our adversaries continue strenuously to assert otherwise; and very industriously give out, that the lordtreasurer is at the bottom: which has given some jealousies not only to his best friends, but to some I shall not name; yet I am confident they do him wrong. This formidable journey is the perpetual subject both of court and coffeehouse chat. :

Our mysterious and unconcerted ways of proceeding have, as it is natural, taught every body to be refiners, and to reason themselves into a thousand various conjectures. Even I, who converse most with people in power, am not free from this evil: and particularly, I thought myself twenty times in the right, by drawing conclusions very regularly from premises which have proved wholly wrong. I think this, however, to be a plain proof that we act altogether by chance; and that the game, such as it is, plays itself.

By the present enclosed in your excellency's letter, I find the Sicilians to be bad delineators, and worse poets. As sneakingly as the prince looks at the bishop's foot, I could have made him look ten times worse, and have done more right to the piece, by placing your excellency there, representing your mistress the queen, and delivering the crown to the bishop, with orders where to place it. I should like your new king very well, if he would make Sicily his constant residence, and use Savoy only as a commendam. Old books have given me great ideas of that island. I imagine every acre there worth three in England; and that a wise prince, in such a situation, would, after some years, be able to make what figure he pleased in the Mediterranean.

The Duke of Shrewsbury, not liking the weather on our side the water, continues in Ireland, although

he formally took his leave there six weeks ago. Tont Harley is every hour expected here, and writes me word, he has succeeded at Hanover to his wishes.". Lord Stafford writes the same, and gives himself no little merit upon it.

Barber the printer, was, some time ago, in great distress, upon printing a pamphlet, of which evil tongues would needs call me the author: * he was brought before your house, which addressed the queen in a body, who kindly published a proclamation with three hundred pounds to discover. The fault was, calling the Scots "a fierce poor northern people." So well protected are those who scribble for the government! Upon which, I now put one query to your excellency, What has a man without employment to do among ministers, when he can neither serve himself, his friends, nor the public?

In my former letter, which I suppose was sent to Paris to meet you there, I gave you joy of the government of Minorca. One advantage you have of being abroad, that you keep your friends; and I can name almost a dozen great men, who thoroughly hate one another, yet all love your lordship. If you have a mind to preserve their friendship, keep at a distance; or come over, and show your power, by reconciling at least two of them; and remember, at the same time, that this last is an impossibility. If your excellency were here, I would speak to you without any constraint; but the fear of accidents in the conveyance of the letter, makes me keep to generals. I am sure you would have prevented a

"The Public Spirit of the Whigs." See the lord-treasurer's letter on this subject, under a feigned name, inclosing a bill to defray the expence of the publisher's defence.

great deal of ill, if you had continued among us; but people of my level must be content to have their opinion asked, and to see it not followed ; although I have always given it with the utmost freedom and impartiality. I have troubled you too much; and as a long letter from you is the most agreeable thing one can receive, so the most agreeable return would be a short one.

I am ever, with

the greatest respect and truth, my Lord, Your excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant,

JON. SWIFT,

FROM CHIVERTON CHARLTON, ESQ.

CAPTAIN OF THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD.

May 22, 1714.

SIR,

HEARING from honest John, *that you still persist in your resolution of retiring into the country, I cannot but give you my thoughts of it, at the same time that I am sensible how intruding it may appear in me to trouble you with what I think; but you have an unlucky quality, which exposes you to the forwardness of those who love you: I

* John Barber, then the Dean's printer; in 1722 an alderman, and in 1733 lord-mayor of London. This expostulation, was written when the Dean having failed in every effect to reconcile Oxford and Bolingbroke, retired into the country to avoid be holding the consequences of their disunion.

mean good-nature. From which, though I did not always suspect you guilty of it, I now promise myself an easy pardon. So that without being in much pain as to the censure you may pass upon my assurance, I shall go on gravely to tell you I am entirely against your design.

I confess a just indignation at several things, and particularly at the return your services have met with, may give you a disgust to the court; and that retirement may afford a pleasing prospect to you, who have lived so long in the hurry, and have borne so great a share of the load of business; and the more so at this juncture, when the distraction among your friends is enough to make any one sick of a courtier's life. But on these very accounts you should choose to stay, and convince the world that you are as much above private resentment, where the public is concerned, as you are incapable of being tired out in the service of your country; and that you are neither afraid nor unwilling to face a storm in a good cause.

It is true, you have less reason than any one I know, to regard what the world says of you; for I know none, to whom the world has been more unjust. Yet, since the most generous revenge is to make the ungrateful appear yet more ungrateful, you should still persecute the public with fresh obligations; and the rather, because some there are of a temper to acknowledge benefits; and it is to be hoped the rest may not always continue stupid. At least (suppose the worst) the attempt to do good carries along with it a secret satisfaction, with which if you are not sensibly affected, I am at a loss how to account for many of your actions. I remember very well, what you have sometimes said upon this subject; as if you were now grown useless, &c.

To which I have this to answer, that though your efforts are in vain to-day, some unforeseen incident may make them otherwise to-morrow; and that, should you by your absence lose any happy opportunity, you will be the first to reproach yourself with running away, and be the last man in the world to pardon it. If I denied self-interest to be at the bottom of all I have said, I know you would think I lied villanously, and perhaps not think amiss neither; for I still flatter myself with the continuance of that favour you have on many occasions been pleased to shew me; and am vain enough to fancy I should be a considerable loser, if you were where I could not have an opportunity of clubbing my shilling with you now and then at good eating. But as much as I am concerned on this account, I am not so selfish to say what I have done, if it were not my real opinion; which, whether you regard or not, I could not deny myself the satisfaction of speaking it, and of assuring you, that I am, with the utmost sincerity and respect, Sir, your most obliged, and most faithful humble servant, CH. CHARLTON.

My lady duchess, I can answer for her, is very much your servant, though I have not her commands to say so. She is gone to see the Duke of Beaufort, who is so ill it is feared he cannot recover. She went this morning so early, I have had no particular account how he is: but am told, he does nothing but doze. The messenger came to her at three in the morning; and she went away immediately afterward.

*Of Ormond.-H.