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and several others were summoned by the Archbishop to meet at Bishopthorpe on November 7, 1758, for a general conference. The two chief dignitaries, who had been misrepresented, each to each, by the intriguing lawyer, found themselves agreeably of one opinion: that it was inadvisable, notwithstanding ancient precedent, to grant the valuable patent for more than one life. The lawyer, enraged at this decision, says Sterne, "huffed and bounced most terribly," threatening everybody from the Archbishop down to a timid surgeon, one Isaac Newton, who gave the story of the conference to the coffee-houses. Nothing coming of these angry violences, Dr. Topham decided to appeal to the public against the Dean, whom he charged with working upon the sick man at Bishopthorpe. So, during the second week in December, was launched his anonymous pamphlet entitled A Letter address'd to the Reverend the Dean of York; In which is given A full Detail of some very extraordinary Behaviour of his, in relation to his Denial of a Promise made by him to Dr. Topham. Though the sixpenny pamphlet set out to deal principally with the commissaryship that fell to Sterne, it nevertheless touched upon all the quarrels of a dozen years. Two weeks later, the Dean had ready his retort courteous, which bore the title: An Answer to a Letter Address'd to the Dean of
