. 

This Story grew so popular, especially being printed by the Reviewer ofthat Country, that the Lord of the Isles could make nothing of hisDesign whenever he talk'd of the good Design of the Party; he was onlylaugh'd at, and bid remember his Grandfathers Hangman; so he becameuseless. 

The Prince _Greeniccio_ and the Earl of _Marereskine_ then took uponthem the Manegement of the whole Affair. They took publick Apartmentsin the Town, kept an affected State, called themselves the Queen'sManagers, and had a Court as great as if they had been really so; theyreceived the Visits of the Nobility with an Air of Majesty, andaffected Gravity; and under this assumed Authority they took upon themto Closet the Noblemen when they came to pay their Respects to them;not to ask who they would give their Votes for, or to sollicit them toVote for this or that, but in a Style haughty and insolent, especiallyto the Men of the greatest Character and Merit. 

_Greeniccio_ had several Ruffles with some of the Nobility, of which itmay not be amiss to give some Account, because it may be for theAdvantage of our Nobility to know, how Persons of like Quality in thatCountry can submit to be treated. 

_Bradalbino_, a Nobleman of great Age and Authority in that Island, expected to be One of the Sixteen, and was told he was in the List;when he comes to Discourse with the Prince _de Greeniccio_, he tellshim, Very plainly, That he thought it would be much for the PublickGood to put in Two or Three Lords, such as _Leslynus_, and one of theFamily of _Boiilio_, being Men he thought could not properly be leftout, and that if they were in, he would come into all the rest: ThePrince, in a kind of Passion swore, By G--d, not of them; and but fornaming them, laid aside _Bradalbino_ himself. 

Another Lord being an Officer in the Army, having the Court Listproposed to him, answered, My Lord you kno' _Leslynus_ is my Generaland Commander in Chief, and he could not as he commanded under him butVote for his General, _&c. _ _Greeniccio_ in a fury returns, God d----nyour General, what do you tell us of Commander in Chief? If that beall, we shall soon get you another Commander in Chief; you shall Votefor none such as he. 

Another Lord expostulated with him a little to admit such and such withthe Men he proposed; he answers, My Lord, I am no Hypocrite, I amabove-board; this is the List we will have; the Q.... N approves of it, and I will have no other; and swearing again, By-G--d, says he, 'Tisindifferent to me, keep out but the Men we are against; but I will haveno _Go.... Phin_ Men, no _Ma.... Bro'_ Men, no Squadron Men, in short, no_Whigs_ of any Denomination; as for the rest, it is indifferent, anybut them. How, my Lord, says this Nobleman, What will you take_Tartarians_, (that is, as our _Jacobites_) rather than the honestGentlemen that have been so true to the _Atalantic_ Interest: I carenot what they are, says the Prince, so they be none of these. 

Among the Noblemen that he used with the most rudeness, was the Earl of_Crawlindford_: Whether he thought to Insult this faithful Nobleman, because he knew his Fortunes were low, and that he depended on theCourt; or whether he took this Advantage to use him Ill on Account ofan old Ruffle, in which he having challenged the Earl to Fight; and theEarl appearing ready to defend his Honour with his Sword; the Princeashamed of the needless Quarrel, had declin'd it again, and came offbut, so, so; choosing to risk his Honour rather than his Life; what wasthe Reason, Authors do not agree about; But the Prince used him mostscandalously. The Earl prest him hard, and told him, How he had on allOccasions shewn himself faithful to the Queen, and to the _Atalantic_Interest, that he had gone into all such Measures as were for theService of both, that he thought he had some Claim to be trusted in theService of his Country. 

The Prince told him plainly, He might set his Heart at rest, for heshould not be one. He ask'd him, What Reason was assigned, whatObjections were against him. The Prince, with much more Plainness thanPrudence replies, They knew he was under Obligations to the Presidentof the Treasure, and the great Commander of the Army; and he did notknow but they might come to bring a Charge or Impeachment against themin the great _Atalantic_ Council; and he would have no Body chosen butsuch as would give their Words they would come into such Measures. TheEarl told him, If any thing could be offered to prove them Guilty, orany Crimes were made appear, he scorned to be so much obliged to anyMan as not to dare to do Justice; and that he would readily join in anImpeachment, if there was Reason sufficient to Charge them; and torefuse him otherwise, implied, they wanted Crime and just Ground toform the Impeachment upon, and therefore must choose such a Set of Menas would Impeach innocent Men blindfold, to please a Party. The Princetold him, That the Resolution was to Impeach them, and he would havenone chosen that would not agree to it. What, right or wrong, my Lord!says the Earl; to which the Prince, not suddenly replying, the Earlwent on, Let what will come of it, and tho' I should lose all, nay, tho' I were to beg my Bread, I'll never submit to such base Terms, andso defied him. The Prince told him, It should be the worse for him; andthere they parted. 

There was a short Dispute between the Prince and the Earl of_Stairdale_; but the Earl had so much more Honesty than the Party, andso much more Sense and Wit than the Prince, that indeed he cared notmuch to talk to him, but left him to _Mareskine_. He was too hard forthem both, and having baffled them in Discourse, he was no more to beBullied by them, than he was to be Wheedled; he told 'em plainly, Theywere betraying their Country, selling and sacrificing the Priviledgesof the Nobility, making themselves Tools to a Party, and givingthemselves up in a base Manner to the Pleasure of a few Men, who, whenthey had got their Will would contemn them, would love the Folly, butP.... S upon the Fools; and as to their List, he scorn'd to come intoit, or into any of their menacing Measures. This put a short end totheir Attempts upon him; and indeed, had the other Lords been advisedby this gallant Gentleman, they had broke all their Schemes; but theywere not all united in their Resolutions, or equally determined intheir Measures. 

Thus they went on, _Mareskine_ mannag'd the most mildly; yet he toldthe Nobility of his Acquaintance: That the List was determined, thatthe Q.... N expected they should Vote them all: that they would have noMixtures: that her Majesty would have nothing to do with the _Whig_Lords, but there was other Work to do now than usual: Discoursing withsome of the Lords, who were G----als in the Army, he told them plainly, They had resolved to Impeach the great Commander; and that it could notbe expected, those who had Commands under him, and were Awed by him, should do Justice in that Case. They had often the Question put tothem, What it was the great Commander, or the Keeper of the Treasure, had done, that they were to be Impeach'd for: But they could never bebrought to offer the least tollerable Reason, except that the Prince_Greeniccio_ let fall in his Passion sometimes, of which he had nomanner of Government, That he had used him ill abroad. 

Some, who had more nicely enquired into the Particulars of the illUsage which was the Cause of this Resentment, have given the oddestcontradicting Accounts of it that any History can Parallel: As first, That the great Commander had restrained the rashness of this youngHotspur General, who being but a Boy in Experience, compared to theCommander, was always for pushing into the Heart of _Tartary_ with theArmy; not considering, That to run up a Hundred Mile into the Country, and leave the Enemies Towns untaken, and their Armies in a Condition toRecruit, cut off their Convoys and Communication, and make theirSubsistence impracticable, was the ready way to destroy them, as hasbeen seen by a woful Example in _Spain_. But the General was wiser, andregarded more the Safety of the Army, and the Honour of his Mistress;and therefore, by the unanimous Approbation of all the allied Generals, (for it was not his own single Opinion) and according to the just Rulesof War, went on gradually to take their fortified Towns, and ruin theirDefences on the Frontiers, that at last, he might have a sure and easieConquest of the rest: This was one Pretence. The second was just theReverse of this: For at a great Battle with the _Tartarians_, theCommander having resolved to attack the Enemy in their advantageousCamp, and having drawn up in Battalia his whole Army, he gives the Postof Honour to the Prince, appointing him, with a select Body of the bestTroops in the Army, to fall on upon the Right, and Charge the Enemy, while other Generals did the like, and with equal Hazard and more realDanger, on the Left. There was not a Gentleman in the Enemies Army butwould have taken this as the greatest Testimony of his General'sEsteem, and would have thought any Man in the Army his mortal Enemythat should have gone about to have deprived him of it. Nor was thereany Man in the _Attalantick_ Army, who did not take it as an Evidenceof the great Opinion the Commander had of the Prince's Courage; and allthe World talked of it as the greatest Honour could possibly be donethe Prince. 

Had not the Commander taken all needful Care to have him well back'd, had he not given him the best Troops in the Army to act under him, hadhe not plac'd a great Body of Horse to support him, had he not equallyprest the Enemy in other Places, to prevent their doubling theirStrength in that Part; had he done any Thing but what a Man of Honourwould have thought himself obliged by, there might have been someReason to Object: But to call giving a General a Post of Honoursacrificing him, because it was attended with Danger, is referr'd tothe Determination of the Soldierly Part of Mankind. And as it would belaught at in _Tartary_, in _France_, and in _Britain_, where suchThings are very seldom heard of; so I can assure the Reader, it wassufficiently laugh'd at in _Attalantis Major_, and the Prince of_Greeniccio_ is become most intollerably ridiculous by the takingNotice of it. 

Hence all Men in the Island of _Atalantick Major_ conclude, he hasRashness without Courage, Fury without Honour, Passion withoutJudgment, and less regard to his Character than to his Resentment. 

Nor has the Vanity of this Prince appeared less in his not stickingopenly to discover, That he aims at the Command in general; that hethinks himself equally qualified for a Post of so great Trust, and thatregard is not had to his Merit that he is so long suffered to Serveunder another; at the same time not enquiring, whether the Allies ofthe Queen would have equal Confidence in him, as in the greatCommander, on whose Judgment, all the Princes and States of the Northhave so much Dependance, to whom they have so chearfully committedtheir Troops, and under whose Conduct they have had such wonderfulSuccess against the _Tartarian_ Emperor: But it never was this Prince'sTalent to think too much, his Heat was always too volatile, and hisHead too light for his Hands. 

We have brought him now to the Conclusion of the Affair: Having gonethrough his Catechizing of the Nobility, in which indeed they of hisown Party appeared of a Temper patient and debased, below the trueSpirit of Noblemen; (at least, God be praised, below the ancient Temperand Gallantry of the Nobility of _Great Britain_) Having come now tothe Day for the Choice, which was the 10th Day of their Sixth Month, but as I suppose _November_: There appeared at the Place 33 Noblemen, besides the 16 which were chosen, and who every one Voted forthemselves and for one another; so that of about 130 Noblemen, whichthey say are in the North Part of _Attalantis Major_, only 49 appeared. 

There was a great Meeting of the honest Part of the Nobility, atanother Place, to consult what was proper to be done in thisnew-fashion'd Way of Proceeding: Some proposed to go down in a Body tothe Place where the rest were met, and protest against the Illegalityof the Choice; that to impose a List upon the Nobility was notagreeable to the Nature of a free Choice; and that therefore theyshould protest, That whoever were returned by Virtue of that Meeting, were not legally Chosen, and had no right to Sit in the great Councilof the Nobility. 

This was sound Advice: But unhappily it was not resolved upon; and somethey say slipt out of the Meeting for fear of Resentment, and went downand voted, and came up again _incognito_. 

The rest resolved to send Two of their Number down to the Meeting, andoffer their Service to Vote with them, provided they would declaretheir Measures: and that those that might be chosen would declarethemselves for the true _Atalantick_ Succession, against a pretendingClaimant, who was then sheltred among the _Tartarians_: But they couldreceive no Satisfaction even to this so reasonable Request. But thePrince of _Greeniccio_, who had no right to Vote himself, yet run upand down, as a Broker, or a Party-Sollicitor, whispering and prompting, from one to another, to Influence and Settle them, (for some began towaver. ) This Prince, I say, giving an answer, insolent and haughty, _like himself_. The Noble Persons that went, came away, and contentedthemselves, with telling them, they would having nothing to do withthem. Thus, being but a Rump of the Nobility, they gave up theirLiberties, Voted as they were commanded to do, signed a Roll of Names, and this they called a Choice. 

The Number of the dissenting Nobility were about Twenty six, whereofFive did at last comply with their List, as they thought, being inpublick Commands, supposing it might give a Handle to their Enemies, tomisrepresent them to their Soveraign; but they nevertheless, upon allOccasions, testified their Dislike and Abhorrence of the Method, and ofthe Conduct of those concern'd in it. 

Among those said Dissenters, were Two Dukes, One Marquis, SixteenEarls, and Six Lords, besides many others, who were Absent. 

We might be large in describing, and giving Characters of thesedissenting Nobility. Among them we could not escape the Prince _deRosymonte_, a Person, for Blood and Birth, eminent in that Country, more for his own excellent and inimitable Virtues, Grave, Sober, Judicious, even from his Youth, of whom one of the _Atalantick_ Poetsgave this bright Character. 

 _Grave without Age, without Experience wise. _

He was President of the Royal Council of that Country even while he wasvery young, an Honour the greatest of the Nobility were well pleased tosee him adorned with, and made no Scruple to sit below him: Hisdistinguish'd Modesty and Humility in all his publick Appearances, recommends him to the Affections of the whole Country; and tho' theFortunes of his Family have suffered by the Disasters of the Times, yethe supports a handsome Figure suitable to the Dignity of his Character, Rich without Gaiety, Great without Affectation, Plentiful withoutProfusion, letting the World see he knows how and when, and to whatPitch to appear that when he pleases to be at Large, he can do it likea wise Man, or Retrench, he can do it like a Prince. It might be said, as a finishing stroke to his Character, he is just the Reverse of_Greeniccio_, for he is Fire without Thunder, Brave without Fury, Greatwithout Pride, Gay without Vanity, Wise without Affectation, knows howto Obey and how to Command; he knows great Things enough to managethem, and is so Master of himself, as not to let them manage him; heknows how to be a Courtier without Ambition, and to Merit Favour ratherthan to seek it; he scorns to push his Fortunes over the Belly of hisPrinciples, ever Faithful to himself, and by consequence to all thatTrust him; he has too great a Value for Merit to envy it even in hisEnemy, and too low Thoughts of the Pride and Conceit of Men withoutMerit, to approve of it even in his Friends. 

This Noble Person appears at the Head of the dissenting Nobility: Nordoes it lessen his Zeal for the Principles of Liberty, or the presentEstablishment of Religion in his Country; that some of his Ancestors, otherwise Noble, Brave and Great, appear'd on the other side; since theLiberties of his Country are the Center of his Actions, and theProsperity of all Men the mark he aims at. 

It may be a Character to the rest of the dissenting Lords, to say ofthem in general, That they were such as took a particular Pleasure inbeing Patrons of Virtue as well as Patrons of Liberty: That they wereMen generally speaking distinguish'd for their constant Loyalty totheir Prince, but ever with a view to the Fundamental Laws: That theyhad always Wisdom enough to know their Countries Rights, and Courageenough to defend them; Men of Honour, Men of Prudence, Men ofResolution: In short, They were Men admirably suited to the Characterof their Leader; as he on the other hand, thought it his Honour to beat the Head of so illustrious a Body of Men, equally valuable for theirVirtue, Capacities, Wisdom and Integrity. 

It cannot be forgotten; That as these Noble Persons were Zealous forthe Liberties of their Country, so truly they were Men that had thegreatest Interest in it, having separately considered the best Estatesof the whole Nobility, of that Country and joined together, were ableto Buy twice their Number in the whole Assembly. It is true, thatEstate is not any just Addition to the Character of a Person; but itwill for ever remain a Truth; And all Nations will shew a regard to it, _viz. _ that those may be supposed to be the most proper Persons to betrusted with the Conservation of the Liberties of their Country, whohave by their Birth and Inheritance the largest Shares in thePossession of it. 

This is illustrated by the Practice of that happy Country we live in, where this Story may perhaps be read, and where very lately, a Law hasbeen made, to unquallifie all such to represent their Country in theLegislation and Power of raising Taxes, who are not possessed of suchor such a Porportion in the Lands of their Country, as may suppose themPersons made naturally anxious for the Welfare of the whole, in regardto the Preservation of their Property. Unhappy _Atalantis_! Had such aLaw pass'd for the Qualification of those Noblemen, who should beelected to the great Royal Council of thy Country; and should theNobility so to be chosen have been limited to but one hundred_Perialo's_ (a Gold Coin in that Country amounting by Estimation toabout 2000 _l. _ a Year Sterling) of yearly Estate in Lands, how few ofthe Sixteen now chosen could have shewn themselves in that augustMeeting. 

On the contrary, several of those now sent up, were not able to putthemselves into a Posture to undertake the Journey, till they had soldthe Magazines of Corn which they had laid up for the Year's Subsistanceof their Families, or mortgaged their small Estates to borrow Money forthe Expence. 

Nor is it doubted in the least, but when those poor Noblemen come tofind some of their _Tartarian_ Expectations frustrated, with which itis manifest they were very Big when they went up; they will sorelyregret the Misfortune of their Election; since they must be thereby soreduced, as almost to want Subsistance for their Families; and as forthe Debts contracted, it is impossible some of them should ever Paythem. 

It has been a too unhappy Truth in other Places as well as in_Atalantis Major_, That in such popular Elections, whether of Noblemenor others, Men are deluded with the Notion, that to be chosen by theirCountry to these great Councils of the Nation, must so recommend them, or make them so necessary to the State, to the Government, or theMinisters of State, that they cannot fail to make their Fortunes andraise Estates by their very Appearance: But this is so constantly foundto fail, and so many have been almost ruin'd by the Expences they havebeen at to make a Figure as they call it, and to appear at Court likethemselves on such Occasions, that it seems wonderful that Persons ofQuality, who know their own Circumstances, and whose Fortunes, throughthe Disasters of their Families, may not be equal to their Dignity, should on so vain a Presumption push themselves upon the necessity ofcompleating their own Ruin, beggering their Families, and leaving theirPosterity an Estate in Titles and Coronets, Things without the Supportof competent Estates the most despicable in the World. 

It might be very useful to our Readers, and perhaps somethinginstructing might be gathered from it, with respect to the Affairs of_Europe_ at this Time, to give some Account here of the Success ofthese strange Proceedings; what Figure these People made, when theycame to Court, how they behav'd themselves when they came into thegreat Council, how they were made Tools there to the Politicians ofthose Times, even to act against their Interest, their Country, theirown Designs. 

In doing this, it would appear, How some of the Sixteen, moreparticularly known to be in the _Tartarian_ Interest, and who had allalong declared themselves for the Person and Title of the pretendingPrince, who, as is noted before, put in a Claim to the Succession ofthe Throne: How these, I say, went up to the great Council, wheedled bythe Subtilties of _Greeniccio_, and his Agents, to believe seriouslythat they went up directly to declare his Title; that they should bethe Men that should have the Honour to declare his Right in the greatCouncil of the Nobility; and that he should for the future own hisRestoration, his Glory, and his Crown, to their Loyalty and steddyacting for him. This, they did not doubt, should tend not to theirHonour only, but to the raising their decay'd Fortunes, for they weremiserably Poor; since he could do no less than confer the greatestTrusts upon Persons who had with so much Fidelity acted for his Gloryand Interest. 

It would also to the eternal Shame and Disappointment of the _AtalanticJacobites_, (if I may so call them) necessarily follow, that theHistory of their Conduct should come in at the same time to beconsidered, _viz. _ How just the contrary to all this, and against thevery Nature of the Thing they were obliged, even among the very firstof their Transactings in their Publick Station, as Members of the greatCouncil aforesaid, to appear in a Publick Address to the Soveraign ofthe Country, in which they were brought in recognizing Her just Titleto Reign, (which they in their Hearts abhorr'd) promising to Stand byand Defend that Title with all their Might, (which they had hoped tosee overthrown) engaging to assist Her to the utmost, against that verypretending Claimant as above, (who they Reverence as their lawfulPrince) and to carry on the War with Vigour against the _Tartarian_Emperor (that very Prince on whose Power they depended for the carryingon their Designs). 

Had any _British_-Man of Sense, that understands the Language of theCountenance, but seen the Astonishment, the Chagrin, the Vexation andAnguish of Soul, that appear'd on the Faces of these _Atalantic_Noblemen, at this surprizing Event; how they gnashed their Teeth forAnger, and curst the Hour that ever they were Members of this grandCouncil; how they Bann'd, (an _Atalantis_ Word used there, for what wecall Swearing and Damning in our Country;) how they raged at_Greenwiccio_, and the _Lord of the Isles_, who they said had Betray'dthem; and how strangely they look'd, upon the solemn Occasion ofpresenting this Address to their Soveraign: I say, could theirCountenances but have been read by any in our Country, they would havetaken them for Furies rather than Men, or for Men under some Frenzy, ridden with the Night-Mare, or scared with some Apparition. 

It was not less odd, to see the Conduct of _Greeniccio_; for tho' hehad not less Mischief in his Heart, yet it was of another Kind; andtho' he had not the same View of the Succession, nor perhaps wasdirectly in the _Tartarian_ Interest, and therefore shew'd no Pity, or Sympathy with the Mortifications of the other, yet he met withDisappointments equally perplexing, and which made him heartily repentthe length he had gone; but as it was in his Nature to be rash, it wasimpossible to prevent his being disappointed almost in every Thing hewent about: For it is in _Atalantis Major_ just as it is in other Partsof the World, _viz. _ That rash headstrong unthinking Tempers, generallyprecipitate themselves into innumerable Mischiefs, which Prudence andPatience would evite and prevent; and also, that these furious rashPeople, as they are hot and impatient under those Mischiefs when theyare surprised with them, so they are not always the best able toextricate and deliver themselves. 

 * * * * *

This will necessarily lead us to a long History of the Disappointmentshe met with:

1. In his Project of charging and impeaching his General, and the greatTestador, or ---- of the Nations Treasure, which he could never, eitherbring Crime enough to justifie, or Friends enough to joyn in, and makeit terrible. 

2. How he was disappointed in his ambitious Views of being made Generalagainst the _Tartarians_; whereas, he had on the contrary, theMortification, to see the great Commander continu'd, with an additionof Generallissimo to his Titles of Command; and himself, like what weused to call in _England_, being _Kick'd up Stairs_, sent out of theWay with a Feather in his Cap, and the Title of General, to carry on aremote Unfortunate, and never-to-be Successful War in _Japan_, and theLord knows where, among Barbarians and Savages. 

 * * * * *

This was not all; When upon his embracing this Title, which his Temper(naturally Ambitious) jumpt at, and eagerly closed with, he began tochoose Officers, name Regiments, and draw out Forces to form the Armyhe was to Command, he found the new Generalissimo had supplanted himthere too; for he had not only prevailed with the Queen of the Country, not to draw away any of the old Troops then establish'd for the_Tartarian_ War, of which this _Gew-Gaw-General_ fancied to himself heshould form his Army: But the Generalissimo obtain'd, That the bestTroops which were remaining in _Atalantis Major_, should be sent overto strengthen the Army against the _Tartars_: So that this new Generalwas likely to go away to _Japan_ without any Army, but such Troops asher _Atalantic_ Majesty and Her Allies had hired from the _Emperor ofChina_, and such other People; and he had none but Strangers, Barbarians and Mercenaries to Command. 

It is true, That his Design of drawing off the Troops from the_Tartarian_ War, to carry on a _Wild-Goose War_ in the remotest Partsof _Japan_, was like the rest of his Schemes, so inconsistent, sodestructive to the general Design of the War, and would in all itsprobable Circumstances be so dangerous to the true Interest of_Atalantis Major_, That notwithstanding some had persuaded theGovernment to a _New Scheme_, and that the War was to be pushed on_ESPECIALLY_ in _Japan_ (a Thing which perhaps some encouraged atfirst, on purpose to draw him in to accept of that Command, which manyof inferiour Rank to him had declin'd) yet when they came to looknearer into the Thing, and to see the fatal Prospect of weakning theForces on the _Tartarian_ side, while the _Emperor of Tartary_ at thesame Time was vigilant and forward in encreasing his Preparations, theysoon found the Representations of the Generalissimo had such Weight inthem, and were founded so much upon their general Good, that theythought fit to alter their Measures. 

How _Greeniccio_ was thus disappointed; how he resented it; how toPacifie him, an Appearance of drawing some Troops together was made;how he was at last sent away with a whole Ship load of fine Promises;as he on the contrary loaded the same Ship back with a full Freight ofSchemes, Projects and Rhodomontadoes; how he went; what he did, andwhat he did not; how _Tinker_ like, he mended the Work of those thatwent before, and left it for others to mend after him; these are ThingsI may give you a farther Account of when I return from my next Progressto that glorious Country of _Atalantis Major_. 

_FINIS. _