Intercepted Letters, Or, the Twopenny Post-Bag: To Which Are Added, Trifles Reprinted

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1813 edition. Excerpt: ... LETTER VII. FROM MESSRS. L--CK--GT--N AND CO. TO, ESQ. Per Post, Sir, we send your MS.--look'd it thro'--Very sorry--but can't undertake--'twouldn't do. Clever work, Sir!--would get up prodigiously well--Its only defect is--it never would sell! And though Statesmen may glory in being unbought, In an Author, we think, Sir, that's rather a fault. Hard times, Sir,--most books are too dear to be read--Though the gold of Good-sense and Wit's smallchange are fled, Yet the paper we Publishers pass, in their stead, From motives of delicacy, and, indeed, of fellow-feeling, I suppress the name of the Author, whose rejected manuscript was inclosed in this letter.--See the Appendix for this and other enclosures. D Rises higher each day, and ('tis frightful to think it) Not even such names as F--Tzg--E--D's can sink it! However, Sir--if you're for trying again, And at somewhat that's vendible--we are your men. Since the Chevalier C--HR took to marrying lately, The Trade is in want of a Traveller greatly--No job, Sir, more easy--your Country once plann'd, A month aboard ship and a fortnight on land Puts your Quarto of Travels, Sir, clean out of hand. An East-India pamphlet's a thing that would tell--And a lick at the Papists is sure to sell well. Or--supposing you've nothing original in you--Write Parodies, Sir, and such fame it will win you, You'll get to the Blue-stocking Routs of Al B-n-a ! Tbia alludes, I believe, to a curious correspondence, which is said to have passed lately between Alb--N--A, Countess of B--CK--GH--Ml--n, and a certain ingenious Parodist. (Mind--not to her dinners--a second-hand Muse Mustn't think of aspiring to mess with the Blues.) Or--in case nothing else in this world you can do--The deuce is in't, Sir, if you cannot...