f ignorant temerity! I now find, but find
too late, that, instead of a writer, whose only power is in his pen, I
have irritated an important member of an important corporation; a man,
who, as he tells us in his letters, puts horses to his chariot.

It was allowed to the disputant of old to yield up the controversy, with
little resistance, to the master of forty legions. Those who know how
weakly naked truth can defend her advocates, would forgive me, if I
should pay the same respect to a governour of the foundlings. Yets the
consciousness of my own rectitude of intention incites me to ask once
again, how I have offended.

There are only three subjects upon which my unlucky pen has happened to
venture: tea; the author of the journal; and the foundling-hospital.

Of tea, what have I said? That I have drank it twenty years, without
hurt, and, therefore, believe it not to be poison; that, if it dries the
fibres, it cannot soften them; that, if it constringes, it cannot relax.
I have modestly doubted, whether it has diminished the strength of our
men, or the beauty of our women; and whether it much hinders the
progress of our woollen or iron manufactures; but I allowed it to be a
barren superfluity, neither medicinal nor nutritious, that neither
supplied strength nor cheerfulness, neither relieved weariness, nor
exhilarated sorrow: I inserted, without charge or suspicion of
falsehood, the sums exported to purchase it; and proposed a law to
prohibit it for ever.

Of the author I unfortunately said, that his injunction was somewhat too
magisterial. This I said, before I knew that he was a governour of the
foundlings; but he seems inclined to punish this failure of respect, as
the czar of Muscovy made war upon Sweden, because he was not treated
with sufficient honours, when he passed through the country in disguise.
Yet, was not this irreverence without extenuation. Something was said of
the merit of _meaning well_, and the journalist was declared to be a
man, _whose failings might well be pardoned for his virtues_. This is
the highest praise which human gratitude can confer upon human merit;
praise that would have more than satisfied Titus or Augustus, but which
I must own to be inadequate and penurious, when offered to the member of
an important corporation.

I am asked, whether I meant to satirize the man, or criticise the
writer, when I say, that "he believes, only, perhaps, because he has
inclination to believe it, th