an ordinary tory shopkeeper, by a company of honest whigs? What bailiff would venture to arrest Mr. Steele, now he has the honour to be your representative? and what bailiff ever scrupled it before?
You must know, sir, that we have several ways here of abusing one another, without incurring the danger of the law. First, we are careful never to print a man's name out at length; but, as I do, that of Mr. Stle[1]: so that, although every body alive knows whom I mean, the plaintiff can have no redress in any court of justice. Secondly, by putting cases; thirdly, by insinuations; fourthly, by celebrating the actions of others, who acted directly contrary to the persons we would reflect on; fifthly, by nicknames, either commonly known or stamped for the purpose, which every body can tell how to apply. Without going on farther, it will be enough to inform you, that by some of the ways I have already mentioned, Mr. Steele gives you to understand, that the queen's honour is blasted by the actions of her present ministers; that "her prerogative is disgraced by creating a dozen peers, who, by their votes, turned a point upon which your all depended; that these ministers made the queen lay down her conquering arms, and deliver herself up to be vanquished; that they made her majesty betray her allies, by ordering her army to face about, and leave them in the moment of distress; that the present ministers are men of poor and narrow conceptions, self-interested, and without benevolence to mankind, and were brought into her majesty's favour for the
- ↑ Thus, in the first edition, the name was constantly contracted.
