Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/123



William Whitshed,

HEN I sent you my former papers, I cannot say I intended you either good or hurt; and yet you have happened through my means to receive both, I pray God deliver you from any more of the latter, and increase the former. Your trade, particularly in this kingdom, is, of all others, the most unfortunately circumstantiated; for as you deal in the most worthless kind of trash, the penny productions of pennyless scribblers; so you often venture your liberty, and sometimes your lives, for the purchase of half a crown; and, by your own ignorance, are punished for other men's actions.

I am afraid, you in particular think you have reason to complain of me, for your own and your wife's confinement in prison, to your great expense, as well as hardship; and for a prosecution still impending. But I will tell you, Mr. Harding, how that matter stands. Since the press has lain under so strict an inspection, those who have a mind to inform the world are become so cautious, as to keep themselves, if possible, out of the way of danger. . IX.