view he had ordered a warrant to be made out by the Secretary of State, for apprehending Swift, and bringing him over to be tried in London. The meffenger was in waiting ready to be dispatched on this errand, when luckily a friend of Walpole's, who was better acquainted with the state of Ireland, and the high veneration in which the Dean was held there, accidentally entered, and upon enquiry, being informed of his purpose, coolly asked him what army was to accompany the meffenger, and whether he had at that time ten thousand men to fpare, for he could affure him no lefs a number would be able to bring the Drapier out of the kingdom by force. Upon this Walpole recovered his fenfes, and luckily for the Meffenger, as well as himfelf, dropped the defign. For had the poor fellow arrived in Dublin, and attempted to execute his commiffion, he would most affuredly have been immediately hanged by the mob: and this might have involved the two countries in a conteft, which it was by no means the interest of a Minifter to engage in. But, whatever gratification it might have been to his ambitious fpirit, to fee himself raifed by the voluntary fuffrages of his countrymen, to a rank beyond the power of Monarchs to beftow; to find himself confidered by all as the first man in the realm; the general object of veneration to all who wifhed well to their country, and of dread to those who betrayed its interefts; yet he was far from being at all fatisfied with his fituation. The load of oppreffion under which Ireland groaned, from the ty rannic fyftem of government over that country, established by the falfe politics of England; the bafe corruption of fome of the principal natives, who facrificed the publick interefts to their private views; the fupineness of others arifing from defpondency; the general infatuation of the richer fort, in adopting certain modes and cuftoms fo In one to the last degree ruinous to their country; together with the miseries of the poor, and the univerfal face of penury and diftrefs that overfpread a kingdom, on which nature had scattered her bounties with a lavish land, and which properly ufed, might have rendered it one of the happieft regions in the world: all thefe acted as perpetual corrofives to the free and generous fpirit of Swift, and kept him from poffeffing his foul in peace. We have many inftances in his letters, written at that time, of the violent irritation of his mind on thefe accounts. of them he says, "I find myself disposed every year, or rather every month, to be more angry and revengeful; and my rage is fo ignoble, that it defcends even to refent the folly and bafeness of the enslaved people among whom I live." And in the fame letter to Lord Bolingbroke, he fays, "But you think, as I ought to think, that it is time for me to have done with the world; and fo I would, if I could get into a better, before I was called into the beft, and not die here in a rage, like a poifoned rat in a hole." In one to Pope, speaking of his letters, he fays, "None of them have any thing to do with party, of which you are the clearest of all men, by your religion, and the whole tenor of your life while I am raging every moment against the corruptions in both kingdoms, especially of this; fuch is my weakness. And in one to Dr. Sheridan, when he feered under the domi nion of a more than ordinary fit of his fpleen, he tells him that he had juft finished his will, in which he had requefted that the Doctor would attend his body to Holyhead, to fee it interred there, for, fays he, I will not lie in a country of flaves. This habit of mind grew upor him immediately after the lofs of the amiable Stella, whofe lenient hand used to pour the balm of friendship on his wounded spirit. With her vanished all his domestic enjoyments, and of courfe he turned his thoughts more to publick affairs; in the contemplation of which, he could fee nothing but what ferved to increase the malady. The advances of old-age, with all its attendant infirmities; the death of almost all his old friends; the frequent returns of his moft difpiriting maladies, deafnefs and gid dinefs; and above all, the dreadful apprehenfions that he should outlive his understanding, * made life fuch a burden to him, that he had no hope left but in a speedy diffolution, which was the object of his daily prayer to the Almighty. About the year 1736, his memory was greatly impaired, and his other faculties of imagination and intellect decayed, in proportion as the ftores from which they were fupplied diminished. When the understanding was fhaken from its feat, and reafon had given up the reins, the irafcible paffions, which at all times he had found difficult to be kept within due bounds, now raged without controul, and made him a torment to himself, and to all who were about him. An unufually long fit of deafness, attended with giddinefs, which lasted almost a year, had disqualified him wholly for converfation, and made him lofe all relish for fociety. Confcious of his fituation, he was little defirous of feeing any of his old friends and companions, and they were as little folicitous to visit him in that deplorable state. He could now no longer amuse himself with writing; and a refolution he had formed of never wearing spectacles, to which he obftinately adhered, prevented him from reading. Without employment, without amufements of any kind, thus did his time pafs and *Dr. Young has recorded an inftance of this, where he relates, that walking out with Swift and fome others about a mile from Dublin, he fuddenly miffed the Dean, who had ftaid behind the reft of the company. He turned back in order to know the occafion of it; found Swift at fome distance gazing intently at the top of a lofty elm, whofe head had been blafted; upon Young's approach he pointed to it, faying, "I fhall be like that tree, I fhall die first at the top." heavily along; not one white day in the Calendar, not one hour of comfort, nor did even a ray of hope pierce through the gloom. The ftate of his mind is ftrongly pictured in a letter to Mrs. Whiteway. "I have been very miferable all night, and to-day extremely deaf and full of pain. I am fo ftupid and confounded, that I cannot express the mortification I am under both in body and mind. All I can fay is, that I am not in torture ; but I daily and hourly expect it. Pray let me know how your health is, and your family. I hardly understand one word I write. I am fure my days will be very few; few and miferable they muft be. I am for thofe few days, If I do not blunder, it is Saturday, July 26, 1740. Yours entirely, Not long after the date of this letter, his understanding failed to fuch a degree, that it was found neceffary to have guardians legally appointed to take care of his perfon and eftate. This was followed by a fit of lunacy, which continued fome months, and then he funk into a ftate of idiocy, which lafted to his death. He died October 29, 1745. The behaviour of the citizens on this occafion, gave the strongest proof of the deep impreffion he had made on their minds. Though he had been, for fo many years. to all intents and purposes dead to the world, and his departure from that ftate feemed a thing rather to be wifhed than deplored, yet no fooner was his death announced, than the citizens gathered from all quarters, and forced their way in crowds into the houfe, to pay the laft tribure of grief to their departed benefactor. Nothing but la mentations were heard all around the quarter where he lived, as if he had been cut off in the vigour of his years. Happy were they who firft got into the chamber where he lay, to procuré, by bribes to the fervants, locks of his hair, to be handed down as facred relicks to their posterity.* And fo eager were numbers to obtain at any price this precious memorial, that in less than an hour, his venerable head was entirely stripped of all its filver ornaments, fo that not a hair remained. He was buried in the most private manner, according to directions in his will, in the great aifle of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and by way of monument, a flab of black marble was placed against the wall, on which was engraved the following Latin Epitaph, written by himself. Hic depofitum eft corpus Ubi fæva indignatio Et imitare, fi poteris, Strenuum pro virili libertatis vindicem.. Menfis (Octobris) die (19) SECTION VI. PRIVATE MEMOIRS of SWIFT. HAVING now conducted Swift from his cradle to his grave, and prefented to view, in a regular feries, the most remarkable fcenes of his publick life; I have pur * Yea beg a hair of him for memory, Unto their iffue. SHAKESPEARE. pofely |