od 
$42 
extracts from the copies of his letters 
are a convinéing proof of his labour and 
"success in it; and that he never gave upa 
cypher while he had the least hope of 
suceeeding. In a letter to the Earl of 
Nottingham, who was at that time 
Seeretary to William [fF dated August 
4th, 1689, he says: ‘‘ From the time your 
Jerdship’s servant brought me the letter 
yesterday morning, I spent. the whole 
day upon it, (scarce giving myself time 
‘to eat,) and imost part of the mght ; and 
was at it again early this morning, that I 
might not make your messenger wait too 
long.” In another; ‘¢ I wrote to his 
lordship the next day, om account of the 
difficulty fat first apprebended, the pa- 
pers bemg written in a bard cypher, and 
im a language of which I am not tho- 
roughly master; but sitting close to it in 
good earnest, F have (notwithstanding 
that disadvantage) met witlr.better suc- 
cess, and with more speed, than I 
expected. I have therefore returned 
to his lordship the papers which were 
sent me, with an intelligible account of 
what was there in cypher.” Being 
hard pressed by the Earl of Nottingbam, 
he thus writes at the conclusion of one: 
of his letters: ** But, my lord, it is hard 
service, and I am quite weary. If your 
honour were sensible how much pains 
and study it cost me, you would pity 
me; and there is a proverb of not riding 
z free horse too hard.” The doctor, 1 
suppose, thought if was now high time 
€after he had decyphered 86 many let- 
ters,) that some notice were taken of his 
services; he therefore begins to give his 
lordship the hint: he was a little more 
plain in his next, wherein he says, 
$< However 1 ain neglected, I am not 
willing to neglect their majesties’ service; 
and have therefore re-assumed the let- 
ters which had iaid by, and which [ 
here send decyphered: perhaps it may 
be thought worth little, after I have 
bestowed a great deal of pains upon 
them, and be valucd accordingly; but 
it is not the first time that the like pains 
have been taken to as little purpose, by, 
my lord,” &c.—-In another appears the 
following’ postscript, dated August 15, 
4691: “ But, my lord, I do alittle 
wonder to receive so many fresh letters 
from vour lordship without taking airy 
notice of what 1 wrote in my last, which 
I theeght would have been too plain 
to need a decypherer; certainly your 
other clerks are better paid, or else they 
would ual serve you.” 
Bemoirs of Dr. John Wallis. 
success in this ditheult work,” &c. 
March i? 
In a letter to a friend, he says: ‘It is 
true, I have had all along a great many 
good words; that he is my humble ser= 
vant—my faithfal servant—my very 
faithful servant—that he will not fail to 
acquaint the king with my diligence and 
But 
be met with a better master in Lord 
“Arlington, for whom he did not do the . 
tenth part of what he had done for the 
earl, And. as the doctor was thus 
treated by our own ministers, so he was 
not used much better by those of the 
‘elector of Brandenburgh, for whose ser- 
vice he had decyphered some of the 
French letters, the contents of which 
were of great consequence; the decypher- ~ 
ing of which quite broke the French 
king’s measures in Voland for that time, 
and caused his ambassadors to be thrust. 
out with disgrace, to their king’s great 
prejudice and disappointment. Take 
the doctor’s own words:—“ Mr. Smet- 
tan, (the elector’s envoy,) entertained me 
all the while with a great many fine words 
und great promises, (which, when decy- 
phered, I tound to be uulls,) telling me 
what important service it Was to his 
master, and how well accepted, and 
what presents I was to receive from him; 
and in particular, that I was to have a 
rich medal, with an honourable inscrip- 
tion, and a gold chain of great value, 
which (he said) he expected by the 
next post: but after ali, he left England 
without making me the least requital for 
all my pains and trouble, save that once 
he. invited ine to dine with him, which 
cost ine more im coach-hire thither and 
back than would have paid fur as good a 
dinner at an ordinary. I believe that 
tke elector does not know how unhand- 
somely I have been used; aud I take it 
-unkind of bis envoy to treat me as a 
child or asa fool, to be wheedled on te 
hard services with fine words, and yet 
to think me so weak as to be unable ta ° 
understand him; when I had decyphered 
for them between two and three hundred 
slieets of very difficult and very differ- 
ent cyphers, they might, I think, at 
least have offered me porter’s pay, if not 
that of a serivener, I did not contract 
with thein, but did it frankly; for, having 
a prince to deal with, I was to presume , 
he would deal like himself.” Whether 
it was in consequence of the doctor’s 
letters, or that they were ashamed of 
their own ingratitude, or from whatever 
cause it proceeded, the medal so long 
talked of, and so long expectyd, was at- 
ed i! a lash 
