DR. SWIFT.
19
TO BISHOP ATTERBURY.
THE COUNTRY IN IRELAND,
MY LORD,
AUG. 3, 1713.
IT is with the greatest pleasure I heard of your lordship's promotion, I mean that particular promotion which I believe is agreeable to you[1], though it does not mend your fortune. There is but one other change I could wish you, because I have heard you prefer it before all the rest; and that likewise is now ready[2], unless it be thought too soon, and that you are made to wait till another person has used it for a step to cross the water[3]. Though I am here in a way of sinking into utter oblivion; for
"Hæ latebræ nec dulces, nec, si mihi credis, amœnæ:"
yet I shall challenge the continuance of your lord-
- ↑ The deanery of Westminster.
- ↑ The bishoprick of London was then vacant, by the death of Dr. Compton, who died July 4, 1713.
- ↑ To Lambeth. It is more than insinuated by Dr. Maty, that Atterbury's ambition extended to York or Canterbury. Yet those who were better acquainted with his views, knew that Winchester would have been much more desirable to him than either of the others. And there are persons still living, who have been told, from respectable authority, that that bishoprick was offered to him whenever it should become vacant (and till that event should happen, a pension of 5000l. a year, beside an ample provision for Mr. Morice), if he would cease to give the opposition he did to sir Robert Walpole's administration, by his speeches and protests in the house of lords. When that offer was rejected by the bishop, then the contrivance for his ruin was determined on.
C 2
ship's
