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BOOK I, Chap. V.

THE COL

LECTOR OF

THE HAR

Civil List owed £600,000. The annual deficit was, at least, a hundred and twenty-four thousand pounds. The new Commissioners of the Treasury, nevertheless, made LRIAN MSS. provision, within a few days of their appointment, for paying the Army by the greatest remittance that was ever known. When Parliament met, on the 27th of November, funds had been prepared for the service of the year, and a plan was submitted for easing the nation of nine millions of debt."

Letter to the

Queen

Jane 9, 171

(Part. Hist., vol. vii, App

EARLY IN-
TERCOCRAZ

1710-1711.

HARLEY was scarcely warm in his new office before he made the acquaintance of SWIFT, then full of ambitious though vague schemes for the future, and very angry with the leaders of the Whig party for the coolness with which his proffers, both of counsel and of service, had lately been received.

At the time of his introduction to HARLEY, SWIFT'S WITH SWIFT immediate business in London consisted in soliciting from the Government a remission of first-fruits to the clergy of Ireland. His nominal colleagues in that trust were the Bishops of Ossory and Killaloe, but the whole weight of the negotiations rested upon SWIFT's shoulders. His treatment of it soon displayed his parts. The Minister saw that he was both able and willing to render efficient political service. To the intercourse so begun we owe a life-like portraiture of HARLEY, under all his aspects, and in every mood of mind. Nor is the depicter himself anywhere seen under stronger light than in those passages of his journal which narrate, from day to day, the rise and fall of the Government founded on the unstable alliance between HARLEY and ST. JOHN.

Of their first interview SWIFT notes:-'I was brought privately to Mr. HARLEY, who received me with the greatest respect and kindness imaginable.' Of the second :

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were two hours alone. . . . He read a memorial I had drawn up, and put it into his pocket to show the Queen; told me the measures he would take, . . . . told me he must bring Mr. ST. JOHN and me acquainted; and spoke sony things of personal kindness and esteem for me, that I am inclined half to believe what some friends have told me, that he would do everything to bring me over.' When the promised interview with Secretary ST. JOHN comes to be diarized in its turn He told me,' says SWIFT, 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. It is hard to see these great men using me like one who was their betters, and the puppies with you in Ireland hardly regarding me.' Not many weeks had passed before SWIFT's pen was at work in defence of the measures of the Government with an energy, a practical and versatile ability, of which, up to that date, there had been scarcely an example, brilliant as was the roll of contemporary writers who had taken sides in the political strife. SWIFT's defects, as well as his merits, armed him for his task.

Nor had he been long engaged upon it before he marked, very distinctly, the character both of the rewards to which he aspired, and of the personal independence which he was determined to maintain, in his own fashion.

One day, as he took his leave of HARLEY, after dining with him, the Minister placed in his hand a fifty pound note. He returned it angrily. And he met HARLEY'S next invitation by a refusal. Then comes this entry in his diary :-' I was this morning early with Mr. LEWIS, of the Secretary's office, and saw a letter Mr. HARLEY had sent to him desiring to be reconciled; but I was deaf to all entreaties, and have desired LEWIS to go to him and let

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BOOK I, Chap. V.

THE COL

LECTOR OF
THE HAR-

LEIAN MSS.

Journal to
Stella, p. 169.

1b., pp. 178; 182,

16., p 196.

him know I expect further 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 will not, and he shall do it by message, or I will cast him off.' The desired concession was made, and in a day or two we find our journalist recording, characteristically enough, that he sent Mr. HARLEY into the House to call the Secretary [ST. JOHN], to let him know I would not dine with him if he dined late.' And then I have taken Mr. HARLEY into favour again. . . . I will cease to visit him after dinner, for he dines too late for my head. . . . . . 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 Ministry do anything for those whom they make companions of their pleasures.'

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SWIFT was one of the first bystanders who took note of the seeds of dissension which were already growing up between HARLEY and ST. JOHN, and who foresaw the coming parallel between the fate of the new Government and that of its predecessor. On the 4th of March, 1711, he wrote: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 stands like an isthmus between the Whigs on one side, and the 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. . . . Your Duchess of SOMERSET, who now has the key, is a most insinuating woman, and I believe they [the Whigs] will endeavour to play the same game that has been played against them.'

a

The game was suddenly interrupted, though only for a while. An attempt to assassinate HARLEY gave him renewed hold upon power and popularity. But its unexpected consequences embittered the jealousies which already menaced his administration with ruin.

BOOK I,
THE COL-

Chap. V.

LECTOR OF THE HAR

LEIAN MSS.

ATTEMPT ON

THE LIFE OF

HARLEY.

Antoine de GUISCARD was a French adventurer, whose pri- GUISCARD'S vate life had been marked by great profligacy. He had taken an obscure part in the insurrection of the Cevennes-rather 1711, as a recruiting agent than as a combatant. In that charac- March. ter he had met with encouragement to raise a refugee regiment in England. Hopes had also been held out to him that a British auxiliary contingent would be landed on the southern coast of France. In the course, however, of some preliminary inquiries into the position of the insurrectionists, it was found that such an invasion would have little chance of any useful result, and the project was abandoned. Meanwhile, a pension of £400 a year had been bestowed on the emissary.

But ere long it was discovered that GUISCARD had profited by opportunities, afforded him in the course of the discussions about the proposed expedition, to make himself conversant with many particulars of military and naval affairs, and that it was his habit to send advices into France. Some of his letters were seized. Their writer was arrested on the 8th of March, 1711, and was taken, immediately, before a Committee of the Privy Council.

When examined as to his illicit intercourse with France he persisted in mere denials. At length, one of his letters was shown to him by HARLEY, and he was closely pressed as to his motives in writing it. He then addressed himself to Secretary ST. JOHN, and begged permission to speak with him apart. The Secretary answered, 'You are here before the Council as a criminal. Whatever you may have to say

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P. pp 178;

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13. p 196.

him know I expect further satisfaction. If we let these
great Ministers pretend too much there will be no govern-
ing them. He promises to make me easy if I will but
come and see him. But I will not, and he shall do it by
message, or I will cast him off.' The desired concession
was made, and in a day or two we find our journalist re-
cording, characteristically enough, that he 'sent Mr. HAR-
LEY into the House to call the Secretary [ST. JOHN], to let
him know I would not dine with him if he dined late.'
And then :—' I have taken Mr. HARLEY into favour again.
... I will cease to visit him after dinner, for he dines too
late for my head. . . . . . 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
Ministry do anything for those whom they make com-
panions of their pleasures.'

SWIFT was one of the first bystanders who took note of the
seeds of dissension which were already growing up between
HARLEY and ST. JOHN, and who foresaw the coming parallel
between the fate of the new Government and that of its
predecessor. On the 4th of March, 1711, he wrote:-

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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 stands
like an isthmus between the Whigs on one side, and the
violent Tories on the other. They are able seamen, but
the tempest is too great, the ship too rotten, and the
all against them. . . . . . Your Duchess of Se
now has the key, is a most insinuating
lieve they [the Whigs] will endeave
game that has been played against

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