Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/299

Rh, sine qua non, of procuring the first-fruits: neither had I credit to be a convocation man in the meanest diocese of the kingdom, till poor dean Synge, who happened to think well of me, got me to be chosen for St. Patrick's; so that I think there will be a great change if I am chosen prolocutor. And yet, at the same time, I am so very nice, that I will not think of moving toward Ireland, till I am actually chosen: you will say, "What then must the clergy do for a prolocutor?" Why, I suppose they may appoint a vice prolocutor, until my coming over, which may be in ten days. But this perhaps is not feasible: if not, you may be sure I shall not so openly declare my ambition to that post, when I am not sure to carry it; and if I fail, the comfort of mecum certasse feretur, will not perhaps fall to my share. But I go on too fast; for I find in your next lines, that the archbishop says there will be an indispensable necessity that I should be there at the election. Why, if the bishops will all fix it, so as to give a man time to come over, with all my heart; but, if it must be struggled for at the election, I will have nothing to do with it. As for the bishops, I have not the least interest with above three in the kingdom: and unless the thought strikes the clergy in general, that I must be their man, nothing can come of it: we always settle a speaker here, as soon as the writs are issued out for a parliament; if you did so for a prolocutor, a man might have warning in time; but I should make the foolishest figure in nature, to come over hawking for an employment I no wise seek or desire, and then fail of it. Pray communicate the sense of what I say to the archbishop, to whom I will write by this post. As to my