9 See Letter 25, note 6.

10 Sir Matthew Dudley (see Letter 3, note 2) married Lady Mary O"Bryen, youngest daughter of Henry, Earl of Th.o.m.ond.

11 See Letter 31, note 10.

12 Sir John St. Leger (died 1743) was M.P. for Doneraile and a Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland from 1714 to 1741. His elder brother, Arthur, was created Viscount Doneraile in 1703.

13 "Relation of the Facts and Circ.u.mstances of the Intended Riot on Queen Elizabeth"s Birthday."

14 The Conduct of the Allies.

15 See Letter 9, note 18.

16 The first motto was "Partem tibi Gallia nostri eripuit," etc.

(Horace, 2 Od. 17-24).

17 See Plautus"s Amphitrus, or Dryden"s Amphitryon.

18 It is not known whether or no this was Dr. William Savage, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. No copy of the sermon--if it was printed--has been found. See Courtenay"s Memoirs of Sir William Temple.

19 Of The Conduct of the Allies, a pamphlet which had a very wide circulation. See a paper by Edward Solly in the Antiquarian Magazine, March 1885.

20 Allen Bathurst, M.P. (1684-1775), created Baron Bathurst in December 1711, and Earl Bathurst in 1772. His second and eldest surviving son was appointed Lord Chancellor in the year preceding the father"s death. Writing to her son in January 1711 (Wentworth Papers, 173), Lady Wentworth said of Bathurst, "He is, next to you, the finest gentleman and the best young man I know; I love him dearly."

21 See Letter 9, note 17.

22 See Letter 16, note 20.

23 Swift is alluding to the quarrel between Lord Santry (see Letter 23, note 2) and Francis Higgins (see Letter 34, note 10), which led to Higgins"s prosecution. The matter is described at length in Boyer s Political State, 1711, pp. 617 seq.

24 See Letter 19, note 1.

25 No doubt the same as Colonel Newburgh (see Journal, March 5, 1711-12).

26 Beaumont (see Letter 1, note 2 and Letter 26, Jul. 6, 1711).

27 See Letter 31, note 1.

28 Cf. Letter 15, Feb. 9, 1710-11.

29 See Letter 35, note 3.

LETTER 36.

1 See Letter 34, note 15. Debtors could not be arrested on Sunday.

2 Sir George Pretyman, Bart., dissipated the fortune of the family. The t.i.tle became dormant in 1749.

3 See the Introduction.

4 For the Whites of Farnham, see Manning and Bray"s Surrey, iii. 177.

5 The Conduct of the Allies.

6 The Percevals were among Swift"s princ.i.p.al friends in the neighbourhood of Laracor. In a letter to John Temple in 1706 (Forster"s Life of Swift, 182) Swift alludes to Perceval; in spite of different views in politics, "I always loved him," says Swift, "very well as a man of very good understanding and humour." Perceval was related to Sir John Perceval, afterwards Earl of Egmont (see Letter 18, note 15).

7 See Letter 1, note 12.

8 See Letter 8, note 14.

9 The Examiner was resumed on Dec. 6, 1711, under Oldisworth"s editorship, and was continued by him until July 1714.

10 Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham, a staunch Tory, had quarrelled with the Government and the Court. On Dec. 7, 1711, he carried, by six votes, an amendment to the Address, to the effect that no peace would be acceptable which left Spain in the possession of the House of Bourbon. Harley"s counter-stroke was the creation of twelve new peers. The Whigs rewarded Nottingham by withdrawing their opposition to the Occasional Conformity Bill:

11 This "Song" begins:

"An orator dismal of Nottinghamshire, Who had forty years let out his conscience for hire."

12 The Conduct of the Allies.

13 Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, and fourth Earl of Lindsey, was created Marquis of Lindsay in 1706, and Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven in 1715. He died in 1723.

14 Lady Sunderland (see Letter 27, note 21) and Lady Rialton, ladies of the bed-chamber to the Queen.

15 Hugh Cholmondeley (died 1724), the second Viscount, was created Viscount Malpas and Earl of Cholmondeley in 1706, and in 1708 was appointed Treasurer of Her Majesty"s Household, an office which he held until 1713, in spite of his Whig sympathies. "Good for nothing, so far as ever I knew," Swift wrote of him.

16 Prov. xxv. 3.

17 See Letter 31, note 8.

18 Thomas Parker, afterwards created Earl of Macclesfield, was appointed Lord Chief-Justice in March 1710. In September 1711 he declined Harley"s offer of the Lord Chancellorship, a post which he accepted under a Whig Government in the next reign.

19 The Bill against Occasional Conformity.

LETTER 37.

1 The proposed visit to London of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the renowned General, and friend of Marlborough, was viewed by the Government with considerable alarm.

2 Swift"s "An excellent new Song; being the intended Speech of a famous orator against Peace," a ballad "two degrees above Grub Street" (see Letter 36, note 11).

3 Robert Walpole was then M.P. for King"s Lynn, and Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. He had been Secretary at War from February 1708 to September 1710, and the Commissioners of Public Accounts having reported, on Dec. 21, 1711, that he had been guilty of venality and corruption, he was expelled from the House of Commons, and taken to the Tower.