Clievelandi Vindiciæ, or, Clieveland's genuine poems, orations, epistles, &c. purged from the many false and spurious ones which had usurped his name, and from innumerable errours and corruptions in the true copies : to which are added many never printed before, with an account of the author's life.

The Character of a Country-Committee-man, with the Ear-mark of a Se∣questrator.

A Committee-man by his Name should be one that is possessed, there is number enough in it to make an Epithet for Legion. He is Persona in concreto (to borrow the Solecism of a Modern Statesman.) You may translate it by the Red-Bull Phrase, and speak as proper∣ly, Enter seven Devils solus. It is a well truss'd Title that contains both the Num∣ber and the Beast; for a Committee-man is a Noun of Multitude, he must be spell'd with Figures, like Antichrist wrapp'd in a Pair-Royal of Sixes. Thus the Name is as monstrous as the Man, a complex notion, of the same Lineage with Accumulative Treason. For his Office it is the Heptar∣chy, or England's Fritters; it is the broken meat of a crumbling Prince, only the Roy∣alty is greater; for it is here as in the Mi∣racle of Loaves, the Voyder exceeds the Bill of Fare. The Pope and he rings the Changes; here is the Plurality of Crowns

to one Head, joyn them together and there is a Harmony in Discord. The Triple∣headed Turn-key of Heaven with the Tripleheaded Porter of Hell. A Commit∣tee-man is the Reliques of Regal Govern∣ment, but, like Holy Reliques, he out∣bulks the Substance whereof he is a Rem∣nant. There is a score of Kings in a Com∣mittee, as in the Reliques of the Cross there is the number of twenty. This is the Gyant with the hundred hands that wields the Scepter; the Tyrannical Bead-Roll by which the Kingdom prays back∣ward, and at every Curse drops a Com∣mittee man. Let Charles be wav'd, whose condescending Clemency aggravates the Defection, and make Nero the Question, better a Nero than a Committee. There is less Execution by a single Bullet, than by Case-shot.

Now a Committee man is a party-co∣lour'd Officer. He must be drawn like Ia∣nus with Cross and Pile in his Counte∣nance; as he relates to the Souldiers, or faces about to his fleecing the Country. Look upon him Martially, and he is a Ju∣stice of War, one that hath bound his Dal∣ton up in Buff, and will needs be of the Quorum to the best Commanders. He is one of Mars his Lay-Elders, he shares in

the Government, though a Non-conformist to his bleeding Rubrick. He is the like Sectary in Arms, as the Platonick is in Love, keeps a fluttering in Discourse, but proves a Haggard in the Action. He is not of the Souldiers and yet of his Flock. It is an Emblem of the Golden Age (and such in∣deed he makes it to him) when so tame a Pigeon may converse with Vultures. Me∣thinks a Committee hanging about a Gover∣nour, and Bandileers dangling about a fur'd Alderman have an Anagram Resemblance. There is no Syntax between a Cap of Main∣tenance and a Helmet. Who ever knew an Enemy routed by a Grand Jury and a Billa vera? It is a left-handed Garrison where their Authority perches; but the more preposterous the more in fashion; the right hand sights while the left rules the Reigns. The truth is the Souldier and the Gentleman are like Don Quixot and Sancha Pancha, one fights at all Adventures to purchase the other the Government of the Island. A Committee-man properly should be the Governour's Matress to fit his Truckle, and to new-string him with si∣news of War; for his chief use is to raise Assessments in the Neighbouring Wapen∣take.

The Country people being like an Irish

Cow that will not give down her Milk, un∣less she see her Calf before her: Hence it is he is the Garrison's Dry-Nurse, he chews their Contribution before he feeds them; so the poor Souldiers live like Trochilus by picking the Teeth of this sacred Croco∣dile.

So much for his Warlike or Ammuniti∣on-Face, which is so preternatural, that it is rather a Vizard than a Face; Mars in him hath but a blinking Aspect, his Face of Arms is like his Coat, Partie per pale, Soul∣dier and Gentleman much of a scantling.

Now enter his Taxing and deglubing Face, a squeezing Look, like that of Vespa∣sianus, as if he were bleeding over a Close∣stool.

Take him thus, and he is in the Inquisi∣tion of the Purse an Authentick Gypsie, that nips your Bung with a Canting Ordi∣nance: not a murthered Fortune in all the Country but bleeds at the Touch of this Malefactor. He is the Spleen of the Body Politick that swells it self to the Consum∣ption of the Whole. At first indeed he Ferreted for the Parliament, but since he hath got off his Cope he set up for himself. He lives upon the Sins of the People, and that is a good standing Dish too. He veri∣fies the Axiom, Iisdem nutritur ex quibus

componitur; his Diet is suitable to his Con∣stitution. I have wondred often why the plundred Country-men should repair to him for succour; certainly it is under the same Notion, as one whose Pockets are pick'd goes to Mal Cut-purse, as the Predo∣minant in that Faculty.

He out-dives a Dutch man, gets a Noble of him that was never worth six pence; for the poorest do not escape, but Dutch-like, he will be dreyning even in the driest Ground. He aliens a Delinquent's Estate with as little Remorse, as his other Holiness gives away an Heretick's Kingdom; and for the truth of the Delinquency, both Chapmen have as little share of Infallibi∣lity. Lye is the Grand Salad of Arbitrary Government, Executor to the Star-cham∣ber and the High-Commission; for those Courts are not extinct, they survive in him, like Dollars changed into single Money. To speak the truth, he is the Universal Tribunal: for since these Times all Causes fall to his Cognizance; as in a great Infecti∣on all Diseases turn oft to the Plague. It concerns our Masters the Parliament to look about them; if he proceedeth at this rate, the Jack may come to swallow the Pike, as the Interest often eats out the Prin∣cipal. As his Commands are great, so he

looks for a Reverence accordingly. He is punctual in exacting your Hat, and to say, Right his due, but by the same Title as the upper Garment is the Vails of the Execu∣tioner. There was a time when such Cat∣tel would hardly have been taken upon suspicion for Men in office, unless the old Proverb were renewed, That the Beggars make a Free Company, and those their Wardens. You may see what it is to hang together. Look upon them severally, and you cannot but fumble for some Threds of Charity. But oh, they are Termagants in Conjunction! like Fidlers, who are Rogues when they go single, and joyn'd in Con∣sort, Gentlemen Musicianers. I care not much if I untwist my Committee-man, and so give him the Receit of this Grand Ca∣tholicon.

Take a State-martyr, one that for his good Behaviour hath paid the Excise of his Ears, so suffered Captivity by the Land-Piracy of Ship-money; next a Primitive Freeholder, one that hates the King be∣cause he is a Gentleman, transgressing the Magna Charta of Delving Adam. Add to these a Mortified Bankrupt, that helps out his false Weights with some Scruples of Conscience, and with his peremptory Scales can doom his Prince with a Mene Tekel.

These with a new blew-stockin'd Justice, lately made of a good Basket-hilted Yeo∣man, with a short-handed Clerk, tack'd to the Rear of him to carry the Knapsack of his Understanding; together with two or three Equivocal Sirs, whose Religion, like their Gentility, is the Extract of their A∣cres; being therefore Spiritual, because they are Earthly; not forgetting the Man of the Law, whose Corruption gives the Hogan to the sincere Juncto. These are the Simples of this Precious Compound; a kind of Dutch Hotch-Potch, the Hogan Mogan Committee-man.

The Committee-man hath a Side-man, or rather a Setter, hight a Sequestrator, of whom you may say, as of the Great Sul∣tan's Horse, where he treads the Grass grows no more. He is the States Cormo∣rant, one that fishes for the publick, but feeds himself; the misery is, he fishes with∣out the Cormorant's Property, a Rope to strengthen the Gullet, and to make him disgorge. A Sequestratour! He is the Devil's Nut-hook, the Sign with him is always in the Clutches. There are more Monsters retain to him, than to all the Limbs in Anatomy. It is strange Physici∣ans do not apply him to the Soles of the Feet in a desperate Fever, he draws far

beyond Pigeons. I hope some Mounte∣bank will slice him and make the Experi∣ment. He is a Tooth drawer once remo∣ved; here is the difference, one applauds the Grinder, the other the Grist. Never till now could I verifie the Poet's Descrip∣tion, that the ravenous Harpie had a Hu∣mane Visage. Death himself cannot quit scores with him; like the Demoniack in the Gospel, he lives among Tombs, nor is all the Holy Water shed by Widows and Orphans a sufficient Exorcism to dispossess him. Thus the Cat sucks your breath, and the Fiend your blood; nor can the Bro∣therhood of Witch-finders, so sagely in∣stituted with all their Terrour, wean the Familiars.

But once more to single out my emboss'd Committee-man; his Fate (for I know you would fain see an end of him) is either a whipping Audit, when he is wrung in the Withers by a Committee of Examinations, and so the Spunge weeps out the Moisture which he had soaked before; or else he meets his Passing-peal in the clamorous Mutiny of a Gut-foundred Garrison: for the Hedge-sparrow will be feeding the Cuckow, till he mistake his Commons and bites off her head. What-ever it is, it is within his desert: for what is observed of

some Creatures, that at the same time they Trade in productions three Stories high, Suckling the first, Big with the second and Clicketing for the third: a Committee-man is the Counterpoint, his Mischief is Superfetation, a certain Scale of Destructi∣on; for he ruines the Father, beggars the Son, and strangles the hopes of all Poste∣rity.