A conduct so basely mean in a public character is without
precedent or pretence. Every nation on earth, whether friends or
enemies, will unite in despising you. 'Tis an incendiary war upon
society, which nothing can excuse or palliate,- an improvement upon
beggarly villany- and shows an inbred wretchedness of heart made up
between the venomous malignity of a serpent and the spiteful
imbecility of an inferior reptile.
The laws of any civilized country would condemn you to the gibbet
without regard to your rank or titles, because it is an action foreign
to the usage and custom of war; and should you fall into our hands,
which pray God you may, it will be a doubtful matter whether we are to
consider you as a military prisoner or a prisoner for felony.
Besides, it is exceedingly unwise and impolitic in you, or any other
persons in the English service, to promote or even encourage, or
wink at the crime of forgery, in any case whatever. Because, as the
riches of England, as a nation, are chiefly in paper, and the far
greater part of trade among individuals is carried on by the same
medium, that is, by notes and drafts on one another, they,
therefore, of all people in the world, ought to endeavor to keep
forgery out of sight, and, if possible, not to revive the idea of
it. It is dangerous to make men familiar with a crime which they may
afterwards practise to much greater advantage against those who
first taught them. Several officers in the English army have made
their exit at the gallows for forgery on their agents; for we all
know, who know any thing of England, that there is not a more
necessitous body of men, taking them generally, than what the
English officers are.
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