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Spy

,—an underling of government, sent to watch over the words and ctions of innocent men; to excite them to intemperate expressions, and then to inform of them, bring them into a prejudiced court before a loyal jury, and, if possible, swear away their lives, to satisfy the bloody vengeance of an infernal minister. An avowed spy of govern­ment (Watt) is taken up I find on a charge of high treason, who, they say, has gone so far as to order pikes, and to lay before a sciety a specific plan of revolt and rebellion. I know the present ministry so thoroughly, that I should not wonder if they were to sacrifice this man, though their friend, in order to prove the existence of a con­spiracy. And yet it cannot be; human nature can never be so depraved. But if it was to happen, I am sure such a man would die unpitied and unla­mented. His fate would be something like that of the Santon Barsisa.

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Entry taken from A Political Dictionary, by Charles Pigott, 1795.

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Spy