Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/162

at court, I provided for above fifty people in both kingdoms, of which not one was a relation." And we find, in his Journal and letters, that he did numberless good offices for others. He says, in more places than one, that lord Oxford never once refused him any request of that sort. His character was so well known in this respect, that we see, in the collection of letters, several addresses to him from persons, either little known to him, or utterly unacquainted with him, requesting his assistance, in cases of compassion; or protection, in those of oppression. Nor did he ever fail to interfere, in either cases, when any such came to his knowledge by accident, though it were with regard to perfect strangers. There was one remarkable occasion, on which he interposed in favour of a man, though he held him in no degree of estimation, merely from a principle of justice; which was, in the case of the famous Dr. Sacheverell: who, though he had been of infinite use to the tory ministry, nay, was in reality the occasion of their getting into power, yet, when the work was done, was laid by, as the tools of statesmen too often are, when they can be of no farther use, and utterly neglected. That Swift was of this opinion, is clear from the following passage in his Journal: "So Sacheverell will be the next bishop! He would be glad of an addition of two hundred pounds a year to what he has, and that is more than they will give him, for aught I see. He hates the new ministry mortally, and they hate him, and pretend to despise him too. They will not allow him to have been the occasion of the late change, at least some of them will not: but my lord keeper owned it to me the other day."

Swift