Journal of the Plague Year

continued, by a Gentleman

I have it on the perfecteſt Authoritie, that certain ſtaunch ſtout Fellows throughout our great Nation, are walking the Streets and accoſting Whores after a Faſhion befitting our noble Prime Miniſter himſelf, were his famous libertarian Inſtincts permitted their Due. Alas, that the Cares of State and the booriſh Preoccupation, upon the Part of a few mere Nurſes and Apothecaries, with preſerving the miſerable low Exiſtence of ſome ſeverall thouſand Expendables, ſhould have gained ſo unhealthy an Aſcendancy over the refined Faculties of ſo induſtrious and foreſighted a Stateſman. It is to be hoped by all patriotick Engliſhmen, that the Death-toll among the ſubverſive Claſses may prove ſuch as to deprive the Forces of Sedition of any undue Advantage at the next Elections. For it would be a moſt tragicall Irony, ſhould the fundamental Principles of our Democracy prove ſo weak and ſoft, as to be trampled beneath the foppish ſlippered Feet of a heathen Peſtilence, with the hideous Fangs of treaſonous Treachery ſtill ſtuck faſt in the Blood-ſpurting Throat of Liberty, and the Limbs of the Law tied faſt by the beſtial Chains of vexatious Office, which wind in horrid Coils about the Freedom-ſpraying Teſticles of our ineffable Britiſhneſs. Truly I fear ſome dread Conſpiracy of French and Niggers, and may this Teſtament preſerve my modeſt and underſtated Memory, as a Martyr of our great and holy Cauſe, if I ſhould be dragged off to the Torture or otherwiſe not ſurvive this fateful Night.