Will's
Coffee-house, upon the Merit of having writ a Posie of a Ring.
R.
Like the chopping in two of the
Respublica
in the quotation just above of the well-known Roman formula by which consuls were to see
ne quid Respublica detrimenti capiat
, this is a jest on the ignorance of the political wiseacres. Port wine had been forced on England in 1703 in place of Claret, and the drinking of it made an act of patriotism, — which then meant hostility to France, — by the Methuen treaty, so named from its negotiator, Paul Methuen, the English Minister at Lisbon. It is the shortest treaty upon record, having only two clauses, one providing that Portugal should admit British cloths; the other that England should admit Portuguese wines at one-third less duty than those of France. This lasted until 1831, and so the English were made Port wine drinkers. Abraham Froth and his friends of the