Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/191

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THE

HISTORY

OF

JOHN BULL.

PART II.





THE PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.

THE world is much indebted to the famous sir Humphry Polesworth for his ingenious and impartial account of John Bull's lawsuit; yet there is just cause of complaint against him, in that he relates it only by parcels, and won't give us the whole work: this forces me, who am only the publisher, to bespeak the assistance of his friends and acquaintance, to engage him to lay aside that stingy humour, and gratify the curiosity of the public at once. He pleads in excuse, that they are only private memoirs, written for his own use, in a loose style, to serve as a help to his ordinary conversation[1]. I represented to him the good reception the First Part had met with; that though calculated only for the meridian of Grub-street, it was yet taken notice of by the

  1. This excuse of sir Humphry can only relate to the Second Part, or sequel of the history. See the Preface to the First Part.
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