, that I could scarce hold him in. I have likewise
buried at the bottom of a strong chest your lordship's writings under a
heap of others that treat of liberty, and spread over a layer or two of
Hobbes, Filmer, Bodin[22] and many more authors of that stamp, to be
readiest at hand whenever I shall be disposed to take up a new set of
principles in government. In the mean time I design quietly to look to
my shop, and keep as far out of your lordship's influence as possible;
and if you ever see any more of my writings upon this subject, I promise
you shall find them as innocent, as insipid and without a sting as what
I have now offered you. But if your lordship will please to give me an
easy lease of some part of your estate in Yorkshire,[23] thither will I
carry my chest and turning it upside down, resume my political reading
where I left it off; feed on plain homely fare, and live and die a free
honest English farmer: But not without regret for leaving my countrymen
under the dread of the brazen talons of Mr. Wood: My most loyal and
innocent countrymen, to whom I owe so much for their good opinion of me,
and of my poor endeavours to serve them,

I am
with the greatest respect,
My Lord
Your Lordship's most obedient
and most humble servant,
M.B.

From my shop
in St. Francis-Street,
Dec. 14.
1724.

[Footnote 22: Sir Robert Filmer, the political writer who suffered for
his adhesion to the cause of Charles I. His chief work was published
after his death in 1680. It is entitled, "Patriarcha," and defends the
patriarchal theory of government against the social-compact theory of
Hobbes. Locke vigorously attacked it in his "Two Treatises on
Government" published in 1690.

Jean Bodin, who died in 1596, wrote the "Livres de la Republique," a
remarkable collection of information and speculation on the theoretical
basis of political government. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 23: Molesworth's estate in Yorkshire was at Edlington, near
Tickhill. [T.S.]]

LETTER VII.

AN HUMBLE ADDRESS TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.

BY M.B. DRAPIER.

"Multa gemens ignominiam Plagasque superbi Victoris.--"

[VIRGIL, _Georg. III._, 226-7.]

NOTE.

This letter was published in the fourth volume of the collected edition
of Swift's Works, issued by Faulkner, in Dublin, in 1735. It is there
stated that it was written "before the Lord Carteret came over, and soon
after the