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any man of that time. They who had known him throughout the whole courfe of his life, did believe his too good fuccefs in the world, together with the pride and vanity that he contracted from that fuccefs, fo changed and corrupted his nature, that there remained in him nothing of that ingenuity, modefty, or generofity which made him liked and beloved in his younger time.

"He was born a younger brother of a very good family in the Weft, where his father was owner of a very fair estate, and a good intereft and reputation, and lived with more fplendour than his neighbours of his own rank, which caufed fome breach and wafte in his eftate; fo that, having many younger fons, he gave them good education, and left them only moderate annuities to fupport their pretences in the world. This gentleman was the youngest of five or fix fons, and being but a boy at the death of his father, was left under the tuition of his mother, who was a wife woman, and took care of his breeding, and fent him to the univerfity of Oxford, where he fpent two or three years as well or better than gentlemen of that age ufually do; and then his inclinations carried him to London, which was the fcene upon which active men first fhewed themselves. As he was of a very good extraction by his father, fo he was by his mother allied to two good families, which at that time made fome eclat in the court, the Jermyns and the Killigrews, who were both poffeffed of very fair fortunes in their feveral countries; and by which, together with very good natural faculties, they endeavoured to promote themfelves in the court, and were in very good eftimation there, and infected all their allies with an appetite to plant

in that climate. This gentleman chofe first to fee foreign armies abroad, as two of his brothers had done before; and fo going first into the Low Countries, he chofe to go into Germany with general Morgan, when he poffeffed himself of Stade, where he had fome command, but his health not agreeing with that climate, he removed into France, and having fpent fome time there, returned into England, and renewed his old inclinations and applications to the court; but finding the afcents there not made with that expedition as they have been fince, and being in his nature a little unfteady and irrefolute, refolved to apply himself to such a course of life as might fit him for bufinefs, and fo intitle him to make other pretences in the court than to be a mere courtier, and with this refolution he made another journey into France to make himself perfect in that language; and from thence made a journey into Spain, and thereby obtained a competency in that tongue; and with thefe faculties and qualifications he returned into England to profecure his pretences in the court. He was at this time generally beloved, and was always found in the best company, where he was very acceptable, being a man of good parts, and better bred, having feen more of the world than most other men of that time, and being free from any lewd and fcandalous vices; and in this ftate was well known in the town and in the court. And an occation falling out, in which the king thought it neceffary to fend an envoy to the court of Sweden, he was made choice of, and performed his employment with approbation, and was fhortly after rewarded with a place of attendance about the queen, in the office of gentleman

gentleman fewer, which was a relation the modefty of that time thought a very good preferment; and to him it was the more valuable, because his family and kindred were very powerful on that fide of the houfe, and the greatest favours paft by the queen's mediation or approbation. But the troubles coming on, he eafily got a difpenfation for his attendance at court, and engaged himself in the first levies, and having the reputation of knowing fomewhat of war, which few young men could then pretend to, he commanded, the earl of Holland's own troop, he being then general of the horfe; and particularly kind to this gentleman. That war was quickly ended, but it produced another which lafted too long, in the beginning whereof he grew to be a major of horse; and being of the court as well as the camp, and a man generally esteemed, he was embarked in fome intrigues with his friends at court, which being ill-founded, and having fuccefs accordingly, he was forced to leave the kingdom, and upon his return was committed to the Tower by the parliament, as a man difaffected to their proceedings, which made him more known, and gave him more credit, without any farther inconvenience to him. So when the king withdrew to York, and fent the marquis of Hertford with a commiffion to fecure the Western parts, he, with the other principal gentlemen of thofe counties, attended the marquis to aflift him in the command of an army; fir Ralph Hopton and he being looked upon as men of the greateft experience in martial affairs, which most of the reft were abfolutely without, and fo were defigned to commands accordingly.

This gentleman had been very

happy if he had been either qualified to do bufinefs, or compofed to be quiet without meddling in any; but he was of fo unhappy a conftitution as that he had a very perplexed understanding, and, a more perplexed delivery and expreffion, and yet believed he was fit for the greatest tranfactions; and he was of fo restless a nature that he could never be quiet in a good condition, nor patient in a bad.

He loved fo much to be flattered, that he was at the mercy of any man who would attack him that way, and he paid liberally in the fame kind, and was a very great flatterer himself, but of no body fo much as of himself. He never loved his equals, and always hated his fuperiors, and was ftill governed by his inferiors; he had a very indifferent understanding, and a very obfcure and troubled expreffion in debate, but inveighed against any thing that was concluded, and always believed himself the wifelt man of the time, and took great pleasure in cenfuring the weakness and overfights in the time of king James, and of the counfellors which governed then, of whom, and the business, he never understood any thing. He was full of pride, and not without courage, and would well enough have dif charged the office of a foldier, if he had known how to have obeyed. Yet he valued himself in that profeffion, as if he had been lieutenant-general to Julius Cæfar; but yet he never executed any defign in the command he had, with tolerable fufficiency, or with any fuccefs. Yet he had got a habit of telling ftories of his own actions, as if he had performed miracles, and fuftained the war in England by his own virtue, without ever receiving an affront from the enemy; and be

had

had fo accustomed himself to thofe difcourfes that he had brought himfelf to believe all that he had reported. He had no friends who heartily esteemed him, and was the only perfon alive who compaffed all that he fet his heart upon, purely by his own ambition, without any merit, or ever having done any notable thing, but, by a perpetual reftlefnefs, and unquietnefs in himself, and being uneafy to every bo ty elfe; or by affecting fomewhat which other pretenders found not friends to keep them to, or that his friends did therefore help him to, to cross those pretenders. If he loved any body it was those whom he had known a very little while, and who had purchased his affection at the price of much application, and very much flattery; and if he had any friends, they were likewife fuch who had known him very little, or elfe fuch who loved nobody else. All men

of parts who ever had a good opininion of him retired from it quickly, and either threw him quite off, or lived with a dry formality with him; only one, who was a worthy perfon indeed, (Sir Hugh Pollard, comptroller of his majelly's houfe) continued kind to him till his death; and being his coufin-german, and having fpent the greatest part of his time in his company, believed he was to pay that penance for the error of his judgment; befides, his own longing difpofition made him lefs acquainted with the improvement of his indifcretions than other men were; beides that he was much eafier in his difcourfe to him, than to thofe he knew lefs, and many things that he faid to him the other believed to proceed from his friendship in communication, and not from the malignity of his nature."

CHARACTER of Sir HENRY BENNET. [From the fame Work.]

"HE

E was a man bred from his cradle in the court, and had no other bufinefs in the world than to be a good courtier; in the arts whereof he fucceeded fo well, that he may well be reckoned in the number of the finest gentlemen of the time; and, though his parts of nature were very mean, and never improved by induftry, yet, paffing his time always in good company, and well acquainted with what was done in all bufineffes, he would fpeak well and reafonably to any purpofe He was in his nature fo very civil, that no man was more eally lived with, except his interest 1786.

was concerned; and in that he was fo tenacious, that he obferved no rules of courtesy, reason, or justice; in all other matters he offended nobody; but then his intereft could never be difcerned but by his importunity, being very ready, for his profit, to engage himfelf in any undertaking where he had credit, in which he neither confidered the justice of the fuit, or the honour of the perfon with whom he defired to prevail; but except it was for his profit, he never troubled himfelf heartily in any man's pretences, what relation or merit foever the party had towards him. He practifed fuch a

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kind of civility, and had fuch a mean in making profeifions, that they were oftentimes miftaken for friendship, which he never meant, or was guilty of to any man; but did really believe that his kind words and exercife of courtefy deserved the utmost service they could poffibly do him. He was rather a lover of mankind than of any particular perfon, and would have done no man any harm except he could get by it, and then he cared not what he did, and thought no man ought to take it ill. He was not mifchievous in his nature or inclinations, yet did more mifchief than any man of the age he lived in, being the occation of more prejudice to the king and to the crown, than any man of his condition ever was, and took more pains to leffen the king's reputation, and to make his perfon undervalued, than any other man did; and all this without the leaft purpose of infidelity, or defire of abating his prerogative, which he wifhed fhould be as high as any king's ever was, and defired only that they might prevail over it over whom he could prevail, and in that regard he cared not how low his reputation came to be. He was in his nature very covetous and tenacious, liberal in no degree, and denied all men but himself, and to himfelf was very indulgent, especially in his diet, which was magnificent enough, and his table was free to all men; but none fo welcome to it as gamefters, all his delight and expence was in play, which was the punge that fucked in, and the gulf that fwal lowed up all he could get. His ambition was illimited, that no prince had fo much to give as he thought he had deserved; and after he had lived above forty years at the expence of the crown, and spent more than any body else had

got, he thought the court ftill in his debt, and that his having lived in it fo many years, had merited much more than he had ever received from it. If he were even affected with melancholy, it was in confidering what religion to be of, when that which he profeffed was fo much difcountenanced that he was almoft weary of it; yet few men fo often upon their knees, or fo much defired to be thought a good proteftant by all the parties which profeffed that faith, and could willingly comply with all of them, and yet took time of the Roman Catholics to be better informed. He was a great flatterer of those who were above him, and a great diffembler to his equals and inferiors, and of all vices he was leaft guilty of pride, except in preferring himfelf before all men, which they could never know; and he was of a temper and constitution that exceegly contributed to his happinefs; for though he loved nobody, he believed every body loved him, which was a great argument of hav ing the mafter wit: he never underwent any other mortification than fecing men preferred whom he did not care for, or other men obtain that which he wished to have for himself. In the greatest miseries of the kingdom, and whilft the greateft and the best men were exercifed with all kinds of adverfity, he enjoyed the greatest plenty and pomp: and the king no fooner came home but he believed his merit in being banished was greater than any man's fuffering could pretend to. He loves his country, as it is a good place to be a great man in, but would give it up to be made greater any where elfe; in a word, he would be a very extraordinary man, if he were endowed with any kind of fincerity, and if he dies without fome very

fignal calamity, he may well be looked upon as a man of rare felicity.

"He was a great inftance how much fortune can do towards the raifing a man without any help of his own; for being without money, without friends, without induftry, or any one notable virtue, or the reputation of having any, he mounted up to office and honour, and the highest truft in bufinefs, without any experience in it, or capacity of understanding it and very few men have ever afcended to fuch a height, per faltum, with out climbing by steps. He was a younger brother of a broken and decayed family, by the vice and corruption of the perfon who raised it, and fell fcandaloufly after a fhort profperity. He was fent to the univerfity, where he had a competent fupport by the bounty of the founder; and his parts of nature were fuch as were very capable of improvement by moderate induftry, had he not valued them too high to adminifter any help of that kind. He had the opportunity to be recommended to a great perfon of bufinefs and fancy, who took him into his fervice, and efteemed him much more because he found his nature and humour very like his own, and believed he had fomewhat extraordinary in him, because he feemed to think fo himself. He had addrefs enough to make himself acceptable to any man who loved to hear himself commended and admired, and he could perform that part with dexterity enough. Though he got nothing of experience in bufinefs by this relation, he got both credit and money to carry him into France, and from thence into Italy, in a dependence upon a perfon who knew much and talked much, under whofe protection he

ftaid fome months in Rome. He profited very well in understanding the languages of the places where he lived, and made himself a good master in the French tongue; and by his addrefs made himself fo gracious to the queen and her court, where he was allied to fome perfons who had much credit and intereft there, that he was preferred by the queen to be near the perfon of the duke of York, by which he became likewife known to the king. His chief talent was being pleafant, and good company amongst those who were his fuperiors; amongft his equals and inferiors his infolence was intolerable.

"He never made a notable friend fhip, nor ever loved a man of a clearer fame and reputation, except he was of fuch an inferior quality, as would abfolutely make him at his difpofal. He loves money im* moderately, and would get it by all means imaginable; but his pride, and vanity, and ambition lead him into fuch a prodigious expence, that his gains must exceed all rea fonable computation if he grows very rich, which he does impa tiently defire to be. Juflice was never otherwife confidered or mentioned by him, but as it gave him occation and opportunity to enveigh against the law, as a com. pofition of nonfenfe, and not to be endured or fubmitted to by generous minds; and, to exprefs his malice and bitterness towards the lawyers, who are people he envies, hates and contemns as all his paffions and affections are engaged and in volved in fuch contradictions; and yet he is not of those who fancy any other form or model of justice, otherwife than that he admires France, and thinks fit that all kings and princes fhould do whatfover they have a mind to do without

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