If it is the absolute and irrevocable determination that the bill is to be extended to us, the sooner the great penalty is inflicted the better; for in politics and commerce, as in all the other affairs of life, absolute and certain evil is better than uncertainty and protracted suspense. NOTES [Transcriber's note: I have added the pamphlet headings, since the original page numbers are not helpful.] I. LETTER TO A DISSENTER. _The exclusion_--of James from the succession. _The rebellion_--Monmouth's. _The Quakers_.--A hit, of course, at Penn. _Piqueer_, 'do outpost duty,' 'raid.' _Lords of the Articles_.--A well-known body in the older Scottish Constitution, through whom only legislation could be originated, and who thus almost nullified the powers of Parliament. _Squeaziness_ = 'squeamishness,' 'queasiness.' _It is impossible_.--Another form of 'No bishop no king.' _The new converts_.--After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. _T.W._ is, of course, a mere fancy signature. It might stand for 'True Wellwisher' or anything. The wiseacres took it as ='W.T.,' William Temple. II. THE SHORTEST WAY WITH THE DISSENTERS. _Neither_, for 'too,' is colloquial but rather picturesque. Cf. the famous 'And yet but yaw neither' in _Hamlet_. III. THE DRAPIER'S LETTERS. I have not thought it desirable to reproduce the abundance of italics with which the original is furnished. They no doubt appealed to the vulgar, as where poor Mr. Wood is described as '_a mean ordinary man, a hard-ware dealer_.' But the vigour of the onslaught is wholly independent of them. _Written_--by Swift himself. _Bere_, or 'bear,' also 'bigg,' a kind of barley largely cultivated in Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England. It has six rows in the ear, and will grow in much poorer ground and a much damper and rougher climate than the two-rowed variety. It is also, I believe, still thought to give the best whisky, if not the best beer, when malted. _Conolly_.--Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. _Pistole_--about ten shillings. _Brought to the bullion_ seems here to have the meaning of the French _billonner_ or _envoyer au billon_, 'to melt for recoining.' _Our Cæsar's statue_.--The statue of George I. on Essex Bridge, Dublin. IV. SECOND LETTER ON A REGICIDE PEACE. _Contignation_.--This rather pedantic, and now, I think, quite obsolete word (from _tignum_, 'beam') means 'having a common or continuous roof.' The slackness of England in taking advantage of the Vendéan and Chouan movements, of which Burke here complains, has never been fully explained. The poltroonery of the Bourbon princes, and the factions of the emigrants, throw a certain but not a complete light on it; and though conjectural explanations are obvious enough, there is little positive evidence to support them.