'Tis true, praised be Almighty God, and Thanks to the Wisdom of those in the Ministry, 'tis not in the Power of an Incendiary to do this; but the Attempt is not for that, at all the less criminal; we are too sensible of our Happiness to be either banter'd or frightned out of it; and 'tis therefore with the utmost Indignation all honest Minds, every True Englishman treats the Persons who would disturb their Felicity. All are sensible of his Majesty's Wisdom, Goodness, Justice and Clemency. He is indeed the Father of his People who love and fear him as such; under his auspicious Reign we enjoy all the Happiness a Nation can enjoy: We have Religion and Liberty, Wealth, Trade, Peace, and the greatest Plenty at home; we are loved by our Friends, dreaded by our Enemies, and in the utmost Reputation abroad; so that in his Majesty's Reign and under the present Administration we have nothing so much to desire as the Continuance of both, being the Source under God, whence all our Felicity flows.
But whatever the Doctor deserves, 'tis given out that he has been so much upon his Guard, that no Forms of Law can touch him; in this, Sir, I beg Leave to differ from his Abbettors; for as I take it, that Point has been settled for some Time; and seems by the geral Consent, the Determination has met with, to be rightly settled. So that his imaginary Cautions would be in vain; 'twas the Opinion of a late learned Chief Justice of the King's Bench, that the universal Notion of the People in these Cases, notwithstanding the artful Disguises of an Author, ought much to influence the Determinations of a Jury; for as he very judiciously added; how absurd was it to imagine that all the World should understand his Meaning but just that particular Judge and Jury, by whom he was to be try'd; thus far his Lordship. Besides, I conceive it, Sir, the Peoples Judgment ought to be regarded; or an ill designing Man may do much harm, with great Impunity: If in Order to it, he should pretend only to amuse, and deliver himself in obstruse Terms, such as may naturally enough be apply'd to the Disadvantage of the Publick, and are so apply'd; surely in this Case he ought to be punish'd for the Detriment that ensues and for not speaking the Truth, if he meant the Truth, in plain Terms.
But leaving this Point to those who are more capable to determine it; I go forward: The Doctor divests himself of the Gentleman and Christian entirely; and in their stead assumes, or if my Instructions are right, I should rather have said, discloses the reverse to them both; a Character too gross to be describ'd here and is better conceiv'd than express'd; he makes a Collection of all the meanest, basest, Terms the Rabble use in their Contests with one another in the Streets, and these he discharges without any other Distinction than only, that they who are Persons of the greatest Worth and Desert are loaded with the greatest Number of 'em.
He spares neither Age or Sex, neither the Living or the Dead; neither the Rich, the Great, or the Good; the best of Characters is no Fence, the Innocent are the least secure; even his Majesty's Person is not sacred, the Royal Blood affords no Protection here; he equally endeavours to bring into Contempt with the People, his Majesty, the Royal Family, and the Ministry.
The next great Attack, as all People understand it, is no less than upon a British Parliament; this August Assembly, the Wisest, the Noblest, the most Awful in the World, he treats with Words of the utmost Scurrility, with Billingsgate Terms of the lowest Sort; this Body of the best Gentlemen in the Kingdom he calls Pedlars, Pickpockets, Highway-men, and Bullies; Words never spoke of a British Parliament before, and 'twould be a National Reproach they should now pass unpunished: This is beyond all Bounds; who that are English Men can with Temper think of such an Insult upon the Body of their Representatives; the Centre of the National Power; the great Preserver of our Laws, Religion and Liberties, and of all, that as Men and Christians we ought to hold dear and valuable.
I wish I could keep in better Terms with my old Companion, my Inclination's good t'wards it, but notwithstanding that, and all my Resolutions, I find it impracticable; his Conduct is so enormously bad, 'tis insufferable; humane Nature must be worse than he has represented it, and I never saw it look so ghastly before, to bear with him.
All that have read these Travels must be convinc'd I do the Doctor no Injustice by my Assertions: His Method of forming his Characters seems to be new, it looks as if he first drew up a Set of ill Names and reproachful Epithets, and then apply'd them as he thought proper, without regarding at all, whether the Persons they were so apply'd to, deserv'd such Treatment or not; and in this, tho' the concurrent Testimony of Thousands or Millions was against him, it seems to have signify'd nothing; tho' daily Experience and universal Consent prov'd the contrary, they appear to have been of no Weight with the Doctor; he knew very well t'would sufficiently answer his End if by boldly and roundly asserting whatever he thought proper, and sticking at no Method of Defamation he should make the whole appear plausible and gain Adherents; and therefore with the utmost Assurance he affirms this Woman to be a Whore, that a Bawd, this Man a Pimp, that a Pathick tho' neither of them ever gave any Reason to be thought such, or were ever thought such, before.
Whether the Doctor would like to be serv'd thus himself let the World determine, and that they may the better do it I shall give them one Instance, using almost the Doctor's own Words, and applying them to himself as thus; Doctor COPPER-FARTHING, was by Pimping, Swearing, For-swearing, Flattering, Suborning, Forging, Gaming, Lying, Fawning, Hectoring, Voting, Scribling, Whoring, Canting, Libeling, Free-thinking, endeavouring to ruin the British Constitution, set aside the Hanover Succession, and bring in a Popish Pretender; by prostituting his Wife, his Sister, his Daughter, advanced to be a DEAN: Now, Sir, this Character being form'd, as I observ'd, before I had concluded who to bestow it on, I am oblig'd to make some little Alteration, and to do the Doctor no injustice, I take away that whole Sentence, by Prostituting his Wife, his Sister, his Daughter; because being well assur'd he never had any of his own; if such have been used so by him they must have belong'd to other People: If I had not pitch'd upon the Doctor you can't but be sensible, like him, I could have made this Character have serv'd with some small Curtailings or Additions an Admiral, a General, a Bishop, a Minister of State, or any other Person I had a mind to be angry with, and was I set upon abusing an hundred of each, by the Power of Transformation, t'would be sufficient for them all.
Don't look upon this, Sir, as my Invention, I assure you 'tis wholly the Doctor's; may the Reputation of it be all his own: 'Tis thus he treats the wisest, the greatest Men in this Nation; Nobility, Ladies and Gentlemen of the best Families and brightest Characters in the Kingdom; and his Malice is greatest where Worth and Virtue are most conspicuous; this of Course must engage him to vent a very large Portion of his Rage against the Family and Person of the greatest Man this Nation ever produced. But how vain is the Attempt here? How impotent, as well as base the Malice? There is no immediate Fence indeed against an infamous Tongue, and must often be for some Time submitted to; but in this Case 'tis otherwise; what the Doctor asserts of this Person and his Family is so universally known to be false, and condemned as such by the Voice of the whole Nation; that the Doctor has the Mortification to find his Aspersions here, do not take in the least.
With what Indignation must every one that has had the Honour to be admitted to this Great Man, review the Doctor's charging him with being morose; and what Contempt must they have of the Doctor's Veracity, who to satisfy the vilest Passion will thus sacrifice his Judgment: What a Cloud of Witnesses might I have, if required, to set in Opposition to this single Assertion of the Doctor's, he is indeed the only Person that ever was known to have thought such a Thing. The great Condescention and Kindness, the good Nature and Complacency with which that Person treats all Mankind, render him amiable to all; he has been so particularly remarkable for this, that as he does the best the kindest Things in the most agreeable Way, which inhances their Value, so when he is obliged from the Nature of a Request to deny it, he so qualifies the Refusal, that the Person concerned is not immediately sensible of a Disappointment; and from the Excess of his good Nature, when convinc'd of the Difficulties and Distresses of Families he'll out of his private Purse remove those Uneasiness's, which he could not in honour have done out of the Nation's Money; and thus Multitudes hourly bless his Name and Family, who subsist by his Bounty alone: He daily feeds the Hungry, cloaths the Naked, delivers the Prisoner; and what I look upon a thousand Degrees beyond the other, he saves and raises many a Family just sinking into Ruine; delivers them from Infamy, Imprisonment, and Want; which to those that never felt either, and have the Appearance of all in View, must be Circumstances more dreadful than 'tis possible can be rightly conceived of by any, but those who have themselves been in them: To help these has been his peculiar Care. Here's one of the best Acts can be done by Man in private Life; these Things will, they must, they ought to endear him; I could carry this, if necessary, to an almost boundless Length; was I to trace this great Man thro' every Scene of private Life, you'd find the whole a noble Record, of which this is an Epitome; such as ne'er was exceeded, or perhaps equall'd.