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Oxford was arrested and imprisoned, and Swift wrote to him with a touching earnestness to request that he might be permitted to attend him in his confinement. Lord Oxford however refused to accede to his request. Bolingbroke and Ormond fled to France, and Swift returned to Ireland.

Harley, who, though he maintained the most friendly and confidential intercourse with Swift, seems not at first to have properly appreciated his character, or understood his views, sent him a note for 501., which Swift indignantly returned, and obstinately refused his invitation till he had made an apology. It was in this hour of trial that Arbuthnot used the memorable expressions: "Dean Swift keeps up his noble spirit, and, though like a man knocked down, you may behold him still with a stern countenance, and aiming a blow at his adversaries."

DRAPIER'S LETTERS.

In 1723, there being a scarcity of copper coin in Ireland, George I. granted to William Wood a patent right to coin farthings and halfpence to the amount of 108,000l. The grant was made without consulting the lord-lieutenant or privy council of Ireland: it had been obtained by the influence of the Duchess of Kendal, the king's mistress, who was to have a share of the profits. The Irish parliament remonstrated, of which no notice was taken, when a voice was heard which apparently arose from one of the trading classes: a letter was published signed "M. B., drapier [draper], Dublin," and was followed by five or six more. The effect of these letters is known. All Ireland was roused. No one would touch the contaminated coin. A reward of 300l. was offered for the discovery of the author of the Drapier's fourth letter. A bill against the printer was about to be presented to the grand jury, when the Dean addressed to them "Some seasonable Advice;" and the memorable quotation from Scripture was circulated, "And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan that he died not." The grand jury wrote "ignoramus" on the bill, and Judge Whitshed could only vent his rage by dismissing them. Ultimately the patent was withdrawn, and Wood was compensated by a grant

of 30007. yearly for twelve years. Thus victoriously terminated the first grand struggle for the independence of Ireland. Some interesting traits of Swift's presence of mind on this occasion are related. He went to the levee of the lord-lieutenant, burst through the circle with which he was surrounded, and, in a firm and stern voice, demanded of Lord Carteret the meaning of these severities against a poor industrious tradesman, who had published two or three papers designed for the good of his country. Carteret, to whom Swift was personally well known, and who could have no doubt of his being the author of the Drapier's Letters, evaded the expostulation by an apt and elegant quotation from Virgil:

"Res dura, et regni novitas, me talia cogunt

Moliri."

The courtly circle, astounded at the daring conduct of Swift, were delighted and reassured by the lord-lieutenant's presence of mind and urbanity.

A servant, named Robert Blakeley, whom the Dean intrusted to copy out and convey to the press the Drapier's Letters, chanced one evening to absent himself without leave. His master charged him with treachery, and, upon his exculpation, insisted that at least he neglected his duties as a servant, because he conceived his master was in his power. "Strip your livery," he commanded, "begone from the Deanery instantly, and do the worst to revenge yourself that you dare do." The man retired, more grieved that his master doubted his fidelity, than moved by this harsh treatment. He was replaced at the intercession of Stella; and Swift afterwards rewarded his fidelity, by the office of verger in the cathedral of St. Patrick's. It is also related that while Harding, the printer, was in jail, Swift actually visited him in the disguise of an Irish country clown, or spalpeen. Some of the printer's family or friends, who chanced to visit him at the same time, were urging him to earn his own release, by informing against the author of the Drapier's Letters. Harding replied steadily, that he would rather perish in jail before he would be guilty of such treachery and baseness. All this passed in Swift's presence, who sat beside them in silence, and heard, with apparent indifference, a discussion which might be said to involve his ruin. He came and departed without being known to any one but Harding.

E

THE DEAN VERY POPULAR.

The Drapier's head became a sign, his portrait was engraved, woven upon handkerchiefs, struck upon medals, and displayed in every possible manner, as the liberator of Ireland. A club was formed in honour of the patriot, who held regular meetings to commemorate his excellences, study his doctrines, and carouse to his health. To the honour of the warmhearted and generous people for whom he exposed his safety, the sun of Swift's popularity shone unclouded even after he was incapable of distinguishing its radiance. While he was able to go abroad, a thousand popular benedictions attended his steps, and if he visited a town where he was not usually resident, his reception resembled that of a sovereign prince. The slightest idea of personal danger to THE DEAN, for by that title he was generally distinguished, aroused a whole district in his defence; and when, on one occasion, Walpole meditated his arrest, his proposal was checked by a prudent friend, who inquired if he could spare ten thousand soldiers to guard the messenger who should execute so perilous a commission.

At the lord mayor's entertainment, the archbishop publicly charged Swift with having inflamed the prejudices of the people against him. "I inflame them!" retorted Swift, conscious of his power among the lower orders, "had I lifted my finger, they would have torn you to pieces,"—a threat which he afterwards expressed in poetry.

One of the latest, as well as the most eloquent panegyrics which have decorated his monument, occurs in A Sketch of the State of Ireland, 1810, and is a just and concise character of the Dean of St. Patrick's, viewed as an Irish patriot:

"On this gloom one luminary rose, and Ireland worshipped it with Persian idolatry; her true patriot-her first, almost her last. Sagacious and intrepid-he saw, he dared; above suspicion, he was trusted; above envy, he was beloved; above rivalry, he was obeyed. His wisdom was practical and prophetic-remedial for the present, warning for the future; he first taught Ireland that she might become a nation, and England that she must cease to be a despot. But he was a churchman. His gown impeded his course, and entangled his efforts,-guiding a senate, or heading an army, he had been more than Cromwell, and Ireland not less than England. As it was, he saved her by his courageimproved her by his authority-adorned her by his talents-and exalted her by his fame. His mission was but of ten years; and for ten years only did his personal power mitigate the government; but though no longer feared by the great, he was not forgotten by the wise; his influence, like his writings, has survived a century; and the foundations

of whatever prosperity we have since erected, are laid in the disinterested and magnanimous patriotism of Swift."

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.

In his retirement with Stella and Mrs. Dingley, a country house belonging to Dr. Sheridan, about seven miles from Kells, Swift occupied himself in finishing, correcting, amending, and transcribing Gulliver's Travels, to be published, he intimated, so soon as he could find a printer courageous enough to venture his ears. He admitted Sheridan to this secret labour; but when Tickell expressed curiosity to see the treatise on which he was at work, he frankly informed him, that it totally disagreed with his notions of persons and things, and, as if conscious of writing to a Secretary of State, he adds, it would be impossible for Mr. Tickell to find his treasury of waste papers without searching nine houses, and then sending to him for the key. Having completed this celebrated work, the Dean resolved, for the first time since the death of Queen Anne, to revisit England, a purpose which he accomplished in spring, 1726.

Bolingbroke, now returned from his exile, Pope, Arbuthnot, Gay, Bathurst, and other old friends, received him with open arms, and with the melancholy pleasure of sailors who meet after a shipwreck, from which they have escaped by different

means.

In July, the Dean received letters informing him that Stella was in a rapid decline. Swift hastened to Ireland, was there received with all honours; bells were rung, bonfires kindled, and a body of the most respectable citizens escorted their patriot in a sort of triumphal procession from the shore to the Deanery. But he was yet more gratified by finding that Mrs. Johnson was in part recovered, though not to health or strength.

The celebrated Travels of Gulliver were now given to the world, but under the mystery which almost always shadowed Swift's publications. Swift left England in the month of August, and about the same time Motte the bookseller received the manuscript, dropped, he said, at his house in the dark, from a hackney-coach. The work appeared in November following, with several retrenchments and alterations, owing

* The tract here quoted is now known to have been an early produc tion of the Right Honourable J. W. Croker.

to the timidity of the printer. This extraordinary satirical romance was instantly read from the highest to the lowest ; and from the cabinet-council to the nursery. The world was frantic to discover the author; and even his friends, Pope, Gay, Arbuthnot, and others, wrote to Swift, as if they were in doubt on the subject; yet this was feigned, for all his literary brotherhood were more or less acquainted with the work before it was published.

Immediately on the publication, Arbuthnot wrote to Swift as the author, "I will make over all my profits to you for the property of Gulliver's Travels, which I believe will have as great a run as John Bunyan."

Sir Walter Scott has given this admirable précis of the Travels. "Perhaps no work ever exhibited such general attractions to all classes. It offered personal and political satire to the readers in high life, low and coarse incident to the vulgar, marvels to the romantic, wit to the young and lively, lessons of morality and policy to the grave, and maxims of deep and bitter misanthropy to neglected age, and disappointed ambition. The plan of the satire varies in the different parts. The voyage to Lilliput refers chiefly to the court and politics of England, and Sir Robert Walpole is plainly intimated under the character of the Premier Flimnap, which he afterwards probably remembered to the prejudice of the Dean's view of leaving Ireland. The factions of High-Heels and Low-Heels express the factions of Tories and Whigs; the Small-Endians and Big-Endians, the religious divisions of Papist and Protestant. Blefescu is France, and the ingratitude of the Lilliputian court, which forces Gulliver to take shelter there, rather than have his eyes put out, is an indirect reproach upon that of England, and a vindication of the flight of Ormond and Bolingbroke to Paris. Many other allusions may be traced by those well acquainted with the secret history of the reign of George I. The scandal which Gulliver gave to the empress, by his mode of extinguishing the flames in the royal palace, seems to intimate the author's own disgrace with Queen Anne, through the indecorum of the Tale of a Tub."

In the Voyage to Brobdingnag, the satire is of a more general character. A very happy effect is produced by turning the telescope, and painting Gulliver, who had formerly been a giant among the Lilliputians, as a pigmy amidst this tremendous race. Some passages of the court of Brobdingnag were supposed to be intended as an affront upon the maids of

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