nect myself; or whofe bare Name I could bear, without Reproach. The Scope of my Defign is to dif charge the Duties of my Sphere in Life, regardless of whom it should please or difplease. 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 Thews you, it is not my Fault.

The fole Reward, I wish for any Labours, I ever did or fhall take for the Public, is the Approbation of good Men. I flatter myself, mine Intentions, however weak my Performance, intitule me to this Recompence. Whatever procures the Love or Friendship of the righteous, muft bring on the Hatred and Enmity of the froward and defigning. It is eafy to judge from these 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 those that I look upon as fuch: For, I may be, and have been, often deceived by Appearances. I fcorn to flatter you, or the firft 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 these Papers, and difpofe of them, as humane, benevolent, and public fpirited Hearts direct; and though the Performance should be found infignificant or unworthy in your Sight; your diftinguishing 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 our Dominions; must ever fecure your Community that Portion of Refpect

and

and Veneration, which has already induced me to declare, and as far as in me lay, to prove myself,

My much bonored Fellow Subjects and Friends,

Your most affectionate and most faithful

London, Dec. 1,

1755.

Friend and Servant,

C. LUCA S.
LU

POSTSCRIPT.

T

HE Titule of the Volumes, to which the annexed Preface and Dedication are prefixed, runs thus, The POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS Great Britain and Ireland, afferted and vindicated; the Connection and common Interest of both Kingdoms demonftrated; and the Grievances, which each, more efpecially the later, with its Capital, has fuffered under oppreffive and tyrannical Governors, oppreffive and lawless Magiftrates, dependent and iniquitous Judges, and fpurious and corrupt Parlements, set forth in feveral ADDRESSES and LETTERS to the FREE CITIZENS of DUBLIN; firft delivered and published with the fole Intent to detect public Abuses, to revive the original Principles of the Policy, and to restore the conftitutional Freedom of Elections in general, thofe of Members of Parlement in particular; now republished as a CAUTIONARY INFORMATION to the CITY of LON, DON, and for the Juftification of the Author, CHARLES LUCAS, a Free Citizen of Dublin, while Dublin wass now an Exile for the Caufe of Truth and the Liberty of bis Country--With Additions, an Appendix, &c.

THE

PREFACE

TO THE

POLITICAL CONSTITUTIONS, &c.

W

HEN an extraordinary Cenfure is paffed upon the most infignificant Perfon, or Writing, the Curiofity of the Public is naturally raised to learn fomething of what they might otherwife have overlooked, or perhaps, contemned.

This may ferve as an Apology for this Republication of the following Papers. The Public demanded it; and the public Demands alone fhould have authorifed it. But befides, the Juftification of the Author's Conduct and Character required it, as both had been industriously traduced and vilified by certain Men in Power, and he had been denied all other Means of vindicating and juftifying himself. And therefore, these 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 published 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 some neceffary Allowances for those, as well as many other Defects in these permature 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 Profeflion, and the extraordinary Engagements of a Candidate, laboring to reftore the loft Rights and Liberties, and to revive the almost ex

pired

pired 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 moft of thefe Papers go to Press, 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 ill-chofen, or unguarded Expreffions. He makes none Apology for fuch Matters, as he afferts for Facts, or Truth; let them fpeak for themselves, upon the strictest Examination, that Justice and Candour can admit.

It is probable, it will be expected, that he should, 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 Ac-1 cufations 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, only 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 Judgment is paffed 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 Judgment aright, and strike a true Balance.

It

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 Malk, and to affaffinate the Characters, as well as the Perfons of Men. Therefore, the Proceedings of the Principals in the open Perfecution of the Author, under the Color of Law, shall 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, purfuant to a previous Agreement, made C of C----e, one C---; 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 funto; he made feveral 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 House, on the 16th of October, 1749, refolved,

I. That it is the Opinion of this Committee, that the fegeral printed Papers [complained of, by C---,] of the 16th of this Month, to wit, a Dedication to the King, a firft, a fecond, a fourth, an eighth, a tenth, an eleventh; and a fiveteenth Addrefs to the FreeCitizens and Free-Holders of the City of Dublin, fubfcribed C. Lucas, contain feveral Paragraphs, bigbly, falfely, and fcandalously reflecting on the Lord Lieutenant of this Kingdom, and tending to promote Sedition and Infurrections, and openly to justify the feveral borrid and bloody Rebellions which have been raised in this Kingdom, and to create Jealousies 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.