He had the letters copied out; after (according to his own stating) burning three-fourths of them, and (as we are now aware) carefully editing the remainder, he had the copy deposited in Lord Oxford's library.

His object was, as he said, partly to have documents ready in case of the revival of scandals, and partly to preserve the memory of his friendships.

The next point was to get these letters stolen.

For this purpose he created a man of straw, a mysterious "P.

T.," who could be personated on occasion by some of the underlings employed in the underground transactions connected with the Dunciad and the Grub-street Journal.