The Virginia Gazette

REFLECTIONS upon the present Disputes between the House of Commons and the Magistrates of London.

Search all Europe round, and there is no Where to be found so much mean Profligacy in some, and so much generous Credulity in others, as within the Bills of Mortality; Circumstances which enable designing, unquiet, ambitious Spirits, to turn to their own Advantage the Crimes, the Weaknesses, and even the Virtues, of their Fellow Citizens.

Ignorant of the sublime Ideas of constitutional Liberty, they see not that it consists in the Subordination of Freemen to free Laws, but confounding the Principles of Equality with those of Liberty they pave the Way to the very worst of Tyranny, namely, that of the Populace; yet the Interests of that Populace they consider not, they regard not. To their Imaginations alone they pay Attention, and would flatter their Passions though it ended in their Ruin. Having much Reason themselves to fear the Law, they wish to weaken it; for, after Squandering the Funds of the City in Imprudence and Extravagance, they trust, in Clamours against others, to drown those which they expect against themselves, and can hope only, in the Disgrace of the Publick, to make their own be overlooked. They began, with the Help of their Emissaries, by attempting to light up a civil War between two Sister Nations. They next endeavoured to break the Bonds which tie Parent and the Child (England and America) together. They then raised the People against the Parliament, by promoting Addresses to dissolve it; and in the End they held up the Dagger of every Englishman to plunge it in another Englishman's Breast, by asserting that the Parliament was dissolved, and that the People had a Right to disobey the Laws which it made. Every Disorder accompanied and followed such Attempts. One of their Number declared, in full Parliament, that he would not pay the King's Tax; although, willing to draw others into Danger, he afterwards struck from it himself. Another schooled his Sovereign in publick, though his Attendants, like Owls brought into the Light of the Sun, showed Modesty, for once, in the Presence of a King of England. With an affected Decency, when their Remonstrance was presented, they caused a Mob of only a few Hundreds to follow it to the Gates of the Palace; but, with an insolent Display of their Power, they, a few Days after, brought out a Hundred Thousand People to shout at their Feast; a Contrivance intended, by the Contrast, to mark the more strongly to all that the Mob which they could raise they could command. When the great Merchants of this great City went in Procession, with the Splendour of Princes, to pour out their Sentiments of Loyalty and Confidence at the Foot of the Throne, their Coaches were broken, their Persons insulted, and some of their Lives brought into Danger. To distress a Minister, the Men I complain of scrupled not to distress their Country; for they urged her to a naval War, and yet took from her the Means of Defence, by checking the Power of pressing Seamen, betraying thus the Government and the Nation, under the Pretence of befriending the People. They opposed in Parliament an Undertaking calculated for the Conveniency and Embellishment of that City they represent, Emporium totius Europae, merely because the Proprietors happened to be Scotchmen. These Men have now finished their Career, refusing Obedience to the Orders of one of the Houses of Parliament, and ordering the Messenger who brought them to be sent to Jail.