7: Purpus, p. 48; Hugh Macdonald, "Banter in English Controversial Prose after the Restoration," _Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association_, XXXII (1946), 21-22. 8: Macdonald, p. 23. 9: One of L'Estrange's opponents nicknamed him the "Crack-fart of the Nation" and the epithet stuck to him for years. =Text= The text of _Citt and Bumpkin_ here reprinted is the copy in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. CITT AND BUMPKIN. IN A DIALOGUE OVER A Pot of Ale, CONCERNING MATTERS OF RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT. _LONDON_, Printed for _Henry Brome_ at the Gun in S. _Pauls_ Church-yard, 1680. _Citt_ and _Bumkin_, In a DIALOGUE, _&c._ _Citt._ So that you would know, _First_, how we _manag'd_ the _Petition_; and _Secondly_, how it came to _miscarry_. Bum. _Those are the two Points_, Citt, _but first take off your_ Pot, _and then tell your_ Story; _you shall have mine afterward_. Committees to promote the Petitions. _Citt._ There was no way, you must know, to carry the business clear, without getting a _Vote_ of _Common-Council_ for the _Petition_; and so making it an Act of the _City_: And in order to this End, we planted our _Committees_ every where up and down, from _Algate_ to _Temple-barr_, at convenient distances; some few of them in _Taverns_ but most at _Coffee-houses_; as less liable to suspition. Now we did not call these _Meetings_, _Committees_, but _Clubs_; and _there_ we had all Freedom both for _Privacy_ and _Debate_: while the _Borough_ of _Southwark_, _Westminster_, and the _Suburbs_, proceeded according to our Method. Bum. _And what were these_ Committees _now to do_? Their Powers and Instructions. _Citt._ Their _Commission_ was to procure _Subscriptions_, to justify the Right of _Petitioning_, and to gain _Intelligence_: And then every _Committee_ had one man at least in it that wrote _short-hand_. Bum. _Well, and what was he to do?_ _Citt._ It was his part to go smoking up and down from One Company to another, to see who was _for_ us, and who _against_ us: and to take Notes of what people said of the _Plot_, or of the _Kings Witnesses_, or against this way of _Petitioning_. Bum. _But how came those Committees (as ye call 'um) by their_ Commissions? Two Grand Committees. _Citt._ For that, let me tell you, we had _two Grand Committees_, that adjourn'd from place to place, as they saw occasion: But they met most commonly at _Two Coffee-houses_; the _One_ near _Guild-Hall_, the _Other_ in the _Strand_; for you must take notice that we went on, hand in hand with our _Neighbours_ in the _Main Design_. Bum. _But you do not tell me yet who set up the_ Other Committees. The Office of the Grand Committees.