And What if the Pretender should Come?

The full title, And What if the Pretender should Come?, promises some considerations of the advantages and real consequences of the pretender's possessing the crown of Great Britain. One sentence sets a condition: if the danger of the pretender is really so great as the noise which some make about it seems to suppose, and if the hopes of his coming are so well grounded, as some of his friends seem to boast.

The text says it will consider the pretender in his person and in his circumstances, and that by the laws of Great Britain, and of the whole world, a child born in wedlock shall inherit, as heir of the mother's husband, whether begotten by him, as his real father, or not. The text reports that those who make such a clamour at the fears of the pretender tell us that not only French government, and French influence, but French religion, that is to say, popery, will come upon us. A passage hopes that wholesome severities may put an effectual stop to the noise and clamour they now make in the nation.