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310 warmth; and I must hope that you all agree with me, that attempts to weaken my authority, or to render the possession of my crown uneasy to me, can never be proper means to strengthen the protestant succession."

Bolingbroke had been active enough in prosecuting the press because it was dangerous to the designs which he was cherishing, notwithstanding the affected warmth which he and Oxford had put into the queen's mouth. They had taxed the penny sheets and pamphlets which agitated these questions; but this, according to Swift, had only done their own side mischief. The additional halfpenny had discouraged the tory publications, but not the whig; "a proof," says lord John Russell in his "History of Europe," "of the superior wealth, popularity, or wit of the opposition." Bolingbroke had, further, arrested eleven printers and publishers in one day. But now the war was opened in parliament, lord Wharton in the house of peers called for the prosecution of "The Public Spirit of the Whigs," and the printer and publisher were brought to the bar. These were John Morphew, the publisher, and one John Bache, the printer. But lord Wharton, who was aiming at higher quarry, said, "We have nothing to do with the printer and publisher, but it highly concerns the honour of this august assembly to find out the villain who is the author of that false and scandalous libel, that justice may be done to the Scottish nation." Oxford denied all knowledge of the author, yet, on retiring from the debate, he inclosed one hundred pounds to Swift, and promised to do more. Lord Wharton then turned upon the printer, whom he had first affected to disregard, and demanded that he should be closely examined; but the next day the earl of Mar, one of the secretaries of state, declared that her majesty had ordered his prosecution. This was to screen him from the parliamentary inquiry. On this, the next day, the Scottish peers, headed by the duke of Argyll, presented an address to the queen demanding satisfaction, and, in compliance with their request, a reward of three hundred pounds was offered for the discovery of the author.



Here the matter dropped, for Swift was too well screened by his patrons, who had lately rewarded him by church preferment, but not to the extent to which they wished. They requested the queen to confer on him the vacant see of Hereford, and it was only his own malicious deeds which prevented his receiving it. The queen expressed her compliance; but the moment was now come when the maligned duchess of Somerset was to take vengeance for his infamous libel on her, called "The Windsor Prophecy," in which he did more than ridicule her red hair—he accused her of murdering her husband. The queen, on consulting the arch-bishop of York as to nominating Swift to Hereford, that prelate, duly primed by the duchess, startled Anne by asking whether her majesty had not better ascertain whether