"This affair does vex me," he said;
"but I am not in a state of health at present to be deeply vexed at
anything. Had I intended it for the public, I should have been more
exact and full. Many temperaments and explanations there would have
been, if ever I had had a notion that it should meet the public eye." He
was justly indignant at the knavish publisher, whose conduct surpassed
that of the Dublin pirates, or Edmund Curll. But he was at a loss to
know how the publisher obtained a copy. He did not suppose that the Duke
of Portland had given up his, and he remembered only "the rough and
incorrect papers" constituting the first draught, which, it seems, Dr.
Lawrence, about a year before, had paid the false Swift a guinea to
deliver back. He had forgotten the intermediate copy made by Swift and
corrected by himself.
This illicit publication, especially under such a title, was calculated
to attract attention. Its author was dying, so that it seemed to be his
last words. Pitt read it with delight, and declared it to be a model in
that style of composition.
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