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"THE CRAFTSMAN'S APOLOGY."
When Bolingbroke published his _Final Answer to the Remarks on the
Craftsman's Vindication, and to all the Libels which have come, or may come
from the same quarter against the Person last mentioned in the Craftsman of
the 22nd May, 1731_, he was answered in five Poetical Letters to the King,
which in keenness of wit, polished satire, and flowing ease of
versification, have not been since surpassed. The title of the tract in
which they are contained is _The Craftsman's Apology, being a Vindication
of his Conduct and Writings in several Letters to the King_, printed for T.
Cooper, 1732, 8vo. pages 32. By whom were these very clever and amusing
letters written? Lord Hervey or Sir Charles Hanbury Williams are the
parties one would think most likely to have written them; but they do not
appear in the list of Lord Hervey's works given by Walpole, or amongst
those noticed by Mr. Croker, or in Sir C. H. Williams's _Collected Works_,
in three volumes. Independently of which, I question whether the
versification is not, in point of harmony, too equal for either of them. If
they be included in the collected works of any other writer of the time,
which I have no immediate recollection of, some of your correspondents will
no doubt be able to point him out. Should it appear that they have not been
reprinted, I shall be disposed to recur again to the subject, and to give
an extract from them, as, of all the attacks ever made upon Bolingbroke,
they seem to me the most pleasant, witty, and effective.