e [Piggot's Political Dictionary]

Excerpts from a book by Charles Piggot, dated 1795 and written from within his prison cell.

The Letter E from Piggot's Political Dictionary (1795)

Effeminancy, ― a word, the meaning of which was once illustrated by the French nation, till the noble spirit of republicanism destroyed the ancient character, and gave birth to those prodigies of heroism and magnanimity, that at present justly rank it the first nation of the earth. Effeminacy is now perfectly well described in Fop's Alley, at our Opera House in the Haymarket, by the descendants of Hampden, Russell, and other British patriots. The two nations have undergone a complete revolution of character. Regeneration and degeneracy.

Emigrant (English), ― one who, like Dr. Priestley or Thomas Cooper, is complelled to fly from persecution, and explore liberty in a far distant land, probably America, the states of Europe, for the most part, France excepted, being rank despotisms. The late dreadful punishments that have been inflicted under the sanction of a Government calling itself free; the restrictions imposed upon citizens, the intolerable and still increasing taxes, the foreign armies that have landed, and the military barracks erected throughout the country, have produced an extraordinary effort on the public mind, and threaten such an emigration as ought to create the most serious apprehensions. When Mr. P-tt was called into power, the death-warrant of Old England's remaining liberties, and, with them, of her greatness was signed. It were preposterous to suppose, whenever peace shall be established, that Industry and Labour will devote their services to an old, exhausted, worn-out system, working its own dissolution, and which is only preserved in its present rotten state by an immensity of impost, that robs the virtues by which alone it is kept from mortification; while new constitutions, untaxed, with every advantage of climate, and all the irresistable charms of Freedom, shall invite them to emigration. England, thy Sun is set.

Emigrant (French), ― one who flies his country struggling for freedom, and becomes is enemy; who enlists under a foreign banner to fight against it. One who labours by treason and massacre to revive that ancient despotism, under which so many millions of victims were born without hope, and perished through want, but under which, he himself enjoyed all the milk and honey of the land. One who leaves his wife, his children, and every thing that should be most dear and sacred to him, in the hands of his enemies, and who hopes to deliver them by sword, by fire, and by famine; who finds it unjust that these enemies (his countrymen, whom he has abandoned) should seize his effects, and treat him with rigour, although he publickly avows, that should he himself be victorious, he will shew grace and indulgence to none. One who complains also, that the foreigners, on whose service he relies, have the most interested and yenal views, although at the same time he confesses tht these foreigners owed no obligation to him, and that they all had ever been the secret enemies of his country, &c. &c.

Enemy (natural), ― National enmities have been always produced and encouraged by kingly and preistly policy. The wolf is the natural enemy of the lamb; the vulture of the dove. By instinct they are so.They must live; but one people can never be the natural enemy of another; unless we consider mankind in the same savage light as the vulture and the wolf. A nation is no more than a member of that large family, the human race, and can only flourish in proportion with the felicity and welfare of the whole. What greater absurdity can be imagined than that a people who owe all their prosperity to commerce, that is to say, to their connections with other people, should call themselves the natural enemy of this or of that people, and indeed of every thing that is not confined within their own circle! Is it not evident that this abominable prejudice is kept up by a gang of plunderers and monopolizers, under protection of Church and State, who find their advantage and emolument in it?

Enquiry, ― according to the modern constructions, signifies Sedition. In the old English dictionary, it was held a Constitutional Privilege, derived from Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, for the people to enquire into the conduct of Kings or Ministers, and into the errors of their government; but all things now seem in a state of revolution, and, according to Mr. P-tt's new code, which is implicitly adopted by all the legal courts through the three kingdoms, enquiry implies disloyalty, sedition, or treason, and they who are audacious enough to claim this ancient obsolete privilege, expose themselves to the penalties of fine, pillory, or imprisonment, and if in Scotland, of transportation for fourteen years to Botany Bay. The people, however, begin to murmur at the revolution that the word has undergone, and to think this is not altogether a free country.

Enterprize, ― This word implies judgement to conceive plans, with abiilty and skill to execute them. The best definition of the word may be found in the history of our last campaign against the French in the years 1793-94, and on the galant Earl Moira's projected œconomical expedition to the coast of France.

Equality, ― in the Alarmist vocabulary, signifies every thing morally and physically impossible; equal wisdom, equal strength, equal wealth, &c. &c. but equality truly signifies, both in France and England, as well as every where else, equal rights; a right of every citizen, not disqualified by nature or crime, to the protection and benefits of society; a right of voting for the election of those who are to make laws by which he himself is to be bound; by which, his liberty, his property, and his life are affected, and an equal right of exerting to advantage the genius and talents which he may possess--the equal rights of nature.

Extermination, ― the principle of the war in which the combined powers are engaged against France;--to destroy twenty-five million of people, or otherwise to force on them such a government, as these combined powers, in their clemency and wisdom, shall approve: such is the war in which the rulers of nations have involved their subjects; in which, already more than 300,000 men have been slaughtered, during the course of two campaigns; nevertheless, these horrible massacres seem only to have increased the fury, by which these despots are stimulaetd; and thus myriads of innocent, ignorant victims still continue, without reflection, to obey the tyrants order, and to yield their willing throats to the butcher's knife. Ye gods, what havock does ambition make amongst your works!