than for ages before? Has any man
suffered in his liberty, life, or fortune, contrary to law? Stand
forth and name him if you can. Tho' the King's person, his family,
his government, and his ministers, have been openly abused a
thousand times in the most scurrilous and reproachful terms, could
it ever provoke him to one arbitrary act or to violate those laws
which he had made the rule of his government? Look into the reigns
of the James's and the Charles's, and tell me wither these divine
and hereditary princes were guided by the same spirit of mildness
and forgivness?

"I am sensible how often and how many destructive designs have been
imputed to the prince upon the throne and his ministers, of the cry
raised against standing armies, of the complaints of corruption,
long parliaments, and Hanoverian interest pursued in opposition to
that of Britain; but I am allso sensible there is not a true friend
to liberty, a dispassionate and sober man, but who (now the mask is
laid aside) perceives they were, at bottom, the artifices and
popular pretences of men struggling to force themselves into power,
or of those who in the dark were aiming the destruction of our happy
constitution.

"Men endued with popular talents, of figure and fortune in the
world, and without the advantages of apparent disinterestedness on
their side, will allways have address enough, with a seeming
plausibility, to pervert every act of Government at home, and to
defame and run down every publick transaction abroad; and disciples
will never be wanting of capacity and passions fitted to become the
dupes of such false apostles. The corruption complained of is but
too universal, and it's to be feared too deep-rooted to be cured; it
is the constant attendant of peace and wealth; and such is the
depravity of our natures, that these blessings cannot be enjoyed
without having this plague, the most sordid and detestable of all
vices, accompanying them. But if it is in our governours, it is also
in the people, and change your kings and ministers as often as you
please, whoever is in possession, or whoever is in quest of power,
will allways lay hold of the vices, the follys, or the prejudices of
mankind to exclude others from it or to acquire it to themselves.

"It's to be hoped most people now perceive with what views th