s, and no Posts disposed of, but thro'
the Interest of Lust; how often, _Britain_, have I congratulated thy
Happiness, where Virtue is rewarded, Vice discountenanc'd and punish'd;
where the Man of Merit is provided for, and not oblig'd to pay a
Levee to the kept Mistress of a Statesman; and where the Ignorant,
Pusillanimous, and Vicious, however distinguish'd by Birth and Fortune,
are held in Contempt, and never admitted to publick Employment!

When among the _Cacklogallinians_ Taxes are laid, the Money is brought
into the publick Treasury, of which the Minister keeps the Keys: He lets
this Money out upon Pawns, at an exorbitant Interest. If an inferior
Agent is to pass his Accounts, he must share the Pillage with the
Minister, and some few Heads of the Grand Council. I knew one paid him
Three Hundred Thousand _Rackfantassines_, equal to a Hundred Thousand
Pounds Sterling, which he computed was about one Third of his
Acquisition; and Birds of most abandon'd Reputations are sometimes put
into Places of Profit, which, like Spunges, suck all they can, and are
easily squeezed again.

As to their Trade, they have, of late Years, lost some of the most
advantageous Parts of it to the _Cormorants_, which perhaps might be
brought about by several that were _Cormorants_ by Birth, who found
Means of working themselves into the Management of their publick
Affairs. They seem to endeavour all they can, (for what Policy I know
not) to encourage the young _Cacklogallinian_ Nobility and Gentry, in
a Contempt of Religion, and in all Debauchery, perhaps to render them
supine and thoughtless; and bringing them up without Principle, they may
be fit Tools to work the enslaving their Country.

They are extremely severe in their military Discipline: A Soldier, for a
trifling Fault, shall have all the Feathers stripp'd off his Back, and a
corroding Plaister clapp'd on, which will eat to the Bones in a small
Space of Time. For a capital Crime, every one in the Regiment is ordered
to peck him as he's ty'd to a Post, till he dies. I have seen one who
was condemn'd to this Death have Part of his Entrails torn out of his
Side in a few Pecks.

Whoever speaks against the Ministry, is purged or vomited so severely,
that he sometimes dies. Even Want of Complaisance to any menial Servant
of a Minister, is esteem'd an Affront to his Master, and punish'd by a
Year's Imprisonment; but a Slight put on any of the _Squabbaws_, is so
heinous, that the Offen