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THE OBSERVATOR.

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Some Selected Reports from The Observator



Munday, 24th July, 1682.






Ridiculous Actions of the Case. The Guilty draw in the Innocent. [The Matters of Fact
&c.] a Spitefull Libell. Notable Heads in't. The Sovereignty of the Common Hall.
[The Rights of my Lord-Mayor Asserted] The Point clear'd. Scandalls upon
the Lord-Mayor and the Kings Ministers.

WHIG. These Actions of the Case against my Lord Mayor, fly like Wildfire, over City and Country.
TORY. Like Wildfire indeed; for when they have Sputter'd, and Bounc'd a little, they'l vanish all into smoak. Why prethee 'tis with the greater Part of these Actionmongers as 'tis with Old Rats; They'l Wriggle and Grinn (ye may think) and Squeak, & Tear, & set their Teeth perhaps in the Trap; but yet after all this pudder, they are caught, nevertheless. This is really the Case of Most of them, and the Rest come in for Company. Ask.'em, What Quarrell have you to my Lord-Mayor ? He never did you any hurt, What's the Ground of your Action? A. Why truly I can say little to That. My Lord may be a Good man for ought I know; but men would be loth to lose their Libertyes; and I'me Advis'd to't by Friends. I am no Lawyer, and he never did me any harm.
Wh. But would not you have Citizens Joyn then, and stick together in a Common Cause?
To. There are a great. many Simpletons among ye, that have not the Wit of the very Beasts of the Forrest. Let a Blown, or Wounded Deer go to thrust himself into the Herd, they'l keep him of or Beat him out, and never Endure him: But in This Forrest of the City, Let men smell never so Rank of Conspiracies, Scandall, Riot; they can yet find Room, Entertainment, and Countenance with the Multitude: though 'tis as Clear as day that they mingle with 'em only to Involve the Innocent with the Guilty, in a Common Hazzard. Do but look thorough the List of the Leading-men in these Actions, and you will find a great many Persons that have no other Hope, or Prospect of Safety left them, against the Stroak of Justice, but to betake themselves to the Rabble for Sanctuary, and Protection. Nay and some of them the Pityfullest Wretches too: that were but to'ther day, begging pardon, like School-Boys, with their Breeches about their Heels for playing the Rakehels, crying they'd never do so any more. And who but These men now (in the turning of a hand) to fly in the face of their Preservers? Or what d'ye think of the Testimony-bearer to Mr. Christopher Love of famous memory ?
Wh. I Guess where ye are; And if things be as hear, the man has Reason on his side; And my Lord Mayor is well enough serv'd.
To. You are much in the Right; if things be as I hear too; for what could my Lord Expect better from any man that Represented him as a Papist; and a Denyer of the Popish Plot at his Election into his Office, then to be Charg'd as a Traytor in the Execution of it? And in There Cases, the forgiving of the One; is the Encouraging of the Other.
Wh. Come: let me put a stop to your Carriere. I have here in this Paper a List of those that have already Enter'd their Actions; and of several others that are Agree'd, and Resolv'd to do't. If ye have a Curiosity, I'le shew ye the Catalogue it self.
To. Give me the Backside of the Paper then, (for Every fool can reade on the Inside of his Book;) and I'le smell ye out the Canary-Birds as easily as ye shall do the Knaves out of a Pack of Cards. As for Example now; Here are Ignoramus'es in abundance; Bishops- Land Merchants; Church Whigs; Rump-Officers; Dissenters of all sorts and sizes; Associators
Wh. You have e'en as good save your breath; for these swarms of Actions will not off with Fooling. Have ye read a Sheet call'd [the Matters of Fact in the Present Election of Sheriffs, &c.]
To. He speaks of [The miscarriages of my Lord Mayor and some other Persons, &c.]
Wh. Pray tell me truly how you find it; for there are Notable Heads in't, I can Assure ye.
To. Ay. But you may live to see Some of those Heads more Notable yet, when the Weather comes to Clear up a little. I have heard many Better Sermons from the People on the Top of the Bridge, then from Mr Feak in the Cellar at the Bottom of it: and much sounder Doctrine from Peter's Head upon a Pole, then ever he deliver'd in a Pulpit. Notable Heads, d'ye say? Why they are all Mad; or else they play Booty.Their Business lyes at Dover; & they are running Post for Puddings to St. Michaels Mount. They have not made one true Step since they went out of the way yonder upon the Confirmation; And they are so Damnably Puzzled too, that they have not the wit left to Ask the way home again. In a word, you would find it a Hard Task to shew me One sober Head; this day, upon a Whigs Shoulders. But Talk's but Talk you'l say; wherfore come to the Point, and let's see what you can make on't out of the Notable Piece ye talk of. But let"s have it in short then for the saving of time.
Wh. The first Clause Complains of [a Bold and Open Invasion of the Franchises of the City; A Contempt of the Laws of the Land, and the Ancient Customs of the Corporation; The Rights and Priviledges of the Freemen, &c. Matters of Fact.Fol. I.
To. Here's a Barefac'd Challenge without any Authority to Support the Truth, and Credit of it ; and I shall refer ye, for a Full & Unanswerable Refutation, to a Discourse Entitled [The Lord Mayors Right of Electing a Sheriff, Asserted against All Pretences of a Popular Faction.] wherein you will find every Inch of my Lord Mayors Proceedings, Justify'd, & made good, from the Records, Customs and Usages of the City, and the Laws of the Land; And that neither the Sheriffs nor the Common-Hall have any Right to the Powers and Privileges now in question.
Wh. [The Common-Hall (I confess) is not properly a Court, save for the Punishing my Lord Mayor and Aldermen, when they transgress against the Duties of their Places, and the Trust reposed in them, Ibid.
To. You say very well; And that's to be the bus'ness of your next Common-Hall; If the Author of this [Matters of Fact] may have his Will, For he has here with a Wet Finger thrown off my Lord-Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, and Translated the Authority of the City to a Common-Hall. You have told us over and over, that if the Mayor does not Call a Hall, the Freemen may do it of themselves; And then if they may sit as long as they please; Debate what Matters they please; Come to what Resolutions they please; and Remove, or Punish, I'nt out, or Put in what Officers they please; here's the Law of the Land; The Charter, and Constitution of the City overthrown at a dash; and an Absolute, Arbitrary, and Unaccountable Power, Lodg'd in the Multitude : And I would fain know now, upon this Supposition? by what Warrant, Law, Rule, Method, this is to be done; And by what Persons, or Officers, these Privileges are to be put in Execution ? Beside that this rate, 'tis but the Peoples saying, We do not like this Mayor, or that Sheriff, and the work is done.
Wh. The Right of Electing Sheriffs if in that Convention; and the Mayor so far from having a Negative, that he cannot so much as take the Suffrages, or Adjourn, or Dissolve without leave of the Hall. Ibid.
To . The Paper before mentioned will give ye ample Satisfaction in these Particulars : Or it might suffice to say, that whatsoever is done by the Mayors Order, is done by the Mayor himself. But now he's coming ( as he pretends) to the Merits of the Cause ; and tells ye, that [Some Ministers prevail'd with my Lord Mayor to drink to Mr. North, which he Tamely Comply'd with Ibid. ] But, His saying, it is no Proof. Or what if they did ? The Ceremony is according to Ancient Custom, and the Person Nominated, beyond Exception, for all the Qualifications that may Consummate the Character of a Person fit for the Office. Now, where's the Reproach at last of my Lord-Mayors Complying with all the Measures of his Duty, Office, and Discretion ? And then they call every thing Tame, that is not Rebellious, and Stubborn. The Ministers, and the Tubsters, Oppos'd him; and what then ?
Wh. Well ! But what say ye to the Act. 7 Car. I ? Ibid.
To. That very Act does Expresly Assert, and Affirm my Lord-Mayors Right of Confirmation: And whereas he Excepts to the Alteration of the Form of the Precept, It is Expresly according to the Style of the Proclamation.
Wh. But severall attended my Lord with Swords by their sides, and Known Papists. Ib. P. 2.
- To. The Men with Swords by their sides were of Councell for the Rioters; and the Known Papists were the Church-of-England-men, that gave their Voices for the Government. In his Next Clause, he falls first upon my Lord Mayor for his Enforming the King contrary to Truth and Knowledge; as if there had been a Riot: and after that upon the King and Councell, for Committing the Sheriffs to the Tower, upon that Suggestion. Ibid. The bus'ness of the Riot will in good time be Determin'd by a Court of Justice, and the Kings Authority Vindicated, I hope, upon the Heads of the Invaders of it. I do not mean upon those only that Cry'd out [God Bless our Sheriffs ! No More Kings ! No More Lord-Mayors ! &c.] But upon the Promoters of those Treasonous Clamours, of what Title, Degree, or Condition soever. The next Paragraph is a Shuffle upon the Recorders DESIRING them to Adjourn; as Implying it at the Choice of the Common-Hall, whether they would, or no. Now though this Notification has been already prov'd a Fair Adjournment; what if the Order deliver'd in these Terms had not been Sufficient ? Shall the Mis-wording of my Lords Command Destroy the Authority of it ?
Wh. Why should my Lord Refuse to hear People speak when he was upon the Hustings of Friday ? Ibid.
To. Because 'twas neither the bus'ness of the Day; nor, of the Place; Nor Agreeable to the Ceremony and Method of the Occasion.
Wh. [They would not so much as Suffer an Act of Parliament to be read. Ibid.]
To. And if they had propos'd the Singing of the 119th Psalm, it had been as much to the Purpose.
Wh. My Lord-Mayor is Answerable to God, for the Lives that were lost, and thethat were Contracted in that Crowd. Ibid.
To. Prethee let them Answer for't that made the Crowd, and had nothing to do there. He is much troubled at [a Minister of State's Interposing with my Lord-Mayor in this Affair, as a High Offence against the Trust Reposed in him. Pa. 3.] But we'le talk of that further to morrow. He goes on now, Threat'ning my Lord Mayor with a Parliament, Usurping upon the Common Hall; Proceeding to Declare Mr North Sheriff; Robbing the Freemen of their Rights, and Exercising an Arbitrary and Illegal Power: When All these Reproches are but the Gall, and Imposture of a Libell; and Every Syllable Clear'd in the Aforesayd Paper.
Wh. I shall not need to tell ye of [my Lord-Mayors Suffering Severall of the Best Quality of the Contrary Party to be Affronted and Assaulted; if not in his very Presence, at least within his Gates. P.3.]
To. How False, and Lothsome are these Impudent Calumnyes? for Every body knows what Affronts the Brutall Rabble put upon his Lord-ship, by Hissings, Revilings, and Other Insolent Demonstrations of a Vulgar Rudeness, and Malice ; as far as ever they could come at him: And he had not come off so neither, but for a Guard of Generous and Loyall Citizens and Subjects, that Conducted him securely into his own Habitation: And he was not Quiet there yet; but still pursu'd with Importunityes, Flattery and Menace, till he was forc'd at last, in his own defence, to betake himself to his Repose.
Wh. [Nay he Acted Contrary to the Duty of his Office, as well as to the Wisdom of a Man, in giving up himself Implicitly to the Government and Conduct of Sr L.J. whom he not only permitted to be present at his Discourse with severall Freemen that came to him about the Privileges, and Franchises of the City; but he Conniv'd at, and Allow'd that Minister, in Checking and Rebuking some Gentlemen, who had the Courage in his hearing, to Claim their Rights Ibid. ]
To. If this Clause were not false, it would not be suitable to the rest; And yet that Correspondence with a Publique Minister, which he Charges as a Crime upon my Lord-Mayor, (Even if it were True) were but according to the Obligation of his Oath, and Duty. Have but Patience till to morrow morning, and I'le make it Evident to ye. But for the Rebuking, and Checking, he speaks of, I was told indeed of a Pragmaticall Ignoramus that Ask'd a very Honorable Person what he had to do in the City of London? and I hope he was answer'd according to his Desert ; And I hope to see him serv'd according to his desert too.
Wh. Have a Care what ye say.
To. A Word to the Wise.

London, Printed for Joanna Brome at the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard.