consultations; but these modern Plotters beat Syphax and his associates
hollow; for they, in order to further their view of destroying the
government, communicate their Plot to the Prime Minister himself!

"What must the people _in the country_ think of all this? What a mass
of absurdities and contradictions! What madness it all appears to be!
_Good_ insurrections; _constitutional_ attacks on the government!
_Plots_ which the prime Minister has been urged to adopt in order to
save the nation! What _can_ the people at large make out of such a
strange medley? The sons of Corruption it is who have made the medley.
They wanted a _Plot_. The mad riots in the city afforded them a pretext,
and they have put the words PLOT and INSURRECTION _into Mr. Preston's
mouth_ in order to favour their views. Now, let us see how a plain tale
will put them down and expose their malice to the world.

"About sixteen years ago, a Mr. SPENCE, a schoolmaster in Yorkshire,
conceived what he called a PLAN for making the nation happy, by taking
all the lands into the hands of a just government, and appropriating all
the produce or profit to the support of the people, so that there
would be no one in want, and all would live in a sort of _Christian
Brotherhood_. This plan, accompanied with some political remarks, he
published in 1800, for which he was pursued by a Criminal Information
Ex-Officio, by the present Chief Justice, who was then Attorney-General.
When brought up for trial I was present in the Court of King's Bench. He
had no counsel, but defended himself, and insisted that his views were
_pure_ and _benevolent_, in proof of which, in spite of all exhortations
to the contrary, he read his pamphlet through. He was found _guilty_
and sentenced to be imprisoned for I forget how long. He was a plain,
unaffected, inoffensive looking creature. He did not seem at all afraid
of any punishment, and appeared much more anxious about the success of