TO BISHOP STERNE.

MY LORD,

London, Dec. 19, 1713.

I HAVE two letters from you to acknowledge, one of the fifth, and another of the eleventh instant. I am very glad it lies in my way to do any service to Mr Worrall, and that his merits and my inclinations agree so well. I write this post to Dr Synge, to admit him. I am glad your lordship thinks of removing your palace to the old, or some better place. I wish I were near enough to give my approbation; and if you do not choose till summer, I shall, God willing, attend you. Your second letter is about Dr Marsh, who is one I always loved, and have shown it lately, by doing every thing he could desire from a brother. I should be glad for some reasons, that he would get a recommendation from the lord-lieutenant, or at least that he be named. I cannot say more at this distance, but assure you, that all due care is taken of him. I have had an old scheme, as your lordship may remember, of dividing the bishopricks of Kilmore and Ardagh. * I advised it many months ago, and repeated it lately; and the queen and ministry, I suppose, are fallen into it. I did likewise lay very earnestly before proper persons the justice, and indeed necessity, of choosing to promote those of the kingdom; which advice has been hearkened to, and I hope will be followed. I would

* These sees were then vacant, and were granted the month following to the lord-lieutenant's chaplain, Dr Godwyn.-H.

likewise say something in relation to a friend of your lordship's; but I can only venture thus much, that it was not to be done, and you may easily guess the reasons.

I know not who are named among you for the preferments; and, my lord, this is a very nice point to talk of at the distance I am. I know a person there better qualified, perhaps, than any that will succeed. But, my lord, our thoughts here are, that your kingdom leans too much one way; and believe me, it cannot do so long, while the queen and administration here act upon so very different a foot. This is more than I care to say. I should be thought a very vile man, if I presumed to recommend to my own brother, if he were the least disinclined to the present measures of her majesty and ministry here. Whoever is thought to do so must shake off that character, or wait for other junctures. This, my lord, I believe you will find to be true; and I will for once venture a step farther, than perhaps discretion should let me that I never saw so great a firmness in the court, as there now is, to pursue those measures, upon which this ministry began, whatever some people may pretend to think to the contrary; and were certain objections made against some persons we both know, I believe I might have been instrumental to the service of some, whom I must esteem. Pick what you can out of all this, and believe to be ever, &c.

JON. SWIFT.

* "A bishoprick," doubtless.-N.

FROM LORD PRIMATE LINDSAY.

SIR,

Dec. 26, 1713.

YOURS of December the 8th I have received, and have obeyed your commands; but am much troubled to find that the trade of doing ill offices is still continued. As for my part, I can entirely clear myself from either writing or saying any thing to any one's prejudice upon this occasion; and if others have wounded me in the dark, it is no more than they have done before; for Archbishop Tillotson formerly remarked, that if he should hearken to what the Irish clergy said of one another, there was not a man in the whole country that ought to be preferred.

We are now adjourned for a fortnight, and the commons for three weeks. I hear our lord-lieutenant is not well pleased, that we have adjourned short of them: and I fancy the queen will not be well pleased, that the commons have had so little regard to the dispatch of public business, as to make so long an adjournment as three weeks: and indeed they lowly seem to intimate, that if the lord chancellor † is not removed by that time, they will give her majesty no more money; and indeed some of them do not stick to say as much, and think it a duty incumbent on

* There was at this time a great difference between the house of lords and commons in Ireland, about the lord-chancellor Phipps of that kingdom; the latter addressing the queen to remove him from his post, and the former addressing in his favour. -B.

the crown, to turn out that minister (how innocent soever he be) whom the commons have addressed against.

I think it is as plain to any who know the state of affairs here, that no party hath strength enough directly to oppose a money bill in this kingdom, when the government thinks fit to exert itself, as to be sure it always will do upon such occasions: and the half-pay officers, no doubt, will readily come in to that supply, out of which they are to receive their pay. But should all fail, yet the queen still may make herself easy, by disbanding two or three regiments, and striking off some unnecessary pensions.

Hobbes, in his Behemoth, talks of a heighth in time as well as place; and if ever there was a heighth in time here, it is certainly now; for some men seem to carry things higher, according to their poor power, than they did in England in 1641. And they now threaten (and I am pretty well assured, have resolved upon it) that if the chancellor is not discarded, they will impeach him before the lords in England. But if they have no more to say against him, than what their address contains, I think they will go upon no very wise errand.

I question not but that you will receive the votes, addresses, and representations of both houses from other hands, and therefore I have not troubled you with them but if the parliament should continue to sit, you may expect a great product of that kind; for the commons have taken upon themselves to be a court of judicature, have taken examinations out of the judges hands about murder (which is treason here) without ever applying to the government for them : and before trial have voted the sheriffs and officers to have done their duty, and acquitted themselves well,

when possibly the time may yet come, that some may still be hanged for that fact; which, in my poor opinion, is entirely destructive of liberty, and the freedom of elections.

I am your most humble servant, &c,

TO ARCHBISHOP KING.

London, Dec. 31, 1713.

MY LORD, YOUR grace's letter, which I received but last post, is of an earlier date than what have since arrived. We have received the addresses for removing the chancellor, and the counter-addresses from the lords and convocation; and you will know, before this reaches you, our sentiments of them here. I am at a loss what to say in this whole affair. When I writ to you before, I dropped a word on purpose for you to take notice of; that our court seemed resolved to be very firin in their resolutions about Ireland. I think it impossible for the two kingdoms to proceed long upon a different scheme of politics. The controversy with the city I am not master of: it took its rise before I ever concerned myself in the affairs of Ireland, farther than to be an instrument of doing some services to the kingdom, for which I have been ill requited. But, my lord, the question with us here is, whether there was a necessity that the other party should be a majority? There was put into my hands a list of your house of commons by some who know the kingdom well: I desired they would (as they often do here) set a mark on the names of