“Under this head, a correspondent in your last number has commented on the anecdote respecting Peter Pindar in my first volume of literary memoirs. Will you permit me to offer a few words in reply? I did not say, as ‘Young Mortality’ has put it into my mouth, that ‘Peter Pindar was a great rascal:’—nor did I allege that ‘he taught the public to believe that George the Good was a simpleton or a fool, only because the Government refused to avail themselves of his services, or, in other words, to give him a bribe.’ These words are his,—not mine. I merely related what I heard from a most honourable and distinguished man, whose letter on the subject to me I quoted, and which stated that Peter’s representative had offered support to the Government for a consideration, and that Peter claimed that consideration for being silent and desisting from his caricatures of the King. For aught else, I have nothing to state. Your correspondent’s suppositions and reasoning may safely be left to themselves; and his avoidance of any answer to the notorious, and not more creditable, ruse which Peter played upon the publishers,—and which I related on the authority of living parties,—may, I presume, settle this controversy. Will you permit me only to add, that I have undertaken my Autobiography in anticipation of a posthumous date, principally in order that anything which I state that is doubtful might be questioned, and anything erroneous contradicted whilst yet there are witnesses of the highest character in being who can vouch for my statements, however startling some of them may appear! Truth as regards myself and others is my sole object.
