Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/79

Rh

MY LORD,

AM commanded by his excellency the lord lieutenant to send the enclosed to your grace, in answer to a letter his excellency lately received from your grace, and several bishops, relating to the first-fruits of Ireland. This will spare your grace and their lordships the trouble of any farther account from me. I shall therefore only add, that his excellency commands me to assure your grace of his hearty inclination in favour of the church of Ireland; and am, with great respect, my lord, your grace's most dutiful, and most obedient servant,

J. SWIFT.

MY LORD,

SHOULD have acknowledged your's of February 10, long ago, if I had not stayed to see what became of the first-fruits. I have likewise your's of the 12th instant. I will now tell you the proceedings in this unhappy affair. Some time after the prince's death, lord Pembroke sent me word by sir Andrew Fountaine, that the queen had granted the thing, and afterward took the compliment I made him upon it. He likewise (I suppose) writ to the same purpose himself to the archbishop of Dublin. I was then for a long time pursued by Rh