"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.
Jas. Crossley.