[361] The Bill against Occasional Conformity.
[362] The proposed visit to London of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the renowned General, and friend of Marlborough, was viewed by the Government with considerable alarm.
[363] Swift’s “An excellent new Song; being the intended Speech of a famous orator against Peace,” a ballad “two degrees above Grub Street” (see p. [354]).
[364a] Robert Walpole was then M.P. for King’s Lynn, and Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. He had been Secretary at War from February 1708 to September 1710, and the Commissioners of Public Accounts having reported, on Dec. 21, 1711, that he had been guilty of venality and corruption, he was expelled from the House of Commons, and taken to the Tower.
[364b] William King, D.C.L., author of the Journey to London in 1698, Dialogues of the Dead, The Art of Cookery, and other amusing works, was, at the end of the month, appointed Gazetteer, in succession to Steele, on Swift’s recommendation. Writing earlier in the year, Gay said that King deserved better than to “languish out the small remainder of his life in the Fleet Prison.” The duties of Gazetteer were too much for his easy-going nature and failing health, and he resigned the post in July 1712. He died in the following December.
[364c] At the bottom of St. James’s Street, on the west side.
[365] The Rev. John Shower, pastor of the Presbyterian Congregation at Curriers’ Hall, London Wall.
[366a] The Windsor Prophecy, in which the Duchess of Somerset (see p. [162]) is attacked as “Carrots from Northumberland.”
[366b] Merlin’s Prophecy, 1709, written in pseudo-mediæval English.