A _Miller_ and a _Rat_.
A _Miller_ took a huge Over-grown _Rat_ in his _Meal Tub_; there was He
laying the Law to him about the Lewdness of his Life and Conversation,
and the Abominable Sin of _Stealing_; but your Thieving, says he, is now
come Home to ye, and I shall e’en leave Honest _Puss_ here to reckon
with ye for all your Rogueries. Alas Sir, says the Poor _Rat_, I make no
Trade on’t; and the Miserable Pittance that I take, is only from Hand to
Mouth, and out of Pure Necessity to keep Life and Soul together: As the
_Rat_ Pleaded _Hunger_ on the One Hand, the _Miller_ threw the Matter
of _Conscience_ and _Honesty_ in his Teeth on the Other, and Preach’d
to him upon the _Topick_ of a _Political Convenience_, in making such
Pilfering Knaves Examples for the _Publick Good_. Well Sir, says the
_Rat_ once again, but pray will you Consider for your own sake, that
_this is your own Case_; and that _You and I are both Corn Merchants,
and of the same Fraternity; Nay, and that for One Grain that I take, you
take a Thousand_? This is not Language, cries the _Miller_, in a Rage,
for an Honest Man to Bear; but the best on’t is Sirrah, _Your Tongue’s no
Slander_: So he turn’d the _Cat_ Loose upon him to do that which we call
in the World _an Execution of Justice_.
The MORAL.
_’Tis a piece of Market Policy, for People of a Trade to bear hard One
upon another, when it comes once to the Question betwixt a Couple of
Knaves, which is the Honester Man of the Two._