’Tis just with Publick Thieves, as ’tis with Private: A pretended
_Necessity_ sets them both at Work, and a Pretended _Religion_ or
_Conscience_ brings them off when they have done. This is no more then
what we our selves have found within the Memory of Man, to be Literally
and Historically True; when that, which in those Days past for _the
Law of the Land_, was in Effect no other then _the Law of the Road_;
and the One had as Much and as Little to say for it self as the Other.
There are _Political_ Bands of _Robbers_, as well as the _Jacks_ and the
_Toms_ that are Cry’d in _Gazettes_; and they fall both of them under
the Regulation of the same Mystery and Trade. The Poor Man here that
was Robb’d Himself, was Charg’d Effectually with Robbing the Thieves,
upon a Suspicion, that he had Reserv’d some small Pittance of his own
Mony, to his own Use, which they accounted a Defrauding of the Publick.
Now we have seen this to be the Sense and Discipline of the _State_, as
well as of the _Pad_; and ’tis Broad as ’tis Long at last, whether a Man
be Undone by a _Cabal of_ Sharpers _in a Committee of Safety_, or by a
Troup of _Canary Birds_ upon _Newmarket Heath_. Nay, and the Parallel
runs upon all Four, a little further too; _Can’t you take the Gentlemans
Mony Civilly?_ says the Spark: That is to say, Cannot you play the _Rogue
Demurely, as if Butter would not melt in your Mouth_, and pick an Honest
Gentleman’s Pocket with a _Pater Noster_ betwixt your Teeth? Cannot you
Plunder, Sequester, Decimate, Draw, Hang and Quarter _in the Fear of
the Lord_, but you must Blaspheme and Call Names? Is it not enough that
you are Discharg’d by the very Privilege of your Profession, from the
Bondage of Subjection and Obedience to Parents Natural or Civil? Is it
not enough that you may Kill, Whore, Steal, Backbite, Covet, and make
Bold in short, with all the Commands of the Second Table, but you must
be Breaking in upon the Former? Thus goes the World; _the Little Thieves
Hang for’t, while the Great Ones Sit upon the Bench_; and there’s a
Cloak of Conscience still thrown over both Pretensions, to Cover, and to
Consecrate the Cheat.