do justice to

Your revived friend and servant,

JOHN PARTRIDGE.

On the last leaf of this _Almanack_ is the following notice:--

This is to give notice to all people, that all those _Prophecies,
Predictions, Almanacks_, and other pamphlets, that had my name either
true, or shammed with the want of a Letter [_i.e., spelling his name
PARTRIGE instead of PARTRIDGE_]: I say, they are all impudent forgeries,
by a breed of villains, and wholly without my knowledge or consent. And I
doubt not but those beggarly villains that have scarce bread to eat
without being rogues, two or three poor printers and a bookbinder, with
honest BEN, will be at their old Trade again of Prophesying in my name.
This is therefore to give notice, that if there is anything in print in
my name beside this _Almanack_, you may depend on it that it is a lie,
and he is a villain that writes and prints it.

In his _Almanack_ for 1715 [P.P. 2465/7], PARTRIDGE says--

It is very probable, that the beggarly knavish Crew will be this year
also printing _Prophecies_ and _Predictions_ in my name, to cheat the
country as they used to do. This is therefore to give notice, that if
there is anything of that kind done in my name besides this _Almanack_
printed by the Company of Stationers, you may be certain it is not mine,
but a cheat, and therefore refuse it.

[15] The quotations here, are said to be a parody of those of BENTLEY
in his controversy with BOYLE.

[16] _Vide_ Dr. S[WI]FT.

THE PRESENT STATE OF WIT,
IN A LETTER TO A
Friend in the Country.

_LONDON_:

Printed in the Year, MDCCXI.
(Price 3_d_.)

THE Present State OF WIT, &c.

SIR,

You acquaint me in your last, that you are still so busy building at
----, that your friends must not hope to see you in Town this year: at
the same time, you desire me, that you may not be quite at a loss in
conversation among the _beau monde_ next winter, to send you an account
of the present State of Wit in Town: which, without further preface, I
shall endeavour to perform; and give you the histories and characters of
all our Periodical Papers, whether monthly, weekly, or diurnal, with the
same freedom I used to send you our other Town news.

I shall only premise, that, as you know, I never cared one farthing,
either for Whig or Tory: so I shall consider our Writers purely as they
are such, without any respect to which Party they belong.

Dr. KING has, for some time, lain down his