P.S.--For want of intercourse between you and me, which I never will suffer, your people are apt to make very gross errors in the press, which I desire you will provide against. A LETTER _To the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Molesworth, at his house at Brackdenstown, near Swords._ From my shop in St. Francis Street, _December 14th, 1724._ MY LORD, I reflect too late on the maxim of common observers, "that those who meddle in matters out of their calling will have reason to repent;" which is now verified in me: for, by engaging in the trade of a writer, I have drawn upon myself the displeasure of the government, signified by a proclamation, promising a reward of three hundred pounds to the first faithful subject who shall be able and inclined to inform against me; to which I may add the laudable zeal and industry of my Lord Chief Justice Whitshed, in his endeavours to discover so dangerous a person. Therefore, whether I repent or not, I have certainly cause to do so; and the common observation still stands good. It will sometimes happen, I know not how, in the course of human affairs, that a man shall be made liable to legal animadversion where he has nothing to answer for either to God or his country, and condemned at Westminster Hall for what he will never be charged with at the day of judgment. After strictly examining my own heart, and consulting some divines of great reputation, I cannot accuse myself of any malice or wickedness against the public,--of any designs to sow sedition,--of reflecting on the King and his ministers,--or of endeavouring to alienate the affections of the people of this kingdom from those of England.[13] All I can charge myself with is, a weak attempt to serve a nation in danger of destruction by a most wicked and malicious projector, without waiting until I were called to its assistance; which attempt, however it may perhaps give me the title of _pragmatical_ and _overweening_, will never lie a burden upon my conscience. God knows, whether I may not, with all my caution, have already run myself into a second danger by offering thus much in my own vindication; for I have heard of a judge, who, upon the criminal's appeal to the dreadful day of judgment, told him he had incurred a _premunire_, for appealing to a foreign jurisdiction; and of another in Wales, who severely checked the prisoner for offering the same plea, taxing him with "reflecting on the Court by such a comparison, because comparisons were odious." But, in order to make some excuse for being more speculative than others of my condition, I desire your Lordship's pardon, while I am doing a very foolish thing; which is, to give you some little account of myself.