was living.

_Your obliged humble Servant_.

T.

[Footnote 1: Act I., sc. 2.]

* * * * *

No. 457. Thursday, August 14, 1712. Addison.

'--Multa et praeclara minantis.'

Hor.

I shall this Day lay before my Reader a Letter, written by the same Hand
with that of last Friday, which contained Proposals for a Printed
News-paper, that should take in the whole Circle of the Penny-Post.

SIR,

The kind Reception you gave my last Friday's Letter, in which I
broached my Project of a News-Paper, encourages me to lay before you
two or three more; for, you must know, Sir, that we look upon you to
be the _Lowndes_ of the learned World, and cannot think any Scheme
practicable or rational before you have approved of it, tho' all the
Money we raise by it is on our own Funds, and for our private Use.

I have often thought that a _News-Letter of Whispers_, written every
Post, and sent about the Kingdom, after the same Manner as that of Mr.
_Dyer_, Mr. _Dawkes_, or any other Epistolary Historian, might be
highly gratifying to the Publick, as well as beneficial to the Author.
By Whispers I mean those Pieces of News which are communicated as
Secrets, and which bring a double Pleasure to the Hearer; first, as
they are private History, and in the next place as they have always in
them a Dash of Scandal. These are the two chief Qualifications in an
Article of News, [which [1]] recommend it, in a more than ordinary
Manner, to the Ears of the Curious. Sickness of Persons in high Posts,
Twilight Visits paid and received by Ministers of State, Clandestine
Courtships and Marriages, Secret Amours, Losses at Play, Applications
for Places, with their respective Successes or Repulses, are the
Materials in which I chiefly intend to deal. I have two Persons, that
are each of them the Representative of a Species, who are to furnish
me with those Whispers which I intend to convey to my Correspondents.
The first of these is _Peter Hush_, descended from the ancient Family
of the _Hushes_. The other is the old Lady _Blast_, who has a very
numerous Tribe of Daughters in the two great Cities of _London_ and
_Westminster_. _Peter Hush_ has a whispering Hole in most of the great
Coffee-houses about Town. If you are alone with him in a wide Room, he
carries you up into a Corner of it, and speaks in your Ear. I