no force in this argument; yet so preternatural a sum, as one hundred and ten thousand pounds, raised all on a sudden (for there is no dallying with hunger) is just in proportion with raising a million and a half in England; which, as things now stand, would probably bring that opulent kingdom under some difficulties. You are concerned how strange and surprising it would be in foreign parts to hear that the poor were starving in a RICH Country, &c. Are you in earnest ? is Ireland the rich country you mean? or are you insulting our poverty? were you ever out of Ireland? or were you ever in it till of late? You may probably have a good employment, and are saving all you can to purchase a good estate in England. But by talking so familiarly of one hundred and ten thousand pounds, by a tax upon a few commodities, it is plain, you are either naturally or affectedly ignorant of our present condition; or else you would know and allow, that such a sum is not to be raised here, without a general excise; since in proportion to our wealth, we pay already in taxes more than England ever did, in the height of war. And when you have brought over your corn, who will be the buyers? most certainly not the poor, who will not be able to purchase the twentieth part of it. Sir, upon the whole, your paper is a very crude piece, liable to more objections than there are lines; but, I think, your meaning is good, and so far you are pardonable. If you will propose a general contribution for supporting the poor in potatoes and buttermilk, till the new. corn comes in, perhaps you may succeed better? because the thing at least is possible: and I think if our brethren in England would contribute upon this emergency, out of the million they gain from us every year, they would do a piece of justice as well as charity. In the mean time, go and preach to your own tenants, to fall to the plough as fast as they can; and prevail with your neighbouring squires, to do the same with theirs; or else die with the guilt of having driven away half the inhabitants, and starving the rest. For as to your scheme of raising one hundred and ten thousand pounds, it is as vain as that of Rabelais; which was to squeeze out wind from the posteriors of a dead ass. But, why all this concern for the poor? We want them not as the country is now managed; they may follow thousands of their leaders, and seek their bread abroad. Where the plough has no work, one family can do the business of fifty, and you may send away the other forty-nine. An admirable piece of husbandry, never known or practised by the wisest nations, who erroneously thought people to be the riches of a country! : If so wretched a state of things would allow it, me, thinks I could have a malicious pleasure, after all the warning I have in vain given the public, at my own peril, for several years past, to see the consequences and events answering in every particular. I pretend to no sagacity: what I writ was little more than what I had discoursed to several persons, who were generally of my opinion and it was obvious to every common understanding, that such effects must needs follow from such causes. A fair issue of things begun upon party. rage, while some sacrificed the public to fury, and others to ambition: while a spirit of faction and oppression reigned in every part of the country, where gentlemen, instead of consulting the ease of their tenants, or cultivating their lands, were worrying one another upon points of whig and tory, of high church and low church; which no more concerned them than the long and famous controversy of strops for razors: while agricul ture was wholly discouraged, and consequently half the farmers and labourers, and poorer tradesmen, forced to beggary or banishment. "Wisdom crieth in the streets; because I have called on you; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. But ye have set at nought all my counsels, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." I have now done with your memorial, and freely excuse your mistakes, since you appear to write as a stranger, and as of a country which is left at liberty to enjoy the benefits of nature, and to make the best of those advantages which God has given it, in soil, climate, and situation. But having lately sent out a paper, entitled, A Short View of the State of Ireland; and hearing of an objec tion, that some people think I have treated the memory of the late lord chief justice Whitshed with an appearance of severity: since I may not probably have another opportunity of explaining myself in that particular, I choose to do it here: laying it therefore down for a postulatum, which I suppose will be universally granted, that no little creature of so mean a birth and genius, had ever the honour to be a greater enemy to his country, and to all kinds of virtue than HE, I answer thus; whether there be two different goddesses called Fame, as some authors contend, or only one goddess sounding two different trumpets, it is certain, that people distinguished for their villany, have as good a title to a blast from the proper trumpet, as those who are most renowned for their virtues, have from the other; and have equal reason to complain if it be refused them. And accordingly the names of the most celebrated profligates have been faithfully transmitted down to posterity. And although the person here un derstood, acted his part in an obscure corner of the world, yet his talents might have shone with lustre enough, in the noblest scene. As to my naming a person dead, the plain honest reason is the best. He was armed with power and will to do mischief, even where he was not provoked; as appeared by his prosecuting two printers,* one to death, and both to ruin, who had neither offended God, nor the king, nor him, nor the public. hold their What an encouragement to vice is this? If an ill man be alive, and in power, we dare not attack him; and if he be weary of the world, or of his own villanies, he has nothing to do but die, and then his reputation is safe. For, these excellent casuists know just Latin enough to have heard a most foolish precept, that de mortuis nil nisi bonum; so that if Socrates, and Anytus his accuser, had happened to die together, the charity of survivors must either have obliged them to peace, or to fix the same character on both. The only crime of charging the dead is, when the least doubt remains whether the accusation be true; but when men are openly abandoned, and lost to all shame, they have no reason to think it hard, if their memory be reproached. Whoever reports, or otherwise publishes, any thing which it is possible may be false, that man is a slanderer; hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto. Even the least misrepresentation, or aggravation of facts, deserves the same censure in some degree: but in this case I am quite deceived, if my error has not been on the side of extenuation. I have now present before me the idea of some persons (I know not in what part of the world) who spend every moment of their lives, and every turn of their *Edward Waters and John Harding. F. thoughts while they are awake (and probably of their dreams while they sleep) in the most detestable actions and designs; who delight in mischief, scandal, and obloquy, with the hatred and contempt of all mankind against them; but chiefly of those among their own party, and their own family; such, whose odious qualities rival each other for perfection; avarice, brutality, faction, pride, malice, treachery, noise, impudence, dulness, ignorance, vanity, and revenge, contending every moment for superiority in their breasts. Such creatures are not to be reformed; neither is it prudent or safe to attempt a reformation. Yet, although their memories will rot, there may be some benefit for their survivors, to smell it while it is rotting. I am, Sir, Your humble servant, A. B. |