Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/283

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DR. SWIFT.
271

FROM MR. LEWIS.


WHITEHALL, JUNE 2, 1713.


I HOPE this will meet you at Chester, and that your passage at sea will be favoured with as mild weather as your journey by land has been these two first days. The division yesterday, in the house of lords, was fifty-four against fifty-four. Proxies were called for, and we had seventeen to thirteen. This is the greatest victory we ever had. The duke of Argyll and the Scotch were against us to a man. The lords Weymouth and Carteret were with them. It was very comical to see the tories, who voted with lord treasurer against the dissolution of the union, under all the perplexities in the world, lest they should be victorious; and the Scotch, who voted for a bill of dissolution, under agonies lest they themselves should carry the point they pretended to desire. In all the time I have been conversant in business, I never before observed both sides, at the same time, acting parts which they thought contrary to their interests. Let us hear from you sometimes, and believe there is nobody with more sincerity your's, than, &c.

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