that it was thought proper to diftinguish his merit; and, on the 10th of April 1704, he was appointed fecretary of, war, and of the marines. As this poft created a constant correfpondence between him and the duke of Malborough, we may reaforably prefume it to have been the principal foundation of the rumours raifed many years after, that he was in a parti cul manner attached to that illustrious It is certain, that he knew the рсек. worth of that great general, and was a fincere admirer of him; but yet he was in po fenfe his creature, as fome have af ferted. This he difavowed, when the duke was in the zenith of his power; nor was he then charged, or ever afterwards, by the duke or duchefs with ingratitude or breach of engagements to them. Yet, as we fty, he had the higheft opinion of the duke, which he retained to the laft moment of his life; and he has told us fo himfelf in fo inimitable a manner, that we cannot forbear tranferibing the paf fage. "By the death of king William, (fiys be) the duke of Marlborough was raifed to the head of the army, and indeed of the confederacy; where he, a new, a private man, a fubject, acquired by merit and management a more deciding influence, than high birth, confirmed au thority, and even the crown of Great Bri⚫ tain, had given to king William. Not only all the parts of that vaft machine, the grand alliance, were kept more compact and entire; but a more rapid and vigorous motion was given to the whole; and, instead of languishing or difaftrous eampaigns, we law every fcene of the war full of action. All thofe wherein he appeared, and many of thofe where in he was not then an actor, but abettor however of their action, were crowned with the moft triumphant fuccefs. Itake with pleasure this opportunity of doing juftice to that great man, whofe faults knew, whofe virtues I admired; and whole memory, as the greatcft general and as the greatest minifter, that our country, or perhaps any other has produced, I honour." But whatever might be his regard for the duke of Marlborough at the time we are fpeaking of, it is certain that it maft have been entirely perfonal; fince no two perfons could be more clofely united in all political me fures, than he and Mr. Hailey: and therefore, when this minifer was removed from the of fice of fecretary of state, in February 1707-8, Mr. St. John chofe to follow his fortune, and the next day icfigned his em ployment in the administration. He was not returned in the parliament, which was elected in 1709 : but upon the diffolution of it in 1710, Mr Barley being made chancellor and under treasurer of the exchequer, the poft of fecretary of ftate was given to Mr. St. John. About the fame time he wrote the famous letter to the Examiner, which may be found among the firft of thofe papers: it was univerfally afcribed to him, and is indeed an exquilite proof of his abilities as a writer; for in this fingle thort paper are comprehended the outlines of that defign, on which Dr. Swift employed himfelf for near a twelvemonth. Upon the calling of a new parliament, to meet on the 25th of November, 1710, he was chofen knight of the thire for the county of Berks, and alfo burgefs of Wotton-Baffet; and made his election for the former. He appeared now upon a fcene of action, which called forth all his abilities. He fuftained almoft the whole weight of the bufinefs of the peace of Utrecht, which however he was not fuppofed to have negociated to the advantage of his country. The red fate of the cafe is, that "the two parties (as he himfelf owns) were become factions in the frist teufe of the word." He was of that which prevailed for peace, against those who delighted in war; for this was the language of the times; and therefore, a peace being refolved on by the English minifters at all events, it is no wonder if it was made with lefs advantage to the nation. He has owned this in felf, although he has juftified the peace in general: "though it was a duty (fays he) that we owed to our country, to deliver her from the neceffity of bearing any longer fo unequal a part in fo unneceffary a war, yet was there fome degree of merit in performing it. I think fo ftrongly in the manner, I am fo incorrigible, that if I could be placed in the fame circumftances again, I would take the fame refolution, and act the fame part. Age and experience might enable me to act with more ability and greater fkill; but all I have fuffered fince the death of the queen, fhould not hinder me from acting. Notwithstanding this, I fhall not be surprised, if you think that the peace of Utrecht was not anfwerable to the fuccefs of the war, nor to the efforts made in it. I think fo myfelf, and have always owned, even when it was making and made, that I thought fo. Since we had committed a fuccefsful folly, we ought to have reaped more advantage from it, than we did." In July 1712, he had been created baron St. John of Lediard-Tregoze in Wiltshire, and viscount Bolingbroke; and 1781. Life of Henry Saint-Jobu, was alfo the fame year appointed lord lieutenant of the county of Effexx But these honours not answering his expectations, for his ambition was undoubtedly great, he formed a defign of taking the lead in public affairs from his old friend Mr. Harley, then earl of Oxford; which proved in the iffue unfortunate to them both. It must be oblerved, that Paulet St. John, the lait earl of Bolingbroke, died on the 5th of October, preceding his creation; and that the earldom became extinct by his decease. The honour how ever was promifed to him; but his prefence in the house of commons being fo neceffary at that time, the lord treasurer Harley prevailed on him to remain there during that feffion, upon an affurance, that his rank fhould be preferved for him, But, when he expected that the old title would have been renewed in his favour, he was put off with that of vifcount, which he refented as an affront, and look ed upon it as fo intended by the treasurer, who had got an earldom for himfelf. Hear how Bolingbroke fpeaks of this: "I continued (fys he) in the house of commons, during that important feffion which preceded the peace; and which, by the fpirit fhewn through the whole courfe of it, and by the refolutions taken in it, rendered the conclufion of the treaties practicable. After this, I was dragged into the house of lords in fuch a manner, as to make my promotion a punishment, not a reward; and was there left to defend the treaties alone. It would not have been hard (continues be) to have forced the earl of Oxford to use me better. His good intentions began to be very much doubted of: the truth is, no opinion of his fincerity had ever taken root in the party; and, which was worfe perhaps for a man in his ftation, the opinion of his capacity began to fall ap.ce.-1 began in my heart to renounce the friendfhip, which, till that time, I had pre ferved inviolable for Oxford. I was not aware of all his treachery, nor of the bafe and little means which he employed then, and continued to employ afterwards, to ruin me in the opinion of the queen, and every where clic. I faw however, that he had no friendship for any body; and that with respect to me, initead of having the ability to render that merit, which I endeavoured to acquire, an addition of Arength to himself, it became the object of his jealoufy, and a reafon for undermining me." There was alfo another tranfaction that paffed not long after lord Bolingbroke's being raifed to the peerage, which helped to increate his animolity against that minifter. In a few weeks af 459 ter his return from France, her majefty beflowed the vacant ribbons of the order of the garter upon the dukes of Hamil ton, Beaufort, and Kent, and the earls Pawlet, Oxford, and Strafford. Bolingbroke thought himself here again ill ufed, having an ambition, as the minifler well knew, to receive fuch an inftance as this was of his mistress's grace and favour, Upon the whole, therefore, it is no wonder that, when the treasurer's flaff was taken from his old friend, he expreffid his joy by entertaining that very day, July 27, 1714, at dinner, the generals Stanhope, Cadogan, and Palmer, with Sir William Wyndham, Mr. Craggs, and fome other gentlemen. Oxford faid, upon his going out, that fome of them would fart for it; and Bolingbroke was far from being infenfible of the danger to which he ftood expofed: yet he was not without hopes ftill of fecuring himfelf, by making bis court to the whigs; and it is certain, that a little before this he had propofed to bring in a bill to the house of lords, to make it treafon to enlift foldiers for the pretender, which was pafled into an act. Soon after the acceffion of king George I. to the throne, the feals were taken from him, and all the papers in his office fecured: yet, during the fhort feffion of parliament at this juncture, he applied himfelf with his ufual indufry and vigour, to keep up the fpirits of the friends to the late adminiftration, without omitting any proper occafion of testifying his respect and duty to his majefty; in which fpirit he affisted in fettling the civil lift, and other neceflary points. But, upon the meeting of the new parliament, in March 1715, finding himself in imminent danger, he privately withdrew into France, in the latter end of that month. The continuator of Rapin's hiftory reprefents him as having fled in a kind of panic: "lord Boling. broke's heart began to fail him (fays that hiftorian) as foon as he heard that Prior was landed at Dover, and had promised to reveal all he knew. Accordingly that evening his lordship, who had the night before appeared at the playhouse in DruryLane, and bespoke another play for the next night, and fubfcribed to a new opera, that was to be acted fome time after, went off to Dover in difguife, as a fervant to Le Vigne, one of the French king's meffengers." Upon his arrival at Paris, he received an invitation from the pretender, to engage in his fervice; which he abfolutely refufed, and made the best applica tion that his prefent circumstances would admit, to prevent the extremity of his profecution in England. After a short stay 3 M 2 at at Paris, he retired into Dauphine, where he continued till the beginning of July; when, receiving a meffage from fome of his party in England, he complied with a fecond invitation from the pretender; and taking the feals of the fecretary's of fice at Commercy, he fet out with them for Paris, in order to procure from that court the neceffary fuccours for his new mafter's projected invafion of England. The vote for impeaching him of high treafon had paffed in the houfe of commons on the roth of June preceding; and fix articles were brought into the houfe, and read by Mr. Walpole, August the 4th, 1715, which were in fubftance as follow, viz. 1. That, whereas he had affured the minifters of the States General, by order from her majesty in 1711, that the would make no peace but in concert with them; yet he fent Mr. Prior to France that fame year, with propofals for a treaty of peace with that monarch, without the confent of the allies: 2. That he advifed and pro. moted the making a feparate treaty or convention with France, which was figned in September: 3. That he difclofed to Mr. Mefnager, the French minifter at London, this convention, which was the preliminary inftruction to her majefty's plenipotentiaries at Utrecht, in October: 4. That her majefty's final inftructions to her faid plenipotentiaries were difclofed by him to the abbe Gualtier, an emiffary of France: 5. That he difclofed to the French the manner how Tournay in Flan ders might be gained by them: 6. That he advifed and promoted the yielding up of Spain and the West Indies to the duke of Anjou, then an enemy to her majeliy. Thefe articles were fent up to the lords in Angust; in confequence of which, he was attainted of high treaton, the roth of September the same year. 1716, created Sir Henry St. John, his father, baron of Batterfea, and viscount St. John. Such a variety of dittressful events had thrown him into a state of re flection, and this produced, by way of relief, a philofophical confolation, which he wrote the fame year, under the title of Reflexions upon Exile. In this piece be has drawn the picture of his own exile, which, being reprefented as a violence, proceeding folely from the malice of his perfecutors, to one who had ferved his country with ability and integrity, is by the magic of his pen converted not only into a tolerable, but what appears to be an honourable station. The following year he drew up a vindication of his whole conduct with refpect to the tories, in the form of a letter to Sir William Wyndham, which was printed in 1753, It is writen with the utmost elegance and addrefs, and abounds with interefting and entertaining anecdotes. he His firft lady being dead, he espoused about this time a fecond, of great merit and accomplishments, who was niece to the famous Madame de Maintenon, and widow of the marquis de Villette; with whom he had a very large fortune, encumbered however with a long and trou blefome law-fuit. In the company and converfation of this lady, he paffed his time in France, fometimes in the country, and fometimes at the capital, till 1723; in which year, after the breaking up of the parliament, the king was pleafed to grant him a full and free pardon. Upon the first notice of this favour, the expectation of which had been the ruling principle of his political conduct for feveral years, returned to his native country. It is ob fervable, that bishop Atterbury was ba nifhed at this very juncture: and happen ing, on bis being fet afhore at Calais, to In the mean time, his new engagements hear that lord Bolingbroke was there, in with the pretender had the fame iffue; his way to England, he faid, "Then I for the year 1715 was fcarcely expired, am exchanged." His lordship having obwhen the feals and papers of his new of- tained, about two years after his return, fice of feeretary were demanded, and given an act of parliament to reftore him to his up; and this was foon followed by an family-inheritance and to enable him to accufation, branched into feven articles, poffefs any purchafe he fhould make in which he was charged with treachery, pitched upon a feat of lord Tankerville incapacity, and neglect. Thus difcarded at Dawley near Uxbridge, where he fet by the pretender, he refolved to make his tled with his lady, and gratified the po peace, if it were poffible, at home. He litenefs of his tafte, by improving it into fet himself immediately in earneft to this a molt elegant villa. Here he amused work; and in a fhort time, by that acti- himself with rural employments, and with vity which was the characteristic of his correfponding and converting with Pope, mature, and with which he conftantly pro- Swift, and other ingenious friends; but fecuted all his deligns, he procured, he was by no means fatisfied in his ow through the mediation of the earl of Stair, mind, for he was yet no more than a then the British ambaffador at the French titular lord, and flood excluded from a zourt, a promife of pardon, upon certain feat in the houfe of peers. Inflamed with peditions, from the king; who, in July this taint that yet remained in his blood, |