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x08 
AaB PE NG aiken. ANG Gs, 
of corruption: we musT not wound when we wifh to amend 
the difeafes of our conftitution: we must be confiftent with 
ourfelves. The parlement will fuffer a civil death in lefs 
than a twelvemonth; it will be the fault of the people if they 
chufe another compofed of members with whom they are at 
prefent fo difcontented. They will, when that period arrives, 
have an opportunity of legally rejecting thofe candidates whom 
they difapprove, and felecting thofe only worthy of their confi- 
dence.” - 
My mention of petitioning with a dagger in one hand gave 
great offence; but I thought myfelf vindicated by the indecent 
language of fome of the petitioners, of which the following is a 
fpecimen. 
“ Sucu were the people who agreed to the petition on which 
« I now lean. Occonomy in the expenditure of the public 
¢ money is all they afk. Will any man vote for rejecting fo 
“ modeft, fo reafonable a requeft? I hope not. Will any man 
** vote that this petition be not brought up? No man, I truft,. 
<¢ will dare do it. ‘The minifter will not dare do it, becaufe he 
« knows he ought not to dare it. But there is another thing 
“© alfo which he ought not to dare; and that is, to attempt to 
«¢ defeat the object of it. Ifthe minifter is fo inclined, with the 
«¢ turn of his finger he may deftroy it: but let him beware how 
« he directs his influence againft it. Let me advife him to be- 
«¢ ware how he inftitutes an enquiry into the merits of the peti- 
tion: it fpeaks for itfelf; and the petitioners will look upon 
« fuch an enquiry as a mockery, as a parlementary or mini- 
“ fterial trick to put an indirect negative upon their petition. 
« When they met to draw it up they were unarmed; they had 
2 neither 
