[Footnote 1:  No. 14 in the reprint. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 2:  Ovid, “Metamorphoses,” xii. 56-61.

“The troubled air with empty sounds they beat. 
Intent to hear, and eager to repeat. 
Error sits brooding there, with added train
Of vain Credulity, and Joys as vain: 
Suspicion, with Sedition joined, are near,
And Rumours raised, and Murmurs mixed, and panic Fear.” 
                               J. DRYDEN.
[T.S.]]

[Footnote 3:  “Paradise Lost,” v. 708-710.  Milton makes Satan say:  “We possess the quarters of the North,” and places his throne in “the limits of the North.”  By speaking of a western province Swift intends Ireland, then under the government of the Earl of Wharton.  This paper may be read in connection with the 23rd number of “The Examiner,” and the “Short Character of Wharton” (vol. v., pp. 1-28). [T.S.]]

[Footnote 4:  Fama was said to be a daughter of Terra.  See Virgil, “Aeneid,” iv. 173-178. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5:  A reply to the insinuations that the Tories were sympathetic to France, and that the Whigs were the true patriots. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 6:  The reprint has “Exchange Alley.” [T.S.]]

[Footnote 7:  The Earl of Wharton. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 8:  Refers to the Tories generally, and in particular to Sir Thomas Osborne, Bart. (1631-1712), who was created Duke of Leeds in 1694.  In 1679, as Earl of Danby, he was impeached by the Commons, and imprisoned in the Tower for five years.  “He assisted greatly,” says Scott, “in the Revolution, yet continued a steady Tory, and avowed at Sacheverell’s trial, that, had he known the Prince of Orange designed to assume the crown, he never would have drawn a sword for him.” [T.S.]]

NUMB. 16.[1]

FROM THURSDAY NOVEMBER 9, TO THURSDAY NOVEMBER 16, 1710.

  —–­medioque ut limite curras,
  Icare, ait, moneo:  ne si demissior ibis,
  Unda gravet pennas, si celsior, ignis adurat.[2]

It must be avowed, that for some years past, there have been few things more wanted in England, than such a paper as this ought to be; and such as I will endeavour to make it, as long as it shall be found of any use, without entering into the violences of either party.  Considering the many grievous misrepresentations of persons and things, it is highly requisite, at this juncture, that the people throughout the kingdom, should, if possible, be set right in their opinions by some impartial hand, which has never been yet attempted:  those who have hitherto undertaken it, being upon every account the least qualified of all human-kind for such a work.