Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/541

 was made out without his participation, as has been shown before, under the short administration of lord Bolingbroke. The latter part of the sentence — "and which he resigned, as he says himself, multa gemens, with many a groan," — is written in the same spirit with the rest: for it is evident from the whole turn of the letter which contains this passage, that Swift used this phrase jocosely, which the doctor chooses to take in a serious light, and translate literally. It was impossible indeed that he could have the least solicitude about it at the time this letter was writ, in the year 1726, fourteen years after he had received the order, which he never thought of presenting. For though it is highly probable, from the great favour which he then stood in with the princess, and the civil reception he met with even at St. James's, that upon proper application he might have been paid the demand, to which he had an equitable right; yet he scorned to owe any obligation to a minister, of whose measures he so entirely disapproved. And that this was his way of thinking is fully proved by a letter written to Dr. Sheridan about the same time, where he says, — "Tell the archdeacon that I never asked for my thousand pound, which he heard I have got; although I mentioned it to the princess the last time I saw her, but I bid her tell Walpole I scorned to ask him for it."

But of all the charges brought against Swift, there is one of the most malignant nature, which has never even been hinted at by any other writer; and is utterly unsupported by any evidence. It is contained in the following passage: "Swift was popular awhile by another mode of beneficence. He set aside some "hundreds