Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/390

382 be malicious; and, in good manners, he rather thinks it may be the former."

The writer of the letter, having thus dispatched the Examiner, falls next upon a paper called Secret Transactions, &c. written, as he tells us, by one Francis Hoffman, and the ordinary of Newgate, persons whom I have not the honour to be known to, (whatever my betters may be) nor have yet seen their productions: but, by what is cited from them in the letter, it should seem, they have made some untoward observations; however, the same answer still serves: not a word to control what they say; only they are a couple of daring, insolent wretches, to reflect upon the greatest and best men in England: and there is an end. I have no sort of regard for that same Hoffman, to whose character I am a perfect stranger; but methinks the ordinary of Newgate should be treated with more respect, considering what company he has kept, and what visitors he may have had. However, I shall not enter into a point of controversy, whether the lords were acquainted with the ordinary, or the ordinary with the lords, since this author leaves it undecided. Only one thing I take to be a little hard. It is now confessed on all hands, that Mr. Harley was most unjustly suspected of joining with an under clerk, in corresponding with France: the suspicion being in itself unreasonable, and without the least probable grounds, wise men began to consider what violent enemies that gentleman had: they found the report most industriously spread; the whigs in common discourse, discovering their wishes, that he might be found guilty: the management of the whole affair was put into the hands of such as, it is posed,