Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 13.djvu/167

Rh as to myself, it happens that I am an entire stranger to Dr. Whetcombe.

It is alleged, "That this preferment given to the doctor consists of a very large parish, worth near six hundred pounds a year, in a very fine country, thirty miles from Dublin; that it abounds very much with papists, and consequently a most important cure, requiring the rector's residence, beside some other assistant; which, being so rich, it might well afford.

"That, as to such dispensations, they find in their college books but three or four instances since the revolution, and these in cases very different from the present: for those few livings which had dispensations to be held with a fellowship were sinecures of small value, not sufficient to induce a fellow to leave his college; and, in the body of those dispensations, is inserted a reason for granting them, That they were such livings as could be no hindrance in the discharge of a fellow's duty.

"That dispensations are very hurtful to their society; because they put a stop to the succession of fellowships, and thereby give a check to that emulation, industry, and improvement in learning, which the hopes of gaining a fellowship will best incite young students with.

"That, if this dispensation should take place, it may prove a precedent for the like practice in future times; which will be very injurious to the society, by encouraging fellows to apply for dispensations, when they have interest enough to get preferments, by which the senior fellows will be settled in the college for life; and thus, for want of a succession any other way than by death or