The Dean of St. Patrick's lived in a private manner known and regarded only by his friends, till, about the year 1720, he, by a pamphlet, recommended to the Irifh the ufe, and confequently the improvement, of their manufacture. For a man to ufe the productions of his own labour is furely a natutal right, and to like best what he makes himself is a natural paffion. But to excite this paffion, and enforce this right, appeared fo criminal to thofe who had an intereft in the English trade, that the printer was imprisoned; and, as Hawkefworth justly observes, the attention of the publick being by this outrageous refentment turned upon the propofal, the author was by confequence made popular.

In 1723 died Mrs. Van Homrigh, a woman made unhappy by her admiration of wit, and ignominiously dif tinguished by the name of Vanea, whofe conduct has been already fufficiently difcuffed, and whofe history is too well known to be minutely repeated. She was a young woman fond of literature, whom Decanus the Dean, called Cadenus by tranfpofition of the letters, took pleasure in directing and inftructing; till, from being proud of his praife, fhe grew fond of his perfon. Swift was then about forty-feven, at an age when vanity is ftrongly excited by the amorous attention of a young woman. If it be faid that Swift fhould have checked a passion which he never meant to gratify, recourse muft be had to that extenuation which he fo much defpifed, men are but men: perhaps however he did not at first know his own mind, and, as he reprefents himself, was undetermined. For his admiffion of her courtship, and his indulgence of her hopes after his marriage to Stella, no other honeft plea can be found, than that he delayed a difagreeable difcovery from time to time, dreading

the

the immediate burfts of diftrefs, and watching for a favourable moment. She thought herself neglected, and died of difappointment; having ordered by her will the poem to be publifhed, in which Cadenus had proclaimed her excellence, and confeffed his love. The effect of the publication upon the Dean and Stella is thus related by Delany :

"I have good reason to believe, that they both were greatly fhocked and diftreffed (though it may be dif"ferently) upon this occafión. The Dean made a tour "to the South of Ireland, for about two months, at this "time, to diffipate his thoughts, and give place to ob"loquy. And Stella retired (upon the earneft invita❝tion of the owner) to the house of a cheerful, gener"ous, good-natured friend of the Dean's, whom she also "much loved and honoured. There my informer of"ten faw her; and, I have reafon to believe, used his " utmost endeavours to relieve, fupport, and amufe "her, in this fad fituation,

"One little incident he told me of, on that occafion, "I think I fhall never forget. As her friend was an "hofpitable, open-hearted man, well-beloved, and

largely acquainted, it happened one day that fome "gentlemen dropt in to dinner, who were ftrangers to "Stella's fituation; and as the poem of Cadenus and "Vanella was then the general topic of converfation, "one of them faid, 'Surely that Vanessa must be an "extraordinary woman, that could infpire the Dean "to write fo finely upon her.' Mrs. Johnson finiled, ❝ and answered, that she thought that point not quite fo clear; for it was well known the Dean could "write finely upon a broomstick."

The great acquifition of esteem and influence was made by the Drapier's Letters in 1724. One Wood of Cc4

Wolver

Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, a man enterprifing and rapcio us, had, as is faid, by a prefent to the Duchefs of Munster, obtained a patent, empowering him to coin one hundred and eighty thousand pounds of halfpence and farthings for the kingdom of Ireland, in which there was a very inconvenient and embarraffing fcarcity of copper coin; fo that it was poffible to run in debt upon the credit of a piece of money; for the cook or keeper of an alehouse could not refuse to fupply a man that had filver in his hand, and the buyer would not leave his money without change.

The project was therefore plaufible. The fcarcity, which was already great, Wood took care to make greater, by agents who gathered up the old half-pence ; and was about to turn his brafs into gold, by pouring the treasures of his new mint upon Ireland, when Swift, finding that the metal was debased to an enormous degree, wrote Letters, under the name of M. B. Drapier, to fhew the folly of receiving, and the mischief that muft enfue, by giving gold and filver for coin worth perhaps not a third part of its nominal value.

The nation was alarmed; the new coin was univerfally refused: but the governors of Ireland confidered refiftance to the King's patent as highly criminal; and one Whitshed, then Chief Juftice, who had tried the printer of the former pamphlet, and fent out the Jury nine times, till by clamour and menaces they were frighted into a special verdict, now prefented the Drapier,at could not prevail on the Grand Jury to find the bill.

Lord Carteret and the Privy Council published a proclamation, offering three hundred pounds for difcovering the author of the Fourth Letter. Swift had concealed

himself

himself from his printers, and trusted only his butler, who transcribed the paper. The man, immediately after the appearance of the proclamation, ftrolled from the house, and staid out all night, and part of the next day. There was reafon enough to fear that he had betrayed his master for the reward; but he came home, and the Dean ordered him to put off his livery, and leave the house; "for," fays he, "I know that my "life is in your power, and I will not bear, out of fear, "either your infolence or negligence." The man excufed his fault with great fubmiffion, and begged that he might be confined in the house while it was in his power to endanger his mafter; but the Dean refolutely turned him out, without taking farther notice of him, till the term of information had expired, and then received him again. Soon afterwards he ordered him and the rest of the fervants into his prefence, without telling his intentions, and bade them take notice that their fellow-fervant was no longer Robert the butler; but that his integrity had made him Mr. Blakeney, verger of St. Patrick's; an officer whofe income was between thirty and forty pounds a year: yet he ftill continued for fome years to ferve his old master as his butler.

Swift was known from this time by the appellation of The Dean. He was honoured by the populace, as the champion, patron, and inftructor of Ireland; and gained fuch power as, confidered both in its extent and duration, fcarcely any man has ever enjoyed without greater wealth or higher ftation.

He was from this important year the oracle of the traders, and the idol of the rabble, and by consequence was feared and courted by all to whom the kindness of

the

the traders or the populace was neceffary. The Draz pier was a fign; the Drapier was a health; and which way foever the eye or the ear was turned, fome tokens were found of the nation's gratitude to the Drapier.

The benefit was indeed great; he had refeued IreJand from a very oppreffive and predatory invasion; and the popularity which he had gained he was diligent to keep, by appearing forward and zealous on every occafion where the publick intereft was fuppofed to be involved. Nor did he much scruple to boaft his influence; for when, upon fome attempts to regulate the coin, Archbishop Boulter, then one of the Justices, accufed him of exafperating the people, he exculpated himself by faying, " If I had lifted up my finger, they would have torn you to pieces."

But the pleasure of popularity was foon interrupted by domestic mifery, Mrs. Johnson, whose converfation was to him the great softener of the ills of life, began in the year of the Drapier's triumph to decline; and two years afterwards was fo wafted with fickness, that her recovery was confidered as hopeless,

Swift was then in England, and had been invited by Lord Bolingbroke to pafs the winter with him in France; but this call of calamity haftened him to Ireland, where perhaps his prefence contributed to restore her to imperfect and tottering health.

He was now fo much at cafe, that (1727) he returned to England; where he collected three volumes of Mifcellanies in conjunction with Pope, who prefixed a querulous and apologetical Preface,

This important year fent likewife into the world Gulliver's Travels, a production fo new and ftrange, that it filled the reader with a mingled emotion of mer