guilt!" His children promised to tread in the same useful and honourable
path that he trod himself. Happy was considered that family which had
the hope to ally itself with his.

Such was the after-fate of Clifford and Lucy. Who will condemn us for
preferring the moral of that fate to the moral which is extorted from the
gibbet and the hulks,--which makes scarecrows, not beacons; terrifies our
weakness, not warms our reason. Who does not allow that it is better to
repair than to perish,--better, too, to atone as the citizen than to
repent as the hermit? Oh, John Wilkes, Alderman of London, and
Drawcansir of Liberty, your life was not an iota too perfect,--your
patriotism might have been infinitely purer, your morals would have
admitted indefinite amendment, you are no great favourite with us or with
the rest of the world,--but you said one excellent thing, for which we
look on you with benevolence, nay, almost with respect. We scarcely know
whether to smile at its wit or to sigh at its wisdom. Mark this truth,
all ye gentlemen of England who would make law as the Romans made
fasces,--a bundle of rods with an axe in the middle,--mark it, and
remember! long may it live, allied with hope in ourselves, but with
gratitude in our children,--long after the book which it now "adorns" and
"points" has gone to its dusty slumber,--long, long after the feverish
hand which now writes it down can defend or enforce it no more: "THE VERY
WORST USE TO WHICH YOU CAN PUT A MAN IS TO HANG HIM!"





NOTE.