SIR,—Although I do not consider myself bound to reply to the questions put to me by you, being in utter ignorance of the use which you propose to make of my answer; yet I can have no hesitation in saying that I think Mr. —— has been guilty of an unpardonable liberty in publishing my name, without my sanction, and more especially in appending it to the document (a copy of which you sent to me), and to which I have never affixed my signature. I was requested to look at M ——’s amber spectacles, and I saw no others; and looking through them on a day when the sun shone brightly, they appeared to me to soften the light more than crystal or pebbles; and seeing the names of many eminent surgeons and oculists attached to various certificates, I wrote and signed what I have stated above, and I believe no more; namely, that the amber spectacles seemed to _soften the light_ more than the pebbles.[16] I am not aware of having seen any other sort; and certainly I have not ventured to sign my _approval_ of these, or of any others. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, ROBERT KEATE. To Mr. George Cox. I could give the disclaimers of other gentlemen who have been trepanned into giving their signatures, which are afterwards so pompously paraded by the testimonialed and certificated adventurers; but these will suffice to illustrate the working of the system. “A wise physician, skill’d our wounds to heal, Is more than armies to the public weal.”—POPE. I cannot but feel gratified, that this correspondence, while it has substantiated my arguments, affords an opportunity for those gentlemen to explain the real truth of the matter, and to exonerate themselves from the contaminating connexion, which appeared to place their reputation for that “quality called honesty” in jeopardy. I have received several impromptu effusions from humorous correspondents in different parts of the kingdom, where I have been and unmasked the impositions of spectacle cheats. One says— “They _make_ not spectacles, you say; With that I can’t agree, Both wife and I have worn their trash, Now spectacles are we.”—QUIZ. Another— “A celebrated chemist has ascertained, by very accurate analysis, that there is enough brass in the countenances of the spectacle men of Duke’s Place and Petticoat Lane to make spectacle-frames for all the spinsters in the neighbourhood.”—SATIRIST. I have, of course, laid myself open to the furious and vindictive hostility of those quacks, whose nefarious practices are exposed, and whose career will be checked in proportion as this treatise is circulated and dispassionately perused. But, secure of the approbation of all my readers who will avail themselves of the information contained in these pages, I may conclude with satisfaction, since Friends I have made whom envy must commend, And not one foe whom I would wish a friend. THE END. R. COTTLE, PRINTER, BASINGSTOKE. FOOTNOTES: