D. never writes to me. No man alive can con vince Talalderahla; and when we come next, it is the same thing with Berby and Barnard. Plurality of dinners and dignities he has; and so Mandragoras confirms it to all members in an episode of şage and brandy,

I

SIR,

FROM MRS. DONNELLAN.

MAY 10, 1735.

SHOULD before this have returned you thanks for the favour of your letter, but that I feared too quick a correspondence might be troublesome to you. When I receive a very great honour and favour, I think it ungenerous immediately to sue for another, though I have the highest sense of the obligation.

You say you want me to assert your right over our sex; and your letter is so powerful a bribe, that I fear I shall give them up to you, though I am a great asserter of their rights and privileges. As to the employments you assign me, I readily undertake them all, though I know myself very unfit for some of them; but I have such high examples on my side, that I am not at all ashamed of pretending to more than I can do. I think I car. be a very good nurse; you shall teach me to be your companion; and, for a housekeeper, I will assure you I know to a farthing the lowest price of every thing, though I am ever so ignorant of the matter,

Mrs,

Mrs. Pendarves has, as you say, forsaken us: by my lord Lansdown's death, her brother Mr. Granville is become possessed of eight hundred pound a year, and twenty thousand pound in money; which was so settled that my lord Lansdown could not touch it. Mr. Granville is a man of great worth, and a very kind brother, and has it now in his power to provide for their sister miss Granville, whom Mrs. Pendarves is extremely fond of this you may imagine has been a cordial to her for lord Lansdown's death, though she had a great regard for him. I tell her when she has married and settled her brother and sister, if she does not settle herself, she must think of her friends in Ireland; and she promises me she will.

It is so much my interest, sir, to believe you sincere, that I will not doubt it: I will rather think you want judgment (which is very hard for me to do), or why should not I (which is still more pleasing) believe I have really those good qualities you ascribe to me? It will only make me vain; and who can be humble when praised by you?

I think your indignation against our absenters very just, though some of my family suffer by it; but we are resolved to be no longer of the number, and propose leaving London this month. Poor Mrs. Barber has been confined with the gout these three months; and I fear we shall leave her so: her poems are generally greatly liked: there are, indeed, a few severe criticks (who think that judgment is only shown in finding faults) that say they are not poetick; and a few fine ladies, who

are

are not commended in them, that complain they are dull.

I am very sorry Dr. Delany has given up his house in Dublin; for one cannot, as often as one may wish it, command time and a coach to visit him at Delville. I hope though to be admitted into the new apartment, and to have the happiness of meeting you there.

My brother is highly honoured in the character you give him, which, though he is my brother, I must say I think a very just one: he will deliver you this letter, and with it my best thanks for all your favours; being, sir, with the highest gratitude,

Your most obliged, obedient servant,

H. DONNELLAN.

YOUR letter was sent me yesterday by Mr. Stopford*, who landed the same day, but I have not seen him. As to my silence, God knows it is my great misfortune. My little domestick affairs are in great confusion by the villany of agents, and the miseries of this kingdom, where there is no money

* Afterwards bishop of Cloyne. N.

to

to be had: nor am I unconcerned to see all things tending towards absolute power, in both nations * (it is here in perfection already) although I shall not live to see it established. This condition of things, both publick, and personal to myself, has given me such a kind of despondency, that I am almost unqualified for any company, diversion, or amusement. The death of Mr. Gay and the Doctor, have been terrible wounds near my heart. Their living would have been a great comfort to me, although I should never have seen them; like a sum of money in a bank from which I should receive at least annual interest, as I do from you, and have done from my lord Bolingbroke. To show in how much ignorance I live, it is hardly a fortnight since I heard of the death of my lady Masham, my constant friend in all changes of times. God forbid that I should expect you to make a voyage that would in the least affect your health: but in the mean time how unhappy am I, that my best friend should have perhaps the only kind of disorder, for which a seavoyage is not in some degree a remedy. The old duke of Ormond said, he would not change his dead son (Ossory) for the best living son in Europe. Neither would I change you my absent friend, for the best present friend round the globe.

* The Dean was frequently troubled, as he tells us, with a giddiness in his head. WARBURTON,-But all who held this language were not giddy. The Editor might have read the Preface to Hammond's Elegies, written by his patrón Lord Chesterfield.

Dr. WARTON.

† Arbuthnot. BOWLES.

I have

I have lately read a book imputed to lord Bolingbroke, called "A Dissertation upon Parties *." I think broke,called it very masterly written.

Pray God reward you for for your kind prayers: I believe your prayers will do me more good than those of all the prelates in both kingdoms, or any prelates in Europe, except the bishop of Marseilles. And God preserve you for contributing more to mend the world, than the whole pack of (modern) parsons in a lump.

I am ever entirely yours,

JON. SWIFT.

*The best, perhaps, of all Bolingbroke's works; written with great force of reasoning, and in a style equally spirited and elegant. One of the severest attacks ever made on Sir Robert Walpole, was the dedication prefixed to this Dissertation, whan the papers that had been first separately printed in the Craftsman were collected into one volume, octavo. After the many things that have been said for and against his long ministry, his want of skill and knowledge in conducting foreign affairs was most frequently repeated. In a letter written in 1776, the King of Prussia affirms expressly, that Walpole used to say, "I leave Europe to my brother, and reserve only England to myself.”

Dr. WARTON.

† Pope has worthily commemorated this truly apostolic prelate :

"Marsailles' good bishop drew not purer breath."