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had him; this being in fome fort Mr Harley's own case *. [vol. 4. p. 212.]

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* Swift no fooner appeared at London in September 1710, but "all the Whigs were ravished to see him, and would have laid hold "on him as a twig to fave them from finking; and the great men "were all making him their clumfy apologies." [Let. to S. Sept. 9. 1710.] "It is good" [faith-the Doctor] to fee what a lament"able confeffion the Whigs all make of my ill ufage." [Ib. Sept. 30] In fhort, the Whigs would gladly have depended on his fuperior talents for their refurrection; and the Tories dreaded from his pen their inevitable deftruction. D. S. p. 312, 13-It does not appear, that Swift had any design of attaching himself to the Tory miniftry at this time. For he declares within a few days after his arrival, that he is heartily weary of London, and wishes "that he had never ftirred from Ireland." [Let. to S. Sept. 12. 1710.] But obferving in October in what manner he was courted by Mr Harley and Mr Secretary St John, (" who frequently protefted, after he had become their intimate, that he was the only man in England they were afraid of,)" [Ibid. June 30. 1711.] as well as by all the reft of the great people in power, to whom he was immediately introduced by Mr Harley upon their first acquaintance, he readily enough accepted the invitation to be their friend and protector.

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And now the publick intereft to fupport,
By Harley SWIFT invited comes to court.

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[vol. 6. p. 262.]

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"I ftand with the new people" [faith he] "ten times better "than ever I did with the old; and forty times more careffed." [08. 14. 1710.] The prefent miniftry have a difficult task, and "want me, &c. According to the best judgment I have, they are pursuing the true intereft of the public; and therefore I am glad "to contribute what lies in my power." [Nov. 29. 1710] "for your news that Mr St John is going to Holland, he has no "fuch thoughts to quit the great station he is in; nor if he had, "could I be fpared to go with him." [Jan. 24. 1710.]" May my "enemies live here [at London] in fummer; and yet I am fo un"lucky, that I cannot poffibly be out of the way at this juncture.

-The Whigs whisper that our miniftry differ among them"felves, and they begin to talk out the Secretary. They have "fome reafons for their whifpers; tho' I thought it was a greater fecret. I do not much like the prefent pofture of things. I "always apprehended that any falling out would ruin them, and "fo I have told them feveral times. The Whigs are mighty full "of hopes at prefent; and whatever is the matter, all kinds of "ftocks fall. I have not yet talked with the Secretary about "Prior's journey [to France.] I should be apt to think it may "foretel a peace; and that is all we have to preferve us."[ Aug. 27. 1711.--Swift and the Secretary having appointed to spend a

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Mr Harley received him with the utmost kindness and refpect; he fat with him two hours in company, and two hours he was with him alone. He not only enga ged in the Doctor's immediate bufinefs with the utmost zeal, and foon after accomplished it; but told him, he must bring him acquainted with Mr St John; invited him to dine with him; charged him to come often; and, when the Doctor propofed attending at his levee, told him that was no place for friends. The Doctor foon after became perfonally acquainted with the reft of the minifters, who appear to have courted and caressed him with uncommon affiduity. He dined every Saturday at Mr Harley's, with the Lord Keeper, Mr Secretary St John, and Lord Rivers. On that day no other perfon was for fometime admitted; but this felect company was at length enlarged to fixteen, all men of the first clafs, Swift included. They dined once a-week at the houfes of each other by rotation, and went under the general denomination of brothers t.

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whole day in private together upon affairs of the greatest confequence; "The duce" (faith he) "is in this Secretary. When I "went to him this morning, he had people with him; but fays, we are to dine with Prior to day, and then will do all our bufi"nefs in the afternoon. At two, Prior fends word he is other"wife engaged. Then the Secretary and I go and dine with Brig-Briton; fit till eight, grow merry, no business done; we "part, and appoint no time to meet again. This is the fault of all "the present minifters, teafing me to death for my affistance, laying the whole weight of their affairs upon it; and flipping oppor"tunities." [08. 31. 1711.] D. S. p. 329, 30, I.

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+ Swift was reprefented to Mr Harley, as one extremely ill "ufed by the laft ministry," [vol. 4. p. 212.]; a fentiment which, in his political wisdom, that great minifter both greedily and fearfully imbibed. And accordingly, when Swift waited upon him about the first fruits and twentieth parts; Harley knowing the pride and spirit of the man with whom he had to deal, inftantly began to pay his court to Swift in all the fhapes that were confiftent with his fpirit and dignity. The moment that Swift appeared in his houfe, Harley "received him with the greateft refpect and kind"nefs imaginable; and appointed him an hour two or three days after "to open his bufinefs to him." [Let. to S. Of. 4. 1710.] No fooner had Swift told him his bufinefs on the day appointed, but Harley "entered into it with all kindness, afked him for his powers and

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FROM this time the Doctor fupported the intereft of his new friends with all his power, in pamphlets, poems, and periodical papers; his intimacy with them was fo

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"read them, and read likewife the memorial he had drawn up, and put it into his pocket to fhew the Queen; told him the "meafures he would take; and, in fhort, faid every thing he could "wifh; told him he must bring Mr St John and him acquainted; : "and spoke fo many things of perfonal kindness and esteem, that "he [Swift] was inclined to believe what fome friends had told "him, that he [Harley] would do every thing to bring him over. "He [Harley] defired him to dine with him on Tuesday; and af41 ter four hours being with him, fet him down at St James's "coffeehouse in a hackney-coach." [08. 7. 1710.] Add again, "I must tell you" [faith the Doctor] a great piece of refinement "in Harley." [This was but four days after their firft acquaintance.] "He charged me to come to fee him often. 1 told "him I was loth to trouble him in fo much business as he had, " and defired I might have leave to come at his levee: which he immediately refused, and faid, that was no place for friends.' [08. 8. 1710.] In two days after Harley "told him, he had fhewn "his memorial to the Queen, and feconded it very heartily; be"caufe (faid he) the Queen designs to fignify it to the Bishops of "Ireland in form, and take notice that it was done upon a me"morial from you: which Mr Harley told Swift he did to "make it look more respectful to him." [08. 10. 1710.]. "believe" [faith the Doctor] "never any thing was compaffed fo "foon, and purely done by my perfonal credit, with Mr Harley, "who is fo exceffively obliging, that I know not what to make of it, unless to shew the rafcals of the other party, that they used a man unworthily who had deferved better." [07. 21. 1710.] Harley fpeaks all the kind things to me in the world." [Nov. 8. 1710.] But the account of his entertainment and reception at the Secretary's, will give fome clearer light into thefe matters. "I dined to-day" [faith he]" by invitation with the Secretary of State, Mr St John. Mr Harley came in to us before dinner, and made me his excuses for not dining with us, because he was to "receive people who came to propofe the advancing money to the "6 government.- -The Secretary ufed me with all the kindness in.

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the world. Prior came in after dinner; and upon an occafion "he [the Secretary] said, the best thing he ever read is not yours, "fays he, but Dr Swift's on Vanbrugh (in vol. 6. p. 76.]; "which I do not reckon fo very good neither: but Prior was damped, till I ftuffed him with two or three compliments. He "told me among other things, that Mr Harley complained he "could keep nothing from me, I had the way fo much of getting into "him. I knew that was a refinement; and fo I told him; and "it was fo. Indeed it is hard to fee these great men use me like one who was their betters, and the puppies with you in Ireland hardly

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fo remarkable, that he was thought not only to defend, but in fome degree to direct their measures; and fuch was his importance in the opinion of the oppofite party, that many speeches were made against him in both houfes of parliament t; a reward was alfo offered for difcovering the author of The public spirit of the Whigs. [vol. 5. p. 51.] 1.

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hardly regarding me. But there are fome reafons for all this." [Nov. 11. 1710.] Thefe laft words have an eye to his writing the Examiner; which he kept as a profound fecret from all the world, except the printer and the miniftry. Prior was fufpected for being the author of the Examiner, fee number 26. 31. [in vol. 5.] and had like to have been infulted for it in the street; to which the letter from the Whigs to the Examiner, No. 28. very plainly alludes.It is a point beyond all controversy, that no fovereign prince was ever more careffed by noble, generous, and manly fpirits, than Swift undoubtedly was, not only by the great Harley, but all the Tory miniftry. For it is certain, that Swift courted not the miniftry, but the miniftry courted Swift to be their champion and their protector. [See his own words, Examiner, No. 26.]; and used him with the fame respect, as well af ter, as before he had taken them under his care. Neither did he once confent to ftay with the ministry, and run his fortune among them. D. S. p. 313.-316.

† See vol. 6. p. 262, 63.

Among the various branches into which Swift's expansive genius fpread itself, thofe peculiar talents of levelling his writings to the loweft, and fuftaining their dignity to the highest capacity, were probably the original motives that attracted the Earl of Oxford's friendship to him. In the year 1709, the character of Dr Swift as an author, was perfectly established. He had fhewn abilities equal to those attributed by Homer to Ulyfles: he could appear a beggar among beggars, and a king among kings-From the year 1709, to the lateft period of Q. Anne, we find him fighting on the fide of the minifters, and maintaining their cause in pamphlets, poems, and weekly papers. In a letter to Mr Pope, of Jan. 10. 1721, he has this expreffion: "I have converfed in "fome freedom with more minifters of state, 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 whose acquaintance no man would court, otherwife than on the score "of vanity or ambition."[vol. 4. p. 27.] Lord Oxford, as a gentleman and a scholar, might be open and unreferved to Dr Swift, as far as his Lordship's nature would permit; but as a minifter of ftate he ever appeared myfterious and enigmatical, delivering his oracles, like the Delphian deity, in occult terms and ambiguous

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expreffions.

WHATEVER excellence we poffefs, or whatever honours we obtain, the pleasure which they produce, is all relative to fome particular favourite, with whom we are tenderly connected, either by friendship or by love; or, at moft, it terminates, like rays collected by a burningglafs, in a very fmall circle, which is fcarce more than a point, and, like light, becomes fenfible only by reflection. Thus Swift, while he was courted and caressed by those whom others were making intereft to approach, feems to have enjoyed his diftinction, only in proportion as it was participated with Stella; for amidst all the bufinefs, and all the honours that crouded upon him, he wrote every day an account of whatever occurred, and fent her a journal, regularly dated, every fortnight, during the whole time of his connection with Q. Anne's miniftry. [D. S. p. 258.] From these unrestrained effufions of his heart, many particulars are known, which could have been known no other way. And by these it appears incontestably, that he was not only employed, but trufted; and that Harley, who is univerfally allowed to have been one of the most reserved and mysterious of all politicians, was to him, in affairs of the utmoft moment, open and explicit *. The result of one

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expreffions.A man always appears of more confequence to himself, than he is in reality to any other perfon. Such perhaps was the case of Dr Swift. He found himself much indulged by the fmiles and converfation of the Earl of Oxford. He knew how useful he was to the administration in general: and in the aforementioned letter, he fays, that the place of historiographer was intended for him [vol. 4. p. 23.] But I am apt to suspect that he flattered himself too highly at least it is very evident, that 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 esteemed no inconfiderable motion; but to an ambitious mind, whofe perpetual aim was a fettlement in England, a dignity in any other kingdom must appear (as perhaps it was defigned) only an honourable and profitable banishment. O. let. 4.

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• The Earl of Oxford had a real friendship for Dr Swift. And there are fome little gratifications in the commerce of friendship, which appear to be as ftrong, if not stronger indications of our love and esteem for particular perfons, than what is called advancing them in the grande monde, whether to honours or preferment.

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