"I know no party; but the truth of the question is what I will support as well as I can, when any man I honour is attacked."

The next day Swift sent his answer :

"SIR,

"May. 27. 1713.

"The reason I give you the trouble of this reply to your letter, is because I am going in a very few days to Ireland; and although I intended to return toward winter, yet it may happen, from the common accidents of life, that I may never see you again.

"In your yesterday's letter, you were pleased to take the complaining side, and think it hard I should write to Mr. Addison as I did, only for an allusion. This allusion was only calling a clergyman of some little distinction an infidel: a clergyman who was your friend, who always loved you, who had endeavoured at least to serve you; and who, whenever he did write anything, made it sacred to himself never to fling out the least hint against you.

"One thing you are pleased to fix on me, as what you are sure of: that the Examiner' had talked after me, when he said, 'Mr. Addison had bridled you in point of party.' I do not read one in six of those papers, nor ever knew he had such a passage; and I am so ignorant of this, that I cannot tell what it means: whether, that Mr. Addison kept you close to a party, or that he hindered you from writing about party. I never talked or writ to that author in my life; so that he could not have learned it from me. And in short, I solemnly affirm, that with relation to every friend I have, I am as innocent, as it is possible for a human creature to be. And whether you believe me or not, I think, with submission, you ought to act as if you believed me, till you have demonstration to the contrary. I have all the ministry to be my witnesses, that there is hardly a man of wit of the adverse party, whom I have not been so bold as to recommend often and with earnestness to them: for, I think, principles at present are quite out of the case, and that we dispute wholly about persons. In these last you and I differ; but in the other, I think, we agree: for I have in print professed myself in politics, to be what we formerly called a Whig.

"As to the great man [the Duke of Marlborough] whose defence you undertake; though I do not think so well of him as you do, yet I have been the cause of preventing five hundred hard things being said against him.

"I am sensible I have talked too much when myself is the subject: therefore I conclude with sincere wishes for your health and prosperity, and am Sir,

"Yours &c.
"JNO. SWIFT.

"You cannot but remember, that in the only thing I ever published with my name, I took care to celebrate you as much as I could, and in as handsome a manner, though it was in a letter to the present lord treasurer."

[The pamphlet "Upon Correcting &c., the English tongue," in which

long

Steele is referred to as the "Ingenious gentleman, who, for a time did thrice a week divert or interest the Kingdom by his papers,' and as an "author who has tried the force and compass of the language with much success."]

The quarrel thus commenced was allowed to remain, until later events assisted Swift to aggravate it so that any rapprochement was made impossible. Swift returned to Ireland and arrived in Dublin on the 10th of June, 1713. He was installed Dean of St. Patrick's three days later. But he was not allowed to enjoy his quiet (such as it was, for his reception in Ireland was anything but a welcoming one) long. His friends, the ministers, had sore need of him again. A new parliament was on the eve of election, and the popularity of the peace and the treaty were to be tested by an appeal to the constituencies. On the one hand there were the Whigs shouting of danger to Church and State from Popery and the Pretender. On the other the Tories claimed the benefits from the peace.

One of the stipulations of the Treaty of Utrecht was that the port of Dunkirk should be demolished, its existence being deemed a menace to England. France, however, was loth to perform this part of the contract, and it sent Monsieur Tugghe, one of the inhabitants of Dunkirk, to plead the cause of the town before the queen, and endeavour to obtain some clemency by which, if nothing else could be said, the mole and harbour might be spared. "Being a person,' remarks Scott, "of that perseverance which his very name seems to imply, he was not satisfied with a single refusal, but presented a second memorial." Steele, as editor of the "Guardian," resented this insistence of M. Tugghe, and in a letter to Nestor Ironside, signed "English Tory," he printed in No. 128 of his paper a spirited reply to the memorial.

The style adopted by Steele in his paper gave offence to the Tories. They thought its language amounted to an insult to the queen, and savoured of treason. They expressed their indignation in the "Examiner," and Steele, who had been elected as member for Stockbridge (Dorsetshire), replied with his pamphlet, "The Importance of Dunkirk considered in a Defence of the Guardian, in a Letter to the Bailiff of Stockbridge.' In this pamphlet he reprinted the offensive letter from the "Guardian."

It was at this juncture that Swift came on the scene. His friendship for Steele was no more. The story of their estrangement, as given above, will show how it may have contributed to the bitterness of Swift's satirical comments. No doubt, also, Swift did not look with complaisance on Steele's advancement in life, and we can well believe that he had determined to prick the bubble of Steele's somewhat easily inflated pride. The vehemence of Swift's attack, however, is so terrible, that no excuse can be found for it. Swift as a friend was one thing, but Swift as a political antagonist must have filled Steele with alarm. "I forbear," wrote Swift, giving him what he deserves, for no other reason, but that I know his sensibility of reproach is such, as that he would be unable to bear life itself, under half the ill language he has given me."

The attack, however, did not cease with this pamphlet, as will be

seen from the note prefixed to "The Public Spirit of the Whigs. And Mr. Dilke (in his "Papers of a Critic ") is of the opinion, though we differ from him, that the Wagstaffe pamphlet, entitled, "Character of Richard St-le, Esq., by Toby, Abel's Kinsman," is also from Swift's pen.

The text of the present edition of "The Importance of the Guardian Considered," is that of the original issue. Scott notes that it "was, with great difficulty, recovered by the exertions of Mr. Nichols, who advertised for it without effect, for some time;" but neither the text of Scott, nor that given by Nichols, exactly follows the original.

[T. S.]

THE

IMPORTANCE

OF THE

GUARDIAN

Confidered, in a Second

LETTER

TO THE

Bailiff of Stockbridge.

By a Friend of Mr. St---le.

LONDON:

Printed for John Morphew, near Stationers Hall. 1713. Price 6 d.