LETTERS FAMOUS FOR BREVITY.
A Few Pointed Lines Written by Sharp-Witted People Have Been Effective in Taking
the Conceit Out of Their Correspondents.
Almost telegraphic brevity distinguishes some of the most famous letters that have ever been written. A writer in Notes and Queries gives a sheaf of these laconic messages, with such editorial illumination as is necessary to make their meaning clear.
According to Campbell's "Lives of the Admirals," Sir George Walton was sent in pursuit of a Spanish squadron, and reported what took place in the following dispatch to the admiral in command:
Sir—I have taken or destroyed all the
Spanish ships as per margin. Yours,
etc., G. Walton.
Horace Walpole, in one of his papers in "The World," praises the following letter, written by Lady Pembroke in the reign of Charles II. I quote from memory, but think that Lady Pembroke wrote to Lord Arlington, who had insisted on her allowing Sir Joseph Williamson to be returned member for her borough of Appleby:
Sir—I have been bullied by a usurper,
I have been neglected by a court, but I will
not be dictated to by a subject. Your man
sha'n't stand. Anne Pembroke.
I have some memory of a story that some person wrote to the first Duke of Wellington, threatening to publish certain letters of his, and that he replied:
Dear Julia—Publish and be damned.
Yours, Wellington.
When Lord John Russell announced the breaking up of Earl Grey's cabinet on May 27, 1834, Mr. Stanley, colonial secretary, wrote the following to Sir James Graham, first lord of the Admiralty: