his language is favoured by the evidence yet within
our reach, and we should conclude that Pope had not kept originals which
would have revealed alterations in the published letters of a far more
serious nature than any which Bolingbroke appears to have suspected.

John Caryll, a Roman Catholic country gentleman residing in Sussex, was
among the intimate correspondents of Pope for twenty-five years, from
1710 to 1735. The poet wrote to him on Nov. 19, 1712, and asked to have
the "whole cargo of his epistles returned," which he said might be of
use "in a design he had lately engaged in." This design was probably to
furnish some essays to the "Guardian," which commenced on the 12th of
March, 1713. He promised to restore the letters when he had done with
them, and his friend at once complied with his desire. After the
surreptitious publication of his correspondence with Cromwell, Pope, in
December, 1726, renewed his petition to Caryll to make over to him "all
such papers as he had too partially preserved;" but the object of the
request this time was "to put them out of the power of Curll." The poet
announced that he would send back those which could do no hurt to the
character of himself, his friend, or any other person; that he would
retain those which "would serve to bear testimony of his own love for
good men, or theirs for him;" and implied, as a consequence, that he
would destroy those which did not fall under either of these heads. By
this division the insignificant letters alone would have been restored
to Caryll, and whether he was mistrustful of the use to which Pope might
apply the remainder, or whether he was anxious to preserve intact the
memorials of his intimacy with a celebrated man, he did not think fit to
accede to the demand. A diminution in the frequency and cordiality of
their correspondence ensued, and lasted for upwards of two years. Caryll
at length complained, and Pope replied in February 1729, that he could
not open his mind to his acquaintances unless they would return him at
the end of every year "the forfeitures of his discretion, and commit to
his justice what he trusted only to their indulgence." Upon this
intimation that compliance was to be the condition of intimacy, Caryll
yielded the point, and the receipt of the letters was acknowledged by
the poet on the 8th of April. The Sussex squire defeated the purpose for
which they were extorted by copying the greater part of the collection.
He per