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The Plain Dealer, Numb. II - 7

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tentions is to be fought for,” principally “in the Depravity and Selfishness of human Minds,” and that, had a suitable conduct, to those who the Crown has thought proper to dignify by such Honors, as it has conferred on our Proprietaries, who have it greatly in their Power, and as much in their Inclinations, to render valuable Services to the Inhabitants of this Province, and which it is their Interest to do, we should at this Time have enjoyed the Blessings of Harmony and Concord, which our invaluable Charter was calculated to promote. But this is not consistent with Republican Principles, and would have frustrated the Views of vain Men, ever aiming at popular Applause. How difficult a Matter it is to defend a bad Cause, and to reconcile Inconsistencies, notwithstanding our Author’s Genius, will appear by comparing his Declaration, that “there are Faults on both Sides; with what he insinuates in the preceeding Page; That the Proprietaries began, and have carried on the Disputes that have subsisted them upwards of Fifty Years; for if they began them, they were not only to blame;---did he by this Concession design to palliate Matters, so as to be able to blind his Readers, and make them believe that his Views were really to promote Peace?---this Artifice is too thin not to be seen through.

WHAT we are to infer from his Declaration, that he “sees no Reason to suppose, that all Proprietary Rulers are worse Men than other Rulers,” I cannot decide, unless it be that some Proprietary Rulers are worse than other Men, and that ours are of that Number.---This must be allowed to be a very cooling Thought!

BUT are we to believe “the Cause is radical, interwoven in the Constitution, and of becomes of the very Nature of Proprietary Governments;” and as an Illustration thereof, we are told that “Physicians say every Animal Body brings into the World among its original Stamina, the Seeds of that Disease that shall finally produce its Dissolution; of the political Body of a Proprietary Government contains those convulsive Principles that will at length destroy it.”

Contents of this annotation:

  1. The Plain Dealer, Numb. II - 7