created himself enemies by his opinions, was educated, gave him an inclination to by his fingularities, and his immoralities. However, he lived to fee his enemies change, and to find his former friends in the end his most violent oppofers; for being at first atory, he had the whigs against him; and being latterly a deift, he difgufted all the tories. This nobleman, whose name was Henry St. John, was born, in 1672, at Batterfea, in Surry, and was chiefly brought up in the diffenting perfuafion. His education, however, was altered foon after the age of ten, when he was fent to Eton school, and from thence to Chrift-churchcollege, in Oxford. His former reserve in the ftrictness of a puritanical education, foon affumed a very oppofite complexion in thefe feminaries, where, though he was remarkable for the force of his underftanding, yet he was equally noted for his love of pleasure, and the loofenefs of his morals. Upon leaving the univerfity, he came into the world with all the advantages of a good perfon; a face in which there was at once majefty and beauty; a fprightly fancy, and a ready elocution. Thefe, it might feem, were talents to raife him in life, but they, in the beginning, rather ferved, to deprefs him. His attachment to pleasure bore him away beyond all bounds, even thofe of decency; and I have converfed with an old gentleman of veracity, who affured me, that he faw him run the whole length of St. James's park perfectly naked, and at a time when there were more than a thou-, fand fpectators of his indecency. At length he found the incapacity of a Jibertine life to give him that pleasure of which he was the votary: he therefore married the daughter of Sir Henry Winchcomb, a lady with fine accomplishments, and a large fortune. With her, however, he never lived in perfect harmony; his love of variety till continued, and the loved him too tenderly to bear a part in his affections. She was, by all accounts, an excellent woman; and, had his reafon been fo strong in the first part of his life, as it was latterly, it is poffible that he might have been more fenfible of her per fections. The year in which he married, namely 1700, he also took his feat in the house of commons, as member for Wootton-Baffet; his father having ferved feveral times for the fame place. The place in which he Auguft, 1766, chufe his party, and joining with Mr. Harley, he gained, by his addrefs and elocution, fuch weight in the house, that he was chofen fecretary at war four years after his election. Firm in the beginning to his connections, he refigned tome time after, but it was to be reinstated with greater luftre, when his friend was made chancellor of the exchequer, and he fecretary of ftate. In this ftation he luftained almost all the difficulties attending the negotiation for the treaty of Utrecht; and, as a recompenee, he was foon after created a viscount, by the title of Bolingbroke. New honours only ferved to inflame his ambition; and now, instead of acting in a fubordinate character, he laid his fchemes to be firft in the state, and thole fchemes only feived to involve both him and lord Oxford, his rival, in utter ruin. Nothing could be more implacable, or more abfurd, than the enmity between thefe two perfonages, who, though all their hopes were only to be gratified by the most strict union and friendship, ftill ftrove to undermine each other, and betrayed their own interefts, and their party, to private refentment. Swift, who faw their hatred, and dreaded its confequences, at first strove all that lay in his power to reconcile them; but finding this impoffi ble, he retired from the form he could not avert, and went into a kind of voluntary exile into Ireland. Upon the death of queen Anne, while the privy-council were as yet fitting, undetermined what steps to take, the duke of Argyle entered the council chamber, though he was not fent for, and openly infulted lord Bolingbroke, with fome cutting reproaches upon his principles and immorality. Courage was never reckoned among the number of his lordship's good qualities; he acquiefced in the infult, and permitted the duke to manage the council as he thought fit. Presently, therefore, after the acceffion of king George to the throne, he was difmiffed from office, and his papers were ordered to be fecured. Soon alfo he found that the fpirit of the times were against him, and that an enquiry of parliament was going to be fet on foot, in which he knew he had too many enemies to expect a fair and impartial trial. "The ferment of the nation," fays he, "was wrought up to a confiderable height; the tories were but Rrr an an handful. I think banishment, with all her train of evils, preferable to precarious fecurity; particularly when the man I abhor is to be joined in the fame danger, and the fame victory, if I be found inculpable." Struck, therefore, with thefe apprehenfions, Bolingbroke refolved to leave England, and accordingly, in the habit of a footman, he retired to France, previously having left a letter behind him, in which he avers, that "his blood was to have been the cement of a new alliance, and that his innocence could be no fecurity. It is," fays he, "a comfort to me in all my misfortunes, that I have ferved my mistress faithfully, and that I have been too much an Englishman to facrifice my country to foreigners." As foon as he arrived at Paris, he received an invitation from the pretender to be of his miniftry, which he at first refufed, but at laft accepted of; and being made fecretary to that prince, he laid himself out to provide fuccours for his new matter's intended invafion of England This conduct was not unknown in England, and without doubt inflamed the parliament against him, as they had attainted him of high treafon upon a different impeachment, tho' this was probably the real crime they were willing to punish. Being uneasy in his mind, he refolved to make his peace, if poffible, at home. It is faid, he employed every art, even difhonourable ones, to get himself reinftated in his majcity's favour; and fome affert, that he made a merit of his indolence in ferving the pretender, to procure him favour with the miniftry in England. The earl of Stair, who had formerly been his friend, could not forget the ties of morality in the art of a politician, and fo effectually pleaded his caufe to king George I. that he received a promife of pardon upon certain conditions, which in effect he received about feven years after his first going into exile. It may be demanded how he spent the time in France, between his banishment and return. A mind fo reflefs and active as his was, may be fuppofed, could not go on without employment. Here he wrote reflections upon exile; he drew up feveral defences against the accufations of the jacobite party, and his first wife being fome time dead, he married again the niece of the famous Madame Maintenon, with whom he had a large fortune, though encumbered with a disagreeable lawsuit at the beginning. Upon his return to his native country, the fame defign of leading a party ftill ani'mated his conduct: and now he began to with for being permitted to refume his feat in the house of lords, which with all his arts he could not compafs. He foon, therefore, thundered from the prefs, in a variety of political pieces, works which for an hour inflamed the ignorant and idle, but which are now but little remembered, fince they were only the productions of disappointment, not of patriotiẩm. With him the Craftíman rofe and fell. In the decline of life, as his ambition and the turbulence of his paffions ceafed to guvein, he became more amiable; he turned his thoughts from politics to philofophy; and here he at least thews his love of virtue, if he is not fo fuccessful as to point out the way. In fact, the man feems to have been born with a spirit of oppofition, and willing to think that nothing could be right, unlets of his own investigation. Upon the death of his father, in 1724, he fettled at Batterfea, the antient feat of the family, where he paffed the remainder of his life with that dignity which his fuperior knowledge and exhaufted paffions ought to procure. He died at this place, of a cancer in his cheek, on the 15th of November 1751, aged near four-fcore. A clergyman offered him his affistance in his laft hours, but he rejected the offer with indignation, willing not to betray the conduct of a life, by what he regarded as the imbecility of an hour. His lordhip left the care and advantage of his manufcripts to Mr. Mallet, who publifhed them in five volumes octavo; in which, perhaps, he confulted his own avarice more than lord Bolingbroke's fame. To fpeak of lord Bolingbroke as a man, we should diftinguith his life into two periods; that in which he was hurried on by ambition, and that in which, difregarding power, he gave himself up to philofophy. In the firit he was more than once culpable; in the latter, as his knowledge was more various, and his powers of fhewing it more happy than is to be ufually found, he gained a degree of admiration, which compenfated for the diflike raifed by his morals. As a writer, he was rather affected in his style, and tedious in his manner: but his free dom the honours which the crown alone can confer, happeneth to ftimulate an heart, otherwile formed for great and noble purfaits, it hath frequently betrayed it into could have fuggefted to the wretched animeasures full as mean as avarice itfelf As the Attention of the Public is always gence, and as our Duty, lay before them, By their Fruits ye shall know them, Right Honourable Commoner. Plain Truth, Dear Pynfent, needs no N the tide of almost every great man's I life, there is commonly one period, nion. For thefe paffions, however they rily produced the fame effects. Both demay feem to be at variance, have ordinainto the little point of felf intereft; and grade the man; both contract his views equally steel the heart against the rebukes of confcience, or the fenfe of true honour." Whoever is at the pains of readmoment of his attaching himself to Viling Bacon's life, wul find, that from the liers, duke of Buckingham, his character takes a new turn. We fee no more of the firm friend, nor honest man: both are funk in the fcandalous inftrument of a favourite, without honour; and a court, without veracity. And Villiers, and he, were afterwards impeached by the com mons. fave Villiers; but Bacon was facrificed. The king indeed endeavoured to It is true, he had been made a lord, but he was fequeftered from parliament; and the pangs of his confcience, and the warmth of his regrets, were evidenced by every paffage of his future life. Within our times, who had a more exalted character, or whofe popularity was higher, than Mr. William Pulteney's? He was the great commoner of his time; virtue; the firin, difinterested patriot. But the terror of corruption, the fupport_of when he, treacherously, deferted his friends, meanly capitulated with the court, bargained ftill more abjectly to fereen the favourite, and accepted of a peerage, his popularity forfook him in an instant: the united public looked upop him as a traitor, and were unanimous in condemning, detelting, and execrating him. His quondam friends abhorred him, and his enemies defpiled him. That one tranfaction hath branded his name with eternal infamy. Other inftances of the like nature are not wanting; but these are enough to establifh this great truth, that men who are innately * NOTE. *This is generalship, and may be confidered as well pointing the artillery, and as it were, taking the mind by form ; but a moment's reflection (a defence we fhould R2 always and to fome, who have copies of a few of the most remarkable paffages in his strange, inconfiftent, and contradictory speeches. By this conduct his popularity was well nigh being ruined, but his friends and relations were indefatigable in fupporting his character; and he himself neg innately bad, notwithstanding the force of a long habit of hypocrify, will, one time or other, wear their natural complexion. This is the criterion of a late right honourable commoner, just called to another houfe. He has long dwelt as high in the public efteem, as Mr. Pulteney once did; confidered to have talents fuperior to Ba-lected neither pains nor opportunity of con; and fuppofed to have more integrity than either. The people have adored him to a degree more zealous, than perhaps any other man ever experienced; and upon repeated and pofitive affurances of his difinterestedness, they have been led to repofe in him the most unlimited confidence. However, there have not been wanting many who have fufpected the veracity of thofe affuiances; and, whose penetration being guided by a true knowledge of fome parts of his conduct, have frequently afferted, he would one day or other prove an impoftor, A sketch of fome parts of his former conduct will not be amifs in this place, as it will remind the public, what hairbreadth escapes he has had of lofing his popularity, and will in fome meafure be found to lead to the caufes of his laft great manoeuvre; the grand criterion by which the public opinion of his boafted fidelity and patriotifm, will be for ever fixed upon the folid foundation of indifputable truth. None was more forward, or more violent, in declaiming against Sir Robert Walpole. By this he firft became popular; and the dutchess of Mariborough left him 10,000l. with the intention of preferving him unplaced and unpenfioned. Next he condemned the Pelhams, and their administration, as the moft pernicious men, and most deftructive meatures ever known and adopted. They knew his price, and he entered into a compromife with the duke of Newcastle, who made him a vice-treasurer of Ireland, with the late lord Cholmondeley He then poured the mott lavin encomiums upon them, and deified Sir Robert Walpolc. For the truth of thefe facts, I appeal to the great number of perfons now alive who are well acquainted with them; NOTE. always ufe, in order to avoid being impofed on) will fhew the impropriety of thefe portraits, and that they will as well fuit the character of a man to come, as the perfon they are defigned for. But the maxim with fome is, Throw all the dirt you can, fome may flick. acquiring an intereft at St. James's, by paying court to a female favourite, who at that time held the keys of promotion. And by an intereft as fcandalous, as his conduct was obfequious, he obtained the poft of pay-matter. (1) For a little time he was quiet, but his ever restless ambition foon broke out, and he aimed at the fole guidance of the state, which he seem, ed refolved to take by storm. He thundered against Hanover, (2) the very name of which he was for expunging out of the NOTE. (1) To this office he was appointed in 1746, which, in times of peace, is feldom rated at less than a clear 5000l. a year; yet narrow as Mr Pitt's private fortune was at that period known to be, he difcharged the duties of his place with a degree of difinterestedness, that forced his very enemies to admire him; abridging a number of very confiderable perquifites, which had for many years been granted to his predeceffors; and fetting an example of moderation to all cotemporary and fucceeding minifters, which we are infinitely forry to inform the reader produced fcarce a fingle instance of imitation. The whole world applauded the action; but few cared to copy it: for though all might be fond of popularity, there were none who would purchase it at fo great an expence of self-denial. (2) On Mr. Fox's refignation, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge were called into power, (4 Dec. 1756) when the hopes of Great Britain once more began to revive. However, their expectations were but of short duration; for the minifters were refolutely bent, on not facrificing the blood and treafure of the nation, in a quarrel with which it had no manner of connexion, and tho' he delivered his majesty's meffage the 17th of Feb. expreffing the danger of his Hanoverian dominions; yet as an honest En, glifhman he still continued his oppofition to continental connections, and accordingly was difiniffed the 5th of April, but not without giving to the people, that fe curity of their liberty, the militia bill. map; |