"I have just thought of a project to bite the town. I have told you, that it is now known that Mr. Prior has been lately in France. I will make a printer of my own sit by me one day; and I will dictate to him a formal relation of Prior's journey, with several particulars, all pure invention; and I doubt not but it will take." Journal to Stella, Aug. 31, 1711.
"This morning the printer sent me an account of Prior's journey; it makes a twopenny pamphlet: I suppose you will see it, for I dare say it will run. It is a formal grave lie, from the beginning to the end. I wrote all but the last page; that I dictated, and the printer wrote. Mr. Secretary sent to me, to dine where he did: it was at Prior's. When I came in, Prior showed me the pamphlet, seemed to be angry, and said, "Here is our English Liberty!' I read some of it; said, 'I liked it mightily, and envied the rogue the thought; for, had it come into my head, I should have certainly done it myself." Ibid. Sept. 11.
"The printer told me he sold yesterday a thousand of Prior's Journey, and had printed five hundred more. It will do rarely, I believe, and is a pure bite." Ibid. Sept. 12.
"Prior's Journey sells still; they have sold two thousand, although the town is empty." Ibid. Sept. 24.
"There came out some time ago an account of Mr. Prior's journey to France, pretended to be a translation; it is a pure invention from the beginning to the end. I will let your Grace into the secret of it. The clamours of a party against any peace without Spain, and railing at the Ministry as if they designed to ruin us, occasioned that production, out of indignity and contempt, by way of furnishing fools with something to talk of; and it has had a very great effect." Letter to Abp. King, Oct. 1, 1711.
