fame Principle, as you are its moft able, most active, and moft ftrenuous Defender.

As it is not for your private Virtues, which you have in Common with other Gentlemen of Worth, that I pay you this Homage, fo much your due from me and all good Britons: So I forbear to speak of those amiable Qualities, that render you as agreeable as you are useful to Mankind. Your Humanity, Generofity, your Love of Letters, your Wit, and that Eafe and Vivacity of Mind, which gives a particular Charm to all, are Topicks ex¬ treamly delightful to be dwelt upon, but too delicate for a Person so infenfi ble of his own Panegyrick as your felf, and it becomes me who have been Witnefs of those Qualities at a Di ftance only, to leave so pleafing a Subject to those who are fo happy as to know more of it, and who always talk of it with Tranfport. For me it will be one of the beft Fortunes of

my

my Life, if you are pleas'd to accept of this Present in good Part, for the Sake of your deceas'd Friend, whofe Life and Writings are here, tho' imperfectly, remember'd, and of my particular Veneration for his Memory, and your own uncommon Merit.

(xi)

PREFACE

I

need not make any Apology for this Work in this Place, having fo often explain'd my Defign by it in the Body of the Book. The Honour I had to be very conversant with the Gentleman, whofe Life I have writ, and the Concern I had in publishing most of his Writings by his Defire and Direction, gave me an Opportunity to be very well acquainted with both; and my Obligations to him were fuch as I could not without Ingratitude bave suffer'd them to be loft, for want of collecting and publishing them together, nor his Merit to be forgotten, with that of many other Great Men, who would always have been remember'd with Honour, bad the fame Care and Pains been taken to preferve the Remembrance of them, as I have been at for the Prefervation of Mr. Maynwaring's.

I know the Difficulty there is in writing the Lives of Famous Men. Those that are related to them, are very shy of communicating any Events, but fuch as Shine, and the most Shining are generally so known, that the World are not much entertain'd by reading

them.

1

them. Indeed they are very loth to say any thing at all, or to have the Lives of their Kindred touch'd, there being none fo Worthy, but there must be fome Blemishes, which they will by no means confent fhould be made publick, and unleẞ the Hiftory be all Panegyrick, they will not admit of it. Thofe that are not related to them, are fo careless, that they remember very little of the Lives we are inquifitive about, and that too fo trivially and injudiciously, that one can make no good Ufe of it.

I bave writ as much of this kind as any one, and was it not for the particular Veneration I have for fuch as I write of in this manner, I would not be at the trouble to court People, as I have done, to do themselves Service, by doing it to the Memory of their Relations and Friends. In this Cafe I was not put to the Streights I have been put to in others; I Speak in many Places of my own Knowledge, and where I take any thing upon Trust, I had it from a Perfon of good Intelligence and Veracity.

As to Mr. Maynwaring's Writings, be intended to collect them, and print them in one Volume, in bis Life time; having given Directions for gathering them together, a few Weeks before his Death, therefore I have not acted contrary to his own Judgment in what I have done, nor prophan'd the Will of the Dead. If any of his Friends are disgusted at their appearing publickly with his Name to them, they would have bad the fame Reafon of Disgust against himself, as they have against me, and I fhall not be in any Pain on that Score. He was not afham'd of bis Principles, and I doubt not would now have gloried in the Service he did that Caufe, which fecur'd to King George the Peaceable Poffeffion of the Throne. If there are fome Particulars of his Life, which they would have had funk, I must take all the Blame of continuing the Remembrance of them to my felf, for the Perfon whom

I confulted, did earnestly follicit me to leave out many, efpecially what concern'd bis Sickness, his Will, and the laft Hours of his Life, which I had in part Knowledge of my felf, and the mentioning of them is wholly to be imputed to me.

Having taken on me the Offence, I must excuse my felf as well as I can, which is effectually done by afferting the Duty of an Hiftorian, to write impartially, and omit nothing material or diverting that has been communicated to him. He that will preferve the Likeness of a Face, must draw the Moles and Wens, as well as the Rofes and the Lillies. Befides the leaft Actions of great Men, are improving and entertaining, and one may from them form a better Idea of their Temper and Vertue, than by the most important and eminent ones. We concern our felves about every thing that has relation to Perfons we love and efteem, and if Perfons do not deferve to be efteem'd and belov'd, they furely are not worth remembring in History.

I cannot here help complaining of an Injustice, which I take to be done me in depriving me of the Opportunity of obliging the World with another Piece Mr. Maynwaring was upon, and that is the Hiftory of the Campaign of 1704, which I have spoken of in the following Pages. This Mr. Maynwaring intended to model and put in better order than be found it, and afterwards to give it me to print and publish, which be freely offer'd to me bimself, as a Recompence for the Pains and Coft I had been at in the good Caufe be engag'd me in. Instead of this it is taken from me and the Honoar of writing that and the Duke of Marlborough's other Campaigns given to another, who has indeed deferv'd very well of the Publick, but I hope it will not be reckon'd to exclude the unfortunate Pretenfions of thofe that did as much, which is faid without any manner of Vanity or Envy.