To apply a sure Test to the Propriety, or Impropriety, of my Apprehensions, at the Period when I wrote the _Farmer’s Letters_, let us suppose that no one of the Penal Laws, which were instituted during the Reign of her Majesty Queen _Anne_, had yet passed into Form, but that Matters had remained in the same Situation, in which the _Monarch_, of _humane_, as well as _glorious Memory_, had left this unhappy People. Well, what would have been the Consequence? Would _Papists_, in that Case, have been less amenable to the Government, by which they had been favoured, supported, and cherished? Would they have been the forwarder to bring Damage and Destruction on a Country, because their own Interest was connected therewith, and the Fortunes of their Posterity deposited therein? Would they have been the readier to attempt the Overthrow of our beneficent Constitution, because they enjoyed the Privileges and Advantages thereof? No, Sir, no. The Absurdity of the Supposition is inclusive of the Answer. Had this been the Case, the _Farmer’s Letters_ would not have existed to have caused the Renewal of our Acquaintance. I have read and noted many Instances, in free States and Commonwealths, where _Liberty_, when fermented into _Licentiousness_, hath occasioned many partial Struggles for Power, many Broils and Factions, and much Disturbance to the Community. But very few are the Instances of the Insurrection of any People, who have not been goaded thereto by Severity and Oppression. The inoffensive Stag grows formidable when _at __ Bay_. The Worm turneth not, till it receiveth a Crush. I forget the Book, though I remember the Passage, where a Prince demanded of his favourite Minister, what he should do with a Number of the Commons and Nobility, whom he had suppressed and taken Captive in the Act of Rebellion? The Minister answered, _Put them, and their Adherents, instantly to Death_. No, replied the Prince, that were an Act of such Bloodshed and Barbarity, as neither Fear nor Revenge shall persuade me to perpetrate. _Then, grant them all free Pardon_, rejoined the Minister. How! said the Prince, must Rebellion go altogether unpunished? There is no Medium that can assure your Safety, answered the Minister; you must either pull this Party wholly up by the Root, so as to leave no Fibre from whence future Enmity may grow; or else, you must change that Enmity into Friendship, by binding their Gratitude to your Person and Interest, with the kindliest of all Connections, that of your Goodness and Favour. _A partial Punishment will be too little for your Safety; a partial Pardon will not be enough._ You must either wholly annihilate their Power, by their _Death_; or derive Strength to yourself, from that Power, by their _Friendship_.