The Spectator had many contributors; and Steele, whofe negligence kept him always in a hurry, when it was his turn to furnish a paper, called loudly for the Letters, of which Addison, whose materials were more, made little ufe; having recourse to sketches and hints, the product of his former ftudies, which he now reviewed and completed: among these are named by. Tickell the Effays on Wit, thofe on the Pleafures of the Imagination, and the Criticism on Milton.

When the House of Hanover took poffeffion of the throne, it was reasonable to expect that the zeal of Addison would be fuitably rewarded. Before the arrival of king George, he was made fecretary to the regency, and was required by his office to fend notice to Hanover that the Queen was dead, and that the throne was vacant. To do this would not have been difficult to any man but Addifon, who was fo overwhelmed with the greatnefs of the event, and fo diftracted by choice of expreffion, that the lords, who could not. wait for the nicetics of criticifin, called Mr. Southwell, a clerk in the house, and ordered him to dispatch the meffage. Southwell readily told what was neceffary in the common ftyle of business, and valued himself upon having done what was too hard for Addifon.

He was better qualified for the Frecholder, a paper which he published twice a week, from Dec. 23, 1715, to the middle of the next year. This was undertaken in defence of the established government, fometimes with argument, fometimes with mirth. In argument he had many equals; but his humour was fingular and matchlefs. Bigotry itself must be delighted with the Tory-Fox-hunter.

VOL. III.

F

There

There are however fome ftrokes lefs elegant, and lefs decent; fuch as the Pretender's Journal, in which one topick of ridicule is his poverty. This mode of abuse had been employed by Milton against king Charles II.

66

Jacobai. "Centum exulantis vifcera Marsupii regis."

And Oldmixon delights to tell of fome alderman of London, that he had more money than the exiled princes; but that which might be expected from Milton's favagenefs, or Oldmixon's meannefs, was not fuitable to the delicacy of Addifon.

Steele thought the humour of the Freeholder too nice and gentle for fuch noify times; and is reported to have faid that the miniftry made ufe of a lute, when they should have called for a trumpet.

This year (1716*) he married the countefs dowager of Warwick, whom he had folicited by a very long. and anxious courtship, perhaps with behaviour not very unlike that of Sir Roger to his difdainful widow; and who, I am afraid, diverted herself often by playing with his paffion. He is faid to have first known her by becoming tutor to her fon. "He formed," said Tonson, “the defign of getting that lady, from "the time when he was firft recommended into the "family." In what part of his life he obtained the recommendation, or how long, and in what manner he lived in the family, I know not. His advances at first were certainly timorous, but grew bolder as his reputation and influence increased; till at last the lady was perfuaded to marry him, on terms much like thofe on which a Turkish princefs is efpoufed, to whom the Sul* August 2. + Spence.

tan

tan is reported to pronounce, Daughter, I give thee "this man for thy flave." The marriage, if uncontradicted report can be credited, made no addition to his happiness; it neither found them nor made them equal. She always remembered her own rank, and thought herself entitled to treat with very little ceremony the tutor of her føn. Rowe's ballad of the Defpairing Shepherd is faid to have been written, either before or after marriage, upon this memorable pair; and it is certain that Addifon has left behind him no encouragement for ambitious love.

The year after (1717), he rofe to his highest elevation, being made secretary of state. For this employment he might be juftly fuppofed qualified by long practice of bufinefs, and by his regular afcent through other offices; but expectation is often difappointed; it is univerfally confeffed that he was unequal to the duties of his place. In the houfe of commons he

could

*This truth I a few years ago advanced in "The general history of the fcience and practice of Mufic," adding to it, that Mr. Addison, with all thoje talents for which he is jufily celebrated, not only made a very mean figure in the office of fecretary of state; but fhewed himjef to be as little fit for active life as an excess of timidity, even to sheepshness, could render a

man.

At this affertion, which I yet avow, and the reader will shortly fee proved, the editors of the new Biographia Britannica, in their life of Mr. Addison, have taken offence; and farther, in a laboured ftrain of argument, have not only attempted to refute the charge, but afierted, that I had no authority for fa, ing, that Mr. Adhfon made a mean figure by an excels of timidity even theepishness it thall therefore be the butineis of this note to make good what I have said, and to fhew the futility of thofe arguments by which they have endeavoured to evade it.

It is to be hoped the reader has not forgot a paffage that occurs in a preceding page, in which we are told, that the lords of the re

could not speak, and therefore was useless to the defence of the government. In the office, fays Pope*,

he

gency employed Mr. Southwell, a clerk, to dispatch a meffage in writing too hard for Mr. Addison; nor will he overlook the paragraph with which the prefent note is connected, containing these words: "It is univerfally confeffed that he was unequal to the duties "of his place," or be inattentive to the two facts there exprefsly mentioned, that fhew he could not speak, nor without lofs of time write.

Of the particulars abovementioned, though they are decifive of the queftion of Mr. Addifon's inability, I will not avail myself, as they are contained in a work written after the appearance of my "History of Mufic." I must therefore recur to the year 1776, when it was published, and fhew how the question then stood. And here I must obferve, that the facts abovementioned were then as true, and fome of them, I may add, nearly as notorious, at the time. when I wrote the History of Mufic, as they are now; and if the editors of the Biographia Britannica were ignorant of them, which can hardly be fuppofed, the greater is their fhame for pretending to give a character of a man of whom they knew fo little, and whom they are fo weak as to call a ftatesman.

These gentlemen fay, that my charge against Mr. Addison is extremely unjust to induce a belief that he was qualified for his office, and confequently could not make a mean figure in it, they mention that he was trained up under lord Somers, lord Halifax, and other officers of fate, which circumftance fhews, fay they, that he was regularly formed for bufinefs.

Upon this argument I muft obferve, that between the premifes and the conclufion there are certain intermediate propofitious which, being omitted, have reduced it to a nullity: were it otherwife, it would follow that every boy trained up to learning, i. c. who had gone through the several claffes in a regular school, must neceffarily be a fcholar.

In the fame fallacious ftrain of reafoning, they pursue the argument a priori, the feebleft of all modes of demonstration, and tell us, "that he must, by his knowledge of the modern languages, and his readinefs and elegance of compofition, have been admirably qua❝lified for the writing of dispatches." To this I anfwer, that of his

he could not iffue an order without lofing his time in queft of fine expreffions. What he gained in rank,

he

readiness it is impoffible to produce, and of the elegance of his difpatches they have not given any evidence.

And here I cannot but exprefs my wonder, that thefe gentlemen, who either are or fhould be converfant with, and well verfed in ftatepapers, fhould fo far err as to think that they partake of the nature of moral or œconomical effays, or that, to produce the ends for which they are written, it is neceffary they fhou'd be embellished with any of thofe excellences and beauties of ftyle for which the writings of Mr. Addison are celebrated. If they will turn over the Cabala, the Burleigh, the Silacy, the Strafford, and other collections of state-papers, they will find that a nervous and perfpicuous, and not a florid ftyle is the proper qualification for a writer of official papers, and perhaps be convinced that elegance of compolition is as little required in a fecretary of state, as that he fhould write a fine hand.

So much for Mr. Addison's official abilities: I am now to maintain the charge against him of timidity even to sheepishness; and here let me cite the following words from their own work: "Lord Sunderland, who must have well known what were Mr. Addifon's talents "for active life, wifhed him to have been fecretary of state immediately upon George the first's coming to the crown; but he mo"deftly declined the office, on account of his deficiency as a parlia"mentary speaker." That deficiency which thefe writers have here noted, is what I mean by the words timidi y even to Jheepishness; and that it was nothing lefs, will appear by the following anecdote, which is fo well known, and by frequent repetition become fo ftale, that in conversation to relate it would excite rather ridicule than attention. In a word, it is an anecdote known to all but fuch as are strangers to the world and unufed to literary communication. Mr. Aldifon, in the heat of an important debate in the houfe of commons, rofe from his feat to fpeak, and began: "Mr. Speaker, "I humbly conceive- ;" but, not being able to go on, fat down confounded. After a fhort interval, he again rofe with the fame intention, and addreffed himself to speak in the fame form of words, and again fat down. The house in a filent expectation waited for what was to come, till a gentleman, provoked to see a man of Mr. Add:fon's parts and character fo fhamefully cowed, with