A strict residence in a country place was not in the least suitable to the restless temper of Swift.  He was perpetually making excursions not only to Dublin, and other places in Ireland, but likewise to London; so rambling a disposition occasioned to him a considerable loss.  The rich deanery of Derry became vacant at this time, and was intended for him by lord Berkley, if Dr. King, then bishop of Derry, and afterwards archbishop of Dublin, had not interposed; entreating with great earnestness, that the deanery might be given to some grave and elderly divine, rather than to so young a man ’because (added the bishop) the situation of Derry is in the midst of Presbyterians, and I should be glad of a clergyman, who might be of assistance to me.  I have no objection to Mr. Swift.  I know him to be a sprightly ingenious young man; but instead of residing, I dare say he will be eternally flying backwards and forwards to London; and therefore I entreat that he may be provided for in some other place.’

Swift was accordingly set aside on account of youth, and from the year 1702, to the change of the ministry in the year 1710, few circumstances of his life can be found sufficiently material to be inserted here.  From this last period, ’till the death of Queen Anne, we find him fighting on the side of the Tories, and maintaining their cause in pamphlets, poems, and weekly papers.  In one of his letters to Mr. Pope he has this expression, ’I have conversed, in some freedom, with more ministers of state, of all parties, than usually happens to men of my level; and, I confess, in their capacity as ministers I look upon them as a race of people, whose acquaintance no man would court otherwise, than on the score of vanity and ambition.’  A man always appears of more consequence to himself, than he is in reality to any other person.  Such, perhaps, was the case of Dr. Swift.  He knew how useful he was to the administration in general; and in one of his letters he mentions, that the place of historiographer was intended for him; but in this particular he flattered himself; at least, he remained without any preferment ’till the year 1713, when he was made dean of St. Patrick’s.  In point of power and revenue, such a deanery might be esteemed no inconsiderable promotion; but to an ambitious mind, whose perpetual view was a settlement in England, a dignity in any other country must appear only a profitable and an honourable kind of banishment.  It is very probable, that the temper of Swift might occasion his English friends to wish him promoted at a distance.  His spirit was ever untractable.  The motions of his genius were often irregular.  He assumed more of the air of a patron, than of a friend.  He affected rather to dictate than advise.  He was elated with the appearance of enjoying ministerial confidence.  He enjoyed the shadow indeed, but the substance was detained from him.  He was employed, not entrusted; and at the same time he imagined himself