eldest son, lord Fitzmaurice, has for some years been plagued with a wife and no wife. The case has been tried in both kingdoms, and he stands excommunicated, and forced to live abroad, which is a very great misfortune to the earl of Kerry and his lady; and they have nothing left to comfort them but their younger son, who has lately married very honestly and indisputably. He is a young gentleman of great regularity, very well educated, but has no employment; therefore his parents would be very desirous he should have one, and this, of deputy-clerk of the council here, would be a very proper introduction to business. It is understood here that the purchase of the deputy-clerk's office is the usual perquisite of the chief-clerk, with the consent of the chief governor, with which my lord and lady Kerry would very readily and thankfully fall in. And as the earl of Kerry's is one of the most ancient and noble families of the kingdom, his younger, and only son of which he has any hopes, might well pretend to succeed in so small an office, upon an equal foot with any other person. I own this proposal of mine is more suitable to the corruption of the times than to my own speculative notions of virtue; but I must give some allowance to the degeneracy of mankind, and the passion I have to my lady Kerry, &c.

D. never writes to me. No man alive can convince Talalderahla; and when we come next it is the same thing with Berby and Barnard. Plurality of dinners and dignities he has; and so Mandragoras confirms it to all members in an episode of sage and brandy.

TO MR. POPE.

May 12, 1735. YOUR letter was sent me yesterday by Mr. Stopford [afterwards bishop of Cloyne], who landed the same day, but I have not yet seen him. As to my silence, God knows it is my great misfortune. My little domestic affairs are in great confusion by the villany of agents and the miseries of this kingdom, where there is no money to be had; nor am I unconcerned to see all things tending towards absolute power in both nations (it is here in perfection already), although I shall not live to see it established. This condition of things, both public and personal to myself, has given me such a kind of despondency that I am almost unqualified for any company, diversion, or amusement. The death of Mr. Gay and the doctor

been a great comfort to me, although I should never have seen them; like a sum of money in a bank, from which I should receive at least annual interest, as I do from you and have done from my lord Bolingbroke. To show in how much ignorance I live, it is hardly a fortnight since I heard of the death of my lady Masham, my constant friend in all changes of times. God forbid that I should expect you to make a voyage that would in the least affect your health; but in the meantime how unhappy am I that my best friend should have perhaps the only kind of disorder for which a sea-voyage is not in some degree a remedy! The old duke of Ormond said he would not change his dead son (Ossory) for the best living son in Europe. Neither would I change you, my absent friend, for the best present friend round the globe.

I have lately read a book imputed to lord Bolingbroke, called "A Dissertation upon Parties." I think it very masterly written. Pray God reward you for your kind prayers: I believe your prayers will do me more good than those of all the prelates in both kingdoms, or any prelates in Europe, except the bishop of Marseilles. And God preserve you for contributing more to mend the world than the whole pack of (modern) parsons in a lump. I am ever entirely yours.

TO WILLIAM PULTENEY, Esq.

Dublin, May 12, 1735.

SIR, Mr. Stopford landed yesterday, and sent me the letter which you were pleased to honor me with. I have not yet seen him, for he called when I was not at home. The reason why I ventured to recommend him to your protection was your being his old patron, to whom he is obliged for all the preferment he got in the church. He is one of the most deserving gentlemen in the country, and has a tolerable provision, much more than persons of so much merit can in these times pretend to, in either kingdom. I love the duke of Dorest very well, having known him from his youth, and he has treated me with great civility since he came into this government. It is true his original principles, as well as his instructions from your side the water, make him act the usual part in managing this nation, for which he must be excused; yet I wish he would a little more consider that people here might have some small share in employments civil and ecclesiastic, wherein my lord Carteret acted a more popular part. The folks here, whom they

call a parliament, will imitate yours in everything, after the same manner as a monkey does a human creature. If my health were not so bad, although my years be many, I fear I might outlive liberty in England. It has continued longer than in any other monarchy, and must end as all others have done which were established by the Goths, and is now falling in the same manner that the rest have done. It is very natural for every king to desire unlimited power; it is as proper an object to their appetites as wench to an abandoned young fellow, or wine to a drunkard. But what puzzles me is, to know how a man of birth, title, and fortune can find his account in making himself and his posterity slaves. They are paid for it; the court will restore what their luxury has destroyed; I have nothing to object. But let me suppose a chief minister, from a scanty fortune almost eaten up with debts, acquiring by all methods a monstrous overgrown estate, why he will still go on to endeavor making his master absolute, and thereby in the power of seizing all his possessions at his pleasure, and hanging or banishing him into the bargain. Therefore, if I were such a minister, I would act like a prudent gamester, and cut, as the sharper calls it, before luck began to change. What if such a minister, when he had got two or three millions, would pretend conviction, seem to dread attempts upon liberty, and bring over all his forces to the country-side? As to the lust of absolute power, I despair it can ever be cooled, unless princes had capacity to read the history of the Roman emperors, how many of them were murdered by their own army; and the same may be said of the Ottomans by their janissaries; and many other examples are easy to be found. If I were such a minister I would go further, and endeavor to be king myself. Such feats have happened among the petty tyrants of old Greece, and the worst that happened was only their being murdered. for their pains.

I believe in my conscience that you have some mercenary end in all your endeavors to preserve the liberty of your country at the expense of your quiet, and of making all the villains in England your enemies. For you stand almost alone, and therefore are sure, if you succeed, to engross the whole glory of recovering a desperate constitution, given over by all its other physicians. May God work a miracle by changing the hearts of an abandoned people, whose hearts are waxen gross, whose ears are dull of hearing, and whose eyes have been closed; and may he continue you as his chief instru

I send this letter in a packet to Mr. Pope, and by a private hand. I pray God protect you against all your enemies; I mean those of your country, for you can have no other; and as you will never be weary of well-doing, so may God give you long life and health the better to support you.

You are pleased to mention some volumes of what are called my works. I have looked on them very little. It is a great mortification to me, although I should not have been dissatisfied if such a thing had been done in England by booksellers agreeing among themselves. I never got a farthing by anything I writ, except one about eight years ago, and that was by Mr. Pope's prudent management for me. Here the printers and booksellers have no property in their copies. The printer [Mr. George Faulkner] applied to my friends, and got many things from England. The man was civil and humble, but I had no dealings with him, and therefore he consulted some friends, who were readier to direct him than I desired they should. I saw one poem on you and a great minister, and was not sorry to find it there.

I fear you are tired; I cannot help it; nor could avoid the convenience of writing when I might be in no danger of post officers. I am, sir, with the truest respect and esteem, your most obedient and obliged humble servant.

I desire to present my most humble respects to Mrs. Pulteney.

TO THE REV. MR. JOHN TOWERS.

Prebendary of St. Patricks, at Powerscourt, near Bray. SIR, I cannot imagine what business it is that so entirely employs you. I am sure it is not to gain money, but to spend it; perhaps it is to new cast and contrive your house and gardens at 4007. more expense. I am sorry it should cost you twopence to have an account of my health, which is not worth a penny; yet I struggle, and ride, and walk, and am temperate, and drink wine on purpose to delay, or make abortive, those schemes proposed for a successor; and if I were well I would counterfeit myself sick, as Toby Matthews, archbishop of York, used to do when all the bishops were gaping to succeed him. It is one good sign that giddiness is peculiar to youth, and I find I grow giddier as I grow older, and, therefore, consequently I grow younger. If you will remove six

poor as you are; for I cannot venture to be half a day's journey from Dublin, because there is no sufficient medium of flesh between my skin and my bones, particularly in the parts that lie upon the saddle. Therefore, be pleased to send me three dozen ounces of flesh before I attempt such an adventure, or get me a six-mile inn between this town and your house. The cathedral organ and backside are painting and mending, by which I have saved a sermon; and, as the rogues of workmen go on, I may save another.

How, a wonder, came young Acheson to be among you? I believe neither his father nor mother knew anything of him; his mother is at Grange with Mrs. Acheson, her mother, and I hear is very ill of her asthma and other disorders, got by cards, and laziness, and keeping ill hours. Ten thousand sacksful of such knights and such sons are, in my mind, neither worth rearing nor preserving. I count upon it that the boy is good for nothing. I am, sir, with great truth, your obedient humble servant.

TO LADY BETTY GERMAIN.

June 8, 1735.

with

MADAM, I trouble you sooner than usual in acknowledging your letter of May 27th, because there are some passages in it that seem to require a quick answer. If I forgot the date of mine, you must impute it to my ill head; and if I live two years longer I shall first forget my own name and last your ladyship's. I gave my lady Kerry an account of what you said in relation to her son, which she is fully satisfied. I detest the house of lords for their indulgence to such a profligate, prostitute villain as Curll; but am at a loss how he could procure any letters written to Mr. Pope; although, by the vanity or indiscretion of correspondents, the rogue might have picked up some that went from him. Those letters have not yet been sent hither; therefore I can form no judgment on them. When I was leaving England upon the queen's death I burnt all the letters I could find that I had received from ministers for several years before. But as to the letters I receive from your ladyship, I neither ever did nor ever will burn any of them, take it as you please; for I never burn a letter that is entertaining, and consequently will give me new pleasure when it is forgotten. It is true I have kept some letters merely out of friendship, although they sometimes wanted true spelling and good sense, and some