ii LATER YEARS 47 



" Oh I how I long to see America and the East Indies 

 revolted, totally and finally the revenue reduced to half 

 public credit fully discredited by bankruptcy the third of 

 London in ruins, and the rascally mob subdued ! I think I 

 am not too old to despair of being witness to all these 

 blessings. 



" I am delighted to see the daily and hourly progress of 

 madness and folly and wickedness in England. The con- 

 summation of these qualities are the true ingredients for 

 making a fine narrative in history, especially if followed by 

 some signal and ruinous convulsion as I hope will soon be 

 the case with that pernicious people ! " 



Even from the secure haven of James's Court, 

 the maledictions continue to pour forth: 



" Nothing but a rebellion and bloodshed will open the 

 eyes of that deluded people ; though were they alone con- 

 cerned, I think it is no matter what becomes of them. . . . 

 Our government has become a chimera, and is too perfect, in 

 point of liberty, for so rude a beast as an Englishman ; who 

 is a man, a bad animal, too, corrupted by above a century 

 of licentiousness. The misfortune is that this liberty can 

 scarcely be retrenched without danger of being entirely lost ; 

 at least the fatal effects of licentiousness must first be made 

 palpable by some extreme mischief resulting from it. I 

 may wish that the catastrophe should rather fall on our 

 posterity, but it hastens on with such large strides as to 

 leave little room for hope. 



" I am running over again the last edition of my History, 

 in order to correct it still further. I either soften or ex- 

 punge many villainous seditious Whig strokes which had 

 crept into it. I wish that my indignation at the present 

 madness, encouraged by lies, calumnies, imposture, and 

 every infamous act usual among popular leaders, may not 

 throw me into the opposite extreme." 



