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I have some farther Thoughts to communicate, which, I promise my self, will be found agreeable to the Honest Intention of your Paper.
MY Worthy Friend seems unacquainted with the Methods that were used to pass the Bills against the Bishop of Rochester and Mr. Kelly; The Zeal which appears in most Parts of his Letter, would make it necessary for me, in Gratitude, to lay the Whole of the Evidence for and against the Bishop of Rochester before him, were that at present Convenient, as well for his Satisfaction, as for the Justification of the Nineteen Bishops, who, I presume, would neither be afraid or ashamed to see that publish'd: Such an Opinion I entertain of their Steadiness and Firm Adherence to what they profess!
THE Letter from Lincolns-Inn, dated June the 17th, came safe to Hand; and the Author returns his Thanks for the kind Advice given him in it: But assures his Friend, That he don't fear the Power of the Persons he mentions, any more than he doubts their Malice.
2. The True Briton No. 9 (1 July 1723) Introduction
The True Briton No. 9 addresses the controversy surrounding the recent election for sheriffs in the City. As the Daily Journal (25 June 1723) announced: “Notwithstanding the great Appearance for Sir Richard Hopkins and Mr. Feast, the others were declared.... The D--- of W------ appear'd Yesterday at Guildhall, holding up his Hat with some Livery-Men for Sir
For his part, the author of the letter signed “A.B.” and appended to this article on the election stresses the illegal and violent methods used by the supporters of Hopkins and Feast. Basically, it protests against the barely disguised attempt by the Walpole government to curb the freedom of the City to elect its own representatives. Only a year later that attempt finally succeeded when Wharton over-reached himself politically after the death of Felix Feast and Walpole moved in for the kill. By December 1724 Walpole succeeded in persuading some prominent aldermen to cut back on their historically democratic election process; and a bill passed early the next year gave the aldermen veto power and stripped three thousand poorer liverymen of their right to vote (Plumb, 2:109).
Other than generally attacking Walpole's infringement on the historical rights of the City, this letter may be connected to Richardson in more particular ways. The printer's first employer, the Tory Archibald Hutcheson, was the staunchest defender of free elections; and one item that issued from the Salisbury Court shop (Sale, p. 180) only two years before the appearance of this letter was even in the same rhetorical form of questions while attacking his opponent in the House of Commons: Some Queries proposed to Sir Thomas Crosse to be Answer'd, for the Satisfaction of the Electors of the City and Liberties of Westminster. [1] Just as Hutcheson was attacking the
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AS I was concluding this Paper, I receiv'd the following Letter.
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