sen not only our
ambassadors and other negotiators, but even our journalists and
pamphleteers; nor have we had any reason to change our measures, or to
repent of the confidence which we have placed in ignorance.

Are we now, therefore, to be told, that this law is

--stamp'd upon th' unletter'd mind?

Are we to suspect our placemen, our pensioners, our generals, our
lawyers, our best friends in both houses, all our adherents among the
atheists and infidels, and our very gazetteers, clerks, and court-pages,
as friends to independency? Doubtless this is the tendency of his
assertion, but we have known them too long to be thus imposed upon: the
unlettered have been our warmest and most constant defenders; nor have
we omitted any thing to deserve their favour, but have always
endeavoured to raise their reputation, extend their influence, and
increase their number.

In his first act he abounds with sentiments very inconsistent with the
ends for which the power of licensing was granted; to enumerate them all
would be to transcribe a great part of his play, a task which I shall
very willingly leave to others, who, though true friends to the
government, are not inflamed with zeal so fiery and impatient as mine,
and, therefore, do not feel the same emotions of rage and resentment at
the sight of those infamous passages, in which venality and dependence
are represented, as mean in themselves, and productive of remorse and
infelicity.

One line, which ought, in my opinion, to be erased from every copy, by a
special act of parliament, is mentioned by Anderson, as pronounced by
the hero in his sleep,

O Sweden! O my country! yet I'll save thee.

This line I have reason to believe thrown out as a kind of a watchword
for the opposing faction, who, when they meet in their seditious
assemblies, have been observed to lay their hands upon their breasts,
and cry out, with great vehemence of accent,

O B----[3]! O my country! yet I'll save thee.

In the second scene he endeavours to fix epithets of contempt upon those
passions and desires, which have been always found most useful to the
ministry, and most opposite to the spirit of independency.

Base fear, the laziness of lust, gross appetites,
These are the ladders, and the grov'ling footstool
From whence the tyrant rises--
Secure and scepter'd in the soul's servility,
He has debauched the genius of our country,
And rides triumphant, while her captive sons