Therefore (whether
the Fact be so or not; for that is entirely out of the Question) I
had NO RIGHT to consider it, but as Theirs, nor Them in any other
Light than as they there appeared, namely as Part of the _People_,
which always signifies the Governed, or _private Persons_. Tho' the
Stile be in the third Person, yet, without any Prejudice to the
Sense, it may be changed to the first, and then it will run thus, _We
think our Characters injured by the Paragraph, as tho' Mr_.
Whitefield _had met with great Success among us the_ BETTER SORT _of
People of Pennsilvania_. This Case has no Manner of Resemblance to
those which you have put, of Boys at Bandy-Wicket, young Fellows at
Foot-Ball, Magistrates on the Bench, Quakers with their Hats on, or
the Library Company with their Hats off or on, for all those Persons
are said to be OF the _Better Sort_, which does not exclude others
from the same Rank. But the Denomination of _Better Sort_ in your
first Letter (where the Particle _of_, as applied in the latter
Cases, cannot be found) is evidently engrossed by Those who, with
such a commendable Modesty, bestowed it on themselves. Now when
private Persons publickly stile themselves, exclusively of all
others, the BETTER SORT of People of the Province, can it be doubted
but that they look on the Rest of their Fellow Subjects in the same
Government with Contempt, and consequently regard them as Mob and
Rabble.
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