of a writer, the injuries that are done him, and the reparations he ought to receive. Besides, I doubt whether the arguments I could suggest to prove my own innocence, would be of much weight from the gentlemen of the long-robe to those in furs, upon whose decision about the difference of style or sentiments, I should be very unwilling to leave the merits of my

cause.

Give me leave then to put you in mind (although you cannot easily forget it) that about ten weeks before the queen's death, I left the town, upon occasion of that incurable breach among the great men at court, and went down to Berkshire, where you may remember that you gave me the favour of a visit. While I was in that retirement, I writ a discourse which I thought might be useful in such a juncture of affairs, and sent it up to London; but, upon some difference in opinion between me and a certain great minister now abroad, the publishing of it was deferred so long, that the queen died, and I recalled my copy, which hath been ever since in safe hands. In a few weeks after the loss of that excellent princess, I came to my station here; where I have continued ever since in the greatest privacy, and utter ignorance of those events which are most commonly talked of in the world. I neither know the names nor number of the royal family which now reigns, further than the Prayer-book informs me. I cannot tell who is chancellor, who are secretaries, nor with what nations we are in peace or war. And this manner of life was not taken up out of any sort of affectation, but merely to avoid giving offence, and for fear of provoking party zeal.

I had indeed written some Memorials of the four last years of the queen's reign, with some other infor

7 Bolingbroke.-Bowles.

mations, which I received, as necessary materials to qualify me for doing something in an employment then designed me. But as it was at the disposal of a person who had not the smallest share of steadiness or sincerity, I disdained to accept it.

9

These papers, at my few hours of health and leisure, I have been digesting into order by one sheet at a time, for I dare not venture any further, lest the humour of searching and seizing papers should revive; not that I am in pain of any danger to myself, (for they contain nothing of present times or persons, upon which I shall never lose a thought while there is a cat or a spaniel in the house,) but to preserve them from being lost among messengers and clerks.

I have written in this kingdom', a discourse to persuade the wretched people to wear their own manufactures instead of those from England. This treatise soon spread very fast, being agreeable to the sentiments of the whole nation, except of those gentlemen who had employments, or were expectants. Upon which a person in great office here immediately took the alarm. He sent in haste for the chief justice, and informed him of a seditious, factious, and virulent pamphlet, lately published with a design of setting the two kingdoms at

8 Historiographer.-Warton.

These papers some years after were brought finished by the Dean into England, with an intention to publish them. But Lord Bolingbroke, on whose judgment he relied, dissuaded him from that design. He told the Dean there were several facts he knew to be false, and that the whole was so much in the spirit of party-writing, that though it might have made a seasonable pamphlet in the time of the administration, it was a dishonour to just history. It is to be observed that the Treasurer Oxford was the hero of the story. The Dean would do nothing against his friend's judgment, yet it extremely chagrined him. And he told a common friend, that since Lord Bolingbroke did not approve his history, he would cast it into the fire, though it was the best work he had ever written. However, it did not undergo this fate, and is said to be yet in being.—It has been since published.-Warburton.

Lord Bolingbroke, in a letter to Sir William Wyndham, expresses his opinion of this work as very partial and defective.-Bowles.

1

A Proposal for the universal Use of Irish Manufactures.-Pope.

variance; directing at the same time that the printer should be prosecuted to the utmost rigour of law. The chief justice had so quick an understanding, that he resolved, if possible, to out-do his orders. The grandjuries of the county and city were practised effectually with to represent the said pamphlet with all aggravating epithets, for which they had thanks sent them from England, and their presentments published for several weeks in all the newspapers. The printer was seized, and forced to give great bail. After his trial the jury brought him in not guilty, although they had been culled with the utmost industry; the chief justice sent them back nine times, and kept them eleven hours, until being perfectly tired out, they were forced to leave the matter to the mercy of the judge, by what they call a special verdict. During the trial, the chief justice, among other singularities, laid his hand on his breast, and protested solemnly, that the author's design was to bring in the Pretender; although there was not a single syllable of party in the whole treatise, and although it was known that the most eminent of those who professed his own principles, publicly disallowed his proceedings. But the cause being so very odious and unpopular, the trial of the verdict was deferred from one term to another, until, upon the Duke of Grafton the lord lieutenant's arrival, his Grace, after mature advice, and permission from England, was pleased to grant a noli prosequi.

This is the more remarkable, because it is said that the man is no ill decider in common cases of property, where party is out of the question; but when that intervenes, with ambition at heels to push it forward, it must needs confound any man of little spirit, and low birth, who hath no other endowment than that sort of knowledge, which, however possessed in the highest

VOL. VIII.

F

degree, can possibly give no one good quality to the mind 2.

It is true, I have been much concerned, for several years past, upon account of the public as well as for myself, to see how ill a taste for wit and sense prevails in the world, which politics, and south-sea, and party, and operas, and masquerades, have introduced. For, besides many insipid papers which the malice of some hath entitled me to, there are many persons appearing to wish me well, and pretending to be judges of my style and manner, who have yet ascribed some writings to me, of which any man of common sense and literature would be heartily ashamed. I cannot forbear instancing a treatise called a Dedication upon Dedica tions, which many would have to be mine, although it be as empty, dry, and servile a composition, as I remember at any time to have read. But above all, there is one circumstance which makes it impossible for me to have been author of a treatise, wherein there are several pages containing a panegyric on King George, of whose character and person I am utterly ignorant, nor ever had once the curiosity to inquire

2 This is a very strange assertion. To suppose that a consummate knowledge of the laws, by which civilized societies are governed, can give no one good quality to the mind, is making ethics (of which public laws are so considerable a part) a very unprofitable study. The best division of the sciences is that old one of Plato, into Ethics, Physics, and Logic. The severer philosophers condemn a total application to the two latter, because they have no tendency to mend the heart; and recommended the first as our principal study, for its efficacy in this important service. And sure, if any human speculations have this effect, they must be those which have man for their object, as a reasonable, a social, and a civil being. And these are all included under Ethics; whether you call the science Morality or Law. With regard to the Common Law of England, we may justly apply to it what Tully says of the law of the Twelve Tables: "Fremant omnes licet, dicam quod sentio: bibliothecas mehercule omnium Philosophorum unum mihi videtur Pandectarum volumen et authoritatis pondere et utilitatis ubertate superare." But the best evidence of its moral efficacy is the manners of its professors; and these, in every age, have been such as were the first improved, and the last corrupted.-War

burton.

into either, living at so great a distance as I do, and having long done with whatever can relate to public matters.

Indeed, I have formerly delivered my thoughts very freely, whether I were asked or no; but never affected to be a counsellor, to which I had no manner of call. I was humbled enough to see myself so far out-done by the Earl of Oxford in my own trade as a scholar, and too good a courtier not to discover his contempt of those who would be men of importance out of their sphere. Besides, to say the truth, although I have known many great ministers ready enough to hear opinions, yet I have hardly seen one that would ever descend to take advice; and this pedantry ariseth from a maxim themselves do not believe at the same time they practise by it, that there is something profound in politics, which men of plain honest sense cannot arrive to.

I only wish my endeavours had succeeded better in the great point I had at heart, which was that of reconciling the ministers to each other. This might have been done, if others, who had more concern and more influence, would have acted their parts; and, if this had succeeded, the public interest both of church and state would not have been the worse, nor the Protestant succession endangered.

But, whatever opportunities a constant attendance of four years might have given me for endeavouring to do good offices to particular persons, I deserve at least to find tolerable quarter from those of the other party; for many of which I was a constant advocate with the Earl of Oxford, and for this I appeal to his lordship. He knows how often I pressed him in favour of Mr. Addison, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Rowe, and Mr. Steele; although I freely confess that his lordship's kindness to them was altogether owing to his generous notions,