ted in _The British Academy_. It will be seen at a
glance that they constitute that dinner group of Tory "Brothers," the
Society to which Swift belonged, a group sufficient for its avowed
purpose--"to advance conversation and friendship, and to reward
deserving persons"--but of course he would not have accepted them _in
toto_ for the Academy.

The Whig writers began their attack on the _Proposal_ immediately. In
the _Medley_, founded by Mainwaring and Oldmixon "to provide an Antidote
against the Poison of the Examiner," there is a brief reference in the
issue of May 19-23, 1712, to "the very extraordinary Letter to a Great
Man," followed in the next issue by an extended political attack with
the _Proposal_ as the point of departure. Thus at the outset Swift's
pamphlet was treated as a party document. At the same time the Whig
writers were readying two pamphlets in answer, both announced in the
_Medley_ of May 19-23 as soon to be printed. Apparently neither of these
appeared, at least not under the announced titles; but by May 26
Oldmixon's _Reflections_ had been published anonymously and was referred
to in the _Medley_ as "a very ingenious Pamphlet." As any reader of the
_Reflections_ will observe for himself, the pamphlet opens on a violent
political note and sustains it throughout. Although Oldmixon is more
concerned to level charges against Swift--a lewd, irreverent cleric,
a turncoat, a party scribbler, etc.--than to deny the validity of
Swift's views concerning the language, he does directly challenge
certain points. And he arrives at a conclusion which may well have been
the result of honest conviction rather than mere party opposition: that
it is neither desirable nor possible to fix the language forever. In a
sense this was the chief issue, and the one where the authoritarian view
as represented by Swift and others was most vulnerable. Is it possible,
by the edicts of an academy however eminent its members and respected
its authority, to negate or control the principle of change inherent in
language? Unfortunately Oldmixon did not live long enough to see his
attitude aggressively expounded by one of greater stature who also took
issue with Swift, both in the _Preface to the Dictionary_ and in the
life of Swift.

_The British Academy_, published May 30, 1712 (advertised in the
_Spectator_ of that date), is of composite authorship. The one person
known to have had a hand in it--"a great Hand," says Oldmixon--is