Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/279

269 ; to gratify which paſſion, he had, they ſaid, deeiveddeceived [sic] the people, by promiſing to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey"; inſtead of doing which, he had brought them from ſuch a land; and that he thought light of all this miſchief, provided he could make himſelf an abſolute prince . That, to ſupport the new dignity with ſplendour in his family, the partial poll tax already levied and given to Aaron was to be followed by a general one, which would probably be augmented from time to time, if he were ſuffered to go on promulgating new laws, on pretence of new occaſional revelations of the Divine Will, till their whole fortunes were devoured by that ariſtocracy."

Moſes denied the charge of peculation; and his accuſers were deſtitute of proofs to ſupport it; though facts, if real, are in their nature capable, of proof. "I have not," ſaid he with holy confidence in the preſence of God), "I have not taken from this people the value of an aſs, nor done them any other injury." But his enemies had made the charge, and with ſome ſucceſs among the populace; for no kind of accuſation is ſo readily made, or eaſily believed, by knaves, as the accuſation of knavery.

In fine, no leſs than two hundred and fifty of the principal men "famous in the congregation, men of renown ," heading and exciting the mob, worked them up to ſuch a pitch of phrenſy, that