ministry. Mr. Secretary St. John was not behind Mr. Harley, either in desire of cultivating Swift's acquaintance, or in address, which the following extract from his Journal will sufficiently show.

Nov. 11, 1710. "I dined to day, by invitation, with the secretary of state, Mr. St. John. Mr. Harley came in to us before dinner, and made me his excuses for not dining with us, because he was to receive people who came to propose the advancing of money to government. The secretary used me with all the kindness in the world. Prior came in after dinner; and upon an occasion, the secretary said to him, "The best thing I ever read is not your's, but Dr. Swift on Vanbrugh;' which I do not reckon so very good neither; but Prior was damped, till I stuffed him with two or three compliments. He told me, ⚫ among other things, that Mr. Harley complained he could keep nothing from me, I had the way so much of getting into him. I knew that was a refinement, and so I told him ; and it was so. Indeed it is hard to see these great men use me like one who was their betters, and the puppies with you in Ireland hardly regarding me. But there are some reasons for all this, which I will tell you when we meet."

1

In another place, he says, March 3, 1710-11. "I dined with Mr. Harley to day. Every Saturday, lord keeper, Secretary St. John, and I, dine with him, and sometimes Lord Rivers, and they let in none else. I staid with Mr. Harley till nine, when we had much discourse together, after the rest were gone, and I gave him very truly my opinion, when he desired it."

Feb. 18, 1710-11. cr Secretary St. John would need have me dine with him to day; and there I found three persons I never saw, two I had no acquaintance with, and one I did not care for; so I left them early, and came home, it being no day to walk, but scurvy rain and wind.

The secretary tells me he has put a cheat upon me; for Lord Peterborow sent him twelve dozen flasks of Burgundy, on condition I should have my share; but he never was quiet till they were all gone; so I reckon he owes me thirty-six pounds."

Feb. 25. "I dined to-day with Mr. Secretary St. John, on condition I might choose my company, which were Lord Rivers, Lord Carteret, Sir T. Mansel, and Mr. Lewis. I invited Masham, Hill, Sir John Stanley, and George Granville, but they were engaged; and I did it in revenge of his having such bad company when I dined with him before. So we laughed, &c."

In the beginning of February, there was a piece of behaviour in Mr. Harley toward Swift, which nettled him to the quick, and had nearly occasioned a breach between them. Of this Swift gives the following account in his Journal.

Feb. 6, 1710. "Mr. Harley desired me to dine with him again to day, but I refused him; for I fell out with him yesterday, and will not see him again till he makes me amends."

Feb. 7. "I was this morning early with Mr. Lewis of the secretary's office, and saw a letter Mr. Harley had sent him, desiring to be reconciled; but I was deaf to all entreaties, and have desired Lewis to go to him, and let him know I expected farther satisfaction. If we let these great ministers pretend too much, there will be no governing them. He promises to make me easy, if I will but come and see him; but I won't, and he shall do it by message, or I will cast him off. I will tell you the cause of our quarrel when I see you, and refer it to yourselves. In that he did something, which he intended for a favour, and I have taken it quite otherwise, disliking both the thing and the manner, and it has heartily vexed me; and all I have said is truth, though it looks

like jest and I absolutely refused to submit to his intended favour, and expect farther satisfaction."

In a subsequent part of the Journal he acquaints Stella with the cause of quarrel.

March 7. "Yes, I understand a cypher, and Ppt* guesses right, as she always does. He gave me al bsadnnk lboinlpl dfuonr ufainfbtoy dpeonufnad which I sent him again by Mr. Lewis, to whom I wrote a very complaining letter, that was showed him, and so the matter ended. He told me he had a quarrel with me; I said I had another with hie, and we returned to our friendship, and I should think he loves me as well as a great minister can love a man in so short a time."

Nothing could have been considered by Swift as a greater indignity, than this offer of Mr. Harley's, which put him on the footing of a hireling writer. Accordingly, he was determined to let him see how much he had mistaken his man, by refusing to see him again till he had asked his pardon by a third hand. He laid hold of this opportunity, to let the ministry know how he expected to be treated by them for the future: as a man, who not only scorned a state of dependence, but who could not bear any thing that might carry the least appearance of it; as one who entered a volunteer in their cause, and who scorned to lie under any obligation, or accept of any thing to which he was not justly entitled by his merits and lastly, as one who, conscious of his abilities to serve the public, expected to be considered by them as

* Stella. S.

+ This is a sort of cipher, in which, to disguise the words, superfluous letters are introduced; and the way to read it is to pass over those letters, and retain only such as will make out words and sense, in the following manner, where the letters to be retained are capitals. Al BsAdNnK IBoInLpL dFaOnR uFaInFbT Y dPeOnUrNaD. That is, A Bank Bill for fifty pound. S.

their coadjutor in the cause, and to be treated on a footing of entire equality. Accordingly, immediately after Mr. Harley had made his peace with him, he showed, by an extraordinary piece of behaviour, that he was determined to exact this from them, without bating the smallest article. The circumstance is mentioned in the following passage of the Journal.

Feb. 12. "I dined to day with Mr. Secretary St. John I went to the Court of Requests at noon, and sent Mr. Harley into the house to call the secretary, to let him know I would not dine with han if he dined late."

When this story is told, without any other circumstance, and we are informed that a private clergyman, vicar of a small country living, in an obscure part of the world, sent the prime minister of Great Britain, to bring out to him the first secretary of state from the senate house, where he was engaged in the important business of the nation, upon so frivolous 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 principle 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, sometime 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 ac'quaintance, if he heard or saw any thing to my disad vantage, 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

* In a subsequent part of the Journal to Stella, he says, "Don't you remember how I used to be in pain, when Sir William 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.