n; because, as people often say, 'Jeffrey's Review,"
'Gifford's Review,' in lieu of Edinburgh and Quarterly, so 'My
Grandmother's Review' and R----ts's might be also synonymous. Now,
whatever colour this insinuation might derive from the circumstance
of your wearing a gown, as well as from your time of life, your
general style, and various passages of your writings,--I will take
upon myself to exculpate you from all suspicion of the kind, and
assert, without calling Mrs. R----ts in testimony, that if ever you
should be chosen Pope, you will pass through all the previous
ceremonies with as much credit as any pontiff since the parturition
of Joan. It is very unfair to judge of sex from writings,
particularly from those of the British Review. We are all liable to
be deceived, and it is an indisputable fact that many of the best
articles in your journal, which were attributed to a veteran
female, were actually written by you yourself, and yet to this day
there are people who could never find out the difference. But let
us return to the more immediate question.

"I agree with you that it is impossible Lord B. should be the
author, not only because, as a British peer and a British poet, it
would be impracticable for him to have recourse to such facetious
fiction, but for some other reasons which you have omitted to
state. In the first place, his Lordship has no grandmother. Now the
author--and we may believe him in this--doth expressly state that
the 'British' is his 'Grandmother's Review;' and if, as I think I
have distinctly proved, this was not a mere figurative allusion to
your supposed intellectual age and sex, my dear friend, it follows,
whether you be she or no, that there is such an elderly lady still
extant.

"Shall I give you what I think a prudent opinion? I don't mean to
insinuate, God forbid! but if, by any accident, there should have
been such a correspondence between you and the unknown author,
whoever he may be, send him back his money; I dare say he will be
very glad to have it again; it can't be much, considering the value
of the article and the circulation of the journal; and you are too
modest to rate your praise beyond its real worth:--don't be angry,
I know you won't, at this appraisement of your powers of eulogy:
for on the o