'
S.J.
[Page 115: Reports of the Debates. AEtat 29.]
[Page 116: Libels in the press. A.D. 1738.]
It appears that he was now enlisted by Mr. Cave as a regular coadjutor
in his magazine, by which he probably obtained a tolerable livelihood.
At what time, or by what means, he had acquired a competent knowledge
both of French[332] and Italian[333], I do not know; but he was so well
skilled in them, as to be sufficiently qualified for a translator. That
part of his labour which consisted in emendation and improvement of the
productions of other contributors, like that employed in levelling
ground, can be perceived only by those who had an opportunity of
comparing the original with the altered copy. What we certainly know to
have been done by him in this way, was the Debates in both houses of
Parliament, under the name of 'The Senate of Lilliput,' sometimes with
feigned denominations of the several speakers, sometimes with
denominations formed of the letters of their real names, in the manner
of what is called anagram, so that they might easily be decyphered.
Parliament then kept the press in a kind of mysterious awe, which made
it necessary to have recourse to such devices. In our time it has
acquired an unrestrained freedom, so that the people in all parts of the
kingdom have a fair, open, and exact report of the actual proceedings of
their representatives and legislators, which in our constitution is
highly to be valued; though, unquestionably, there has of late been too
much reason to complain of the petulance with which obscure scribblers
have presumed to treat men of the most respectable character and
situation[334].
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