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gratify the avarice, the pride or ambition, of either the one party or the other.
Leaving you, however, at full liberty to bestow upon me whatever name, or to rank me in whatever class, you please, I shall endeavour, in the course of the few following pages, to shew, that the evil, which you, to our very great comfort, pronounce past remedy, may yet admit of a cure, if not radical, at least palliative; and that if the price of Provisions cannot be greatly reduced, the laborious poor may be better enabled to pay them. This, indeed, is a task, the execution of which would have come with a better grace from you, who, as I said above, are one of our state-physicians; but many a patient, you know, has been cured by a quack, after having been given over by the whole faculty. Before, however, I discover my nostrum (you see, Sir, I am beforehand with you in the opprobrious names you will give me and my proposal) I must
