Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/318

306 great a firmness in the court, as there now is, to pursue those measures, upon which this ministry began, whatever some people may pretend to think to the contrary: and were certain objections made against some persons we both know, I believe I might have been instrumental to the service of some, whom I much esteem. Pick what you can out of all this, and believe me to be ever yours, &c.

SIR,

OURS of December the 8th I have received, and have obeyed your commands; but am much troubled to find, that the trade of doing ill offices is still continued. As for my part, I can entirely clear myself from either writing or saying any thing to any one's prejudice upon this occasion ; and if others have wounded me in the dark, it is no more than they have done before; for archbishop Tillotson formerly remarked, that if he should hearken to what the Irish clergy said of one another, there was not a man in the whole country that ought to be preferred.

We are now adjourned for a fortnight, and the commons for three weeks. I hear our lord lieutenant is not well pleased, that we have adjourned short