The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 10 eBook
Jonathan Swift
P. 610. Burnet. The Duke of Ormonde had
given the States such assurances, of his going along
with them through the whole campaign, that he was
let into the secrets of all their counsels, which by
that confidence were all known to the French:
And, if the auxiliary German troops had not been prepared
to disobey his orders, it was believed he, in conjunction
with the French army, would have forced the States
to come into the new measures.—Swift.
Vile Scot, dare to touch Ormonde’s honour, and
so falsely.
P. 612. Burnet, the Duke of Hamilton and Lord
Mohun were engaged in litigation; and:—upon
a very high provocation, the Lord Mohun sent him [the
Duke] a challenge, which he tried to decline:
but both being hurried, by those false points of honour,
they fatally went out to Hyde Park, in the middle
of November, and fought with so violent an animosity,
that neglecting the rules of art, they seemed to run
on one another, as if they tried who should kill first;
in which they were both so unhappily successful, that
the Lord Mohun was killed outright, and Duke Hamilton
died in a few minutes after.[9]—Swift.
Wrongly told.
[Footnote: 9: A footnote to the 1833 edition
of Burnet says that “the duke in the belief
of some was killed by General Macartney, the Lord
Mohun’s second.” See also Chesterfield’s
letter quoted in Introduction, and Swift’s own
version in the “Four Last Years,” p. 178.
[T.S.]]
P. 614. Burnet says of the Earl of Godolphin:—After
having been thirty years in the Treasury, and during
nine of those Lord Treasurer, as he was never once
suspected of corruption, or of suffering his servants
to grow rich under him, so in all that time his estate
was not increased by him to the value of L4,000. Swift.
A great lie.
THE CONCLUSION.
P. 669. Burnet, speaking of the progress of
his own life, says:—The pleasures of sense
I did soon nauseate.—Swift.
Not so soon with the wine of some elections.
THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, BY THOMAS BURNET, ESQ.
Opposite to the title-page:—Swift.
A rude violent party jackanapes.
In the Life, p. 719, is printed a letter from Archbishop
Tillotson, dated October 23, 1764 [sic, the volume
was printed in 1734, the date should be 1694], in
which he says: “The account given of Athanasius’s
Creed, seems to me no-wise satisfactory; I wish we
were well rid of it.”—Swift
has drawn a finger in the margin of his copy of Burnet’s
History pointing to this passage.
P. 722. Thomas Burnet. The character I
have given his wives, will scarce make it an addition
to his, that he was a most affectionate husband.
His tender care of the first, during a course
of sickness, that lasted for many years; and his
fond love to the other two, and the deep concern
he expressed for their loss, were no more than their
just due, from one of his humanity, gratitude and discernment.—Swift.
Three wives.
