speech was in words too direct to avoid, * he advises him to save his honour and virtue, by owning a solecism in his speech; and to write less correctly, rather than mean maliciously. What an expedient this advocate has found to remove the load of an accusation! He answers, "The crime is horrible; that great men ought not to be thus insolently charged." I reply, "That the Parliament and speaker appear, in many points, to be of the same opinion." He rejoins, "That he is pressed by too great an authority; that, perhaps, those wise assemblies, and that honourable gentleman, (who besides is but a single man,) may probably speak nonsense; they must either deliver a solecism, or be malicious; and, in good manners, he rather thinks it may be the former." The writer of the letter, having thus dispatched the Examiner, falls next upon a paper called Secret Transactions, &c. † written, as he tells us, by one Francis Hoffman, and the ordinary of Newgate; persons whom I have not the honour to be known to, (whatever my betters may be,) nor have yet seen their productions; but, by what is cited from them in the letter, it should seem, they have made some untoward observations. However, the same answer still serves; not a word to control what they say; only they are a couple of daring, insolent wretches, to reflect upon the greatest and best men in England; and there is an end. I have no sort of regard for that same Hoffman, to whose character I am a perfect stranger; but methinks the ordinary of Newgate should be treated with more respect, considering * This word is improperly used here, both in point of sense and grammar. It should be too direct to be evaded. + See introductory remarks. what company he has kept, and what visitors he may have had. However, I shall not enter into a point of controversy, whether the lords were acquainted with the ordinary, or the ordinary with the lords, since this author leaves it undecided. Only one thing I take to be a little hard. It is now confessed, on all hands, that Mr Harley was most unjustly suspected of joining with an under clerk in corresponding with France. The suspicion being in itself unreasonable, and without the least probable grounds, wise men began to consider what violent enemies that gentleman had; they found the report most industriously spread; the Whigs, in common discourse, discovering their wishes that he might be found guilty; the management of the whole affair was put into the hands of such as, it is supposed, would at least not be sorry to find more than they expected. The criminal's dying speech is unfortunately published, wherein he thanks God he was not tempted to save his life by falsely accusing his master, with more to the same purpose: from all this put together, it was no very unnatural conjecture, that there might have been some tampering. Now, I say, that it is a little hard, that Mr Harley's friends must not be allowed to have their suspicions as well as his enemies; and this author, if he intended to deal fairly, should have spent one paragraph in railing at those who had the impudence and villany to suspect Mr Harley, and then proceeded in due method to defend his committee of examiners; but that gentleman being, as this author says of the speaker, but a single man, I suppose his reputation and life were esteemed but of little consequence. There is one state of the case in this letter, which 1 cannot well omit, because the author, I suppose, con ; ceives it to be extremely cunning and malicious; that it cuts to the quick, and is wonderfully severe upon Mr. Harley, without exposing the writer to any danger. I say this to gratify him, to let him know I take his meaning, and discover his inclinations. His parallel case is this: "Supposing Guiscard had been intimate with some great officer of state, and had been suspected to communicate his most secret affairs with that minister then he asks, Whether it would have been subornation, or seeking the life and blood of that officer, in these great lords of the council, if they had narrowly examined this affair, inquired with all exactness what he knew of this great officer, what secrets he had imparted to him, and whether he were privy to his corresponding ?" &c. In this parallel, Guiscard's case is supposed to be the same with Gregg's; and that of the great officer with Mr Harley's. So that here he lays down as a thing granted, that Gregg was intimate with Mr Harley, and suspected to communicate his most secret affairs to him. Now, did ever any rational man suspect, that Mr Harley, first principal secretary of state, was intimate with an under clerk, or upon the foot of having most secret affairs communicated to him from such a counsellor, from one in so inferior a station, whom perhaps he hardly knew by sight? why was that report raised, but for the uses which were afterward made of it? or, why should we wonder that they, who were so wicked as to be authors of it, would be scrupulous in applying it to the only purpose for which it could be raised? Having thus considered the main design of this letter, I shall make a few remarks upon some particular passages in it. First, Though it be of no consequence to this dispute, I cannot but observe a most evident falsehood, which he repeats three or four times in his letter, that I make the world believe I am set on work by great people. I remember myself to have several times affirmed the direct contrary, and so I do still; and if I durst tell him my name, which he is so desirous to know, he would be convinced that I am of a temper to think no man great enough to set me on work; nay, I am content to own all the scurrilous titles he gives me, if he be able to find one innuendo through all those papers that can any way favour this calumny; the malice of which is not intended against me, but the present ministry; to make the world believe, that what I have published is the utmost effort of all they can say or think against the last; whereas it is nothing more than the common observations of a private man, deducing consequences and effects from very natural and visible causes. He tells us, with great propriety of speech, that the seven lords and their friends are treated as subverters of the constitution, and such as have been long endeavouring to destroy both church and state. This puts me in mind of one, who first murdered a man, and afterward endeavoured to kill him; and therefore I here solemnly deny them to have been subverters of the constitution; but that some people did their best endeavours, I confidently believe. He tells me particularly, that I acquit Guiscard, by a blunder, of a design against Mr Harley's life. I declare he injures me; for I look upon Guiscard to be full as guilty of the design, as even those were who tampered with the business of Gregg; and both, (to avoid all cavilling,) as guilty as any man ever was that suffered death by law. He calls the stabbing of Mr Harley a sore blow; but I suppose he means his recovery: that indeed was a sore blow to the interests of his party: but I take the business of Gregg to have been a much sorer blow to their reputation. This writer wonders how I should know their lordships' hearts, because he hardly knows his own. I do not well see the consequence of this: perhaps he never examines into his own heart, perhaps it keeps no correspondence with his tongue or his pen: I hope, at least, it is a stranger to those foul terms he has strewed throughout his letter; otherwise I fear I know it too well for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. But, however, actions are pretty good discoverers of the heart, though words are not; and whoever has once endeavoured to take away my life, if he has still the same, or rather much greater cause, whether it be a just one or not, and has never shown the least sign of remorse; I may venture, without being a conjurer, to know so much of his heart, as to believe he would repeat his attempt, if it were in his power. I must needs quote some following lines in the same page, which are of an extraordinary kind, and seem to describe the blessed age we should live in, under the return of the late administration. "It is very well (says he) that people's heads are to stand on their shoulders as long as the laws will let them; if it depended upon any thing besides, it may be your lordships' seven heads might be as soon cut off, as that one gentleman's, were you in power." Then he concludes the paragraph with this charitable prayer, in the true moderation style, and in Italic letter: "May the head that has done the kingdom the greatest mischief fall first, let it be whose it will !" The plain meaning of which is this: If the late ministry were in power, they would act just as the |