Windsor Prophecy. The queen, upon reading them, was stung with resentment at the very severe treatment which he had given to a lady who was known to stand highly in her favour, and as a mark of her displeasure passed Swift by, and bestowed the bishopric on another.

SWIFT'S SYMPATHY FOR HARRISON.

William Harrison, who wrote "The Medicine-a Tale-for the Ladies," in No. 2 of the original Tatler, and some poems in Dodsley's and Nichols's collections, was an amiable person, to whom Swift was very partial: he says of him in a letter to Stella, dated Oct. 13, 1710, "There is a young fellow here in town we are all fond of, and about a year or two from the university, one Harrison, a little pretty fellow with a great deal of wit, good sense, and good nature." When Swift discontinued the Tatlers, Swift advised Harrison to continue them, promising him assistance; and Harrison published about fifty-two numbers. Addison recommended him to a secretaryship, at the treaty of peace at Utrecht, with an income of 10007. a-year; but poor Harrison received nothing, and when he returned to England, was 3007. in debt, and without a shilling. In a letter to Stella, (Jan. 31, 1712,) Swift says:

Harrison was with me this morning, we talked three hours, and then I carried him to court. When we went down to the door of my lodgings, I found a coach waiting for him. I chid him for it; but he whispered me, it was impossible for him to do otherwise; and in the coach he told me, he had not one farthing in his pocket to pay for it; and therefore, took the coach for the whole day, and intended to borrow somewhere or other. So there was the Queen's minister, intrusted in affairs of the greatest importance, without a shilling in his pocket to pay a coach.* In the Journal to Stella, the illness and death of poor Harrison are thus recorded in terms which do much honour to the heart of Swift:

Feb. 12, 1712-13. "I found a letter on my table last night, to tell me that poor little Harrison was ill, and desired to see me at night; but it was late, and I could not go till to-day. I went in the morning, and found him mighty ill, and got thirty guineas for him from Lord Bolingbroke, and an order for an hundred pounds from the treasurer to be paid

* This inadvertence, to use the mildest term for it, has descended to a careless class of authors in our day. We have heard of calls from two young poets, each with the request, "Lend me a sovereign: I have a cab at the door, and I owe the driver twelve shillings."

him to-morrow; and I got him removed to Knightsbridge for the air. He has a fever, and inflammation on the lungs, but I hope will do well.” 13th. "I was to see a poor poet, one Mr. Drapier, in a nasty garret, very sick. I gave him twenty guineas from Lord Bolingbroke, and disposed the other sixty to two other authors, and desired a friend to receive the hundred pounds for poor Harrison, and will carry it to him to-morrow morning.* I sent to see how he did, and he is extremely ill; and I am very much afflicted for him, as he is my own creature, and in a very honourable post, and very worthy of it. I am much concerned for this poor lad. His mother and sister attend him, and he wants nothing.' 14th. "I took Parnell this morning, and we walked to see poor Harrison. I had the hundred pounds in my pocket. I told Parnell I was afraid to knock at the door; my mind misgave me. I knocked, and his man in tears told me, his master was dead an hour before. Think what a grief this is to me! I went to his mother, and have been ordering his funeral with as little cost as possible, to-morrow at ten at night. Lord Treasurer was much concerned when I told him. I could not dine with Lord Treasurer, nor anywhere else; but got a bit of meat towards evening. No loss ever grieved me so much: poor creature!"

15th. "At ten this night I was at poor Harrison's funeral, which I ordered to be as private as possible. We had but one coach with four of us; and when it was carrying us home after the funeral, the traces broke, and we were forced to sit in it, and have it held up, till my man went for chairs, at eleven at night, in terrible rain. I am come home very melancholy, and will go to bed."-Mr. Singer's Notes to Spence's Anecdotes, Second Edition, 1858.

This is a page in Swift's history, to which his several editors have not given equal prominence: in their accusations of selfish misanthropy, Swift's sympathy for Harrison shines like " a rich jewel in the Ethiop's ear.'

POLITICAL INTRIGUE IN SWIFT'S DAYS.

In the Dublin University Magazine for January, 1861, we find this lively picture :

There was a day in England when parties were moulded by the essays and pamphlets of some great hand," who primed the Prime Minister and led the town. Only turn to Swift's Journal to Stella, covering those busy years of political intrigue from 1710 to 1713. He who reads those strange papers will be fascinated by the play of wit, and giddied by the whirl of change from "our society," which black balls dukes to beefsteak and bad wine with the printer in the city. He will feel almost awfully the life and stir, and ever thronging and passionate pursuit of those gallant lords and splendid ladies, the youngest of whom has

Here is a case of a gentleman regularly appointed to a government post, but with his salary unpaid, relieved from the Treasury. We suspect that the list of grants from the Civil List of the present day will attest similar instances of ill-treatment.

"Also their love

But the anxious

been cold in the grave for more than a hundred years. and their hatred, and their envy has now perished.' spirit of Harley; the careless and magnificent genius of St. John; the subtle-witted ladies who met to play ombre at Lady Betty Germaine's, or Masham's, or to talk in the ante-room of some "lady, just after lying-in, the ugliest sight, pale, dead, old, and yellow, for want of her paint, but soon to be painted and a beauty again"- —are alike susceptible to the spell which has been cast over them by that mysterious parson from Ireland. If the Whigs are to be lashed into fury; if the profligacy of Wharton, or the covetousness of Marlborough, are to be made odious-if the war is to be rendered unpopular, and brought out from the blaze of glory with which it is illuminated-Dr. Swift flings off an "Examiner," or goes to Barber with a "Conduct of the Allies." The town rings with the pamphlet. The young bloods and Mohocks of the opposite party vow personal vengeance against the author. The tantivy of High Church Tory squires of the country party rant out its arguments in the House. Dr. Swift thinks for the Tory party, writes the Queen's speech (or at least re-touches it), and to a certain extent leads the country.

SWIFT OBTAINS HIS DEANERY,

Swift arrived in England in September, 1710, and remained until June, 1713. The ostensible object of his journey was the settlement of firstfruits and twentieths payable by the Irish clergy to the crown; but he was still more anxious to get a bishopric or good benefice in England. He had the year before (1709) urgently entreated the Earl of Halifax for preferment, specifying particularly the reversion of Dr. South's prebend at Westminster. "Pray, my lord," he said, "desire Dr. South to die about the fall of the leaf." The leaves fell, but Dr. South remained; and in November, Swift again wrote to Halifax, soliciting his offices with the Lord President, that "if the gentle winter" did not carry off South, he might have the bishopric of Cork, which would soon be vacant, as the incumbent was then under the spotted fever. The spotted fever did its work as anticipated, but the bishopric was given, not to Swift, but to the Provost of Dublin College. From this moment may be dated Swift's hostility to Halifax and the Whigs. He threw himself into the arms of Harley and Bolingbroke, and became one of the sixteen brothers who dined weekly at each other's houses, to keep alive the Tory spirit, which was then gaining the ascendancy. Swift was an invaluable ally, but his preferment was still retarded. The Tale of a Tub, which was the chief source of his fame, was an insuperable obstacle to his advancement; and after having cast off the Whigs and materially

D

aided in reinstating the Tories in power-conferring also many acts of substantial kindness and favour on literary men -Swift was forced to return to his banishment in Ireland, with only that title which he has made immortal—the Dean of St. Patrick's.

A CLERICAL RACE.

Soon after Swift was made Dean of St. Patrick's he was sitting one Sunday afternoon at the house of Dr. Raymond, (with whom he had dined), at Trim, near Dublin. The bell had rung; the parishioners had assembled for evening prayers, and Dr. Raymond was preparing to go to the church, which was scarce 200 yards from his house. "Raymond," said the Dean, "I'll lay you a crown I will begin prayers before you this afternoon." "I accept the wager," replied Dr. Raymond; and immediately they ran as fast as they could towards the church. Raymond, who was much the nimbler man of the two, arrived first at the door; and when he entered the church walked directly towards the reading-desk. never slackened his pace, but, running up the aisle, left Dr. Raymond behind him in the middle of it, and stepping into the reading-desk without putting on a surplice, or opening the prayer-book, began the liturgy in an audible voice, and continued to repeat the service sufficiently long to win the wager.-Lord Orrery's Remarks.

"BOTH SIDES OF THE QUESTION."

Swift

Swift received his deanery, which he ever held as a most inadequate reward, for his services to the Marlborough and Tory faction, in the course of 1713; but he had given his great offence to the Duchess nearly three years before, or immediately after his venal quarrels with the Whigs for their not giving him church-promotion so rapidly as he wished. In the Examiner of November 23, 1710, he published a paper reflecting most severely on the Duke of Marlborough's insatiable avarice and enormous peculations. The Duke, he said, had had 540,000l. of the public money for doing work for which a warrior of ancient Rome (an odd parallel) would have received only 9947.118.10d.; and at the end of his paper there was an inuendo that the Duchess, in the execution of her office as mistress of the robes during eight years, had purloined no less than 22,000l. a year. Here is the account itself from the Examiner, in a volume in

reply to Sarah's, entitled The Other Side of the Question, and published in the same year:

Pall-Mall grant, the Westminster rangership, &c. 10,000 0 0

Employments

100,000 0 0

£540,000 0 0

The anonymous author of The Other Side of the Question does not name Swift, but says this account was drawn up many years ago in the Examiner, for the use of the Marlborough family, "by one of the greatest wits that ever did honour to human nature."

We agree with Mr. Hannay, (Essays from the Quarterly, p. 101,) that the above is one of the finest prose satires in the language. The following on Marlborough, is from one of the severest lampoons :

"Behold his funeral appears,

Nor widow's sighs nor orphan's tears,
Wont at such times the heart to pierce,
Attend the progress of the hearse.
But what of that? his friends may say,
He had those honours in his day;
True to his profit and his pride,

He made them weep before he died."

THE DEAN IN HIGH FAVOUR.

The Whig bishop Kennet gives an amusing account of