Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame,
Still pleas’d to praise, yet not afraid to blame.Pope.
By ROBERT HOLLOWAY, Gent.
Of Gray’s-Inn.
LONDON:
Printed for S. Bladon, in Pater-noster Row.
M DCC LXXI.
TO THE
PUBLIC.
A Dedication seems as necessary to a publication as legitimacy to a child; but as I have no blown-up fool to flatter, no private end to answer, no itch to become an author, thirst for praise, nor dread of censure, I shall therefore commit the annexed sheets to your protection; in the course of which the reader will find my pen a most faithful amanuensis to truth. And if so weak a monitor contributes but a mite to general utility, the end is fulfilled; if no, the intention is equally laudable. I have sowed the seeds of reformation; it is you must manure the land, and give the increase. The task is undertook at infinite peril; an accumulation of enemies enemies is the certain consequence, whilst a creation of friends amounts not to a glimmering hope. To raise a party or private emolument, I have quitted the turnpike-road, and omitted every thing necessary for the purpose; viz. libelling the most respectable characters in the nation, and giving scurrility and falshood a preference to truth.
It may be said with more envy than justice, that the subject matter is but the consequence of a private quarrel between the author and ONE of the parties alluded to. Such squibs of malice, and other obstacles of the like nature, I am well aware of, and am provided with proper artillery to combat all such opposition. It is therefore necessary to declare, that I took chambers in Gray’s-Inn with a settled purpose of detecting the numerous and enormous abuses and cruelties contained in the following treatise.
How I came to fail in the undertaking, my Letter to the Citizens of London fully explains.
The seizing my furniture, books, papers, and every thing I was possessed of, under Pretence of debt, and the more flagrant Pretence of Execution, together with the dispossessing me of my habitation, will neither serve to prevent the subscribing myself of Gray’s-Inn, or continuing there, if a Grain of Justice or Equity is to be found in a Ton of Law.
I am,
With some degree of faithfulness,
The public’s devoted servant,
Rob. Holloway.