GOod morrow, Jack! how stands the case of your Affairs at your end of the Town!

Stand! Believe me, we are like to have a bles­sed Parliament; and we don't doubt, but we shall have hopeful Resolutions, and a brave Result of all their Con­sultations.

Well; but let us not stand here, let Affairs stand how they will; let us take one Cup of good Ale together, and discourse it further. Let us step here into the Kings-Head, here's a glass of good liquor.

Come, allons donc.—

Well; we were talking of hopeful Resolutions; and a successful Issue to all the Consultations of the Par­liament. This, you say, the City hop's for, nay doubts not of.

Yes, indeed; for to shew you how great an E­ [...]eem, and sublime regard we have for our Parliament, we have had the Major part of the City, all true Pro­testants, and good Patriots; who offered their services to, and accordingly did accompany our Sheriffs and Members of the Parliament to Oxford.

S'Death! that's an unwonted Ceremony, and it smells plaguy rank of Rebellion. Bless me! what were you affraid of, that made you enter upon such a tumul­tuous Complement? I heard indeed you were all richly equipt, and made a most glorious show, I was then in the Country, and so, did not understand it.

Why not understand it? had we not a great deal of reason, to secure the safety of those worthy Persons, who were to deliver us out of the Fears, Distractions and Disorders, which the cursed Popish Plot, and the Succession of a Popish Prince, by which would follow the Subversion of our Religion, Laws, and Liberties, and con­sequently the yoke of Popish Servitude, did put us into:

I faith; you are brave fellows! you talk of the safety of His Majesties Person, and how great Loy­alty and Zeal tends to it; but for ought I see, the sub­ject is prefer'd before the Prince; the King is not at all intimidated, though in the midst of the most Implacable Enemies, but he can & did venture his Journey to Oxford, attended with not Twenty of his Guards, when Mr. Parliament Man has forsooth about Three or Four hun­dred for his suit! Well, but what Newes have you from Oxford, what, are we like to have a longer Session than they had last?

They are Dissolv'd!

Dissolv'd? S'Death, when?

On Munday last, being on the 28th. of March.

Really, I'me glad of it. Indeed, I heard how their Procedings were, and what measurs they took in their Votes. I thought the Kings speech would have had that Influence upon them, that they would have Regulated their Actions according to that Rule, which His Majesty told them, should be ever his, viz. The Law of which, they, with the King were the Fathers; and not have pretended to make themselves a particular (nay, Supream) Court of Judicature, in Cases of Trea­son; that no Person Impeached of Treason by the Com­mons of England in Parliament, and stands so Impeach­ed, could be tryed by any other inferior Court, without a high Breach of the priviledge of Parliaments. Good God! I find then the King and the Lords, are but Cy­phers; and what the King has declared ought to be, must not be done, because the Commons will not have it so. So that, they who make so great an Out-cry against Arbitrary Proceedings, make themselves the great Favorers of it. What, I pray, was the cause of this? And who the Plague was it, they stick­led about then?

Fitz. Harris; would the Devil had him, e're we had been troubled with him, and his Depositions too, with a pox to 'em.—But I'll tell thee, there's some­what else, that was the more immediate Reason of their Dissolution; 'twas, concerning a Business of the —

Ay, ay, of the Devil, I think; you Citizens, if you cannot hear of the true genuine Reasons, for­sooth, you'll make them; and shall pass Authentick too, as if you had been intimately acquainted with the Kings Cabinet, or had known his Resolutions be­fore he thought upon them. Faith, I'll tell thee plainly; would but you (Sir Formals) learn this old Maxime, that Sua quem (que) alit ars, which perhaps is too much Latin for a third part of our Mechanick News-mongers; who make it the greatest part of their Business to run from the Coffee-house to the Ale-house, and thence to the Tavern; and so buzzing about, till they lose their sense, as well as Reason; I say, would every Man but mind his own private Af­fairs, erect a Tribunal in his own Closet, and let his Domestick Oeconomy be his greatest Study, we should have the Publick Peace less disturbed, and the Go­vernment less obnoxious to Censure and Contempt. 'T has never been good times, since every Cobler and Porter pretend to understand State-Policy, and every Finical Mechanick, and proud Tradesman, to be verse't and knowing in the Arcana's of the Privy-Councel. Introth, Jack, my name's Veritas; and I must speak like myself; I case not for popular Ap­plause, nor will I suffer Hypocrisie vaile my Naked­ness; though I have, what I must always expect, an Odium, or Hatred: For my part I am a good honest Southwark Borough, and I thank God, we love our King, and our Country; and our Publick Peace, Uti­lity, and Order; and, as we said in our Addresses to our Elected Burgesses; Though we did not like your accompany­ing to Oxford, them in such Pomp and Splendor; yet we assu­red them, we were as ready to stand by them, in the dis­charge of the Trust we reposed in them, as the best Life-and fortune-men of them all.

But prethee Jack, are they all returned home yet from Oxford?

Yes, a great part of them; but they are not all come yet.

Ha, ha, ha! Faith I can't choose but laugh, to see how silly and sneaking they lookt, with their Heads hanging downwards, and their Hats Flapping about their Ears, their hopes frustrated, and their Designs in­fatuated; when in their Setting out, they appeared brisk and airy, and their Equipage shewed them like Men designed for a Camp, rather than an Assembly of Peace.

Well, well, come, talk no more of it: Quod fa­ctumest, infectum fieri nequit, Prethee hold thy Tongue.

Hold my Tongue, I Gad, it would make a Stone speak, to see how hot brain'd Men are; and forsooth, to make their Designs more plausible, a needless fear of the Subversion of the Government, the Protestant Religion, and the Liberties of the Subjects, must still be the specious pretence for all their unwarrantable and unlawful Practices, and every half wited Scoundrel, must pretend to censure the management of those at the Helm. A fine age I' Faith! Come, come, Jack, be of my mind; Bene vixit, qui bene latuit: let us keep at home with our wives, and leave frequenting the News-mongers; and let us administer what we can to publick Utility and Peace.

I' Faith, thou sayest very well? Come, here's a health to thee, which I am confident thou wilt pledge; God bless King Charles, and send us all Peace and Tranquillity, now, and at the hour of Death.

Come, with all my Soul, and hang up all the Roundheads, as the Oxford Blades said, and let every true Englsh-man, Loyal Heart, and Honest Protestant, say, Amen,