SIR,

FROM THE SAME.

London, Friday, July 10, 1714.

WHAT answer shall I send? I am against any alteration; but additions, I think, ought by no means to be allowed. I wish I had called sooner at St Dunstan's;* but I did not expect it would have come out till Thursday, and therefore did not go there till yesterday. Pray let me know what you would have done. Barber was a blockhead to show it at all; but who can help that? Write an answer either for yourself or me; but I beg of you to make no condescensions.

Yesterday put an end to the session, and to your pain. We gained a glorious victory at the house of lords the day before: the attack was made immediately against Arthur Moor, † who appeared at the bar, with the other commissioners of trade. The South Sea company had prepared the way for a censure, by voting him guilty of a breach of

*It appears from a preceding letter, addressed to the feign. ed name of Samuel Bridges, at St Dunstan's Coffeehouse, that Barber, from whom the real author of the "Free Thoughts" had been kept secret, was directed to correspond with those who put the pamphlet into his hands according to that direction. Ford, who was Swift's confident in the matter, was too late in calling for the printer's reply, so did not immediately learn what Barber there acquaints him with, namely, that he had shewn the manuscript to a person who recommended alterations, and whom he justly suspected to be Lord Bolingbroke.

One of the commissioners of trade and plantations, who was accused of being bribed by the court of Spain, to favour that kingdom in the treaty of commerce made between it and England.-B.

trust, and incapable of serving them in any office for the future. This passed without hearing what he had to say in his defence, and had the usual fate of such unreasonable reflections. Those, who proposed the resolutions, were blamed for their violence and the person accused, appearing to be less guilty than they made him, was thought to be more innocent than I doubt he is. The whigs proposed two questions in the house of lords against him, and lost both, one by twelve, and the other, I think, by eighteen votes. Court affairs go on as they did. The cry is still on the Captain's side. * Is not he the person Barber means by one of the best pens in England? It is only my own conjecture, but I can think of nobody else. Have you the queen's speech, the lords address, &c. or shall I send them to you? and do you want a comment? Have Pope and Parnell been to visit you, as they intended?

I had a letter yesterday from Gay, who is at the Hague, and presents his humble service to you. He has writ to Mr Lewis too, but his respect makes him keep greater distance with him and I think mine is the pleasanter letter, which I am sorry for.

We were alarmed by B. † two days ago: he sent Tooke word our friend was ill in the country, which we did not know how to interpret, till he explained it. It was Mrs M. he meant; but she is in no danger. Pray, write immediately, that there may be no farther delay to what we ought to have had a week ago.

* Lord Bolingbroke; alluding to his difference with Lord Oxford.-H.

+ John Barber.-H.

Mrs Manley, the writer of the Atalantis, who at this time lived with Mr Barber.-H.

FROM DR ARBUTHNOT. *

DEAR BROTHER,

Kensington, July 10, 1714.

I HAVE talked of your affairs to nobody but my Lady Masham. † She tells me, "That she has it very much at heart, and would gladly do it for her own sake, and that of her friends; but thinks it not a fit season to speak about it." We are indeed in such a strange condition as to politics, that nobody can tell now who is for who. It were really worth your while to be here for four-andtwenty hours only, to consider the oddness of the scene; I am sure it would make you relish your country life the better.

The dragon holds fast with a dead gripe the little machine. If he would have taken but half so much pains to have done other things as he has of late to exert himself against the esquire, he might have been a Dragon instead of a Dagon. I would no more have suffered and done what he has, than I would have sold myself to the gallies. Hac inter nos. However, they have now got rid of the parliament, and may have time to think of a scheme: perhaps they may have one already. I know no

* Endorsed, “Affairs still worse."

+ This might refer to the Dean's anxious wish to be settled in England; or, perhaps, to the wish the Dean had expressed to be historiographer. See on the latter proposal, the Dean's memorial, and a subsequent letter from Arbuthnot, dated 17th July 1714.

His treasurer's staff.-H.

thing, but it is fit to rally the broken forces under some head or another. They really did very well the last day but one in the house of lords; but yesterday they were in a flame about the queen's answer, till the queen came in and put an end to it.

The dragon showed me your letter, and seemed mightily pleased with it. He has paid ten pounds for a manuscript of which I believe there are several in town. It is a history of the last invasion of Scotland,* wrote just as plain, though not so well, as another history which you and I know, † with characters of all the men now living, the very names, and invitation that was sent to the pretender. This by a flaming jacobite, that wonders all the world are not so. Perhaps it may be a whig, that personates a jacobite. I saw two sheets of the beginning, which was treason every line. If it goes on at the same rate of plain dealing, it is a very extraordinary piece, and worth your while to come up to see it only. Mr Lockhart, they say, owns it. It is no more his than it is mine. Do not be so dogged; but after the first shower, come up to town for a week or so. It is worth your while. Your friends will be glad to see you, and none more than myself. Adieu.

* "Memoirs concerning the Affairs of Scotland, from Queen Anne's accession to the throne, to the commencement of the union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England in May 1707." They were published in 1714, and, notwithstanding Arbuthnot's doubts on the subject, were really written by Mr Lockhart of Carnwath.

+ History of the Four last Years,

FROM LORD BOLINGBROKE. *

July 13, 1714.

I NEVER laughed, my dear Dean, at your leaving the town on the contrary, I thought the resolution of doing so, at the time when you took it, a very wise one. But I confess, I laughed, and very heartily too, when I heard that you affected to find, within the village of Letcombe, all your heart desired. In a word, I judged of you, just as you tell me in your letter that I should judge. If my grooms did not live a happier life than I have done this great while, I am sure they would quit my service. Be pleased to apply this reflection. Indeed I wish I had been with you, with Pope and Parnell, quibus neque animi candidiores. In a little time, perhaps, I may have leisure to be happy. I continue in the same opinions and resolutions as you left me in; I will stand or fall by them. Adieu. No alteration in my fortune or circumstances can alter that sincere friendship with which I am, dear Dean, yours.

I fancy you will have a visit from that great politician and casuist, the duke. § He is at Oxford with Mr Clarke.

*Endorsed, "Lord Bolingbroke, on my retiring."-N. + Who had both visited Swift in his retirement at Letcombe. An odd hope to be expressed by one, who, at that moment, conceived himself almost certain of becoming prime-minister. § Perhaps the Duke of Ormond....H.

|| George Clarke, doctor of laws, fellow of All Souls, who had been secretary to Prince George of Denmark as lord high