I should think any man capable of entertaining so execrable and senseless a design.  The true cause of his drawing so shocking a picture is no more than this; and it ought rather to claim our pity than excite our indignation; he finds himself out of power; and this condition is intolerable to him.  The same sun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed ambition.  It is something that rays out of darkness, and inspires nothing but gloom and melancholy.  Men in this deplorable state of mind find a comfort in spreading the contagion of their spleen.  They find an advantage too; for it is a general, popular error, to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.  If such persons can answer the ends of relief and profit to themselves, they are apt to be careless enough about either the means or the consequences.

Whatever this complainant’s motives may be, the effects can by no possibility be other than those which he so strongly, and I hope truly, disclaims all intention of producing.  To verify this, the reader has only to consider how dreadful a picture he has drawn in his 32nd page, of the state of this kingdom; such a picture as, I believe, has hardly been applicable, without some exaggeration, to the most degenerate and undone commonwealth that ever existed.  Let this view of things be compared with the prospect of a remedy which he proposes in the page directly opposite, and the subsequent.  I believe no man living could have imagined it possible, except for the sake of burlesquing a subject, to propose remedies so ridiculously disproportionate to the evil, so full of uncertainty in their operation, and depending for their success in every step upon the happy event of so many new, dangerous, and visionary projects.  It is not amiss, that he has thought proper to give the public some little notice of what they may expect from his friends, when our affairs shall be committed to their management.  Let us see how the accounts of disease and remedy are balanced in his “State of the Nation.”  In the first place, on the side of evils, he states, “an impoverished and heavily-burdened public.  A declining trade and decreasing specie.  The power of the crown never so much extended over the great; but the great without influence over the lower sort.  Parliament losing its reverence with the people.  The voice of the multitude set up against the sense of the legislature; a people luxurious and licentious, impatient of rule, and despising all authority.  Government relaxed in every sinew, and a corrupt selfish spirit pervading the whole.  An opinion of many, that the form of government is not worth contending for.  No attachment in the bulk of the people towards the constitution.  No reverence for the customs of our ancestors.  No attachment but to private interest, nor any zeal but for selfish gratifications.  Trade and manufactures going to ruin.  Great Britain in danger of becoming