ABSTRACT
A loyal friend, Swift found painful the rupture of treasured friendships that followed on his defection. Acquaintance with the powerful Whigs prompted Swift to think about party: 'It was then I first began to trouble myself with the difference between the principles of Whig and Tory; having formerly employed myself in other, and, I think, much better speculations'. Discouragement and self-pity colour his anticipation of Ireland: 'I shall go for Ireland some Time in Summer, being not able to make my Friends in the Ministry consider my Merits, or their Promises, enough to keep me here, so that all my Hopes not terminate in my Bishoprick of Virginia'. Although it alarmed even his allies, the passion that fired his campaign for remission of the first fruits and twentieths animated his writing before and after he turned his attention, to use his terms to Somers, from religion to politics.
