"THE SKULL OF SWIFT"
(To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.) SIR,—In,your review of The Skull of Swift, you say, "when he retired to Dublin, he was still anxious to rule an Empire ; but all he did was bully a parcel of subdued and fluttered women." Surely, unless every Irish history book is false he bullied the Government, subdued other bullies and fluttered Walpole himself. However distasteful to. the English, let Swift have credit for rousing and formulating Irish opinion so that it has lasted until this day. Reviewers should correct, rather than copy, the errors of historical books, but which is correct in this case ?—I am, Sir, &c., The Well House, Northiam, Sussex. M. F. HAWKES.
[Our reviewer writes :—" I was dealing with Swift much more in his personal contacts than in his political writings. My opinion otherwise would not greatly conflict with your correspondent's, barring the trailing of his coat. There can be no doubt—he himself was bitterly aware of it—that Swift needed silly. small conquests of `. little poetical .parsons' and nervous women to put him in a good humour with himself. His feeling of helplessness, moreover, was shown when he referred gloomily to his prospect of ' dying like a poisoned rats in a ditch V—En. Spectator.]
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