FROM LORD TREASURER OXFORD *. Wednesday Night. I HAVE heard, that some honest men, who are very innocent, are under trouble, touching a printed pamphlet. A friend of mine, an obscure person, but charitable, puts the enclosed bill in your hands, to answer such exigences as their case may immediately require. And I find he will do more, this being only for the present. If this comes safe to your hands, it is enough t. TO LORD TREASURER OXFORD ‡. May it please your lordship, March 18, 1713-14. PURSUANT to her majesty's proclamation of the fifteenth of this instant March, for discovering the author of a false, malicious, and factious libel, entitled, "The Publick Spirit of the Whigs;" wherein *Endorsed, "Lord treasurer Oxford's letter to me in a counterfeit hand with the bill when the printers were prosecuted by the house of lords for a pamphlet. Letter with bill of Jool. Received March 14, 1713-14." N. This letter was sent to Dr. Swift, when the printer Morphew was prosecuted by the house of lords, for "The publick Spirit of the Whigs:" a pamphlet written in answer to a tract of Sir Richard Steel's, called the Crisis, and published on the second of March, 1713-14. All the Scots lords then in London went to the queen, and complained of the affront put on them and their nation by the author; upon which a proclamation was published by her majesty, offering a reward of 3col to discover him. H. Endorsed, "A letter to lord treasurer, offering to discover the author of the pamphlet, called The Publick Spirit of the Whigs." her majesty is graciously pleased to promise a reward of three hundred pounds, to be paid by your lordship, which said discovery I can make. But your lordship, or some persons under your lordship, have got such an ill name in paying such rewards. Instance two poor men, viz. John Greenwood and John Bouch, who took and brought to justice six persons, vulgarly Mohocks; which the said two poor men never received but twenty pounds, and the latter thirty; and they had no partners concerned with them, as appears by the attorney general's reports to your lordship; which if I should be so served, to cause any persons to be punished, and be no better rewarded, will be no encouragement for me to do it; for these two poor men being so plain a precedent for me to go by. Your lordship's most humble and most obedient servant. L. M. HUMOUROUS LINES BY LORD TREASURER OXFORD, SENT TO DR. SWIFT, DR. ARBUTHNOT, MR. POPE, AND MR. GAY. IN April 14, 1714. Back stairs, past eight. GAY. * a summons so large, which all clergy contains, I must turn Dismal's convert, or part with my brains, Should I scruple to quit the back stairs for your blind ones, Or refuse your true juncto + for one of * Dismal was lord Nottingham. H. + Dr Swift, Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Pope, and Mr. Gay, were writing the history of Martinus Scriblerus; and these four wits in conjunction, are styled by lord treasurer a juncto. H. The following is their answer to his lordship, chiefly written by the dean. Let not the whigs our tory club rebuke; Want your assistance now to clear 'em. In Scribler to have had a place, THE DEAN. A pox on all senders Who tell us these troublesome stories In their dull humdrum key, gran-mere, And all his old friends would rebuke. In spite of the carle, Give us but our earl, The devil may take their duke. Then come and take part in The memoirs of Martin; Lay down your white staff and gray habit: For trust us, friend Mortimer, Should you live years forty more, Hac olim meminisse juvabit. MORE LINES OF HUMOUR BY LORD TREA. SURER. I HONOUR the men, sir, Who are ready to answer, April 14, 1714., When I ask them to stand by the queen; In spite of orâtors, And blood thirsty praters, Whose hatred I highly esteem. Let our faith's defender Keep out every pretender, And long enjoy her own; May merrily live, Till faction is dead as a stone. FROM THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND. BROTHER *, April 24, 1714. I SHOULD sooner have thanked you for your letter, but that I hoped to have seen you here by this time. You cannot imagine how much I am grieved, when I find people I wish well to, run counter to their own interest, and give their enemies such advantages, by being so hard upon their friends as to conclude, if they are not without fault, they are not to be supported, or scarce conversed with. Fortune is a very pretty gentlewoman; but how soon she may be changed, nobody can tell. Fretting her, with the seeing all she * The duke of Ormond was one of the sixteen brothers; the duchess, therefore, calls Swift brother in her lord's right. H. does for people only makes them despise her, may make her so sick as to alter her complexion; but I hope our friends will find her constant, in spite of all they do to shock her; and remember the story of the arrows *, that were very easily broke singly; but when tied up close together, no strength of man could hurt them. But that you may never feel any ill consequences from whatever may happen, are the sincere wishes of, brother, Yours, with all sisterly affection. I TO THE EARL OF PETERBOROW. MY LORD, London, May 18, 1714. HAD done myself the honour of writing to your excellency, above a month before yours of March the 5th came to my hands. The Saturdays dinners have not been resumed since the queen's return from Windsor; and I am not sorry, since it became so mingled an assembly, and of so little use either to business or conversation: so that I was content to read your queries to our two great friends. The treasurer stuck at them all; but the secretary acquitted himself of the first, by assuring me he had often written to your excellency. I was told, the other day, of an answer you made to somebody abroad, who enquired of you the state and dispositions of our court: "That you could not * In this letter the duchess alludes to the division then subsisting among the ministers at court; and it is probable, that the hint about the story of the arrows produced the poem called "The Faggot,", which the dean wrote about this time. It is said, under the title, to have been written in the year 1713, when the queen's ministers were quarrelling among themselves. H. |