The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Vol. X. | Page 4

7th of April, is come
to my hands; and it is with no small concern that I have read it, and to
find that you seem to have formed a resolution to put the History of the
Four last Years of the Queen to the press; a resolution taken without
giving your friends, and those that are greatly concerned, some notice,
or suffering them to have time and opportunity to read the papers over,
and to consider them. I hope it is not too late yet, and that you will be
so good as to let some friends see them, before they are put to the press;
and, as you propose to have the work printed here, it will be easy to
give directions to whom you will please to give the liberty of seeing
them; I beg I may be one: this request I again repeat to you, and I hope
you will grant it. I do not doubt that there are many who will persuade
you to publish it; but they are not proper judges: their reasons may be
of different kinds, and their motives to press on this work may be quite
different, and perhaps concealed from you.
"I am extremely sensible of the firm love and regard you had for my
father, and have for his memory; and upon that account it is that I now
renew my request, that you would at least defer this printing until you
have had the advice of friends. You have forgot that you lent me the
History to read when you were in England, since my father died; I do
remember it well. I would ask your pardon for giving you this trouble;
but upon this affair I am so nearly concerned, that, if I did not my
utmost to prevent it, I should never forgive myself."
While this correspondence was in progress, Swift had given the
manuscript to Lord Orrery to hand over to Dr. King. On June 24th,
1737, King wrote to Swift stating that he had received a letter from Mrs.
Whiteway in which he was told to expect the manuscript from the
hands of Lord Orrery. To Mrs. Whiteway he replied, on the same day,
that he would wait on Lord Orrery to receive the papers. On July 23rd,
1737, Lord Orrery wrote to Swift informing him that "Dr. King has his
cargo."
With the knowledge that the manuscript was on its way to King, Swift
wrote the following reply to Lewis's letter:
July 23, 1737.
"DEAR FRIEND,

"While any of those who used to write to me were alive, I always
inquired after you. But, since your secretaryship in the queen's time, I
believed you were so glutted with the office, that you had not patience
to venture on a letter to an absent useless acquaintance; and I find I owe
yours to my Lord Oxford. The History you mention was written above
a year before the queen's death. I left it with the treasurer and Lord
Bolingbroke, when I first came over to take this deanery. I returned in
less than a month; but the ministry could not agree about printing it. It
was to conclude with the peace. I staid in London above nine months;
but not being able to reconcile the quarrels between those two, I went
to a friend in Berkshire, and, on the queen's death, came hither for good
and all. I am confident you read that History; as this Lord Oxford did,
as he owns in his two letters, the last of which reached me not above
ten days ago. You know, on the queen's death, how the peace and all
proceedings were universally condemned. This I knew would be done;
and the chief cause of my writing was, not to let such a queen and
ministry lie under such a load of infamy, or posterity be so ill-informed,
&c. Lord Oxford is in the wrong to be in pain about his father's
character, or his proceedings in his ministry; which is so drawn, that his
greatest admirers will rather censure me for partiality; neither can he
tell me anything material out of his papers, which I was not then
informed of; nor do I know anybody but yourself who could give me
more light than what I then received; for I remember I often consulted
with you, and took memorials of many important particulars which you
told me, as I did of others, for four years together. I can find no way to
have the original delivered to Lord Oxford, or to you; for the person
who has it will not trust it out of his hands; but, I believe, would be
contented to let it be read to either of you, if it could be done without