[ix]
York, in the Name of Dr. Topham. A feature of this very skilful reply was a formal declaration, signed by Laurence Sterne, as to what took place at the clerical dinner when Dr. Topham was proved to be a liar. In concluding his open letter, the Dean announced that he had taken leave of Dr. Topham "once for all." Thus apparently sure of the last word, the lawyer poured forth the phials of his wrath in A Reply to the Answer to a Letter lately addressed to the Dean of York. With considerable humor "a late notable performance," supposed to be the Dean's, was described as "the child and offspring of many parents." Mr. Sterne and some others, it was intimated, had been called in by the Dean for "correcting, revising, ornamenting, and embellishing" his well-known faint and nerveless style.
Some parts of the Dean's pamphlet were without doubt Sterne's; but they count for nothing in comparison with A Political Romance, all his own, which he sent to the printer late in January, 1759. Dr. Topham had written in anger; the Dean replied soberly; Sterne turned the whole controversy into ridicule. "Above five hundred copies" of Sterne's pamphlet, it was said, "were struck off"; and "what all the serious arguments in the world could not effect, this brought about." At once Sterne had at his feet both friends and enemies, begging that
