The Conduct of the Paxton Men Impartially Represented - 24
‘If we read the Stories of the most celebrated Heroes of Antiquity, (Men of whom the present World is not worthy) and consider the Actions that gained them their highest reverence and renown, and recommended their Names to Posterity with the most Advantage, we shall find those in the first Rank of Glory, who have resisted, destroy’d or expell’d Traitors and Tyrants, the Pests, the Burthens, and the Butchers of Mankind.------And indeed such an Action could never have been censured in the World, if there had not lived in all Ages, abject Flatterers, and servile Creatures of Power, always prepared to sanctify and abet the most enormous Wickedness, if it were gainful: And these are they who have often misled good Men in the worst Prejudices.’
‘TIMOLEON, one of the wisest and most virtuous Men that ever blessed the Earth, spent a long and glorious Life in destroying Tyrants: He killed, or caused to be kill’d, his own Brother, in order to save his Country.’
Did not the Roman Senators kill Julius Caesar, even in the Senate-House, in order to free their Country of a Tyrant and Oppressor? Did not Brutus, the Elder, put his own Sons to Death for a Conspiracy to restore Tarquin? Did not Mutius Scaevela gain immortal Honour for an Attempt to kill Porfenna by Surprize, who was a foreign Enemy, making unjust War upon Rome? Did not L. Quintus Cincinattus, a brave and virtuous Dictator of Rome, order Spurius Maela to be slain, though there was no Law submitting, by which he could be put to Death; and though imploring the publick Faith, to which he had been a Traytor and sworn Enemy.
Have we not read of Men who have killed themselves, rather than become a Prey to a merciless Enemy-----Brutus and Cassius, the Decii, Otho, Celanus, Cato, and many others, have done this, prefering Death to Slavery.---Most strange then! that the killing of a few treacherous Savages, who by their Perfidy, had forfeited their Lives, should be esteemed so enormous a Crime!----But we are told that this Action
