later, John Bright stated "the general opinion," not of the English but of the Irish, about this island: "I believe that if the majority of the people of Ireland, counted fairly out, had their will, and if they had the power, they would unmoor the island. from its fastenings in the deep, and move it at least two thousand miles to the West."

The Archbishop of Dublin, in 1709, described the reversal of the outlawry of an Irish nobleman who had taken up arms for James II. in 1688, as causing "a universal consternation." Fifty years later the Lord Chancellor at a trial "made the famous declaration, that the law did not presume that an Irish Papist existed in the kingdom." Nevertheless, in 1727 the Primate Boulter had written: "There are probably in this kingdom five Papists at least to one Protestant." Even the Protestant Irish were slighted by Englishmen. To a friend who sent Swift an account of a "mayor squabble" in Dublin he wrote back from London, "We regard it as much here as if you sent us an account of your little son playing at cherry stones."

Five days after the date of Swift's letter the Pretender landed at Peterhead in Scotland. A few weeks later he fled back to France.

"My Friend Mr. Attorney" was perhaps the exLord Chancellor Harcourt, who had been AttorneyGeneral part of the time that Swift was writing his Journal to Stella. Erasmus Lewis wrote to Swift in 1714 "The great attorney, who made you the

sham offer of the Yorkshire living, had a long conference with the dragon on Thursday, kissed him at parting, and cursed him at night." In a note on this passage in Scott's edition it is suggested that Lord Chancellor Harcourt is meant.

The danger at this time of "conversation with different principles" Swift recalled nine years later in a sermon entitled On Doing Good, preached in St. Patrick's. He says: "Neither is it long since no man, whose opinions were thought to differ from those in fashion, could safely converse beyond his nearest friends, for fear of being sworn against as a traitor, by those who made a traffic of perjury and subornation; by which the very peace of the nation was disturbed, and men fled from each other as they would from a lion or a bear got loose."

"Honest people" meant either Jacobites or, at all events, Tories. When Dr. Panting, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, preached at St. Mary's the sermon on the anniversary of the accession of George I., Hearne wrote: "He is an honest gent. His sermon took no notice, at most very little, of the Duke of Brunswick." In like manner Hearne described one Mr. How as "a famous cavalier, and a very honest man."

Dr. Pr post p. 106.

was probably Dr. Pratt, mentioned

XVI.

[To Knightley Chetwode Esq' at Mr. Took's shop, at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet. London.]

DUBLIN. Sept 2d 1718.

I received your first of Aug 13" when I was just leaving Galstown-from whence I went to a Visitation at Trim. I saw Dame. I stayd two days at Laracor, then 5 more at a Friends, and came thence to this Town, and was going to answer y' Lett. [your Letter] when I received the 2a of Aug 23d. I find it is the opinion of y' Friends that you should let it be known as publickly here as can be done, without overacting, that you are come to London, and intend soon for Ireland, and since you have sett [? let] Woodbrooke I am clearly of opinion that you should linger out some time at Trim, under the notion of staying some time in order to settle; you can be conveniently enough lodged there for a time, and live agreably and cheap enough, and pick up rent as you are able; but I am utterly opposite to your getting into a Figure all on a sudden, because every body must needs know that travelling would not but be very expensive to you, together with a scattered Family, and such conduct will be reckoned prudent and

you

discreet, especially in you whose Mind is not altogether suited to y' Fortune. And therefore tho' I have room enough in an empty Coach-house wh [which] is at y' service yet I wish would spare the Expences, and in return you shall fill the Coachhouse with anything else you please.-I fear you will return with great contempt for Ireld where yet we live tolerably quiet, and our enemyes seem to let us alone mearly out of wearyness. It was not my fault that I was not in Engla last June.— I doubt you will make a very uneasy Change from Dukes to Irish Squires and Parsons, wherein you are less happy than I, who never loved great company, when it was most in my Power, and now I hate every thing with a Title except my Books, and even in those the shorter the Title the better -And (you must begin on the other side for I began this Letter the wrong Way) whenever you talk to me of Regents or Grandees I will repay you with Passages of Jack Grattan and Dan Jackson. I am the onely man in this Kingdom who is not a Politician, and therefore I onely keep such Company as will suffer me to suspend their Politicks and this brings my Conversation into very narrow Bounds. Jo Beaumont is my Oracle for publick Affairs in the Country, and an old Presbyterian Woman in Town. I am quite a Stranger

to all Schemes and have almost forgot the difference between Whig and Tory, and thus you will find me when you come over-Adieu. My true love to Ben

NOTES ON XVI.

In the letter dated April 28, 1731, which I quote at the end of this book, published in Swift's works as addressed "To Ventoso," but written to Chetwode, though never sent, Swift says: "You went abroad, and strove to engage yourself in a desperate cause." He adds: "You are pleased that people should know you have been acquainted with persons of great names and titles." He hints, however, that all this talk of treason had been an invention of Chetwode's. There are passages There are passages in the present letter which seem to imply that Chetwode had been plotting among the Jacobites abroad. He had, we read, to make a "change from Dukes to Irish Squires and Parsons," and his talk was likely to run on Regents or Grandees." He would have visited the Duke of Ormond, who by the help of a lady of great beauty, but easy morals, vainly hoped to win over the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, to the Pretender's cause. He would have passed on to Spain, where Cardinal Alberoni, the prime minister, was scheming to send an armament to Scotland under Ormond's command. The fleet set sail, but it was shattered by a storm.

Only two