and courage, which, if husbanded by prudent and moderate counsels, might have proved the salvation of mankind.  The same policy of turning the good qualities of Englishmen to their own destruction, which made Mr. Pitt omnipotent, continues his power to those who resemble him only in his vices; advantage is taken of the loyalty of Englishmen to make them meanly submissive; their piety is turned into persecution, their courage into useless and obstinate contention; they are plundered because they are ready to pay, and soothed into asinine stupidity because they are full of virtuous patience.  If England must perish at last, so let it be; that event is in the hands of God; we must dry up our tears and submit.  But, that England should perish swindling and stealing; that it should perish waging war against lazar-houses and hospitals; that it should perish persecuting with monastic bigotry; that it should calmly give itself up to be ruined by the flashy arrogance of one man, and the narrow fanaticism of another; these events are within the power of human beings, and I did not think that the magnanimity of Englishmen would ever stoop to such degradations.”

So ends this vivid argument on behalf of political justice and social equality.  Lord Grenville saw the resemblance to Swift, and Lord Holland kindly reminded the anonymous satirist that “the only author to whom he could be compared in English, lost a bishopric for his wittiest performance.”  In later years Lord Murray[58] said, “After Pascal’s Letters, it is the most instructive piece of wisdom in the form of Irony ever written.”  Macaulay declared that Sydney Smith was “universally admitted to have been a great reasoner, and the greatest master of ridicule that has appeared among us since Swift.”  Even now, after a century of publishing, Peter Plymley’s Letters retain their preeminence.  The unexpurgated edition of the Apologia may rank with the Provincial Letters;[59] but the creator of Peter and Abraham Plymley stands alone.

[41] Abraham Rees, D.D. (1743-1825), and Andrew Kippis, D.D. (1723-1795),
    were Presbyterian ministers of great repute.

[42] The meeting-house in Old Jewry was built in 1701 and destroyed in
    1808.  It “covered 2600 square feet, and was lit with six bow windows.” 
    Dr. Rees was its last minister.

[43] George Canning (1770-1827).

[44] Spencer Perceval (1762-1812).

[45] When it was proposed to exclude King’s College from the re-constituted
    University of London.

[46] Spencer Perceval brought in several bills to compel non-resident
    incumbents to pay their curates a living wage.

[47] Spencer Perceval obtained the sinecure office of Surveyor of the
    Meltings and Clerk of the Irons in 1791.

[48] Spencer Perceval procured the reversion of his brother’s office of
    Registrar to the Court of Admiralty, and burked a parliamentary
    inquiry into reversions generally.