THE "EXAMINER" ESTABLISHED.

The first and most urgent point in which the Tories required Swift's assistance, was the conduct of the Examiner, a periodical paper, which St. John himself, Prior, Dr. Freind, King, and other Tory writers, had already commenced. Their attacks were replied to by the Whig Examiner, the avowed purpose of which was "to censure the writings of others, and to give all persons a re-hearing, who had suffered under any unjust sentence of the Examiner," and during the existence of the work, the task was accomplished with great energy and little mercy. Not only Sacheverell, but Prior, and St. John himself, were attacked, and severely satirized. Swift conducted the Examiner for seven months, during which time, in the language of Homer, he bore the battle upon his single shield, and by the vigour of his attack, and dexterity of his defence, inspired his own party with courage, and terrified or discomfited those champions who stept from the enemy's ranks for the purpose of assailing him. Unrestrained by those considerations which probably influenced the gentler mind of Addison, he engaged in direct personal controversy, and, not satisfied with directing his artillery on the main body of the enemy, he singled out for his aim particular and wellknown individuals. Wharton, whose character laid him too open to such an attack, was the first of those victims; and Oldmixon goes so far as to say that Jonathan Swift was actually preferred by Lord Wharton to be one of his chaplains, which he repaid by libelling his benefactor in the Examiner, under the character of Verres. But his resentment against Lord Wharton was still more strongly indulged, in his Short Character of that nobleman, drawn in the keenest strokes of satire.

Sunderland, Godolphin, Cowper, Walpole, Somers, and Marlborough himself, successively became the butts of Swift's bitter satire in the Examiner.

A MODEL COURT LETTER.

Swift, writing to Addison upon his expectations of preferment, gives a memorial of what he had in his thoughts upon Dr. South's prebend and sinecure, upon which Lord Halifax had written to him as follows:

"October 6, 1709.

"SIB, Our friend Mr. Addison telling me that he was to write to you to-night, I could not let his packet go away without letting you know how much I am concerned to find them returned without you. I am quite ashamed for myself and my friends, to see you left in a place so incapable of tasting you; and to see so much merit, and so great qualities unrewarded by those who are sensible of them. Mr. Addison and I are entered into a new confederacy, never to give over the pursuit, nor to cease reminding those who can serve you, till your worth is placed in that light it ought to shine in. Dr. South holds out still, but he cannot be immortal. The situation of his prebend would make me doubly concerned in serving you, and upon all occasions that shall offer I will be your constant solicitor, your sincere admirer, and your unalterable friend. I am your most humble and obedient servant,

"HALIFAX."

Sir Walter Scott's note on the above is: "This letter from Lord Halifax, the celebrated and almost professed patron of learning, is a curiosity in its way, being a perfect model of a courtier's correspondence with a man of letterscondescending, obliging, and probably utterly unmeaning. Swift wrote thus on the back of the letter, I kept this letter as a true original of courtiers and court promises; and, on the first leaf of a small printed book, entitled, Poësies Chrétiennes de Mons. Jollivet, he wrote these words, ' Given me by my Lord Halifax, May 3, 1709. I begged it of him, and desired him to remember, it was the only favour I ever received from him or his party.'

Dr. South, Prebendary of Westminster, was then very infirm, and far advanced in years. He survived, however, until 1716, and died aged 83.

THE WINDSOR PROPHECY.

Every one familiar with the romantic history of the streets of London will remember the startling episode of the assassination of Mr. Thynne in the Haymarket by foreigners, at the instigation of Count Köningsmark, with the view of securing the Lady Ogle, to whom Thynne had recently been married, and to her was imputed privity to the murder. This lady, Elizabeth, daughter of Joceline, second Earl of Northumberland, and who was married three times, and twice a widow, before she was sixteen years old, was married within four months after the murder of Thynne, to Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset. Thus early practised in matrimonial intrigue, we find her thirty years afterwards the accomplished

organ of political intrigue; the favourite and friend of Queen Anne, and the zealous partisan of the Whig party. In that character she became the object of Swift's pasquinade, "The Windsor Prophecy," which, though aimed at the Duchess of Somerset, and the destruction of her influence at Court, recoiled upon the head of the author, prevented the Queen from making him a bishop, and banished him from her favour for the remainder of her reign. The meaning of the "Prophecy," and the keenness of its sarcasm, were of course readily understood and appreciated by contemporaries. Swift himself seems to have been highly pleased with it. He says, in one of his letters to Stella, "The Prophecy' is an admirable good one, and the people are mad for it." The above recital of the early history of the Duchess of Somerset will render it fully intelligible at the present day. Here is a specimen of Swift's virulence :

"Now angry Somerset her vengeance vows,

On Swift's reproaches for her murder'd spouse:
From her red locks her mouth with venom fills,
And thence into the royal ear distils."

After mentioning some incidents of the time, the "Windsor
Prophecy" ends thus:

"And dear England, if aught I understand,

Beware of Carrots* from Northumberland !
Carrots, sown Thynne, a deep root may get,
If so be they are in Sommer-set.

Their conyngs mark thou! for I have been told,
They assassine when young, and poison when old.
Root out those Carrots, O thou whose namet
Is backwards and forwards always the same!
And keep close to thee always that name‡
Which backwards or forwards is almost the same.
And England, would thou be happy still,
Bury those Carrots under a Hill."S

An opportunity occurred of appointing Swift to the vacant see of Hereford, and he was recommended by the ministry: but the Duchess went in person to the queen, and, throwing herself on her knees, entreated, with tears in her eyes, that she would not give the bishopric to Swift; at the same time presenting to her that excessively bitter copy of verses, The Alluding to the Duchess of Somerset's red hair. +Anna Regina.

Lady Masham. § Lady Masham's maiden name. Communicated by Mr. D. Jardine, to Notes and Queries, No. 125.

Windsor Prophecy. The queen, upon reading them, was stung with resentment at the very severe treatment which he had given to a lady who was known to stand highly in her favour, and as a mark of her displeasure passed Swift by, and bestowed the bishopric on another.

SWIFT'S SYMPATHY FOR HARRISON.

William Harrison, who wrote "The Medicine-a Tale-for the Ladies," in No. 2 of the original Tatler, and some poems in Dodsley's and Nichols's collections, was an amiable person, to whom Swift was very partial: he says of him in a letter to Stella, dated Oct. 13, 1710, "There is a young fellow here in town we are all fond of, and about a year or two from the university, one Harrison, a little pretty fellow with a great deal of wit, good sense, and good nature." When Swift discontinued the Tatlers, Swift advised Harrison to continue them, promising him assistance; and Harrison published about fifty-two numbers. Addison recommended him to a secretaryship, at the treaty of peace at Utrecht, with an income of 10007. a-year; but poor Harrison received nothing, and when

he returned to England, was 3007. in debt, and without a shilling. In a letter to Stella, (Jan. 31, 1712,) Swift says:

Harrison was with me this morning, we talked three hours, and then I carried him to court. When we went down to the door of my lodgings, I found a coach waiting for him. I chid him for it; but he whispered me, it was impossible for him to do otherwise; and in the coach he told me, he had not one farthing in his pocket to pay for it; and therefore, took the coach for the whole day, and intended to borrow somewhere or other. So there was the Queen's minister, intrusted in affairs of the greatest importance, without a shilling in his pocket to pay a coach.*

In the Journal to Stella, the illness and death of poor Harrison are thus recorded in terms which do much honour to the heart of Swift:

Feb. 12, 1712-13. "I found a letter on my table last night, to tell me that poor little Harrison was ill, and desired to see me at night; but it was late, and I could not go till to-day. I went in the morning, and found him mighty ill, and got thirty guineas for him from Lord Bolingbroke, and an order for an hundred pounds from the treasurer to be paid

* This inadvertence, to use the mildest term for it, has descended to a careless class of authors in our day. We have heard of calls from two young poets, each with the request, "Lend me a sovereign: I have a cab at the door, and I owe the driver twelve shillings."

him to-morrow; and I got him removed to Knightsbridge for the air. He has a fever, and inflammation on the lungs, but I hope will do well.” 13th. "I was to see a poor poet, one Mr. Drapier, in a nasty garret, very sick. I gave him twenty guineas from Lord Bolingbroke, and disposed the other sixty to two other authors, and desired a friend to receive the hundred pounds for poor Harrison, and will carry it to him to-morrow morning.* I sent to see how he did, and he is extremely ill; and I am very much afflicted for him, as he is my own creature, and in a very honourable post, and very worthy of it. I am much concerned for this poor lad. His mother and sister attend him, and he wants nothing." 14th. "I took Parnell this morning, and we walked to see poor Harrison. I had the hundred pounds in my pocket. I told Parnell I was afraid to knock at the door; my mind misgave me. I knocked, and his man in tears told me, his master was dead an hour before. Think what a grief this is to me! I went to his mother, and have been ordering his funeral with as little cost as possible, to-morrow at ten at night. Lord Treasurer was much concerned when I told him. I could not dine with Lord Treasurer, nor anywhere else; but got a bit of meat towards evening. No loss ever grieved me so much: poor creature!"

15th. "At ten this night I was at poor Harrison's funeral, which I ordered to be as private as possible. We had but one coach with four of us; and when it was carrying us home after the funeral, the traces broke, and we were forced to sit in it, and have it held up, till my man went for chairs, at eleven at night, in terrible rain. I am come home very melancholy, and will go to bed."-Mr. Singer's Notes to Spence's Anecdotes, Second Edition, 1858.

This is a page in Swift's history, to which his several editors have not given equal prominence: in their accusations of selfish misanthropy, Swift's sympathy for Harrison shines a rich jewel in the Ethiop's ear.'

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POLITICAL INTRIGUE IN SWIFT'S DAYS.

In the Dublin University Magazine for January, 1861, we find this lively picture :

There was a day in England when parties were moulded by the essays and pamphlets of some "great hand," who primed the Prime Minister and led the town. Only turn to Swift's Journal to Stella, covering those busy years of political intrigue from 1710 to 1713. He who reads those strange papers will be fascinated by the play of wit, and giddied by the whirl of change from "our society," which blackballs dukes to beefsteak and bad wine with the printer in the city. He will feel almost awfully the life and stir, and ever thronging and passionate pursuit of those gallant lords and splendid ladies, the youngest of whom has

* Here is a case of a gentleman regularly appointed to a government post, but with his salary unpaid, relieved from the Treasury. We suspect that the list of grants from the Civil List of the present day will attest similar instances of ill-treatment.