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SUBSCRIPTION
It is a very true observation of a celebrated politician's, tho made to indifferent purpose, that
the generality of mankind are 100 years at least behind hand in their politics:
But ever in respect to those times the
is undertaken: if it ever it
was with any other nation, it certainly
never was the way with Englishmen
to quarrel with the liberty that
was given them
If ever there was a time, when the
Magistrate had said to the people,
believe each of you as you will, or as you
can, but follow the precepts of the
Gospel in being peaceable & loving
one another, & then they had taken
up arms, & then they had fallen to
cutting peoples one another's throats
the case would have been parallel:
but has it ever been so, yet? that there never has been yet.
The language has always been, believe
all of you as I do to day; believe all of you
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the contrary tomorrow as I shall
do tomorrow; or flames or
or beggary banishment or civil disabilities
or ecclesiastical disabilities, now
that I can no longer bring any
of the rest to bear against you
shall be your portion.
There have been x .. instances
where the first mentioned sort of
language has been used; the
people to whom it was addressed
were our own people, but infinitely
more attached to their speculative
tenets beyond what have they the people are that it is pretended [by any
one the people] are to be at present:
men who had most of many of them given the last proofs
of the rigor of that attachment
by quitting their native country
to manifest it in what was then
a desert.
Mark then what in every one
of these instances has been the consequence
of such language? has
it been in any one everyone the very opposite such as is
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apprehended or affected to be apprehended.
Is it cases in point But we
want look for to govern our conclusions
in the present? There are so many
complete ones & much stronger:
& now let men call it, prudence & caution to
abandon these & pursue in their
stead the current truck of their imagination
let them plume themselves upon
their regard they have shewn for peace; by in repelling
those measures of levity which have
never yet failed to produce nor will if pursued to
perpetuate it: & adhering to those
measures of vigor which keep
alive that complaint & anxiety & [lamentation]
& distress, which so many reputable
---page break---
men feel who have dare to express
it, & so many more
who dare not.
[Is it natural for men to quarrel
at a meal when raw carrion together with
dressed flesh & fish & vegetables
are set before them, & they who
like the carrion may gorge themselves
with it, & each eat of
their to his heart's content of what
he likes: & to be in good humour
when the one says to the other, you
shall eat my carrion, & you
that like vegetables shall eat fish shall eat flesh,
& you that like flesh fish sha shall eat
fish, vegetables & you that like flesh
shall have none, for it will
fill you with the scurvy?
He who had so long been in possession
of the being caterer & giving nauseas
to his messmates might indeed for
a moment be out of humour to thinking that he
might not any longer. + + as the Highland Lords of Clans doubtless were when they found there was to be no more stripping & sending backwards & forwards & beating & kicking [& hanging] of those who were about them. but he would
---page break---
soon fall again upon his Carrion
when now though it was no longer a point of honour for him to devour it
or fling it away, & take somewhat
of what was next to him, when
he found there was nothing else
left for him to do
No more than the tomb of Mahomet
is updrawn by Loadstones, is the peace
of the Society up suspended in any part any where
on that cobweb thread: it is supported
by that intelligence of their
true Interests that spreads more
& more among the people; by the
[contempt or] neglect of these scholastic
subtelties chimeras which grows every
day more profound; by that watchfulness
over the activity & even the
inactivity of men in power, which
by the firm & perpetual entrenchment against foreign dangers is repaid every day by some wise
& salutary Law. There are & there
will continue to be the unshakeable immoveable
---page break---
supports of the peace & felicity
of this nation, when these battles of
inanity shall be blown into the
Red Sea from which they sprung Note. It was in Alexandria & Egypt that the purity of Christianity became fully to be deformed obscured by those Iconic, which [some] men have amalgamated in their imagination with it's essence
and posterity shall look back
upon their forefathers of the present
age, & wonder what were those
doubts & misgivings [& doubts] & apprehensions
which benumbed for a moment & withheld those
hands [for a moment] to which
they will have owed so many strokes of
spirited & judicious Legislation.
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