As the Attic Chest admits originals of various kinds, perhaps it may not reject this specimen of a new Official Style, which was copied from the original communication by * * *
My Lord,
I am this day honored with your Lordship’s polite attention to my complaint and have wrote to Lord Liverpool as First Lord of the Treasury mean time do me the honor to accept a copy of my last petition
To
The Honorable Commissioners of Excise
In hopes this will give no surprise
The petitioner wants his just arrears
Witheld for more than thirteen years
Without assigning any cause
But to pervert perfection’s laws
The time approaches fast we see
When just or not we all must die
So now is the time let us not neglect
To hang corruption by the neck
If we to God’s levee would fly
Do as we would be done by
For by faith without restitution
We are lost at the day of retribution
By carrying like a pedlar’s pack
Arrears of punishment on our back
For if that we play fast and loose
Then we are sure to get a souce
Therefore to avert the indignation of Heaven is to do good when it is in our power without injury to ourselves
I have the honor to be with
High consideration
your Lordship’s most
obedient servant
John Brown of the
Excise Edinburgh
27 Feby 1817
To the Rt Hon.
The Secretary of War