did you ever hear any man talk of
conscience in political matters? Conscience, quotha? I have been in
Parliament these three and thraty years, and never heard the term made use
of before:--sir, it is an unparliamentary word, and you will be laughed at
for it;--therefore I desire you will not offer to impose upon me with sic
phantoms, but let me know your reason for thus slighting my friends and
disobeying my commands.--Sir, give me an immediate and an explicit answer.

_Eger_. Then, sir, I must frankly tell you, that you work against my
nature; you would connect me with men I despise, and press me into
measures I abhor; would make me a devoted slave to selfish leaders, who
have no friendship but in faction--no merit but in corruption--nor
interest in any measure, but their own;--and to such men I cannot submit;
for know, sir, that the malignant ferment which the venal ambition of the
times provokes in the heads and hearts of other men, I detest.

_Sir Per_. What are you about, sir? malignant ferment! and venal ambition!
Sir, every man should be ambitious to serve his country--and every man
should be rewarded for it: and pray, sir, would nai you wish to serve your
country? Answer me that.--I say, would nai you wish to serve your country?

_Eger_. Only shew me how I can serve my country, and my life is hers.
Were I qualified to lead her armies, to steer her fleets, and deal her
honest vengeance on her insulting foes;--or could my eloquence pull down a
state leviathan, mighty by the plunder of his country--black with the
treasons of her disgrace, and send his infamy down to a free posterity, as
a monumental terror to corrupt ambition, I would be foremost in such
service, and act it with the unremitting ardour of a Roman spirit.

_Sir Per_. Vary weel, sir! vary weel! the fellow is beside himself!

_Eger_. But to be a common barker at envied power--to beat the drum of
faction, and sound the trumpet of insidious patriotism, only to displace a
rival,--or to be a servile voter in proud corruption's filthy train,--to
market out my voice, my reason, and my trust, to the party-broker, who
best can promise, or pay for prostitution; these, sir, are services my
nature abhors,--for they are such a malady to every kind of virtue, as
must in time destroy the fairest constitution that ever wisdom framed,
or virtuous liberty fought for.

_Sir Per_. Why, are you mad, sir? you have certainly been bit by some mad
whig or other: but now,