Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

clergy were making the same bold claims there that had raised such disputes amongst us."-Swift. "Dog! dog! dog!"

P. 580. Burnet. "One Prior, who had been Jersey's secretary, upon his death was employed to prosecute that peace which his principal did not live to finish. Prior had been taken a boy out of a tavern by the earl of Dorset, who accidentally found him reading Horace, and he being very generous, gave him an education in literature."-Swift. "Malice!"

P. 581. Burnet. “ Many mercenary pens were set at work to justify our proceedings, and to defame our allies, more particularly the Dutch. This was done with much art, but with no regard to truth, in a pamphlet entitled 'The Conduct of the Allies, and of the late Ministry'."-Swift. "It was all true."

P. 582. Burnet. "The Jacobites did with the greater joy entertain this prospect of peace, because the dauphin had, in a visit to St. Germaine, congratulated that court upon it, which made them conclude it was to have a happy effect with relation to the pretender's affairs."-Swift. "The queen hated and despised the pretender, to my knowledge."

P. 583. Burnet. "In a conference I had with the queen on the subject of peace, she hoped bishops would not be against peace.' I said, a good peace was what we prayed for; but any treaty by which Spain and the West Indies were left to king Philip, must in a little time deliver all Europe into the hands of France; and if any such peace could be made, she was betrayed, and we were all ruined ; in less than three years time she would be murdered,

and

and the fires would again be raised in Smithfield."Swift. "A false prophet in every particular."

P. 589. Burnet. "The queen having sent a message to the lords to adjourn, it was debated that the queen could not send a message to any one house to adjourn, when the like message was not sent to both houses. The pleasure of the prince in convening, dissolving, proroguing, or ordering the adjournment of parliament, was always directed to both houses ; but never to one house, without the same intimation being given to the other."-Swift. "Modern

nonsense."

P. 591. Burnet. "The House of Commons after their recess entered on the observations of the commissioners for taking the public accounts, and began with Walpole (sir Robert Walpole), whom they resolved to put out of the way of disturbing them in the house. The thing laid to his charge stood thus : after he, as secretary at war, had contracted with some for forage to the horse that lay in Scotland, he, finding that the two persons who had contracted for it made some gain by it, named a friend of his own as a third person, that he might have a share in the gain; but the other two had no mind to let him in to know the secret of their management, so they offered him five hundred pounds for his share; he accepted it, and the money was remitted. But they not knowing his address, directed their bill to Walpole, who endorsed it, and the person concerned received the money. This transaction was found out, and Walpole was charged with it as a bribe that he had taken for his own use for making the contract. Both the persons that remitted the money and he who re

ceived it were examined, and affirmed that Walpole was neither directly or indirectly concerned in the matter; but the house insisted upon his having endorsed the bill, and not only voted this a corruption, but sent him to the Tower, and expelled him the House."Swift. Walpole began early, and has been thriving in this business twenty-seven years up to January 1739."

[ocr errors]

P. 609. Burnet. "A new set of addresses ran about. Some mentioned the Protestant succession and the house of Hanover with zeal, others more coldly, and some made no mention at all of it; and it was universally believed that no addresses were so acceptable to the minister as those of the last sort." -Swift. "Foolish and factious."

P. 610. Burnet. "The duke of Ormond had given the States such assurances of his going along with them through the whole campaign, that he was let into the secrets of all their councils, which by that confidence were all known to the French; and if the auxiliary German troops had not been prepared to disobey his orders, it was believed he, in conjunction with the French army, would have forced the States to come into the new measures; but that was happily prevented."-Swift. "Vile Scotch dog! how does he dare to touch Ormond's honour so falsely?"

P. 669. Burnet, speaking of the progress of his own life, says, "The pleasures of sense I did soon nauseate'."-Swift. "Not so soon with the wine of some elections."

Here end the remarks on Bishop Burnet's History of his own Times; but opposite to the title

page

of

"The

"The Life of the Author, by Thomas Burnet, Esq." and in the Life, are the following remarks:

Opposite the title page.-Swift. "A rude violent party-business."

In the Life, p. 722. Thomas Burnet. "The character I have given of his wives will scarce make it an addition to his character that he was a most affectionate husband. His tender care of the first, during a course of sickness that lasted for many years, and his fond love of the other two, and the deep concern he expressed for their loss, were no more than their just due from one of his humanity, gratitude, and discernment."-Swift. "What! only three wives!"

P. 723. Thomas Burnet. "The bishop was a kind and bountiful master to his servants, whom he never changed but with regret, and through necessity; friendly and obliging to all in employment under him, and peculiarly happy in the choice of them; particularly in that of the steward to the bishoprick and his courts, William Wastefield, esq. (a gentleman of a plentiful fortune at the time of his accepting this post), and in that of his domestic steward, Mr. Macknay.”—Swift. "A Scot; his own countryman."

DR. PARNELL TO DR. SWIFT,
ON HIS BIRTH-DAY, NOV. 30, 1713.

URG'D by the warmth of Friendship's sacred flame,
But more by all the glories of thy fame;
By all those offsprings of thy learned mind,
In judgment solid, as in wit refin❜d,

Resolv'd, I sing; tho' labouring up the way
To reach my theme; O SWIFT, accept my lay.
Rapt by the force of thought, and rais'd above,
Thro' Contemplation's airy fields I rove;
Where powerful Fancy purifies my eye,
And lights the beauties of a brighter sky;

Fresh paints the meadows, bids green shades ascend,
Clear rivers wind, and opening plains extend;
Then fills its landscape thro' the varied parts
With Virtues, Graces, Sciences, and Arts:
Superior forms, of more than mortal air,
More large than mortals, more serenely fair.
Of these two Chiefs, the guardians of thy name,
Conspire to raise thee to the point of fame,
Ye Future times, I heard the silver sound!
I saw the Graces form a circle round!

Each, where she fix'd, attentive seem'd to root,
And all, but Eloquence herself, was mute.

High, o'er the rest, I see the Goddess rise,
Loose to the breeze her upper garment flies:
By turns, within her eyes the Passions burn,
And softer Passions languish in their turn:
Upon her tongue Persuasion, or Command;
And decent Action dwells upon her hand.

From

« EdellinenJatka »