To thePRINTER.
Lord B. and his toad eater the D. of G. both knew the contents of Dr. Musgrave’s letter many weeks before it made its appearance. They had concerted many schemes to suppress its publication; but all these schemes, however artfully managed, proved abortive. Lord B. who came fresh from the school of politics at Rome, embraced still the same propensity for absolute monarchy as he did before he departed from England. He is grown, indeed, more cautious, more masked, but not a jot less enterprising. Foiled in his well-concealed attempts to prevent the publication of Dr. Musgrave’s letter, his next attempt was to render the publication of it inoperative and ineffectual. The difficulty lay in compassing this desirable end. He knew very well that one ******** had married acast-off, who formerly held no mean rank in his toad eater’s seraglio: this same ********, his Lordship knew had been confidently intrusted at different times, with the most important secrets of Mr. Wilkes, the Chevalier D’Eon, and Lord Temple, and therefore the only fit person to be confidentially entrusted, as far as his Lordship might deem necessary, with the opening a negociation for a treaty of union between the Earls of B—e, T——e, E———t, C———m, Lord H———d, and the petulant Duke of B———. Such a coalition, with his toad eater at the head, he rightly conceived, would be able to stem any torrent of opposition, were it to roll mountains high. But his Lordship, it will be seen, counted without his host. His first intention was to dispatch ******** to Stow. This measure could not be carried into execution but by another mode of application. ******** had already forfeited Lord T——e’s confidence, but he did not care to acquaint either G. or B. with this secret, which could not but be fatal to his own views; he therefore artfully declined going to Stow himself, adding, that the embassy would have greater weight, and probably better success, was the D. of G. to wait in person on Lord T———. ******** pretended to know the very bait that would tempt his Lordship; it was nothing less than a Dukedom, and if he ********, was to make the offer, Lord T———e, he said, might doubt the performance. By this device and advice of ********,B. and his toad eater were easily betrayed into a fond belief of gaining over Lord T. to their faction. Accordingly, the D. of G. was posted down to Stow, and this truly courtly visit was immediately announced in every news-paper throughout the kingdom. The success of this visit is no longer a mystery. The wild, incoherent, crude plan of operations, were conveyed, without loss of time, to Fonthill, and from Fonthill it soon arrived at Plymouth. Dr. Musgrave finding this once formidable and blood-thirsty faction tottering, and failing of support from Lord T. thought it a glorious opportunity to crush the whole junto, by hanging them out to public view and public odium. With this view, and to do justice to a brave, but greatly injured people, the Doctor, with a courage not to be daunted, published that well-timed letter, which has already unfilm’d the eyes of every subject in the kingdom, and which, in a few days, will receive a further elucidation from
TheBRITISH SPY.