LETTERS
TO AND FROM
DR. SWIFT.
FROM PETER LUDLOW, ESQ[1].
I SEND you the enclosed pamphlet by a private hand, not daring to venture it by the common post; for it is a melancholy circumstance we are now in, that friends are afraid to carry on even a bare correspondence, much more to write news, or send papers of consequence (as I take the enclosed to be) that way. But I suppose I need make no apology for not sending it by post, for you must know, and own too, that my fears are by no means groundless. For, your friend Mr. Manley[2] has been guilty of opening letters that were not directed to him, nor his wife, nor really to one of his acquaintance. Indeed, I own, it so happened, that they were of no consequence, but secrets of state, secrets of families, and other secrets (that one would by no means let Mr. Manley know) might have been discovered;
- ↑ Of Arsullagh, in the county of Meath, esq., grandson of the famous Ludlow, who wrote his own Memoirs.
- ↑ Postmaster general of Ireland, whom Dr. Swift had greatly befriended in queen Anne's time.
