Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/261

251 puts one in mind of a Newgate anecdote. One of the priſoners complained, that in the night ſomebody had taken his buckles out of his ſhoes. "What the devil!" ſays another, "have we then thieves amongſt us? It muſt not be ſuffered. Let us ſearch out the rogue, and pump him to death."

There is, however, one late inſtance of an Engliſh merchant who will net profit by ſuch ill-gotten gain. He was, it ſeems, part-owner of a ſhip, which the other owners thought fit to employ as a letter of marque, and which took a number of French prizes. The booty being ſhared, he has now an agent here enquiring, by an advertiſement in the Gazette, for thoſe who ſuffered the loſs, in order to make them, as far as in him lies, reſtitution. This conſcientious man is a quaker. The Scotch preſbyterians were formerly as tender; for there is ſtill extant an ordinance of the town-council of Edinburgh, made ſoon after the Reformation, "forbidding the purchaſe of prize goods, under pain of loſing the freedom of the burgh for ever, with other puniſhment at the will of the magiſtrate; the practice of making prizes being contrary to good conſcience, and the rule of treating Chriſtian brethren as we would wiſh to be treated and ſuch goods are not to be ſold by any godly men within this burgh." The race of theſe godly men in Scotland is, probably extinct, or their principles are abandoned ſince, as far as that nation had a hand in promoting the war againſt the colonies, prizes and confiſcations are believed to have been a conſiderable motive.

It has been for ſome time a generally-received opinion, that a military man is not to enquire whether a war be juſt or unjuſt; he is to execute his orders. All princes who are diſpoſed to