of, with promise of a further Allowance as Service presented.

"My Lord Sunderland, to whose Goodness I had many Years ago been obliged, when I was in a secret Commission sent to Scotland, was pleased to approve and continue this Service, and the Appointment annexed; and, with his Lordship's Approbation, I introduced myself, in the Disguise of a Translator of the Foreign News, to be so far concerned in this weekly Paper of Mist's, as to be able to keep it within the Circle of a secret Management, also prevent the mischievous Part of it; and yet neither Mist, or any of those concerned with him, have the least Guess or Suspicion by whose Direction I do it.

"But here it becomes necessary to acquaint my Lord (as I hinted to you, Sir), that this Paper, called the Journal, is not in myself in Property, as the other, only in Management; with this express difference, that if anything happens to be put in without my Knowledge, which may give Offence, or if anything slips my Observation which may be ill taken, his Lordship shall be sure always to know whether he has a Servant to reprove, or a Stranger to correct.

"Upon the whole, however, this is the Consequence, that by this Management, the Weekly Journal, and Dormer's Letter, as also the Mercurius Politicus, which is in the same Nature of Management as the Journal, will be always kept (Mistakes excepted) to pass as Tory Papers, and yet be disabled and enervated, so as to do no Mischief, or give any Offence to the Government.

"I beg leave to observe, Sir, one Thing more to his Lordship in my own behalf, and without which, indeed, I may, one Time or other, run the Risk of fatal Misconstructions. I am, Sir, for this Service, posted among Papists, Jacobites, and enraged High Tories-a Generation who, I profess, my very Soul Abhors; I am obliged to hear traitorous Expressions and outrageous Words against his Majesty's Person and Government, and his most faithful Servants, and smile at it all, as if I approved it; I am obliged to take all the scandalous and,

indeed, villainous Papers that come, and keep them by me as if I would gather Materials from them to put them into the News; nay, I often venture to let Things pass which are a little Shocking, that I may not render myself suspected.

"Thus I bow in the House of Rimmon, and must humbly recommend myself to his Lordship's Protection, or I may be undone the sooner, by how much the more faithfully I execute the Commands I am under.

"I forbear to enlarge. I beg you, Sir, to represent these Circumstances to his Lordship, in behalf of a faithful Servant, that shall always endeavour to approve his Fidelity by Actions rather than Words.

"I am, Sir, your most humble Servant,

"Newington, April 26, 1718.

"DE FOE.

"P.S.-I send you here one of the Letters stopt at the Press, as I mentioned to you; as to the Manuscript of Sultan Galga, another villainous Paper, I sent the Copy to my Lord Sunderland. If the Original be of any Service, it is ready at your first Orders."

III.

"SIR,-I am extremely concerned that the Journal of this Day has copied from the Post Boy that ridiculous Paragraph of the Pretender's being in the List of the Queen Dowager's legitimate Children, and I have spoken my Mind very freely to him of it.

"But Sir, I think, in consequence of what I wrote last to you, it is my Duty to assure my Lord, that I have no Part in this Slip, but that Mr. Mist did it, after I had looked over what he had gotten together, which it seems was not sufficient; and though I would, if I may presume so far, intercede for him, yet my Lord may be assured I have no Concern in it, directly or indirectly. This, Sir, I say, I thought myself obliged to Notice to you, to make good what I said in my last, (viz.) that if any Mistake happened, my Lord should

always know whether he had a Servant to reprove, or a Stranger to punish.

"I am, Sir, Your most humble Servant,

66

May 10, 1718.

"DE FOE.

"P.S.-He has renewed his Promise to me, that he will be more Wary, and I do think, verily, it was not done Maliciously. But that I leave as I find it.

"Address to―― De la Faye, Esq., Present.”

IV.

"SIR,-When I had the Favour of seeing you last, you were pleased to mention to me my particular Concern, and that you would interest yourself in that Part for me. The exceeding Kindness of that offer, Sir, encourages me to give you this Trouble, and to observe to you that the half Year expired the 17th inst.

"I need say no more, but to ask you Pardon for this Freedom, and leave the rest to your own Time and Methods, and shall attend at what Time you please to appoint.

"I hope I have kept the difficult People I have to do with, within the Bounds of Duty; and am in Hopes to draw them gradually into yet narrower Limits of respect. It is a hard Matter to please the Tory Party, as their present Temper operates, without abusing, not only the Government, but the Persons of our Governors, in every Thing they write; but to the best of my Skill, I cause all Letters and Paragraphs, which look that Way, to be intercepted, and stopped at the Press.

"I am a little alarmed at a Prosecution against Morphew, in the King's Bench Court, for a Passage in the Mercurius Politicus; which began in a private Person sueing Morphew, on pretence of Damages on a Paragraph, printed from another printed Paper, of a Person hanged, at York, for three Halfpence. But it seems the Court, resenting a Line or two in

it as a Reflection on the Judges, have made it a public Cause, and have committed Morphew till Sentence, which it is feared will be severe.

But, Sir, I think myself obliged to lay before my Lord Stanhope the following Particulars, in Case they should offer to concern me in it. First, that it is two Year or more, since this was done; and, consequently, before the Capitulation made in my Lord Townshend's Time, when all former Mistakes of mine were forgiven. Secondly, that the Thing itself was not mine, neither can any one pretend to charge it on me, otherwise than it might be said I saw, or overlooked the Book; nor, indeed, can they prove so much as that. So that I can

in no wise be said to have failed in my Duty on Account of this latent Affair, which indeed seems to me to be but trifling in itself.

"I have an entire dependency on my Lord's Justice, and Goodness; that no Offence, formerly committed (were this really so) shall be remembered to my Prejudice. However I thought it my Duty to give his Lordship this Account, that my Enemies may not anticipate me, by giving wrong and injurious Accounts of it before me..

66

"I am, Sir, Your most humble Servant,

May 23, 1718.

"DE FOE.

"P.S.-The Words, as I hear them, which the Judges take Offence at, are the introducing the Story of the Fellow that was executed, saying,-it was a piece of Justice unmixed with Mercy."

V.

"SIR,-Since our last Conference I have entered into a new Treaty with Mr. Mist. I need not trouble you with the Particulars, but in a Word, he professes himself convinced that he has been wrong, that the Government has treated him with Lenity and Forbearance; and he solemnly engages to me to give no more Offence.

"The liberties Mr. Buckley mentioned, viz., to seem on the same Side as before, to rally the Flying Post, the Whig writers, and even the Word Whig,' &c., and to admit foolish and trifling Things in favour of the Tories. This, as I represented it to him, he agrees is Liberty enough, and resolves his Paper shall, for the future, amuse the Tories, but not affront the Government.

"I have freely told him that this is the only Way to preserve his Paper, to keep himself from a Jail, and to secure the Advantages which now rise to him from it, for that he might be assured the Complaint against him was so general that the Government could bear it no longer.

"I said, Sir, all that could be said on that Head, only reserving the Secret of who I spoke from; and concluded, that unless he would keep Measures with me, and be punctual in these Things, I could not serve him any farther, or be concerned any more.

"Thus far, Sir, I have acted, I hope in a right Method, in pursuance of which, in his next Paper, he is to make a kind of Declaration in answer to two Letters printed in his last, wherein he shall publish his Resolution not to meddle with, or write anything offensive to the Government.

"In prosecution also of this Reformation, he brought me, this Morning, the enclosed Letter; which, indeed, I was glad to see, because, though it seems couched in terms which might have been made Public, yet has a secret Gall in it, and a manifest tendency to reproach the Government with Partiality and Injustice, and (as it acknowledges expressly) was written to serve a present Turn. As this is an earnest of his just Intention, I hope he will go on to your Satisfaction.

"Give me leave, Sir, to mention here a Circumstance which concerns myself, and which, indeed is a little Hardship upon me, viz., that I seem to merit less, when I intercept a Piece of barefaced flagrant Treason at the Press, than when I stop such a Letter as this enclosed; because one seems to be of a