ale and veniſon in vain, and a borough has been compelled to ſee its deareſt intereſt in the hands of him whom it did not truſt, yet the general ſtate of the nation has continued the ſame. The ſun has riſen, and the corn has grown, and whatever talk has been of the danger of property, yet he that ploughed the field commonly reaped it, and he that built a houſe was mailer of the door: the vexation excited by injuſtice ſuffered, or ſuppoſed to be ſuffered, by any private man, or ſingle community, was local and temporary, it neither ſpread far, nor laſted long.
The nation looked on with little care, becauſe there did not ſeem to be much danger. The conſequence of ſmall irregularities was not felt, and we had not yet learned to be terrified by very diſtant enemies.
But quiet and ſecurity are now at an end. Our vigilance is quickened, and our
