said he would not be satisfied, but that I must be a prebendary of Windsor. Thus he perplexes things. I expect neither; but I confess, as much as I love England, I am so angry at this treatment, that if I had my choice, I would rather have St. Patrick's." And yet t in his Journal of the 18th, the day but one after this, when he learns from the treasurer, that the queen was at last resolved upon the arrangement proposed, he says "Neither can I feel joy at passing my days in Ireland,* and I confess I thought the ministry would not let me go; but perhaps they cannot help it." How contrary is this to his former declaration! But in the whole of this affair, Swift seems to have been deserted by his usual firmness of mind, and to have acted with the frowardness of an humoursome child, who either does not know his own mind, or will not tell it; and yet expects that others should find it out, and do what he wants.

the

Another reason for his not desiring to procure bishopric for himself, might perhaps arise from his supposing, that this might be considered as a full equivalent for his services, and the ne plus ultra of his preferment, to the exclusion of all future prospects in England, where all his wishes centred. But I am p persuaded, that the chief motive to his extraordinary conduct on this occasion, and his so pertinaciously adhering to that particular mode, and no other, of providing for him in opposition to the desire of his best friends, and particularly of the Duke of Ormond, was, that he had promised to make Sterne a bishop the first opportunity. As he was remarkably tenacious of his word, he was determined to

When he
e went to take possession of the deanery, he did not stay

in Dublin more than a fortnight, where he did not return one visit of a hundred, which, as he said, were all to the Dean, and none to the Doctor. He retired to the parsonage of Laracor, preferring a field bed and an ea then floor to the large Deanery-house which belonged to him in Dublin."

While the matter was in agitation, he thus writes to Stella, on the 7th of the March following: "I write by this post to the dean, but it is not above two lines; and one enclosed to you is not above three lines; and in that one enclosed to the dean, which he must not have, but on condition of burning it immediately after reading, and that before your eyes; for there are some things in it I would not have liable to accidents. You shall only know in general, that it is an account of what I have done to serve him, in his pretensions on these vacancies, &c. but he must not know that you know so much.”

It is evident from some of the above quotations, that Swift was far from having any cordial regard for Sterne, and that he had thought himself, on some occasions, to have been ill treated by him. Nothing therefore can in my opinion account for his obstinate perseverance in making him a bishop, in spite of all the world, as he himself expresses it, but the sacredness of an engagement.

Whatever ill opinion Swift had formed of Sterne before, was thoroughly confirmed by his very ungrateful behaviour to him, immediately after he had made him a bishop. In his Journal of May 16, he writes thus: "Your new bishop acts very ungratefully. I cannot say so bad of him as he deserves. I begged, by the same post his warrant and mine went over, that he would leave those livings to my disposal. I shall write this post to him, to let him know how ill I take it."*

*Swift had afterward cause to complain farther of his ingratitude, where he says to him in a letter, dated 1753: "But trying to forget all former treatments, I came, like others, to your house, and since you were a bishop, have once or twice recommended persons to you, who were no relations or friends of mine, but merely for their general good character; which availed so little that those very persons had the greatest share of your neglect." S.