Journal of the Plague Year

continued, by a Gentleman

It is indubitably a moſt ſad and melancholy Spectacle, to obſerve ſuch a Prince among Men as our noble Prime Miniſter, forced to anſwer for the divine Inſpiration of his Policy before a quibbling Legion of mere Party Popinjays and Pipſqueaks, againſt all democratick Principle and the Will of the Publick as manifeſted in his manly and majeſtick Phyſique. Thoſe naturall Qualities, by which he hath been deſtined for Greatneſs ſince his Father having come into Money, ſhine forth in the impoſing Preſence of his protruding Paunch, the ſhuddering Inflations of his mighty Dewlap, the watchful Gaze of his ocular Orbs flaſhing paſsionate and profound as fresh ſteaming Piſsholes in the untrampled Snows of Dawn. That ſuch an intrepid Maſter and Commander ſhould be forced upon the perilous Rocks of ſpineleſs partiſan Jellyfiſh, and ſuffer ſpraying in his very Face with the black Salt of poyſonous Back-ſtabbing Serpents, is more than any Man of ſuch ſenſitive Diſpoſition ſhould be called upon to endure, eſpecially while the Hook-noſed Wolf of economick Criſis and un-Chriſtian Diſloyalty waits howling and baying his mutinous Subverſiveneſs juſt beyond the toſsing Figure-head of our plucky Ship of State. Acocrdingly I have written ſeverall Letters to each Member of the Committee offering to ſerve upon various juſt and immutable Conditions, ſhould our Dear Leader decide to trim his Courſe to the Wind of Honour and ſcrape, with the immediate Reſignation of his Office, the predatory Barnacles from off his Eſcutcheon.