"Now, when your laughing fit is over, let me ask you, whether you ever heard of a _Plot_ and _Insurrection_ like this before? What! an eight years' Plot! a _good_ Insurrection! Dennis, in his criticism upon Addison's silly play of _Cato_, ridicules the idea of the conspirators against Cato's life picking out _Cato's own hall_ for the scene of their consultations; but these modern Plotters beat Syphax and his associates hollow; for they, in order to further their view of destroying the government, communicate their Plot to the Prime Minister himself! "What must the people _in the country_ think of all this? What a mass of absurdities and contradictions! What madness it all appears to be! _Good_ insurrections; _constitutional_ attacks on the government! _Plots_ which the prime Minister has been urged to adopt in order to save the nation! What _can_ the people at large make out of such a strange medley? The sons of Corruption it is who have made the medley. They wanted a _Plot_. The mad riots in the city afforded them a pretext, and they have put the words PLOT and INSURRECTION _into Mr. Preston's mouth_ in order to favour their views. Now, let us see how a plain tale will put them down and expose their malice to the world. "About sixteen years ago, a Mr. SPENCE, a schoolmaster in Yorkshire, conceived what he called a PLAN for making the nation happy, by taking all the lands into the hands of a just government, and appropriating all the produce or profit to the support of the people, so that there would be no one in want, and all would live in a sort of _Christian Brotherhood_. This plan, accompanied with some political remarks, he published in 1800, for which he was pursued by a Criminal Information Ex-Officio, by the present Chief Justice, who was then Attorney-General. When brought up for trial I was present in the Court of King's Bench. He had no counsel, but defended himself, and insisted that his views were _pure_ and _benevolent_, in proof of which, in spite of all exhortations to the contrary, he read his pamphlet through. He was found _guilty_ and sentenced to be imprisoned for I forget how long. He was a plain, unaffected, inoffensive looking creature. He did not seem at all afraid of any punishment, and appeared much more anxious about the success of his _plan_ than about the preservation of his life. After he came out of prison, he pursued the inculcation of his _plan_, appearing to have no other care; and this he did, I am assured, to the day of his death, always having been a most virtuous and inoffensive man, and always very much beloved by those who knew him.