ort interruption, he thus
resumed his discourse:--

"When such a caitiff presents himself to you, like the devil, with a
temptation in his hand, avoid him as if he were in fact the devil--it is
not the offering of disinterested love, for what should induce him, who
has no affections, to love you, to whose persons he is an utter stranger?
alas! it is not a benevolence, but a bribe. He wants to buy you at one
market that he may sell you at another. Without doubt his intention is
to make an advantage of his purchase, and this aim he cannot accomplish
but by sacrificing, in some sort, your interest, your independency, to
the wicked designs of a minister, as he can expect no gratification for
the faithful discharge of his duty. But, even if he should not find an
opportunity of selling you to advantage, the crime, the shame, the
infamy, will still be the same in you, who, baser than the most abandoned
prostitutes, have sold yourselves and your posterity for hire--for a
paltry price, to be refunded with interest by some minister, who will
indemnify himself out of your own pockets; for, after all, you are bought
and sold with your own money--the miserable pittance you may now receive
is no more than a pitcher full of water thrown in to moisten the sucker
of that pump which will drain you to the bottom. Let me therefore advise
and exhort you, my countrymen, to avoid the opposite extremes of the
ignorant clown and the designing courtier, and choose a man of honesty,
intelligence, and moderation, who will"----

The doctrine of moderation was a very unpopular subject in such an
assembly; and, accordingly, they rejected it as one man. They began to
think the stranger wanted to set up for himself; a supposition that could
not fail to incense both sides equally, as they were both zealously
engaged in their respective causes. The Whigs and the Tories joined
against this intruder, who, being neither, was treated like a monster, or
chimera in politics. They hissed, they hooted, and they hallooed; they
annoyed him with missiles of dirt, sticks, and stones; they cursed, they
threatened and reviled, till, at length, his patience was exhausted.

"Ungrateful and abandoned miscreants!" he cried, "I spoke to you as men
and Christians--as free-born Britons and fellow-citizens; but I perceive
you are a pack of venal, infamous scoundrels, and I will treat you
accordingly." So saying, he brandished his lance, and riding into the
thickest