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THE HONOURABLE

HORACE WALPOLE, Esquire.

SIR,

I TAKE the liberty of prefixing your name to a volume of THE WORLD, as it gives me an opportunity, not only of making you my acknowledgments for the essays you have honoured me with, but also of informing the public to whom I have been obliged..

That you may read this address without a blush, it shall have no flattery in it. To confess the truth, I mean to compliment myself; and I

know not how to do it more effectually, than by thus signifying to my readers, that in the conduct of this work, I have not been thought unworthy of your correspondence.

I am,

Sir,

Your most obedient,

Humble Servant,

ADAM FITZ-ADAM.

THE

WORLD.

No. LIII. THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1754.

To Mr. Fitz-Adam.

THERE are very few employments which require a greater degree of care and circumspection than that of conducting a public paper. Double meanings are so much the delight of all conversations, that people seldom chuse to take things in their obvious sense; but are putting words and sentences to the torture, to force confessions from them which their authors never meant, or if they had, would have deserved a whipping for.

For this reason I take all the pains I can to be understood but one way. And indeed, were I to publish nothing in these papers but what I write myself, I should be very little apprehensive of double constructions. But, it seems, I have not been sufficiently

guarded against the subtilties of my correspondents. Amanda's letter in my last paper, has been discovered to be a manifest design to remove the lace-trade from Ludgate-hill to Duke's-court. Some people make no conscience of declaring that I am the author of it myself, and that I received a considerable bribe for writing it. Others are of opinion that it is the production of a very pretty journey-woman in Duke's-court, who is entering into partnership with her mistress in the lace-trade, and has taken this method to bring custom to the shop. But whoever is the writer of this letter, or whatever was the design of it, all people are agreed that the effect is certain; it being very observable that the virtuous women have been seen, for this week past, to crowd to the laceshops in Duke's-court, and that scarcely half a dozen of them have appeared upon Ludgate-hill since they were apprized by this paper, that such a person as Amanda was known to be housed there.

From at least half a dozen letters which I have received upon this occasion, I shall only publish the two following:

SIR,

To Mr. Fitz-Adam.

"I BEG to be informed if the letter signed Aman"da, in your last paper, be reality or invention. If "reality, please to tell me at which of the lace-shops "the creature lives, that I may avoid the odious "sight of her, and not be obliged to buy my laces of 66 a milliner, or to murder my horses by driving them upon every trifling occasion to the other end of the

"town.

"I am, Sir,

"Your humble servant,

"REBECCA BLAMELESS.

"Cheapside, Dec. 29, 1753."

“Mr. Fitz-Adam,

"I BEG that you will do me the justice to inform "the public that I have not had a lying-in in my "house, since I was brought to bed of my fourteenth "child, which is five years ago next Lady-day; and "that the young woman who has assisted me in the "lace-trade for these last three months, is not called “Amanda, but Lucretia.

"I am,

"Your very humble servant,
"WINNEFRED BOBBIN.

"Ludgate hill, Dec. 30, 1753."

I wish with all my heart, that it was as easy for me to make amends for what has happened, as it is to vindicate myself from any interested design in the publication of Amanda's letter. It was sent to Mr. Dodsley's by the penny-post, written in a very pretty Italian hand, and will be shewn to as many of the curious as are desirous of seeing it.

I will not deny that I ought to have cancelled this letter; as I might reasonably have supposed that no lady who entertained a proper regard for her virtue, would be seen at a lace-shop upon Ludgate hill, while there was a bare possibility of her being served by Amanda. Indeed, to confess the truth, I have always been of opinion, that every young creature, who has been once convicted of making a slip, should be compelled to take upon her the occupation of street-walking all her life after.

It is a maxim among the people called Quakers (and a very laudable one it is) not to suffer a convicted and open knave to be one of their body. They have a particular ceremony, by which they expel him their community: and though he may continue to profess the opinions of Quakerism, they look upon