Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/128

116

SIR,

HIS is to acknowledge the receipt of your'syours [sic] of the 28th ult. which came not to my hands till Thursday last, by reason of winds, that kept the packets on the other side.

I find the matter of our first-fruits, &c. is talked of now. I reckon on nothing certain till her majesty's letter comes in form: and quære, why should you not come and bring it with you? It would make you a very welcome clergyman to Ireland, and be the best means to satisfy mankind how it was obtained, although I think it will be out of dispute. I am very well apprised of the dispatch you gave this affair, and well pleased, that I judged better of the person fit to be employed, than some of my brethren. But now it is done, as I hope it is effectually, they will assume as much as their neighbours; which I shall never contradict.

Things are taking a new turn here as well as with you; and I am of opinion, by the time you come here, few will profess themselves whigs. The greatest danger I apprehend, and which terrifies me more than perhaps you will be able to imagine, is the fury and indiscretion of some of our own people; who never had any merit, but, by embroiling things, they did, and I am afraid will yet do, mischief. You will soon hear of a great conspiracy discovered in the county of Westmeath. I was used to so many discoveries of plots in the latter end of king Charles's time,