solicitations and temptations, he ever after remained true to the new engagements into which he had entered. Atterbury's plot, which might have proved very formidable, soon afterwards arose, but he refused to be concerned in it, though united to the bishop by the closest ties of private friendship. When the bill of pains and penalties against Atterbury was brought in, the Opposition Peers wished to carry a resolution in the House of Lords that he should be forbidden to appear to plead against it at the bar of the House of Commons. This [JULY 24, 1721.] Lord Harcourt opposed, alleging "that in such a proceeding the Commons did not act as a court of judicature, but as a part of the legisla ture, and that they had as much right to decide as the Lords themselves." So far he was surely [August 25, 1722.] right, although Lord Cowper, with a view to defeat the measure by any means, took the other side. When the bill came up to the House of Lords, I could wish for Lord Harcourt's fame that he had actively opposed it. However, he did not vote for it-taking care to be absent when it passed through its several stages there.* In the debate on the third reading, a sarcasm was levelled against him by Duke Wharton, who said, "There is a noble and learned member of this House who made the greatest figure in opposing the bill for the attainder of Sir John Fenwick. I am sorry that I do not see him in his place, as we should no doubt have his assistance to defeat a bill equally obnoxious."+ We next find Lord Harcourt exerting himself for his old colleague, Bolingbroke, who had sent over his second wife, the Marquise de Villette, to solicit his restoration. [A. D. 1722–1727.] The ex-Chancellor, finding that he himself could make no impression upon Walpole, introduced her to the Duchess of Kendal, who, for a bribe of 11,000Z., promised that the favour should be granted, and he afterwards supported the passing of a free pardon when that step was proposed by the King at a council where he was present. Walpole still strongly opposed any concession, concealing his apprehensions for his own supremacy, but contending that such a restless and faithless man, if replaced in parliament, would poison the minds of the people, and soon alienate them from the happy establishment to which they were at present so much attached. Harcourt proposed a middle course, which was adopted that Bolingbroke should be restored in blood, so that he might live unmolested in England and enjoy his property, but that all the other civil disqualifications of his attainder should still continue. Walpole would rather have resigned than agreed to more-certain that Bolingbroke's eloquence in the senate would soon have been fatal to the existing Administration, and might have disturbed the public tran * As the Lords' Journals daily give the names of all the peers present, the absence of a peer on any particular day can be proved satisfactorily. The Journals of the Commons now show the names of the members in every division (an improvement not adopted by the Lords,) but do not mention the names of members present without dividing. † Parl. Register, 1723, p. 380. quillity.* Bolingbroke was sensible that more could not then be accomplished for him; and, soon after his restoration, being about to revisit the Continent to settle his affairs there, thus addressed Lord Harcourt: If by any accident your return should be deferred, I must beg leave to wait on you in the country, or desire you to give me a meeting, where it may be least inconvenient to your Lordship, on the road; for I cannot think of leaving England without embracing the person to whom I owe the obligation of having seen it once more."* During the remainder of this reign Harcourt continued steadily to support the Government. He was not put into office, [A. D. 1727.] but an honorary mark of distinction was conferred upon him, to testify reciprocal confidence and good will. George, having obtained a repeal of the clause in the Act of Settlement which forbade him to leave the realm without the consent of the two Houses of Parliament, was in the yearly habit of spending some months in Hanover; and after his quarrel with his son, whom he at first appointed Guardian of the Kingdom in his absence, he always named Lords Justices to exercise the royal authority in his name and under his directions. Lord Harcourt, from 1723, was one of these, and he was actually [JUNE 3, 1727.] a representative of royalty, in June, 1727, when King George expired, on his journey to Hanover, between Ippburen and Osnabruck. When the news arrived in London, Harcourt repaired to Leicester House, was present at the first council of George [JUNE 11, 1727.] II., and took the oaths of allegiance to that sovereign. He attended in the House of Lords on the 27th of June, when the King made his first speech from the throne, and thence regularly to the 17th of July, when parliament was prorogued. But his own end approached. His constitution had been much enfeebled by the fatigues of business, and by convivial indulgence, so common in that age. As he was travelling in his coach, on Sunday the * Letter, Bolingbroke to Harcourt, 26th January, 1723, concluding thus: "I am, and shall be in all circumstances of life, and in all the countries of the world, "My Lord, your most faithful and obedient Servant, "BOLINGBROke.” However, Bolingbroke felt more and more deeply the privation he suffered from, being disqualified to sit in parliament; and, in a letter to Lord Harcourt, dated Dawley Farm, 22d March, 1725, strongly urges his complete pardon, and denies the report that he had been caballing with Pulteney against the Government. "I have very much esteem for Mr. Pulteney. I have met with great civility from him, and shall on all occasions behave myself towards him like a man who is obliged to him. But, my Lord, I have no private correspondence or even conversation with him; and whenever I appeal to the King, and beg leave to plead my cause before him, I will take care that his ministers shall not have the least pretence of objection to make to me in any part of my conduct. I will only say upon this occasion, that if I had caballed against them, there would have been other things said than were said, and another turn of opposition given."-MSS. of G. G. Vernon Harcourt, Esq., M. P. Lord Harcourt gave Bolingbroke fair words, but does not seem to have interfered further for him-which he could not have done without breaking with Walpole. 23d of July, to visit Sir Robert Walpole at Chelsea, he was seized with a violent fit of paralysis, and was immediately carried home to his house in Cavendish Square. He rallied so far as partially to recover the use of speech, and to be considered by his physicians out of immediate danger; but a fresh attack supervened on the following Friday, when he expired in the sixty-seventh year of his age. His remains were deposited, with those of his long line of ancestors, in the family cemetery at Stanton-Harcourt,* but no monument [A. D. 1727.] was erected to him, and none of his poetical friends contributed a stanza to his memory. He had so lived as not to stand in need of such memorials after death. Upon the whole, I consider him an ornament to the profession of the law. Those who lament that he had not the liberal political principles of Somers and Cowper should bear in mind his Tory descent, and the rigorous High Church principles which were early instilled into him. Swift had vainly tried to fix upon him the nickname of "Trimming Harcourt," but this was merely because the lawyer thought the divine went too great lengths in libelling his old friends and patrons-in accusing Marlborough of cowardice, and Somers of irreligion. Great allowance must be made for public men who live in revolutionary times; and, till Harcourt's adhesion to the House of Hanover, I know not that any serious objection can be made to his conduct. Others must determine upon the apology I have attempted for the part he took on that occasion. Lord Chancellor Brougham says, "Though a respectable lawyer, he is certainly not to be ranked with the Finches, the Parkers, and the Hardwickes." What will generally be more admired than black-letter law, he had a taste for polite literature, and (as I have shown,) was himself no contemptible poet. "The Advice to the October Club,” written and much read in 1711, was ascribed to him, but, I believe, erroneously; and I am not acquainted with any prose publication which can be certainly traced to him. Like the most illustrious statesmen of his time on both sides in politics, he was a patron of learning. When he received the Great Seal he waived the contingency of his presentation to the first preferment that should fall vacant in the Queen's gift, that he might get a prebend in the cathedral at Norwich annexed to the mastership of Katherine Hall.‡ * "There are twenty of Harcourt's Barons bold, وو —of which a very interesting account was written by George Simon Earl Harcourt, 1808. † Jones v. Scott, 1 Russ. and Mylne, 269. "The following Epistle of Thanks from Kath. Hall to the Lord Harcourt, upon the grant of this Prebend to their Mastership, was drawn up by Dr. Sherlock, Dean of Chichester, and Mr of Kath. Hall: "Honbili Viro, &c. Magister et Socii Aul. Cath. &c. Salutem. "Ne quos honesta et literata Paupertas in Clientelam tibi commendaverit, eos mens ingrata, et Beneficiorum immemor indignos arguat, liceat nobis, quales He was ever ready to assist men of genius in distress. J. Philips, the author of "The Splendid Shilling," and the poem in praise of "Cider," he liberally patronised while living, and he erected, at his own expense, a monument in Westminster Abbey to his memory, obtaining for it an inscription by Atterbury.* Both while he was in office and after his fall, he lived on terms of the greatest intimacy, not only with Pope, but with Gay, Prior, Parnell, Arbuthnot, the Philipses, and most of the other wits of the time. Addison he occasionally met-when there was perfect courtesy, but, on account of politics, no cordiality between them. Pope and Gay he treated as brothers. The old family mansion at Stanton-Harcourt had been untenanted since the death of Sir Philip in 1688, but a few rooms continued furnished. Of three of these, each thirteen feet square, one above the other in an antique turret, Pope, that he might be sequestrated from the world, took possession in the summer of 1718, and here he devoted himself to the translation of the Iliad. The uppermost retains the name of "Pope's Study," he having with his own hand traced upon a pane of red stained glass, in one of the casements still preserved, the following inscription: "In the year 1718, the fifth volume of Homer." possumus, Gratias agere; quas non tam honoris tui (cui nihil accedere potest,) quam officii nostri (cui nihil deesse volumus) Ratio postulat. "Cum ab Incunabilis Collegii, per multos retro annos, Artes liberales apud nos haud liberaliter acceptæ fuerint, et Benevolentiâ potius Amicorum, quam munificentiâ Patronorum recreatæ floruerint, Tibi debent, Vir amplissime, quod in Spem jam veniant lautissimam, et meliorem sibi sortem promittere audeant. Mater nostra Catherina, Prole suâ felix, multos nunc et olim sibi vendicat, summis Ecclesiæ et Reipublicæ honoribus ornatos, viros omni Laudum genere florentissimos, et Matre Virgine Filios non indignos; quorum Pietati cum multum se debere sentiat, profitetur tamen se neminem magis suum genuisse, quam Te invenisse; qui ea Beneficia contuleris, ut non modo Paupertatem detraxisse, sed etiam Dignitatem auxisse videaris. "Cum ea sit Academicorum laudabilis consuetudo, ut Benefactorum memoriam publicis consignent Tabulis, et Posteris tradant (iniquum enim judicant Tempore et Die memoriam Beneficii definire,) inclytum Baronio Harcourt de Stanton nomen in Fastos Collegii nostri relatum, et per omnes annos celebratum, nobis certe gloriosum erit, et Genti tuæ (speramus) non indecorum: quo enim melior quisq. et honoratior est, eo majoris hujusmodi Patronatûs Jura æstimare, et plurima habere soleat: et officii nostri esse ducimus, cum omne tua in Reginam, in Rempublicam, in Ecclesiam merita norint et intellexerint, quid de nobis merueris, ne nemo nostrum nesciat, providere. "Quod unum superest, Tibi omnia læta et prospera precamur; et cum eâ sis virtute atq. indole, ut vitam agere, et Bene agere unum idemque sit, Deum Opt. Max. oramus et obtestamur, ut diutissime pergas de Patriâ vivendo bene mereri." -Add. MS. 5858, p. 395. "SIMON HARCOURT Miles Viri benè de se, de literis meriti, Quoad viveret fautor, Post obitum piè memor Hoc illi saxum poni voluit." Lord Harcourt himself then lived at Cockthorpe, a place in Buckinghamshire, at no great distance,-having Gay for his inmate; and they were allowed occasionally to intrude upon the inspired translator. It was during one of these visits, that they witnessed the melancholy end of John Hewet and Sarah Drewe, two rustic lovers, of which we have the following account from the pen of Gay, within a few days after: . They had passed through the various labours of the year together with the greatest satisfaction: if she milked, 'twas his morning and evening care to bring the cows to her hand. It was but last fair that he bought her a present of green silk for her straw hat, and the posy on her silver ring was of his choosing. Their love was the talk of the whole neighbourhood; for scandal never affirmed that they had any other views than the lawful possession of each other in marriage. It was that very morning that they had obtained the consent of her parents, and it was but till the next week that they were to wait to be happy. Perhaps in the intervals of their work they were now talking of their wedding-clothes, and John was suiting several sorts of poppies and field-flowers to her complexion, to choose her a hat for the weddingday. While they were thus busied, (it was on the last of July, between two and three in the afternoon,) the clouds grew black, and such a storm of lightning and thunder ensued, that all the labourers made the best of their way to what shelter the trees and hedges afforded. Sarah was frightened, and fell down in a swoon on a heap of barley. John, who never separated from her, sat down by her side, having raked together two or three heaps, the better to secure her from the storm. Immediately there was heard so loud a crack, as if heaven had split asunder. Every one was now solicitous for the safety of his neighbour, and called to one another throughout the field. No answer being returned to those who called to our lovers, they stepped to the place where they lay. They perceived the barley all in a smoke; and then spied this faithful pair, John with one arm about Sarah's neck, and the other held over her, as to screen her from the lightning. They were struck dead, and stiffened in this tender posture. Sarah's left eyebrow was singed, and there appeared a black spot on her breast; her lover was all over black, but not the least signs of life were found in either. Attended by their melancholy companions, they were conveyed to the town, and the next day were interred in Stanton-Harcourt churchyard.” Lord Harcourt, Pope, and Gay, attended the funeral; and the peer, at the request of the poets, caused a stone to be laid over the grave of the lovers, and a mural tablet to be placed in the outward south wall of Stanton-Harcourt church, with the following inscription :— "Near this place lie the bodies of and virtuous Maiden of this Parish, were in one instant killed by Lightning] |