I think there is no man in this kingdom, on which such a report could be fixed with less colour of truth, having been noted for the particular regard I have always had for him. I have suffered in some cases too, for my zeal to defend him in the worst of times; for I confess I never could, with patience, bear the treatment he met with in Gregg's affair. The truth is, when I received the news of this last barbarous attempt made on him; I with indignation insulted some, with whom I used to dispute about the former case, and asked them, whether they would now suspect that he was in the conspiracy to stab himself? The turn they gave it was what I wrote to you, that they imagined he might be in it notwithstanding that; and that his discovering Guiscard, and pressing so hard on the examination, was the thing that provoked the man to such a degree of rage, as appeared in that villanous act. And they instanced the story of Piso in Tacitus, and the passage of Rufus. I know very well, that they did not believe themselves, and among other things I applied that passage of Hudibras, he, that beats out his brains, &c.[1] I believe I have told this passage to several as an example, to show into what absurdities the power of prejudice, malice, and faction will lead some men, I hope with good effect; and added, as several gentlemen that heard me can witness, that it was a strange thing, that Mr. Harley should discover Gregg, and have him hanged, and yet be suspected to be partaker of his crime; but altogether unaccountable, that in a cause, wherein his life
- ↑ But he that dashes out his brains,
The devil's in him, if he feigns.
