Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/175

Rh

REVEREND SIR,

OU must not wonder, that I have been so ill a correspondent of late, being, as I find, in debt to you for your'syours [sic] of June the 8th, and July the 12th. This did not proceed from any negligence, but from the circumstances of things here, that were such, that I could not return you any satisfactory answer.

We have now got over the preliminaries of our parliaments and convocation; that is to say, our addresses, &c, and as to the parliament, so far as appears to me, there will be an entire compliance with her majesty's occasions, and my lord duke of Ormond's desires; and that funds will be given for two years from Christmas next; by which we shall have the following summer free from parliamentary attendance, which proves a great obstruction both to church and country business. As to the convocation, we have no license as yet to act. I have heard some whispers, as if a letter of license had come over, and was sent back again to be mended, especially as to direction about a president. I may inform you, that that matter is in her majesty's choice: we have on record four licenses; the first directed to the archbishop of Dublin in 1614; the other three, that are in 1634, 1662, and 1665, directed to the then lords primates. I have not at present the exact dates; but I have seen the writs, and find the convocation sat in these years. Rh