320
LETTERS TO AND FROM
FROM LORD TREASURER OXFORD[1].
WEDNESDAY NIGHT.
I HAVE heard, that some honest men, who are very innocent, are under trouble, touching a printed pamphlet. A friend of mine, an obscure person, but charitable, puts the enclosed bill in your hands, to answer such exigencies as their case may immediately require. And I find he will do more, this being only for the present. If this comes safe to your hands, it is enough.
- ↑ Endorsed, "Lord treasurer Oxford's letter to me in a counterfeit hand with the bill when the printers were prosecuted by the house of lords for a pamphlet. Letter with bill 100l. Received March 14, 1713-14." This letter was sent to Dr. Swift, when the printer Morphew was prosecuted by the house of lords, for "The publick Spirit of the Whigs:" a pamphlet written in answer to a tract of sir Richard Steele's, called The Crisis, and published on the second of March, 1713-14. All the Scots lords then in London went to the queen, and complained of the affront put on them and their nation by the author; upon which a proclamation was published by her majesty, offering a reward of three hundred pounds to discover him.
TO
