nay the plainest profe, that you beft could teach our nobility to vote, which you justly observe, is half at least of their Bufinefs: And give me leave to prophefy, it is to your talent in profe, and not in verse, to your speaking, not your writing, to your art at court, not your art of poetry, that your Lordship muft owe your future figure in the world. My Lord, whatever you imagine, this is the advice of a Friend, and one who remembers he formerly had the honour of fome profeffion of Friendship from you: Whatever was his real share in it, whether fmall or great, yet as your Lordship could never have had the leaft Lofs by continuing it, or the leaft Interest by withdrawing it; the misfortune of lofing it, I fear, must have been owing to his own deficiency or neglect But as to any actual fault which deferved to forfeit it in fuch a degree, he protefts he is to this day guiltlefs and ignorant. It could at most be but a fault of omission; but indeed by omiffions, men of your Lordfhip's uncommon merit may fometimes think themfelves fo injured, as to be capable of an inclination to injure another; who, though very much below their quality, may be above the injury. I never heard of the leaft difpleasure you had conceived against me, till I was told that an imitation I had made of 'Horace had offended some perfons, and among * All their bus'nefs is to drefs, and vote. 1 The first Satire of the second Book, printed in 1732. among them your Lordship. I could not have apprehended that a few general ftrokes about a Lord feribling carelessly", a Pimp, or a Spy at Court, a Sharper in a gilded chariot, &c. that thefe, I fay, fhould be ever applied as they have been, by any malice but that which is the gerateft in the world, the Malice of Ill people to themselves. Your Lordship fo well knows, (and the whole Court and Town through your means fo well know,) how far the refentment was carried upon that imagination, not only in the Nature of the Libel" you propagated against me, but in the extraordinary manner, place, and prefence, in which it was propagated; that I fhall only fay, it seemed to me to exceed the bounds of justice, common sense, and decency. I wonder yet more, how a Lady, of great wit, beauty, and fame for her poetry, (between whom and your Lordship there is a natural, a just, and a: well-grounded esteem,) could be prevailed upon to take: a part in that proceeding. Your refentments against me indeed might be equal, as my offence to you both was the fame; for neither had I the least mifunderstanding with that Lady, till after I was the Author of my own misfortune in difcontinuing her acquaint He fhould have added, that he called this Nobleman, who fcribled fo carelefly, Lord Fanny. Verfes to the Imitator of Horace, afterwards printed by J. Roberts, 1732, Fol. • It was for this reafon that this Letter, as foon as it was printed, was communicated to the Queen. acquaintance. I may venture to own a truth, which cannot be unpleafing to either of you; I affure you my reafon for fo doing, was merely that you had both too much wit for me"; and that I could not do with mine, many things which you could with yours. The injury done you in withdrawing myself could be but fmall, if the value you had for me was no greater than you have been pleafed fince to profess. But, furely, my Lord, one may fay, neither the Revenge, nor the Language you held, bore any proportion to the pretended offence: The appellation of Foe to, humankind, an Enemy like the Devil to all that have Being; ungrateful, unjust, deferving to be whipt, blanketed, kicked, nay killed: a Monster, an Assassin, whose converfation every man ought to hun, and against whom all doors fhould be fhut; I beseech you, my Lord, had you the least right to give, or to encourage or justify any other in giving fuch language as this to me? Could I be treated in terms more strong or more atrocious, if during my acquaintance with you I had been a Betrayer, a Backbiter, a Whisperer, an Eves-dropper, or an Informer? Did I in all that time ever throw a falfe Dye, or palm a foul Card upon you? Did I ever borrow, steal, or accept, either Money, Wit, or Advice from you? Had I ever the honour to join with either of you Once, and but once, his heedlefs youth was bit, in one Ballad See the Letter to Dr. ARBUTHNOT, among ft the Variations. See the aforefaid Verfes to the Imitator of Horace. Ballad, Satire, Pamphlet, or Epigram, on any perfon living or dead? Did I ever do you fo great an injury as to put off my own verfes for yours, especially on thofe Perfons whom they might most offend? I am confident you cannot answer in the affirmative; and I can truly affirm, that ever fince I loft the happiness of your converfation, I have not published or written one fyllable of or to either of you; never hitched your names in a Verse, or trifled with your good names in company. Can I be honeftly charged with any other crime but an Omiffion (for the word Neglect, which I used before, flipped my pen unguardedly) to continue my admiration of you all my life, and still to contemplate, face to face, your many excellencies and perfections? I am perfuaded you can reproach me truly with no great Faults, except my natural ones, which I am as ready to own, as to do all justice to the contrary Beauties in you. It is true, my Lord, I am fhort, not well fhaped, generally ill-dreffed, if not fometimes dirty: Your Lordfhip and Ladyship are still in bloom; your figures fuch, as rival the Apollo of Belvedere, and the Venus of Medicis; and your faces fo finished, that neither fickness or paffion can deprive them of Colour; I will allow your own in particular to be the fineft that ever Man was bleft with preserve it, my Lord, and reflect, that to be a Critic, would cost it too many frowns, and to be a Statesman, too many wrinkles! I further confess, I am now somewhat old; but fo your Lordship and this excel excellent Lady, with all your beauty, will (I hope) one day be. I know your Genius and hers fo perfectly tally, that you cannot but join in admiring each other, and by confequence in the contempt of all fuch as myself. You have both, in my regard, been like-(your Lordship, I know loves a Simile, and it will be one fuitable to your Quality)-you have been like Two Princes, and I like a poor Animal facrificed between them to cement a lafting league: I hope I have not bled in vain; but that fuch an amity may endure for ever! For though it be what common understandings would hardly conceive, Two Wits however may be perfuaded that it is in friendship as in enmity, The more danger the more honour. Give me the liberty, my Lord, to tell you, why I never replied to those Verses on the Imitator of Horace? They regarded nothing but my Figure, which I fet no value upon; and my Morals, which, I knew, needed no defence: Any honest man has the pleasure to be conscious, that it is out of the power of the Wittieft, nay the Greatest Perfon in the kingdom, to leffen him that way, but at the expence of his own Truth, Honour, or Justice. But though I declined to explain myself just at the time when I was fillily threatened, I shall now give your Lordship a frank account of the offence you imagined to be meant to you. Fanny (my Lord) is the plain English of Fannius, a real perfon, who was a foolish Critic, and an enemy of Horace: perhaps a Noble |