jliS on the ad'oantages of roguery. yan. 1^. 



Britain would never have taxed America beyond 

 wiiat flae could bear, neither would America have 

 thrown off her dependence on Britain, if both had 

 been honest. If a nation was to be so fooliihly ho- 

 nest, as to divest a prime minister of his sinecures, 

 and secret-service monej, what a strange revolution 

 would it make at the fountain of affairs I no for- 

 tunes could be made ; himself and family would suf- 

 fer ; arid those creatures v/ho depend on his love and 

 favour, would be thrown on the world to beg and to 

 starve. If a physician was to be so honest, as to 

 advise his patients to take air and exercise, in place 

 of his prescriptions, he would soon find, to his great 

 mortification, that he would be obliged to regale 

 himself on a diet of the same. If honesty was to be 

 universally adopted, the honourable profefsion of the 

 law would be totally swallowed up : If mankind 

 were to deal uprightly with each other, and roguery 

 Tianifhed the world, it is plain the faculty must cease 

 for ever, because we would have no farther use for 

 them. Besides, the inferior branches, who depend 

 on perquisites of office, would all be difbanded, 

 without the benefit of a pension. The industrious 

 farmer, who gains his bread by the sweat of his 

 brow, dare not be so honest as appear at his land- 

 lord's table with a good coat and cravat, through 

 fear of an addition to his rent ; and if he was to be 

 sincerely honest, his trade in cattle dealing would 

 unavoidably perifli. The merchants, in their seve- 

 ral departments, must suffer from the same cause; ■' 

 smuggling could have no existence were honesty to 

 ie persevered in. From this view of the matter, it 





