is
common to the public; I can live better than many others, I have some
gold and silver by me, and a shop well furnished, and shall be able
to make a shift when many of my betters are starving. But I am grieved
to see the coldness and indifference of many people with whom I
discourse. Some are afraid of a proclamation, others shrug up their
shoulders, and cry, what would you have us to do? Some give out, there
is no danger at all. Others are comforted that it will be a common
calamity and they shall fare no worse than their neighbours. Will a
man, who hears midnight-robbers at his door, get out of bed, and raise
his family for a common defence, and shall a whole kingdom lie in a
lethargy, while Mr. Wood comes at the head of his confederates to rob
them of all they have, to ruin us and our posterity for ever? If an
high-way-man meets you on the road, you give him your money to save
your life; but, God be thanked, Mr. Wood cannot touch a hair of your
heads. You have all the laws of God and man on your side. When he or
his accomplices offer you his dross, it is but saying No, and you are
safe. If a madman should come to my shop with a handful of dirt raked
out of the kennel, and offer it in payment for ten yards of stuff, I
would pity or laugh at him, or, if his behaviour deserved it, kick him
out of my doors. And if Mr. Wood comes to demand any gold or silver,
or commodities for which I have paid my gold and silver, in exchange
for his trash, can he deserve or expect better treatment?

When the evil day is come (if it must come) let us mark and observe
those who presume to offer these half-pence in payment. Let their
names and trades, and places of abode be made public, that every one
may be aware of them, as betrayers of their country, and confederates
with Mr. Wood. Let them be watched at markets and fairs, and let the
first honest discoverer give the word about, that Wood's half-pence
have been offered, and caution the poor innocent people not to receive
them.

Perhaps I have been too tedious; but there would never be an end, if I
attempt to say all that this melancholy subject will bear. I will
conclude with humbly offering one proposal, which if it were put in
practice, would blow up this destructive project at once. Let some
skilful judicious pen draw up an advertisement to the following
purpose:

_Whereas one William Wood, hard-ware-man, now or lately sojourning in
the city of London, hath, by many misreprese