was no great mob when he passed through the Pall-Mall, but there was in the city: and he was hissed by more than huzzaed. At Templebar, I am assured, the noise of hissing was loudest, though they had prepared their friends to receive him, and the gathering of others was only accidental. You may guess how great a favourite he is, by some old stories of his behaviour at the camp, when was there, and afterward at Hanover; and by the share he and his family have in the regency. But to be sure, this discreet action will endear him more than any subject in England. We had bonfires, &c. at night. From the list of lords justices and some other things, we imagine to ourselves there will not be many changes; but the vacancies for some time will be filled up with whigs. What I blotted out in my last, was something that passed between the captain and Barber, relating to you. After I had writ, they told me all letters would be opened, which made me blot out that passage. Barber says, he gave you some account of it, though not a full one. I really believe Lord Bolingbroke was very sincere in the professions he made to you, and he could have done any thing. No minister was ever in that height of favour: and Lady Mashain was at least in as much credit, as she had been in any time of her life. But these are melancholy reflections. Pray send me your poem. † Hoc erat, &c. or * Lord Bolingbroke.---N. + Swift's imitation of part of the sixth satire of the second book of Horace: I often wish'd that I had clear, For life, six hundred pounds a-year, &c. VOL. XVI. bring it up yourself. Barber told me he had been several hours with the captain, upon a thing that should have come out, but was now at an end. * He did not tell what it was; and I would not ask many questions, for fear of giving him suspicion. FROM ERASMUS LEWIS, ESQ. SIR, Whitehall, August 7, 1714. It is true you have nothing to do here; but what have you to do any where else till you go to Ireland, where you must indeed be before three months end, in order to qualify yourself? The law requires it, as much as if your deanery was but now conferred upon you. We are as time. time. We to rule us. Arbuthnot is removed to Chelsea, and will settle there. The town fills every moment. full in the house of commons as at any are gaping and staring to see who is The whigs think they shall engross all. We think we shall have our share. In the mean time we have no division at council, or in parliament. I sent twice to Kensington to inquire after Lady Masham's health. Next week I will go to see her, and will keep up my acquaintance, in all events, if she thinks fit. I doubt she and her sister are not perfectly easy in their affairs; but you forgot one who is worse than either, that is Mrs Hill, who has not a sous. I will stay here till our commission is either renewed to us, or given to another. I am yours, &c. "Free Thoughts." MADAM, TO LADY MASHAM. August 7, 1714. I HAD the honour of a letter from your ladyship a week ago; and the day after, came the unfortunate news of the queen's death, which made it altogether unseasonable, as perhaps it may be still, to give your ladyship this kind of trouble. Although my concern be as great as that of any other good subject, for the loss of so excellent a princess, yet I can assure you, madam, it is little to what I suffer upon your ladyship's particular account. As you excel in the several duties of a tender mother, a true friend, and a loving wife, so you have been the best and most faithful servant to your mistress, that ever any sovereign had. And although you have not been rewarded suitably to your merits, I doubt not but God will make it up to you in another life, and to your children and posterity in this. I cannot go about to comfort your ladyship in your great affliction, otherwise than by begging you to make use of your own piety, and your own wisdom, of both which you have so great a share. You are no longer a servant; but you are still a wife, a mother, and a friend; and you are bound in conscience to take care of your health, in order to acquit yourself of these duties, as well as you did of the other, which is now at an end. I pray God to support your ladyship, under so great a share of load, in this general calamity; and remain, with the greatest respect and truth, madam, your ladyship's most obedient, and most obliged servant, JON. SWIFT. I most heartily thank your ladyship for the favourable expressions and intentions in your letter, written at a time when you were at the height of favour and power. TO LORD BOLINGBROKE. MY LORD, August 7, 1714. I HAD yours of the third; and our country post is so ordered, that I could acknowledge it no sooner, It is true, my lord, the events of five days last week might furnish morals for another volume of Seneca. As to my Lord Oxford, I told him freely my opinion before I left the town, that he ought to resign at the end of the session. I said the same thing often to your lordship and my Lady Masham, although you seemed to think otherwise, for some reasons; and said so to him one afternoon, when I met you there with my lord-chancellor. But, I remember, one of the last nights I saw him (it was at Lady Masham's lodgings) I said to him, . "That, upon the foot your lordship and he then were, it was impossible you could serve together two months:" and, I think, I was just a week out in my calculation. I am only sorry, that it was not a resignation, rather than a removal: because the personal kindness and distinction I always received from his lordship and you, gave me such a love for you both (if you great men will allow that expression in a little one) that I resolved to preserve it entire, however you differed between yourselves; and in this I did, for some time, follow your commands and example.. I impute it more to the can dour of each of you, than to my own conduct, that having been, for two years, almost the only man who went between you, I never observed the least alteration in either of your countenances towards me. I will swear for no man's sincerity, much less for that of a minister of state: but thus much I have said, wherever it was proper, that your lordship's proposals were always the fairest in the world, and I faithfully delivered them as I was empowered: and although I am no very skilful man at intrigue, yet I durst forfeit my head, that if the case were mine, I could either have agreed with you, or put you dans votre tort. When I saw all reconcilia tion impracticable, I thought fit to retire; and was resolved, for some reasons (not to be mentioned at this distance) to have nothing to do with whomever was to be last in. For either I should not be needed, or not be made use of. And let the case be what it would, I had rather be out of the way. All I pretended was, to speak my thoughts freely, to represent persons and things without any mingle of my interest or passions, and sometimes to make use of an evil instrument, which was likely to cost me dear, even from those for whose service it was employed. I did believe there would be no farther occasion for me, upon any of those accounts. Besides, I had so ill an opinion of the queen's health, that I was confident you had not a quarter of time left for the work you had to do; having let slip the opportunity of cultivating those dispositions she had got after her sickness at Windsor. I never left pressing my Lord Oxford with the utmost earnestness (and perhaps more than became me) that we might be put in such a condition, as not to lie at mercy on this great event: and I am your lordship's witness that you have nothing to answer for 1 |