pusillanimous rascals, as deserve no salvation."

The stranger, raising his voice to a loud tone, replied, "Such, indeed,
are the insinuations, equally false and insidious, with which the
desperate emissaries of a party endeavour to poison the minds of his
majesty's subjects, in defiance of common honesty and common sense. But
he must be blind to all perception, and dead to candour, who does not see
and own that we are involved in a just and necessary war, which has been
maintained on truly British principles, prosecuted with vigour, and
crowned with success; that our taxes are easy, in proportion to our
wealth; that our conquests are equally glorious and important; that our
commerce flourishes, our people are happy, and our enemies reduced to
despair. Is there a man who boasts a British heart, that repines at the
success and prosperity of his country? Such there are, (Oh, shame to
patriotism, and reproach to Great Britain!) who act as the emissaries of
France, both in word and writing; who exaggerate our necessary burdens,
magnify our dangers, extol the power of our enemies, deride our
victories, extenuate our conquests, condemn the measures of our
government, and scatter the seeds of dissatisfaction through the land.
Such domestic traitors are doubly the objects of detestation;--first, in
perverting truth; and, secondly, in propagating falsehood, to the
prejudice of that community of which they have professed themselves
members. One of these is well known by the name of Ferret, an old,
rancorous, incorrigible instrument of sedition. Happy it is for him that
he has never fallen in my way; for, notwithstanding the maxims of
forbearance which I have adopted, the indignation which the character of
that caitiff inspires, would probably impel me to some act of violence,
and I should crush him like an ungrateful viper, that gnawed the bosom
which warmed it into life!"