The affair is so managed as to levy the last day of a term, that no court may be open to a complaint; and before the next term AFFIDAVIT’S sufficient _prove_ not only the legality of the debt and proceedings, but that no such transaction ever happened, if that should be found most _convenient_. I have been witness to the oppression and cruelties exercised in conquered countries, the misery and wretchedness of the inhabitants living under military and despotic governments, and to the numerous train of evils accompanying the seat of war; but never, no never, met with horrors so dreadful to look on, as are daily perpetrated with impunity in this country of boasted liberty: _As well we might the host of armies bear_, _As feel the_ EFFECTS, DISTRESS, _and_ FORCE _of war_. Why do we tell Spain, Portugal, and Italy, that we have neither bravos, assassins, or inquisitions, when we are cursed with pettyfogging attornies, bailiffs, and knights of the post, a more numerous and dangerous left of banditti, who commit every species of barbarity and cruelty, under the specious pretext of doing their duty? To what purpose do we daily waste our lungs, and crack the drum of our ears, bauling at the illegality of GENERAL WARRANTS, which happens once in a century? I defy the annals of the secretary of state’s office to produce a General Warrant, or even the records of the Star Chamber, an order fraught with equal oppression. If I remember right, the warrant which seized your person and papers left you quiet possession of every thing else; and even those papers were returned, with the additional recompence of FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS: notwithstanding we look on you as a martyr to ministerial vengeance and oppression. If so, by what standard of oppression will you measure the wrongs here complained of? You cannot insult our understanding so far as to tell us, oppression from one minister of state is weightier than from fifty ministers of HELL, who not only seize our property, deemed such by law, but the absolute exceptions in law, papers, books, and wearing-apparel.