One day, as he took his leave of HARLEY, after dining with him, the Minister placed in his hand a fifty pound note. He returned it angrily. And he met HARLEY’S next invitation by a refusal. Then comes this entry in his diary:—‘I was this morning early with Mr. LEWIS, of the Secretary’s office, and saw a letter Mr. HARLEY had sent to him desiring to be reconciled; but I was deaf to all entreaties, and have desired LEWIS to go to him and let him know I expect further satisfaction. If we let these great Ministers pretend too much there will be no governing them. He promises to make me easy if I will but come and see him. But I will not, and he shall do it by message, or I will cast him off.’ [Sidenote: _Journal to Stella_, p. 169.] The desired concession was made, and in a day or two we find our journalist recording, characteristically enough, that he ‘sent Mr. HARLEY into the House to call the Secretary [ST. JOHN], to let him know I would not dine with him if he dined late.’ And then:—‘I have taken Mr. HARLEY into favour again.... I will cease to visit him after dinner, for he dines too late for my head.... [Sidenote: _Ib._, pp. 178; 182.] They call me nothing but “Jonathan,” and I said I believed they would leave me Jonathan as they found me, and that I never knew a Ministry do anything for those whom they make companions of their pleasures.’ SWIFT was one of the first bystanders who took note of the seeds of dissension which were already growing up between HARLEY and ST. JOHN, and who foresaw the coming parallel between the fate of the new Government and that of its predecessor. On the 4th of March, 1711, he wrote:—‘We must have a Peace, let it be a bad or a good one; though nobody dares talk of it. The nearer I look upon things the worse I like them. I believe the Confederacy will soon break to pieces, and our factions at home increase. The Ministry is upon a very narrow bottom, and stands like an isthmus between the Whigs on one side, and the violent Tories on the other. They are able seamen, but the tempest is too great, the ship too rotten, and the crew all against them.... [Sidenote: _Ib._, p. 196.] Your Duchess of SOMERSET, who now has the key, is a most insinuating woman, and I believe they [the Whigs] will endeavour to play the same game that has been played against them.’ The game was suddenly interrupted, though only for a while. An attempt to assassinate HARLEY gave him a renewed hold upon power and popularity. But its unexpected consequences embittered the jealousies which already menaced his administration with ruin. [Sidenote: GUISCARD’S ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF HARLEY. 1711, March.]