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To let you into the Nature of the unhappy Strife which is the Subject of my present Relation, it may be necessary to descend to a Historical Relation of some Facts for a few Years past, and to give the Characters of some Persons who have the principal Conduct in the present Affairs.

There had been a Contention in the last Election in the same Place, (we shall go no further back) of something of the like Nature with this; wherein the same Heat was unhappily breaking out against the Friends and Favourites of the great Queen of the Island, as had now come to a full height; it is too true, That the Factions which then agitated the Nobility being between the Court-Party then so called, and a flying Squadron of Noblemen, who were of the same general Denomination with themselves, that Breach tended so much to the dividing their Interest, that they could never effectually joyn it again, they made that Seperation of Affection then which they could never unite, let in those Enemies then which they could never get removed again, brought those Charges and Accusations against one another then which their Enemies have since made use off, and which they cannot now deny but are fatal to them.

The Parties are so naturally resembling our unhappy Divisions in Britain, have been so exactly pursued by our Methods, are so properly adapted to Persons as well as Things, so alike in Temper, Manners, Management and Design, to our Parties, of Tory, Whig, High Church, Low Church, Old Whig, New Whig, High Flyer, Dissenter, Jacobite, Court, Country, Revolution, Union, and the like. That to give the more lively Representation of them to your Minds, and to avoid the barbarous Words used in the Country, where the Language is altogether unknown to us, and unlike ours, I shall even call them by the same Names, giving a brief Description as I go on, and always desiring you to add a Subintelligitur for the word Atalantick to them all; as the Atalantick Whigs, Atalantick Tories, Atalantick High Church, and so of all the rest: And whenever you meet with the Names or Distinctions of Whig, Tory, High Church, Low Church, etc. in this Discourse, the Author provides against any other Suggestion or Meaning, than that of the Whigs, Tories, High Church, Low Church, Old Whig, New Whig, High Flyers, Dissenters, Jacobites, etc. who are Inhabitants of the famous Island of Atalantis Major, situate beyond the North Cape, between the Degrees of 42 and 80 of Northern Latitude, as you sail from China into Europe, by the Streights of Nassau, the Island of Nova Zembla, (if it be an Island) and the like, being what we call the North-East Passages: And you cannot blame me for being thus Particular in this early Protestation, if you consider how ready the Men of this Age are to Censure, Condemn and Reproach, the Meaning of Authors, whether they themseves have any meaning or no. If any Man shall presume to say, there is no such Place, I may as readily answer their Presumption, by another less Criminal, viz. That they never have past that Way to China, and consequently cannot demonstrate the Truth of what they say.

Having thus premised what I think necessary, to fence this Work against the Malice of the Times, I am next to tell you, That I shall confine this Part of my Account to the Transactions of the Northern Part of this great Island, and therein to what happened in this Case of the Election of their Noble Councellors only; yet I must Hint a little at what had been transacting in the Southern Parts of the Island; and this is absolutely necessary, in order to make the other Accounts intelligible.

In order to this, you are to understand, That the Southern Part of the Island was the most remarkable of any, as to the Policy of their Government, and the Character of the People; and excepting Englishmen and Polanders, there is not such another Nation in the World: Here they reckoned about Fifty three several Sects, Divisions, and espoused Opinions in Religion, upon most of the Heads whereof the People actually seperated from one another; such as, (1.) Churchmen, and among them High Church, Low Church, Non Jurors, Prelatists, Socinians, Arians, Arminians, Deists, Atheists, Immoralists, Flyers, Soul-Sleepers, Prophets, etc. (2.) Presbyterians, and under that head all kind of Dissenters, Cameronians, Independants, Anabaptists, Baptists, Seventh-Day-Men, Sabatarians, Donatists, Gnosticks, Antiprelatists, Muggletonians, and various undistinguishable Quakers both wet and dry, Sweet Singers, Family of Love, Christian Jews, Jewish Christians, and the like. In the State, the Divisions were no less Fatal, or the variety greater in Proportion, these we may, as I said before, call by the Names which the like Factions are distinguish’d by here; such as Tory, Whig, Low Church, Hot Whig, Old Whig, Modern Whig, High Flyer, High Church, High Tory, a Gillicranky, a Tantivy, Tackers, Non Jurors, Assassinators, Junto’s, Squadroni, Court, Country, Revolutionists, Non Resisters, Passive Obedience Men, and the like.