that it was a _Cod's Head_ and not that of the _Sovereign_, against
which he had been _plotting_. Not less complete would be the confusion
of these corrupt writers, if it were not that they are destitute of
every feeling that can lead to shame or remorse.

"Monstrous, however, as are the baseness and malice and cruelty of these
men, they are, I think, still exceeded by their folly. The main object
of all their endeavours, is, very clearly, to render you odious and to
put you down; and, if they had been created for the express purpose of
exalting you, it would have been impossible for them to labour to that
end with more zeal or more effect. Your manner of conducting the second
meeting, the way in which you carried on your communications with
the government, the punctuality and decorum of your proceedings, the
language and matter of your Resolutions and Petition, and the _effect_
of these, very justly entitled you to a large share of public applause;
but, the blows which these ferocious writers have aimed at your _life_
have excited an interest in your favour such as no human being could
have thought possible, and in the tide of which are completely drowned
all your momentary errors and indiscretions, which, besides, having
arisen from an excess of zeal, were not calculated to be long held in
remembrance. Some very good, but very weak and timid people talked of
your _violence_, while they seemed to overlook the _violent_ thing which
you attacked; but in the minds of all good men there is an inherent
abhorrence of baseness like that which has aimed its murderous sting
against your life, and, in the present case, this abhorrence has
overpowered all the alarms of the good and timid people in whose breasts
what is called your violence had excited such alarms. "The vipers
have the mortification to perceive this, and their rage is increased
accordingly. They see your _portrait_, from three different hands,
setting them at defiance in the print-shop windows. They hear your