also wrote as a partisan, and a partisan with an
affectionate leaning for the principal character in the drama he was
describing. Orrery was right when he called it "a pamphlet," and "the
best defence of Lord Oxford's administration." As a pamphlet and as a
defence it has some claim on our attention. As a contribution to the
history of the treaty of Utrecht it is of little account. Swift could
not, had he even known everything, write the true story of the
negotiations for publication at the time. In the first place, he would
never have attempted it--the facts would have been demoralizing; and in
the second place, had he accomplished it, its publication would have
been a matter for much more serious consideration than was given even to
the story he did write. For Swift's purpose, it was much better that he
did not know the full extent of the ministry's perfidy. His affection
for Oxford and his admiration for Bolingbroke would have received a
great shock. He knew their weaknesses of character, though not their
infidelity to honour. There can be no defence of the Oxford
administration, for the manner in which it separated England from its
allies and treated with a monarch who was well known to it as a
political chicaner. The result brought a treaty by which Louis XIV.
gained and the allies lost, and this in spite of the offers previously
made by the bankrupt monarch at Gertruydenberg.

The further contents of this volume deal with what might better be
called Swiftiana. They include a collection of very interesting
annotations made by Swift in his copies of Macky's "Characters,"
Clarendon's "History of the Rebellion," Burnet's "History of his Own
Time," and Addison's "Freeholder." The notes to Clarendon and Burnet
have always found an important place in the many editions of these
well-known works which have been issued from time to time. As here
reprinted, however, they have in all cases been compared with the
originals themselves. It will be found that very many additions have
been made, the result of careful comparison and collation with the
originals in Swift's handwriting.

My obligations are again due to Mr. W. Spencer Jackson for very valuable
assistance in the collation of texts; to Mr. George Ravenscroft Dennis
for several important suggestions; to Mr. Percy Fitzgerald for the use I
have made of his transcriptions; and to Mr. Strickland of the National
Gallery of Ireland for his help in the matter of Swift portrait