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proaches to Harley, in a manner which we should really imagine no rat of the present day would have confidence enough to imitate. In mentioning his first interview with that eminent person, he says::- I had prepared him before by another hand, where he was very intimate, and got myself represented (which I might justly do) as one extremely illused by the last ministry, after some obligation, because I refused to go certain lengths they would have me." From the following passages of the Journal we gain these further sights into the conduct of this memorable conversation :—

"Oct. 7. He [Harley] told me he must bring Mr. St. John and me acquainted; and spoke so many things of personal kindness and esteem, that I am inclined to believe what some friends had told me, that he would do everything to bring me over. He desired me to dine with him on Tuesday; and after four hours being with him, set me down at St. James's coffee-house in a hackney-coach.

"I must tell you a great piece of refinement in Harley. He charged me to come and see him often; I told him I was loath to trouble him, in so much business as he had, and desired I might have leave to come at his levee; which he immediately refused, and said, 'That was no place for friends.'

"I believe, never was anything compassed so soon: and purely done by my personal credit with Mr. Harley; who is so excessively obliging that I know not what to make of it, unless to show the rascals of the other party, that they used a man unworthily who had deserved better. He speaks all the kind things to me in the world. Oct. 14th. I stand with the new people ten times better than ever I did with the old, and forty times more caressed.

"Nov. 8th. Why should the Whigs think I came to England to leave them? But who the devil cares what they think? Am I under obligation in the least to any of them all? Rot them, ungrateful dogs. I will make them repent their usage of me before I leave this place. They say the same thing here of my leaving the Whigs; but they own they cannot blame me, considering the treatment I have had," &c.

Again, in the Examiner, as he himself expresses it of his former friends and benefactors, he "libelled them all round." In his Journal to Stella he with triumph states things he was writing or saying to the people about Harley, in direct contradiction to his real sentiments. Thus he says:

"I desired my Lord Radnor's brother to let my Lord know I would call on him at six, which I did; and was arguing with him three hours to bring him over to us; and I spoke so closely, that I believe he will be tractable. But he is a scoundrel; and though I said I only talked from my love to him, I told a lie; for I did not care if he were hanged: but every one gained over is of consequence."

SWIFT AND PARTRIDGE THE ASTROLOGER.

Among the pretenders to astrology in the last centuryand whose Almanack was published to our time-was John Partridge, who had the fortune to procure a ludicrous immortality by attracting the satire of Swift. The Dean, in

ridicule of the whole class of astrological impostors, and of this man in particular, published his celebrated "Predictions. for the Year 1708, by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.," which, amongst other prognostications, announced an event of no less importance than the death of John Partridge himself, which be fixed to the 29th of March, about eleven at night. The wrathful astrologer in his almanack for 1709 was at great pains to inform his loving countrymen, that Squire Bickerstaff was a sham name, assumed by a lying, impudent fellow, and that, "blessed be God, John Partridge was still living, and in health, and all were knaves who reported otherwise."* This round denial did not save him from further molestation; and The Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, and several other treatises, appeared, greatly to the amusement of the public. At length poor Partridge, in an evil hour, had recourse to his neighbour, Dr. Yalden, who, in Bickerstaff Detected, or the Astrological Impostor Convicted, under Partridge's name, so burlesqued his sufferings, through Bickerstaff's prediction, as to make one of the most humorous tracts in this memorable controversy. In 1710, Swift published a famous prediction of Merlin, the British wizard, giving, in a happy imitation of the style of Lily, a commentary on some blackletter verses, most ingeniously composed in enigmatical references to the occurrences of the time. There were two incidental circumstances worthy of note in this ludicrous debate: 1st. The Inquisition of the Kingdom of Portugal took the matter as seriously as John Partridge, and gravely condemned to the flames the predictions of the imaginary Isaac Bickerstaff. 2ndly. By an odd coincidence, the Company of Stationers obtained, in 1709, an injunction against any Almanack published under the name of John Partridge,

* The secret of Bickerstaff's real name was probably for a time well kept, for poor Partridge, unwilling, as an astrologer, to appear ignorant of anything, opens manfully on a false scent, in a letter, dated London, 2nd April, 1708, addressed to Isaac Manley, postmaster of Ireland, who, to add to the jest, was a particular friend of Swift, his real tor

mentor.

as if the poor man had been dead in sad earnest. Swift appears to have been the inventor of the jest; but Prior, Rowe, Steele, and other wits of the time, were in the confederacy, under whose attacks Partridge suffered for about two years. Swift, in his Grub-street Elegy on the supposed Death of Partridge, after telling us that he was a cobbler, with much humour shows

what analogy There is 'twixt cobbling and astrology, How Partridge made his optics rise

From a shoe-sole to reach the skies.

If the reader should ever be strolling through the quiet village of Mortlake, on the southern bank of the Thames, and turns aside into the churchyard, he will find a black marble slab denoting in pompous Latin the styles of Partridge, physician to two kings (Charles II. and William III.), and one queen-Mary. Here also Partridge's birthplace is set down "apud East Sheen," but his name is not in the parishregister. According to one Parker, his adversary, Partridge's real name was Hewson, a shoemaker by trade, but by choice a confederate and dependent of Old Gadbury, the knavish astrologer. In 1679, Partridge commenced business for himself; but in King James's time, his almanacks grew so smart on Popery, that England became too hot to hold Partridge, and he fled to Holland. He returned at the Revolution, and married the widow of the Duke of Monmouth's tailor, who finally deposited him in the grave, and in 1715 adorned his monument at Mortlake. His Almanack (Merlinus Liberatus) was, however, continued; and in 1723, advertised "Dr. Partridge's Night Drops, Nightpills, &c., sold as before, by his widow, at the Blue Ball, in Salisburystreet, Strand."

' "THE TATLER" ESTABLISHED.

The most remarkable consequence of the predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff was the establishment of the Tatler. Swift is said to have taken the name of Bickerstaff from a smith's sign, and added that of Isaac as an uncommon Christian appellation. Yet it was said that a living person was actually found who owned both names. Swift was in the secret of Steele's undertaking from the beginning, though Addison only discovered it after the publication of the sixth number. Its wit and humour insured it instant success: Swift contributed several papers, and numerous hints in carrying on the work, until politics disturbed his friendship with the editor.

DEATH OF SWIFT'S MOTHER.

The Doctor returned to Ireland in the summer of 1709, dissatisfied with the broken promises of his ministerial friends.

He resumed his wonted life at Laracor; and set about correcting his Tale of a Tub for a new edition; but his literary occupations were broken in upon by domestic affliction; for in May, 1710, he received the news of his affectionate mother's death, after long illness. "I have now," he pathetically remarks, lost every barrier between me and death. God grant I may live to be as well prepared for it as I confidently believe her to have been! If the way to heaven be through piety, truth, justice, and charity, she is there!"

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SWIFT AT CHELSEA.

In 1710, when Swift came to London, he had a country lodging in Church-lane, Chelsea, over against Bishop Atterbury: Swift has left this curious record of his walk from town:

"May 15, 1710. My way is this: I leave my best gown and periwig at Mrs. Vanhomrigh's [in Suffolk-street], then walk up the Pall Mall, through the Park, out at Buckingham House, and so to Chelsea, a little beyond the church. I set out about sunset, and get here in something less than an hour it is two good miles, and just 5748 steps.". Journal to Stella.

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In the same Journal he thus records the fame of Chelsea buns: Pray are not the fine buns sold here in our town; was it not r-r-r-r-r-r-rare Chelsea Buns ?"

From Chelsea he walked to Bury [Berry] street, St. James's, his town lodging, which he thus details:

"I lodge in Bury-street, where I have the first-floor, a dining-room, and bedchamber, at eight shillings a-week, plaguy deep, but I spend nothing for eating, never go to a tavern, and very seldom in a coach; yet, after all, it will be expensive."-Journal to Stella.

We now hear of him in connexion with the Westminster election of this year. He writes to Stella: "October 5.This morning Delaval came to see me, and we went to Kneller's, who was not in town. In the way we met the electors for parliament-men; and the rabble came about our coach crying A Colt! a Stanhope!' &c. We were afraid of a dead cat or our glasses broken, and so were always of their side."

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The Dean wrote a ballad full of puns on this Westminster election; it would be curious, if it could be recovered, to be

preserved among those of Hanbury Williams, Burns, and Moore, as an example of an election-squib written by a distinguished man-(Hannay.)

During the time that Swift remained in England on this occasion, he commenced the Journal to Stella which was addressed in a series of letters to Miss Johnson and Mrs. Dingley, but obviously intended for the former. The Journal, written as it is, chiefly in the morning and evening of each successive day of the most busy part of Swift's life, affords a picture as minute as it is evidently trustworthy of the events in which he was concerned, and the thoughts which arose out of them.

"SID HAMET'S ROD."

This was a lampoon written by Swift on the occasion of Lord Godolphin's breaking his treasurer's staff, in a manner not very respectful to the Queen, his mistress. The Dean was now very vigilant in avenging the neglect with which he had been treated by the Whigs. He had resolved to stand by, an unconcerned spectator of the struggles of party. But let no man promise on his own neutrality. By 1st October, he had written a lampoon on Lord Godolphin, and on the 4th, he was for the first time presented to Harley; and it is remarkable, that on the very same day, he refused an invitation from Lord Halifax, thus making his option between those distinguished statesmen.

In the same paragraph which acquaints Stella with this first interview with the new prime minister, Swift announces that he has given his lampoon against Godolphin to the press, and already threatens "to go round with them all." By Harley Swift was introduced to St. John, (afterwards Lord Bolingbroke,) and the intercourse which he enjoyed with these ministers approached to intimacy with a progress more rapid than can well be conceived in such circumstances. Swift pressed the government, after he had received his Deanery, for one thousand pounds, to meet the expenses of his induction, and clear off his debts, and Bolingbroke got the Queen's warrant for the payment of this sum, in order to secure the Dean's attachment, after he had turned out Harley; yet Her Majesty's immediate death rendered the gift unavailing.

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