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