ADVERTISEMENT, 1775. THE "History of the Four Last Years of the Queen," has been unaccountably decried; though a work of undoubted merit. It has even been supposed to be spurious, though every paragraph it contains is a sufficient voucher for its authenticity. It is repeatedly mentioned by our Author, in various parts of his writings *. He has called it "his GRAND business +;" and thought it "THE BEST WORK HE HAD EVER WRITTEN." As far as it extends, it is indeed a masterly performance; and will be deemed a valuable acquisition to future historians. Deriving his intelligence, at that remarkable era, from the fountainhead, Swift could not be mistaken in the facts which he relates. He had ready access to every requisite source of information; and his manly fortitude must have placed him far above the necessity of wilful misrepresentation. Professedly an advocate See Dr. Swift's Preface to the History; and see also particularly sir Thomas Hanmer's very honourable testimony; who, having perused the manuscript, returned it with a very few observations," which," he says, were as many as I could see occasion for; though, I do assure you, I read with the same strictness and ill-nature as in the former part." N. 66 Journal to Stella, Feb. 27, 1710-11. N. for for the tories, to the whigs he was an avowed, a formidable opponent. In his Journal to Stella (the more valuable for discovering his unreserved sentiments) he frequently laments the necessity of displacing the duke of Marlborough; and declares, though he loved not the man, he had prevented many hard things being said against him. And the favours he obtained from the ministry for the men of wit among the adverse party are too notorious to be enlarged on*. His earnestness to communicate this history to the publick is evident in many of his letters. In a letter to Mr. Pope, Jan. 10, 1721-2, he expresses himself very strongly on the subject; and was digesting them into order t. In 1736, it was actually intended for the press; and in April, 1738, the Dean expressed his dissatisfaction at the publication being so long delayed. Whatever * See the Dean's Preface. N. + These papers some years after were brought finished by the Dean into England, with an intention to publish them. But lord Bolingbroke, on whose judgment he relied, dissuaded him from that design. He told the Dean, there were several facts he knew to be false, and that the whole was so much in the spirit of party-writing, that though it might have made a seasonable pamphlet in the time of the administration, it was a dishonour to just history. It is to be observed, that the treasurer Oxford was the hero of the story. The Dean would do nothing against his friend's judgment, yet it extremely chagrined him; and he told a common friend, that since lord Bolingbroke did not approve his history, he would cast it into the fire, though it was the best work he had ever written. However, it did not undergo this fate, and is said to be yet in being. WARBURTON. Lord Bolingbroke, in a letter to sir William Wyndham, expresses his opinion of this work as very partial and defective.BOWLES. motives motives might have then existed for such delay, whether tenderness to living characters, or more prudential reasons, a period of forty years must totally have removed them. is subsided; and we may be plate the reign of Anne as impartially as that of Elizabeth. The rage of party allowed to contem At length this history was committed to the press in the year 1758*; under the censure, it may be said, of its own editor; in justice to whom, however we may differ in opinion concerning Dr. Swift's candour, the editor's Advertisement is. preserved entire. In the same year also it met with some severe strictures from another writers. These we shall give too in his own words; and then fairly submit "The History of the Four Last, Years of the Queen" to the judgment of the pub-j lick : "These characters, and the history from whence they have been extracted, may serve as a striking example of the melancholy effects of prejudice and party zeal; a zeal, which, whilst it corrupts the heart, vitiates the understanding itself; and could mislead a writer of so penetrating a genius as Dr. Swift, to imagine that posterity would ac-. cept satire in the place of history, and would read with satisfaction a performance, in which the courage and military skill of the duke of Marlborough are called in question. The real character of these great men was not what the low idolatry of the one faction, or the malignity Printed for A. Millar; and, in 1767, it was first inserted by Mr. Tonson in an edition of the Dean's Works. N. † Mr. Burke, in the Annual Register, 1758. N. of lished in the author's life time; he resolved to keep this copy till the author should press him for it; but with a determined purpose, it should never see the light, while there were any hopes of the author's own copy being published, or even preserved. This resolution he inviolably kept, till he and the world had full assurance, that the Dean's executors, or those into whose hands the original copy fell, were so far from intending to publish it, that it was actually suppressed, perhaps de-. stroyed. Then he thought himself not only at liberty, but judged it his duty to his departed friend, and to the públick, to let this copy, which he had now kept many years most secretly, see the light. Thus it has at length fallen into the hands of a person, who publishes it for the satisfaction of the publick, abstracted from all private regards; which are never to be permitted to come into competition with the common good. Every judicious eye will see, that the author of these sheets wrote with strong passions, but with stronger prepossessions and prejudices in favour of a party. These, it may be imagined, the editor, in some measure, may have adopted; and published this work, as a kind of support of that party, some surviving remnant thereof. It is but just to undeceive the reader, and inform him from what kind of hand he has received this work. A man may regard a good piece of painting, while he despises the subject: if the subject be ever so despicable, the masterly strokes of the painter may demand our admiration; while he, in other respects, is intitled to no portion of our regard. In poetry, we carry our admiration still farther; and like the poet while we actually contemn the man. Historians share the like fate; hence some, who have no regard to propriety or truth, are yet admired for dietion, style, manner, and the like. The editor considers this work in another light: he long knew the author, and was no stranger to his politicks, connexions, tendencies, passions, and the whole economy of his life. He has long been hardily singular in condemning this great man's conduct amid the admiring multitude; nor ever could have thought of making an interest in a man, whose principles and manners he could by no rule of reason or honour approve, however he might have admired his wit and parts. Such was judged the disposition of the man, whose history of the most interesting period of time in the annals of Britain is now, herein, offered to the reader. He may well ask from what motives? The answer is easily, simply given. The causes assigned for delaying the publication of this history were principally these: That the manuscript fell into the hands of men, who, whatever they might have been by the generality deemed, were by the Dean believed to be of his party; though they did not, after his death, judge it prudent to avow his principles, more than to deny them in his lifetime. These men, having got their beavers, tobacco boxes, and other trifling remembrances of former friendship, by the Dean's will, did not choose publickly to avow principles that had marred their friend's promotion, and |