CHAPTER XVI. 



FROM this time till the peace was concluded, 

 the political debatings, before noticed, continued, 

 and were almost the constant subject of all com- 

 panies. I have often sat and listened with wonder 

 to the jargon of the protected fools, and heard 

 them argue, if so it may be called, in defence of 

 all the measures then pursued; and I have seen 

 with surprise the impudence of those who lived 

 upon the taxes. Knaves and their abettors ap- 

 peared to predominate in the land ; and they 

 carried their subserviency to such a length that 

 I think, if Mr. Pitt had proposed to make a law 

 to transport all men who had pug noses, and to 

 hang all men above 60 years of age, these persons 

 (those excepted who came within the meaning of 

 the act) would have advocated it as a brilliant 

 thought and a wise measure. 



If we examine the history of these times, and 

 look back to those of old, we shall find that the 

 inroads of ignorance have ever been the same. 

 The time was when the magistrates of Newcastle 

 sent to Scotland for a man who was reputed clever 

 in discovering witches. He came, and easily con- 

 victed many a fine woman, as well as those who 

 were wrinkled by age and wisdom, and they were 

 by his means tried and put to death.* 



* " He was for such like villainie condemned in Scotland, and 

 upon the gallows he confessed he had been the death of two hundred 

 and twenty women, in England and Scotland, for the gain of twenty 

 shillings a-peece, and beseeched forgiveness and was executed. "- 

 " England's Grievance," by Ralph Gardner, 1665. 



