Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/149

Rh may, perhaps, be ſtartled, and cry, how comes this ſudden change? To which I anſwer, I am a changling, and that’s ſufficient, I think. But to convince men farther, that I mean what I ſay, there are theſe arguments.

Firſt, I tell you ſo, and you know I never break my word.

Secondly, my lord treaſurer ſays ſo, and he never told a lye in his life.

Thirdly, my lord Lauderdale will undertake it for me; and I ſhould be loath, by any act of mine, he ſhould forfeit the credit he has with you.

If you deſire more inſtances of my zeal, I have them for you. For example, I have converted my natural ſons from Popery; and I may ſay, without vanity, it was my own work, ſo much the more peculiarly mine than the begetting them. ’Twould do one’s heart good to hear how prettily George can read already in the Pſalter. They are all fine children, God bleſs ’em, and ſo like me in their underſtandings! But, as I was ſaying, I have, to pleaſe you, given a penſion to your favourite, my lord Lauderdale; not ſo much that I thought he wanted it, as that you would take it kindly. I have made Carwel ducheſs of Portſmouth, and marry’d her ſiſter to the earl of Pembroke. I have, at ray brother’s requeſt, ſent my lord Inchequin into Barbary, to ſettle the Proteſtant religion among the Moors, and an Engliſh intereſt at Tangier. I have made Crew biſhop of Durham, and, at the firſt word of my lady Portſmouth, Prideaux biſhop of Chicheſter. I know not, for my part, what factious men would have; but this I am ſure of, my predeceſſors never did any thing like this, to gain the good-will of their ſubjects. So much for your religion, and now for your