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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
Spent all his credit for his friends.

Had he but spared his tongue and

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 offe. Jed with the offer, and at first was 'deaf to all entreaties to be reconciled.' lb. ii. 164, 191.

he accepted afterwards a draught of a thousand upon the Exchequer, which was intercepted by the Queen's death, and which he resigned, as he says himself, multa gemens' (with many a groan 2).

In the midst of his power and his politicks, he kept a journal 55 of his visits, his walks, his interviews with Ministers, and quarrels with his servant, and transmitted it to Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Dingley, to whom he knew that whatever befel him was interesting, and no accounts could be too minute3. Whether these diurnal trifles were properly exposed to eyes which had never received any pleasure from the presence of the Dean, may be reasonably doubted. They have, however, some odd attraction: the reader, finding frequent mention of names which he has been used to consider as important, goes on in hope of information; and, as there is nothing to fatigue attention, if he is disappointed he can hardly complain. It is easy to perceive, from every page, that though ambition pressed Swift into a life of bustle, the wish for a life of ease was always returning 5.

* On April 23, 1713, he wrote that the charges on entering the deanery would be £1,000. 'I will dun* them [the ministers] to give a sum of money.' Works, iii. 152. 'May 16. I shall be sadly cramped unless the Queen will give me £1,000. ... Lord Treasurer rallies me upon it, and I believe intends it; but quando?' Ib. p. 156. Scott says that Bolingbroke, 'during his short ministry of three days,' got for Swift a Treasury order for £1,000 signed by the Queen. Ib.

i. 193.

2 He wrote to Pope on Aug. 30, 1726:-'I forgave Sir R. W. a thousand pounds, multa gemens. Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vii. 73. (This letter is wrongly dated in Swift's Works, xvii. 150.) See also his letter of July 8, 1726. Ib. xvii. 37. For multa gemens see Aeneid, i. 465, iv. 395, v. 869, xii. 886.

3 It is known as The Journal to Stella. Works, ii. 1-end; iii. 1-158.

46 JOHNSON. There is nothing wonderful in the journal which we see Swift kept in London, for it con

tains slight topicks, and it might soon be written.' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 177.

'It is a fund of entertainment. You I will see Swift's insolence in full colours, and at the same time how daily vain he was of being noticed by the Ministers he affected to treat arrogantly.' HORACE WALPOLE, Letters, iv. 505.

['Mr. Burke was a great admirer of Swift's humour, particularly of his namby-pamby letters to Stella, which he ever praised for their genuine graceful ease.' Burke's Table Talk, p. 25, Philobiblon Society, Bibliog. and Hist. Misc. vol. vii.]

'It is the want of any good contemporary daily paper that makes Swift's Journal so interesting.' JEFFREY, Cockburn's Jeffrey, 1852, ii. 249. "

5 April 28, 1711. I vow to God, if I could decently come over now I would, and leave all schemes of politics and ambition for ever.

'Oct. 22. I will certainly steal away as soon as I decently can. . . . I have no shuddering at all to think

* Printed by Scott drive; but see Journal to Stella, ed. F. Ryland, p. 460

56

57

58

He went to take possession of his deanery as soon as he had obtained it; but he was not suffered to stay in Ireland more than a fortnight before he was recalled to England', that he might reconcile Lord Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke, who began to look on one another with malevolence, which every day increased, and which Bolingbroke appeared to retain in his last years 3.

Swift contrived an interview, from which they both departed discontented; he procured a second, which only convinced him that the feud was irreconcilable: he told them his opinion, that all was lost. This denunciation was contradicted by Oxford, but Bolingbroke whispered that he was right*.

Before this violent dissension had shattered the Ministry, Swift had published, in the beginning of the year (1714), The publick Spirit of the Whigs5, in answer to The Crisis, a pamphlet for which Steele was expelled from the House of Commons ❝. Swift was now so far alienated from Steele as to think him no longer entitled to decency, and therefore treats him sometimes with contempt, and sometimes with abhorrence'.

of retiring to my old circumstances, if you can be easy.' Works, ii. 241, 380. See also ib. ii. 263, iii. 15, xii. 313.

He wrote in 1737-'When I came to Ireland to take this deanery I could not stay here above a fortnight, being recalled by a hundred letters.' 16. xix. 72. He stayed nearly three months. He was appointed on April 23, 1713, and started for Dublin on June 1. Ib. iii. 151, 157. Lewis (ante, GAY, 13) wrote to recall him on July 9, July 30, and Aug. 6. Ib. xvi. 50, 53, 57. He returned early in September. Craik, p. 272.

Mr.

The first misunderstanding took its rise' in March, 1710-11, at the time of the attempt on Harley's life. St. John,' writes Swift, 'affected to say in several companies, "That Guiscard intended the blow against him," which, if it were true, the consequence must be that Mr. St. John had all the merit, while Mr. Harley remained with nothing but the danger and pain.' Works, iii. 191. On Aug. 15, 1711, Swift first mentions his efforts at a reconciliation. Ib. ii. 320. See also ib. ii. 333, 378, iii. 46, 144, xv. 446.

3 In 1734 he described Oxford to Swift as one who 'knew neither how to use power, nor how to wear honours, and yet who was jealous of one and fond of the other, even to ridicule.' Ib. xviii. 196. See also ib. v. 277, xvii. 251.

This meeting was in May, 1714. Swift, in 1737, described it in a letter to Oxford's son. Ib. xix. 72. On July 22, 1714, Charles Ford wrote to Swift:They often eat, and drink, and walk together, as if there was no sort of disagreement; and when they part, I hear they give one another such names as nobody but ministers of state could bear without cutting throats.' lb. xvi. 156.

5. Ib. iv. 215.

6 On March 18, 1713-14. Parl. Hist. vi. 1268. A few days earlier the House of Lords had addressed the Queen to offer a reward for the discovery of the author of The Publick Spirit of the Whigs. Wentworth Papers, pp. 359, 360. For Steele see ante, ADDISON, 36, 73.

7 On May 13, 1713, Swift wrote to Addison :-'Mr. Steele knows very well that my Lord-Treasurer has kept

In this pamphlet the Scotch were mentioned in terms so pro- 59 voking to that irritable nation, that, resolving not to be offended with impunity, the Scotch Lords in a body demanded an audience of the Queen, and solicited reparation 3. A proclamation was issued, in which three hundred pounds was offered for discovery of the author. From this storm he was, as he relates, 'secured by a sleight,' of what kind, or by whose prudence, is not known; and such was the increase of his reputation that 'the Scottish Nation applied again that he would be their friend ".'

He was become so formidable to the Whigs, that his familiarity 60 with the Ministers was clamoured at in Parliament, particularly by two men, afterwards of great note, Aislabie and Walpole'.

him in his employment upon my entreaty and intercession.' Steele replied:-They laugh at you if they make you believe your interposition has kept me thus long in my office.' Works, xvi. 39.

'Mr. Steele might have been safe enough, if his continually repeated indiscretions and a zeal mingled with scurrilities had not forfeited all title to lenity.' SWIFT, Works, v. 16.

' For 'the extreme jealousy of the Scotch' see Boswell's Johnson, ii. 306.

2 'Nemo me impune lacessit '—the motto of Scotland.

3 According to Orrery (p. 196) this fact is stated 'in an advertisement printed before the pamphlet.'

The printer and publisher were brought before the House. Parl. Hist. vi. 1263. The fault,' writes Swift,' was calling the Scots " a poor, fierce, northern people" [Works, iv. 244].' Ib. xvi. 109. Oxford sent Swift secretly £100 for the two men. Ib. xvi. 100.

For a second reward of £300 for the discovery of Swift as an author see post, SWIFT, 78.

5 The Queen incensed, his services forgot,

Leaves him a victim to the vengeful Scot.

Now through the realm a proclamation spread,

To fix a price on his devoted head.

66

The Scottish nation, whom he durst offend,

Again apply that Swift would be their friend.' Ib. xii. 304. 'Finch, famed for tedious elocution, proves

That Swift oils many a spring

which Harley moves. Walpole and Aislabie, to clear the doubt,

Inform the Commons that the secret's out.' Ib.

In 1721 John Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, was expelled the House and committed to the Tower for his share in the South Sea Bubble.

Parl. Hist. vii. 749; Coxe's Walpole, i. 149.

'It pleased Mr. Walpole,' writes Swift, in the Queen's time to make a speech directly against me by name in the House of Commons.' Works, vii. 9. In The History of the Four Last Years of Queen Anne he speaks of Walpole as one Mr. Robert Walpole.' He adds:-'The reader must excuse me for being so particular about one who is otherwise altogether obscure.' Ib. v. 40, 99. He retained

61

62

But, by the disunion of his great friends, his importance and his designs were now at an end; and seeing his services at last useless, he retired about June (1714) into Berkshire, where, in the house of a friend, he wrote what was then suppressed, but has since appeared under the title of Free Thoughts on the present State of Affairs3.

While he was waiting in this retirement for events which time or chance might bring to pass, the death of the Queen broke down at once the whole system of Tory politicks; and nothing remained but to withdraw from the implacability of triumphant Whiggism, and shelter himself in unenvied obscurity *.

63 The accounts of his reception in Ireland, given by Lord Orrery and Dr. Delany, are so different, that the credit of the writers, both undoubtedly veracious, cannot be saved but by supposing, what I think is true, that they speak of different times. When Delany says that he was received with respect 5, he means for the first fortnight, when he came to take legal possession; and when Lord Orrery tells that he was pelted by

these unworthy sneers when he re-
vised the work in the time of Walpole's
power.

'He labour'd many a fruitless hour
To reconcile his friends in power;
Saw mischief by a faction brewing,
While they pursued each other's
ruin.

But finding vain was all his care, He left the Court in mere despair.' Works, xiv. 331. " Parson Gery, of Upper Letcombe, near Wantage-'a melancholy, thoughtful man,' Swift described him. 'We dine exactly between twelve and one; at eight we have some bread and butter, and a glass of ale, and at ten he goes to bed.' Ib. xix. 330. Swift arrived there about June 2 and left on Aug. 16. Ib. xvi. 193 n., xix. 329. For Pope and Parnell's visit to him see Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vii. 468. See also ante, SWIFT, 12 n.

3 Works, v. 228. His printer, Barber, wrote on July 6:-'I have shown it only to one person [Bolingbroke], who is charmed with it, and will make some alterations and addi

tions to it, with your leave.' Ib. xvi. 129. It was these alterations that led to its suppression. Ib. pp. 140,

337.

On Dec. 9, 1711, fearing the Whigs were returning to power, he asked for a post abroad, as Queen's Secretary, where I may remain till the new ministers recal me; and then I will be sick for five or six months till the storm has spent itself. ...I should hardly trust myself to the mercy of my enemies, while their anger is fresh.' Ib. ii. 426. See also ib. viii. 47. Nevertheless on Sept. 7, 1714, Arbuthnot wrote of him :Though like a man knocked down, you may behold him still with a stern countenance, and aiming a blow at his old adversaries.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vii. 473. Johnson's account is the truer one. He did 'shelter himself in unenvied obscurity' for many years.

5 I am well assured by persons who knew it well, that the reception he met with from all sorts of men was as kind and honourable as he could wish.' Delany, p. 87.