Excerpt from A Word to the Wise: A Comedy, as It Was Performed at the Theatre Royal, in Drury-LaneWhetherithas been Mr. Kelly' s merit or demerit, to think from principle unpopularly, on the fubjett of the prefent nu happy diffenfions, he will not pretend to fay, but certainly 1t has been his misfortune, and though feveral ofhis difcreeter friends repeatedly warned himi'of the danger his next piece would run on the' hage, from an Open declaration of his poli tical Opinions, f'till he did not imagine, that his profefiion as a public writer was to deprive him of his independence as a inan - As he never prefumed to be offended with the ientiments of Others on matters of a national tendency, he claimed a right of exprefling his own and did not fuppofe his lite rary charafter, precluded him from fpeaking upon a point which was the continual objeét of literary inveftigation. Befides this, he little conceived that the advocates for free dom of thinking, would be the firll to manacle the mind, that the profelied friends of candour would be the firft to condemn without a hearing, and the avowed enemies of Opprefiion be the only perfons ready to exercife an unwar rantable feverity - He had at lead a right to juliice, if he had no pretence to favoiir, and merited furely a trial.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.