[138] This was the celebrated periodical founded by Pulteney, after he had separated himself from Walpole, to which Bolingbroke contributed his famous letters of an Occasional Writer. The journal carried on a political war against Walpole's administration, and endeavoured to bring about the establishment of a new party, to consist of Tories and the Whigs who could not agree with Walpole's methods. Caleb D'Anvers was a mere name for a Grub Street hack who was supposed to be the writer. But Walpole had no difficulty in recognizing the hand of Bolingbroke, and his reply to the first number of the Occasional Writer made Bolingbroke wince. [T. S.] [139] The "Modest Proposal." See page 207. [T. S.] [140] Referring to the silks, laces, and dress of the extravagant women. See pp. 139, 198, 199. [T. S.] [141] The chief source of income in Ireland came from the pasture lands on which cattle were bred. The cattle were imported to England. The English landlords, however, taking alarm, discovered to the Crown that this importation of Irish cattle was lowering English rents. Two Acts passed in 1665 and 1680 fully met the wishes of the landlords, and ruined absolutely the Irish cattle trade. Prevented thus from breeding cattle, the Irish turned to the breeding of sheep, and established, in a very short time, an excellent trade in wool. How England ruined this industry also may be seen from note on p. 158. [T. S.] [142] Alluding to the facilities afforded for the recruiting of the French army in Ireland. [T. S.] [143] The King of France. [T. S.] [144] Buttermilk. The quotation from Virgil aptly applies to the food of the Irish peasants, who, in the words of Skelton, bled their cattle and boiled their blood with sorrel to make a food. [T. S.] [145] At Christ Church. See note prefixed to this tract. [T. S.] [146] Sheridan, in his life of Swift, gives an instance of this which is quoted by Scott. Carteret had appointed Sheridan one of his domestic chaplains, and the two would often spend hours together, or, in company with Swift, exchanging talk and knowledge. When Sheridan had one of the Greek tragedies performed by the scholars of the school he kept, Carteret wished to read the play over with him before the performance. At this reading Sheridan was surprised at the ease with which his patron could translate the original, and, asking him how he came to know it so well, Carteret told him "that when he was envoy in Denmark, he had been for a long time confined to his chamber, partly by illness, and partly by the severity of the weather; and having but few books with him, he had read Sophocles over and over so often as to be almost able to repeat the whole _verbatim_, which impressed it ever after indelibly on his memory." [T. S.]