ent from those of the fame denomination here; at leaft it was fo during the reign of her late Majesty. -Whether thofe on your fide hath changed or no, it hath not been my business to inquire. I remember my excellent friend, Mr. Addison, when he firft came over hither fecretary to the Earl of Wharton, then Lord Lieutenant, was extremely offended at the conduct and difcourfe of the chief managers here. He told me they were a fort of people who feemed to think, that the principles of a Whig `confifted in nothing else but damning the church, reviling the clergy, abetting the diffenters, and fpeaking contemptibly of revealed religion.

I was difcourfing fome years ago with a certain minister about that Whiggith or Fanatical genius fo prevalent among the English of this kingdom: his Lordship accounted for it by that number of Cromwell's foldiers, adventurers eftablifhed here, who were all of the foureft leaven, and the meanest birth, and whofe pofterity are now in poffeffion of their lands and their principles. However, it must -be confeffed, that of late fome people in this country are grown weary of quarrelling, because interest, the great motive of quarrelling, is at an end; for it is hardly worth contending who fhall be an excifeman, a country-vicar, a crier in the courts, or an under-clerk.

You will perhaps be inclined to think, that a` perfon fo ill treated as I have been, muft, at fome time or other, have difcovered very dangerous opinions in government. In anfwer to which, I will tell you what my political principles were in the time of her late glorious Majefty, which I never contradicted by any action, writing, or difcourfe.

First, I always declared myfelf against a Popish fucceffor to the crown, whatever title he might have by the proximity of blood. Neither did I ever regard the right line, except upon two accounts; firft, as it was established by law; and, fecondly,

as

as it hath much weight in the opinions of the people; for neceffity may abolish any law, but cannot alter the fentiments of the vulgar; right of inheri tance being perhaps the most popular of all topics: and therefore in great changes, when that is broke, there will remain much heart-burning and difcontent among the meaner people, which, under a weak prince and corrupt administration, may have the worst confequences upon the peace of any ftate.

As to what is called a revolution principle, my opinion was this, That whenever thofe evils which ufually attend and follow a violent change of go. vernment, were not in probability fo pernicious as the grievances we fuffer under a prefent power, then the public good will juftify fuch a revolution. And this I took to have been the cafe in the Prince of Orange's expedition; although in the confequen. ces it produced fome very bad effects, which are likely to stick long enough by us.'

I had likewife in those days a mortal antipathy against standing armies in times of peace; becaufe I always took standing armies to be only fervants hir ed by the mafter of the family for keeping his own children in flavery; and becaufe I conceived, that a prince who could not think himself fecure with out mercenary troops, muft needs have a feparate intereft from that of his fubjects; although I am not ignorant of thofe artificial neceffities which a corrupted miniftry can create for keeping up forces to fupport a faction against the public intereft.

As to parliaments, I adored the wifdom of that. Gothic inftitution which made them annual; and I was confident our liberty could never be placed upon a firm foundation, until that ancient law were reftored among us. For who fees not, that while fuch affemblies are permitted to have a longer duration, there grows up a commerce of corruption between the miniftry and the deputies, wherein

they

they both find their accounts, to the manifest danger of liberty? which traffic would neither anfwer the defign nor expence, if parliaments met once ayear.

I ever abominated that scheme of politics, (now about thirty years old), of fetting up a moneyed intereft in oppofition to the landed. For I conceived there could not be a truer maxim in our govern. ment than this, That the poffeffors of the foil are the beft judges of what is for the advantage of the kingdom. If others had thought the fame way, funds of credit and South-fea projects would nei ther have been felt nor heard of.

I could never difcover the neceffity of fufpending any law upon which the liberty of the moft innocent perfons depended; neither do I think this practice hath made the tafte of arbitrary power fo agreeable, as that we fhould defire to fee it repeated. Every rebellion fubdued and plot difcovered, contribute to the firmer establishment of the prince. In the latter cafe the knot of conspirators is entirely broke, and they are to begin their work a new under a thousand difadvantages: fo that those diligent inquiries into remote and problematical guilt, with new power of inforcing them by chains and dungeons, to every perfon: whofe face a minifter. thinks fit to diflike, are not only oppofite to that maxim, which declareth it better that ten guilty men fhould escape, than one innocent fufter; but likewife leave a gate wide open to the whole tribe of informers, the most accurfed, and proftitute, and abandoned race, that God ever permitted to plague mankind.

It is true the Romans had a cuftom of chufing a dictator, during whofe adminiftration the power of other magiftrates was fufpended. But this was. done upon the greatest emergencies; a war neat their doors, or fome civil diffention: for armies must be governed by arbitrary power. But when

the

the virtue of that commonwealth gave place to luxury and ambition, this very office of dictator became perpetual, in the perfons of the Cæfars and their fucceffors, the most infamous tyrants that have any where appeared in story.

:

Thefe are fome of the fentiments I had relating to public affairs, while I was in the world. What they are at prefent, is of little importance either to that or myfelf: neither can I truly fay I have any at all; or, if I had, I dare not venture to publifh them for however orthodox they may be while I am now writing, they may become criminal enough to bring me into trouble before midfummer. And indeed I have often wifhed, for fome time paft, that a political catechifm might be published by authority four times a-year, in order to instruct us how we are to fpeak, write, and act, during the current quarter. I have by experience felt the want of fuch an instructor: for intending to make my court to fome people on the prevailing fide, by advancing certain old Whiggith principles, which it feems had been exploded about a month before, I have paffed for a diffaffected perfon. I am not ignorant how idle a thing it is for a man in obfcurity to attempt defending his reputation as a writer, while the fpirit of faction hath fo univerfally poffeffed the minds of men, that they are not at leiturė to attend to any thing elfe. They will just give themfelves time to libel and accufe me; but cannot spare a minute to hear my defence. So in a plot-difcovering age, I have often known an innocent man feized and imprifoned, and forced to lie feveral months in chains, while the minifters were not at leifure to hear his petition, until they had profecuted and hanged the number they proposed.

All I can reafonably hope for by this letter, is to convince my friends, and others who are pleafed to wifh me well, that I have neither been fo ill a fubject, nor fo ftupid an author, as I have been reprefented

represented by the virulence of libellers; whofe malice hath taken the fame train in both, by fathering dangerous principles in government upon me, which I never maintained; and infipid productions, which I am not capable of writing. For, however I may have been foured by perfonal ill treatment, or by melancholy profpects for the public, I am too much a politician to expofe my own fafety by offenfive words. And if my genius and fpirit be funk by increafing years, I have at leaft enough difcretion left, not to mistake the measure of my own abilities, by attempting fubjects where thofe talents are neceffary, which perhaps I may have loft with my youth.

*****

LETTER

**

VII.

Dr. SWIFT to Mr. GAY.

Dublin, Jan. 8. 1722-3.

Coming home after a fhort Christmas ramble, I

found a letter upon my table; and little expected when I opened it, to read your name at the bottom. The beft and greateft part of my life, until thefe laft eight years, I spent in England; there I made my friendships, and there I left my defires. I am condemned forever to another country. What is in prudence to be done? I think, to be oblitufque meorum, oblivifcendus et illis. What can the design of your letter be but malice, to wake me out of a fourvy fleep, which however is better than none? I am towards nine years older fince I left you; yet that is the leaft of my alterations my business, my diverfions, my converfations, are all entirely chan ged for the worfe, and fo are my ftudies and my amufements

1