Page:An answer to a pamphlet, intitled, "Thoughts on the causes and consequences of the present high price of provisions" in a letter, addressed to the supposed author of that pamphlet.djvu/20

( 18 ) with a view of gulling the credulous multitude: nor yet even, I am afraid, Sir, by "narrowing," in the sense you mean, "those channels," (I use, you see, your own words) "through which riches have flowed in such torrents into the pockets of private men;" but by narrowing them in a much stricter and more severe sense, and indeed by almost stopping them up: in one word, by diminishing, in almost every article, the expences of government.

Here, however, I cannot help remarking, that, if these channels may be now narrowed, it is a plain confession, that they have been formerly kept too wide. And pray, Sir, let me ask you, who opened these channels? who still keep them open? who are daily opening new ones? and who stand at the mouths of these channels, and receive into their pockets a great part of the riches that flow in such torrents through them? Let any minister or statesman lay his hand upon heart,