44 45 46 dilatoriness lamented as natural, which he applauded in himself as politick. Without the Tories, however, nothing could be done, and as they were not to be gratified they must be appeased; and the conduct of the Minister, if it could not be vindicated, was to be plausibly excused. Swift now attained the zenith of his political importance: he published (1712) The Conduct of the Allies, ten days before the Parliament assembled. The purpose was to persuade the nation to a peace2, and never had any writer more success. The people, who had been amused with bonfires and triumphal processions, and looked with idolatry on the General and his friends who, as they thought, had made England the arbitress of nations, were confounded between shame and rage when they found that 'mines had been exhausted and millions destroyed 3,' to secure the Dutch or aggrandize the emperor, without any advantage to ourselves *; that we had been bribing our neighbours to fight their own quarrel, and that amongst our enemies we might number our allies. That is now no longer doubted, of which the nation was then first informed, that the war was unnecessarily protracted to fill the pockets of Marlborough, and that it would have been continued without end if he could have continued his annual plunder. I Ante, PRIOR, 21; Works, iv. 291. Swift wrote on Nov. 27, 1711: —The pamphlet is published.' Ïb. ii. 413. Parliament met on Dec. 7. Ib. P. 423. Johnson was misled by the date on the title-page of the first edition-1712. 'On those for the three following editions it is 1711. Several editions were issued before the end of the year, and the publisher was compelled to go back on his word.' Literature, Jan. 1, 1898, p. 346. 2 Oct. 26, 1711. We have no quiet with the Whigs, they are so violent against a peace; but I'll cool them with a vengeance very soon.' Works, ii. 387. 3 This quotation is not from Swift's pamphlet. 'It will no doubt be a mighty comfort to our grandchildren when they see a few rags hung up in Westminster Hall, which cost a hundred millions, whereof they are paying the arrears, to boast, as beggars do, that their grandfathers were rich and great.' Ib. iv. 357. 5 Ib. iv. 340, 361; ante, SOMERVILE, 6. Swift wrote to Stella:-'Dec. 31, 1710. The Duke is as covetous as Hell, and ambitious as the prince of it; he would fain have been general for life, and has broken all endeavours for peace to keep his greatness and get money. ... Yet he has been a successful general, and I hope he will continue his command. 'Jan. 7, 1710-11. I question whether ever any wise state laid aside a general who had been successful nine years together, whom the enemy so much dreaded, and his own soldiers cannot but believe must always conquer.' Works, ii. 126, 141. ['Marlborough really desired and expected peace, but it cannot be said that he fully exerted his influence in favour of practicable terms.' LESLIE STEPHEN, Dict. Nat. Biog.x. 333. See But Swift, I suppose, did not yet know what he has since written, that a commission was drawn which would have appointed him General for life, had it not become ineffectual by the resolution of Lord Cowper, who refused the seal'. 'Whatever is received,' say the schools, 'is received in proportion to the recipient'.' The power of a political treatise depends much upon the disposition of the people: the nation was then combustible, and a spark set it on fire. It is boasted that between November and January eleven thousand were sold3; a great number at that time, when we were not yet a nation of readers *. To its propagation certainly no agency of power or influence was wanting. It furnished arguments for conversation, speeches for debate, and materials for parliamentary resolutions". 47 Yet, surely, whoever surveys this wonder-working pamphlet 48 with cool perusal will confess that its efficacy was supplied by the passions of its readers; that it operates by the mere weight of facts, with very little assistance from the hand that produced them. This year (1712) he published his Reflections' on the Barrier 49 Coxe's Mem. iii. 40, and Priv. Corres. 2 [Through the kindness of Mr. C. C. J. Webb, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, my attention has been directed to the following passages in St. Thomas, wherein the maxim is implied-'in inferioribus quandoque recipitur aliquid in eadem virtute quae est in eo a quo recipitur, quando scilicet recipiens est proportionatum ad recipiendum totam virtutem dantis.' S. Thom. i. Sent., dist. 20, qu. 2, art. 2 ad 3um. 'influentiam agentis recipit patiens per modum virtutis suae et non per modum virtutis ipsius agentis. Ib. ii. Sent., dist. 18, qu. 2, art. 2 ad 2um.] 3 Jan. 28, 1711-12. The sixth edition of 3,000 is sold, and the printer talks of a seventh; 11,000 of them have been sold.' Works, ii. 468. In the fifth edition the price was reduced from a shilling to sixpence. Ib. pp. 421, 433. There were three Dublin editions. Ib. p. 477. * Ante, MILTON, 135. Feb. 4, 1711-12. The House of Commons have this day made many severe votes about our being abused by our allies. Those who spoke drew all their arguments from my book. 'Feb. 8. The Resolutions printed t'other day in the Votes are almost quotations from it.' Works, ii. 473, 476. See also post, SWIFT, 110. JOHNSON. Sir, his Conduct of the Allies is a performance of very little ability. 66 Surely, Sir," said Dr. Douglas, "you must allow it has strong facts." JOHNSON. Why yes, Sir; but what is that to the merit of the composition? In the Sessionspaper of the Old Bailey there are strong facts. Housebreaking is a strong fact; robbery is a strong fact; and murder is a mighty strong fact: but is great praise due to the historian of those strong facts? No, Sir, Swift has told what he had to tell distinctly enough, but that is all. He had to count ten, and he has counted it right.... Why, Sir, Tom Davies might have written The Conduct of the Allies! Boswell's Johnson, ii. 65. 7 Some Remarks on the Barrier Treaty between Her Majesty and the States-General, &c. Treaty', which carries on the design of his Conduct of the Allies, and shews how little regard in that negotiation had been shewn to the interest of England, and how much of the conquered country had been demanded by the Dutch. 50 This was followed by Remarks on the Bishop of Sarum's Introduction to his third Volume of the History of the Reformation; a pamphlet which Burnet published as an alarm, to warn the nation of the approach of Popery 3. Swift, who seems to have disliked the Bishop with something more than political aversion, treats him like one whom he is glad of an opportunity to insult *. 51 Swift, being now the declared favourite and supposed confidant of the Tory Ministry, was treated by all that depended on the Court with the respect which dependents know how to pay. He soon began to feel part of the misery of greatness; he that could say he knew him, considered himself as having fortune in his power. Commissions, solicitations, remonstrances crowded about him; he was expected to do every man's business, to procure employment for one, and to retain it for another 5. In assisting those who addressed him, he repre Works, iv. 371. 'Feb. 20, 171112. I went into the City to my printer, to correct some sheets of The Barrier Treaty and Remarks, which must be finished to-morrow.' Ib. ii. 486. 'A Preface to the B-p of S-r-um's Introduction to the third volume, &c. By Gregory Miso-Sarum.' Ib. iv. 141. 3He [Burnet] has been poring so long upon Fox's Book of Martyrs that he imagines himself living in the reign of Queen Mary, and is resolved to set up for a knight-errant against popery.... To do him justice, he seems to have nothing else left but to cry out, halters, gibbets, faggots, Inquisition, popery, slavery, and the Pretender.' Ib. p. 177. Burnet was one of the Whigs who, in 1702, 'were (Swift wrote) very liberal in promising me the greatest preferments I could hope for, if ever it came into their power.' Ib. iii. 180. Moreover he attacked Swift's patron, Temple, as 'a corrupter of all that came near him.' History of my own Time, i. 423. In later years Swift wrote of him :- 5 June 30, 1711. I am now envied, and thought in high favour, and have every day numbers of considerable men teazing me to solicit for them. 'March 8, 1711-12. I can serve everybody but myself. Sept. 18, 1712. Pray God that I may live free from the discontent and envy that attends those who are thought to have more favour at Court than they really possess.' Works, ii. 289, iii. 1, 50. See post, POPE, 107, for Kennet's description of the scene in the antechamber in 1713, when 'Dr. Swift acted as a master of requests,' and Works, xii. 307, where Swift describes the levee in his Imitation of Part of the Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace. sents himself as sufficiently diligent; and desires to have others believe, what he probably believed himself, that by his interposition many Whigs of merit, and among them Addison and Congreve, were continued in their places. But every man of known influence has so many petitions which he cannot grant, that he must necessarily offend more than he gratifies, because the preference given to one affords all the rest a reason for complaint. 'When I give away a place,' said Lewis XIV., 'I make an hundred discontented, and one ungrateful ".' Much has been said of the equality and independence which 52 he preserved in his conversation with the Ministers, of the frankness of his remonstrances, and the familiarity of his friendship 3. In accounts of this kind a few single incidents are set against the general tenour of behaviour. No man, however, can pay a more servile tribute to the Great, than by suffering his liberty in their presence to aggrandize him in his own esteem. Between different ranks of the community there is necessarily some distance*: he who is called by his superior to pass the interval 'Dec. 27, 1712. I have taken more pains to recommend the Whig wits to the favour and mercy of the ministers than any other people. Steele I have kept in his place. Congreve I have got to be used kindly and secured [ante, CONGREVE, 28]. Rowe I have recommended, and got a promise of a place [ante, ROWE, 20]. Philips I should certainly have provided for, if he had not run party mad [post, A. PHILIPS, 4]; ... I set Addison so right at first that he might have been employed, and have partly secured him the place he has.' Works, iii. 80. See also ib. ii. 201, v. 15, xvi. 39, 47, 266, 341. For Addison's treatment of Swift, see ante, ADDISON, 105. Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents et un ingrat.' Euvres de Voltaire, xviii. 112. South says of suitors:-'All but one will be sure to depart grumbling, because they miss of what they think their due, and even that one scarce thankful, because he thinks he has no more than his due.' Sermons, i. 22. See also Boswell's Johnson, ii. 167; Rasselas, ch. xxvii. 36 'May 19, 1711. Mr. Secretary told me the Duke of Buckingham desired my acquaintance. I answered it could not be, for he had not made sufficient advances. Then the Duke of Shrewsbury said he thought that duke was not used to make advances. I said I could not help that; for I always expected advances in proportion to men's quality, and more from a duke than other men. 'Dec. 12. I make no figure but at Court, where I affect to turn from a lord to the meanest of my acquaintance.' Works, ii. 259, iii. 70. See also ib. ii. 214, 310, 367, xv. 411, xvii. 310. 'He never thought an honour done him, Because a duke was proud to own him; Would rather slip aside, and choose 'JOHNSON. Sir, I would no more deprive a nobleman of his respect than of his money. I consider myself as acting a part in the great system of society.... There would be a perpetual struggle for precedence were there no fixed invariable rules 53 54 may properly accept the invitation; but petulance and obtrusion are rarely produced by magnanimity, nor have often any nobler cause than the pride of importance and the malice of inferiority. He who knows himself necessary may set, while that necessity lasts, a high value upon himself, as, in a lower condition, a servant eminently skilful may be saucy; but he is saucy only because he is servile. Swift appears to have preserved the kindness of the great when they wanted him no longer; and therefore it must be allowed that the childish freedom, to which he seems enough inclined, was overpowered by his better qualities. His disinterestedness has been likewise mentioned; a strain of heroism, which would have been in his condition romantick and superfluous. Ecclesiastical benefices, when they become vacant, must be given away; and the friends of Power may, if there be no inherent disqualification, reasonably expect them. Swift accepted (1713) the deanery of St. Patrick, the best preferment that his friends could venture to give him. That Ministry was in a great degree supported by the Clergy, who were not yet reconciled to the author of The Tale of a Tub, and would not without much discontent and indignation have borne to see him installed in an English Cathedral 3. He refused, indeed, fifty pounds from Lord Oxford, but for the distinction of rank, which creates no jealousy, as it is allowed to be accidental.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 447. See also post, SWIFT, 134. He says of himself (Works, xiv. 330) that he "Without regarding private ends Had he but spared his tongue and He might have rose like other But power was never in his thought, On April 5, 1711, he wrote of the assurances given him by the ministers: They may come to nothing, but the first opportunity that offers, and is neglected, I shall depend no more, but come away.' Ib. ii. 217. On May 23 he wrote:-'To return without some mark of distinction would look extremely little; and I would likewise gladly be somewhat richer than I am.' Ib. p. 263. See also ib. ii. 269. 2 Ante, SWIFT, 26, 36. He wrote of it to Atterbury, in 1713, as 'the deanery they thought fit to throw me into.' Works, xvi. 55. Rundle's suspected heterodoxy had thrown him into an Irish bishopric. Ante, SAVAGE, 188 n. 3 It was, no doubt, to The Tale of a Tub that he referred when he wrote to Stella in 1710:-'They may talk of the you know what, but, gad, if it had not been for that, I should never have been able to get the access I have had; and if that helps me to succeed, then that same thing will be serviceable to the Church.' Works, ii. 37. Swift was highly offended with the offer, and at first was 'deaf to all entreaties to be reconciled.' Ib. ii. 164, 191. |