of being laid by the heels.

I need not tell your lordship where the difficulty lies. It is true, the
King and the laws permit us to refuse this coin of Mr. Wood, but at the
same time it is equally true, that the King and the laws permit us to
receive it. Now it is most certain the ministers in England do not
suppose the consequences of uttering that brass among us to be so
ruinous as we apprehend; because doubtless if they understood it in that
light, they are persons of too much honour and justice not to use their
credit with His Majesty for saving a most loyal kingdom from
destruction. But as long as it shall please those great persons to think
that coin will not be so very pernicious to us, we lie under the
disadvantage of being censured as obstinate in not complying with a
royal patent. Therefore nothing remains, but to make use of that liberty
which the King and the laws have left us, by continuing to refuse this
coin, and by frequent remembrances to keep up that spirit raised against
it, which otherwise may be apt to flag, and perhaps in time to sink
altogether. For, any public order against receiving or uttering Mr.
Wood's halfpence is not reasonably to be expected in this kingdom,
without directions from England, which I think nobody presumes, or is so
sanguine to hope.

But to confess the truth, my lord, I begin to grow weary of my office as
a writer, and could heartily wish it were devolved upon my brethren, the
makers of songs and ballads, who perhaps are the best qualified at
present to gather up the gleanings of this controversy. As to myself, it
hath been my misfortune to begin and pursue it upon a wrong foundation.
For having detected the frauds and falsehoods of this vile impostor Wood
in every part, I foolishly disdained to have recourse to whining,
lamenting, and crying for mercy, but rather chose to appeal to law and
liberty and the common rights of mankind, without considering the
climate I was in.

Since your last residence in Ireland, I frequently have taken my nag to
ride about your grounds, where I fancied myself to feel an air of
freedom breathing round me, and I am glad the low condition of a
tradesman did not qualify me to wait on you at your house, for then I am
afraid my writings would not have escaped severer censures. But I have
lately sold my nag, and honestly told his greatest fault, which was that
of snuffing up the air about Brackdenstown, whereby he became such a
lover of liberty