loft his poft of Under Secretary of State; but for this he foon received an ample recompence, being on Mr. Locke's refignation appointed one of the Lords of Trade, and elected a reprefentative for Eaft Grinstead in Suffex, in the new parliament of that year, where he voted for im peaching the several lords charged with advising the Partition Treaty. From this time he con tinued to exercise his poetical talents as the great fucceffes in the war afforded him occafions. Yet he afterwards concurred with those who ftrove for a peace, and connected himself very closely with the Tory miniftry, who feem to have had that object in view from their first introduction into power. How much his abilities were re lied upon at this important juncture, may be judged from his being fixed upon to begin the negotiations between the two courts. For this purpose, he was appointed plenipotentiary to the court of France, having been juft before promoted to the Board of Cuftoms. He was much employed in the bufinefs of the peace, as may be feen in the report of the Secret Committee. After returning to England he was again fent to France, in Auguft 1712, to accommodate fuch matters as then remained unfettled in the Con Congress at Utrecht. From this time he had the appointment and authority of an ambaffador, and fo continued until the death of Queen Anne. He remained at Paris fome months after the acceffion of George the First, and was fucceeded by the Earl of Stair, who by orders from home took poffeffion of all his papers. A difficulty in obtaining his arrears obliged him to continue at Paris fome time without any public character. On his arrival in England on the 25th of March 1715, he was immediately taken into cuftody by order of the House of Commons, committed to the hands of a meffenger, and foon after examined by a committee of the privy council, On the 10th of June, Robert Walpole, Efq; moved the house for an impeachment against him; and on the 17th Mr. Prior was ordered into clofe cuftody, and no perfon admitted to see him without leave of the Speaker. In 1717 an Act of Grace paffed, but he was one of the perfons excepted out of it; however, at the close of the year he was discharged from his confinement. From this period his public life may be said to end: and confidering that he had had the prudence to retain his fellowship at Cam Cambridge thro' all the scenes of bis profperity, it feems furprising that he had not out of all his great appointments faved a fufficient fortune to furnish the means of a comfortable retreat. This, from Swift's letters, appears not to have been the cafe. His friends, therefore, advised him to collect his poems already published, together with ALMA † and SOLOMON, and print them by fub *It is faid, he was often told, that the retaining this felHowship was inconfiftent with the dignity of his fituation and character; but he replied, that "every thing he had befides was precarious, and when all failed, that would be bread and cheefe; on which account he did not “mean to part with it." To make the society some amends for this humour, he left them books to the value of zool. and his picture by La Belle, which had been a prefent to him from Lewis XIV. + Mr. Pope faid" that the Alma of Prior was the only work that (abating it's exceffive fcepticism) he could wish to have been the author of. Yet, fo unable, faid he, are authors to make a true eftimate of what they write, (either from their fondnefs for the fubject, or the pains it costs them in compofition) that Prior asking him, foon after the publication of his works by fubfcription, how he liked his SOLOMON; he replied, 'your ALMA is a masterpiece.' The other with great impatience and refentment, replied, what do you tell fubscription, and they undertook to conduct the publication in fuch a manner, that the dignity of a minister in difgrace should not be injured by it. The work, accordingly, appeared in folio, 1718, and procured him a handfome fum of money. The latter part of his life was spent in an agreeable retirement at Down-hall, a fmall villa in the county of Effex, which had been purchased for him by his generous friend Lord Harley. Some time before his death he formed a defign of writing the hiftory of his own time, but had made very little progress in it, when a lingering fever carried him off the 18th of September, 1721, in the 58th year of his age. He died at Wimple, a feat of the Earl of Oxford, not far from Cambridge; and his corps was interred in Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected, with an inscription on it written by Dr. Robert 66 me of my ALMA, a loose and hafty fcribble to relieve "the tedious hours of imprisonment, while in the mef fenger's hand." This judgment of his friend occafion"ed those two fatiric lines in the fmall poem of THE IMPERTINENT." (The Converfation, fee vol. II. p. 171.) "Indeed poor Solomon in rhime, "Was much too grave to be fublime." Ruffhead's Life of Pope, 8vo. ed. p. 482. Friend, Friend, mafter of Westminster school. For this monument, which he properly ftiles the laft piece of human vanity, he fet apart the fum of 5001. by his will. After his death two volumes in octavo were published; the first containing poems by himself and his friends, fome of which must be confidered as doubtful; and the fecond, The Hiftory of his own Time, compiled from his original manufcripts, which in the state it was published, cannot be deemed one of his productions. Many Poems are faid to remain till in MSS. in the poffeffion of the Dutchefs Dowager of Portland. THE |