I see the confiscators begin with
bishops and chapters, and monasteries, but I do not see them end
there. I see the princes of the blood, who by the oldest usages of
that kingdom held large landed estates, (hardly with the compliment of
a debate) deprived of their possessions and, in lieu of their
stable, independent property, reduced to the hope of some
precarious, charitable pension at the pleasure of an assembly which of
course will pay little regard to the rights of pensioners at
pleasure when it despises those of legal proprietors. Flushed with the
insolence of their first inglorious victories, and pressed by the
distresses caused by their lust of unhallowed lucre, disappointed
but not discouraged, they have at length ventured completely to
subvert all property of all descriptions throughout the extent of a
great kingdom. They have compelled all men, in all transactions of
commerce, in the disposal of lands, in civil dealing, and through
the whole communion of life, to accept as perfect payment and good and
lawful tender the symbols of their speculations on a projected sale of
their plunder. What vestiges of liberty or property have they left?
The tenant right of a cabbage garden, a year's interest in a hovel,
the goodwill of an alehouse or a baker's shop, the very shadow of a
constructive property, are more ceremoniously treated in our
parliament than with you the oldest and most valuable landed
possessions, in the hands of the most respectable personages, or
than the whole body of the monied and commercial interest of your
country.
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