v.

CHIEF JUSTICE WHITSHED.

Swift, in a letter to Pope, thus mentions the conduct of this worthy Chief Justice : "I have written in this kingdom a discourse to persuade the wretched people to wear their own manufactures, instead of those from England: this treatise soon spread very fast, being agreeable to the sentiments of a whole nation, except of those gentlemen who had employments, or were expectants. Upon which a person in great office here immediately took the alarm; he sent in haste for Lord Chief Justice Whitshed, and informed him of a seditious, factious, and virulent pamphlet, lately published, with a design of setting the two kingdoms at variance, directing at the same time that the printer should be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law. The Chief Justice had so quick an understanding, that he resolved, if possible, to outdo his orders The grand juries of the county and city were practised effectually with to represent the

The

said pamphlet with all aggravating epithets, for which they had thanks sent them from England, and their presentments published for several weeks in all the newspapers. The printer was seized, and forced to give great bail: after his trial, the jury brought him in not guilty, although they had been culled with the greatest industry. Chief Justice sent them back nine times, and kept them eleven hours, until, being tired out, they were forced to leave the matter to the mercy of the Judge, by what they call a special verdict. During the trial, the Chief Justice, among other singularities, laid his hand on his breast, and protested solemnly, that the author's design was to bring in the Pretender; although there was not a single syllable of party in the whole treatise, and although it was known, that the most eminent of those who professed his own principles, publicly disallowed his proceedings. But the cause being so very odious and unpopular, the trial of the verdict was deferred from one term to another,

until, upon the arrival of the Duke of Grafton, the Lord Lieutenant, his Grace, after mature advice and permission from England, was pleased to grant a noli prosequi." The Chief Justice's conduct so exasperated Swift, that he could not refrain from indulging his spleen in these pasquinades against the Chief Justice:

Chief Justice Whitshed's Motto on his Coach.

LIBERTAS ET NATALE SOLUM.

LIBERTY AND MY NATIVE COUNTRY.

Libertas et natale solum ;

Fine words! I wonder where you stole 'em:
Could nothing but thy chief reproach,
Serve for a motto on thy coach?

But let me now the words translate :

Natale solum :-my estate :

My dear estate, how well I love it!
My tenants, if you doubt, will prove it:
They swear I am so kind and good,
I hug them till I squeeze their blood.
Libertas, bears a large import:

First, how to swagger in a court ;

And, secondly, to shew my fury
Against an uncomplying Jury;
And, thirdly, 'tis a new invention
To favour Wood, and keep my pension;
And, fourthly, 'tis to play an odd trick,
Get the Great Seal, and turn out Brodrick.
And, fifthly, you know whom I mean,
To humble that vexatious Dean;
And, sixthly, for my soul to barter it
For fifty times its worth to Carteret.
Now since your motto thus you construe,
I must confess you've spoken once true.
Libertas et natale solum,

You had good reason when you stole 'em.

On the same upright Chief Justice Whitshed. In church your grandsire cut his throat: To do the job too long he tarry'd, He should have had my hearty vote, To cut his throat before he marry'd.

VI. TO QUILCA.

This was a country-house of Dr. Sheridan's, where Swift and some of his friends

spent

spent a summer in the year 1725, and being in very bad repair, Swift wrote the following lines on the occasion:

"Let me thy properties explain :
A rotten cabin dropping rain;
Chimnies with scorn rejecting smoke;
Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke.
Here elements have lost their uses,
Air ripens not, nor earth produces :
In vain we make poor Shelah* toil,
Fire will not roast, nor water boil.
Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,
The goddess Want in triumph reigns;
And her chief officers of state,

Sloth, Dirt, and Theft, around her wait."

VII. MR. GAY.

In a letter to the Duchess of Queensberry, shortly after the death of this amiable man, Swift thus drew his character:

* An Irish servant.

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