Blunt. I hope there will be no Candidate but yourself; and tho’ I believe you’ll meet with no Opposition, expect not to be re-elected without Bustle and Murmur. The Freemen are not quite pleased with your late Conduct. They think you, and some others, have been too hasty and partial in your Distribution of Places——
Broad. They quite mistake the Thing, the Distribution was not of our making.
Sir John. I am sorry to hear of so shameful an Error. Were you sensible of the Necessity some Men were driven to; and of your own Usefulness, and yet have no Share in the Settlement of the main Article of the Coalition? I wish you may not live to repent you of your Indolence or Timidity.
Broad. Timidity! Sir John.
Sir John. Yes, in Truth. I am not afraid to tell you, that you betrayed either too much Timidity, or too strong an Appetite for Employments, when you could make no better a Bargain for your Party, or obtain no absolute positive Assurances that the Redress should go Hand in Hand with the Supply. Are we to bleed for ever? Are we never to taste of Cordials?
Over. Our Doctors think that Bitters sit best on our English Stomachs.
Sir John. Bitters are of a hot Nature; the Prescribers should take Care, that a too constant use of them may not inflame the Blood too much.
Over. They have provided beforehand a Remedy against such an Evil.——A good many Thousands in Red, will cure an Inflammation presently.
Sir John. They may, by Amputation, if in some of the Limbs only; but should ever Poverty, Oppression, or Despair, force the Inflammation into the Body and Bowels, I doubt the Surgeons in Red would not find the Cure so very easy. But I hope our Friends, few as they are, will find some Means of perswading their fellow Practicers to drop their Bitters, and put their Patients on a Course of Alteratives.
Smooth. Sir John, we all wish for Cordials and Restoratives; we own they are wanting; but I am afraid a Time of War and Confusion is not the proper Season for administering them.