dmitted
that, having been forced to publish some of his other letters, he should
like to make use of some of those to Swift, as none would be more
honourable to him. Nay, he says, he meant to erect such a minute
monument of their friendship as would put to shame all ancient memorials
of the same kind.[16] This avowal of his intention to publish did not
conciliate Swift. Curll next published in 1736 a couple of letters to
Swift, and Pope took advantage of this publication (perhaps he had
indirectly supplied Curll with copies) to urge upon Swift the insecurity
of the letters in his keeping. Swift ignored the request, and his
letters about this time began to show that his memory was failing and
his intellect growing weak.

Pope now applied to their common friend Lord Orrery. Orrery was the dull
member of a family eminent for its talents. His father had left a
valuable library to Christ Church, ostensibly because the son was not
capable of profiting by books, though a less creditable reason has been
assigned.[17] The son, eager to wipe off the imputation, specially
affected the society of wits, and was elaborately polite both to Swift
and Pope. Pope now got Orrery to intercede with Swift, urging that the
letters were no longer safe in the custody of a failing old man. Orrery
succeeded, and brought the letters in a sealed packet to Pope in the
summer of 1737. Swift, it must be added, had an impression that there
was a gap of six years in the collection; he became confused as to what
had or had not been sent, and had a vague belief in a "great collection"
of letters "placed in some very safe hand."[18] Pope, being thus in
possession of the whole correspondence, proceeded to perform a
manoeuvre resembling those already employed in the case of the Dunciad
and of the P. T. letters. He printed the correspondence clandestinely.
He then sent the printed volume to Swift, accompanied by an anonymous
letter. This letter purported to come from some persons who, from
admiration of Swift's private and public virtues, had resolved to
preserve letters so creditable to him, and had accordingly put them in
type. They suggested that the volume would be suppressed if it fell into
the hands of Bolingbroke and Pope (a most audacious suggestion!), and
intimated that Swift should himself publish it. No other copy, they
said, was in existence. Poor Swift fell at once into the trap. He
ought, of course, to have consulted Pope or Bolingbroke, and wou