but he is in the county of Wicklow.-If we could have notice of any thing in good time, I cannot but think that, mustering up friends, something might be done for Barclay; but really the primate's life is not upon a very good foot, though I see no sudden apprehensions. I could upon any occasion write to him very freely, and I believe my writing would be of some weight, for they say he is not wholly governed by Crosse. * All this may be vision; however, you will forgive it. I do not care to put my name to a letter; you must know my hand. I present my humble service to Mrs Cope; and wonder she can be so good to remember an absent man, of whom she has no manner of knowledge, but what she got by his troubling her. I wish you success in what you hint to me, and that you may have enough of this world's wisdom to manage it. it. Pray God preserve you and your fireside. Are none of them yet in your lady's opinion ripe for Sheridan? I am still under the discipline

* Rector of St Mary's, Dublin.-F. Reading the name of Crosse in this page gives me reason to apprehend the letter is misdated For Crosse, who had been chaplain to the Smyrna company, was not rector of St Mary's until the year 1722; nor do I believe he was at all known in Ireland, further than, perhaps, by name, until his arrival there, when, by the virulence of party rage, Dean Francis, an old tory, father to Mr Francis, who translated Horace, was most spitefully turned out of the rectory of St Mary's, which he had enjoyed for eighteen years. Crosse was so universally detested for accepting a living, which had been absolutely refused by two or three others of the clergy (particularly by Dr Cobb, who lived to be promoted several years after to the archiepiscopal see of Dublin) that I am sure Lindsay, who was an old and high tory, would scorn to be acquainted with him. My real opinion is, that Crosse, in that passage, is no more than a pun.-D. S.

of the bark, to prevent relapses. Charles Ford comes this summer to Ireland. Adieu.

FROM SIR THOMAS HANMER.

SIR,

Mildenhall, Oct. 22, 1720.

I RECEIVED the favour of a letter from you about ten days since, at which time the Duke of Grafton * was at London; but as he was soon expected in the country, and is now actually returned, I thought it best, rather than write, to wait for an opportunity of speaking to him; and yesterday I went over to his house, on purpose to obey your commands. I found he was not a stranger to the subject of my errand; for he had all the particulars of the story very perfect, and told me, my Lord Arran had spoke to him concerning it. † I added my solicitations, backed with the reasons with which you had furnished me; and he was so kind to promise, he would by this post write to the chief-justice; how explicitly or how pressingly I cannot say, because men in high posts are afraid of being positive in their answers; but I hope it will be in such a manner as will be effectual.

If the thing is done, it will be best that the means should be a secret by which it is brought about; and

*Charles, whose mother Isabella, daughter of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, married for her second husband Sir Thomas Hanmer.-H.

+ The prosecution of Waters. See the letter from Sir Constantine Phipps, on the same subject.

for this reason you will excuse me, if I avoid putting my name to the outside of my letter, lest it should excite the curiosity of the post-office. If this affair ends to your satisfaction, I am glad it has proved to me a cause of hearing from you, and an occasion of assuring you that I am, Sir,

Your very humble servant,

THO. HANMER. *

TO MR POPE. †

Dublin, Jan. 10, 1720-21.

A THOUSAND things have vexed me of late years, upon which I am determined to lay open my mind to you. I rather choose to appeal to you than to my Lord Chief-Justice Whitshed, under the situation I am in. For, I take this cause properly to lie before you you are a much fitter judge of what concerns the credit of a writer, the injuries that are done him, and the reparations he ought to receive. Besides, I doubt, whether the arguments I could suggest to

* While Sir Thomas Hanmer was Speaker of Queen Anne's last house of commons, Swift and he were great friends. But a coldness had occured, in consequence of Hanmer's breaking off from Oxford and the tory party, under a real or affected apprehension for the safety of the Protestant succession.

+ This letter Mr Pope never received.-POPE. lieve it was ever sent.-WARBURTON.

Nor did he be

No piece of Swift contains more political knowledge, more love of the English constitution, and rational liberty, than appears in this celebrated letter; and it is not a little wonderful that Pope should affirm he never received it.-Warton.

prove my own innocence, would be of much weight from the gentlemen of the long robe to those in furs; upon whose decision about the difference of style or sentiments, I should be very unwilling to leave the merits of my cause.

Give me leave then to put you in mind, (although you cannot easily forget it) that about ten weeks before the queen's death, I left the town, upon occasion of that incurable breach among the great men at court, and went down to Berkshire, where you may remember that you gave me the favour of a visit. While I was in that retirement, I writ a discourse which I thought might be useful in such a juncture of affairs, and sent it up to London; but upon some difference in opinion between me and a certain great minister † now abroad, the publishing of it was deferred so long, that the queen died, and I recalled my copy, which hath been ever since in safe hands. In a few weeks after the loss of that excellent princess, I came to my station here; where I have continued ever since in the greatest privacy, and utter ignorance of those events which are most commonly talked of in the world. I neither know the names nor number of the royal family which now reigns, farther than the prayer-book informs me. I cannot tell who is chancellor, who are secretaries, nor with what nations we are in peace or war. And this manner of life was not taken up out of any sort of affectation, but merely to avoid giving offence, and for fear of provoking party zeal.

*Some free Thoughts on the present State of Affairs. —Dub. Ed.

+ Bolingbroke. See the correspondence respecting this tract in the close of Vol. XV.

I had indeed written some memorials of the four last years of the queen's reign, with some other informations, which I received as necessary materials to qualify me for doing something in an employment then designed me: but, as it was at the disposal of a person that had not the smallest share of steadiness or sincerity, I disdained to accept it.

These papers, at my few hours of health and leisure, I have been digesting into order by one sheet at a time, † for i dare not venture any farther, lest the humour of searching and seizing papers should revive; not that I am in pain of any danger to myself, (for they contain nothing of present times or persons, upon which I shall never lose a thought while there is a cat or a spaniel in the house); but to preserve them from being lost among messengers and clerks.

I have written in this kingdom, a discourse to persuade the wretched people to wear their own manufactures, instead of those from England: ‡ this treatise soon spread very fast, being agreeable to the sentiments of the whole nation, except of those gentlemen who had employments, or were expectants. Upon which a person, in great office here, immediately took the alarm; he sent in haste for the chief-justice, § and informed him of a seditious, factious, and virulent pamphlet, lately published with a design of setting the two kingdoms at.

* Duke of Kent.-Dub. Ed. It does not quite appear that the acceptance or refusal was placed in the Dean's option. See his Memorial on that subject, and the correspondence betwixt him and Arbuthnot.

The listory of the Four last Years of the Queen.

A Proposal for the universal Use of Irish Manufactures, 1720; printed in Vol. VII.

§ Lord Chief Justice Whitshed.