Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/138

102 of the whigs, and going over to the tories as soon as they got into power, it will be proper to examine what foundation the whigs had for such a charge against him.

Swift, in his Memoirs relative to the change in the queen's ministry, gives the following account of his first introduction to the leaders of the whig party. Speaking of his pamphlet, entitled The Contests and Dissensions of the Nobles and Commons in Athens and Rome, &c, he says: "This discourse I sent very privately to the press, with the strictest injunctions to conceal the author, and returned immediately to my residence in Ireland. The book was greedily bought and read; and charged, sometimes upon lord Somers, and sometimes upon the bishop of Salisbury; the latter of whom told me afterward, that he was forced to disown it in a very publick manner, for fear of an impeachment, wherewith he was threatened.

"Returning next year for England, and hearing of the great approbation this piece had received, which was the first I ever printed, I must confess the vanity of a young man prevailed with me, to let myself be known for the author: upon which my lords Somers and Halifax, as well as the bishop abovementioned, desired my acquaintance, with great marks of esteem and professions of kindness: not to mention the earl of Sunderland, who had been of my old acquaintance. They lamented that they were not able to serve me since the death of the king, and were very liberal in promising me the greatest preferments I could hope for, if ever it came in their power. I soon grew domestick with lord Halifax, and was as often with " lord