Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 19.djvu/23

Rh next day the queen was prevailed upon to turn him out, though the seals were not delivered till yesterday. It was likewise said, that Mrs. Masham is forbid the court; but this I have no assurance of. Seven lords of the whig party are appointed to examine Gregg, who lies condemned in Newgate; and a certain lord of the council told me yesterday, that there are endeavours to bring in Harley as a party in that business, and to carry it as far as an impeachment. All this business has been much fomented by a lord whom Harley had been chiefly instrumental in impeaching some years ago. The secretary always dreaded him, and made all imaginable advances to be reconciled, but could never prevail; which made him say yesterday to some who told it to me, that he had laid his neck under their feet, and they trod upon it. I am just going this morning to visit that lord, who has a very free way of telling what he cares not who hears; and if I can learn any more particulars worth telling, you shall have them, I never in my life saw or heard such divisions and complications of parties as there have been for some time: you sometimes see the extremes of whig and tory driving on the same thing. I have heard the chief whigs blamed by their own party for want of moderation, and I know a whig lord in good employment who voted with the highest tories against the court, and the ministry, with whom he is nearly allied. My lord Peterborow's affair is yet upon the anvil, and what they will beat it out to, no man can tell. It is said that Harley had laid a scheme for an entire new ministry, and the men are named to whom the