tood and proposed the same
end, the good of this nation, when they advised the passing this patent?
Can the person of Wood be otherwise regarded, than as the instrument,
the mechanic, the head-workman, to prepare his furnace, his fuel, his
metal, and his stamps? If I employ a shoe-boy, is it in view to his
advantage, or to my own convenience? I mention the person of William
Wood alone, because no other appears, and we are not to reason upon
surmises; neither would it avail, if they had a real foundation.

Allowing therefore, (for we cannot do less) that this patent, for the
coining of halfpence, was wholly intended, by a gracious king, and a
wise public-spirited ministry, for the advantage of Ireland; yet when
the whole kingdom to a man, for whose good the patent was designed, do,
upon maturest consideration, universally join, in openly declaring,
protesting, addressing, petitioning, against these halfpence, as the
most ruinous project that ever was set on foot, to complete the slavery
and destruction of a poor innocent country: Is it, was it, can it, or
will it ever be a question, not whether such a kingdom, or William Wood,
should be a gainer; but whether such a kingdom should be wholly undone,
destroyed, sunk, depopulated, made a scene of misery and desolation, for
the sake of William Wood? God, of His infinite mercy, avert this
dreadful judgment; and it is our universal wish, that God would put it
into your hearts to be His instruments for so good a work.

For my own part, who am but one man, of obscure condition, I do solemnly
declare, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will suffer the most
ignominious and torturing death, rather than submit to receive this
accursed coin, or any other that shall be liable to the same objections,
until they shall be forced upon me, by a law of my own country; and if
that shall ever happen, I will transport myself into some foreign land,
and eat the bread of poverty among a free people.

Am I legally punishable for these expressions? Shall another
proclamation issue against me, because I presume to take my country's
part against William Wood; where her final destruction is intended? But,
whenever you shall please to impose silence upon me, I will submit;
because, I look upon your unanimous voice to be the voice of the nation;
and this I have been taught, and do believe to be, in some manner, the
voice of God.

The great ignominy of a whole kingdom, lying so long at mercy, und