them; nor shall I ever pocket the reward granted by the legislature to
those by whom robbers are brought to conviction; but I shall always think
it my duty to rid my country of that pernicious vermin, which prey upon
the bowels of the commonwealth--not but that an incorporated company of
licensed thieves might, under proper regulations, be of service to the
community."

Ferret, emboldened by the passive tameness with which the stranger bore
his last reflection, began to think he had nothing of Hector but his
outside, and gave a loose to all the acrimony of his party rancour.
Hearing the knight mention a company of licensed thieves, "What else,"
cried he, "is the majority of the nation? What is your standing army at
home, that eat up their fellow-subjects? What are your mercenaries
abroad, whom you hire to fight their own quarrels? What is your militia,
that wise measure of a sagacious ministry, but a larger gang of petty
thieves, who steal sheep and poultry through mere idleness; and were
they confronted with an enemy, would steal themselves away? What is your
. . . but a knot of thieves, who pillage the nation under colour of
law, and enrich themselves with the wreck of their country? When you
consider the enormous debt of above an hundred millions, the intolerable
load of taxes and impositions under which we groan, and the manner in
which that burden is yearly accumulating, to support two German
electorates, without our receiving anything in return, but the shows of
triumph and shadows of conquest;--I say, when you reflect on these
circumstances, and at the same time behold our cities filled with
bankrupts, and our country with beggars, can you be so infatuated as to
deny that the ministry is mad, or worse than mad--our wealth exhausted,
our people miserable, our credit blasted, and our state on the brink of
perdition? This prospect, indeed, will make the fainter impression, if
we recollect that we ourselves are a pack of such profligate, corrupted,