In the first place, he would never have attempted it--the facts would have been demoralizing; and in the second place, had he accomplished it, its publication would have been a matter for much more serious consideration than was given even to the story he did write.

For Swift's purpose, it was much better that he did not know the full extent of the ministry's perfidy.

His affection for Oxford and his admiration for Bolingbroke would have received a great shock.

He knew their weaknesses of character, though not their infidelity to honour.

There can be no defence of the Oxford administration, for the manner in which it separated England from its allies and treated with a monarch who was well known to it as a political chicaner.