impossible any one could go to
   strike him for laughing.  So ridiculous was the figure, as they say,
   of hogs in armour; an image of derision, insensible but to the
   view, as I have had it.  This was armour of defence; but our sparks
   were not altogether so tame as to carry their provisions no
   farther, for truly they intended to be assailants upon fair
   occasion, and had for that end recommended also to them a certain
   pocket weapon, which, for its design and efficacy, had the honour
   to be called a protestant flail.  It was for street and
   crowd-work; and the engine lying perdue in a coat pocket, might
   readily sally out to execution, and by clearing a great hall, a
   piazza, or so, carry an election by a choice way of polling, called
   knocking down.  The handle resembled a farrier’s blood-stick, and
   the fall was joined to the end by a strong nervous ligature, that
   in its swing fell just short of the hand, and was made of lignum
   vitae, or rather, as the poet termed it, mortis.” Examen. p.
   572.  The following is the first stanza of “The Protestant Flail; an
   excellent new song, to the tune of, Lacy’s Maggot, or the Hobby
   Horse.”  It is thus labelled by Luttrell:  “A bonny thing, 14 June,
   1632.”

Listen a while, and I’ll tell you a tale
Of a new device of a protestant flail;
With a thump, thump, thump a thump. 
Thump a thump, thump. 
This flail it was made of the finest wood,
All lined with lead, and notable good
For splitting of bones, and shedding the blood
Of all that withstood,
With a thump, &c.

3.  Shaftesbury, College, and others, were liberated by grand juries,
   who refused to find bills against them, bringing in what are
   technically called verdicts of ignoramus.  It was here that the
   whig sheriffs were of most consequence to their party; for by their
   means the juries were picked from the very centre of the faction;
   and although they included many men of eminence, both for rank and
   talents, yet they were generally such as had made up their minds to
   cast the bill long before they came into court.  This gave great
   offence to the royalists.  North says, “There lay the barrier of the
   faction; and that stately word (ignoramus) became the appellative
   of the whole corrupt practice, and the infamous title of all the
   persons concerned in it.”  In Luttrell’s Collection I find,
   “Ignoramus, an excellent new song, to the tune of Lay by your
   Pleading, Law lies a Bleeding.” 15 Dec. 1681.

At the Old Bailey,
Where rogues flock daily,
A greater rogue far than Coleman, White, or Stayley,
Was late indicted. 
Witnesses cited,
But then he was set free, so the king was righted. 
’Gainst princes offences
Proved in all senses,
But ’gainst a whig there is no truth in evidences;
They sham us, and flam us,
And ram us, and damn us. 
And then, in spite of law, come off with ignoramus, &c.