The Crolians in the Moon are Men of large Souls, and Generously stand

by one another on all Occasions; it was never known that they

deserted any Body that suffer'd for them, my Old Philosopher

excepted, and that was a surprize upon them.

The Reason of the Difference is plain, our Dissenters here have not

the Advantage of a Cogitator, or thinking Engine, as they have in the

Moon.----- We have the Elevator here and are lifted up pretty much,

but in the Moon they always go into the Thinking Engine upon every

Emergency, and in this they out-do us of this World on every Occasion.

In general therefore I must note that the wisest Men I found in the

Moon, when they understood the Notes I had made as above, of the

sub-divisions of our Parties, told me that it was the greatest

Happiness that could ha' been obtained to our Country, for that if

our Parties had not been thus divided, the Nation had been undone.

They own'd that had not their Solunarian Party been divided among

themselves, the Crolians had been undone, and all the Moon had been

involv'd in Persecution, and been very probably subjected to the

Gallunarian Monarch.

Thus the fatal Errors of Men have their advantages, the seperate ends

they serve are not foreseen by their Authors and they do good against

the very Design of the People, and the nature of the Evil it self.

And now that I may encourage our People to that Peace and good

Understanding among themselves, which can alone produce their Safety

and Deliverance; I shall give a brief Account how the Crolians in the

Moon came to open their Eyes to their own Interest, how they came to

Unite; and how the Fruits of that Union secur'd them from ever being

insulted again by the Solunarian Party, who in time gave over the

vain and fruitless Attempt, and so a universal Lunar Calm has spread

the whole Moon ever since.

If our People will not listen to their own Advantages, nor do their

own Business, let them take the consequences to themselves, they

cannot blame the Man in the Moon.

To endeavour to bring this to pass, as these Memoirs have run thro'

the general History of the Feuds and unhappy Breaches between the

Solunarian Church and the Crolian Dissenters in the World of the

Moon, it would seem an imperfect and abrupt Relation, if I should not

tell you how, and by what Method, tho' long hid from their Eyes, the

Crolians came to understand their own Interest and know their own

Strength.

'Tis true, it seem'd a Wonder to me when I consider'd the Excellence

and Variety of those perspective Glasses I have mentioned, the

clearness of the Air, and consequently of the Head, in this Lunar

World. I say it was very strange the Crolians should ha' been Moon

Blind so long as they were, that they could not see it was always in

their Power if they had but pursued their own Interest, and made use

of those, legal Opportunities which lay before them, to put

themselves in a Posture, as that the Government it self should think

them a Body too big to be insulted, and find it their Interest to

keep Measures with them.

It was indeed a long time before they open'd their Eyes to these

advantages, but bore the Insults of the hair-brain'd Party, with a

weakness and negligence that was as unjustifiable in them, as

unaccountable to all the Nations of the Moon.

But at last, as all violent Extremes rouze their contrary

Extremeties, the folly and extravagance of the High Solunarians drove

the Crolians into their Senses, and rouz'd them to their own

Interest, the occasion was among a great many others as follows.

The eager Solunarian could not on all occasions forbear to show their

deep Regret at the Dissenting Crolians enjoying the Tolleration of

their Religion, by a Law ---.

And when all their legal Attempts to lessen that Liberty had prov'd

Abortive, her Solunarian Majesty on all Occasions repeating her

assurances of the continuance of her Protection, and particularly the

maintaining this Tolleration Inviolable. They proceeded then to show

the remains of their Mallice, in little Insults, mean and illegal

Methods, and continual private Disturbances upon particular Persons,

in which, however the Crolians having recourse to the Law, always

found Justice on their side, and had redress with Advantage, of which

the following Instance is more than ordinarily Remarkable.

There had been a Law made by the Men of the Feather, that all the

meaner Idle sort of People, who had no settel'd way of living should

go to the Wars, and the Lazognians, a sort of Magistrates there, in

the nature of our Justices of the Peace, were to send them away by

Force.

Now it happen'd in a certain Solunarian Island, that for want of a

better, one of their High Priests was put into the Civil

Administration, and made a Lazognian.----- In the Neighbourhood of

this Man's Jurisdiction, one of their own Solunarian Priests had

turn'd Crolian, and whether he had a better Tallent at performance,

or rather was more diligent in his Office is not material, but he set

up a kind of a Crolian Temple in an old Barn, or some such Mechanick

Building, and all the People flock'd after him.

This so provok'd his Neighbours of the black Girdle, an Order of

Priests, of which he had been one, that they resolv'd to suppress him

let it cost what it would.

They run strange lengths to bring this to pass.

They forg'd strange Stories of him, defam'd him, run him into Jayl

upon frivolous and groundless Occasions, represented him as a Monster

of a Man, told their Story so plain, and made it so specious, that

even the Crolians themselves to their Shame, believ'd it, and took up

Prejudices against the Poor Man, which had like to ha' been his Ruin.

They proscrib'd him in Print for Crimes they could never prove, they

branded him with Forgery, Adultery, Drunkenness, Swearing, breaking

Jayl, and abundance of Crimes; but when Matters were examin'd and

things came to the Test, they could never prove the least thing upon

him.----- In this manner however they continually worryed the poor

Man, till they ruin'd his Family and reduc'd him to Beggary; and tho'

he came out of the Prison they cast him into by the meer force of

Innocence, yet they never left persuing him with all sorts of

violence.------ At last they made use of their Brother of the Girdle

who was in Commission as above, and this Man being High Priest and

Lazonian too, by the first was a Party, and by the last had a Power

to act the Tragedy they had plotted against the poor Man.

In short, they seiz'd him without any Crime alledg'd, took violently

from him his Licence, as a Crolian Priest, by which the Law justify'd

what he had done, pretending it was forg'd, and after very ill

Treating him, condemn'd him to the Wars, delivers him up for a

Souldier, and accordingly carry'd him away.

But it happen'd, to their great Mortification, that this Man found

more Mercy from the Men of the Sword, than from those of the Word,

and so found means to get out of their Hands, and afterwards to

undeceive all the Moon, both as to his own Character, and as to what

he had Suffer'd.

For some of the Crolians, who began to be made sensible of the Injury

done the poor Man, advis'd him to have recourse to the Law, and to

bring his Adversaries before the Criminal Bar.

But as soon as this was done, good God! what a Scene of Villainy was

here opened: The poor Man brought up such a Cloud of Witnesses to

confront every Article of their Charge, and to vindicate his own

Character, that when the very Judges heard it, tho' they were all

Solunarians themselves, they held up their Hands, and declar'd in

open Court it was the deepest Track of Villany that ever came before

them, and that the Actors ought to be made Examples to all the Moon.

The Persons concern'd, us'd all possible Arts to avoid, or at least

to delay the Shame, and adjourn the Punishment, thinking still to

weary the poor Man out.------ But now his Brethren the Crolians began

to see themselves wounded thro' his Sides, and above all, finding his

Innocence clear'd up beyond all manner of dispute, they espous'd his

Cause, and assisted him to prosecute his Enemies, which he did, till

he brought them all to Justice, expos'd them to the last Degree,

obtain'd the reparation of all his Losses, and a publick Decree of

the Judges of his Justification and future Repose.

Indeed when I saw the Proceedings against this poor Man run to a

heighth so extravagant and monstrous, when I found Malice, Forgery,

Subornation, Perjury, and a thousand unjustifiable Things which their

own Sense, if they had any, might ha' been their Protection against,

and which any Child in the Moon might ha' told them must one time or

other come upon the Stage and expose them; I began to think these

People were all in the Crolian Plot too.

For really such Proceedings as these were the greatest pieces of

Service to the Crolians as could possibly be done; for as it

generally proves in other Places as well as in the Moon, that

Mischief unjustly contriv'd falls upon the Head of the Authors, and

redounds to their treble Dishonour, so it was here; the barbarity and

inhumane Treatment of this Man, made the sober and honest Part even

of the Solanarians themselves blush for their Brethren, and own that

the Punishment awarded on them was just.

Thus the Crolians got ground by the Folly and Madness of their

Enemies, and the very Engines and Plots laid to injure them, serv'd

to bring their Enemies on the Stage, and expose both them and their

Cause.

But this was not all, by these incessant Attacks on them as a Party,

they began to come to their Senses out of a 50 Year slumber, they

found the Law on their side, and the Government Moderate and Just;

they found they might oppose Violence with Law, and that when they

did fly to the Refuge of Justice, they always had the better of their

Enemy; flusht with this Success, it put them upon considering what

Fools they had been all along to bear the Insolence of a few

hot-headed Men, who contrary to the true Intent and Meaning of the

Queen, or of the Government, had resolv'd their Destruction.

It put them upon revolving the State of their own Case, and comparing

it with their Enemies; upon Examining on what foot they stood, and

tho' Establish'd upon a firm Law, yet a violent Party pushing at the

overthrow of that Establishment, and dissolving the legal Right they

had to their Liberty and Religion; it put them upon duly weighing the

nearness of their approaching Ruin and Destruction, and finding

things run so hard against them, reflecting upon the Extremity of

their Affairs, and how if they had not drawn in the High

Church-Champions to damn the Projects of their own Party, by running

at such desperate Extremes as all Men of any Temper must of course

abhor, they had been undone; truly now they began to consider, and to

consult with one another what was to be done.

Abundance of Projects were laid before them, some too Dangerous, some

too Foolish to be put in practice; at last they resolv'd to consult

with my Philosopher.

He had been but scurvily treated by them in his Troubles, and so

Universally abandon'd by the Crolians, that even the Solunarians

themselves insulted them on that Head, and laugh'd at them for

expecting any Body should venture for them again.----- But he

forgetting their unkindness, ask'd them what it was they desir'd of

him?

They told him, they had heard that he had reported he could put the

Crolians in a way to secure themselves from any possibility of being

insulted again by the Solunarians, and yet not disturb the publick

Tranquility, nor break the Laws; and they desir'd him, if he knew

such a Secret, he would communicate it to them, and they would be

sure to remember to forget him for it as long as he liv'd.

He frankly told them he had said so, and it was true, he could put

them in a way to do all this if they would follow his Directions.

What's that, says one of the most earnest Enquirers? ----- 'Tis

included in one Word, says he, UNITE.

This most significant Word, deeply and solidly reflected upon, put

them upon strange and various Conjectures, and many long Debates they

had with themselves about it; at last they came again to him, and

ask'd him what he mean't by it?

He told them he knew they were Strangers to the meaning of the thing,

and therefore if they would meet him the next Day he would come

prepar'd to explain himself; accordingly they meet, when instead of a

long Speech they expected from him what sort of Union he mean't, and

with who, he brings them a Thinking Press, or Cogitator, and setting

it down, goes away without speaking one Word.

This Hyerogliphical Admonition was too plain not to let them all into

his meaning; but still as they are an obstinate People, and not a

little valuing themselves upon their own Knowledge and Penetration,

they slighted the Engine and fell to off-hand-Surmises, Guesses and

Supposes.

1. Some concluded he mean't Unite with the Solunarian Church, and

they reflected upon his Understanding, that not being the Question in

Hand, and something remote from their Intention, or the High

Solunarians Desire.

2. Some mean't Unite to the moderate Party of the Solunarians, and

this they said they had done already.

At last some being very Cunning, found it out, that it must be his

meaning Unite one among another; and even there again they

misunderstood him too; and some imagin'd he mean't down right

Rebellion, Uniting Power, and Mobbing the whole Moon, but he soon

convinc'd them of that too.

At last they took the Hint, that his Advice directed them to Unite

their subdivided Parties into one general Interest, and to act in

Concert upon one bottom, to lay aside the Selfish, Narrow, Suspicious

Spirit; three Qualifications the Crolians were but too justly charg'd

with, and begin to act with Courage, Unanimity and Largeness of Soul,

to open their Eyes to their own Interest, maintain a regular and

constant Correspondence with one another in all parts of the Kingdom,

and to bring their civil Interest into a Form.

The Author of this Advice having thus brought them to understand, and

approve his Proposal, they demanded his assistance for making the

Essay, and 'tis a most wonderful thing to consider what a strange

effect the alteration of their Measures had upon the whole Solunarian

Nation.

As soon as ever they had settled the Methods they resolv'd to act in,

they form'd a general Council of the Heads of their Party, to be

always sitting, to reconcile Differences, to unite Parties, to

suppress Feuds in their beginning.

They appointed 3 general Meetings in 3 of the most remote Parts of

the Kingdom, to be half yearly, and one universal Meeting of Persons

deputed to concert matters among them in General.

By that time these Meetings had sat but once, and the Conduct of the

Council of 12 began to appear, 'twas a wonder to see the prodigious

alteration it made all over the Country.

Immediately a Crolian would never buy any thing but of a Crolian;

would hire no Servants, employ neither Porter nor Carman, but what

were Crolians.

The Crolians in the Country that wrought and manag'd the

Manufactures, would employ no body but Crolian Spinners, Crolian

Weavers, and the like.

In their capital City the Merchandizing Crolians would freight no

Ships but of which the Owners and Commanders were Crolians.

They call'd all their Cash out of the Solunarian Bank; and as the Act

of the Cortez confirming the Bank then in being seem'd to be their

Support, they made it plain that Cash and Credit will make a Bank

without a publick Settlement of Law; and without these all the Laws

in the Moon will never be able to support it.

They brought all their running Cash into one Bank, and settled a

sub-Cash depending upon the Grand-Bank in every Province of the

Kingdom; in which, by a strict Correspondence and crediting their

Bills, they might be able to settle a Paper Credit over the whole

Nation.

They went on to settle themselves in all sorts of Trade in open

Companies, and sold off their Interests in the publick Stocks then in

Trade.

If the Government wanted a Million of Mony upon any Emergency, they

were ready to lend it as a Body, not by different Sums and private

Hands blended together with their Enemies, but as will appear at

large presently, it was only Crolian Mony, and pass'd as such.

Nor were the Consequences of this New Model less considerable than

the Proposer expected, for the Crolians being generally of the

Trading Manufacturing part of the World, and very Rich; the influence

this method had upon the common People, upon Trade, and upon the

Publick was very considerable every way.

1. All the Solunarian Trades-Men and Shop-keepers were at their Wits

end, they sat in their Shops and had little or nothing to do, while

the Shops of the Crolians were full of Customers, and their People

over Head and Ears in Business; this turn'd many of the Solunarian

Trades-Men quite off of the hooks, and they began to break and decay

strangely, till at last a great many of them to prevent their utter

Ruin, turn'd Crolians on purpose to get a Trade; and what forwarded

that part of it was, that when a Solunarian, who had little or no

Trade before, came but over to the Crolians, immediately every Body

come to Trade with him, and his Shop would be full of Customers, so

that this presently encreas'd the number of the Crolians.

2. The poor People in the Countries, Carders, Spinners, Weavers,

Knitters, and all sorts of Manufacturers, run in Crowds to the

Crolian Temples for fear of being starv'd, for the Crolians were two

thirds of the Masters or Employers in the Manufactures all over the

Country, and the Poor would ha' been starv'd and undone if they had

cast them out of Work. Thus infenfibly the Crolians encreas'd their

number.

3. The Crolians being Men of vast Cash, they no sooner withdrew their

Mony from the General Bank but the Bank languisht, Credit sunk, and

in a short time they had little to do, but dissolv'd of Course.

One thing remain'd which People expected would ha' put a Check to

this Undertaking, and that was a way of Trading in Classes, or

Societies, much like our East-India Companies in England; and these

depending upon publick Privileges granted by the Queen of the

Country, or her Predecessors, no Body could Trade to those Parts but

the Persons who had those priviledges: The cunning Crolians, who had

great Stocks in those Trades, and foresaw they could not Trade by

themselves without the publick Grant or Charter, contriv'd a way to

get almost all that Capital Trade into their Hands as follows.

They concerted Matters, and all at once fell to selling off their

Stock, giving out daily Reports that they would be no longer

concern'd, that it was a losing Trade, that the Fund at bottom was

good for nothing, and that of two Societies the Old one had not 20

per Cent. to divide, all their Debts being paid; that the New Society

had Traded several Years, but if they were dissolv'd could not say

that they had got any thing; and that this must be a Cheat at last,

and so they resolv'd to sell.

By this Artifice, they daily offering to Sale, and yet in all their

Discourse discouraging the thing they were to sell no Body could be

found to buy.

The offering a thing to Sale and no Bidders, is a certain

never-failing prospect of a lowring the Price; from this Method

therefore the value of all the Banks, Companies, Societies and Stocks

in the Country fell to be little or nothing worth; and that was to be

bought for 40 or 45 Lunarians that was formerly sold at 150, and so

in proportion of all the rest.

All this while the Crolians employ'd their Emissaries to buy up

privately all the Interest or Shares in these Things that any of the

Solunarian Party would sell.

This Plot took readily, for these Gentlemen exposing the weakness of

these Societies, and running down the value of their Stocks, and at

the same time warily buying at the lowest Prices, not only in time

got Possession of the whole Trade, with their Grants, Privileges and

Stocks, but got into them at a prodigiously low and despicable Price.

They had no sooner thus worm'd them out of the Trade, and got the

greatest part of the Effects in their own Hands, and consequently the

whole Management, but they run up the Price of the Funds again as

high as ever, and laught at the folly of those that sold out.

Nor could the other People make any Reflections upon the honesty of

the practice, for it was no Original, but had its birth among the

Solunarians themselves, of whom 3 or 4 had frequently made a Trade of

raising and lowring the Funds of the Societies by all the Clandestine

Contrivances in the World, and had ruin'd abundance of Families to

raise their own Fortunes and Estates.

One of the greatest Merchants in the Moon rais'd himself by this

Method to such a heighth of Wealth, that he left all his Children

married to Grandees, Dukes, and Great Folks; and from a Mechanick

Original, they are now rankt among the Lunarian Nobility, while

multitudes of ruin'd Families helpt to build his Fortune, by sinking

under the Knavery of his Contrivance.

His Brother in the same Iniquity, being at this time a Man of the

Feather, has carry'd on the same intrieguing Trade with all the Face

and Front imaginable; it has been nothing with him to persuade his

most intimate Friends to Sell, or Buy, just as he had occasion for

his own Interest to have it rise, or fall, and so to make his own

Market of their Misfortune. Thus he has twice rais'd his Fortunes,

for the House of Feathers demolisht him once, and yet he has by the

same clandestine Management work'd himself up again.

This civil way of Robbing Houses, for I can esteem it no better, was

carry'd on by a middle sort of People, call'd in the Moon

BLOUTEGONDEGOURS, which which signifies Men with two Tongues, or in

English, Stock-Jobbing Brokers.

These had formerly such an unlimited Power and were so numerous, that

indeed they govern'd the whole Trade of the Country; no Man knew when

he Bought or Sold, for tho' they pretended to Buy and Sell, and

Manage for other Men whose Stocks they had very much at Command, yet

nothing was more frequent than when they bought a thing cheap, to buy

it for themselves; if dear, for their Employer; if they were to Sell,

if the Price rise, it was Sold, if it Fell, it was Unsold; and by

this Art no body got any Mony but themselves, that at last, excepting

the two capital Men we spoke of before, these govern'd the Prizes of

all things, and nothing could be Bought or Sold to Advantage but

thro' their hands; and as the Profit was prodigious, their number

encreas'd accordingly, so that Business seem'd engross'd by these

Men, and they govern'd the main Articles of Trade.

This Success, and the Imprudence of their Conduct, brought great

Complaints against them to the Government, and a Law was made to

restrain them, both in Practice and Number.

This Law has in some measure had its Effect, the number is not only

lessen'd, but by chance some honester Men than usual are got in among

them, but they are so very, very, very Few, hardly enough to save a

Man's Credit that shall vouch for them.

Nay, some People that pretend to understand their Business better

than I do, having been of their Number, have affirm'd, it is

impossible to be honest in the employment.

I confess when I began to search into the Conduct of these Men, at

least of some of them, I found there were abundance of black Stories

to be told of them, a great deal known, and a great deal more

unknown; for they were from the beginning continually Encroaching

into all sorts of People and Societies, and in Conjunction with some

that were not qualify'd by Law, but meerly Voluntarily, call'd in the

Moon by a hard long Word, in English signifying PROJECTORS these

erected Stocks in Shadows, Societies in Nubibus, and Bought and Sold

meer Vapour, Wind, Emptiness and Bluster for Mony, till they drew

People in to lay out their Cash, and then laught at them.

Thus they erected Paper Societies, Linnen Societies, Sulphur

Societies, Copper Societies, Glass Societies, Sham Banks, and a

thousand mock Whimsies to hook unwary People in; at last sold

themselves out, left the Bubble to float a little in the Air, and

then vanish of it self.

The other sort of People go on after all this; and tho' these

Projectors began to be out of Fashion, they always found one thing or

other to amuse and deceive the Ignorant, and went Jobbing on into all

manner of things, Publick as well as Private, whether the Revenue,

the Publick Funds, Loans, Annuities, Bear-Skins, or any thing.

Nay they were once grown to that extravagant highth, that they began

to Stock-Job the very Feathers of the Consolidator, and in time the

King's employing those People might have had what Feathers they had

occasion for, without concerning the Proprietors of the Lands much

about them.

'Tis true this began to be notorious, and receiv'd some check in a

former meeting of the Feathers; but even now, when I came away, the

three Years expiring, and by Course a new Consolidator being to be

built, they were as busie as ever. Bidding, Offering, Procuring,

Buying, Selling, and Jobbing of Feathers to who bid most; and

notwithstanding several late wholesome and strict Laws against all

manner of Collusion, Bribery and clandestine Methods, in the

Countries procuring these Feathers; never was the Moon in such an

uproar about picking and culling the Feathers, such Bribery, such

Drunkenness, such Caballing, especially among the High Solunarian

Clergy and the Lazognians, such Feasting, Fighting and Distraction,

as the like has never been known.

And that which is very Remarkable, all this not only before the Old

Consolidator was broke up, but even while it was actually whole and

in use.

Had this hurry been to send up good Feathers, there had been the less

to say, but that which made it very strange to me was, that where the

very worst of all the Feathers were to be found, there was the most

of this wicked Work; and tho' it was bad enough every where, yet the

greatest bustle and contrivance was in order to send up the worst

Feathers they could get.

And indeed some Places such Sorry, Scoundrel, Empty, Husky, Wither'd,

Decay'd Feathers were offer'd to the Proprietors, that I have

sometimes wonder'd any one could have the Impudence to send up such

ridiculous Feathers to make a Consolidator, which, as is before

observ'd, is an Engine of such Beauty, Usefulness and Necessity.

And still in all my Observation, this Note came in my way, there was

always the most bustle and disturbance about the worst Feathers.

It was really a melancholly Thing to consider, and had this Lunar

World been my Native Country, I should ha' been full of concern to

see that one thing, on which the welfare of the whole Nation so much

depended, put in so ill a Method, and gotten into the management of

such Men, who for Mony would certainly ha' set up such Feathers, that

wherever the Consolidator should be form'd, it would certainly

over-set the first Voyage; and if the whole Nation should happen to

be Embarkt in it, on the dangerous Voyage to the Moon, the fall would

certainly give them such a Shock, as would put them all into

Confusion, and open the Door to the Gallunarian, or any Foreign Enemy

to destroy them.

It was really strange that this should be the Case, after so many

Laws, and so lately made, against it; but in this, those People are

too like our People in England, who have the best Laws the worst

executed of any Nation under Heaven.

For in the Moon this hurry about choosing of Feathers was grown to

the greatest heighth imaginable, as if it encreast by the very Laws

that were made to suppress it; for now at a certain publick Place

where the Bloutegondegours us'd to meet every Day, any Body that had

but Mony enough might buy a Feather at a reasonable Rate, and never

go down into the Country to fetch it; nay, the Trade grew so hot,

that of a sudden as if no other Business was in Hand, all people were

upon it, and the whole Market was chang'd from Selling of Bear-Skins,

to Buying of Feathers.

Some gave this for a Reason why all the Stocks of the Societies fell

so fast, but there were other Reasons to be given for that, such as

Clubs, Cabals, Stock-Jobbers, Knights, Merchants and Thie---s. I mean

a private Sort, not such as are frequently Hang'd there, but of a

worse Sort, by how much they merit that Punishment more, but are out

of the reach of the Law, can Rob and pick Pockets in the Face of the

Sun, and laugh at the Families they Ruin, bidding Defiance to all

legal Resentment.

To this height things were come under the growing Evil of this sort

of People.

And yet in the very Moon where, as I have noted, the People are so

exceeding clear Sighted, and have such vast helps to their perceptive

Faculties, such Mists are sometimes cast before the publick

Understanding, that they cannot see the general Interest.

This was manifest, in that just as I came away from that Country, the

great Council of their Wise Men, the Men of the Feather, were a going

to repeal the old Law of Restraining the Number of these People; and

tho' as it was, there was not Employment for half of them, there

being 100 in all, and not above 5 honest ones; yet when I came away

they were going to encrease their Number. I have nothing to say to

this here, only that all Wise Men that understand Trade were very

much concern'd at it, and lookt upon it as a most destructive Thing

to the Publick, and forboding the same mischiefs that Trade suffer'd

before.

It was the particular Misfortune to these Lunar People that this

Country had a better Stock of Governors in all Articles of their

Well-fare, than in their Trade; their Law Affairs had good Judges,

their Church good Patriarchs, except, as might be excepted; their

State good Ministers, their Army good Generals, and their

Consolidator good Feathers; but in Matters relating to Trade, they

had this particular Misfortune, that those Cases always came before

People that did not understand them.

Even the Judges themselves were often found at a Loss to determine

Causes of Negoce, such as Protests, Charter-Parties, Avarages,

Baratry, Demorage of Ships, Right of detaining Vessels on Demorage,

and the like; nay, the very Laws themselves are fain to be silent and

yield in many things a Superiority to the Custom of Merchants.

And here I began to Congratulate my Native Country, where the

Prudence of the Government has provided for these things, by

Establishing in a Commission of Trade some of the most experienc'd

Gentlemen in the Nation, to Regulate, Settle, Improve, and revive

Trade in General, by their unwearyed Labours, and most consummate

Understanding; and this made me pity these Countries, and think it

would be an Action worthy of this Nation, and be spoken of for Ages

to come to their Glory, if in meer Charity they would appoint or

depute these Gentlemen to go a Voyage to those Countries of the Moon,

and bless those Regions with the Schemes of their sublime

Undertakings, and discoveries in Trade.

But when I was expressing my self thus, my Philosopher interrupted

me, and told me I should see they were already furnisht for that

purpose, when I came to examine the publick Libraries, of which by it

self.

But I was farther confirm'd in my Observation of the weakness of the

publick Heads of that Country, as to Trade, when I saw another most

preposterous Law going forward among them, the Title of which was

specious, and contain'd something relating to employing the Poor, but

the substance of it absolutely destructive to the very Nature of

their Trade, tending to Transposing, Confounding and Destroying their

Manufactures, and to the Ruin of all their Home-Commerce; never was

Nation so blind to their own Interest as these Lunarian Law Makers,

and the People who were the Contrivers of this Law were so vainly

Conceited, so fond of the guilded Title, and so positively Dogmatick,

that they would not hear the frequent Applications of Persons better

acquainted with those things than themselves, but pusht it on meerly

by the strength of their Party, for the Vanity of being Authors of

such a Contrivance.

But to return to the new Model of the Crolians. The advice of the

Lunarian Philosopher run now thro' all their Affairs, UNITE was the

Word thro' all the Nation, in Trade, in Cash, in Stocks, as I noted

before.

If a Solunarian Ship was bound to any Out Port, no Crolian would load

any Goods aboard; if any Ship came to seek Freight abroad, none of

the Crolians Correspondents would Ship any thing unless they knew the

Owners were Crolians; the Crolian Merchants turn'd out all their

Solunarian Masters, Sailors and Captains from their Ships; and thus,

as the Solunarians would have them be separated in respect of the

Government, Profits, Honours and Offices, they resolv'd to separate

in every thing else too, and to stand by themselves.

At last, upon some publick Occasion, the publick Treasurers of the

Land sent to the capital City, to borrow 500000 Lunarians upon very

good Security of establisht Funds; truly no Body would lend any Mony,

or at least they could not raise above a 5th part of that Sum,

enquiring at the Bank, at their general Societies Cash, and other

Places, all was languid and dull, and no Mony to be had; but being

inform'd that the Crolians had erected a Bank of their own, they sent

thither, and were answered readily, that whatever Sum the Government

wanted, was at their Service, only it was to be lent not by

particular Persons, but such a Grandee being one of the prime

Nobility, and who the Crolians now call'd their Protector, was to be

Treated with about it.

The Government saw no harm in all this; here was no Law broken, here

was nothing but Oppression answered with Policy, and Mischief fenc'd

against with Reason.

The Government therefore took no Notice of it, nor made any Scruple

when they wanted any Mony to Treat with this Nobleman, and borrow any

Sum of the Crolians, as Crolians; on the contrary in the Name of the

Crolians; their Head or Protector presented their Addresses and

Petitions, procur'd Favours on one Hand, and Assistance on the other;

and thus by degrees and insensibly the Crolians became a Politick

Body, settled and establish'd by Orders and Rules among themselves;

and while a Spirit of Unanimity thus run thro' all their Proceedings,

their Enemies could never hurt them, their Princes always saw it was

their Interest to keep Measures with them, and they were sure to have

Justice upon any Complaint whatsoever.

When I saw this, it forc'd me to reflect upon Affairs in our own

Country; Well, said I, 'tis happy for England that our Dissenters

have not this Spirit of Union and Largeness of Heart among them; for

if they were not a Narrow, mean-Spirited, short-Sighted,

self-Preserving, friend-Betraying, poor-Neglecting People, they might

ha' been every way as Safe, as Considerable, as Regarded and as

Numerous as the Crolians in the Moon; but it is not in their Souls to

do themselves Good, nor to Espouse, or Stand by those that would do

it for them; and 'tis well for the Church-Men that it is so, for many

Attempts have been made to save them, but their own narrowness of

Soul, and dividedness in Interest has always prevented its being

effectual, and discourag'd all the Instruments that ever attempted to

serve them.

'Tis confest the Case was thus at first among the Crolians, they were

full of Divisions among themselves, as I have noted already of the

Solunarians, and the unhappy Feuds among them, had always not only

expos'd them to the Censure, Reproach and Banter of their Solunarian

Enemies, but it had serv'd to keep them under, prevent their being

valued in the Government, and given the other Party vast Advantages

against.

But the Solunarians driving thus furiously at their Destruction and

entire Ruin, open'd their Eyes to the following Measures for their

preservation: And here again the high Solunarians may see, and

doubtless whenever they made use of the Lunar-Glasses they must see

it, that nothing could ha' driven the Crolians to make use of such

Methods for their Defence, but the rash Proceedings of their own warm

Men, in order to suppressing the whole Crolian Interest. And this

might inform our Country-men of the Church of England, that it cannot

but be their Interest to Treat their Brethren with Moderation and

Temper, least their Extravagances should one time or other drive the

other as it were by Force into their Senses, and open their Eyes to

do only all those Things which by Law they may do, and which they are

laught at by all the World for not doing.

This was the very Case in the Moon: The Philosopher, or

pretended-such as before, had often publish'd, that it was their

Interest to UNITE; but their Eyes not being open to the true Causes

and Necessity of it, their Ears were shut against the Council, till

Oppression and Necessities drove them to it.

Accordingly they entred into a serious Debate, of the State of their

own Affairs, and finding the Advice given, very reasonable; they set

about it, and the Author gave them a Model, Entitl'd An enquiry into

what the Crolians may lawfully do, to prevent the certain Ruin of

their Interest, and bring their Enemies to Peace.

I will not pretend to examine the Contents of this sublime Tract; but

from this very Day, we found the Crolians in the Moon, acting quite

on a different Foot from all their former Conduct, putting on a new

Temper, and a new Face, as you have hear'd.

All this while the hot Solunarians cried out Plots, Associations,

Confederacies, and Rebellions, when indeed here was nothing done but

what the Laws justify'd, what Reason directed, and what had the

Crolians but made use of the Cogitator, they would ha' done 40 Year

before.

The Truth is, the other People had no Remedy, but to cry Murther, and

make a Noise; for the Crolians went on with their Affairs, and

Establisht themselves so, that when I came away, they were become a

most Solid, and well United Body, made a considerable Figure in the

Nation, and yet the Government was easy; for the Solunarians found

when they had attain'd the utmost end of their Wishes, her Solunarian

Majesty was as safe as before, and the Crolians Property being

secur'd, they were as Loyal Subjects as the Solunarians, as

consistent with Monarchy, as useful to it, and as pleas'd with it.

I cannot but Remark here, that this Union of the Crolians among

themselves had another Consequence, which made it appear it was not

only to their own Advantage, but to the general Good of all the

Natien.

For, by little, and little, the Feuds of the Parties cool'd, and the

Solunarians began to be better reconcil'd to them; the Government was

easy and safe, and the private Quarrels, as I have been told since,

begin to be quite forgot.

What Blindness, said I to my self, has possest the Dissenters in our

unhappy Country of England, where by eternal Discords, Feuds,

Distrusts and Disgusts among themselves, they always fill their

Enemies with Hopes, that by pushing at them, they may one time or

other compleat their Ruin; which Expectation has always serv'd as a

means to keep open the Quarrel; whereas had the Dissenters been

United in Interest, Affection and Mannagement among themselves, all

this Heat had long ago been over, and the Nation, tho' there had been

two Opinions had retain'd but one Interest, been joyn'd in Affection,

and Peace at Home been rais'd up to that Degree that all Wise Men

wish, as it is now among the Inhabitants of the World in the Moon.

Tis true, in all the Observations I made in this Lunar Country, the

vast deference paid to the Persons of Princes began to lessen, and

whatever Respect they had for the Office, they found it necessary

frequently to tell the World that on occasion, they could Treat them

with less Respect than they pretended to owe them.

For about this time, the Divine Right of Kings, and the Inheritances

of Princes in the Moon, met with a terrible Shock, and that by the

Solunarian Party themselves; and insomuch that even my Philosopher,

and he was none of the Jure Divino Men, neither declar'd, against it.

They made Crowns perfect Foot-balls, set up what Kings they would,

and pull'd down such as they did not like, Ratitione Voluntas, right

or wrong, as they thought best, of which some Examples shall be given

by and by.

After I had thus enquir'd into the Historical Affairs of this Lunar

Nation, which for its Similitude to my Native Country, I could not

but be inquisitive in; I wav'd a great many material Things, which at

least I cannot enter upon the Relation of here, and began to enquire

into their Affairs abroad.

I think I took notice in the beginning of my Account of these parts,

that I found them engag'd in a tedious and bloody War, with one of

the most mighty Monarchs of all the Moon.

I must therefore hint, that among the multitude of things, which for

brevity sake I omit, the Reader may observe these were some.

1. That this was the same Monarch who harbour'd and entertain'd the

Abrogratzian Prince, who was fled as before, and who we are to call

the King of Gallunaria.

2. I have omitted the Account of a long and bloody War, which lasted

a great many Years, and which the present Queens Predecessor,

mannag'd with a great deal of Bravery and Conduct, and finisht very

much to his own Glory, and the Nations Advantage.

3. I have too much omitted to Note, how Barbarously the High

Solunarian Church Men treated him for all his Services, upbraided him

with the Expence of the War; and tho' he sav'd them all from Ruin and

Abrogratzianism, yet had not one good Word for him, and indeed 'tis

with some difficulty that I pass this over, because it might be

necessary to observe, besides what is said before, that Ingratitude

is a Vice in Nature, and practis'd every where, as well as in

England. So that we need not upbraid the Party among us with their

ill Treatment of the late King, for these People us'd their good King

every Jot as bad, till their unkindness perfectly broke his Heart.

Here also I am oblig'd to omit the Historical Part of the War, and of

the Peace that follow'd; only I must observe that this Peace was very

Precarious, Short and Unhappy, and in a few Months the War broke out

again, with as much Fury as ever.

In this War happen'd one of the strangest, unaccountable and most

preposterous Actions, that ever a People in their National Capacity

could be guilty of.

Certainly if our People in England, who pretend that Kingship is Jure

Divino, did but know the Story of which I speak, they would be quite

of another Mind; wherefore I crave leave to relate part of the

History, or Original of this last War, as a necessary Introduction to

the proper Observations I shall make upon it.

There was a King of a certain Country in the Moon, call'd in their

Language, Ebronia, who was formerly a Confederate with the

Solunarians. This Prince dying without Issue, the great Monarch we

speak of, seiz'd upon all his Dominions as his Right.----- Tho' if I

remember right, he had formerly Sworn never to lay Claim to it, and

after that by a subsequent Treaty had agreed with the Solunarian

Prince, that another Monarch who claim'd a Right as well as he,

should divide it between them.

The breach of this Agreement, and seizing this Kingdom, put almost

all the Lunar World into a Flame, and War hung over the Heads of all

the Northern Nations of the Moon, for several Claims were made to the

Succession by other Princes, and particularly by a certain Potent

Prince call'd the Eagle, of an Ancient Family, whose Lunar Name I

cannot well express, but in English it signifies the Men of the great

Lip; whether it was Originally a sort of a Nick Name, or whether they

had any such thing as a great Lip Hereditary to the Family, by which

they were distinguisht, is not worth my while to Examine.

'Tis without question that the successive Right, if their Lunar

Successions, are Govern'd as ours are in this world, devolv'd upon

this Man with the Lip and his Families; but the Gallunarian Monarch

brought things so to pass, by his extraordinary Conduct, that the

Ebronian King was drawn in by some of his Nobility, who this Prince

had Bought and Brib'd to betray their Country to his Interest, and

particularly a certain High Priest of that Country, to make an

Assignment, or deed of Gift of all his Dominions to the Grandson of

this Gallunarian Monarch.

By Vertue of this Gift, or Legacy, as soon as the King dyed, who was

then languishing, and as the other Parry alledg'd, not in a very good

capacity to make a Will; the Gallunarian King sent his Grandson to

seize upon the Crown, and backing him with suitable Forces, took

Possession of all his strong Fortifications and Frontiers.

Nor was this all, the Man with the Lip indeed talkt big, and

threatned War immediately, but the Solunarians were so unsettl'd at

Home, so unprepar'd for War, having but just dismist their Auxiliar

Troops, and disbanded their own, and the Prince was so ill serv'd by

his Subjects, that both he and a Powerful Neighbour, Nations in the

same Interest, were meerly Bullyed by this Gallunarian; and as he

threatned immediately to Invade them, which they were then in no

Condition to prevent, he forc'd them both to submit to his Demand,

tacitely allow what he had done in breaking the Treaty with him, and

at last openly acknowledge his new King.

This was indeed a most unaccountable Step, but there was a necessity

to plead, for he was at their very Doors with his Forces; and this

Neighbouring People, who they call Mogenites, could not resist him

without help from the Solunarians, which they were very backward in,

notwithstanding the earnest Sollicitations of their Prince, and

notwithstanding they were oblig'd to do it by a solemn Treaty.

These delays oblig'd them to this strange Step of acknowledging the

Invasion of their Enemy, and pulling off the Hat to the New King he

had set up.

'Tis true, the Policy of these Lunar Nations was very Remarkable in

this Case, and they out-witted the Gallunarian Monarch in it; for by

the owning this Prince, whom they immediately after Declar'd a

Usurper, and made War against; they stopt the Mouth of the

Gallunarian his Grandfather, took from him all pretence of Invading

them, and making him believe they were Sincere, Wheedl'd him to

restore several Thousands of their Men who he had taken Prisoners in

the Frontier Towns of the Ebronians.

Had the Gallunarian Prince had but the forecast to ha' seen, that

this was but a forc'd pretence to gain Time, and that as soon as they

had their Troops clear and Time to raise more, they would certainly

turn upon him again, he would never ha' been put by with so weak a

Trifle as the Ceremony of Congratulation; whereas had he immediately

pusht at them with all his Forces, they must ha' been Ruin'd, and he

had carry'd his Point without much Interruption.

But here he lost his Opportunity, which he never retriev'd; for 'tis

in the Moon, just as 'tis here, when an Occasion is lost, it is not

easy to be recover'd, for both the Solunarians and the Mogenites

quickly threw off the Mask, and declaring this new Prince an Usurper,

and his Grandfather an Unjust breaker of Treaties, they prepar'd for

War against them both.

As to the Honesty of this matter, my Philosopher and I differ'd

extremely, he exclaim'd against the Honour of acknowledging a King,

with a design to Depose him, and pretending Peace when War is

design'd; tho' 'tis true, they are too customary in our World; but

however, as to him I insisted upon the lawfulness of it, from the

universal Custom of Nations, who generally do things ten times more

Preposterous and Inconsistent, when they suit their Occasions. Yet I

hope no Body will think I am recommending them by this Relation to

the Practice of our own Nations, but rather exposing them as

unaccountable things never to be put in Practice, without quitting

all pretences to Justice and national Honesty.

The Case was this.

As upon the Progress of Matters before related, the Solunarians and

Mogenites had made a formal acknowledgment of this new Monarch, the

Grandson of the Gallunarian King, so as I have hinted already, they

had no other design than to Depose him, and pull him down.

Accordingly, as soon as by the aforesaid Wile they had gain'd Breath,

and furnisht themselves with Forces, they declar'd War against both

the Gallunarian King, and his Grandson, and entred into strict

Confederacy with the Man of the great Lip, who was the Monarch of the

Eagle, and who by right of Succession, had the true Claim to the

Ebronian Crowns.

In these Declarations they alledge that Crowns do not descend by

Gift, nor are Kingdoms given away by Legacy, like a Gold Ring at a

Funeral, and therefore this young Prince could have no Right, the

former deceas'd King having no Right to dispose it by Gift.

I must allow, that judging by our Reason, and the Practice in our

Countries here, on this side the Moon; this seem'd plain, and I saw

no difference in matters of Truth there, or here, but Right and

Liberty both of Princes and People seems to be the same in that

World, as it is in this, and upon this account I thought the Reasons

of this War very Just, and that the Claim of Right to the Succession

of the Ebronian Crown, was undoubtedly in the Man with the Lip, and

his Heirs, and so far the War was most Just, and the Design

reasonable.

And thus far my Lunar Companion agreed with me, and had they gone on

so, says he, they had my good Wishes, and my Judgment had been

Witness to my Pretences, that they were in the right.

But in the prosecution of this War, says he, they went on to one of

the most Impolitick, Ridiculous, Dishonest, and Inconsistent Actions,

that ever any Nation in the Moon was guilty of; the Fact was thus.

Having agreed among themselves that the Ebronian Crown should not be

possest by the Gallunarian King's Grandson, they in the next Place

began to consider who should have it.

The Man with the Lip had the Title, but he had a great Government of

his own, Powerful, Happy and Remote, being as is noted, the Lord of

the great Eagle, and he told them he could not pretend to come to

Ebronia to be a King there; his eldest Son truly was not only

declar'd Heir apparent to his Father, but had another Lunarian

Kingdom of his own still more remote than that, and he would not quit

all this for the Crown of Ebronia, so it was concerted by all the

Confederated Parties, that the second Son of this Prince, the Man

with the Lip, should be declar'd King, and here lay the Injustice of

all the Case.

I confess at my first examining this Matter, I did not see far into

it, nor could I reach the Dishonesty of it, and perhaps the Reader of

these Sheets may be in the same Case; but my old Lunarian Friend

being continually exclaiming against the Matter, and blaming his

Country-men the Solunarians for the Dishonesty of it, but especially

the Mogenites, he began to be something peevish with me that I should

be so dull as not to reach it, and askt me if he should screw me into

the Thinking-Press for the Clearing up my Understanding.

At last he told me he would write his particular Sentiments of this

whole Affair in a Letter to me, which he would so order as it should

effectually open mine Eyes; which indeed it did, and so I believe it

will the Eyes of all that read it; to which purpose I have obtain'd

of the Author to assist me in the Translation of it, he having some

Knowledge also in our Sublunar Languages.

The Sustance of a Letter, wrote to the Author of these Sheets, while

he was in the Regions of the Moon.

'Friend from the Moon,

'According to my promise, I hereby give you a Scheme of Solunarian

Honesty, join'd with Mogenite Policy, and my Opinion of the Action of

my Country-men and their Confederates, in declaring their new made

Ebronian King.

'The Mogenites and Solunarians are look'd upon here to be the

Original Contrivers of this ridiculous piece of Pageantry, and tho'

some of their Neighbours are suppos'd to have a Hand in it, yet we

all lay it at the door of their Politicks, and for the Honesty of it

let them answer it if they can.

''Tis observ'd here, that as soon as the King of Gallunaria had

declar'd that he accepted the Will and Disposition of the Crown of

Ebronia, in favour of his Grandson, and that according to the said

Disposition, he had own'd him for King; and in order to make it

effectual, had put him into immediate Possession of the Kingdom. The

Mogenites and their Confederates made wonderful Clamours at the

Injustice of his Proceedings, and particularly on account of his

breaking the Treaty then lately entred into with the King of the

Solunarians and the Mogenites, for the settling the Matter of Right

and Possession, in case of the Demise of the Ebronian King.

'However, the King of Gallunaria had no sooner plac'd his Grandson on

the Throne, but the Mogenites and other Nations, and to all our

Wonder, the King of Solunaria himself acknowledg'd him, own'd him,

sent their Ministers, and Compliments of Congratulation, and the

like, giving him the Title of King of Ebronia.

'Tho' this proceeding had something of Surprize in it, and all Men

expected to see something more than ordinary Politick in the effect

of it, yet it did not give half the astonishment to the Lunar World,

as this unaccountable Monster of Politicks begins to do.

'We have here two unlucky Fellows, call'd Pasquin and Marforio, these

had a long Dialogue about this very Matter, and Pasquin as he always

lov'd Mischief, told a very unlucky Story to his Comrade, of a high

Mogenite Skipper, as follows.

'A Mogenite Ship coming from a far Country, the Custom House Officers

found some Goods on Board, which were Controband, and for which they

pretended the Ship and Goods were all Confiscated; the Skipper, or

Captain in a great Fright, comes up to the Custom-House, and being

told he must Swear to something relating to his taking in those

Goods, reply'd in his Country Jargon, Ya, dat sall Ick doen Myn Heer;

or in English, Ay, Ay, I'll Swear.----- But finding they did not

assure him that it would clear his Ship he scruples the Oath again,

at which they told him it would clear his Ship immediately. Hael,

well Myn Heer, says the Mogen Man, vat mot Ick sagen, Ick sall all

Swear myn Skip to salvare, i.e. I shall Swear any thing to save my

Skip.

'We apply this Story thus.

'If the Mogenites did acknowledge the King of Ebronia, we did believe

it was done to save the Skip; and when they reproacht the Gallunarian

King, with breaking the Treaty of Division, we us'd to say we would

all break thro' twice as many Engagements for half as much Advantage.

'This setting up a new King, against a King on the Throne,

Acknowledg'd and Congratulated by them, is not only look'd on in the

Lunar World, as a thing Ridiculous, but particularly Infamous, that

they should first acknowledge a King, and then set up the Title of

another. If the Title of the first Ebronian King be good, this must

be an Impostor, an Usurper of another Man's Right; if it was not

good, why did they acknowledge him, and give him the full Title of

all the Ebronian Dominions? Caress and Congratulate him, and make a

publick Action of it to his Ambassador.

'Will they tell us they were Bully'd, and Frighted into it? that is

to own they may be hufft into an ill Action; for owing a Man in the

Posession of what is none of his own, is an ill thing, and he that

may be hufft into one ill Action, may by Consequence be hufft into

another, and so into any thing.

'What will they say for doing it? we have heard there has been in the

World you came from, a way found out to own Kings de Facto, but not

de Jure; if they will fly to that ridiculous Shift, let them tell the

World so, that we may know what they mean, for those foolish things

are not known here.

'If they own'd the King of Ebronia voluntarily, and acknowledg'd his

Right as we thought they had; how then can this young Gentleman have

a Title, unless they have found out a new Division, and so will have

two Kings of Ebronia, make them Partners, and have a Gallunarian King

of Ebronia, and a Mogenite King of Ebronia, both together?

'Our Lunar Nations, Princes and States, whatever they may do in your

World, always seek for some Pretences at least to make their Actions

seem Honest, whither they are so or no; and therefore they generally

publish Memorials, Manifesto's and Declarations, of their Reasons

why, and on what account they do so, or so; that those who have any

Grounds to charge them with Unjustice, may be answer'd, and silenc'd;

'tis for the People in your Country, to fall upon their Neighbours,

only because they will do it, and make probability of Conquest, a

sufficient Reason of Conquest; the Lunarian Nations are seldom so

destitute of Modesty, but that they will make a shew of Justice, and

make out the Reasons of their Proceedings; and tho' sometimes we find

even the Reasons given for some Actions are weak enough; yet it is a

bad Cause indeed, that can neither have a true Reason, nor a

pretended one. The custom of the Moon has oblig'd us to show so much

respect to Honesty, that when our Actions have the least colour of

Honesty, yet we will make Reasons to look like a Defence, whether it

be so or no.

'But here is an Action that has neither reality, nor pretence, here

is not Face enough upon it to bear an Apology. First, they

acknowledge one King, and then set up another King against him;

either they first acknowledg'd a wrong King, and thereby became

Parties to a Usurper, or they act now against all the Rules of common

Justice in the World, to set up a sham King, to pull down a true one,

only because 'tis their Interest to have it so.

'This makes the very Name of a Solunarian scandalous to all the Moon,

and Mankind look upon them with the utmost Prejudice, as if they were

a Nation who had sold all their Honesty to their Interest; and who

could act this way to Day, and that way to Morrow, without any regard

to Truth, or the Rule of Honour, Equity or Conscience; This is

Swearing any thing to save the Skip; and never let any Man Reproach

the Gallunarian King with breaking the Treaty of Division, and

disregarding the Faith and Stipulations of Leagues; for this is an

Action so inconsistent with it self, so incongruous to common

Justice, to the Reason and Nature of things, that no History of any

of these latter Times can parallel it, and 'tis past the Power of Art

to make any reasonable Defence for it.

'Indeed some lame Reasons are given for it by our Polititians. First,

they say the Prince with the great Lip was extremely prest by the

Gallunarians at Home in his own Country, and not without

apprehensions of seeing them e'er long, under the Walls of his

capital City.

'From this circumstance of the Man with the Lip, 'twas not irrational

to expect that he might be induc'd to make a separate Peace with the

Gallunarians, and serve them as he did once the Prince of Berlindia

at the Treaty of Peace in a former War, where he deserted him after

the solemnest Engagements never to make Peace without him; but his

pressing Occasions requiring it, concluded a Peace without him, and

left him to come out of the War, as well as he could, tho' he had

come into it only for his Assistance. Now finding him in danger of

being ruin'd by the Gallunarian Power, and judging from former

Practice in like Cases, that he might be hurry'd into a Peace, and

leave them in the Lurch; they have drawn him into this Labrinth, as

into a Step, which can never be receded from without the utmost

Affront and Disgrace, either to the Family of the Gallunarian, or of

the Lip; an Action which in its own Nature, is a Defiance of the

whole Gallunarian Power, and without any other Manifesto, may be

taken as a Declaration from the House of the Lip, to the Gallunarian,

that this War shall never end, till one of those two Families are

ruin'd and reduc'd.

'What Condition the Prince with the Lip's Power is in, to make such a

huff at this Time, shall come under Examination by and by; in the

mean time the Solunarians have clench'd the Nail, and secur'd the War

to last as long as they think convenient.

'If the Gallunarians should get the better, and reduce the Man with

the Lip to Terms never so disadvantageous, he cannot now make a Peace

without leave from the Solunarians and the Mogenites, least his Son

should be ruin'd also.----- Or if he should make Articles for

himself, it must be with ten times the Dishonour that he might have

done before.

'Politicians say, 'tis never good for a Prince to put himself into a

case of Desperation. This is drawing the Sword, and throwing away the

Scabbard; if a Disaster should befal him, his Retreat is impossible,

and this must have been done only to secure the Man with the Lip from

being hufft, or frighted into a separate Peace.

'The second Reason People here give, why the Solunarians are

concerning themselves in this Matter, is drawn from Trade.

'The continuing of Ebronia in the Hands of the Gallunarians, will

most certainly be the Destruction of the Solunarian and Mogenites

Trade, both to that Kingdom, and the whole Seas on that side of the

Moon; as this Article includes a fifth Part of all the Trade of the

Moon, and would in Conjunction with the Gallunarians at last bring

the Mastership of the Sea, out of the Hands of the other, so it would

in effect be more detriment to those two Nations, than ten Kingdoms

lost, if they had them to part with.

'This the Solunarians foreseeing, and being extremely sensible of the

entire Ruin of their Trade, have left no Stone unturn'd to bring this

piece of Pageantry on the Stage, by which they have hook'd in the Old

Black Eagle to plunge himself over Head and Ears in the Quarrel, in

such a manner, as he can never go back with any tolerable Honour; he

can never quit his Son and the Crown of Ebronia, without the greatest

Reproach and Disgrace of all the World in the Moon.

'Now whether one, or both of these Reasons are true in this Case, as

most believe both of them to be true; the Policy of my Country-men,

the Solunarians is visible indeed, but as for their Honesty, it is

past finding out.

'But it is objected here, this Son of the Lip has an undoubted Right

to the Crown of Ebronia. We do not Fight now to set up an Usurper,

but to pull down an Usurper, and it has been made plain by the

Manifesto, that the giving a Kingdom by Will, is no conveyance of

Right; the Prince of the Eagle has an undoubted Right, and they Fight

to maintain it.

'If this be true, then we must ask these High and Mighty Gentlemen

how came they to recognize and acknowledge the present King on the

Throne? why did they own an Usurper if he be such? either one or

other must be an act of Cowardize and Injustice, and all the

Politicks of the Moon cannot clear them of one of these two Charges;

either they were Cowardly Knaves before, or else they must be Cunning

Knaves now.

'If the Young Eagle has an undoubted Title now, so he had before, and

they knew it as well before, as they do now; what can they say for

themselves, why they should own a King, who they knew had no Title,

or what can they say for going to pull down one that has a Title?

'I must be allow'd to distinguish between Fighting with a Nation, and

Fighting with the King. For Example. Our Quarrel with the

Gallunarians is with the whole Nation, as they are grown too strong

for their Neighbours. But our Quarrel with Ebronia is not with the

Nation, but with their King, and this Quarrel seems to be unjust in

this particular, at least in them who own'd him to be King, for that

put an end to the Controversy.

''Tis true, the Justice of publick Actions, either in Princes, or in

States, is no such nice Thing, that any Body should be surpriz'd, to

see the Government forfeit their Faith, and it seems the Solunarians

are no more careful this way, than their Neighbours. But then those

People should in especial manner forbear to reproach Other Nations

and Princes, with the breaches which they themselves are subject too.

'As to the Eagle, we have nothing to say to the Honesty of his

declaring his Son King of Ebronia, for as is hinted before, he never

acknowledg'd the Title of the Usurper, but always declar'd, and

insisted on his own undoubted Right, and that he would recover it if

he could.

'Without doubt the Eagle has a Title by Proximity of Blood, founded

on the renunciation of the King of Gallunaria formerly mention'd, and

if the Will of the late King be Invalid, or he had no Right to give

the Soveraignty of his Kingdoms away, then the Eagle is next Heir.

'But as we quit his Morals, and justify the Honesty of his

Proceedings in the War, against the present King of Ebronia, so in

this Action of declaring his second Son. We must begin to question

his Understanding, and saying a respect of decency, it looks as if

his Musical Head was out of Tune, to Illus tratellus. I crave leave

to tell you a Story out of your own Country, which we have heard of

hither. A French Man that could speak but broken English, was at the

Court of England, when on some occasion he happen'd to hear the Title

of the King of England read thus, Charles the II. King of England,

Scotland France and Ireland.

'Vat is dat you say? says Monsieur, being a little affronted, the Man

reads it again, as before. Charles the Second, King of England,

Scotland, France and Ireland.------ Charles the Second, King of

France! Ma Foy, says the French Man, you can no read, Charles the

Second, King of France, ha! ha! ha! Charles the Second, King of

France, when he can catch. Any one may apply the Story, whether it

was a true one or no.

'All the Lunar World looks on it, therefore, as a most Ridiculous,

Senseless Thing, to make a Man a King of a Country he has not one

Foot of Land in, nor can have a Foot there, but what he must Fight

for. As to the probability of gaining it, I have nothing to say to

it, but if we may guess at his Success there, by what has been done

in other Parts of the Moon, we find he has Fought three Campaigns, to

lose every Foot he had got.

'It had been much more to the Honour of the Eagle's Conduct, and of

the young Hero himself, first to ha' let him ha' fac'd his Enemy in

the Field, and as soon as he had beaten him, the Ebronians would have

acknowledg'd him fast enough; or his own Victorious Troops might have

Proclaim'd him at the Gate of their Capital City; and if after all,

the Success of the War had deny'd him the Crown he had fought for, he

had the Honour to have shown his Bravery, and he had been where he

was, a Prince of the Great Lip. A Son of the Eagle is a Title much

more Honourable than a King Without a Crown, without Subjects,

without a Kingdom, and another Man upon his Throne; but by this

declaring him King, the old Eagle has put him under a necessity of

gaining the Kingdom of Ebronia, which at best is a great hazard, or

if he fails to be miserably despicable, and to bear all his Life the

constant Chagrin of a great Title and no Possession.

'How ridiculous will this poor Young Gentleman look, if at last he

should be forc'd to come Home again without his Kingdom? what a King

of Clouts will he pass for, and what will this King-making old

Gentlemen, his Father say, when the young Hero shall tell him, your

Majesty has made me Mock King for all the World to laugh at.

''Twas certainly the weakest Thing that could be, for the Eagle thus

to make him a King of that, which, were the probability greater than

it is, he may easily, without the help of a Miracle, be disappointed

of.

''Tis true, the Confederates talk big, and have lately had a great

Victory, and if Talk will beat the King of Ebronia out of his

Kingdom, he is certainly undone, but we do not find the Gallunarians

part with any thing they can keep, nor that they quit any thing

without Blows; It must cost a great deal of Blood and Treasure before

this War can be ended; if absolute Conquest on one side must be the

Matter, and if the Design on Ebronia should miscarry, as one Voyage

thither has done already, where are we then? Let any Man but look

back, and consider what a sorry Figure your Confederate Fleet in your

World had made, after their Andalusian Expedition, if they had not

more by Fate than Conduct, chopt upon a Booty at Vigo as they came

back.

'In the like condition, will this new King come back, if he should go

for a Kingdom and should not Catch, as the French Man call'd it. 'Tis

in the Sense of the probability of this miscarriage, that most Men

wonder at these unaccountable Measures, and think the Eagles Councils

look a little Wildish, as if some of his great Men were grown

Dilirious and Whymsical, that fancy'd Crowns and Kingdoms were to

come and go, just as the great Divan at their Court should direct.

This confusion of Circumstances has occasion'd a certain Copy of

Verses to appear about the Moon, which in our Characters may be read

as follows.

Wondelis Idulasin na Perixola Metartos,

Strigunia Crolias Xerin Hytale fylos;

Farnicos Galvare Orpto sonamel Egonsberch,

Sih lona Sipos Gullia Ropta Tylos.

'Which may be English'd thus.

Casar you Trifle with the World in vain,

Think rather now of Germany than Spain;

He's hardly fit to fill th' Eagle's Throne,

Who gives new Crowns, and can't protect his own.

'But after all to come closer to the Point, if I can now make it out

that whatever it was before, this very Practice of declaring a second

Son to be King of Ebronia, has publickly own'd the Proceedings of the

King of Gallunaria to be Just, and the Title of his Grandson to be

much better than the Title of the now declar'd King, what shall we

call it then?

'In order to this, 'tis first necessary to examine the Title of the

present King, and to enter into the history of his coming to the

Crown, in which I shall be very Brief.

'The last King of Ebronia dying without Issue, and a former

Renunciation taking place, the Succession devolves on the House of

the Eagle as before, of whom the present Eagle is the eldest Branch.

'But the late King of Ebronia, to prevent the Succession of the

Eagle's Line, makes a Will, and supplies the Proviso of Renunciation

by Devising, Giving or Bequeathing the Crown to the Grandson of his

Sister.

'The King of Gallunaria insists that this is a lawful Title to the

Crown, and seizes it accordingly, inflating his Grandson in the

Possession.

'The Eagle alledges the Renunciation to confirm his Title as Heir;

and as to the Will of the late King, he says Crowns cannot descend by

Gift, and tho' the late King had an undoubted Right to enjoy it

himself, he had none to give it away.

'To make the application of this History as short as may be, I demand

then what Right has the Eagle to give it to his second Son? if Crowns

are not to descend by Gift, he may have a Right to enjoy it, but can

have none to give it away, but if he has a Right to give it away; so

had the former King, and then the present King has a better Title to

it than the new one, because his Gift was Prior to this of the Eagle.

'I would be glad to see this answer'd; and if it can't, then I Query

whether the Eagle's Senses ought not to be question'd, for setting up

a Title very Foundation for which he quarrels at him that is in

Possession, and so confirm the honesty of the Possessor's Title by

his own Practice.?

'From the whole, I make no Scruple to say that either the Eagle's

second Son has no Title to the Kingdom of Ebronia, or else giving of

Crowns is a legal Practice; and if Crowns may descend by Gift, then

has the other King a better Title than he, because it was given him

first, and the Eagle has only given away what he had no Right to,

because 'twas given away before he had any Title to it himself.

'Further, the Posterity of the Eagle's eldest Son are manifestly

injur'd in this Action, for Kings can no more give away their Crowns

from their Posterity, than from themselves; if the Right be in the

Eagle, 'tis his, as he's the eldest Male Branch of the House of the

great Lip, not as he is Eagle, and from him the Crown of Ebronia by

the same Right of Devolution descends to his Posterity, and rests on

the Male Line of every eldest Branch. If so, no Act of Renunciation

can alter this Succession, for that is a Gift, and the Gift is

exploded, or else the whole House of the great Lip is excluded; so

that let the Argument be turn'd and twisted never so many ways, it

all Centers in this, that the present Person can have no Title to the

Crown of Ebronia.

'If he has any Title, 'tis from the Gift of his Father and elder

Brother; if the Gift of a Crown is no good Title, then his Title

cannot be good; If the Gift of a Crown is a good Title, then the

Crown was given away before, and so neither he nor his Father has any

Title.

'Let him that can answer these Paradoxes defend his Title if he can;

and what shall we now say to the War in Ebronia, only this, that they

are going to fight for the Crown of Ebronia? and to take it away from

one that has no Right to it, to give it to one that has a less Right

than he, and 'tis to be fear'd that if Heaven be Righteous, 'twill

succeed accordingly.

'The Gentlemen of Letters who have wrote of this in our Lunar World,

on the Subject of the Gallunarians Title, have took a great deal of

Liberty in the Eagle's behalf, to Banter and Ridicule the Gallunarian

sham of a Title, as if it were a pretence too weak for any Prince to

make use of, to talk of Kings giving their Crowns by Will.

Kingdoms and Governments, says a Learned Lunar author, are not things

of such indifferent Value to be given away, like a Token left for a

Legacy. If any Prince has ever given or transferr'd his Government,

it has been done by solemn Act, and the People have been call'd to

assent and confirm such Concessions.

'Then the same Author goes on, to Treat the King of Gallunaria with a

great deal of Severity, and exposes his Politicks, that he should

think to put upon the Moon with so empty, so weak, so ridiculous a

Pretence, as the Will of a weak Headed Prince, who neither had a

Right to give his Crown, nor a Brain to know what he was doing, and

he laughs to think what the King of Gallunaria would have said to

have such a dull Trick as that, put upon him in any such Case.

'Now when we have been so Witty upon this very Article, of giving

away the Crown to the King of Gallunaria's Grandson, as an

incongruous and ridiculous Thing, shall we come to make the same

Incongruity be the Foundation of a War?

'With what Justice can we make a War for a Prince who has only a good

Title, by Vertue of the self same Action which makes the Grandson of

his Enemy have a bad Title.

'I always thought we had a Just Ground to make War on Ebronia, as we

were bound by former Alliances to assist the Eagle in the recovery of

it in case of the death of the late King of that Country.

'But now the Eagle has refus'd the Succession, and his Eldest Son has

refus'd it, I would be glad to see it prov'd how the second Son can

have a Title, and yet the other King have no Title.

'What a strange sort of a Thing is the Crown of Ebronia, that two of

the greatest Princes of the Lunar World should Fight, not who shall

have it, for neither of them will accept of it, but who shall have

the Power of giving it away.

'Here are four Princes refuse it; the King of Gallunaria's Sons had a

Title in Right of their Mother, and 'twas not the former

Renunciations that would have barr'd them, if this softer way had not

been found out; for time was it has been pleaded on behalf of the

eldest Son of the Gallunarian King, that his Mother could not give

away his Right before he was born.

'Then the Eagle has a Right, and under him his eldest Son; and none

of all these four will accept of the Crown; I believe all the Moon

can't find four more that would refuse it.

'Now, tho' none of these think it worth accepting themselves, yet

they fall out about the Right of giving it away. The King of

Gallunaria will not accept of it himself, but he gets a Gift from the

last Incumbent. This, says the Eagle, can't be a good Title, for the

late King had no Right to make a Deed of Gift of the Crown, since a

King is only Tennant for Life, and Succession of Crowns either must

descend by a Lineal Progression in the Right of Primogeniture, or

else they lose the Tenure, and devolve on the People.

'Now as this Argument holds good the Eagle has an undoubted Title to

the Crown of Ebronia: But then, says his Eaglish Majesty, I cannot

accept of the Crown my self for I am the Eagle, and my eldest Son has

two Kingdoms already, and is in a fair way to be Eagle after me, and

'tis not worth while for him, but I have a second Son, and we will

give it him.

'Now may the King of Gallunaria say, if one Gift is good, another is

good, and ours is the first Gift, and therefore we will keep it; and

tho' I solemnly declare I should be very sorry to see the Crown of

Ebronia rest in the House of the Gallunarian, because our Trade will

suffer exceedingly; yet if never so much damage were to come of it,

we ought to do Justice in the World; if neither the Eagle nor his

eldest Son will be King of Ebronia, but a Deed of Gift shall be made,

the first Gift has the Right, for nothing can be given away to two

People at once, and 'tis apparent that the late King had as much

Right to give it away as any Body.

'The poor Ebronians are in a fine Condition all this while, that no

Body concerns them in the Matter; neither Party has so much as

thought it worth while to ask them who they would have to Reign over

them, here has been no Assembly, no Cortez, no Meeting of the People

of Ebronia, neither Collectively or Representatively, no general

Convention of the Nobility, no House of Feathers, but Ebronia lies as

the spoil of the Victor wholly passive, and her People and Princes,

as if they were wholly unconcern'd, lie by and look on, whoever is

like to be King, they are like to suffer deeply by the Strife, and

yet neither side has thought fit to consult them about it.

'The conclusion of the whole Matter is in short this, here is

certainly a false Step taken, how it shall be rectify'd is not the

present Business, nor am I Wise enough to Prescribe. One Man may do

in a Moment what all the Lunar World cannot undo in an Age. 'Tis not

be thought the Eagle will be prevail'd on to undo it, nay he has

Sworn not to alter it.

'I am not concern'd to prove the Title of the present King of

Ebronia, no, nor of the Eagles neither; but I think I can never be

answer'd in this, that this Gift of the Eagles to his second Son is

preposterous, inconsistent with all his Claim to the Crown, and the

greatest confirmation of the Title of his Enemy that it was possible

to give, and no doubt the Gallunarians will lay hold of the Argument.

'If this Prince was the Eagle's eldest Son, he might have a Just

Right from the concession of his Father, because the Right being

inherent, he only receiv'd from him an Investiture of Time, but as

this young Gentleman is a second Son he has no more Right, his elder

Brother being alive, than your Grand Seignior, or Czar of Muscovy in

your World.

'Let them Fight then for such a Cause, who valuing only the Pay, make

War a Trade, and Fight for any thing they are bid to Fight for, and

as such value not the Justice of the War, nor trouble their Heads

about Causes and Consequences, so they have their Pay, 'tis well

enough for them.

'But were the Justice of the War examin'd, I can see none, this

Declaring a new King who has no Right but by a Gift, and pulling down

one that had it by a Gift before, has so much Contradiction in it,

that I am afraid no Wise Man, or Honest Man will embark in it.

Your

Humble Servant,

The Man in the Moon.

I wou'd have no Body now pretend to scandalize the Writer of this

Letter, which being for the Gallunarians, for no Man in the Moon had

more Aversion for them than he, but he would have had the War carry'd

on upon a right Bottom, Justice and Honesty regarded in it, and as he

said often, they had no need to go out of the Road of Justice, for

had they made War in the great Eagle's Name all had been well.

Nor was he a false Prophet, for as this was ill grounded, so it was

as ill carry'd on, met with Shocks, Rubs and Disappointments every

way. The very first Voyage the new King made, he had like to ha' been

drown'd by a very violent Tempest, things not very usual in those

Countries; and all the Progress that had been made in his behalf when

I came away from that Lunar World, had not brought him so much as to

be able to set his Foot upon his new Kingdom of Ebronia, but his

Adversary by wonderful Dexterity, and the Assistance of his old

Grandfather the Gallunarian Monarch, beat his Troops upon all

Occasions, invaded his Ally that pretended to assist him, and kept a

quiet Possession of all the vast Ebronian Monarchy; and but at last

by the powerful Diversion of the Solunarian Fleet, a Shock was given

them on another Side, which if it had not happen'd, it was thought

the new King had been sent home again Re Infecta.

Being very much Shockt in my Judgment of this Affair, by these

unanswerable Reasons; I enquir'd of my Author who were the Directors

of this Matter? he told me plainly it was done by those great States

Men, which the Solunarian Queen had lately very Justly turn'd out,

whose Politicks were very unaccountable in a great many other things,

as well as in that.

'Tis true, the War was carry'd on under the new Ministry, and no War

in the World can be Juster, on account of the Injustice and

Encroachment of the Gallunarian Monarch.

The Queen therefore and her present Ministers, go on with the War on

Principles of Confederacy; 'tis the business of the Solunarians to

beat the Invader out, and then let the People come and make a fair

Decision who they will have to Reign over them.

This indeed justifies the War in Ebronia to be Right, but for the

Personal Proceedure as before, 'tis all Contradiction and can never

be answer'd.

I hope no Man will be so malicious, as to say I am hereby reflecting

on our War with Spain. I am very forward to say, it is a most Just

and Reasonable War, as to paralels between the Case of the Princes,

in defending the Matter of Personal Right, Hic labor, Hoc opus.

Thus however you see Humanum eft Errare, whether in this World or in

the Moon, 'tis all one, Infallibility of Councels any more than of

Doctrine, is not in Man.

The Reader may observe, I have formerly noted there was a new

Consolidator to be Built, and observ'd what struggle there was in the

Moon about choosing the Feathers.