⚫ becaufe (added the bifhop) the fituation of Derry is in the midst of Prefbyterians, and I fhould be glad of a clergyman, who might be of affiftance " to me. I have no objection to Mr. Swift. I ⚫ know him to be a fprightly ingenious young man ; ⚫ but instead of refiding, I dare fay he will be eternally flying backwards and forwards to London ; ⚫ and therefore I entreat that he may be provided for in fome other place."

Swift was accordingly fet afide on account of youth, and from the year 1702, to the change of the miniftry in the year 1710, few circumftances of his life can be found fufficiently material to be inferted here. From this laft period, 'till the death of Queen Anne, we find him fighting on the fide of the Tories, and maintaining their caufe in pam phlets, poems, and weekly papers. In one of his letters to Mr. Pope he has this expreffion, I

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have conversed, in some freedom, with more minifters of ftate, of all parties, than ufually happens to men of my level; and, I confefs, in their capacity as minifters I look upon them as a race of people, whofe acquaintance no man ⚫ would court otherwife, than on the fcore of vanity and ambition.' A man always appears of more confequence to himself, than he is in reality to any other perfon. Such, perhaps, was the cafe of Dr. Swift. He knew how ufeful he was to the adminiftration in general, and in one of his letters he mentions, that the place of hiftoriographer was intended for him; but in this particular he flattered himself; at least, he remained without any preferment 'till the year 1713, when he was made dean of St. Patrick's. In point of power and revenue, fuch a deanery might be efteemed no inconfidera ble promotion; but to an ambitious mind, whose perpetual view was a fettlement in England, a dignity in any other country must appear only a

pro

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profitable and an honourable kind of banishment. It is very probable, that the temper of Swift might occafion his English friends to wish him promoted at a diftance. His fpirit was ever untractable. The motions of his genius were often irregular. He affumed more of the air of a patron, than of a friend. He affected rather to dictate than advife. He was elated with the appearance of en`joying minifterial confidence. He enjoyed the fhadow indeed, but the fubftance was detained from him. He was employed, not entrusted; and at the fame time he imagined himself a fubtle diver, who dextrously fhot down into the profoundest regions of politics, he was fuffered only to found the shallows nearest the fhore, and was fcarce admitted to defcend below the froth at the top. Swift was one of those strange kind of Tories, who lord Bolingbroke, in his letter to Sir William Wyndham, calls the Whimsicals, that is, they were Tories attach'd to the Hanoverian fucceffion. This kind of Tory is fo incongruous a creature, that it is a wonder ever fuch a one exifted. Mrs. Pilkington informs us, that Swift had written A Defence of the laft Minifters of Queen Anne, from an intention of restoring the Pretender, which Mr. Pope advised him to deftroy, as not one word of it was true. Bolingbroke, by far the most accomplished man in that miniftry (for Oxford was, in comparifon of him, a ftatefman of no compafs) certainly aimed at the restoration of the exiled family, however he might difguife to fome people his real intentions, under the mafque of being a Hanoverian Tory. This ferves to corroberate the obfervation which lord Orrery makes of Swift: that he was employed, not trusted, &c.'

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By reflexions of this fort, fays lord Orrery, we may account for his disappointment of an English bifhopric. A disappointment, which, he imagined, he owed to a joint application made against him

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to the Queen, by Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York, and by a lady of the highest rank and character. Archbishop Sharpe, according to Swift's account, had reprefented him, to the Queen as a perfon, who was no Chriftian; the great lady had fupported the affertion, and the Queen, upon fuch af furances, had given away the bishopric, contrary to her Majesty's intentions. Swift kept himself, indeed, within fome tolerable bounds when he spoke of the Queen; but his indignation knew no limits when he mentioned the archbishop, or the lady.

Moft people are fond of a fettlement in their native. country, but Swift had not much reafon to rejoice in the land where his lot had fallen; for upon his arrival in Ireland to take poffeffion of the deanery, he found the violence of party raging in that kingdom to the highest degree. The common people were taught to confider him as a Jacobite, and they proceeded fo far in their deteftation, as to throw ftones and dirt, at him as he paffed thro' the ftreets. The chapter of St. Patrick's, like the reft of the kingdom, received him with great reluctance. They oppofed him in every point he propofed. They avoided him as a peftilence, and refifted him, as an invader and an enemy to his country. Such was his firft reception, as dean of St. Patrick's. Fewer talents, and lefs firmness. must have yielded to fo outrageous an oppofition. He had feen enough of human nature to be convinced that the paffions of low, felf-interested minds ebb and flow continually. They love they know not whom, they hate they know not why. They are captivated by words, guided by names, and governed by accidents. But to fhew the ftrange revolutions in this world, Dr. Swift, who was now the deteftation of the Irish rabble, lived to be afterwards the most abfolute monarch over them, that ever governed men. His first step was to reduce to reafon and obedience his revd. brethren

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the chapter of St. Patrick's; in which he fucceeded fo perfectly, and fo fpeedily, that, in a fhort time after his arrival, not one member in that bo dy offered to contradict him, even in trifles: on the contrary, they held him in the higheft refpect and veneration, so that he fat in the Chapter-Houfe, like Jupiter in the Synod of the Gods.

In the beginning of the year 1714 Swift returned to England. He found his great friends, who fat in the feat of power, much difunited. among themfelves. He faw the Queen declining in her health, and diftreffed in her fituation while faction was exerting itself, and gathering new ftrength every day. He exerted the utmost of his fkill to unite the ministers, and to cement the apertures of the ftate: but he found his pains fruitlefs, his arguments unavailing, and his endeavours, like the ftone of Sifyphus, rolling back upon himself. He retired to a friend's house in Berkshire, where he remained 'till the Queen died. So fatal an event terminated all his views in England, and made him return as fast as poffible to his deanery in Ireland, oppreffed with grief and difcontent. His hopes in England were now crushed for ever. As Swift was well known to have been attached to the Queen's last ministry, he met with feveral indignities from the populace, and, indeed, was equally abufed by perfons of all ranks and denominations. Such a treatment foured his temper, confined his acquaintance, and added bitter nefs to his ftile.

From the year 1714, 'till he appeared in the year 1720 a champion for Ireland, against Wood's halfpence, his fpirit of politics and patriotism was kept almoft clofely confined within his own breast. Idleness and trifles engroffed too many of his lei fure hours; fools and fycophants too much of his converfation. His attendance upon the public service of the church was regular and uninterrupted;

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and indeed regularity was peculiar to all his actions, even in the meereft trifles. His hours of walking and reading never varied. His motions. were guided by his watch, which was fo conftantly held in his hand, or placed before him on the table, that he feldom deviated many minutes in the revolution of his exercises and employments. In the year 1720 he began to re-affume, in fome degree, the character of a political writer. A fmall pamphlet in defence of the Irish Manufactures was his firft effay in Ireland in that kind of: writing, and to that pamphlet he owed the turn of the popular tide in his favour. It was entitled, A Propofal for the Univerfal Use of Irish Manufacture in Clothes and Furniture of Houses, &c. utterly rejecting and renouncing every thing wearable that comes from England. This propofal immediately raised a very violent flame. The Printer was profecuted, and the profecution had the fame effect, which generally attends thofe kind of meafures. It added fuel to flame. But his greatest enemies must confefs, that the pamphlet is written in the ftile of a man who had the good of his country nearest his heart, who faw her errors, and wifhed to correct them; who felt her oppreffions, and wished to relieve them; and who had a defire to rouze, and awaken an indolent nation from a lethargic difpofition, that might prove fatal to her conftitution. This temporary oppofition but increafed the fream of his popularity. He was now looked upon in a new light, and was distinguished by the title of THE DEAN, and fo high a degree of popularity did he attain, as to become an arbitrator, in difputes of property, amongft his neighbours; nor did any man dare to appeal from his opinion, or murmur at his decrees.

But the popular affection, which the dean had hitherto acquired, may be faid not to have been univerfal, till the publication of the Drapier's

Letters,