He was as anxious to allow the publication, as to demand its suppression in the most emphatic manner.

Accordingly he got his friend, Lord Ilay, to call the attention of the peers to Curll's advertisement, which was so worded as to imply that there were in the book letters from, as well as to, peers.

Pope himself attended the house "to stimulate the resentment of his friends." The book was at once seized by a messenger, and Curll ordered to attend the next day.

But on examination it immediately turned out that it contained no letters from peers, and the whole farce would have ended at once but for a further trick.

Lord Ilay said that a certain letter to Jervas contained a reflection upon Lord Burlington.
Now the letter was found in a first batch of fifty copies sent to Curll, and which had been sold before the appearance of the Lords' messenger.