several considerable persons, take the liberty of representing this matter to him. His answer was short and cold; that he hoped his friends would trust him; that he heartily wished that none, but those who loved the church and queen, were employed, but that all could not be done on a sudden. I have reason to believe, that his nearest acquaintance were then wholly at a loss what to think of his conduct. He was forced to preserve the opinion of power, without which he could not act; while, in reality, he had little or none; and besides, he thought it became him to take the burthen of reproach upon himself, rather than lay it upon the queen, his mistress, who was grown very positive, slow, and suspicious; and from the opinion of having been formerly too much directed, fell into the other extreme, and became difficult to be advised. So that few ministers had ever perhaps a harder game to play, between the jealousy and discontents of his friends on one side, and the management of the queen's temper on the other." In another part of the same tract, there is a passage to the same effect. "Upon Mr. Harley's recovery, which was soon followed by his promotion to an earldom, and the treasurer's staff, he was earnestly pressed to go on with the change of employments, for which his friends and the kingdom were very impatient; wherein I am confident he was not unwilling to comply, if a new incident had not put farther difficulties in his way. The queen, having thought fit to take the key from the duchess of Marlborough, it was, after some time, given to another great lady, (the duchess of Somerset) wholly in the interests of the opposite party; who, by a most obsequious behaviour, of which she is a perfect mistress, and the privilege privilege of her place, which gave her continual access, quickly won so far upon the affections of her majesty, that she had more personal credit than all the queen's servants put together. Of this lady's character and story, having spoken so much in other papers, which may one day see the light, I shall only observe, that as soon as she was fixed in her station, the queen, following the course of her own nature, grew daily more difficult, and uncomplying. Some weak endeavours were indeed used to divert her majesty from this choice; but she continued steady, and pleaded, that if she might not have the liberty of choosing her own servants, she could not see what advantage she had gotten by the change of her ministry: and so little was her heart set upon what they call a high church, or tory administration, that several employments in court and country, and a great majority in all commissions, remained in the hands of those who most opposed the present proceedings." And, as a farther confirmation of the queen's disposition in this respect, he says, in the second part of the above tract, "Her only objection against several clergymen, recommended to her for promotions in the church, was their being too violent in party. And a lady in high favour with her, has frequently assured me, that whenever she moved the queen to discard some persons, who upon all occasions, with great virulence, opposed the court, her majesty would constantly refuse, and at the same time condemn her for too much party-zeal." * Such being the queen's system of conduct, it is evident that Swift must have been more obnoxious to * Lady Masham. S. her her than any man living, as he was the most unwearied in his endeavours to counteract her views, by rooting out the whigs entirely, and therefore she must constantly have looked upon him with an evil But when at last he made a direct attempt to eye. get her to discharge her favourite, the duchess of Somerset, in a copy of verses addressed to the queen, the most bitter, with regard to the duchess, perhaps, that ever was penned, called "The Windsor Prophecy;" the queen gave evident marks of her displeasure, and took afterward an opportunity of showing her resentment to the author, by proclaiming a reward of three hundred pounds for discovering the author of a pamphlet called "The Public Spirit of the Whigs," which she knew to have been written by Swift, in support of the ministry. This fact he has commemorated, in a copy of verses on himself, where, speaking of the duchess of Somerset, he says, "From her red locks her mouth with venom fills, The queen incens'd, his services forgot, Leaves him a victim to the vengeful Scot: While innocent, he scorns ignoble flight, His watchful friends preserve him by a sleight." And in the Preface to his "History of the Four last Years of Queen Anne," he says, "I was so far from having any obligation to the crown, that, on the contrary, her majesty issued a proclamation, offering three hundred pounds to any person who would discover the author of a certain short treatise, which which the queen well knew to have been written by me." From all that has been offered upon this head, we may clearly deduce the reason why Swift remained such a length of time without any promotion, and may fairly exonerate lord Oxford from the charges made against him on that score. It is now evident, though before it was a secret to the world, that he had by no means that degree of power which he was supposed to enjoy, in any matter whatever, but in any point that did not fall in with her majesty's pleasure, he had none at all, much less therefore in such as she was set against. Among which number, that of the promotion of Dr. Swift, for the reasons abovementioned, seems to have been one. If, as he has related, "her only objection against several clergymen, recommended to her for promotions in the church, was their being too violent in party;" how much more strongly must this have operated with regard to him, whose zeal in the cause he had espoused, transported him so beyond all bounds of moderation, as to keep no measures even with her, though he well knew her disposition. Of this he gave a strong proof in "the Windsor Prophecy;" the tendency of which was, to prevail on her majesty to remove the duchess of Somerset, the patroness of the whig cause, by the most bitter invectives on her character, from her post; and to receive Mrs. Masham, who was equally attached to the tory interest, in her place. He was so indiscreet as to give orders for the publication of that piece, which would have been done, had not Mrs. Masham prevented it. Of this he gives the following account, in his Journal of De cember tember 1711. "I called at noon at Mrs. Masham's, who desired me not to let the Prophecy be published, for fear of angering the queen about the duchess of Somerset; so I wrote to the printer, to stop them. They have been printed, and given about, but not sold." And a little lower, he says, "I entertained our society at the Thatch'd House tavern to day at dinner; but brother Bathurst sent for wine, the house affording none. The printer had not received my letter, and so he brought us a dozen apiece of the Prophecy; but I ordered him to part with no more. 'Tis an admirable good one, and people are mad for it." As this society consisted of sixteen, we here see there was a sufficient number got abroad, to have it generally spread; so that it was no difficult matter for the duchess to procure a copy, which she kept by her in petto, till she should find a convenient season for wreaking her revenge. This soon offered itself, when he was recommended to the queen for a vacant bishoprick, from which he was precluded by the duchess, in the manner before related. Whoever reads that Prophecy, is acquainted with the queen's disposition, and knows the ascendency which the duchess maintained over her to the last, will not wonder that Swift remained so long without promotion. That lord Oxford was solicitous for his friend's preferment, appears from his recommending him so early to a bishoprick, which was a fact of general notoriety at that time, and since confirmed to me by good authority. And the reasons are now equally obvious, why it was not in the lord treasurer's power to promote him afterward; though it is probable that he studiously concealed this from Swift, as he might think VOL. I. M |