Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/128

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116
LETTERS TO AND FROM


SIR,
DUBLIN, DEC. 16, 1710.


THIS is to acknowledge the receipt of your's of the 28th ult. which came not to my hands till Thursday last, by reason of winds, that kept the packets on the other side.

I find the matter of our first-fruits, &c. is talked of now. I reckon on nothing certain till her majesty's letter comes in form: and quære, why should you not come and bring it with you? It would make you a very welcome clergyman to Ireland, and be the best means to satisfy mankind how it was obtained, although I think it will be out of dispute. I am very well apprised of the dispatch you gave this affair, and well pleased, that I judged better of the person fit to be employed, than some of my brethren. But now it is done, as I hope it is effectually, they will assume as much as their neighbours; which I shall never contradict.

Things are taking a new turn here as well as with you; and I am of opinion, by the time you come here, few will profess themselves whigs. The greatest danger I apprehend, and which terrifies me more than perhaps you will be able to imagine, is the fury and indiscretion of some of our own people; who never had any merit, but, by embroiling things, they did, and I am afraid will yet do, mischief. You will soon hear of a great conspiracy discovered in the county of Westmeath. I was used to so many discoveries of plots in the latter end of king Charles's

time,