awkward, and began to anticipate that he might be allowed to return to Ireland neither higher in the church nor richer than he left it. He became impatient and restive. The bishopric of Hereford became vacant, and Oxford and Lady Masham, the queen's favourite, exerted themselves to obtain her consent to bestow it upon him, but the opposition of the Duchess of Somerset, the queen's other favourite, whom Swift had libelled in his ' Windsor Prophecy,' frustrated their efforts. As soon as Swift knew that the bishopric had been given to another, he sent notice to Lord Oxford of his determination to retire. The ministry now saw, that unless something were done for him, they would lose his powerful aid, which had kept their enemies at bay, and had helped so effectively to keep themselves in possession of the government. Thus pressed, Oxford, with the concurrence of the Duke of Ormond, proposed that Dr. Sterne should be removed to the bishopric of Dromore, in order to make room for Swift in the deanery of St. Patrick's. This they accomplished; and, with the view of retaining him in England, an effort was made by Oxford and Lady Masham to exchange the deanery for a Windsor prebend; but the queen's determination against this arrangement was not to be shaken. The warrant for the deanery of St. Patrick's was signed February 23, 1713, and early in June the same year Swift set out for Ireland to take possession.

In the early part of his Journal Swift expresses a continual desire to return to Laracor and the society of his beloved Stella, but this feeling evidently becomes gradually weaker. The splendid society in which he moved, and the sort of homage with which he was treated, such as perhaps no other person of his rank ever received, had long before his return to Ireland taken strong possession of his heart; so that when he entered into the possession of his deanery, it was with feelings in the highest degree dissatisfied and desponding. Swift was scarcely settled in his deanery when he received the most pressing invitations from the friends of the Tory administration to return to England, for the purpose of reconciling, if possible, Oxford and Bolingbroke, whose dissension endangered the very existence of the Tory government. He came over to England without delay, and soon afterwards published 'The Public Spirit of the Whigs,' a bitter attack on Steele as well as the party to which he belonged. In this pamphlet the Scotch were spoken of as a poor fierce northern people," with several other offensive remarks, directed especially against the Duke of Argyle. A prosecution was instituted against Barber the printer, which the ministers managed to set aside; but the Scotch peers went up in a body to complain to the queen of the indignity with which they had been treated. Finding that Oxford and Bolingbroke could not be reconciled, Swift retired to the house of the Rev. Mr. Geary, Upper Letcombe, Berkshire, at the beginning of June 1714. Here he wrote his 'Free Thoughts on the State of Public Affairs.' Bolingbroke was now about to supplant Oxford, and left no means untried to conciliate Swift. The queen, at Bolingbroke's earnest request, signed an order on the treasury for 1000l., which Swift had in vain endeavoured to obtain through Oxford, to relieve him from the debts-amounting to at least that sum-which he was obliged to incur on entering his deanery. This sum however he never received, the death of the queen having occurred before the order was presented for payment. At the same time Lady Masham wrote to him, conjuring him not to desert the queen, and Barber was commissioned by Bolingbroke to say that he would reconcile him to the Duchess of Somerset. Almost the next post brought a letter from Lord Oxford, now dismissed and going alone to his seat in Herefordshire, requesting Swift to accompany him. His gratitude and his affection for Lord Oxford did not allow him to hesitate a moment in accepting the invitation of the disgraced minister, and he wrote immediately to Ireland to get an extension of his leave of absence, which was now nearly expired, to enable him to do so. Within three days the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I. put an end to the power of the Tories. Lord Oxford was arrested and imprisoned, and Swift wrote to him with a touching earnestness to request that he might be permitted to attend him in his confinement. Lord Oxford however refused to accede to his request. Bolingbroke and Ormond fled to France, and Swift returned to Ireland.

Not long after Swift came to London, to solicit the remission of the first-fruits; he was introduced to the acquaintance of Mrs. Vanhomrigh, the widow of Bartholomew Vanhomrigh, a Dutch merchant, who at his death had left to his widow a life interest in 16,000l., which sum was afterwards to be divided equally among his children, two sons and two daughters. When Swift became intimate in this family, Miss Esther Vanhomrigh, the eldest daughter, was under twenty years of age, not remarkable for beauty, but well educated, lively, graceful, spirited, aud, unfortunately for Swift, with a taste for reading. He became the director of her studies, and their friendly intercourse was continued till Miss Vanhomrigh made a declaration of affection for him, and proposed marriage. How that declaration was received is related in Swift's poem of 'Cadenus and Vanessa.' Cadenus is decanus (dean) by transposal of letters, and Vanessa is the poetical name which he gave to Miss Vanhomrigh. The proposal was declined; but Swift, from vanity or fondness, or both, had not firmness enough to relinquish their affectionate intercourse.

After his return to Ireland, Swift, conscious of his imprudence,

SWIFT, JONATHAN, D.D.

860

endeavoured to limit as much as possible the correspondence between himself and Vanessa, probably expecting that her attachment would be diminished by absence; but hers was a deep and uncontrollable passion. She wrote to him frequently, and complained bitterly of his not replying to her letters. At length Mrs. Vanhomrigh died; her two sons died soon afterwards; and the circumstances of the two sisters being somewhat embarrassed by imprudent expenses, they resolved to retire to Ireland, where their father had left a small property near Celbridge. Swift, in his diary, though he mentions occasionally his calling at Mrs. Vanhomrigh's, makes no allusion to her daughter. Notwithstanding this caution, obscure murmurs of the intercourse between Swift and Vanessa had reached Stella soon after its commencement. In 1714 Vanessa arrived in Dublin, to the annoyance of Swift and dread of Stella. Swift saw her very seldom : he introduced Dean Winter to her, a gentleman of fortune, as a suitor for her hand; and proposals of marriage were made to her by Dr. Price, afterwards bishop of Cashel; but both offers were rejected. Stella's jealousy at length became so restless that Swift is said to have consented to their marriage, and the ceremony was performed in 1716, in the garden of the deanery, by the Bishop of Clogher; and though Swift never acknowledged the marriage, and no change took place in their inter course, the evidence, though imperfect, has been usually considered to leave little doubt of the fact. But on the other hand, in her will made during her last illness (December 1727), and drawn up, as Mr. Wilde-who first printed it (in his Closing Years of Dean Swift's Life,' 1849),-thinks, after a careful comparison of it with Swift's own will, by Swift himself, she describes herself as "Esther Johnson, of the city of Dublin, spinster." At length, in 1717, Vanessa and her sister retired to Marley Abbey, near Celbridge, where Swift does not appear to have visited them till 1720, when Vanessa's sister became dangerously ill: during that illness his visits were frequent, and were continued occasionally to Vanessa after her sister's death. Vanessa by degrees became more impatient, and at length wrote to Stella to inquire into the nature of her connection with Swift. Stella, highly indignant, sent the letter to Swift, and immediately retired to the house of Mr. Ford, near Dublin. Swift, in a paroxysm of rage, rode instantly to Marley Abbey. Vanessa, on his entering the room, was struck dumb by that awful sternness which his countenance assumed when he was in anger, and to which she more than once alludes in her letters to him. He flung the letter on the table without saying a word, instantly left the house, and rode back to Dublin. Poor Vanessa sank under the blow. In a few weeks afterwards she died, in 1723, leaving her property to Dr. Berkeley, afterwards bishop of Cloyne, and to Mr. Marshall, one of the judges of the Irish court of Common Pleas. The poem of 'Cadenus and Vanessa' was published soon after Miss Vanhomrigh's death; but Berkeley is said to have destroyed the original correspondence: a full copy however remained in the pos session of Mr. Marshall, and it was published for the first time (with the exception of one or two letters) in Scott's edition of Swift's Works. Swift, in an agony of shame and remorse, retreated to some place in the south of Ireland, where he remained two months, without the place of his abode being known. On his return to Dublin, Stella was easily persuaded to forgive him. After their reconciliation, Stella continued to be the friend of Swift, the companion of his social hours, his comforter and patient attendant in sickness; and she presided at his table on public days but they were never alone together; their union as husband and wife was merely nominal.

:

In 1720 Swift published 'A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures.' This honestly-meant tract was represented as a seditious libel: the printer was brought to trial: the verdict of the jury was 'Not Guilty;' but Judge Whitshed kept them eleven hours, and sent them back nine times, till they reluctantly left the matter in his hands by a special verdict. The public indignation however was roused, and the government by a nolle prosequi,' were obliged to relinquish the contest.

In 1723, there being a scarcity of copper coin in Ireland, George I. granted to William Wood a patent right to coin farthings and halfpence to the amount of 108,000l. The grant was made without consulting the lord-lieutenant or privy council of Ireland: it had been obtained by the influence of the Duchess of Kendall, the king's mistress, who was to have a share of the profits. The Irish parliament expressed their dislike to it by a remonstrance, of which no notice was taken, when a voice was heard which apparently arose from one of the trading classes: a letter was published signed 'M. B., drapier (draper), Dublin,' and was followed by five or six more. The effect of these letters is known. All Ireland was roused. No one would touch the contaminated coin. A reward of 300l. was offered for the discovery of the author of the Drapier's fourth letter. A bill against the printer was about to be presented to the grand jury, when the Dean addressed to them "Some seasonable Advice;" and the memorable quotation from Scripture was circulated, "And the people said unto Saul, shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid : as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan that he died not." The grand jury wrote 'ignoramus' on the bill, and Judge Whitshed could only vent his rage by dismissing them. Ultimately the patent was withdrawn, and Wood was compensated by a grant of 3000l. yearly for twelve years.

Swift's popularity was now unbounded. The Drapier's head was painted on signs, engraved on copper-plates, struck on medals, woven on pocket-handkerchiefs. As if to shelter himself from this storm of public applause, he retired with Stella and Mrs. Dingley to Quilca, a country-house belonging to Dr. Sheridan, in a retired situation about seven miles from Kells, where he remained several months. He had the company of Dr. Sheridan and other friends, and produced several light pieces of humour, in which he was emulated by Sheridan, who followed him at no great distance. He also occupied himself in revising and completing the Travels into several remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver.'

In 1726 Swift visited England again, for the first time since Queen Anne's death. Bolingbroke was now returned from exile. The Dean resided at Twickenham with Pope, but made frequent visits to Dawley, the residence of Bolingbroke. His other associates were chiefly Arbuthnot, Gay, and Lord Bathurst.

At this time the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., and the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, kept a sort of court at Leicester House. The favourite of the princess was Mrs. Howard, afterwards Countess of Suffolk. Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot were frequent attendants at this court. Swift was introduced to the princess by Arbuthnot, at her own particular request. His visits afterwards were frequent, especially when she resided at Richmond, but always by special invitation from the princess.

In July 1726 the Dean received letters informing him that Stella was in a state of dangerous illness. He hastened to Ireland, and was gratified, on his arrival in Dublin, to find that her health was better. He now made the world acquainted with the 'Travels of Gulliver.' The work was published in London, anonymously as usual, through the agency of his friend Charles Ford. Such was the interest and admiration which it excited, that the price of the first edition was raised before the second could be printed. Stella being now in a tolerably good state of health, Swift, in March 1727, paid his last visit to London. His reception by his friends and at Leicester House was as cordial as ever. After spending the summer with Pope at Twickenham, he contemplated a voyage to France for the benefit of his health, when the death of George I. seemed to open a new prospect to the friends of the Princess of Wales. It was expected that Walpole's dismissal would have taken place forthwith; and the Dean, at the earnest request of his friends, especially of Mrs. Howard, who said that his going abroad at that time would look like disaffection, remained in England.

Swift was suffering under a severe attack of deafness, which seems generally to have been more or less combined with his other and worse complaint, vertigo, when he received information that Stella was again in danger. He left England suddenly, almost capriciously as it appeared to his friends, who had but an indistinct notion of his connection with Stella, and in October 1727, landed in Dublin to find his companion on the brink of the grave. She died January 28, 1728. When Swift had somewhat recovered from this last and severest shock, he found Walpole still in power, and high in favour with the queen as well as the king. He now kept no terms with the court; he attacked Walpole especially, and the ministry generally, and did not spare even the king and queen. At the same time he applied himself vigorously to the affairs of Ireland: he published several tracts for the amelioration of the unhappy state of that country; and, with the same object in view, commenced a periodical publication, in conjunction with Dr. Sheridan, called 'The Intelligencer,' which however was soon dropped. In 1728-9 the Dean spent about a year with Sir Arthur Acheson, at his seat of Gosford, in the north of Ireland; here he wrote several light pieces of poetry, which were intended for the amusement of the family and guests; among these was The Grand Question debated, whether Hamilton's Bawn should be turned into a Malthouse or a Barracks,' affording evidence that age had not in the least impaired those peculiar powers of humour which he had first displayed in the family of Lord Berkeley. In 1730 the Dean was a guest for six months in the house of Mr. Leslie at Market Hill, a small town at a short distance from Sir Arthur Acheson's. Near this town he intended to build a house, on ground to be leased from Sir Arthur, and which was to have been called Drapier's Hill; an intention however which he did not carry into effect.

obnoxious members in one of the last but most animated and pointed of his satires, 'The Legion Club.' The poem was hardly finished when he had one of the most intense and long-continued attacks of vertigo which he had ever suffered, and from which indeed he never thoroughly recovered. In 1736 Swift opposed the primate Boulter's scheme for regulating the exchange with Ireland by diminishing the value of the gold coin in order to increase the quantity of silver; he spoke against it in public; he wrote ballads against it; and on the day when the proclamation of the government for carrying the measure into effect was read, the bells of the cathedral rang a muffled peal, and a black flag was seen to wave on the steeple.

Swift's public life may now be said to have closed. From 1708 to 1736 he had been actively, strenuously, and often dangerously busied in guiding by his pen the course of public affairs; but during the latter part of this period his infirmities and sufferings rapidly increased. In 1732 Bolingbroke had attempted to bring him to England by negociating an exchange of his deanery for the living of Burfield in Berkshire, worth about 400., but it was too late; the sacrifice of dignity and income was greater than, at that period of his life, he was willing to submit to. He still continued to correspond with Bolingbroke, Pope, Gay, the Duchess of Queensberry, and Lady Betty Germain, by all of whom he was constantly pressed to come over to England; but as his attacks of deafness and giddiness became more frequent, more violent, and continued longer, he did not think it prudent to venture. Gay died in 1732, and Arbuthnot in 1734, and Bolingbroke went to France. With Pope he kept up an affectionate correspondence as long as he retained the power of expressing his thoughts upon paper. For several years before his mind gave way, he was hardly ever free from suffering, and never from the fear of it; and it was his custom to pray every morning that he might not live another day, and often when he parted at night with those friends who were dearest to him, after social hours spent at the deanery, he would say with a sigh, "I hope I shall never see you again." In the intervals of his fits of giddiness his powers of judgment remained unimpaired, but his memory failed rapidly. On the 26th of July, 1740, in a short note to Mrs. Whiteway, he says-" I have been very miserable all night, and to-day extremely deaf and full of pain. I cannot express the mortification I am under of body and mind. All I can say is, that I am not in torture, but I daily and hourly expect it. Pray let me know how your health is, and your family. I hardly understand one word I write. I am sure my days will be very few; few and miserable they must be. I am, for those few days, yours entirely, J. Swift. If I do not blunder, it is Saturday."

In 1741 Swift's memory had almost failed, his understanding was much impaired, and he became subject to violent fits of passion, which soon terminated in furious lunacy. He was intrusted to the care of the Rev. Dr. Lyons, who was gratefully attached to him. He continued in this state till 1742, when, after a week of indescribable bodily suffering, he sank into a state of quiet idiotcy, in which he continued till the 19th of October 1745, when he died as gently as if he had only fallen asleep. He was in his seventy-eighth year. The immediate cause of death, and probably of the giddiness which had so long afflicted him, was found to be water on the brain.

On the announcement of his death, the enthusiasm of Irish gratitude broke out as if there had been no interruption of his public services. The house was surrounded by a mournful crowd, who begged the most trifling article that had belonged to him to be treasured as a relic-"yea, begg'd a hair of him for memory." He was buried, according to his own direction, in the great aisle of the cathedral, where there is a Latin inscription to his memory, written by himself: -"Hic depositum est corpus Jonathan Swift, S. T. I., hujus Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Decani, ubi sæva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit. Abi, viator, et imitare, si poteris, strenuum pro virili libertatis vindicem. Obiit," &c.

Swift left the bulk of his property, the savings of about thirty years of his life, to found and endow an hospital for lunatics and idiots. In 1735 he presented a memorial to the corporation of Dublin, praying that a piece of ground on Oxmantown Green might be assigned for the purpose, which was immediately assented to, but the site which he ultimately fixed on was in James-street, Dublin, near Steevens's Hospital. The funds which finally devolved upon the hospital amounted to about 10,000l.

For some years before his intellect failed, the general superintendence of the Dean's domestic affairs had been intrusted by him to Mrs. Whiteway, who was a daughter of his uncle Adam: she was a woman of property, of superior understanding, and elegant manners. She was not his housekeeper, as has been erroneously stated. His housekeeper was Mrs. Brent, who by a second marriage became Mrs. Ridgeway.

Swift in his youth was considered handsome: he was tall, muscular, and well made; his complexion was dark, and his look heavy, but Pope says that his " eyes, which were azure as the heavens, had an expression of peculiar acuteness." His face was generally expressive of the stern decision of his character. He never laughed, and seldom smiled, and when he did smile it was

"As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
That could be moved to smile at anything."

ne was a strict economist of time and money, and kept minute accounts of the expenditure of both; he used much exercise, both walking and riding; he drank wine daily, but never to excess; in eating he appears to have been somewhat of an epicure. In his disposition he was social; and when his company pleased him his conversation was delightful, abounding in anecdote, and rather distinguished for liveliness and humour than for seriousness. In repartee he was considered unrivalled. He had peculiarities of manner, which however were not constant and habitual, but generally arose from the indulgence of some occasional whim. From the time of his admission into Trinity College he had mixed much in society, generally of the best kind: he was an observer of society of a lower kind, but he never willingly mixed with it. He spoke in public with force and fluency. The distinguishing feature of his character was pride a complete consciousness and appreciation of the value of the power which he had acquired by a severe course of study and observation, combined as it was with a determination of purpose which no danger could intimidate, and which turned aside from no labour necessary to the accomplishment of his aims. He was thoroughly honest, but his honesty was often combined with a straightforward bluntness which was offensive to fastidiousness and vanity. In spite of the sternness of his character, which was often indeed more in appearance than reality, he was a man of deep feeling, devotedly attached to his friends, and active in promoting their interests; nor were his friends less attached to him.

There was much appearance of paradox in Swift's character, which often arose from his assuming, in speaking and writing, a character which did not belong to him. He hated hypocrisy, he hated the assumption of virtue, and he ran into the opposite extreme. Thus the levity of manner with which he censured the corruptions of Christianity induced many to suppose that he was not a Christian: and the tone of misanthropy which pervades many of his writings was ill suited to the real character of one who annually expended a third part of his income in well-directed charity; who, of the first 500l. he had to spare, formed a loan fund for the use, without interest, of poor tradesmen and others; who was a warm and steady friend, a liberal patron, and a kind master. He who always spoke of Ireland as a country hateful to him, was yet the firm, fearless, and constant assertor of her rights and protector of her liberties. Johnson speaks of his love of a shilling. Habits of strict economy have given many a man the appearance of loving a shilling who thinks nothing of giving away pounds. We have spoken of the use which he made of his money in the obtaining of it he was no less free from sordidness. Of the numerous works which he published, most of which were extremely popular, it is doubtful if he ever received for any one a single shilling of direct remuneration. Pope obtained something for Swift's share of the 'Miscellanies,' but there is reason to suspect that he directed his friend, who did love a shilling, to keep the sum for his trouble. Swift's conduct towards Stella and Vanessa is that part of his character of which least can be said by way of justification. We have given the details of that conduct briefly, and leave the reader to draw his own conclusions.

In his political principles he was rather a Whig than a Tory, but party, as a distinction which prevents the intercourse of individuals, he regarded with dislike and scorn. He approved of triennial parliaments, nay annual parliaments; he was the defender of popular rights, and frequently exposed himself to danger in defending them; he was a steady advocate of constitutional freedom. His hatred of tyranny was almost a passion. The oppression which he saw practised in Ireland was one chief cause of his dislike to living in that country. He was vexed to see the tame submission with which the Irish yielded to the tyranny of their rulers. He always spoke of his residence in Ireland as an exile, and, with intense bitterness of feeling, of himself as one condemned to die there "like a poisoned rat in a hole." The separation from his friends in England certainly contributed to produce this feeling.

In his religious principles he was a violent high-church bigot. He would admit of no toleration either of Roman Catholics or of Dissenters as a body, and Jews he classed with infidels. But he did not extend these intolerant principles to individuals. Probably he did not know that Bolingbroke was an infidel, but he did know that Pope was a Roman Catholic.

Swift's acquaintance with the Greek and Latin writers was extensive, but not profound. French he wrote and spoke with facility, and he understood Italian. He was well read in Chaucer and Milton, but never mentions Shakspere, and does not appear to have had a copy of his works. His acquaintance with English prose writers was chiefly among the historians, especially Clarendon.

Swift, almost beyond any other writer, is distinguished for originality. He was an observer for himself, and was disdainful of obligation for anything but such facts as were not within his reach. His modes of combining and comparing those facts, whether ludicrous or serious, were always his own.

As a prose writer, his style is distinguished by plainness, simplicity, and perspicuity; it is sometimes ungrammatical and often heavy, but is occasionally forcible and pointed. As to his numerous political tracts, when they had accomplished the end for which they were

written, he cared no more about them; and most readers now care as little. He could hardly be said to be at all ambitious of the reputation of an author. His object in writing was to produce an effect upon the public, or to please his friends. The object once attained, he thought no more about the means by which it had been accomplished. His letters, of which a great number have been published, are excellent specimens of that species of composition; written, without any view to publication, either to keep up the intercourse of friendship or for purposes of business, they abound in practical good sense, clear, unaffected, unembellished, with occasional touches of wit and humour, such as appear to have arisen, without being sought for, in the writer's mind at the moment of writing. A few of his Sermons have been published; they are of the most plain and practical character. As a party writer, he used no arms but such as are considered fair in that species of warfare. He was not one of those who make false statements; he was no assailant of virtuous character. The vices and the faults of those public men to whom he was opposed were censured with unsparing severity, or covered with ridicule; but the men were such as Wharton and Wood and Bettesworth. Men of less objectionable character were touched more lightly.

Swift's permanent reputation as a prose writer is likely to depend, to a considerable extent, upon his humorous pieces, but chiefly upon his 'Gulliver's Travels.' For this satirical romance he derived hints from Lucian, Bergerac, and Rabelais; but he derived nothing more than hints. His claim to originality is unaffected by any resemblance which his romance bears to these sources. The style of the work is an admirable imitation of the plain, dry, and minute style of the old voyagers, such as Dampier; and the character of Gulliver himself, as a representative of this class, is never for a moment lost sight of. The work consists of four voyages. The Voyage to Lilliput is for the most part a satire on the manners and usages of the court of George I. The Voyage to Brobdingnag is a more extended satire on the politics of Europe generally. These two voyages are indisputably the most delightful parts of the book; and are read by most readers with great pleasure as mere tales, with such admirable skill is an air of truth and reality thrown over the narrative. The Flying Island is a satire directed against speculative philosophy, especially mathematics. For this part of his task Swift was but poorly qualified, and except that part which is aimed at projectors and quacks, the satire for the most part falls harmless. The fourth voyage, in which Gulliver gets among the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos, is an exaggerated satire on the vices of mankind. The fiction is in itself unnaturally impossible, and the details are sometimes disgustingly filthy.

Swift's poems are not, properly speaking, poetry, nor is Swift a poet; his imagination is not of the kind which produces poetry; it is not filled with the beauty and magnificence of nature, but with the petty details of artificial life; he is a satirist of the first class; as a poetical describer of manners, he has never been excelled as a poetical humourist he almost stands alone; indeed the most delightful of his poems are those in which he expresses the notions and uses the language of some assumed character, as in 'Mrs. Harris's Petition.' In this species of humour he had no model, and, with the exception of Thomas Hood, no imitator has ever approached him. Of the general style of his poems, Dr. Johnson remarks that "the diction is correct, the numbers are smooth, and the rhymes exact. There seldom occurs a hard-laboured expression or a redundant epithet. All his verses exemplify his own definition of a good style-they consist of proper words in proper places."

SWIFT, DEANE, was the grandson of Godwin Swift, the eldest of the uncles of the Dean of St. Patrick's. The Christian name of Deane was derived from his grandmother, daughter and heiress of Admiral Deane, who served the Commonwealth during the civil wars. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and afterwards resided at Goodrich in Herefordshire. He married a daughter of Mrs. Whiteway by her first husband, the Rev. T. Harrison. Deane Swift wrote an 'Essay upon the Life, Character, and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift; interspersed with some occasional Animadversions upon the Remarks of a late critical Author, and upon the Observations of an anonymous Writer on these Remarks; to which is added that Sketch of Dr. Swift's Life, written by the Dr. himself, which was lately presented by the Author of this Essay to the University of Dublin,' 8vo, London, 1755. He also published The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, collected and revised by Deane Swift, Esq., of Goodrich in Herefordshire,' 12mo, London, 1765, about 20 vols. Deane Swift contributed a portion of correspondence to Nichols's edition of Swift's Works, 19 vols. 8vo. He died at Worcester, July 12, 1783.

SWIFT, THEOPHILUS, was the son of Deane Swift, and was born at Goodrich in Herefordshire. He wrote 'The Gamblers,' a poem, 4to; The Temple of Folly,' in 4 cantos, London, 1787; 'Poetical Addresses to his Majesty,' 4to, 1788; 'Letter to the King on the Conduct of Colonel Lennox,' 4to, 1789. His remarks in this letter gave offence to Colonel Lennox, who demanded satisfaction, and a duel was the consequence, in which Swift received a pistol wound. In the year 1790 a man lurked at night in the streets of London, and wounded females with a sharp instrument. He escaped detection for some time, and the public called him 'The Monster.' A person of the name of Williams, an artificial flower maker, was at length arrested, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

Theophilus Swift seems to have thought that this man was innocent, and exerted himself both at the trial and afterwards, to prove his innocence. He wrote a 'Vindication of Renwick Williams, commonly called the Monster,' London, 1790. Theophilus Swift wrote an 'Essay on the Rise and Progress of Rhyme,' which was printed in the 'Transactions' of the Irish Academy, vol. ix., 1801; and in 1811 he published at Dublin Mr. Swift's Correspondence with the Rev. Mr. Dobbin and his Family.' Scott's edition of Swift's Works contains several communications from Theophilus Swift. He inherited from his grandmother, Mrs. Whiteway, a considerable estate in the county of Limerick. He died in Ireland, in the summer of 1815. SWINBURNE, HENRY, an English traveller, was born in May 1752. He was the third son of Sir John Swinburne, Bart., of Capheaton, in the county of Northumberland, of an ancient Roman Catholic family. He received his education at the monastic seminary of Lacelle, in France, where he made rapid progress in the study of ancient and modern literature and in drawing. By the death of his eldest brother, he became possessed of an annuity and of a small estate at Hamsterley, in the county of Durham, and was thus placed in independent circumstances. He now set out on a tour, in which he visited Turin, Genoa, Florence, and other parts of Italy, improving himself on his route in the knowledge of works of art and in drawing. On his way home through Paris, he became acquainted with and married Miss Baker, daughter of the then solicitor-general of the West Indies, and, returning to England, resided with her some time at his estate at Hamsterley, where he amused himself with gardening and laying out grounds. He soon recommenced travelling, and reached Paris, in March 1774; in the autumn of the same year he proceeded to Bordeaux, and, after spending a year in the south of France, accompanied his friend Sir Thomas Gascoigne on a tour in Spain; they travelled along the coast from Barcelona to Cadiz, and thence through the interior to Madrid, Burgos, and Bayonne, where they arrived in June 1776. At the close of this year Swinburne, in company with his wife, left Marseille for Naples. He remained in Italy till June 1779, during which period, after staying a year at Naples, at the court of Ferdinand IV., he visited Sicily, Rome, Florence, and Turin, whence he returned to France. About this time he published an account of his Spanish tour in a series of letters, and spent the latter part of the year 1779 in England. The next year he travelled through France and Italy to Vienna, where he was received with much kindness by the Empress Maria Theresa, and her son Joseph II. He was again in England in 1781, and in 1783 set out for Paris to seek indemnity from the French government for the loss of his West India property, which had been devastated during the war. Through the favour of Maria Antionette, he obtained in compensation a grant of land in the island of St. Vincent, the value of which was however much reduced on the cession of the island to Great Britain. In 1786 Swinburne again went to Paris, and returned in 1788.

After having long solicited a diplomatic appointment from the British government, he was appointed, in 1796, commissioner for the adjustment of the cartel then proposed for the exchange of prisonersof-war between France and England. In the performance of this service great difficulties occurred from the refusal of the French to give up Sir Sidney Smith; and, after long and fruitless negociations, Swinburne was finally recalled at the close of the year 1797. His latter years were saddened by the loss of his son, who was shipwrecked on his way to Jamaica, and by the diminution of his fortune, which induced him, in 1801, to accept the offices of vendue master in the island of Trinidad, and commissioner for the restoration of the Danish islands. After a few months' residence at Trinidad, Swinburne fell a victim to the climate, April 1, 1803.

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His works are 'Travels through Spain in the years 1775 and 1776,' 8vo, London, in a series of Letters; Travels in the Two Sicilies in the Years 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780;' and a Correspondence extending from the year 1774 to that of his death, edited by Charles White, Esq., under the title of the Courts of Europe at the close of the Last Century,' 2 vols., 8vo, London, 1841. This publication contains many curious details concerning the courts of Louis XV. and Louis XVI., and the most stirring periods of the French Revolution. Swinburne is a lively and sensible writer; he describes everything in an easy, unaffected, and sometimes forcible style; he is an attentive observer of national characteristics, and has selected with judgment such anecdotes and incidents as best illustrate the manners of different countries. SWITHIN, SAINT, seventeenth Bishop of Winchester, was born in the early part of the 9th century, but the exact year is not ascertained. He was ordained priest in 830 by Helmstan, bishop of Winchester, and was soon after appointed by King Egbert his chaplain, and tutor to his son Ethelwulf. In the reign of the latter he became chancellor, and was entrusted with the education of Alfred, whom he accompanied to Rome. The services rendered by Swithin to Ethelwulf in the direction of the ecclesiastical affairs of his kingdom were rewarded by his elevation in 852 to the see of Winchester, vacant by the death of Helmstan. He is supposed to have been the originator of the payment of 'Peter-pence' to Rome, though there is much reason to believe that this tribute had an earlier origin, and also to have procured the first act of the Wittenagemot for enforcing the universal payment of tithes.

BIOG. DIV. VOL. V.

William of Malmesbury says of St. Swithin that "he was a rich treasure of all virtues, and that those in which he took most delight were humility and charity to the poor." He adds, that he built several churches, and devoted himself exclusively to the spiritual administra tion of his diocese; in his frequent visitations of it he travelled with his clergy on foot, and for the most part by night, in order to avoid the suspicion of ostentation. He died in the reign of Ethelbert, on the 2nd of July 862. His last request was that he should be buried in the churchyard of Winchester," ubi cadaver et pedibus prætereuntium et stillicidiis e cœlo rorantibus esset obnoxium." Within a century afterwards, his name having been admitted into the calendar as that of a canonised saint, it was resolved to transfer his remains to the cathedral, and to place them in a magnificent shrine prepared for the purpose by King Egbert. The translation, which was to have taken place on the 15th of July, was delayed for forty days in conse quence of the severe rainy weather which occurred, and hence arose the well-known tradition that if it rain on St. Swithin's day there will be rain for forty days after. In France the day of the festival of St. Gervais (June 19th) is marked by a similar superstition. These superstitions are not however altogether unfounded on facts, experience having shown that whenever a wet season sets in about the end of June to the middle of July, it generally continues for a considerable period, and that, in a majority of our summers, a rainy season of about forty days comes on nearly at the time indicated by the tradition of Saint Swithin.

The festival of St. Swithin in the Roman Martyrology is the 2nd of July, the day of his death; but in England it was celebrated on the 15th of July, the day appointed for the translation of his relics to the Cathedral of Winchester.

SYDENHAM, CHARLES EDWARD POULETT THOMSON, LORD, was the son of John Poulett Thomson, Esq., of Waverley Abbey and Roehampton in Surrey, the head of the mercantile firm of J. Thomson, T. Bonar, and Co., which had been long one of the most eminent houses engaged in the Russian trade. Mr. John Thomson, who assumed the name of Poulett by sign-manual, in 1820, in memory of his mother, married, in 1781, Charlotte, daughter of Dr. Jacob of Salisbury, and by her he had a family of nine children, of whom the subject of the present notice, born at Waverley on the 13th of Sep. tember 1799, was the youngest. There were two elder sons, Andrew and George, of whom the latter, now George Poulett Scrope, Esq., is the present member for Stroud, and the author of 'Principles of Political Economy,' 12mo, 1833, and of 'The Life of Lord Sydenham,' 8vo, 1843.

Lord Sydenham was never at any public school or university; and he left his native country at the age of sixteen, to be placed in his father's house of business at St. Petersburg, then under the chief direction of his eldest brother. He returned to England in ill-health in 1817; then made a tour to the south of France, Switzerland, and Italy; after which he took his place in his father's counting-house in London, in the summer of 1819. In the spring of 1821 he was again sent out to St. Petersburg, this time as a partner in the firm; and here he remained for two years. The greater part of the winter and spring of 1823-24 he spent in Vienna; whence returning by Paris to Eug land, he assumed, in conjunction with his brother Andrew, the chief conduct of the business in London.

Sanguine, ambitious, and self-confident, he involved himself to some extent in the American mining speculations of 1825. Meanwhile he had become intimate with young Mr. Bentham and Mr. James Mill, with Mr. Warburton, Mr. Hume, Dr. (now Sir John) Bowring, and Mr. M'Culloch, and had set his heart upon entering public life. He obtained a seat in parliament for Dover, after an expensive contest, at the general election in the summer of 1826. His rise from this date was very rapid. Voting steadily with the extreme section of the Opposition, he spoke but seldom, and almost exclusively upon commercial questions. On the first occasion however on which he delivered himself at any length, in a debate on the state of the shipping interest, on the 7th of May 1827, he made a very favourable impression on the House, and had the gratification of being warmly complimented by Mr. Huskisson. After this, whenever he rose he was listened to with attention. He was again returned for Dover in 1830; and when the Whigs came into power, in November of that year, he was appointed to the offices of Vice-President of the Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy. He was returned again for Dover after his acceptance of office, and also to the succeeding parliament, which met in June 1831. At the general election in December 1832, he was returned both for Dover and for Manchester; he elected to sit for the latter place; and continued to represent Manchester as long as he remained in the House of Commons. Meanwhile on the reconstruction of the ministry in June 1834, occasioned by the secession of Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham, Mr. Poulett Thomson was made President of the Board of Trade, in the room of Lord Auckland, who was removed to the Admiralty; and on the recovery of power by his party in April 1835, after Sir Robert Peel's short administration, he resumed that office with a seat in the cabinet. So early as in the beginning of the year 1836, if there be no misprint of the date in Mr. P. Scrope's narrative, it had been in contemplation to remove him to the House of Lords, in order to relieve him from the fatigues of the long night sittings in the Commons, under which his health was already beginning to break down;. 3 K

but circumstances, it is added, for a time put a stop to this plan. At last, towards the close of the session of 1839, on the elevation of Mr. Spring Rice to the peerage, he was offered his choice between the chancellorship of the exchequer and the government of Canada; and accepted the latter. He was sworn into his new office before the Privy Council on the 29th of August; he left England on the 13th of September, and landed at Quebec on the 19th of October. Of his administration in Canada, which was highly successful, Mr. Scrope has published a very full narrative, which was drawn up by Mr. Murdoch, the civil secretary. In August 1840, the governor general was raised to the peerag by the title of Baron Sydenham, of Sydenham, in Kent, and Toronto, in Canada. But on the 4th of September 1841, while in a weak state of health, he had the misfortune to be thrown from his horse, which stumbled and fell upon him, and to sustain a fracture of the principal bone of his right leg, besides other serious injuries; and his death followed on Sunday the 19th of the same month. The most remarkable quality that Lord Sydenham possessed was great decision of character, arising from clearheadedness and self-reliance. His activity, zeal, and extensive information also made him an excellent man of business, and his attractive manners added to his value as a partisan. SYDENHAM, FLOYER, was born in 1710, and was educated at Wadhain College, Oxford, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1734. Having undertaken the laborious and unproductive task of translating Plato into English, he issued proposals for publishing his work by subscription in 1759, accompanied by a 'Synopsis, or General View of the Works of Plato.' The subscribers were few, and some, it is said, failed in their engagements; and after a life of labour and want he died in old age (April 1, 1787), imprisoned for a debt contracted at the eating-house which he frequented. Melancholy as was his end, it was honoured in its results; for in consequence, "one of the members of a club at the Prince of Wales Coffee House proposed that it should adopt as its object some means to prevent similar afflictions, and to assist deserving authors and their families in distress;" and this was the origin of that valuable institution, the Literary Fund, from an account published by which the above quotation is taken. Sydenham is therein characterised as "a man revered for his knowledge, and beloved for the candour of his temper and gentleness of his manners." Between 1759 and 1780 Sydenham published translations of the Io, Greater and Lesser Hippias, Banquet, Rivals, Meno, First and Second Alcibiades, and Philebus, with notes: these are collected in three quarto volumes. These versions were afterwards included by Thomas Taylor in his complete translation of Plato, 1804, revised, and with a selection of the notes. Taylor complains, while paying tribute to Sydenham's natural powers, that from early prejudices, and the pressure of distress, he was unequal to the reception and explanation of "Plato's more sublime tenets. His translation however of other parts, which are not so abstruse, is excellent. In these he not only presents his reader faithfully with the matter, but likewise with the genuine manner of Plato." (Introduction.)

Sydenham's other works are 'A Dissertation on the Doctrine of Heraclitus, so far as it is mentioned or alluded to by Plato,' 1775; 'Onomasticon Theologicum, or an Essay on the Divine Names, according to the Platonic Philosophy.'

SYDENHAM, THOMAS, one of the most distinguished of English physicians, was the son of a country gentleman at Winford Eagle in Dorsetshire. He was born there in 1624, and was admitted a commoner of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1642. The occupation of that city as a garrison by Charles I. interrupted his studies for a time; but he returned to Magdalen Hall when Oxford was given up to the parliamentary forces, and in 1648 he took the degree of Bachelor of Physic.

It has been stated that Sydenham served for some time in the royal army during the commotions of the civil war; but this assertion rests on no good authority, and all Sydenham's connections belonged to the republican party. His elder brother William was a colonel in the parliamentary army, and rose during the commonwealth to the highest posts. It was also through the interest of his party that Sydenham obtained, about 1648, a fellowship of All Souls' College, in the place of a person who had been ejected for his royalist opinions. He pursued his studies at Oxford for some years, and is said by the famous French surgeon Desault to have visited Montpellier, where there was a medical school, which then enjoyed a very high reputation. Subsequently he quitted Oxford, and having taken the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Cambridge, he became a licentiate of the College of Physicians, and settled in London.

He soon rose to the top of his profession, and between the years 1660 and 1670 had a more extensive practice than any other physician. This success must have been entirely due to himself, for, from some cause of which we are ignorant, the College of Physicians as a body were hostile to him; while his known relations to the republican party would cut off court patronage or favour. After suffering for many years from the gout, he died on the 29th of December 1689, at his house in Pall Mall, and was buried in the aisle of St. James's church, Westminster.

In 1666 Sydenham published his first work, which consisted of observations upon fevers. An enlarged edition of this treatise appeared under a new name in the year 1675. This second edition

SYDNEY. (SIDNEY.]

SYLBURG (Latinised SYLBURGIUS), FREDERIC, was born in 1536, in the village of Wetter, near Marburg, whence he generally calls himself Fredericus Sylburgius Veterensis. His father was a farmer in middling circumstances; but the son received a good education, and during the time he spent at the University of Jena, he chiefly devoted himself to the study of Greek under Rhodomannus. After the completion of his academical course, he had the management of several public schools, first that of Lich, in the county of Solms, and then that of Neuhaus, near Worms. But he had no particular liking for the business of teaching, and his occupation took up all the time which he wished to devote to literary labours. Accordingly he gave up his post, and entered into a connection with the printer Andrew Wechel, of Frankfurt on-the-Main, for whose establishment Sylburg undertook to edit Greek works. He continued at Frankfurt until 1591, when he went to Heidelberg, and formed a similar connection with the printer Hieronymus Commelin. In both places Sylburg, who had the superintendence of the printing of all Greek works, as well as the preparation of them, performed these duties with the utmost accuracy, and showed an extraordinary critical talent in the notes which accompanied almost all his editions. He thus gained great celebrity, and the Landgrave of Hessen munificently rewarded him with an annual pension from the funds of the University of Marburg. Further particulars of his life are not known. He died at Heidelberg, on the 16th of February 1596, as is stated on his tomb-stone, which still exists at Heidelberg.

Sylburg was one of the most eminent and most industrious Greek scholars of the 16th century, and the greatest men of the age, such as Casaubon and De Thou, entertained a profound admiration for him. He was a worthy contemporary of Henry Stephens, whose Thesaurus of the Greek language contains many articles by Sylburg. The editions of Greek writers by Sylburg are still very valuable, and in critical accuracy they are not inferior to those of Stephens, although they are not so beautifully printed. Some of his editions have never yet been excelled. His first publications were new editions of some elementary Greek grammars which were then generally used. In 1583 he published, at Frankfurt, in one volume, folio, his edition of Pausanias, with notes by himself and Xylander, and an improved reprint of the Latin translation by Romulus Amaseus. It also contains a dissertation by Sylburg, 'De Grammaticis Pausania Anomalis.' The whole was reprinted in 1613. Between 1584 and 1587 he published at Frankfurt a complete edition of Aristotle, in 11 parts, or 5 vols. 4to. This edition only contains the Greek text with the various readings, and is still one of the very best and most correct editions of all Aristotle's works. In 1585 he edited four discourses of Isocrates (ad Demonicum, ad Nicoclem, Nicocles, contra Sophistas), 8vo, Frank