I have not bestowed to Mr Faulkner, and let him publish in his newspaper that he has imported some of those books, and let him be accountable to you for the sale. I wrote to you for thirty, which I expected to give away, and I believe I have distributed so many. When I receive your answer, I will give you a particular account, and remit you the money for them the first opportunity. If I find Dr Delany's lodgings out from any friends here, or from his letters to me, I will give you immediate notice. I should be glad to have any catalogues that were now selling in London; and, if you could send any of them, or any other little pamphlets, they may directed to the Lord Bishop of Killala, in Dublin, for me. I never received either the Monthly Chronicle for March, nor the Historia Literaria for ditto; I believe it miscarried, by being directed to Faulkner; they were not for Dr Delany, but for another gentleman in town; but I had forgot, till the gentleman asked me for them the other day. I shall be glad to hear from you soon; and am your most sincere friend,

MATT. PILKINGTON.

be

There is one Green, a bookseller, lately come from London to this town, who has imported a very curious collection of books; but he has rated them so excessively dear, and seems to act so haughtily in the sale of them, that I believe above three-fourths of them will be sent back to-morrow to England again. I made the Dean of St Patrick's go with me there the first morning; but all the books were too dear for either of us.

MR PILKINGTON TO MR BOWYER.

SIR,

February 5, 1731-2.

I FIND you are resolved to lay me under so many obligations to you, that, upon principles of gratitude, I must be always desirous to promote your interest to the utmost of my power. I think you have nothing more left to do, but to make the experiment, by putting it in my way to return your favours. I sent sixty-five books to Mr Faulkner's, and hope, some time or other, to have it in my power to make acknowledgments. I find Mr Faulkner sent you a little pamphlet of my writing, called, An Infallible Scheme to pay the Debts of this Nation. I have the honour to see it mistaken for the Dean's, both in Dublin and in your part of the world; but I am still diffident of it, whether it will merit esteem or contempt. It was a sudden whim; and I was tempted to send it into the world by the approbation which the Dean (my wisest and best friend) expressed when he read it if you were concerned in the printing of it, I hope you will be no sufferer. I am very much obliged to you for receiving the young printer, whom I recommended to you, in so friendly a manner. If I can, on this side of the water, be serviceable to any friend of yours, command me.

I am much pleased to hear of your acquaintance with Dr Delany, who is the best of friends; and I do not doubt but your affection for him will increase with your intimacy with him. I desire you to present my service to him; and tell him that the Dean designs to trouble

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him to buy a convenient microscope, that he may find out both myself and my house with greater ease than he can at present, because we are both so excessively small, that he can scarce discover either. I hope to hear soon from you, although it be Parliament-time, and you hurried with business; and shall always be your sincere friend and servant,

MATT. PILKINGTON.

MR PILKINGTON TO MR BOWYER.

SIR,

Dublin, Aug. 17, 1732.

I RECEIVED your last letter, with the note to Mr North. I am extremely obliged to you for the favour of such a present, and shall be glad to have an opportunity to express my gratitude to you.

I would send with this letter two or three of those papers which I design for your volume, but the Dean is reading them over, to try if there be any alteration requisite in any of them. I shewed him your note to Mr North; and I believe he was at least as much pleased as the person who was to receive it. We have thoughts of preparing a preface to your edition, in the name of the editor. Let me know whether I shall send the pamphlets by post, and whether you have the Journal of a Dublin Lady, the Ballad on the English Dean, and Rochford's Journal; because you shall have the copies sent to you, and the property effectually secured.

I mentioned your request to the Dean; and I shall get you the right of printing the Proposal for Eating Children. I mentioned the alteration of the titles, and he thinks it will be most proper to give them both the Irish and English titles. For instance, the Soldier and the Scholar, or Hamilton's Bawn, &c. I have some hope of being able to send all these in about a week or fortnight's time; and shall venture to send them by post, though it will be expensive. The Dean says, he thinks the assignment* as full as it is possible for him to write; but that he will comply with any alterations we think proper. I shall expect to hear from you as soon as possible; because I have some schemes to transact, which, probably, I shall acquaint you with in my next letter. I am, Sir,

Your most obliged servant,

MATT. PILKINGTON.

The assignment is in these words :— "Whereas several scattered papers, in prose and verse, for three or four years last past, were printed in Dublin, by Mr George Faulkner, some of which were sent, in manuscript, to Mr William Bowyer, of London, printer, which pieces are supposed to be written by me, and are now, by the means of the Reverend Matthew Pilkington, who delivered or sent them to the said Faulkner and Bowyer, become the property of the said Faulkner and Bowyer: I do here, without specifying the said papers, give up all manner of right I may be thought to have in the said papers, to Mr Matthew Pilkington aforesaid, who informs me that he intends to give up the said right to Mr Bowyer aforesaid.

"Witness my hand, July 22, 1732, JONATH. SWIFT. From the Deanery House in Dublin, the day and year above written.”

This conveyance is assigned by Pilkington, as empowered by Dr Swift to do so, to Mr William Bowyer of London, on 5th October, 1732.

MRS BARBER was the wife of a linen-draper in Dublin, a person of some talents for poetry, or rather for versifying, who had been introduced to the Dean, and had naturally done her best to secure his patronage. We shall here give place to one of her effusions, both as relating to Swift, and because it may afford a fair specimen of her talents, which, in no point of view, can be considered as rising above mediocrity:

On sending my Son as a present to Dr Swift, Dean of St Patrick's, on his Birth-day.-[See Barber's Poems, p. 72.]

A curious statue, we are told,

Is prized above its weight in gold;

If the fair form the hand confess,
Of Phidias or Praxiteles;
But if the artist could inspire

The smallest spark of heavenly fire,
Though but enough to make it walk,
Salute the company, or talk,

This would advance the price so high,-
What prince were rich enough to buy?
Such if Hibernia could obtain,

She sure would give it to the Dean ;