| Citation |
MG-A(G.773.020
25 Mar 1773:23,31 (1437)
[Reference within another essay in the ongoing furor between
Rev. Boucher and townspeople.]
"That Jemmy Twitcher should impeach me I own surprises
me" well spoken by Captain Macheath: yet I beg you would not
include me as a member of the honourable society. I never
deprived my neighbour of his property, nor betrayed the
confidence of a friend, nor villainously impeached him, or
pilfered any man of his reputation or robbed him of his good
name; frequent as your comparisons are of me to culprits,
criminals, and rascals, you have proved nothing against me,
but your own want of good manners, the poverty of your
genius and the baseness of your mind; you may have conveyed
a correct idea of your own virtues by personating Macheath;
you certainly have a conscience and that may perhaps inform
you of a striking likeness in yours and the Captain's
principles; and yet you are a priest! A minister of the
gospel! called up by the spirit to teach the Christian
religion!
Oh! that religion's sacred name,
Meant to inspire the purest flame,
A prostitute should ever be
To that arch fiend hypocrisy!
And is the character then of Captain Macheath applicable to
a Maryland parson? The proverb almost implies as much.
"What proverb my good Sir?" Maryland parson, my dear Sir.
I have often heard the expression made use of in this and a
neighbouring province as a proverbial description of a
worthless minister. . . [1/2 column of invective]
My dear Sir, what do you bounce at? Good lack! Good lack!
Mr. Boucher, never speak contemptuously of the abilities of
others: only chambermaids simper like surmenty kettles.
"Whils't" Boucher, frisky in his lay
Pipes softest musick" all the day.
I am, Sir, your most humble servant, [signed] William Paca.
Annapolis, March 24, 1773.
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