A Political Romance | Page 8

to lead out the Psalm, and in Tune
and Time too, notwithstanding Trim's vile Insult upon him in that
Particular.--But who do you think, says a Surgeon and Man-Midwife,
who sat next him, (whose Coat-Button the President, in the Earnestness
of this Explanation, had got fast hold of, and had thereby partly drawn
him over to his Opinion) Who do you think, Mr. President, says he, are
meant by the Church- Wardens, Sides-Men, Mark Slender, Lorry Slim,
&c.--Who do I think? says he, Why,--Why, Sir, as I take the
Thing,--the Church-Wardens and Sides- Men, are the Electors and the
other Princes who form the Germanick Body.--And as for the other
subordinate Characters of Mark Slim,--the unlucky Wight in the Plush
Breeches,--the Parson's Man who was so often out of the Way, &c.
&c.--these, to be sure, are the several Marshals and Generals, who
fought, or should have fought, under them the last Campaign.--The
Men in Buckram, continued the President, are the Grofs of the King of
Prussia's Army, who are as stiff a Body of Men as are in the
World:--And Trim's saying they were twelve, and then nineteen, is a
Wipe for the Brussels Gazetteer, who, to my Knowledge, was never
two Weeks in the same Story, about that or any thing else.
As for the rest of the Romance, continued the President, it sufficiently
explains itself,--The Old-cast-Pair-of-Black-Plush-Breeches must be
Saxony, which the Elector, you see, has left of wearing:--And as for the
Great Watch-Coat, which, you know, covers all, it signifies all Europe;
comprehending, at least, so many of its different States and Dominions,
as we have any Concern with in the present War.
I protest, says a Gentleman who sat next but one to the President, and
who, it seems, was the Parson of the Parish, a Member not only of the
Political, but also of a Musical Club in the next Street;--I protest, says
he, if this Explanation is right, which I think it is, That the whole makes
a very fine Symbol.--You have always some Musical Instrument or
other in your Head, I think, says the Alderman.--Musical instrument!
replies the Parson, in Astonishment,--Mr. Alderman, I mean an
Allegory; and I think the greedy Disposition of Trim and his Wife, in
ripping the Great Watch-Coat to Pieces, in order to convert it into a
Petticoat for the one, and a Jerkin for the other, is one of the most

beautiful of the Kind I ever met with; and will shew all the World what
have been the true Views and Intentions of the Houses of Bourbon and
Austria in this abominable Coalition,--I might have called it
Whoredom:--Nay, says the Alderman, 'tis downright Adulterydom, or
nothing.
This Hypothesis of the President's explain'd every Thing in the
Romance extreamly well; and, withall, was delivered with so much
Readiness and Air of Certainty, as begot an Opinion in two Thirds of
the Club, that Mr. President was actually the Author of the Romance
himself: But a Gentleman who sat on the opposite Side of the Table,
who had come piping-hot from reading the History of King William's
and Queen Anne's Wars, and who was thought, at the Bottom, to envy
the President the Honour both of the Romance and Explanation too,
gave an entire new Turn to it all. He acquainted the Club, That Mr.
President was altogether wrong in every Supposition he had made,
except that one, where the Great Watch-Coat was said by him to
represent Europe, or at least a great Part of it:--So far he acknowledged
he was pretty right; but that he had not gone far enough backwards into
our History to come at the Truth. He then acquainted them, that the
dividing the Great Watch-Coat did, and could, allude to nothing else in
the World but the Partition-Treaty; which, by the Bye, he told them,
was the most unhappy and scandalous Transaction in all King
William's Life: It was that false Step, and that only, says he, rising from
his Chair, and striking his Hand upon the Table with great Violence; it
was that false Step, says he, knitting his Brows and throwing his Pipe
down upon the Ground, that has laid the Foundation of all the
Disturbances and Sorrows we feel and lament at this very Hour; and as
for Trim's giving up the Breeches, look ye, it is almost Word for Word
copied from the French King and Dauphin's Renunciation of Spain and
the West-Indies, which all the World knew (as was the very Case of the
Breeches) were renounced by them on purpose to be reclaim'd when
Time should serve.
This Explanation had too much Ingenuity in it to be altogether slighted;
and, in Truth, the worst Fault it had, seem'd to be the prodigious Heat
of it; which (as an