far, therefore, is Mr. Brooke from having received any hard or
unwarrantable treatment, that the licenser has only acted in pursuance
of that law to which he owes his power; a law, which every admirer of
the administration must own to be very necessary, and to have produced
very salutary effects.

I am, indeed, surprised that this great office is not drawn out into a
longer series of deputations; since it might afford a gainful and
reputable employment to a great number of the friends of the government;
and, I should think, instead of having immediate recourse to the
deputy-licenser himself, it might be sufficient honour for any poet,
except the laureate, to stand bareheaded in the presence of the deputy
of the deputy's deputy in the nineteenth subordination.

Such a number cannot but be thought necessary, if we take into
consideration the great work of drawing up an index expurgatorius to all
the old plays; which is, I hope, already undertaken, or, if it has been
hitherto unhappily neglected, I take this opportunity to recommend.

The productions of our old poets are crowded with passages very unfit
for the ears of an English audience, and which cannot be pronounced
without irritating the minds of the people.

This censure I do not confine to those lines in which liberty, natural
equality, wicked ministers, deluded kings, mean arts of negotiation,
venal senates, mercenary troops, oppressive officers, servile and
exorbitant taxes, universal corruption, the luxuries of a court, the
miseries of the people, the decline of trade, or the happiness of
independency, are directly mentioned. These are such glaring passages,
as cannot be suffered to pass without the most supine and criminal
negligence. I hope the vigilance of the licensers will extend to all
such speeches and soliloquies as tend to recommend the pleasures of
virtue, the tranquillity of an uncorrupted head, and the satisfactions
of conscious innocence; for though such strokes as these do not appear
to a common eye to threaten any danger to the government, yet it is well
known to more penetrating observers, that they have such consequences as
cannot be too diligently obviated, or too cautiously avoided.

A man, who becomes once enamoured of the charms of virtue, is apt to be
very little concerned about the acquisition of wealth or titles, and is,
therefore, not easily induced to act in a manner contrary to his real
sentiments, or to vote at the word of command