After the formation of the Tory ministry under Harley in 1710, a weekly periodical was established, and continued for some months to be issued every Thursday. The leading Tory writers for a time kept it up between them: but the want of a single guiding hand was soon felt. By November in that year Swift, as will be seen from the journal, had fully thrown in his lot with the Tory party: and from the 2nd of November to the 14th of June, the papers all came from his hand. They contain specimens not only of his best political writing, but also of that which has most general interest beyond its bearing on the passing questions of the day.