The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 11/From Charles Ford to Jonathan Swift - 2

by Charles Ford

FROM CHARLES FORD.

WHAT answer shall I send? I am against any alteration; but additions, I think, ought by no means to be allowed. I wished I had called sooner at St. Dunstan's; but I did not expect it would have come out till Thursday, and therefore did not go there till yesterday. Pray let me know what you would have done. Barber was a blockhead to show it at all; but who can help that? Write an answer either for yourself or me; but I beg of you to make no condescensions.

Yesterday put an end to the session, and to your pain. We gained a glorious victory at the house of lords the day before: the attack was made immediately against Arthur Moore^[1], who appeared at the bar, with the other commissioners of trade. The South sea company had prepared the way for a censure, by voting him guilty of a breach of trust, and incapable of serving them in any office for the future. This passed without hearing what he had to say in his defence, and had the usual fate of such unreasonable reflections. Those, who proposed the resolutions, were blamed for their violence; and the person accused, appearing to be less guilty than they made him, was thought to be more innocent than I doubt he is. The whigs proposed two questions in the house of lords against him, and lost both, one by twelve, and the other, I think, by eighteen votes.

Court affairs go on as they did. The cry is still on the captain's side^[2]. Is not he the person Barber means by one of the best pens in England? It is only my own conjecture, but I can think of nobody else. Have you the queen's speech, the lords address, &c. or shall I send them to you? and do you want a comment? Have Pope and Parnell been to visit you, as they intended?

I had a letter yesterday from Gay, who is at the Hague, and presents his humble service to you. He has writ to Mr. Lewis too, but his respect makes him keep greater distance with him: and I think mine is the pleasanter letter, which I am sorry for.

We were alarmed by B.^[3] two days ago: he sent Tooke word, our friend was ill in the country; which we did not know how to interpret, till he explained it. It was Mrs. M.^[4] he meant; but she is in no danger. Pray, write immediately, that there may be no farther delay to what we ought to have had a week ago.

1. One of the commissioners of trade and plantations, who was accused of being bribed by the court of Spain, to favour that kingdom in the treaty of commerce made between it and England.
2. Lord Bolingbroke; alluding to his difference with lord Oxford.
3. John Barber.
4. Mrs. Manley, the writer of the Atalantis, who lived with Mr. Barber at that time.