their favour, by the discussion of constitutional principles and a vindication of the Revolution, were entirely disappointed. The reign of fanaticism was triumphant. Such popular demonstrations afforded the Queen the plea she wanted for following her inclinations in favour of her secret advisers. On the 5th of April, the Duchess of Marlborough had an audience of the Queen, which ended in a shew of reconciliation, which amounted to nothing. She gave unmistakable indications, by various acts, of a fixed design to mortify both the Duke and Godolphin, probably with the hope of inducing them to resign. In the absence of the Lord Treasurer at Newmarket, and without consulting him, the Queen, on the 13th of April, dismissed the Marquis of Kent as Lord Chamberlain, and placed the staff in the hands of the Duke of Shrewsbury, who, though making a fair show of friendship to ministers, had been intriguing with their enemies. Godolphin, instead of acting with becoming spirit and resigning the seals of office, induced his colleagues to temporise, persuading them, and perhaps himself, that he was submitting to the indignity for the sake of the public service. He had also the assurance of the Queen that no further changes were proposed, and that of Shrewsbury of his intention to act in unison with them. At the same time, promotions, to please the Court, were forced upon the Duke against his will. In the course of the summer (June 13th) the Duke's son-in-law, Sunderland, was dismissed from his office as Secretary of State. Still the Whigs were persuaded to submit. But on the 7th of August the Lord Treasurer himself was subjected to a similar fate, which was the signal for the resignation of all his colleagues,

with the exception of Marlborough, who was still persuaded to act upon the weak policy that had been so derogatory to the party.

The long-threatened Tory Ministry was thus at length inaugurated, the principal members of which were the two traitors to the late Government-Harley and St John, the former as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the other as Secretary of State. The Parliament was dissolved, and in the present temper of the nation, was succeeded by one in accordance with the views of the present occupants of office.

Godolphin died in 1712, in very poor circumstances, so much so, that it was supposed he would have to be under obligations to Marlborough-a proof that not much of the public money had stuck to him. He had brought the affairs of the Treasury into the most perfect order, and by his strict attention to business, the regularity of his arrangements, and the great confidence of the monied interest which he enjoyed, he had elevated the public credit to the highest pitch. But though entitled to the praise of the highest probity in the literal and vulgar sense of the term, the credit of a high-minded man otherwise can hardly be accorded him. The publication of the Stuart papers shews that he was tainted by a private correspondence with the exiled court, though possibly, as in the case of Marlborough, it may have been only the result of an unworthy timid precaution to keep himself well with them in any event.

With regard to Steele's personal affairs, we have seen that when he failed in his claims to succeed Addison in the Under-Secretaryship, (the north Briton, in whose favour

it was given, having been Mr R. Pringle,) he was promised something else; and now, with greatly augmented reputation, he received, some time before the close of the Tatler, the tardy fulfilment of this pledge, by being appointed a Commissioner of Stamps. Unfortunately he lost, not long after, the previous appointment of Gazetteer, in consequence of some papers in the Tatler, in which he was supposed to have directed a masked battery at the heads of the new Tory Ministry in expectancy. Harley, on coming into power and taking his revenge in this manner, observed a sort of discriminating clemency in his punishment of Steele, taking from him only the office he had either given him formerly, or the value of which he had greatly enhanced.

With reference to the charge of ingratitude urged against him by Swift, though it might have been more judicious, (if people could always do what was wisest in moments of heat and excitement,) to have preserved the Tatler free from politics-it may be that Steele considered loyalty to his party paramount to considerations of personal obligation or interest. This view might be strengthened by remembering that the obligation was given as a favour to another and not to himself. His forbearance he might also think the less called for, towards one who had himself attempted to supplant and undermine those friends whose power was now tottering, by the most underhand means, and with the basest ingratitude.

The obnoxious numbers were probably 190, 191, and 193. In the former he stated that he thought it the * Sce note (+) p. 222.

shortest road to impartiality to declare himself at a time when the question was not one of names, but of things and causes. In the same number was a letter signed "Aminadab," written in the character of a Quaker, and attributed to Swift, in which he cautions the Tatler to reflect what a day might bring forth, to think of that as he took snuff. Unfortunately for himself, he was not guided by this friendly advice, but at least gave admission in immediately following numbers to two very satirical sketches of character (one professedly treating of stage affairs), which were generally applied-the Examiner, of course, said, contrary to the rules of resemblance,-to Mr Harley and some of his friends.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PERIODICAL ESSAYIST-SPECTATOR-1711, 1712.

Steele starts the Spectator on a similar plan with the Tatler, but with a new set of characters, in conjunction with Addison-Its unprecedented success-The Spectator Club-The De Coverley series of papers Notice of the contributors, Philips, Budgell, Tickell, Hughes, Grove, &c.-The dedications, and the subjects of them-Close of the original series-An additional volume subsequently added, chiefly by Addison.

WHILST the friends and admirers of the Tatler were yet indulging their regret,* and its envious rivals, (for it had would-be rivals, as when has merit or success been without them?) their triumph at the literary suicide, its authors suddenly burst upon them in a new, and if not more brilliant, at least a yet more successful character a literary metempsachosis. Its authors, far from betraying any sense of exhaustion, as some probably surmised, only two short months from the cessation of the former paper, emboldened by success, ventured on the experiment of a daily successor, with a confidence in their resources almost without a parallel in literary history.

On the 1st March 1711, the Spectator made its appear

"Steele's last Tatler," writes Swift to Stella, "comes out to-day. You will see it before this comes to you, and how he takes leave of the world. He never told so much as Addison of it, who was surprised as much as I. . . . To my knowledge he had several good hints to go upon, but he was so lazy and weary of the work, that he would not improve them."-Journal, Jan. 2, 1711.