upon the encouragement of your worthy primate, is going to settle at Armagh. I cannot pretend to say, he has the same compass of voice with his late brother, whom the good queen so much admired; but I will venture to say, he has a greater compass of understanding, and, upon the whole, that he is a good choirman. The other, that bears him company, was a very useful chorister to us. His voice, since its breaking, is somewhat harsh, but I believe will grow mellower. If you find either of them for your purpose, especially the bearer, when you have a vacancy in your church, I shall be much obliged to you for any favour you are pleased to show; and be ready to approve myself on any occasion, reverend Sir, Your most obliged and affectionate servant, A. SNAPE. TO ROBERT COPE, ESQ. Dublin, Oct. 9. 1722. I AM but just come to town, and therefore look upon myself to have just left Loughgall, and that this is the first opportunity I have of writing to you. Strange revolutions since I left you: a bishop * of my old acquaintance in the Tower for treason, and a doctor of my new acquaintance made a bi * Dr Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, at this time imprisoned for his share in what was called Sayer's plot, in favour of the Chevalier St George, for which he was afterwards banished by act of attainder. shop. * I hope you are returned with success from your Connaught journey, and that you tired yourself more than you expected in taking the compass of your new land; the consequence of which must be, that you will continue needy some years longer than you intended. Your new bishop Bolton was born to be my tormentor; he ever opposed me as my subject, † and now has left me embroiled for want of him. The government, in consideration of the many favours they have shown me, would fain have me give St Bride's to some one of their hangdogs, that Dr Howard may come into St Werburgh's. So that I must either disoblige whig and tory in my chapter, or be ungrateful to my patrons in power. When you come to town, you must be ready, at what time you hear the sound of tabret, harp, &c. to worship the brazen image set up, or else be cast into a cold watery furnace; I have not yet seen it, for it does not lie in my walks, and I want curiosity. The wicked tories themselves begin now to believe there was something of a plot; and every plot costs Ireland more than any plot can be worth. The court has sent a demand here for more money by three times than is now in the hands of the treasury, and all the collectors of this kingdom put together. I escaped hanging very narrowly a month ago; for a letter from Preston, directed to me, was opened in the post-office, and sealed again in a very slovenly manner, when Manly found it only contained a request from a poor curate. This hath determined me against writing * Dr Theophilus Bolton, Bishop of Clonfert, Sept. 12, 1722; and in 1729 archbishop of Cashell. + Dr Bolton had been chancellor of St Patrick's. treason: however I am not certain that this letter may not be interpreted as comforting his most excellent majesty's enemies, since you have been a state prisoner. Pray God keep all honest men out of the hands of lions and bears, and uncircumcised Philistines!-I hoped my brother Orrery * had loved his land too much to hazard it on revolution principles. I am told that a lady of my acquaintance was the discoverer of this plot, having a lover among the true whigs, whom she preferred before an old battered husband. You never saw any thing so fine as my new Dublin plantations of elms; I wish you would.come and visit them; and I am very strong in wine, though not so liberal of it as you. It is said that Kelly the parson † is admitted to Kelly the squire ; ‡ and that they are cooking up a discovery between them, for the improvement of the hempen manufacture. It is reckoned that the best trade in London this winter will be that of an evidence. As much as I hate the tories, I cannot but pity them as fools. Some think likewise, that the pretender * Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery, an accomplished and literary character, inventor of the philosophical instrument to which he bequeathed his name, was about this time apprehended, and committed to the Tower, for some real or supposed accession to the plot which cost Atterbury so dear. + George Kelly, who went under the name of Johnson, an Irish clergyman, was apprehended by three messengers as an accessory to Sayer's plot: he defended himself until he had burned a parcel of papers, and then surrendered himself. He was a nonjuring clergyman, and is stated in the report of the committee of the House of Commons, to have been the person principally entrusted by the Bishop of Rochester. Captain Dennis Kelly, a gentleman of fortune in Ireland, was also apprehended as an active agent in Atterbury's plot. ought to have his choice of two caps, a red cap or a fool's cap. It is a wonderful thing to see the tories provoking his present majesty, whose clemency, mercy, and forgiving temper, have been so signal, so extraordinary, so more than humane, during the whole course of his reign; which plainly appears, not only from his own speeches and declarations, but also from a most ingenious pamphlet just come over, relating to the wicked Bishop of Rochester. But enough of politics. I have no town. news I have seen nobody: I have heard nothing. Old Rochfort has got a dead palsy. Lady Betty has been long ill. Dean Percivale has answered the other dean's journal in Grub Street, justly taxing him for avarice and want of hospitality. Madam Percivale absolutely denies all the facts: insists that she never made candles of dripping; that Charley never had the chincough, &c. My most humble service to Mrs Cope, who entertained that covetous lampooning dean much better than he deserved. Remember me to honest Nanty and boy Barclay. Ever yours, &c. JON. SWIFT. TO THE EARL OF OXFORD. October 11, 1722. MY LORD, I OFTEN receive letters franked Oxford, but always find them written and subscribed by your lordship's servant Mynett. His meaning is some business of his own, wherein I am his solicitor; but he makes his court by giving me an account of the state of your family; and perpetually adds a clause, "That your lordship soon intends to write to me.' I knew you indeed when you were not so great a man as you are now, I mean when you were treasurer; but you are grown so proud since your retirement, that there is no enduring you and you have reason, for you never acted so difficult a part of life before. In the two great scenes of power and persecution you have excelled mankind; and in this of retirement, you have most injuriously forgotten your friends. Poor Prior often sent me his complaints on this occasion: and I have returned him mine. I never courted your acquaintance when you governed Europe, but you courted mine; and now you neglect me, when I use all my insinuations to keep myself in your memory. I am very sensible, that next to receiving thanks and compliments, there is nothing you more hate than writing letters: but, since I never gave you thanks, nor made you compliments, I have so much more merit than any of those thousands whom you have less obliged, by only making their fortunes, without taking them into your friendship, as you did me; whom you always countenanced in too public and particular a manner to be forgotten, either by the world or myself; for which, never man was more proud, or less vain. I have now been ten years soliciting for your picture; and if I had solicited you for a thousand pounds (I mean of your money, not the public) I could have prevailed in ten days. You have given me many hundred hours; can you not now give me a couple? have my mortifications been so few, or are you so malicious to add a greater than I ever yet suffered? did you ever refuse me any thing I asked you? and will you now begin? In my con |