Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/250

 right to it?), Mr Postlethwayt and Mr Wright give a direct evidence, that they had the key constantly in their keeping all the time from October to May; so that I had not the MS. in my power, till the very time that I lent it. Nay, the very warrant, where His Majesty first nominated me to that employment, was but taken out of the Secretary's office, December 23, 1693. There were but five months, therefore, in all from the first rumour of my being Library-keeper to the time that they had the MS. And the bookseller even by this account was plainly guilty of an intended perjury; when he was ready to swear, 'that he used about nine months solicitation!' But suppose it were true, that nine months had elapsed from the date of the warrant to my admission to the Library; yet what an honest and ingenuous narrative is here, of 'nine months solicitation'! That word carries this accusation in't, that I could have lent them the book if I pleased; which appears now to be a mere calumny and slander, since it lays that to my charge, which was not in my power.

By his talking of solicitation, one would be apt to imagine, that he had worn the very streets with