SIR,

The kind Reception you gave my last Friday’s Letter, in which I broached my Project of a News-Paper, encourages me to lay before you two or three more; for, you must know, Sir, that we look upon you to be the Lowndes of the learned World, and cannot think any Scheme practicable or rational before you have approved of it, tho’ all the Money we raise by it is on our own Funds, and for our private Use.

I have often thought that a News-Letter of Whispers, written every Post, and sent about the Kingdom, after the same Manner as that of Mr. Dyer, Mr. Dawkes, or any other Epistolary Historian, might be highly gratifying to the Publick, as well as beneficial to the Author.  By Whispers I mean those Pieces of News which are communicated as Secrets, and which bring a double Pleasure to the Hearer; first, as they are private History, and in the next place as they have always in them a Dash of Scandal.  These are the two chief Qualifications in an Article of News, [which [1]] recommend it, in a more than ordinary Manner, to the Ears of the Curious.  Sickness of Persons in high Posts, Twilight Visits paid and received by Ministers of State, Clandestine Courtships and Marriages, Secret Amours, Losses at Play, Applications for Places, with their respective Successes or Repulses, are the Materials in which I chiefly intend to deal.  I have two Persons, that are each of them the Representative of a Species, who are to furnish me with those Whispers which I intend to convey to my Correspondents.  The first of these is Peter Hush, descended from the ancient Family of the Hushes.  The other is the old Lady Blast, who has a very numerous Tribe of Daughters in the two great Cities of London and Westminster. Peter Hush has a whispering Hole in most of the great Coffee-houses about Town.  If you are alone with him in a wide Room, he carries you up into a Corner of it, and speaks in your Ear.  I have seen Peter seat himself in a Company of seven or eight Persons, whom he never saw before in his Life; and after having looked about to see there was no one that overheard him, has communicated to them in a low Voice, and under the Seal of Secrecy, the Death of a great Man in the Country, who was perhaps a Fox-hunting the very Moment this Account was [given [2]] of him.  If upon your entring into a Coffee-house you see a Circle of Heads bending over the Table, and lying close by one another, it is ten to one but my Friend Peter is among them.  I have known Peter publishing the Whisper of the Day by eight a-Clock in the Morning at Garraway’s, by twelve at Will’s, and before two at the Smyrna.  When Peter has thus effectually launched a Secret, I have been very well pleased to hear People whispering it to one another at second Hand, and spreading it about as their own; for you must know, Sir, the great Incentive to Whispering