Be this a Memorial Of T-- and R-- P--, P-- of P,-- Who, with Estates immense, Almost beyond Computation, When their own Province, And the whole _British_ Empire Were engag'd in a bloody and most expensive War, Begun for the Defence of those Estates, Could yet meanly desire To have those very Estates Totally or Partially Exempted from Taxation, While their Fellow-Subjects all around them, Groan'd Under the Universal Burthen. To gain this Point, They refus'd the necessary Laws For the Defence of their People, And suffer'd their Colony to welter in its Blood, Rather than abate in the least Of these their dishonest Pretensions. The Privileges granted by their Father Wisely and benevolently To encourage the first Settlers of the Province, They, Foolishly and cruelly, Taking Advantage of public Distress, Have extorted from the Posterity of those Settlers; And are daily endeavouring to reduce them To the most abject Slavery: Tho' to the Virtue and Industry of those People In improving their Country, They owe all that they possess and enjoy. A striking Instance Of human Depravity and Ingratitude; And an irrefragable Proof, That Wisdom and Goodness Do not descend with an Inheritance; But that ineffable Meanness May be connected with unbounded Fortune. It may well be doubted whether any one had ever been subjected to such overwhelming lapidation as this since the time of the early Christian martyrs. There are many other deadly thrusts in the Preface, and nowhere else are the issues between the Proprietaries and the People so clearly presented, but the very completeness of the paper renders it too long for further quotation. Franklin, however, was by no means allowed to walk up and down the field, vainly challenging a champion to come out from the opposing host and contend with him. At his towering front the missiles of the Proprietary Party were mainly directed. Beneath one caricature of him were these lines: "Fight dog, fight bear! You're all my friends: By you I shall attain my ends, For I can never be content Till I have got the government. But if from this attempt I fall, Then let the Devil take you all!" Another writer strove in his lapidary zeal to fairly bury Franklin beneath a whole cairn of opprobrious accusations, consuming nine pages of printed matter in the effort to visit his political tergiversation, his greed for power, his immorality and other sins, with their proper deserts, and ending with this highly rhetorical apostrophe: