Page:Conciones ad populum. Or, Addresses to the people (IA concionesadpopul00cole).pdf/61

 a Te tohim in a window at Sheffield. These desperate Conspirators, it appeared, had formed their incampment in a back-garret—their arsenal was provided with Nine rusty muskets—and the formidable preparation which was to overturn the Constitution was supported by an exchequer containing nine pounds and one bad shilling—all to be directed against the armed Force and established Government of Great-Britain!Fellow Citizens! our laughter may be raised by the cause, but our indignation and sorrow must be excited by the consequences. Not one definite reason assigned, not one fact proved, we have been impelled by dark and terrifying Generalities to sacrifice the personal Security of ourselves and perhaps of our posterity. The august and lofty Tree, which while it rose above the palace of the Monarch, sheltered the distant dwelling of the Cottager, stripped of its boughs, now stands the melancholy memorial of conquered Freedom.—We can only water its roots with our tears, or look forward with anxious eye to the distant Springtide, when it shall branch forth anew!—We are no longer Freemen, and if we be more secure here than in Morocco or at Constantinople, we owe this superiority to the mildness of our Masters, not