Wesley Corpus

4. I firmly believe that' in Cornwall alone the King is defrauded of half a million yearly in customs. What does this amount to in all Great Britain Surely not so little as five millions. Is there no way of extirpating those smuggling villains, notwithstanding their Honorable or Right Honorable abettors 5. Servants of distillers inform me that their masters do not pay for a fortieth part of what they distil. And this duty last year (if I am rightly informed) amounted only to 20,000. But have not the spirits distilled this year cost 20,000 lives of His Majesty's liege subjects Is not, then, the blood of these men vilely bartered for 20,000 not to say anything of the enormous wickedness which has been occasioned thereby; and not to suppose that these poor wretches have any souls! But (to consider money alone), is the King a gainer or an immense loser To say nothing of many millions of quarters of corn destroyed, which if exported would have added more than 20,000 to the revenue, be it considered, 'Dead men pay no taxes.' So that by the death of 20,000 persons yearly (and this computation is far under the mark), the revenue loses far more than it gains. But I may urge another consideration to you. You are a man. You have not lost human feelings. You do not love to drink human blood. You are a son of Lord Chatham. Nay, if I mistake not, you are a Christian. Dare you, then, sustain a sinking nation Is the God whom you serve able to deliver from ten thousand enemies I believe He is; nay, and you believe it. 0 may you fear nothing but displeasing Him! May I add a word on another head How would your benevolent heart rejoice if a stop could be put to that scandal of the English nation, suicide! The present laws against it avail nothing; for every such murderer is brought in non compos. If he was a poor man, the jurors forswear themselves from pity. If he was rich, they hope to be well paid for it. So no ignominy pursues either the living or the dead, and self-murder increases daily. But what help