There was about A.D. 1710 a Bill passed in Parliament in favour of the Clergy, for the more easier recovery of small tythes, by which in the case of Quakers and other refractory persons Justices of the Peace were empowered to give the Clergy possession of their dues by distraining on the premises or on the goods of the refractory persons. This remedy was speedy attended with very little expense, and was had at first without trouble or difficulty. But of late years men disaffected to the Clergy having been put into the Commissions of the Peace, and the terms of the Act being that they _may_ (not that they _shall_) give relief and do justice to the Clergy, these Justices say, they are indeed empowered but not obliged to help the Clergy to their rights, and so refuse to act in the case; by which the law is evaded, and the intent of it defeated. If this or some other such short and easy method of recovering the dues of the Clergy were properly established it would be another help to the security of the Church. After all the means that have been mentioned for the security of the Church of England in an ecclesiastical way, there is another of a different kind more considerable and necessary than all of them together: and this is the establishing of the choice of an House of Commons on such a foot, as it may be free from all Court or Ministerial influence. There cannot be a point conceived of more absolute necessity for the good of the kingdom, nor is there any other so universally and ardently the common wish of the Nation. This, once settled, would secure everything else that any lover of this country and religion has to wishe. But the great question is by what means and in what manner this is to be effected.