You must not imagine, that with Regard to myfelf, I cam be very follicitous for the Reception thefe Papers meet from you and the Public in general. The Satisfaction of doing the Thing, I judge right, has a Charm for me, that none other Confideration can equal. I have Nothing to afk, nor any Thing to fear, for myself. The Goods of Fortune have none Alurement, nor Adverfity any Thing dreadful, in mine Eftimation. In my Profeffion, I can have no Favour to afk; because I can fuppofe no Man, however connected to me in Friendship or Alliance, abfurd enough to employ me, upon any other Prefumption, than my Capacity to ferve him. And my Views can not be factious; becaufe.I never yet faw among you any Faction, or any Party, with which I could connect my felf; or whofe bare Name I could bear, without Reproach. The Scope of my Defign is to discharge the Duties of my Sphere in Life, regardless of whom it thould pleafe or difpleafe. For my religious Principles, I am anfwerable onely to Heaven. My political Tenets have long fince been layed open to you all; if they have not reached your Hands, this fhews you, it is not my Fault.

The fole Reward, I wish for any Labors, I ever did or fhall take for the Public, is the Approbation of good Men. I flatter my felf, mine intentions, however weak my Performance, intitule me to this Recompence. Whatever procures the Love or Friendship of the righteous, must bring on the Hatred and Enmity of the froward and defigning. It is eafy to judge from thefe Lines, in which Clafs I hold the City of London. It is yours to prove whether I am right or wrong. I can extend my Benevolence to the remoteft of those Creatures, that bear the outward Form of Man: From this, mine Enemies, or even the brute Creation, can not be excluded. But, I can enter into the Bond of Friendship with good Men alone; or thofe that I look upon as fuch: For, I may be, and have been, often deceived by Appearances. I fcorn to flatter you, or the first of Men. I think well of you, and wish to be well with you. Whenever I am induced to think otherwife, I fhall as readily let you know it. I have no Request to make to you, but that you will freely and difpaffionately examine thefe Papers, and difpofe of them, as humane, benevolent, and public fpirited Hearts direct; and though the Performance fhould be found infignificant or unworthy in your Sight; your distinguishing and paying a due Regard to the Intention, which is none other, than promoting the mutual and infeparable Honor and Happiness of our Sovereign and his Subjects to the remoteft Extremes of

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our

our Dominions; muft ever fecure your Community that Portion of Refpect and Veneration, which has already induced me to declare, and as far as in me lay, to prove myself,

THE Titule of the Volumes, to which the annexed

POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS of Great Britain and Ireland, afferted and vindicated; the Connection and common Intereft of both Kingdoms demonftrated; and the Grievances, which each, more efpecially the later, with its Capital, has fuffered under oppressive and tyrannical Governors, oppressive and lawless Magiftrates, dependent and iniquitous Judges, and Spurious and corrupt Parlements, fet forth in feveral ADDRESSES and LETTERS to the FREE CITIZENS of DUBLIN; first delivered and published with the fole Intent to detect public Abuses, to revive the original Principles of the Policy, and -to reflore the conftitutional Freedom of Elections in general, thofe of Members of Parlement in particular; now republifhed as a CAUTIONARY INFORMATION to the CITY of LONDON, and for the Juftification of the Author, CHARLES LUCAS, a Free Citizen of Dublin, while Dublin was; now an Exile for the Caufe of Truth and the Liberty of his Country, Wish Additions, an Appendix, &c.

The

POLITICAL

CONSTITUTIONS, &c.

WHEN an extraordinary Cenfure is paffed upon the

moft infignificant Perfon, or Writing, the Curiofity of the Public is naturally raised to learn fomething of what they might otherwise have overlooked, or perhaps, con

temned.

This may ferve as an Apology for this Republication of the following Papers. The Public demanded it; and the public Demands alone fhould have authorised it. But befides, the Juftification of the Author's Conduct and Character required it; as both had been induftriously traduced and vilified by certain Men in Power, and he had been denied all other Means of vindicating and justifying himself. And therefore, thefe condemned Parts of his Writings are thrown together, as nearly in the fame Form and Order of Time, in which they first appeared, as the neceffary Correction of fome accidental Irregularities, Lapfes, and Errors of the Prefs, would admit, and publifhed to enable the World to judge of the Utility of the Performances, and by them, of the true Intention and Character of the helpless, abused Author.

In order to induce the Reader to make fome neceffary Allowances for thofe, as well as many other Defects in these premature Performances, it is fit to inform him, that they were all written in the utmost Hurry and Precipitation; when the Author, between the Calls of his Profeffion, and the extraordinary Engagements of a Candidate, laboring to reftore the loffed Rights and Liberties, and to revive the almoftexpired Freedom of Election, in a populous City; was not able to allow himself fix Hours for Recreation and Reft, upon a Medium, in any natural Day of above fourteen Months fucceffively. During which Time, he was forced to let most of these Papers go to Prefs, upon one flight, curfory reading, and many of them, without having Time to give them a reading; but, Sheet by Sheet, as faft as they were written, he was obliged to fend them to the Prefs; the Correction of which, could have been no better attended to, than the reading, and for the fame Reasons.

Thefe Confiderations, it is hoped, will plead the Author's Excufe for common Errors in Stile, or Diction, or in illchofen, or unguarded Expreffions. He makes none Apology

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for

for fuch Matters, as he afferts for Facts, or Truth; let them speak for themselves, upon the ftricteft Examination, that Juftice and Candor can admit.

It is probable, it will be expected, that he fhould, in this Preface, fay fomething in his own Defence, or in Confutation of the Calumnies and Afperfions thrown upon him and his Writings by the Parlement, as well as by private Hands. But, he humbly apprehends, that, when the Accufations against him are fet forth in the strongest Light and fulleft Force, every impartial and difpaffionate Reader will find them more than answered, in the very condemned Papers. He then, onely defires, that whofoever reads the Condemnation of the Author and his Papers, will learn his real Character from honeft and difinterested Men, and read the condemned Papers themselves before Judgement is passed upon either.

The Accufations, on all Sides, trumped up against the Author and his Writings, are very large and voluminous, as well as grave and weighty. I fhall recite them in their utmoft Force, that the Juft and Generous may be able to form his Judgement aright, and to ftrike a true Balance.

It is judged proper, for Decency, to omit all the groundlefs Scandal and Invective thrown out against the Author, by every venal, anonymous Slave, that might be hired to put on a Mafk, and to affaffinate the Characters, as well as the Perfons of Men. Therefore, the Procedings of the Principals in the open Perfecution of the Author, under the Color of Law, fhall alone be recited, as fufficient for the Purpose.

To begin with the chief Agent in the Profecution, he that was culled out for the Execution of the Author, and for his performed and intended Services to that Purpose, was afterwards, pursuant to a previous Agreement, made Collector of Cork, one Cox; he wrote feveral Papers before and after the Seffion of Parlement, to which he dared not put his Name, though he fathered them among his Junto; he made several Speeches in private Clubs and Factions raised against the Author, as well as in the House of Commons, where his whole Force, though not his Virulence, is fummed up in the Complaint he depofited and fupported there, upon which, a Committee of the whole Houfe, on the 16th of October, 1749, refolved,

1. That it is the Opinion of this Committee, that the feveral printed Papers, [complained of, by Cox,] of the 16th of this Month, to wit, a Dedication to the King, a firft, a second, a fourth, an eighth, a tenth, an éleventh, and a fiveteenth Addrefs to the Free-Citizens and Free-Holders of the City of Dublin,

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Dublin, fubfcribed C. Lucas, contain feveral Paragraphs, highly, faljely, and scandalously reflecting on the Lord Lieutenant of this Kingdom, and tending to promote Sedition and Infurrections, and openly to justify the feveral horrid and bloody Rebellions which have been raised in this Kingdom, and to create Jealoufies in his Majesty's Subjects.

II. That it appears, that Charles Lucas, of the City of Dublin, Apothecary, is Author of the fayed printed Papers.

III. That it appears, that the fayed Charles Lucas, bas, in Some of the fayed printed Papers, fcandaloufly and maliciously mifreprefented the Procedings of the fayed Houfe of Commons, and highly reflected on the Honor and Dignity thereof.

Upon this being reported, the whole House unanimously refolved.

I. That the fayed Charles Lucas is an Enemy to his Country. II. That the Lord Lieutenant be addreffed to order the King's Attorney-General to profecute this Enemy to his Country, for thefe bis Offences.

III. That for his Breach of Privilege of the Houfe, he be, upon Mr. Speaker's Warrant, committed a clofe Prifoner to the common Goal +.

I mean not by this, or any Thing heretofore or hereafter fayed to this Purpose, to reflect upon all the Members of the prefent House of Commons of Ireland. That would be moft unjust and unpardonable, when I know, there was not a third, and believe, there was not a fourth of the Members then affembled, and when I am perfwaded, there are many uncorrupt and incorruptible Patriots in that House.

Upon these Procedings, to which, I fhall here fay no more, than, that the Author was not permitted to hear the Evidence againft him, nor to fpeak a Word in his own Defence, or Juftification, the celebrated Lawyer and reputed Patriot, Mr. Stannard, made a moft pompous Harangue, published by an Emanuenfis of his, under the Titule of, The Honeft Man's Speech, in which, he charges the Author

†This Cenfure is published not one'y in the Votes, but in the Journals of the Houfe of Commons; feeming an Obliquy, which an honeft Man must wish to wipe off.

A Gentleman chofen by the popular Intereft Recorder of the City; but, being fhewn in a most unfavorable Light by the Author in many inftances, particularly in a Pamphlet, entituled Divelina Libera; found it expedient to refign his Office, to turn Courtier and take the first Thing offered him, the Place of Prime Sergeant, after he faw another ftripped of that Employment, for the greateft Crime-in Ireland; prefuming to be honeft and free. His Enmity to the Author is not to be wonde ed at. Men fe oppofite in moral Principles can hardly be fuppofed Friends,