CHAPTER V. YEARS OF WAITING AND SUSPENSE. 1704-1708. ÆTAT. 37-41. Swift's position in literature and politics-The decadence of the Tories--Successes of the Whigs-Blenheim-Tory factiousness-Dissolution of 1705The Irish Parliament-Swift's early efforts for his Church-Correspondence with Archbishop King-Contrasts between the characters of Swift and King-The Tories and the Church-The Memorial of the Church of England -Convocation-Hopelessness of the Tory cause-Swift's personal life— His associates in London-His place amongst them-His literary work during these years-Meditation on a Broom Stick-Vanbrugh's House-Baucis and Philemon-Long stay in Ireland-Invitation to Moor ParkContinued suspense-Ministers leaning to the Whigs-Pembroke, Lord Lieutenant-Society at the Castle-The "Castilian" Language-Swift in London again-Hopes and disappointment-Harley's scheme-Its failureDismissal of the Tory remnant-Swift's labour to secure the First Fruits for his Church-His meeting with Godolphin-Wavering allegiance to his party-The death of Prince George-A new period opening for Swift. IN the last chapter we saw how Swift had gone back to Ireland just before Midsummer, 1704, already with some feelings of dissatisfaction with the Whigs, although little inclined to break with those associations that had hitherto bound him to their party. In this chapter there is but little to tell of the personal details of Swift's life, for the four years that follow. But we may trace with some certainty the effect which the shifting phases of the party struggle had on his future during these years. We may get one step forward in the discovery of what caused that change in his party allegiance which has been so often ascribed to dishonest motives. We may see him gradually assuming a larger place in the brilliant literary circles of the day: and acquiring, year by year, greater stubbornness of purpose, greater independence in his choice of action, and greater keenness of cynical contempt. When Swift left London he had already the reputation of a keen and effective controversialist, and of a master in a characteristic vein of humour. By his intimates, his genius was rated higher but it must not be forgotten that not one of those works on which his later fame rests, was yet published; and that he forebore to grasp the wider fame which the Tale of a Tub, when it appeared soon after, might have brought to him. During the three or four years that followed, we may observe no infrequent signs of the impression that his genius had produced. We see the beginnings of those friendships which helped to define his literary position, and we find him associating with the great on terms that prove how his power had already made itself felt. But such glimpses are now merely fragmentary. For the most part, during these years, he seems to stay his hand, amid the uncertainty of the political struggle, and the doubt he felt as to his own position therein. It is only when that position is gaining new definiteness, and his aims are becoming more clear, that he again tries his pen on any important efforts. The change in the fortunes of political parties during these years was indeed rapid. At the beginning of 1704, the Tory party seemed not only to be in possession of power, but to be in a fair way of maintaining, if not of advancing, its influence. The dissenters were unpopular: and from that unpopularity, the Tories were most likely to benefit. They could further count upon the inclination of the Queen in their favour. The Whig junta, whatever sympathy it might have from some of the ministers, seemed then far enough from realizing its hopes. But when little more than a year had passed, Toryism had become completely demoralized; and the process is interesting in Swift's life, as it shows us why Swift still refused to be a Tory, in the sense in which Toryism was understood in 1704 and 1705. The stars in their courses, indeed, fought against Toryism. If a Tory admiral gained successes, they stopped short, as it were in very spite, of the point which could make them great national triumphs. There were discontented Whigs who murmured against the Government: but the only effect of their murmurs was to strengthen the Ministers, and make them more free to show their independence of extreme party views. In the spring of 1704, the Government had been ostensibly Tory before the close of the year, not only were many of its members changed, but those who remained were more inclined to show their independence of Tory dictation. First came the victory of Blenheim. With a hazardous recklessness of enterprise which success, and success alone, could justify, Marlborough had disregarded the nervous timidity and the pedantic expostulations of the citizen strategists of the Dutch States, had left the neighbourhood of the Low Countries, had effected a junction with Prince Eugene, and with him had advanced to meet Tallard and the Elector of Bavaria in the heart of Europe. The allies had met a force of sixty thousand men, the pick of the French army, with a deficiency of eight thousand in point of numbers, and with the additional disadvantage of having to cross an almost impassable morass in the face of a scathing fire. Never was success more brilliant. With a total loss in killed and wounded of about thirteen thousand, the allies cut to pieces the army of the Grand Monarch. Of the sixty thousand soldiers that had met them only twenty thousand, at most, ever fought again beneath the standard of Louis. The victory was won on the 13th of August, 1704. News like this had never reached England within the memory of man. The nation fairly lost its head in the rejoicings. Fickle as she afterwards proved, England was now ready to rush into exaggeration in the pride she felt in Marlborough's feat. Time only was necessary to wear out the triumph. The war would certainly become irksome: the weight of the taxes would be felt the successes would grow paler: the objects سه of the war less clear. Heedless of this, the Tories began the attack as soon as Parliament met, on the 29th of October. The Bill against Occasional Conformity was once more pressed, but without the aid of St. John, and against the now avowed opposition of the Ministers. It passed the Commons: and in order to press it through the Lords, an expedient was found, drawn from the worst period of Charles the Second's reign. A plan was formed of tacking the Bill to a Money Bill, and so throwing upon the Lords the responsibility of rejecting it, and of stopping supplies at a moment of all others most critical. The plan was fortunately defeated. The more moderate Tories stood aloof: and the rabid of their party showed only 134 votes against 251. Their headlong rashness had failed to ruin the constitution, but had to all appearance shattered their own party. Demoralization never proceeded more rapidly, and never seemed to be more complete. The Ministers were free to disembarrass themselves of such Tories as remained in their ranks; and on the 5th of April, 1705, Parliament was dissolved. In Ireland, matters seemed to go as well for the Government, with its newly-developed Whiggism. Parliament there met on the 10th of Feb. 170. The Commons expressed their devoted loyalty to England: their zeal for the Church was avowed in language studiously moderate, and had acquired none of that aggressive vehemence which soon after became a sign of party feeling. They voted the required supplies: and then turned to schemes for the improvement of trade. Under each of these questions, there smouldered some fire that was to burst out later in Swift's life: but as yet the danger was not visible. It was only when a proposal for the improvement of the Hemp and Flax manufacture (one of the few industries that the economic selfishness and blindness of England had left to Ireland) came under consideration, that dangerous ground was reached. In the course of this a question as to the commutation of the tithe payable to the clergy upon these manufactures, was mooted: the indignation of the Irish House of Convocation' was roused: the clergy and the Commons bandied words with one another; but when the struggle threatened to rise high, it was stayed by a summary prorogation. It is curious that no biographer of Swift has taken notice of this quarrel, anticipating a struggle in which thirty years later he took so active a part. These thirty years, indeed, made his voice more authoritative, and defined his attitude but the indication of a desire to curb the rights of his order doubtless excited in the mind of Swift, much the same feelings in 1705 as in 1733. Already Swift had begun to exert himself for privileges of the kind which appeared to be here attacked, and had begun an effort which was ultimately to complete his separation from the Whigs. He had already entered on that long correspondence with Archbishop King of Dublin, which endured, in * William King had been a promi nent adherent of the Revolution, and had proved the sincerity of his convictions by undergoing imprisonment at the hands of James II. As a first reward he received the Bishopric of Derry, and in 1703 was translated to Dublin, where he continued to be a commanding figure in Dublin Society and in Irish politics for a quarter of a century. "I have great reason to be vain," writes Lady Carteret to Lady Sundon in 1724, "of having the Archbishop of Dublin for my lover. Few people have his wit and spirit. He is a prodigy at fourscore."-Sundon MS. Brit. Mus.) His Palace of St. Pulcher's, or St. Sepulchre's, now transformed into a barracks, stood close to the Deanery in which Swift passed the last thirty years of his life. In principles a staunch Whig, he fell into disfavour when Toryism came for a few years to the front, and recovered his influence when the Hanoverian succession had actually taken place. But in his later years he found himself set aside as interfering with Walpole's scheme of governing Ireland from England only and offended personal feeling threw him into the arms of the Irish Patriots. Never stooping to dishonesty, he yet never professed to set aside views of worldly ambition, and remained to the end a shrewd and clear-eyed man of business, graceful in manners and yet with a certain assumption of commonplace moralizing. It was this last that grated on Swift. Lord Orrery tells a story of King having been instrumental in preventing Swift's appointment as Dean of Derry, on account partly of his youth, partly, as was alleged, of his constant visits to London. The story is without other authority. Thus much, at least, may be said: Swift never gives a hint of this ground of complaint in any letter to King, where angry encounters are constantly |