or since, did I ever
mean to excite any Action, or Intention, against the Weak, or the
Oppressed, the Fallen, or the Afflicted.

When _Brutus_ unsheathed the reluctant Sword of Freedom against his
Friend, Humanity must suppose that his Heart was wrung with Compunction,
while his Country enjoined and impelled the Blow.

But further, Sir, there is a very wide Difference between a _Popish
Regency_ and a _Popish People_. The whole Intent and Virulence, as you
call it, of my Papers, is pointed and levelled against the _One_, but not
a Syllable uttered, from End to End, against the _Other_. A _Popish
Regency_, in Temporals alike as in Spirituals, I held to be, by Principle,
an arbitrary and oppressive Government; but I held a _Popish People_ to
be, of all People, the most amenable and submissive to Rulers, whatever
the Form or Nature of that State may be, under which they shall happen to
be subjected. And, on this very Account, I dreaded them the more, should
they become passive Instruments in the Hand of a Papal Dictator.

To apply a sure Test to the Propriety, or Impropriety, of my
Apprehensions, at the Period when I wrote the _Farmer's Letters_, let us
suppose that no one of the Penal Laws, which were instituted during the
Reign of her Majesty Queen _Anne_, had yet passed into Form, but that
Matters had remained in the same Situation, in which the _Monarch_, of
_humane_, as well as _glorious Memory_, had left this unhappy People.
Well, what would have been the Consequence? Would _Papists_, in that Case,
have been less amenable to the Government, by which they had been
favoured, supported, and cherished? Would they have been the forwarder to
bring Damage and Destruction on a Country, because their own Interest was
connected therewith, and the Fortunes of their Posterity deposited
therein? Would they have been the readier to attempt the Overthrow of our
beneficent Constitution, because they enjoyed the Privileges and
Advantages thereof? No, Sir, no. The Absurdity of the Supposition is
inclusive of the Answer. Had this been the Case, the _Farmer's Letters_
would not have existed to have caused the Renewal of our Acquaintance.

I have read and noted many Instances, in free States and Commonwealths,
where _Liberty_, when fermented into _Licentiousness_, hath occasioned
many partial Struggles for Power, many Broils and Factions, and much
Disturbance to the Community. But very few are the Instances of the
Insurrection of any P