ll papers, and a bill
for a much more effectual regulation of it was brought into the
House of Commons, but so late in the session that there was no time
to pass it, for there always appeared an unwillingness to cramp
overmuch the liberty of the press."

But to a clause in the proposed bill, that the names of authors
should be set to every printed book, pamphlet, or paper, his
reverence objects altogether, for, says he, "beside the objection to
this clause from the practice of pious men, who, in publishing
excellent writings for the service of religion, have chosen, _out of
an humble Christian spirit, to conceal their names_, it is certain
that all persons of true genius or knowledge have an invincible
modesty and suspicion of themselves upon first sending their
thoughts into the world."

This "invincible modesty" was no doubt the sole reason which induced
the Dean to keep the secret of the _Drapier's Letters_ and a hundred
humble Christian works of which he was the author. As for the
Opposition, the Doctor was for dealing severely with them: he writes
to Stella:--

Journal. Letter XIX

"London, March 25th, 1710-11.

"... We have let Guiscard be buried at last, after showing him
pickled in a trough this fortnight for twopence a piece; and the
fellow that showed would point to his body and say, 'See, gentlemen,
this is the wound that was given him by his grace the Duke of
Ormond;' and, 'This is the wound,' &c.; and then the show was over,
and another set of rabble came in. 'Tis hard that our laws would not
suffer us to hang his body in chains, because he was not tried; and
in the eye of the law every man is innocent till then."

Journal. Letter XXVII

"London, July 25th, 1711.

"I was this afternoon with Mr. Secretary at his office, and helped
to hinder a man of his pardon, who is condemned for a rape. The
under-secretary was willing to save him; but I told the secretary he
could not pardon him without a favourable report from the judge;
besides he was a fiddler, and consequently a rogue, and deserved
hanging for something else, and so he shall swing."

33 It was his constant practice to keep his birthday as a day of
mourning.

34 "These devils of Grub Street rogues, that write the _Fl