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that the English had commenced a negotiation for peace, than they. themselves wished to renew the conferences for a treaty; but their ministers were repulsed, and obliged to solicit a participation in the diplomatick engagements of England.

Meanwhile the queen was so well pleased with the conduct of her ministers, that Harley was created an earl, and nominated first lord of the treasury, in addition to his former office of chancellor of the exchequer. Although St. John had been. overlooked on this occasion, yet he determined to press the business of peace, and accordingly sent Prior, the poet, once more to the court of Versailles, with a memorial, in which he laid down the principles on which it could alone be obtained. That gentleman accordingly repaired to Fontainbleau at the latter end of July, 1711, and, having ascertain

Dr. Swift, the common friend of both, to eradicate; although, perhaps, he might tend to moderate it. A pacification was at this period the grand object of the new administration, and for that purpose they immediately convoked a parliament more devoted to them, and less attached to the whigs, than the preceding one. "St. John now publickly declared, that the glory of taking cities, and gaining battles, ought to be measured by the degree of utility resulting from these splendid achievements, which at one and the same time might reflect honour on the arms, and shame on the councils, of a nation; that the wisdom of a government consists in regulating its projects by its interests and its strength, and in proportioning the means of execution to the object which it proposes, and the vigour it is to display. He declared that England had lost sighted that Louis XIV. had received of those rules, and that motives of selfishness and ambition had seduced the grand part of the alliance to depart from the principles which had been agreed upon. He added, that all ideas of conquering Spain ought to be renounced and relinquished, as general Stanhope had just declared, that the people were so attached to Philip V. and professed such a degree of aversion to the archduke, that the country might be overrun until the day of judg. ment,' without being conquered. As Spain was the object of the war, and its subversion hopeless, it was, therefore, his opinion, that peace ought to be instantly thought of."

St. John perceiving that the new parliament was favourable to his views, sent over the abbé Gaultier to Paris in 1711, and by means of his agency, and that of Mr. Prior, he carried on a correspondence with M. de Torcy, and signified to the French minister, that England would treat independently of, and without the concurrence, of Holland.

No sooner did the Dutch learn
VOL.

2 N

full powers from his grandson, Philip V. returned immediately with Monsieur Mesnager, to whom the English secretary for foreign affairs observed: "We desire peace, and France stands in need of it; to obtain this, all intrigue and finesse must be banished. England will not either resume or renew the insupportable pretensions maintained by the Dutch at the former conferences, but she expects a reasonable compensation for herself on account of her expenses, and equitable advantages for her allies; in fine, such terms as may be required for their own security, and such, indeed, as the present situation of affairs entititle them to.

A provisional negotiation was the consequence; and preliminaries of peace between England and France were signed soon after, on the part of St. John and the earl of Dartmouth on one side, and the French envoy on the other. Next day Mesnager was introduced to the queen, who received him in a private manner at Windsor.

On the 30th of November, the

secretary for foreign affairs notified to the different ministers at the court of London, that negotiations for peace were about to take place at Utrecht; and, notwithstanding the violent opposition that ensued on the part of the count de Gallasch, the Austrian minister, and the Baunde Bothmar, envoy from the court of Hanover; nay, although the duke and dutchess of Marlborongh, with all the whigs, together with the states general, resolutely opposed the measure, yet Anne and her ministers, as is well known, succeeded in the project for a peace.

The services of St. John upon this occasion were not forgotten and accordingly her majesty, on the 14th of July, 1712, was pleased to create him a peer of England, by the style and title of baron of Lydia Fregoze in the county of Wilts, and viscount Bolinbroke. This reward was considered as his due, in consequence of the basis of a new political balance established by him in Europe, which subsisted during a period of about fourscore years; and, notwithstanding the frequent wars that intervened, was never wholly changed until the late revolution.

Meanwhile, a consequence of a variety of intrigues, the earl of Oxford, who is here accused of keep ing up a double correspondence with the pretender and the house of Hanover, at the same time, was about to be disgraced, and his enemy, Bolingbroke, to be elevated to the highest dignities in the state, when Anne died. This princess, according to the editor, who obtained his information from the late Mrs. Mallet, was greatly beloved by Bolingbroke, who exclaimed in her presence; "That the unfortunate queen was a model of all the vir tues; that the unhappy house of Stuart had never produced a better sovereign; and that no princess ever deserved so little to be cruelly betrayed, as was the case with her late

majesty." It is here also stated, that her majesty's constitution was radically sapped and ruined by the use of strong liquors. The editor is at some pains to insinuate, that her majesty did not die a natural death; but for this suspicion there never was any solid foundation whatsoever.

On the accession of George I. Bolingbroke addressed a letter of congratulation to his majesty; but instead of being treated the better for this mark of respect, his papers were sealed up, and he himself taught to expect the utmost severity of royal enmity. The subject of this memoir, on perceiving the storm, retired for awhile into the country; but on receiving secret intelligence from the duke of Marlborough, that it was not in his power to protect him from the rage of the whigs, who had determined to punish him as the author of the late pacification, he determined to fly. His lordship accordingly embarked privately at Dover on the 7th of April, carrying with him property to the amount of about 500,000 francs, which was intended to support him during his exile.

On his arrival at Paris, the vis count waited on the English ambassadour [the earl of Stair] and assured him that he did not intend to enter into any connexion whatsoever with the jacobites; and he wrote several letters to the same purpose to general Stanhope, then secretary of state. Soon after this, his lordship retired to St. Clair, in Dauphiny; and, during his residence there, was accused, together with the earl of Oxford, of high treason. The latter was accordingly sent to the tower; while against the former, a bill of attainder was carried.

The tories in England, greatly displeased at the conduct of the whigs, who, in their turn, consider. ed them all as suspected, now sent an agent to the continent, who had an interview with the pretender at

Commerci, whence he repaired to St. Clair, with a letter signed James III. containing an invitation to Bolingbroke to assist at his councils. This once more awakened the ambition of the viscount, who set out for Commerci, although in a bad state of health, and thus threw an air of duplicity over his character, from which, notwithstanding his splendid talents, it could never after entirely recover.

"He was convinced," we are told, "soon after his first interview,

that the prince just alluded to, had neither plans nor views, and that the tories themselves did not seem to act with more sagacity. He also perceived, too, that although the pretender lived in daily expecta tion of repairing either to England or Scotland, yet efficacious means had not as yet been taken for the countenance and support of France, without the aid of which, in respect both to arms and money, all his future enterprises must prove problematica..

TO BE CONCLUDED IN NEXT NO.

POETRY.

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Of rags and rusty iron, a monstrous load, And eke a beggar's brat on either side, Forth from a greasy bag their long necks throwing,

Just like two well-fed geese to mar ket going;

Gabbling and gulping down from wooden dish,

Sour curds and leeks, or mess of stinking fish.

Yet meek wert thou beneath the load, Gentle as when you bore a God, While all around Hosannas loud did ring, And bade the impious Jews behold their King,

But though despised of man, and mocked

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Still bounteous Nature had a 'mind, Thy fortune was not all unkind,

Some cause you had to be content. Thou ne'er hast heard the din of arms, Thy breast no trumpet's sound alarms,

A peaceful drudge thy days were spent. Go weigh the charger's fate with thine, Drest and caparisoned so fine; Now to martial musick dancing, Snorting, rearing, bounding, prancing, Now the field of glory treading, Lame and legless, fainting, bleeding. Ah! I have seen him born beyond the main,

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Nor glory seek beside the slaughtered horse.

But while I hail thee on this glad promotion,

Still let me just advise thee as a friend; Perhaps you donkies have not learn'd the notion,

That happy hours and flowering seasons end.

We mortals find while skies are smil ing,

Some sullen cloud our hopes beguil-
ing;

Above our heads the thunders burst,
That lay us level with the dust.
What if they tax thy bit and saddle,
Thou must again with beggars wad-
dle;

Be beat till every rib is sore,

And beg thy scrip from door to door." Alas! thou oft mayest want a bit of grass, Nor pity find from any human ass.

Yes, trust me, I delight to see thee gay,

And lovely Laura seated on thy back! She, like the forest's queen in flowery May, The envy thou of every other hack.

And while you pace to Laura's song,
Or drag your little car along,
May fear and shame o'erspread the
face,

That dares t'insult thy honest race: Erskine himself shall nobly rise,

Again a listening senate charm, Teach mankind how to sympathize, And half creation's wrath disarm:† Thou too shalt rise in being's scale,

But cease thou gentle ass to fret and whine, And pity for the ass o'er all the world

Nor envious be to view the well-fed

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prevail.

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* A short time after the massacre of the army of French loyalists at cape Quiberon, in 1795, a body of cavalry amounting to 1200, were sent out, but with only three months' provender in the transports. Not being able to effect a junction with the royal army, the greater part died of hunger on board: and 300 were carried on shore to the little islands Hedick and Houat, where they were killed off by musketry. † Alluding to his bill in the peers, to prevent cruelty to domestick animals,

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Each future impulse, and put forth the germs

Of native character. It cannot be

Unless his heart is deadened by the touch Of that mere worldliness, which hugs itself

In a factitious apathy of soul;

Unless, in vain and vacant ignorance, He wondering smiles at those high sympathies,

Those pure, unworldly feelings, which exalt

Our nature o'er the sphere of actual things; Which lend the poet's gaze its ecstacy, And bid the trembling note of musick steal Tears down the listener's cheek;-it cannot be

But his whole heart must soften and relent

Amid these peaceful scenes; but the deep griefs

Which time has stamped upon his furrowed brow

Must, for a moment, smooth their thoughtful trace;

And e'en the long remorse wild passion leaves,

Rest from the goading of its secret sting. Scene of my boyish years! I not disown These natural feelings. Let me rest awhile Here on this grassy bank; beneath these elms

Whose high boughs murmur with the leafy sound

That soothed me when a child: when, truant-like,

Of the dull chime that summoned me afar Nought heeding, by the river-wave I lay, Of liberty enamoured, and the muse.

As yon gray turrets rest in trembling shade

On its transparent depth, the days long past

Press on awakened fancy; when, averse From sport, I wandered on its loneliest banks,

Where not a sound disturbed the quiet air But such as fitly blends with silentness; The whispering sedge-the ripple of the stream,

Or bird's faint note; and not a human trace, Save of some hamlet-spire in woods immerst,

Spake to the sight of earth's inhabiters. Then have I rushed, prone from the topmost bank,

And given my limbs to struggle with the stream,

And 'midst those waters felt a keener life. How soft the milky temperature of wave, Salubrious Thames! associate with delight Thy stream to thrilling fancy flows, when

faint

I languish in the sun-blaze; and with thee Ingenuous friendships, feats of liberty. That recked not stern control, and gravely

sweet

The toils of lettered lore, and the kind

smile

Of Him,* who e'en unbraiding, could be kind,

On soothed remembrance throng. I would not feign

A fond repining which I did not feel;
I would not have the intermediate years
Roll back to second infancy, nor live
Again the life that haunts my memory

thus

With sweet sensations; for the simple child
Is all unconscious of his pleasant lot;
His little world, like man's vast universe,
Is darkened by its storms; and he, like
man,

Creates his own disquietudes and fears; And oft with murmurings vain of discontent,

Or bursts of idle passion, personates
His future part; the character of man.
No-'tis the cant of mock misanthropy
That dwells on childish pleasures; which
the child

With light insensibility enjoys,

Or rather scorns; while on his eager view The future prospect opens, still in sight,

*Of Mr. Savage, whose name must ever be associated with the blandi doctores of Horace, let me be permitted to indulge the remembrance. His system of tuition was calculated to exemplify the theory of the admirable Locke. He made instruction pleasant; and was therefore listened to and obeyed on a principle of love. Should these insignifi. cant pages ever meet his eye, he may not be displeased to find that

The muse attends him to the silent shade.

I trust I shall be forgiven the excusable egotism, of paying this tribute of gratitude and respect to an elegant scholar, and most amiable man.

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