court, and secure themselves; but, to think there is any design of bringing the Scotch into offices, is a mere scandal.
Lord Pembroke is to have the admiralty only a few months, then to have a pension of 4000l. a year, and to retire; and it is thought lord Orford will succeed him, and then it is hoped, there will be an entire change in the admiralty; that sir John Leake will be turned out, and the whigs so well confirmed, that it will not be in the power of the court, upon a peace, to bring the balance on the other side.
One Mr. Shute is named for secretary to lord Wharton: he is a young man, but reckoned the shrewdest head in England: and the person in whom the presbyterians chiefly confide; and, if money be necessary toward the good work in Ireland, it is reckoned he can command as far as 100000l. from the body of dissenters here. As to his principles, he is truly a moderate man, frequenting the church and the meeting indifferently, &c.[1].
The clergy are here in an uproar upon their being prorogued: the archbishop of Canterbury takes pains to have it believed it was a thing done without his knowledge. A divine of note (but of the wrong side) was with me the other day, and said, he had it from a good hand, that the reason of this proceeding
- ↑ On this passage it has been observed by Mr. Luson (Duncombe's Collection, Append, to vol. II, p. xliii.) "This fair character of a whig from Swift is so extraordinary, that it seems as if nothing but truth could have extorted it. It is, however, observable, that with no other correspondent, the extravagance of Swift's humour, and the virulence of his prejudices, are half so much restrained, as in his letters to Dr. King. He certainly either feared or respected this prelate, more than any other person with whom he corresponded."
