THE

IMPORTANCE

OF

THE GUARDIAN

CONSIDERED, IN

A SECOND LETTER

TO THE

BAILIFF OF STOCKBRIDGE.

BY A FRIEND OF MR. STEELE,

FIRST PRINTED IN 1713.

THE original edition of this tract was become so exceedingly

scarce, that the editor in vain advertised for a copy of it in most of the publick papers for many months, and obtained it at last by an unexpected accident. Though we have no positive evidence to ascribe this tract to Swift, yet there are circumstances equal to decisive testimony. It is enumerated in the Examiner, among other pieces which were certainly written by him, and which are separated from those of other writers, in a manner which appears intended to prevent their being confounded with the works of inferiour authors, But here we must lament the interruption of the Journal to Stella, which, in several instances, has so decisively ascertained those pieces, which we at first only conjectured to be Swift's from their being classed in the above described manner. Not one tract, how ever, has been thus admitted, that bears not the internal marks of its author; the few which appeared suspicious being still cansigned to obscuri'y. Our author went to Ireland, June, 1713, to take possession of his deanery; but returned to London in September: and it is certain, that the following winter produced some of the most excellent pieces, both in prose and verse, which are to be found in his whole works.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

MR. Steele, in his “ Letter of the Bailiff of Stock

"bridge," has given us leave " to treat him as we "think fit, as he is our brother scribbler; but not to "attack him as an honest man," p. 40. That is to say, he allows us to be his criticks, but not his answerers; and he is altogether in the right, for there is in his letter much to be criticised, and little to be answered. The situation and importance of Dunkirk are pretty well known. Mons. Tugghe's memorial, published and handed about by the whigs, is allowed to be a very trifling paper and as to the immediate demolishment of that town, Mr. Steele pretends to offer no other argument but the expectations of the people, which is a figurative speech, naming the tenth part for the whole; for the whole; as Bradshaw told king Charles I, that the people of England expected justice against him. I have therefore entered very little into the subject he pretends to treat; but have considered his pamphlet partly as a critick, and partly as a commentator; which, I think, is" to treat him "only as my brother scribbler," according to the permission he has graciously allowed me.

To the worshipful MR. JOHN SNOW, bailiff of Stockbridge.

SIR,

I HAVE just been reading a twelvepenny pamphlet about Dunkirk, addressed to your worship from one

of your intended representatives; and I find several passages in it which want explanation, especially to you in the country: for we in town, have a way of talking and writing, which is very little understood beyond the bills of mortality. I have therefore made bold to send you here a second letter, by way of comment upon the former.

In order to this, "You, Mr. Bailiff, and at the "same time the whole borough," may please to take notice, that London writers often put titles to their papers and pamphlets, which have little or no reference to the main design of the work: so, for instance, you will observe in reading, that the letter called, "The Importance of Dunkirk," is wholly taken up in showing you the importance of Mr. Steele; wherein it was indeed reasonable your borough should be informed, which had chosen him to represent them.

I would therefore place the importance of this gentleman before you, in a clearer light than he has given himself the trouble to do; without running into his early history, because I owe him no malice,

Mr. Steele is author of two tolerable plays, or at least of the greatest part of them; which, added to the company he kept, and to the continual conversation and friendship of Mr. Addison, has given him the character of a wit. To take the height of his learning, you are to suppose a lad just fit for the university, and sent early from thence into the wide world, where he followed every way of life, that might least improve, or preserve, the rudiments he had got. He has no invention, nor is master of a tolerable style; his chief talent is humour, which he sometimes discovers both in writing and dis

course