your lordship the ablest and faithfullest minister, and truest lover of your country, that this age has produced and I have already taken care that you shall be so represented to posterity, in spite of all the rage and malice of your enemies. And this I know will not be wholly indifferent to your lordship; who, next to a good conscience, always esteemed reputation your best possession. Your intrepid behaviour under this prosecution astonishes every one but me, who know you so well, and how little it is in the power of human actions or events to discompose you. I have seen your lordship labouring under greater difficulties, and exposed to greater dangers, and overcoming both, by the providence of God, and your own wisdom and courage. Your life has been already attempted by private malice; it is now pursued by publick resentment. Nothing else remained. You were destined to both trials; and the same power, which delivered you out of the paws of the lion and the bear, will, I trust, deliver you out of the hands of the uncircumcised. I can write no more. You suffer for a good cause; for having preserved your country, and for having been the great instrument, under God, of his present majesty's peaceable accession to the throne. This I know, and this your enemies know; and this I will take care that all the world shall know, and future ages be convinced of. God Almighty protect you, and continue to you that fortitude and magnanimity he has endowed you with! Farewell. JON. SWIFT. FROM DR. FREIND *. MR. DEAN, Westm. Sept. 20, 1715, I AM much obliged to lady Kerry for giving you an occasion of writing, and shall always be pleased in receiving any commands from you. Mr. Fitzmaurice is very promising, and a favourite of mine already. I had never seen or heard from any one that was concerned for him, till I had the favour of yours; but as I had taken a particular notice of him on his own account, I shall now do it much more upon yours. This will be brought to you by your kinsman, Mr. Rolt. I am glad I can tell you, that he has behaved himself very well here. He is not of the highest sort, but is very sober and industrious, and will work out his way, and I believe, deserve any encouragement you are pleased to give him. Things are in an odd posture with us at present; and the state of banishment you are in, may be endured with, out much regret; however, I shall hope in a little time to see you here, when more of your friends are in town. The bishop and my brother are much yours, and very desirous of a happy meeting with you. Before this can be with you, you will be able to guess how soon that may happen. And may it be as soon as is wished by, sir, Your most obedient and faithful humble servant, R. FREIND, * Robert Freind, D.D., master of Westminster school. B FROM THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND. SIR, Oct. 17, 1715. I WAS extremely pleased to find you had not forgot your friends, when it is so hard for them to write you, and by their concern for you, put you in mind of them. But I find no misfortunes can lessen your friendship, which is so great, as to blind you of the side of their faults, and make you believe you see virtues in them, it were happy for them they enjoyed in any degree; for, I am sure, some of those you named are much wanted at this time. I was, as you heard, very well pleased, that my friend* was safe as to his person, but very uneasy at seeing his reputation so treated. As to his fortune, it is yet in dispute. However, as long as he is wel!, I am satisfied. It is with difficulty I do hear; but now and then a straggling body brings me an account of him : for there has been no encouragement to write by the post, all letters miscarrying, that either he or I have wrote that way, that we have given it over now, and trust to accident for the news of each other. I hope I shall hear from you oftener than I have done for some months past: for no friend you have has more respect for you, than your most humble servant. Your niece Betty† is your humble servant. * The duke, who being suspected of treasonable practices, or designs, went abroad. H. + Her grace's daughter. H. TO MR. POPE. Dublin, Jan. 28, 1715-16. My lord bishop of Clogher gave me your kind letter full of reproaches for my not writing. I am naturally no very exact correspondent, and when I leave a country without probability of returning, I think as seldom as I can of what I loved or esteemed in it, to avoid the desiderium which of all things makes life most uneasy. But you must give me leave to add one thing, that you talk at your ease, being wholly unconcerned in publick events: for, if your friends the whigs continue, you may hope for some favour; if the tories return t, you are at least sure of quiet. You know how well I loved both lord Oxford and Bolingbroke, and how dear the duke of Ormond is to me: do you imagine I can be easy while their enemies are endeavouring to take off their heads; I nunc, & versus tecum meditaré canoros· -Do you imagine I can be easy, when I think of the probable consequences of these proceedings perhaps upon the * Dr. St. George Ashe, formerly a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, (to whom the Dean was a pupil) afterward bishop of Clogher, 1697; and translated to the see of Derry in 1716-17. It was he who married Swift to Mrs. Johnson, 1716-17; and performed the ceremony in a garden. Dr. WARTON. In a manuscript letter of lord Bolingbroke it is said, "that George I. set out from Hanover with a resolution of oppressing no set of men that would be quiet subjects. But as soon as he came into Holland a contrary resolution was taken at the earnest importunity of the allies, and particularly of Heinsius, and some of the whigs. Lord Townshend came triumphing to acquaint lord Somers with all the measures of proscription and of persecution which they intended, and to which the king had at last consented. The old peer asked what he meant, and shed tears on the foresight of measures like those of the Roman Triumvirate." DR. WARTON. very peace of the nation, but certainly of the minds of so many hundred thousand good subjects? Upon the whole, you may truly attribute my silence to the eclipse, but it was that eclipse which happened on the first of August*. I borrowed your Homer from the bishop (mine is not yet landed) and read it out in two evenings. If it pleases others as well as me, you have got your end in profit and reputation: yet I am angry at some bad rhymes and triplets, and pray in your next do not let me have so many unjustifiable rhymes + to war and gods. I tell you all the faults I know, only in one or two places you are a little obscure: but I expected you to be so in one or two and twenty. I have heard no foul talk of it here, for indeed it is not come over; nor do we very much abound in judges, at least I have not the honour to be acquainted with them. Your notes are perfectly good, and so are your preface and essay. You were pretty bold in mentioning lord Bolingbroke in that preface. I saw the Key to the Lock but yesterday: I think you have changed it a good deal, to adapt it to the present times §. God be thanked I have yet no parliamentary business, and if they have none with me, I shall never The day of queen Anne's demise, 1714. Dr. WARTON. + He was frequently carping at Pope for many rhymes in many other parts of his works. His own were remarkably exact. Dr. WARTON. Given to him by Parnell; and with which Pope told Mr. Spence, he was very well satisfied, though he corrected it again and again. Dr. WARTON. Put these last two observations together, and it will appear, that Mr. Pope was never wanting to his friends for fear of party, nor would he insult a ministry to humour them. He said of himself, and I believe he said truly, that "he never wrote a line to gratify the animosity of any one party at the expence of another," See the Letter to a noble Lord." WARBURTON. |