Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/318

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LETTERS TO AND FROM

great a firmness in the court, as there now is, to pursue those measures, upon which this ministry began, whatever some people may pretend to think to the contrary: and were certain objections made against some persons we both know, I believe I might have been instrumental to the service of some, whom I much esteem. Pick what you can out of all this, and believe me to be ever yours, &c.





SIR,
DEC. 26, 1713.


YOURS of December the 8th I have received, and have obeyed your commands; but am much troubled to find, that the trade of doing ill offices is still continued. As for my part, I can entirely clear myself from either writing or saying any thing to any one's prejudice upon this occasion[1]; and if others have wounded me in the dark, it is no more than they have done before; for archbishop Tillotson formerly remarked, that if he should hearken to what the Irish clergy said of one another, there was not a man in the whole country that ought to be preferred.

We are now adjourned for a fortnight, and the commons for three weeks. I hear our lord lieutenant is not well pleased, that we have adjourned

  1. There was at this time a great difference between the house of lords and commons in Ireland, about the lord chancellor Phipps of that kingdom; the latter addressing the queen to remove him from his post, and the former addressing in his favour.
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