A letter may be disguised in various ways. You would certainly never
think of signing your name. You might have it transcribed by your
secretary. But then this would be to commit your safety and your fame to
the keeping of another. No, my lord, there are schemes worth a hundred
of this. Consider the various hands in which a letter may be written.
There is the round hand, and the Italian hand, the text hand, and the
running hand. You may form your letters upon the Roman or the Italic
model. Your billet may he engrossed. You may employ the German text or
the old primero. If I am not mistaken, your lordship studied all these
when you were a boy for this very purpose. Yes, my lord, I may be in the
wrong, but I am confidently of opinion, that this is absolutely the
first, most important, and most indispensible accomplishment of a
statesman. I would forgive him, if he did not know a cornet from an
ensign, I would forgive him, if he thought Italy a province of Asia
Minor. But not to write primero! the nincompoop! the numbscul!
If it were not that the persons with whom your lordship has to
correspond, can some of them barely spell their native tongue, I would
recommend to your lordship the use of cyphers. But no, you might as well
write the language of Mantcheux Tartars.
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