We shall become a prey to the Philistines, and must turn honest in self-defence.'-- 'No fear o' that,' thought I.--'I see how it'll be,' observed Alsatia, 'everybody'll pay his debts, and only think of such a state of things as that.'-- 'It's _not_ to be thought of,' says I, thumping the table till every glass on it jingled; 'and I know a way as'll prevent it.'-- 'What is it, Mint ?' asked all three.--'Why, hang every bailiff that sets a foot in your territories, and you're safe,' says I.--'We'll do it,' said they, filling their glasses, and looking as fierce as King George's grenadier guards; 'here's your health, Mint.' But, gentlemen, though they talked so largely, and looked so fiercely, they did _not_ do it; they did _not_ hang the bailiffs; and where are they ?" "Ay, where are they ?" echoed the company with indignant derision.
"Gentlemen," returned the Master, solemnly, "it is a question easily answered--they are NOWHERE! Had they hanged the bailiffs, the bailiffs would not have hanged them.

We ourselves have been similarly circumstanced.

Attacked by an infamous and unconstitutional statute, passed in the reign of the late usurper, William of Orange, (for I may remark that, if the right king had been upon the throne, that illegal enactment would never have received the royal assent--the Stuarts--Heaven preserve 'em!--always siding with the debtors); attacked in this outrageous manner, I repeat, it has been all but '_up_' with US! But the vigorous resistance offered on that memorable occasion by the patriotic inhabitants of Bermuda to the aggressions of arbitrary power, secured and established their privileges on a firmer basis than heretofore; and, while their pusillanimous allies were crushed and annihilated, they became more prosperous than ever.

Gentlemen, I am proud to say that _I_ originated--that _I_ directed those measures.

I hope to see the day, when not Southwark alone, but London itself shall become one Mint,--when all men shall be debtors, and none creditors,--when imprisonment for debt shall be utterly abolished,--when highway-robbery shall be accounted a pleasant pastime, and forgery an accomplishment,--when Tyburn and its gibbets shall be overthrown,--capital punishments discontinued,--Newgate, Ludgate, the Gatehouse, and the Compters razed to the ground,--Bridewell and Clerkenwell destroyed,--the Fleet, the King's Bench, and the Marshalsea remembered only by name! But, in the mean time, as that day may possibly be farther off than I anticipate, we are bound to make the most of the present.