t." But this disclaimer is ingenuous in the light of
the political overtones in the _Proposal_; for example, the extended
praise of Barley as one who saved his country from ruin "by a foreign
war and a domestic faction." In fact, the lengthy panegyric of the Lord
Treasurer, as well as other matter, is bluntly and deliberately
partisan. It could not conceivably have been interpreted otherwise by
contemporaries; nor could Swift have been unaware of its provocative
impact upon his readers. Oldmixon remarks ironically of this part the
_Proposal_--and small wonder that he does--that it is "incomparable,
full of the most delicate Eulogy In the World." Furthermore Swift knew,
in view of his position as leading writer for the Tory ministry, that to
sign his name was to invite attack--even if he wrote, as he says, upon
straw.

There is no doubt he thought the formation of an Academy a matter of
great importance. Why then did he deliberately introduce controversial
elements and thus make impossible a discussion of his proposal wholly on
its merits? I suggest as a possible answer that he wished the Whigs to
dissociate themselves from the project and that he used the tactics
expected to achieve this end, in the desire that entire credit for the
founding of the Academy should rest with Harley and Harley's supporters.
The partisan approach was therefore shrewdly calculated to provoke
opposition and to avoid any leaven of Whiggism in the "institution and
patronage" of the Academy. Swift wanted the contemporary prestige, as
well as the favorable verdict of posterity, to be unmistakably placed.
Nevertheless there was no intention of excluding meritorious Whigs from
the original membership--only, as is clear from Swift's attitude, from
the "institution and patronage" of the Academy. In a list of
Academicians drawn up by Swift and Harley, unhappily not extant, members
of both parties were included--so Swift wrote to Archbishop King in
Dublin, and there is no reason to doubt it. Even Oldmixon grudgingly
reports that Swift had promised "the Whigs that they shall come in if
they will." However violent his partisanship at times, Swift could and
did respect merit; and Harley was always ready to placate individual
members of the Opposition. There is therefore no need to take seriously,
as Oldmixon and the authors of _The British Academy_ pretend to do, the
list of potential members of the Academy printed first in the _Amsterdam
Gazette_ and quo