The new ministry, which came into power on the fall of the able
administration of Godolphin in 1710, was the famous Oxford ministry
headed by Harley and St. John. The new leaders were well aware that they
would have to use all the means in their power not only to justify
themselves to the English nation, but successfully to defeat the strong
opposition which had such a man as Marlborough for its moving spirit. The
address to Queen Anne from the Commons, showing undoubted evidences of
St. John's hand, was the first employment of a means by which this
ministry hoped to appeal to the public. But this remarkable literary
effort had already been preceded by the establishment of a weekly
political paper, entitled "The Examiner," a few weeks before
Godolphin's fall. During the months of August, September, and
October, in which were issued twelve papers, Dr. Freind, Atterbury,
Prior and St. John, were the men employed to arouse the nation to a
necessary condition of discontent. Now that the ministry was in
power, the necessity for continuing these public appeals was felt to be
all the stronger; and Harley's shrewdness in selecting Swift to take
this important matter in hand shows his ability as a party leader.
The first number of "The Examiner" was issued on August 3rd, 1710,
and the paper was continued until July 26th, 1711. On December 6th,
1711, William Oldisworth revived it, and issued it weekly until December
18th, 1712, after which date it was published twice a week until
July 26th, 1714, though it occasionally happened that only one was
issued in a week. The last number was No. 19 of the sixth volume, so
that Oldisworth edited vols. ii., iii., iv., v., and what was published
of vol. vi. The death of the Queen put an end to the publication.
Swift was called to his work about the middle of October of 1710,
and his first paper appeared in No. 14. From that number to No. 45,
Swift continued with unabated zeal and with masterly effect to carry
out the policy of his friends. He also wrote a part of No. 46, and Nos.
16 and 21 of the third volume, which appeared on January 16th and
February 2nd, 1712-13. These two last numbers are not included in
the present volume; since they have been printed in the fifth volume
of this edition of Swift's works with the titles "An Appendix to the
Conduct of the Allies" and "The Vindication of Erasmus Lewis."
The appearance of "The Examiner" had brought an opposition paper into the
field, entitled "The Whig Examiner," a periodical that ably maintained
its party's stand in the face of St. John's attacks. But this paper only
lasted for five weeks, and when Swift took charge of the Tory organ, the
position of "The Examiner" was entirely altered. As Mr. Churton Collins
ably remarks: "It became a voice of power in every town and in every
hamlet throughout England. It was an appeal made, not to the political
cliques of the metropolis, but to the whole kingdom; and to the whole
kingdom it spoke.... No one who will take the trouble to glance at
Swift's contributions to 'The Examiner' will be surprised at their
effect. They are masterpieces of polemical skill. Every sentence--every
word--comes home. Their logic, adapted to the meanest capacity, smites
like a hammer. Their statements, often a tissue of mere sophistry and
assumption, appear so plausible, that it is difficult even for the cool
historian to avoid being carried away by them. At a time when party
spirit was running high, and few men stopped to weigh evidence, they must
have been irresistible." ("Jonathan Swift," 1893, p. 81.)
In his "Memoirs relating to that Change" (vol. v., p 384), Swift gives
the following explanation of the foundation of this paper. "Upon the rise
of this ministry the principal persons in power thought it necessary that
some weekly paper should be published, with just reflections upon former
proceedings, and defending the present measures of Her Majesty. This was
begun about the time of the Lord Godolphin's removal, under the name of
'The Examiner.' ... The determination was that I should continue it,
which I did accordingly for about eight months."
Gay remarks in his pamphlet, "The Present State of Wit, in a Letter to a
Friend in the Country," 1711: "'The Examiner' is a paper which all men,
who speak without prejudice, allow to be well writ. Though his subject
will admit of no great variety, he is continually placing it on so many
different lights, and endeavouring to inculcate the same thing by so many
beautiful changes of expressions, that men who are concerned in no party,
may read him with pleasure. His way of assuming the question in debate is
extremely artful; and his 'Letter to Crassus' [No. 28] is, I think, a
masterpiece.... I presume I need not tell you that 'The Examiner' carries
much the more sail as 'tis supposed to be writ by the direction, and
under the eye of some great persons who sit at the helm of affairs, and
is consequently looked on as a sort of public notice which way they are
steering us. The reputed author is Dr. S[wif]t, with the assistance
sometimes of Dr. Att[erbur]y and Mr. P[rio]r." With the fall of
Bolingbroke on the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I.,
"The Examiner" collapsed. [T.S.]