some men having such an awkward bashfulness they know not how to refuse upon a sudden, and every man having something to fear or to hope, which often hinders them from driving things to extremes with persons of power, whatever provocations they may have received. He hath sunk his fortunes by endeavouring to ruin one kingdom,' and hath raised them by going far in the ruin of another.' With a good natural understanding, a great fluency in speaking, and no ill taste of wit, he is generally the worst companion in the world; his thoughts being wholly taken up between vice and politics, so that bawdy, prophaneness, and business fill up his whole conversation. To gratify himself in the two first, he makes choice of suitable favourites, whose talent reaches no higher than to entertain him with all the lewdness that passes in town. As for business, he is said to be very dexterous at that part of it which turns upon intrigue, and he seems to have transferred the talents of his youth for intriguing with women, into public affairs: For, as some vain young fellows, to make a gallantry appear of consequence, will choose to venture their necks by climbing up a wall or window at midnight to a common wench, where they might as freely have gone at the door and at noonday; so his excellency, either to keep himself in practice, or to advance the fame of his politics, affects the most obscure, troublesome, and winding paths, even in the commonest affairs, those which would as well be brought about in the ordinary forms, or which would proceed of course whether he intervened or no.

He bears the gallantries of his lady with the indifference of a Stoic, and thinks them well recompensed by a return of children to support his family, without the fatigues of being a father.

He has three predominant passions, which you will seldom observe united in the same man, as arising from different dispositions of mind, and naturally thwarting each other; these are love of power, love of money, and love of pleasure: They ride him sometimes by turns, and sometimes all together: Since he went into that kingdom,3 he seems most 1 England. 2 Ireland. Later texts print “Ireland” in place of the words “ that kingdom." [T. S.]

disposed to the second, and has met with great success, having gained by his government of under two years, fiveand-forty thousand pounds, by the most favourable computation, half in the regular way, and half in the prudential.

He was never yet known to refuse or keep a promise; as I remember he told a lady, but with an exception to the promise he then made, (which was to get her a pension) yet he broke even that, and I confess, deceived us both. But here, I desire to distinguish between a promise and a bargain; for he will be sure to keep the latter, when he has had the fairest offer.

Thus much for his Excellency's character; I shall now proceed to his actions, only during the time he was governor of Ireland, which were transmitted to me by an eminent person in business there, who had all opportunities of being well informed, and whose employment did not lie at his Excellency's mercy.

This intelligence being made up of several facts independent of each other, I shall hardly be able to relate them in due order of time, my correspondent omitting that circumstance, and transmitting them to me, as they came into his memory: So that the gentlemen of that kingdom now in town, I hope will pardon me any slips I shall make in that or any other kind, while I keep exactly to the truth.

Thomas Proby, Esq;1 surgeon-general of Ireland, a person universally esteemed, and whom I have formerly seen here, had built a country-house half a mile from Dublin, adjoining to the Park. In a corner of the Park, just under his house, he was much annoyed with a dog-kennel, which belonged to the government; upon which he applied to Thomas Earl of Pembroke, then lord-lieutenant, and to the commissioners of the revenue, for a lease of about five acres of that part of the Park: His petition was referred to the lord-treasurer

2

The ancestor of John Joshua Proby, Earl of Carysfort, who was ambassador to Berlin in 1800. [T. S.]

2 The Hon. Thomas Herbert (1656?-1733), who succeeded his brother in 1683 as eighth Earl of Pembroke and fifth Earl of Montgomery, was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1707-1709. He was the first plenipotentiary at the Peace of Ryswick in 1697, and Lord President of the Council in 1699-1701 and 1702-1707. He was swordbearer at the coronation of James II., William and Mary, Anne, George I., and George II. [T. S.]

here, and sent back for a report, which was in his favour, and the bargain so hard, that the lord-treasurer struck off some part of the rent. He had a lease granted him, for which he was to build another kennel, provide ice yearly for the government, and pay a certain rent; the land might be worth about thirty shillings an acre. His Excellency, soon after his arrival in Ireland, was told of this lease, and by his absolute authority commanded Mr. Proby to surrender up the land, which he was forced to do, after all the expense he had been at, or else must have expected to lose his employment; at the same time he is under obligation to pay his rent, and I think he does it to this day. There are several circumstances in this story which I have forgot, having not been sent me with the rest, but I had it from a gentleman of that kingdom, who some time ago was here in Town.

2

Upon his Excellency's being declared lord-lieutenant there came over to make his court, one Dr. Lloyd,' Fellow of Dublin-College, noted in that kingdom for being the only clergyman that declared for taking off the sacramental test, as he did openly in their convocation where he was a member. The merit of this and some other principles suitable to it recommended by Tom Brodrick, so far ingratiated him with his Excellency, that being provided of a proper chaplain already, he took him however into a great degree of favour: The doctor attended his Excellency to Ireland, and observing a cast wench in the family to be in much confidence with my lady, he thought by addressing there, to have a short open passage to preferment. He met with great success in his amour, and walking one day with his mistress after my lord and lady in the Castle Garden, my lady said to his Excellency, "What do you think? we are going to lose poor Foidy,' (a name of fondness they usually gave her). "How do you mean?" said my lord;

1 Eugene or Owen Lloyd, Dean of Connor in 1710. In 1688 he had been Junior Dean of Trinity College, Dublin. He died in 1743. [T. S.] 2 Rt. Hon. Thomas Broderick was the elder brother of Alan Broderick, Viscount Midleton, referred to by Swift on p. 23. He was born in 1654, and sat in Irish House of Commons in 1692 and 1715-1722 for Middleton, and in 1695 and 1713 for County Cork. In 1713-1715 he sat in the English House of Commons for Stockbridge, and in 17221727 for Guildford. He died in 1730. [T. S.]

us:

"Why, the doctor behind us is resolved to take her from "Is he, by G-? Why then, G-d d-mn me, he shall have the first bishopric that falls." The doctor thus encouraged, grew a most violent lover, returned with his Excellency for England, and soon after, the bishopric of Cork' falling void, to shew he meant fair, he married his damosel publicly here in London, and his Excellency as honourably engaged his credit to get him the bishopric; but the matter was reckoned so infamous, that both the archbishops here, especially his Grace of York, interposed with the Queen to hinder so great a scandal to the church, and Dr. Brown, the Provost of Dublin-College being then in town, Her Majesty was pleased to nominate him; so that Dr. Lloyd was forced to sit down with a moderate deanery in the northern parts of that kingdom, and the additional comfort of a sweet lady, who brought this her first husband no other portion than a couple of olive-branches for his table, though she herself hardly knows by what hand they were planted.

3

The Queen reserves all the great employments of Ireland to be given by herself, though often by the recommendation of the chief governor, according to his credit at court. The provostship of Dublin-College is of this number, which was now vacant upon the promotion of Dr. Brown: Dr. Benjamin Pratt, a fellow of that college, and chaplain to the House of Commons of that kingdom, as well as domestic

4

It was confidently reported, as a conceit of his Excellency's, that talking upon this subject, he once said, with great pleasure, that he hoped to make his whore a bishop. [Original Edition.]

Scott misprints this as York. [T. S.]

3 Dr. Peter Brown was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was made Bishop of Cork and Ross in 1710, and died in 1735. In 1697 he published "A Letter in Reply to John Toland's 'Christianity not Mysterious.' "" He also wrote "The Procedure, Extent, and Limits of the Human Understanding" (1728), "Things Divine and Supernatural Conceived by Analogy" (1733), and many sermons (1749). [T. S.]

4 Dean of Down in 1717. He was Provost of Trinity College in 1710, and died in 1721. Cotton, in his "Fasti" (vol. v.), identifies Dean Pratt with Benjamin Pratt, LL.D.; but this is an error. The Dean of Down was a Doctor in Divinity, not Laws. There was another Benjamin Pratt, who was an LL.D., as a reference to the Dublin Catalogue of Graduates will show. [T. S.]

chaplain to the Duke of Ormonde,' was at that time here in attendance upon the duke. He is a gentleman of good birth and fortune in Ireland, and lived here in a very decent figure: He is a person of wit and learning, has travelled, and conversed in the best company; and was very much esteemed among us here, where I had the pleasure of his acquaintance: But he had the original sin of being a reputed Tory, and a dependant on the Duke of Ormonde: However, he had many friends among the bishops and other nobility, to recommend him to the Queen. At the same time there was another fellow of that college, one Dr. Hall,2 who had much the advantage of Pratt in point of seniority. This gentleman had very little produced himself into the world, but lived retired, though otherwise said to be an excellent person, and very deserving for his learning and sense. He had been recommended from Ireland by several persons; and his Excellency, who had never before seen nor thought on him in his life, after having tried to injure the college by recommending persons from this side, at last set up Hall with all imaginable zeal against Pratt. I tell this story the more circumstantially, because it is affirmed by his Excellency's friends, that he never made more use of

1

James, second Duke of Ormond, succeeded Wharton as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He had been a Colonel in the second troop of Royal Horse Guards in 1689, and had accompanied William III. to Holland where, at Landen, he was wounded and taken prisoner. He commanded the English soldiers at the wretched expedition to Cadiz, that expedition which brought such infamy on British arms. He was the friend of Bolingbroke and the patron of Steele. It is to him that Steele dedicated his play, "The Lying Lover," and it is of him that Dryden spoke in such praise in the dedication to his "Fables." With Oxford and Bolingbroke he shared in the impeachment in 1715, and like the latter had not the courage to face his accusers, but fled to France, where he spent the rest of his life. With Bolingbroke he became attached to the Pretender's Court, and failed in an attempt to carry the arms of his adopted king into England. He seems to have been a man of small abilities, though placed in high positions, because of his illustrious ancestry. He was certainly no statesman, and his military genius may well rest on the contemptuous criticism of such a high authority as the Duke of Berwick. Even in that licentious age, Ormond was a licentious man; yet showed little of the verve, originality or strength of character which men of free living often display. [T. S.]

2 Dr. John Hall became a fellow in 1685. [T. S.]