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PREFACE. In my Dedication of the 'Political House that Jack Built,' to DOCTOR SLOP and his sapient admirers, I have stated, that he is indebted to me for his name. This is true. The little piece, in which I conferred upon him that enviable and lasting distinction, is entitled "Buonaparte-phobia, or Cursing made Easy to the meanest Capacity." I wrote and published it, on an open sheet, in the summer of 1815, to expose the impious and profane curses he then lavished, in The Times' Journal, upon Buonaparte, on his return from Elba. The exposure was so effectual, that the Doctor was, in a few days, dismissed from that paper. To cover his disgrace, he openly and unblushingly lied, and attempted to nefariously delude, and otherwise practise gross impostures upon the Public. In answer to his fabrications, and, as a caution to the unwary, the chief Proprietor of The Times was compelled to state the grounds upon which he was discharged. "He knows full well," says The Times, in February, 1817, "that his articles were rejected from our columns, on account of the virulence and indiscretion with which they were written; and that, for more than the twelve months preceding, whatever articles attracted notice by their merit, were exclusively the productions of other gentlemen. --There are, in the Office, sacks full of his rejected writings; which, if they were [page iv] published, would exhibit an accurate criterion of his puffed off abilities: the sale of our Journal increased the more, the less he wrote; and, since he has ceased from writing altogether, has extended with a rapidity, of which we have known no example, since we have had the management of it." The Times concludes its observations upon the reputation the Doctor assumed to himself, from having been allowed to rave in its columns, with this remark:--"The braying of the Ass wil sometimes make the forest ring as loudly as the roaring of the Lion. When the person of whom we are speaking, wrote in this Journal, he brayed in the Lion's skin; since he has written out of it, he will find that he has been braying in his own." Shortly after this castigation, the Doctor's public prostitution was notorious. He is now taken into high-keeping by an old lady at the Treasury. Perhaps this brief Notice may be satisfactory to the reader, perparatory to his curiosity being gratified with the Jeu d'Esprit already mentioned, as 'the Origin of Doctor Slop's name.' It is my intention to reprint it in this lasting shape, from time to time, and so long as the Doctor daily empties his night-slush from his Slop-pail. By virtue of my public authority, I hereby ratify and confirm his right and title to the name of "SLOP;" and, it is my parodical will and pleasure, that he continue to bear it during his natural life. 45, Ludgate Hill,
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