Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/190

178 seem to think, that they have no more to do when they meet with difficulties, perhaps of their own creating, than to call in the ministry, and desire them to decide the matter by power: a method, that I do not approve, nor has it succeeded well with former governors here: witness lord Sydney, and lord Wharton, in the case of the convocation.

There really needs but one thing to quiet the people of Ireland, and it is to convince them, that there is no eye to the pretender. Great industry has been, and still is, used to bugbear them with that fear. I believe it is over with you; but it will require time and prudent methods to quiet the people here, that have been possessed for twenty-two years with a continual apprehension, that he is at the door, and that a certain kind of people designed to bring him in. The circumstances of this kingdom, from what they saw and felt under king James, make the dread of him much greater than it can be with you.

As to our convocation, a letter came from her majesty to give us license to act; but it nowise pleased some people, and so it was sent back to be modelled to their mind, but returned again without alteration. It came not to us till the day the parliament adjourned. I was at that time obliged to attend the council, there being a hearing of the quakers against a bill for recovering tithes. In my absence they adjourned till the meeting of the parliament, without so much as voting thanks, or appointing a committee. The things that displeased some in the license were, first, that my lord primate was not the sole president, so as to appoint whom he pleased to act in his absence. The second was, the tion