s now verified in me: For by engaging in the trade of a
writer, I have drawn upon myself the displeasure of the government,
signified by a proclamation promising a reward of three hundred pounds
to the first faithful subject who shall be able and inclined to inform
against me. To which I may add the laudable zeal and industry of my Lord
Chief Justice [Whitshed] in his endeavours to discover so dangerous a
person. Therefore whether I repent or no, I have certainly cause to do
so, and the common observation still stands good.

[Footnote 6: Robert, Viscount Molesworth (1656-1725), born in Dublin and
educated at the University there, was a prominent adherent of the Prince
of Orange during the Revolution of 1688. In 1692 William sent him to
Denmark as envoy-extraordinary to the Court at Copenhagen; but he left
abruptly because of the offence he gave there. Retiring to Flanders,
Molesworth revenged himself by writing, "An Account of Denmark as it was
in 1692," in which he described that country as no fit place for those
who held their liberties dearly. Molesworth had been strongly imbued
with the republican teachings of Algernon Sidney, and his book affords
ample proof of the influence. Its publication aroused much indignation,
and a controversy ensued in which Swift's friend, Dr. William King, took
part. In 1695 Molesworth returned to Ireland, became a Privy Councillor
in 1697, sat in the Irish parliament in 1703-1705, and in the English
House of Commons from 1705 to 1708. In 1713 he was removed from the
Irish Privy Council on a charge of a treasonable utterance, which Steele
vindicated in "The Englishman" and "The Crisis." The accession of George
I., however, brought Molesworth into his honours again, and he was
created Baron Molesworth of Philipstown, and Viscount Molesworth of
Swords, in 1719. His work entitled "Considerations for Promoting
Agriculture," issued in 1723, was considered by Swift as "an excellent
discourse, full of most useful hints." At the time Swift addressed him
this sixth letter, Molesworth was living in retirement at Brackdenstown.
[T.S.]]

It will sometimes happen, I know not how in the course of human affairs,
that a man shall be made liable to legal animadversions, where he has
nothing to answer for, either to God or his country; and condemned at
Westminster-hall for what he will never be charged with at the Day of
Judgment.

After strictly examining my own heart, and consulting some divines of
g