the whole produced an income of £400 per annum. Having taken possession of his living at Laracor, he was at great pains in repairing and improving the Vicarage house and grounds; he added nineteen acres to the Glebe, and purchased the Tithes of Effernock, with which he endowed the living. But Swift was not long to remain in inactive obscurity the impeachment of Lords Somers, Oxford, and others, on account of the Partition Treaty, induced him to come forward as a political writer, in "A Discourse upon the Dissensions between the Nobles and Commons in Athens and Rome." The pamphlet excited much attention; and Somers, Halifax, and Sunderland took him at once into familiarity and confidence. He now made frequent journeys to London, associated with the Wits at Button's Coffee-house, and formed an intimacy and friendship with several of them, more particularly with Addison, Steele, and Arbuthnot. His celebrity was greatly enhanced by the publication, in 1694, of the "Tale of a Tub;" which, although he never openly acknowledged it, was by general consent attributed to him. In the summer of 1709, wearied with attendance upon the Ministry, having been alternately flattered by the prospect of promotion, and irritated and disgusted by neglect and disappointment, he quitted London, and resumed his retirement at Laracor. In 1710 he was united with the Bishops of Ossory and Killaloe, in a Commission from the Prelates of Ireland, to prosecute their suit for a remission of the first-fruits and twentieths. On this visit he separated entirely from the Whigs, and manifested in the strongest manner his contempt and hatred of their leaders, Somers and Godolphin, for having insolently considered his services sufficiently requited by mere civilities. By his own avowal, he had been a Whig in general politics only; in what related to the dignity and influence of the Church, the points nearest his heart, he had always sided with the Tories and now, aggravated as he was by the neglect and ingratitude of the opposite party, it is not surprising that he at once threw himself into their arms. Harley, who, smarting under similar ill-treatment, had made head against the Whigs, and succeeded in driving them from power, was aware of the value of such an adherent as Swift: he and his colleague, Bolingbroke, received him most cordially, and he at once became their associate and counselor. Swift, already in much esteem as a political writer, brought into action the whole artillery of his cloquence, wit, and sarcasm, in aid of his new patrons he wrote a large portion of the Examiner" (of which he undertook the Editorship), and published numerous poems, papers, and pamphlets. The most

remarkable of these last were the "Conduct of the Allies" (of which 11,000 copies were sold in less than a month), and the "Public Spirit of the Whigs," which gave such offense to the Scotch that, through the interference of the Lords, a proclamation was issued, offering £300 reward, for the discovery of the author. Notwithstanding his important and influential position, Swift received no recompense until April, 1713, when he was promoted to the Deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin.

He had scarcely taken possession of his new dignity, when he was recalled from Ireland, for the purpose of allaying the dissensions which had arisen between Harley and Bolingbroke; his efforts to effect a reconciliation failed; and he retired into Berkshire, where he wrote "Some Free Thoughts upon the present State of Affairs;" and shortly after, the death of Queen Anne deprived his friends of their power, and him of his political influence. He immediately quitted England; and, during six years, continued in retirement and comparative obscurity.

In 1720 he published "A Proposal for the universal Use of Irish Manufactures," in which he sought to persuade his countrymen to reject English manufactures, and to wear none but their own. The pamphlet created a great sensation, and the Printer was prosecuted: the Jury having declared him Not Guilty, were detained eleven hours, and sent out of court to reconsider their verdict nine times; and at last left the question undecided by giving a Special Verdict. The farther trial, after repeated delays, was set aside by a Noli Prosequi, and Swift may be said to have obtained a complete victory. This he followed up by persecuting with unremitting zeal the Lord Chief Justice Whitshead, and Judge Boate, by Epigrams, Lampoons, and Satires, until they became the objects of universal scorn and disgust. But the popularity he thus obtained in Ireland was trifling compared with that which attended the publication of the "Drapier's Letters," four years afterward. One William Wood had obtained a patent for coining half-pence for Ireland, to the amount of 108,000: Swift, indignant at the iniquity of the scheme, drew up, in the name of the Irish people, a petition against it; and, by way of strengthening the appeal, published a series of Letters, with the signature of M. B. Drapier. Their effect was instantaneous; the nation became excited and clamorous,

and the whole population formed the steady resolution never to receive a singl of Wood's coin. The Printer of the "Letters" was imprisoned; but the Gran refused to find an indictment, and a reward of £300 was offered in vain for covery of the author. The result was, the patent was annulled, the coin with and Swift constituted the Idol and the Oracle of his country, to the hour of his With respect to the merit of the "Drapier's Letters," it will suffice to quote the of Isaac Hawkins Browne, who designates them "the most perfect pieces of ever composed since the days of Demosthenes."

Having achieved this triumph over Wood and his half-pence, Swift retired to a country house, belonging to his friend, Dr. Sheridan, and for some time amus in projecting and executing alterations and improvements there, and also in ing and revising "Gulliver's Travels." In 1726 he went to England, where he ceived with open arms by Bolingbroke, Bathurst, Arbuthnot, Gay, and Pope. up his abode at the house of the latter, and assigned to him the task of select arranging the materials for three volumes of Miscellanies, their joint production ring this visit he waited upon Sir Robert Walpole, with a view to interest him cause of Ireland; and (it has been said) to endeavor to obtain for himself Chu ferment in England: but Walpole had been prepossessed against him and his v Irish affairs by the representations of Archbishop Boulter, and they parted w civility, no point being gained by either party in the conference.

:

In August, Swift returned to Dublin, where his arrival was celebrated with t public demonstrations of joy and respect and in November, the "Travels of G were published anonymously. This celebrated work immediately engrossed th tion of the whole kingdom: it was read, admired, and discussed, by all rank offered," says Sir Walter Scott, "personal and political satire to the readers in h low and coarse incident to the vulgar, marvels to the romantic, wit to the you lively, lessons of morality and policy to the grave, and maxims of deep and bit anthropy to neglected age, and disappointed ambition."

In 1727 Swift visited England for the last time, and spent the summer am early friends. His hopes of preferment, and his prospects of reviving political in were now at an end; and when he returned to what he always considered his exile, to his discontent and chagrin was added severe affliction, by the death of th to whom he was most attached. His health became affected, and his temper m ever unequal and morose: he rallied occasionally, and from time to time grati animosity he cherished against Queen Caroline and Walpole, by attacking the their favorites and dependents, with the same wit and irony that distinguished hi days. At length, the disorders under which he had suffered at intervals all obtained the mastery, and he sunk into a state of mental aberration, pitiable in a of view, but most awful when contrasted with the brilliant genius and unusual which had originally adorned his comprehensive mind. He died on the 29th ber, 1745, in his 78th year.

The domestic history of Swift has been the subject of much discussion, from traordinary circumstances attending his connection with Mrs. Esther Johnson, ce in his writings under the name of Stella. She was the daughter of Sir Willia ple's Steward, and was about fourteen years old when Swift undertook the offic preceptor. At Sir William's death, she resided for some time with Mrs. Dingley tion of the Temple family, and, when Swift settled at Laracor, accepted his invi fix her abode at Trim, a village in the vicinity of his living. She was then eigh great personal attractions, and fervently attached to him, no doubt anticipated the consummation of her wishes. But Swift, who could not be unconscious of the he had excited, adapted his whole conduct toward her strictly to the charac friend, and never met her but in the presence of a third person. When he left any time, she and her companion resided at his house, resuming their own lodgi mediately on his return. In this manner passed eight years, in the course of wh affection seemed gradually to increase, and she refused a very eligible offer of n from a Mr. Tisdal. When Swift went to London, in September, 1710, he was agonized at leaving her, and kept, during his absence, a Journal addressed which fully evinces how completely she swayed every feeling of his heart. N less, an event took place which was every way calculated to distress her, and br question the sincerity of his professions. In London, Swift became acquainted widow lady, named Vanhomrigh, whose eldest daughter interesting him greatly

temper and manners, he offered his assistance in completing her education. The progress of his pupil was astonishing: but at the end of two years, Swift was thrown into the greatest embarrassment, by her openly declaring her love for him, and demanding a

return.

He was at this time in his 47th year, and it is to be lamented that he suffered his vanity to overcome his sense of propriety, and encouraged hopes which he never intended to realize. Vanessa (as he called her) was not of the gentle and patient temper of Stella-when Swift returned to Ireland, on the Queen's death, she followed him, contrary to his wish; and their meetings (allowed by all to have been perfectly platonic) caused Stella a jealousy, which brought on a severe indisposition. Swift, to soothe her and satisfy her scruples, agreed to marry her, on the condition of their living separately, as heretofore; and they were privately married (the ceremony being performed in the garden of the Deanery) by Dr. Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, in 1716. After this he would willingly have estranged himself from Vanessa, but found it impracticable. She, having some suspicion of the real fact, wrote to Mrs. Johnson, and the answer she received, together with Swift's resentment upon discovering her proceeding, threw her into a fever which terminated her existence in 1723. Her scarcely less unfortunate rival did not survive her many years; her spirits and her frame, blighted and wasted, by "hope deferred," and bitter disappointment, she died prematurely in 1728.

The conduct of Swift toward these ill-fated women, however it may be accounted for, or extenuated, will always remain a blot upon his memory in spite of the most diligent research, a mystery still envelopes it, which physical and philosophical attempts at explanation have failed to disperse. In all other relations, Swift appears to have been a worthy and estimable man. His works (the enumeration of which would carry us beyond our prescribed bounds) are all examples of great ingenuity, and intellectual power: of his poems, "Cadenus and Vanessa," Baucis and Philemon," and his "Imitations of Horace," are of the highest order; and the "Tale of a Tub," the "Drapier's Letters," and "Gulliver's Travels," have conferred immortality on his name by merit peculiar to themselves.

PHILIP YORKE, Earl of Hardwicke, was born at Dover, in 1690. He was educated under Mr. Morland, of Bethnal Green, entered of the Middle Temple, and was called to the Bar in 1714.-In 1718 he was returned Member of Parliament for Lewes; and the following year was appointed Solicitor-General. In 1723 he became Attorney-General, and in 1733 Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, shortly after which he received the title of Baron Hardwicke. He succeeded Lord Talbot in 1736 as Lord High Chancellor; and finally, in 1754, was created Earl of Hardwicke. He has transmitted to posterity an unblemished name as a Lawyer, a Judge, and a Statesman. In private life he was benevolent and pious; and his gentle and engaging manners gained him the affection, as his public virtues secured him the esteem of all who knew him. As an orator, he was clear, graceful, and impressive: cogent in argument, and perspicuous in arrangement. After suffering severely for some months from dysentery, he died, at the age of seventy-three, on the 6th of March, 1764.

THOMAS TICKELL, son of the Rev. Richard Tickell, Vicar of Bridekirk, near Carlisle, was born in 1686. He entered Queen's College, Oxford, in 1701, was made Master of Arts in 1708, and chosen Fellow two years afterward. A copy of verses in praise of the Opera of "Rosamond," introduced him to the notice of Addison, and a sincere and lasting friendship between them was the result. While the negotiations which preceded the Peace of Utrecht were yet pending, Tickell published his poem 66 On the Prospect of Peace," with the view to reconcile the nation to the sacrifice of some immediate advantages rather than continue the war. It sold rapidly, reaching in a very short time a sixth edition; and Addison, who, with the Whigs, was strongly opposed to such a measure, however he might disapprove of the subject of the Poem, was generous enough to give high praise to it as a composition, in the "Spectator." Tickell afterward wrote a poem addressed "To the supposed Author of the Spectator,' and another, on the arrival of George I, entitled the "Royal Progress." He had also previously, attacked the Chevalier and his adherents, in a political piece called "An Epistle to a Gentleman at Avignon," which was much read, and which tended to mark him out for favor on the accession of the House of Hanover.

When Addison went to Ireland as Secretary to the Earl of Sunderland, he took

Tickell with him as an assistant in his official duties; and on his becoming Secre state in 1717, he made his friend Under Secretary. Upon the death of Addison, i Tickell edited his Collected Works, and prefixed to them an Elegy to the men his patron, of pre-eminent beauty and pathos. In 1725, Tickell was made Secr the Lords Justices of Ireland, and the following year he married, in Dublin.

He held his official appointment until his death, which took place at Bath, in 1740. Beside the pieces already noticed, he wrote some "Verses on Cato," an tation of the Prophesy of Nereus," "Kensington Garden," and a very pathetic "Colin and Lucy." He was also (nominally) the author of a translation of Book of the "Iliad," published in opposition to Pope's, and a contributor "Guardian." He was an elegant, if not a powerful, writer; an amiable man, c but moderate; spirited in his conversation, and of a kind and affectionate heart.

AMBROSE PHILIPS was descended from a respectable family in Leicestershire. at St. John's College, Cambridge, he published his "Six Pastorals," which we popular; and, it is supposed caused some little jealousy to Pope. The style of the ever it might approach the true Doric, was, unluckily, very apt for ludicrous asso and Pope exerted all his wit and irony to hold them up to ridicule: this he accom effectually in the "Guardian." The attack greatly irritated Philips, and he revenge in insult, by suspending a rod over the seat which Pope usually occu Button's Coffee-house. Pope failed not to retaliate; and, in the "Prologue Satires, describes Philips as

"The Bard whom pilfer'd Pastorals renown,
Who turns a Persian Tale for half-a-crown,
Just writes to make his barrenness appear,

And strains, from hard-bound brains, eight lines a year."

And Swift fixed upon him the nickname of "Namby-pamby," in allusion to his nu short-line verses. Upon Philips leaving the University, he became intimate wit son and Steele, and he printed, in the "Tatler," a "Poetical Letter from Copen) a piece of sterling merit, which extorted praise even from Pope. It is likely this period his circumstances were rather precarious, since he undertook, for T translation of the "Persian Tales," from the French, at (it is said) a very lo His Tragedy, "The Distressed Mother," (partly a translation of Racine's" maque," brought him into much notice: Steele had highly extolled it in the tator" (No. 290) before it appeared; and Addison afterward (in No. 335) car Roger de Coverley to its representation. Philips produced two other Tragedies Briton," and "Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester," which excited little attention, now forgotten. Although from his zealous support of the Whigs, he was jus anticipating a suitable reward upon the accession of George I, and had been disappointed by obtaining merely the insignificant situations of Justice of the Pea Commissioner of Lotteries, he did not relax in his exertions, but commenced the thinker," in which he had, for one of his co-adjutors, Dr. Boulter, then minis parish church in Southwark. This circumstance established his fortune. Dr. on his elevation to the see of Armagh, took his former associate with him to Ire his Secretary, and obtained for him a seat in the House of Commons. In 1726 appointed Secretary to the Lord Chancellor, and in 1733 he became a Judge of rogative Court. Philips continued in Ireland until 1748, when desirous of spen remainder of his days in England, he purchased an annuity of £400, and ret London. He had just completed a republication of his Poems, when he was sei: paralysis, and died June 18, 1749, in his seventy-eighth year. Philips is rep have been a worthy man, but ludicrously solemn in his demeanor, and grand in his conversation. Of his productions, the "Winter Scene," above noti "Hymn to Venus," and the "Fragment of Sappho," are, perhaps, all that can sidered above mediocrity.

LAURENCE EUSDEN, son of Dr. Eusden, Rector of Spalsworth, Yorkshire, was at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took orders, and was appointed Cha Lord Willoughby de Broke. He gained the patronage of Lord Halifax, by Version of his Lordship's Poem "On the Battle of the Boyne," and he appears been anxious to prove himself worthy of it. He contributed to both the Sp and the "Guardian," wrote some verses in commendation of Addison's "Ca

n Epithalamium on the marriage of the Duke of Newcastle with Lady Henrietta Godolphin. This last, no doubt, procured for him the Laureateship, which the Duke (then Lord Chamberlain) gave him on the death of Rowe, in 1718.

Little has been preserved, concerning Eusden, beyond the numerous satirical allusions to his office, to be found in the writings of the day: with him the title of Poet Laureate began to fall into disesteem: nor have the unquestionable talents of some who succeeded him tended materially to retrieve it. The eminent man* who at present holds the appointment, has, however, by divesting it of the degrading reiteration of adulatory Birth-day Odes, not only vindicated the independence and dignity of his own literary fame, but has established a foundation for future respectability to his successors.

Eusden died at Coningsby, in Lincolnshire (of which place he was Rector), in September, 1730, his faculties and health falling a sacrifice to the pernicious habit of intoxication. His poems, a few of which are printed in Nicholls's Collection, are not calculated to arrest attention: his Versions of Claudian, in the "Spectator," are his happiest efforts.

WILLIAM FLEETWOOD was born in 1656. He was educated at Eton school, and elected to King's College, Cambridge. Having taken orders, he was appointed Chaplain to King William and Queen Mary, and became Fellow of Eton College, and Rector of St. Austin's, London. He was subsequently chosen Lecturer of St. Dunstan's, Fleet-street, and nominated a Canon of Windsor. Desirous of literary leisure, he resigned his living and lectureship in 1705, and retired to a small rectory near Eton, where he engaged deeply in the study of History and Antiquities. From this he was unexpectedly called, by Queen Anne nominating him to the see of St. Asaph; and, on the accession of George I, his attachment to the cause of Liberty, and the Protestant Religion, was rewarded by the valuable bishopric of Ely. During his whole career, his labors were unremitted; forty-two of his publications are noticed in the Biographia Britannica, comprising Antiquities, History, and Theology: in all of which are displayed profound classical learning, judicious and acute criticism, and extensive acquaintance with Historical and Ecclesiastical Antiquities.-When his friends, the Whigs, went out of office in 1710, he openly avowed his dislike of the measures of the Tories, by publishing a "Fast Sermon," containing severe reprobation of their conduct; and in 1712 he published four other sermons, "On the deaths of Queen Mary, the Duke of Gloucester, and King William, and on the Queen's (Anne's) Accession, with a Preface." Sermons had been previously preached with much approbation, and were not assailable; but the Preface was condemned by the House of Commons, to be burnt by the common hangman.

The

This injudicious proceeding only made the Work more popular: Steele printed the Preface in the "Spectator;" and, as the Bishop remarked, "conveyed about 14,000 of them into people's hands that would otherwise never have seen or heard of it." This Preface, with some introductory observations by Steele, form No. 384:-"The paper was not published until 12 o'clock, that it might come out precisely at the hour of the Queen's breakfast, and that no time might be left for deliberating about serving it up with that meal as usual."-Bishop Fleetwood died at Tottenham, in 1723, aged 67.

His biographer (Morgan) says, "His various merits entitle him to the character of a great and good man: as a Prelate, he did honor to his station, by his dignified and orudent deportment: to the poor and necessitous he was a generous benefactor, and was a liberal encourager of every truly charitable design. To the interest of Civil and Religious Liberty he was ardently attached. He was modest, humble, uncensorious, and calm and meek in his temper; but at the same time possessed a degree of cool and sedate courage, which he did not fail to exhibit on proper occasions: and, to crown the whole, he was a bright pattern of innocence of life, integrity of heart, and sanctity of manners."

JOHN HENLEY was born in 1692, at Melton Mowbray, of which parish his father was Vicar. Having prosecuted his studies very zealously at Cambridge, he returned to his native town, and became assistant, and afterward master, of the school there, which he conducted with great credit. Having taken his degree of Master of Arts, and obtained Priests' Orders, he for some time officiated as curate at Melton; until an uncontroll

* SOUTHEY.