a subtle diver, who dextrously shot down into the profoundest regions of politics, he was suffered only to sound the shallows nearest the shore, and was scarce admitted to descend below the froth at the top.  Swift was one of those strange kind of Tories, who lord Bolingbroke, in his letter to Sir William Wyndham, calls the Whimsicals, that is, they were Tories attach’d to the Hanoverian succession.  This kind of Tory is so incongruous a creature, that it is a wonder ever such a one existed.  Mrs. Pilkington informs us, that Swift had written A Defence of the last Ministers of Queen Anne, from an intention of restoring the Pretender, which Mr. Pope advised him to destroy, as not one word of it was true.  Bolingbroke, by far the most accomplished man in that ministry (for Oxford was, in comparison of him, a statesman of no compass) certainly aimed at the restoration of the exiled family, however he might disguise to some people his real intentions, under the masque of being a Hanoverian Tory.  This serves to corroberate the observation which lord Orrery makes of Swift:  ’that he was employed, not trusted, &c.’

By reflexions of this sort, says lord Orrery, we may account for his disappointment of an English bishopric.  A disappointment, which, he imagined, he owed to a joint application, made against him to the Queen, by Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York, and by a lady of the highest rank and character.  Archbishop Sharpe, according to Swift’s account, had represented him to the Queen as a person, who was no Christian; the great lady had supported the assertion, and the Queen, upon such assurances, had given away the bishopric, contrary to her Majesty’s intentions.  Swift kept himself, indeed, within some tolerable bounds when he spoke of the Queen; but his indignation knew no limits when he mentioned the archbishop, or the lady.

Most people are fond of a settlement in their native country, but Swift had not much reason to rejoice in the land where his lot had fallen; for upon his arrival in Ireland to take possesion of the deanery, he found the violence of party raging in that kingdom to the highest degree.  The common people were taught to consider him as a Jacobite, and they proceeded so far in their detestation, as to throw stones and dirt at him as he passed thro’ the streets.  The chapter of St. Patrick’s, like the rest of the kingdom, received him with great reluctance.  They opposed him in every point he proposed.  They avoided him as a pestilence, and resisted him as an invader and an enemy to his country.  Such was his first reception, as dean of St. Patrick’s.  Fewer talents, and less firmness must have yielded to so outrageous an opposition.  He had seen enough of human nature to be convinced that the passions of low, self-interested minds ebb and flow continually.  They love they know not whom, they hate they know not why.  They are captivated by words, guided by names, and governed by accidents.  But to few the strange revolutions in this world, Dr. Swift,