rstaff Papers (1707-09), some of which first appeared in Richard Steeles Tatler, a newspaper to which Swift often contributed, demolished the pretensions of John Partridge, a popular astrologer. In 1709 he was sent to London to solicit funds for his church in Ireland. The Whig leaders refused to grant his request because they were sympathetic to the Puritans and dissenters. Although Swift had been a member of the Whig party since birth, he was uncomfortable with many of the partys beliefs. Swifts fear of the Puritans caused him to switch sides to the Tory party in 1710. The Tories recognized that Swift was a valuable asset to their cause, and made him editor of their journal, the Examiner. This made him an unofficial power in English politics, as well as a leading writer. Later that year, he learned of his mothers death, but he was not very affected since she played a minimal role in his life and upbringing. During this time period, his friends included, Steele, Alexander Pope and John Gay. His life at this time is recorded in the Journal to Stella, which were his letters to Esther Johnson. In 1713, the Scriblerus Club was founded by Swift, Pope, Parnell, Gay, and Arbuthnot. When the Tories fell in 1714, his political power ended. Swift was then appointed Dean of St. Patricks. This post carried great prestige, but it made it impossible for him to leave Ireland. Ireland in the 18th century was a colony of England, exploited by absentee English landlords and denied self-government. The spectacle of Irish servitude in general and in particular a scheme by one William Wood, who had received a royal patent to issue a new Irish coinage and planned to profit from debasing it, provoked Swift in 1724 to write the Drapiers Letters, exhorting the Irish to refuse Woods coinage and develop their own economy. The development of the Irish economy was also the topic of his last and most brilliant satire, A Modest Proposal, (1729) in which he ironically...
