e postoffice, which brought him into contact with the
officers of both houses of parliament, and afforded him frequent and
ready access to many of the members. Cave, availing himself of this
advantage, frequented the houses when any debate of public interest was
expected, and, along with a friend, posted himself in the gallery of the
house of commons, and in some retired station in that of the lords,
where, unobserved, they took notes of the several speeches. These notes
were afterwards arranged and expanded by Guthrie, the historian, then in
the employment of Cave, and presented to the public, monthly, in the
Gentleman's Magazine. They first appeared in July, 1736 [Footnote: Gent.
Mag. vol. vi.], and were perused with the greatest eagerness. But it was
soon intimated to Cave, that the speaker was offended with this freedom,
which he regarded in the light of a breach of privilege, and would
subject Cave, unless he desisted, to parliamentary censure, or perhaps
punishment. To escape this, and likewise to avoid an abridgment of his
magazine, Cave had recourse to the following artifice. He opened his
magazine for June, 1738, with an article entitled, "Debates in the
senate of Magna Lilliputia;" in which he artfully deplores the
prohibition that forbids him to present his readers with the
consultations of their own representatives, and expresses a hope that
they will accept, as a substitute, those of that country which Gulliver
had so lately rendered illustrious, and which untimely death had
prevented that enterprising traveller from publishing himself. Under
this fiction he continued to publish the debates of the British
parliament, hiding the names of persons and places by the transposition
of letters, in the way of anagram. These he contrived to explain to his
readers, by annexing to his volume for 1738, feigned proposals for
printing a work, to be called Anagrammata Rediviva. This list, and
others from different years, we give in the present edition, though we
have rejected the barbarous jargon from the speeches themselves. A
contemporary publication, the LONDON MAGAZINE, feigned to give the
debates of the Roman senate, and adapted Roman titles to the several
speakers. This expedient, as well as Cave's contrivance, sufficed to
protect its ingenious authors from parliamentary resentment; as the
resolution of the commons was never enforced.

The debates contained in the following volumes, commence with the 19th
November,