volous an occasion, we should be apt to consider it was a wanton exertion of the most insolent pride. But when we reflect that this was done the very day after he was reconciled to Mr. Harley, and that he took the first opportunity of retaliating the slight put upon him a few days before, it can only give us a high opinion of his magnanimity. Besides, upon this reconciliation, he thought it necessary to give both ministers a specimen of the terms upon which alone their union could continue, the principal of which was a most perfect equality. How little Swift was willing to allow them any superiority, may be judged by an expression in his Journal the next day after this accident.

Feb. 13. "I have taken Mr. Harley into favour again."

And it soon afterward appeared how readily these ministers came into his terms, as may be seen from the following passage.

:

Feb. 17 "The ministers are good honest hearty fellows I use them like dogs, because I expect they will use me so. They call me nothing but Jonathan, and I said I believed they would leave me Jonathan as they found me; and that I never knew a minister do any thing for those whom they make companions of their pleasures and I believe you will find it so, but I care not.'

How tenacious he was of his rights in this respect, and how ready to take the alarm upon the least appearance of their being infringed, we may judge from the following account of what passed between the secretary and him, some time after, on an occasion of that sort.

April 1, 1711. "I dined with the secretary who seemed terribly down and melancholy; which Mr. Prior and Lewis observed as well as I: perhaps something is gone wrong; perhaps there is nothing in it."

April 3. "I called at Mr. secretary's, to see what the d- ailed him on Sunday: I made him a very proper speech, told him I observed he was much out of temper; that I did not expect he would tell me the cause, but would be glad to see he was in better; and one thing I warned him of, never to appear cold to me, for I would not be treated like a schoolboy; that I had felt too much of that in my life already; that I expected every great minister, who honoured me with his acquaintance, if he heard or saw any thing to my disadvantage, would let me know it in plain words, and not put me in pain to guess by the change or coldness of his countenance or behaviour; for it was what I would hardly bear from a crowned head, and I thought no subject's favour was worth it *; and that I designed to let my lord keeper, and Mr. Harley, know the same thing, that they might use me accordingly. He took all right; said I had reason; vowed nothing ailed him, but sitting up whole nights at business, and one night at drinking; would have had me dined with him and Mrs. Masham's brother, to make up matters; but I would not: I don't know, but I would not. But indeed I was engaged with my old friend Rollinson; you never heard of him before."

From this time we find that Swift was treated by the ministry with the most unreserved confidence in regard to publick affairs, and the most familiar intimacy in private; being always present at their most secret consultations in political matters, and a constant companion of their chosen parties to enliven their social hour.

* In a subsequent part of the Journal to Stella, he says, "Don't you rentember how I used to be in pain, when sir Wil Jam Temple would look cold and out of humour for three or four days, and I used to suspect a hundred reasons? I have plucked up my spirit since then, faith; he spoiled a fine gentleman." S.

Swift has given us the following view of the light in which he considered the situation of affairs about that time. March 4, 1710. "This kingdom is certainly ruined, as much as was ever any bankrupt merchant. We must have a peace, let it be a bad or a good one; though nobody dares talk of it. The nearer I look upon things, the worse I like them. I believe the confederacy will soon break to pieces, and our factions at home increase. The ministry is upon a very narrow bottom, and stand like an isthmus, between the whigs on one side, and violent tories on the other. They are able seamen, but the tempest is too great, the ship too rotten, and the crew all against them. Lord Somers has been twice in the queen's closet, once very lately; and the duchess of Somerset, who now has the key, is a most insinuating woman; and I believe they will endeavour to play the same game that has been played against them. told them all this, which they know already; but they cannot help it. They have cautioned the queen so much against being governed, that she observes it too much. I could talk till to-morrow upon these things, but they make me melancholy. I could not but observe lately, after much conversation with Mr. Harley; though he is the most fearless man alive, and the least apt to despond, he confessed to me, that, uttering his mind to me, gave him ease."

I have

Swift was employed chiefly in writing the Examiners till the beginning of the following June; when, having with ease foiled all his opponents in this skirmishing way of fighting, he retired to prepare for the general engagement, expected at the opening of the next campaign, and which was likely to prove decisive with regard to the fate of the two parties. It is certain, that his apprehensions for the side which he had embraced, were daily increasing; and as he said himself, "the nearer he looked upon things, the worse he liked them." But his

apprehensions were either confined within his own breast, or communicated only to the ministry, excepting in the Journal to Stella, where he is wholly without reserve. He had said to her, so early as January 7, 1710-11: In my opinion we have nothing to save us but a peace, and I am sure we cannot have such a one as we hoped; and then the whigs will bawl what they would have done, had they continued in power. I tell the ministry this as much as I dare, and sball venture to say a little more to them."

Afterward, he gave her an account of the danger they were in, from the more violent members of their own party.

Feb. 18. "We are plagued with an October club, that is, a set of above a hundred parliament men of the country, who drink October beer at home, and meet every evening at a tavern near the parliament, to consult on affairs, and drive things to extremes against the whigs; to call the old ministry to account, and get off five or six heads. The ministry seem not to regard them; yet one of them in confidence told me, that there must be something thought on to settle things better. I'll tell you one great secret: the queen, sensible how much she was governed by the late ministry, runs a little into the other extreme; and is jealous in that point, even of those who got her out of the other's hands. The ministry is for gentler measures, and the other tories for more violent. Lord Rivers, talking to me the other day, cursed the paper called The Examiner, for speaking civilly of the duke of Marlborough. This I happened to talk of to the secretary, who blamed the warmth of that lord, and some others; and swore, if their advice were followed, they would be blown up in twenty-four hours. And I have reason to think, they will endeavour to prevail on the queen, to put her affairs more in the hands of a

ministry, than she does at present; and there are two men thought on, one of whom you have often met the name of in my letters."

But though there were many external circumstances which rendered the situation of the ministry very precarious, yet the chief danger arose from themselves, through a want of concert and mutual confidence, so necessary to men embarked in so difficult an undertaking. This was chiefly owing to the reserve and mysterious conduct of Mr. Harley, which gave great embrage to Mr. St. John, and had very nearly occasioned a breach between them about. that time, of which Swift makes the following mention in his Journal.

August 27, 1711. "The whigs whisper that our ministry differ among themselves, and they begin to talk out the secretary. They have some reasons for their whispers; though I thought it was a greater I do not much like the present posture of things; I always apprehended that any falling out would ruin them, and so I have told them several times."

secret.

Beside this reserve in the treasurer, there was a procrastination in his temper, which ill suited such a juncture of affairs, as required the utmost vigour and dispatch. And though the secretary was a man of great parts and fire, yet had he such a turn to dissipation, as made him lose opportunities, and produced as ill effects, as the procrastinating turn of the treasurer. Of this Swift complains in the following pas-, sage of his Journal.

Oct. 31, 1711. "The deuse is in the secretary ; when I went to him this morning he had people with him; but says, we are to dine with Prior to day, and then will do all our business in the afternoon : at two, Prior, sends word he is otherwise engaged: then the secretary and I go and dine with brigadier