last, after a long series of concessions, they are emboldened to
ask, in pretty plain terms, that they may be allowed to sit down at
the bottom of the table, and to fill their bellies as well as the
rest. Forthwith a general cry of shame and scandal: "Ten years
ago, were you not laid upon your backs? Don't you remember what a
great thing you thought it to get a piece of bread? How thankful
you were for cheese parings? Have you forgotten that memorable era,
when the lord of the manor interfered to obtain for you a slice of
the public pudding? And now, with an audacity only equalled by your
ingratitude, you have the impudence to ask for knives and forks, and
to request, in terms too plain to be mistaken, that you may sit down
to table with the rest, and be indulged even with beef and beer:
there are not more than half a dozen dishes which we have reserved
for ourselves; the rest has been thrown open to you in the utmost
profusion; you have potatoes, and carrots, suet dumplings, sops in
the pan, and delicious toast and water in incredible quantities.
Beef, mutton, lamb, pork, and veal are ours; and if you were not the
most restless and dissatisfied of human beings, you would never
think of aspiring to enjoy them."

Is not this, my dainty Abraham, the very nonsense and the very
insult which is talked to and practised upon the Catholics? You are
surprised that men who have tasted of partial justice should ask for
perfect justice; that he who has been robbed of coat and cloak will
not be contented with the restitution of one of his garments. He
would be a very lazy blockhead if he were content, and I (who,
though an inhabitant of the village, have preserved, thank God, some
sense of justice) most earnestly counsel these half-fed claimants to
persevere in their just demands, till they are admitted to a more
complete share of a dinner for which they pay as much as the others;