TO MR. STEELE.
SIR,
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * [1]I may probably know better, when they are disposed * * * * * * *. The case was thus: I did, with the utmost application, and desiring to lay all my credit upon it, desire Mr. Harley (as he then was called) to show you mercy. He said, "He would, and wholly upon my account: that he would appoint you a day to see him: that he would not expect you should quit any friend or principle." Some days after, he told me, "He had appointed you a day and you had not kept it;" upon which he reproached me, as engaging for more than I could answer; and advised me to more caution another time. I told him, and desired my lord chancellor and lord Bolingbroke to be witnesses, that I would never speak for, or against you, as long as I lived; only I would add, that it was still my opinion, you should have mercy till you gave further provocations. This is the history of what you think fit to call, in the spirit of insulting, "their laughing at me:" and you may do it securely; for, by the most inhuman dealings, you have wholly
- ↑ It has unluckily happened that two or three lines have been torn by accident from the beginning of this letter; and, by the same accident, two or three lines are missing toward the latter part, which were written on the back part of the paper which was torn off. But what remains of this letter will, I presume, be very satisfactory to the intelligent reader.
