"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,

66

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. Swift 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 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 9947.11s.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:

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

Swift's importunities with his friends, and of his somewhat arrogant and supercilious demeanour when he was high in court favour. The picture is evidently drawn from the life, though by no very friendly hand. Under the date of November, 1713, Kennet enters in his Diary:

Dr. Swift came into the coffee-house, and had a bow from everybody but me. When I came to the ante-chamber to wait before prayers, Dr. Swift was the principal man of talk and business, and acted as a Master of Requests. He was soliciting the Earl of Arran to speak to his brother, the Duke of Ormond, to get a chaplain's place established in the garrison of Hull for a clergyman in that neighbourhood, who had been lately in jail, and published sermons to pay fees. He was promising Mr. Thorold to undertake with my Lord Treasurer that, according to his petition, he should obtain a salary of 2001. per annum as minister of the English church at Rotterdam. He stopped F. Gwynne, Esq., going in with a red bag to the Queen, and told him aloud he had something to say to him from the Lord Treasurer. He talked to the son of Dr. Davenant, to be sent abroad, and took out his pocket-book and wrote down several things as memoranda for him to do. He turned to the fire and took out his gold watch, and telling him the time of day, complained it was very late. A gentleman said he was too fast. "How can I help it," said the Doctor, "if the courtiers give me a watch that wont go right?" Then he instructed a young nobleman that the best poet in England was Mr. Pope, a Papist, who had begun a translation of Homer into English verse, for which he must have them all subscribe; "for," says he, the author shall not begin to print till I have a thousand guineas for him." Lord Treasurer, after leaving the Queen, came through the room beckoning Dr. Swift to follow him. Both went off just before prayers.

POPE'S FIRST LETTER TO SWIFT.

Pope's correspondence with Swift commenced at the close of 1713, and was continued without interruption for twentysix years. Pope was then twenty-five, Swift forty-six. One was barely struggling into the notice of the great; the other had by his talents, and his unscrupulous use of them in political warfare, placed himself in a position to dictate to the proudest peers, and almost solely to pull down one government, and set up another. Pope, however, evinced his sagacity and penetration in his first letter to Swift. He saw how completely his friend had sunk the divine in the wit, how keenly he relished a stroke of satire at the superior clergy and great politicians, and how accessible he was to that deferential style of flattery which seemed equally to elevate Swift's character, talents, and influence. In this letter Pope replies to Swift's proposal of giving him twenty guineas to change

his religion; after making propositions for the salvation of certain souls, Pope adds:

"There is but one more whose salvation I insist upon, and then I have done. But indeed it may prove of so much greater charge than all the rest, that I will only lay the case before you and the ministry, and leave to their prudence and generosity what sum they think fit to bestow upon it.

If

"The person I mean is Dr. Swift, a dignified clergyman, but one who by his own confession has composed more libels than sermons. it be true, what have heard often affirmed by innocent people, that too much wit is dangerous to salvation, this unfortunate gentleman must certainly be damned to all eternity. But I hope his long experience in the world, and frequent conversation with great men, will cause him (as it has some others) to have less and less wit every day. Be it as it will, I should not think my own soul deserved to be saved, if I did not endeavour to save his; for I have all the obligations in nature to him. He has brought me into better company than I cared for, made me merrier when I was sick than I had a mind to be, and put me upon making poems, on purpose that he might alter them, &c.

"I once thought I could never have discharged my debt to his kindness; but have lately been informed, to my unspeakable comfort, that I have more than paid it all. For Mons. de Montagne has assured me 'that the person who receives a benefit obliges the giver:' for since the chief endeavour of one friend is to do good to the other, he who administers both the matter and the occasion, is the man who is liberal. At this rate it is impossible Dr. Swift should ever be out of my debt, as matters stand already. And for the future, he may expect daily more obligations from

"His most faithful, affectionate, humble servant,
"A. POPE."

SWIFT AT HIS CLUBS AND COFFEE-HOUSES.

Soon after Queen Anne's accession, Swift, in one of his frequent excursions to London, formed that invaluable acquaintance with Addison, which party-spirit afterwards cooled, though it could not extinguish; with Steele, with Arbuthnot, and with the other wits of the age, who used to assemble at Button's coffee-house.*

* Button's coffee-house, " over against Tom's, on the south side of Russell-street, Covent Garden," was established in 1712, and thither Addison transferred the company from Tom's. In July, 1713, a Lion's Head, " a proper emblem of knowledge and action, being all head and paws, was set up at Button's, in imitation of the celebrated Lion at Venice, to receive letters and papers for the Guardian. Here the wits of that time used to assemble; and among them, Addison, Pope, Steele, Swift, Arbuthnot, Count Viviani, Savage, Budgell, Philips, Davenant, and Colonel Brett; and here it was that Philips hung up a birchen rod, with which he threatened to chastise Pope for "a biting epigram." -Curiosities of London.