Letter 10.
1 William Bromley (died 1732) was M.P. for the University of Oxford. A good
debater and a strong High Churchman, he was Secretary of State from August
1713 until the Queen's death in the following year.
2 Colonel, afterwards Major-General, John Hill (died 1735) was younger brother
of Mrs. Masham, the Queen's favourite, and a poor relation of the Duchess of
Marlborough. He was wounded at Mons in 1709, and in 1711 was sent on an
unsuccessful expedition to attack the French settlements in North America. In
1713 he was appointed to command the troops at Dunkirk.
3 "The footmen in attendance at the Houses of Parliament used at this time to
form themselves into a deliberative body, and usually debated the same points
with their masters. It was jocularly said that several questions were lost by
the Court party in the menial House of Lords which were carried triumphantly
in the real assembly; which was at length explained by a discovery that the
Scottish peers whose votes were sometimes decisive of a question had but few
representatives in the convocation of lacqueys. The sable attendant mentioned
by Swift, being an appendage of the brother of Mrs. Masham, the reigning
favourite, had a title to the chair, the Court and Tory interest being exerted
in his favour" (Scott). Steele alludes to the "Footmen's Parliament" in No.
88 of the Spectator.
4 See Letter 1, note 3.
5 A Court of Equity abolished in the reign of Charles I. It met in the Camera
Alba, or Whitehall, and the room appears to have retained the name of the old
Court.
6 See Letter 6, note 2.
7 Swift's first contribution to the Examiner (No. 13) is dated Nov. 2, 1710.
8 Seduced, induced. Dryden (Spanish Friar) has "To debauch a king to break
his laws."
9 Freeman (see Letter 9, note 10).
10 "To make this intelligible, it is necessary to observe, that the words
'this fortnight', in the preceding sentence, were first written in what he
calls their little language, and afterwards scratched out and written plain.
It must be confessed this little language, which passed current between Swift
and Stella, has occasioned infinite trouble in the revisal of these papers"
(Deane Swift).
11 Trim. An attack upon the liberties of this corporation is among the
political offences of Wharton's Lieutenancy of Ireland set forth in Swift's
Short Character of the Earl of Wharton.
12 Apologies.
13 "A Description of the Morning," in No. 9 of the Tatler.
14 See Letter 6, note 19.
15 William Palliser (died 1726).
16 See Letter 4, note 15.
17 "Here he writ with his eyes shut; and the writing is somewhat crooked,
although as well in other respects as if his eyes had been open" (Deane
Swift).
18 Tatler, No. 249; cf. p. 93. During this visit to London Swift contributed
to only three Tatlers, viz. Nos. 230, 238, and 258.
19 St. Andrew's Day.
20 No. 241.
21 Tatler, No. 258.
22 Lieutenant-General Philip Bragg, Colonel of the 28th Regiment of Foot, and
M.P. for Armagh, died in 1759.
23 James Cecil, fifth Earl of Salisbury, who died in 1728.
24 See Letter 2, note 13.
25 See Letter 8, note 22.
26 Kneller seems never to have painted Swift's portrait.
27 On Nov. 25 and 28.
28 Arthur Annesley, M.P. for Cambridge University, had recently become fifth
Earl of Anglesea, on the death of his brother (see Letter 3, note 35). Under
George I. he was Joint Treasurer of Ireland, and Treasurer at War.
29 A Short Character of the Earl of Wharton, by Swift himself, though the
authorship was not suspected at the time. "Archbishop King," says Scott,
"would have hardly otherwise ventured to mention it to Swift in his letter of
Jan. 9, 1710, as 'a wound given in the dark.'" Elsewhere, however, in a note,
Swift hints that Archbishop King was really aware of the authorship of the
pamphlet.
30 A false report. (See Letter 11, note 4.)
31 None of these Commissioners of Revenue lost their places at this time.
Samuel Ogle was Commissioner from 1699 to 1714; John South from 1696 until his
death in 1711; and Sir William St. Quintin, Bart., from 1706 to 1713. Stephen
Ludlow succeeded South in September 1711.
32 See Letter 7, note 35.
33 James Hamilton, sixth Earl of Abercorn (1656-1734), a Scotch peer who had
strongly supported the Union of 1706.
