arded; but ye have set at nought all my counsels, and would
none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when
your fear cometh."

I have now done with your Memorial, and freely excuse your mistakes,
since you appear to write as a stranger, and as of a country which is
left at liberty to enjoy the benefits of nature, and to make the best of
those advantages which God hath given it, in soil, climate, and
situation.

But having lately sent out a paper, entitled, _A Short View of the State
of Ireland_; and hearing of an objection, that some people think I have
treated the memory of the late Lord Chief Justice Whitshed with an
appearance of severity; since I may not probably have another
opportunity of explaining myself in that particular, I choose to do it
here. Laying it, therefore, down for a postulatum, which I suppose will
be universally granted, that no little creature of so mean a birth and
genius, had ever the honour to be a greater enemy to his country, and to
all kinds of virtue, than HE, I answer thus; Whether there be two
different goddesses called Fame, as some authors contend, or only one
goddess sounding two different trumpets, it is certain that people
distinguished for their villainy have as good a title for a blast from
the proper trumpet, as those who are most renowned for their virtues
have from the other; and have equal reason to complain if it be refused
them. And accordingly the names of the most celebrated profligates have
been faithfully transmitted down to posterity. And although the person
here understood acted his part in an obscure corner of the world, yet
his talents might have shone with lustre enough in the noblest scene.

As to my naming a person dead, the plain honest reason is the best. He
was armed with power, guilt, and will to do mischief, even where he was
not provoked, as appeared by his prosecuting two printers,[85] one to
death, and both to ruin, who had neither offended God nor the King, nor
him nor the public.

What an encouragement to vice is this! If an ill man be alive, and in
power, we dare not attack him; and if he be weary of the world, or of
his own villainies, he has nothing to do but die, and then his
reputation is safe. For these excellent casuists know just Latin enough
to have heard a most foolish precept, that _de mortuis nil nisi bonum_;
so that if Socrates, and Anytus his accuser, had happened to die
together, the charity of survivors must eit