told that you have given leave and
liberty to some one or more of your friends to print a history
of the last four years of Queen Anne's reign, wrote by you.

"As I am most truly sensible of your constant regard and sincere
friendship for my father, even to partiality, (if I may say so,)
I am very sensible of the share and part he must bear in such a
history; and as I remember, when I read over that history of
yours, I can recollect that there seemed to me a want of some
papers to make it more complete, which was not in our power to
obtain; besides there were some severe things said, which might
have been very currently talked of; but now will want a proper
evidence to support; for these reasons it is that I do entreat
the favour of you, and make it my earnest request, that you will
give your positive directions, that this history be not printed
and published, until I have had an opportunity of seeing it;
with a liberty of showing it to some family friends, whom I
would consult upon this occasion. I beg pardon for this; I hope
you will be so good as to grant my request: I do it with great
deference to you. If I had the pleasure of seeing you, I would
soon say something to you that would convince you I am not
wrong: they are not proper for a letter as you will easily
guess...."

It is evident that Swift had gone so far as to consult with Faulkner on
the matter of the printing of the "History," because he was present when
Oxford's letter arrived, and he tells us that Swift answered the letter
immediately, and made him read the answer, the purport of which was:
"That although he loved his lordship's father more than he ever did any
man; yet, as a human creature, he had his faults, and therefore, as an
impartial writer, he could not conceal them."

On the 4th of June, 1737, Swift wrote at length to Oxford a letter in
which he details the circumstances and the reasons which moved him to
write the History. The letter is important, and runs as follows:

"MY LORD,

"I had the honour of a letter from your lordship, dated April
the 7th, which I was not prepared to answer until this time.
Your lordship must needs have known, that the History you
mention, of the Four last Years of the Queen's Reign, was
written at Windsor, just upon finishing the peace; at which
time, your father and my Lord Bolingbroke had a misund