II. 1713. CHAP. since, on any doubtful point, the electors would of course address an inquiry to their representative as to the vote he had given; and if even he were so utterly base as to wish to deceive them, still he could not answer falsely, whilst there were many hundred witnesses to the real fact. To suppose a question not calling for any such inquiries from constituents, is to suppose a question of very little public importance, or constituents of very little public spirit. We may, therefore, perhaps, infer that the modern practice of lists in the daily papers is more useful for the gratification of curiosity than for the maintenance of principle; and we may regret that so many hours should be wasted in the House of Commons by explanatory speeches, when the same object might be attained by explanatory letters. At present more members speak to satisfy their supporters out of doors, than to convince their opponents in the House. In Queen Anne's reign, the place of daily reports of the debates was in a great measure supplied by frequent party pamphlets. It was through these that the people were sometimes instructed and restrained, and more often spurred and goaded, in the politics of the day. Never before had England seen this paper warfare waged with such fierce and deadly rancour. Never before had it been conducted by such eminent abilities. On the one side, the Whigs could boast of the graceful and easy style, the inimitable humour and the fertile fancy of Addison; of the buoyant spirit, the keen and II. biting vehemence of Steele. On the other side, CHAP. the Tories possessed in Swift perhaps the greatest master of satire that ever lived. He was bold, 1713. vindictive, and unscrupulous. He was seldom restrained either by delicacy or compassion. He had a thorough knowledge of all the baser parts of human nature-for they were his own. If, indeed, it be possible that an accomplished satirist should ever be an amiable man, Swift at least was not that prodigy; and his life and character appear consumed by the same fiery rancour which glows in his writings. We find him bred as a Whig, under Sir William Temple-patronised as a Whig, by Lord Somers boasting of himself as a Whig in his writings*— and then, without a pretence of principle, without the slightest charge against his friends on public grounds, and merely on an allegation of personal neglect, turning round to the Tory leaders at the very moment when those leaders were coming into office, and having evidently no better reason for deserting his cause than that he thought it in danger. We find him instantly single out all his former friends for his libels, and assail them with all the deadly resentment of a renegade. The illustrious Somers, for example, his early friend, so lately held up as "the "modern Aristides," becomes "a false, deceitful "rascal." We find him in some cases even making * Works, vol. iii. p. 240. &c. + Works, vol. iii. p. 273. ; and vol. ii. p. 155. CHAP. a boast of insincerity; and thus saying of Lord II. 1713. Rochester, "Though I said I only talked from my "love to him, I told a lie, for I do not care if he "were hanged." We find him now urge his greedy claims for reward upon both Bolingbroke and Harley; and at length in the spring of 1713, extort the Deanery of St. Patrick's from a reluctant Queen and hollow friends. We find him, a beneficed clergyman, indite a sarcastic allegory on the principal sects of Christianity; we find him indulge in the grossest and most unseemly allusions, even when writing to a young, an unmarried, and a virtuous woman, who had become attached to him†-a woman whom his cold-hearted cruelty afterwards hurried to an early grave. Such is my opinion of his character. I turn to his writings, and my contempt for the man is at once lost in my admiration of the author. What vigour and vivacity of style! How rich is his variety of illustration, how terrible his energy of invective! How powerfully does he cast aside to the right and to the left all extraneous or subordinate topics-grapple at once with the main matters at issue and give battle to the whole strength of his opponents! Though nearly all written as mere occasional pieces, and to serve an immediate object, his works have been deservedly classed by posterity as permanent productions, and display more, perhaps, * Journal to Stella, Dec. 30. 1710. than any other, the whole force of plain and CHAP. homely language. It has already been mentioned that, in the reign of Queen Anne, party pamphlets and lampoons had attained a new degree of both talent and importance. The great Whig administration had borne these attacks, for the most part, with inward soreness but ostensible indifference. It was not till a libel was heard from the pulpit, and a nickname applied in a sermon to a minister of state, that the resentment of Godolphin drew his colleagues into the unfortunate impeachment of Sacheverell. The Tory ministers, on the other hand, who had been, while out of office, the prime movers of these attacks, did not bear the libels, to which they in their turn became exposed, with the same patience as their predecessors. In this, as in almost every other matter, they had recourse to the most violent measures. In one day, Secretary St. John had no less than twelve booksellers and publishers taken up for libels on the administration. † Not satisfied with such activity, he, in January, 1712, brought * Volpone to Lord Godolphin. Another nickname applied at the time to the same nobleman, from his ungainly looks, was Baconface. Journal to Stella, Oct. 24. 1711. St. John says himself, in one of his letters, "My Lord Marlborough's stupid chaplain "continues to spoil paper. They had best, for their patron's “sake as well as their own, be quiet. I know how to set them "in the pillory, and how to revive fellows that will write them "to death." To Mr. Harrison, Sept. 21. 1711. Corresp. vol. i. p. 226. II. 1713. CHAP. down a message from her Majesty to the House II. 1713. 66 of Commons, complaining of the " 66 66 "2. That all printing presses be registered with "the names of the owners and places of abode; "and that the author, printer, and publisher of every book set his name and place of abode "thereto." A bill founded upon these two resolutions was ordered by the House to be brought in; but it |