23.  I dined yesterday with General Hamilton.[17] I forgot to tell oo.  I write short journals now.  I have eggs on the spit.  This night the Queen has signed all the warrants, among which Sterne is Bishop of Dromore, and the Duke of Ormond is to send over an order for making me Dean of St. Patrick’s.  I have no doubt of him at all.  I think ’tis now passed.  And I suppose MD is malicious enough to be glad, and rather have it than Wells.[18] But you see what a condition I am in.  I thought I was to pay but six hundred pounds for the house; but the Bishop of Clogher says eight hundred pounds; first-fruits one hundred and fifty pounds, and so, with patent, a thousand pounds in all; so that I shall not be the better for the deanery these three years.  I hope in some time they will be persuaded here to give me some money to pay off these debts.  I must finish the book I am writing,[19] before I can go over; and they expect I shall pass next winter here, and then I will dun them to give me a sum of money.  However, I hope to pass four or five months with MD, and whatever comes on it.  MD’s allowance must be increased, and shall be too, fais. . . [20] I received oor rettle No. 39 to-night; just ten weeks since I had your last.  I shall write next post to Bishop Sterne.  Never man had so many enemies of Ireland[21] as he.  I carried it with the strongest hand possible.  If he does not use me well and gently in what dealings I shall have with him, he will be the most ungrateful of mankind.  The Archbishop of York,[22] my mortal enemy, has sent, by a third hand, that he would be glad to see me.  Shall I see him, or not?  I hope to be over in a month, and that MD, with their raillery, will be mistaken, that I shall make it three years.  I will answer oo rettle soon; but no more journals.  I shall be very busy.  Short letters from hence forward.  I shall not part with Laracor.  That is all I have to live on, except the deanery be worth more than four hundred pounds a year.  Is it?  If it be, the overplus shall be divided between MD and FW beside usual allowance of MD. . . . [23] Pray write to me a good-humoured letter immediately, let it be ever so short.  This affair was carried with great difficulty, which vexes me.  But they say here ’tis much to my reputation that I have made a bishop, in spite of all the world, to get the best deanery in Ireland.  Nite dee sollahs.

24.  I forgot to tell you I had Sterne’s letter yesterday, in answer to mine.  Oo performed oor commission well, dood dallars both.[24] I made mistakes the three last days, and am forced to alter the number.[25] I dined in the City to-day with my printer, and came home early, and am going to [be] busy with my work.  I will send this to-morrow, and I suppose the warrants will go then.  I wrote to Dr. Coghill, to take care of passing my patent; and to Parvisol, to attend him with money, if he has any, or to borrow some where he can.  Nite MD.