HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL TRACTS--IRISH


LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1905
CHISWICK PRESS. CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE,
LONDON.




INTRODUCTION


Swift took up his permanent residence in the Irish capital in 1714. The
Harley Administration had fallen never to rise again. Harley himself was
a prisoner in the Tower, and Bolingbroke a voluntary exile in France,
and an open adherent of the Pretender. Swift came to Dublin to be met by
the jeers of the populace, the suspicion of the government officials,
and the polite indifference of his clerical colleagues. He had time
enough now in which to reflect and employ his brain powers. For several
years he kept himself altogether to his duties as Dean of the Cathedral
of St. Patrick's, only venturing his pen in letters to dear friends in
England--to Pope, Atterbury, Lady Howard. His private relations with
Miss Hester Vanhomrigh came to a climax, also, during this period, and
his peculiar intimacy with "Stella" Johnson took the definite shape in
which we now know it.

He found himself in debt to his predecessor, Sterne, for a large and