friendship was little to be trusted where it interfered with his private views, and that on such occasions he would give the preference even to an enemy.

Lockhart of Carnwarth enters more closely into Harley's character, with which he could not fail to be intimately acquainted. "His natural temper," he says, "and greatest dexterity lay rather in managing and despatching mere drudgery sort of business, and in contriving snares to catch those he had a mind to undermine, than in being the chief minister of state, and prime favourite. Besides that, he was too reserved, and admitted too few into his secret designs ;* he did not show that politeness and address so necessary in one of that high station to which he was now advanced, and seemed to affect to carry his views more by his own cunning than by the influence, weight, and authority of the Crown, and by supporting and encouraging the friends thereof. From thence it came to pass that he gained few friends, and created many personal enemies. He was, indeed, very civil to all who addressed him, but he generally either spoke so low in their ear, or so mysteriously, that few knew what to make of his replies; and, it would appear, he took a secret pleasure in making people hang on and

* Bolingbroke, on more than one occasion, complained bitterly of his colleague's reserve; and Lord Harcourt, though filling the high post of Lord Chancellor, used to observe that he knew as little of what was going on as if he had been Harley's groom.

disappointing them." Harley, however, could be social and agreeable among his particular friends; he surrounded himself with men of learning and genius; he possessed wit himself; was charmed to meet with it in others; and is said to have applauded it even when exercised at his own expense. He was invariably civil to his enemies; and, when it suited his purpose, occasionally more obliging to them than to his friends. He courted, somewhat slavishly perhaps, the good opinion of men of all parties, and as evidence of his latitudinarianism, or, at all events, of his freedom from religious prejudices, maintained chaplains of several sects in his household. His great merit seems to have been his superiority to the frowns of fortune, and the equanimity which he displayed on many trying occasions. He never permitted his temper to be ruffled by either the most aggravated insult or the most unexpected misfortune; and, to judge from his countenance and the equable placidity of his manners, he appeared to be exempt from the common ills of mortality, and alike invulnerable to fear, passion, or even bodily pain. One of his principal failings was indecision Swift, who was intimately acquainted with his character, styles him "the greatest procrastinator in the world."

Pope, who was the intimate associate of Harley, and who has eulogized him in some of his best verses, seems to have formed a far higher opinion of his friend as a philosopher than as a

statesman. "Lord Oxford," he said, in conversation with Spence, "was not a very capable minister, and had a good deal of negligence into the bargain. He used to send trifling verses from Court to the Scriblerus club almost every day, and would come and talk idly with them almost every night, even when his all was at stake. That lord talked of business in so confused a manner that you did not know what he was about; and everything he went to tell you was in the epic way, for he always began in the middle." Pope, on another occasion, observed that he was "huddled in his thoughts, and obscure in his manner of delivering them."

The fact recorded by Pope, that Harley, "when his all was at stake," was in the habit of amusing himself with scribbling idle verses and gossiping with idle wits, is corroborated by several passages in the correspondence of Swift. The latter, on one occasion, describes his patron

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as being as merry, and careless, and disengaged, as a young heir at one-and-twenty ;" and in a letter to Stella, dated the 11th of October 1711, he writes," Lord Treasurer calls me now Dr. Martin, because martin* is a sort of swallow, and so is a Swift. When he and I came last Monday from Windsor, we were reading all the signs on the road. He is a pure trifler; tell the Bishop of Clogher so. I made him make two lines in verse for the Bell and Dragon; and they were

* The appellation of Martinus Scriblerus was borrowed from this pleasantry of Lord Oxford.

rare bad ones." Swift, on another occasion, speaking conjointly of Harley and St. John, observes;—“I cannot but think they have mighty difficulties upon them, yet I always find them as easy and disengaged as schoolboys on a holiday."

Of the ingenious manner in which Lord Oxford was in the habit of fighting off the importunities of those who looked up to him for advancement, more than one anecdote has been related. Lockhart of Carnwarth mentions the case of a Scotchman of the name of James Anderson, — an antiquary, and apparently a man of merit,-who had been recommended to Oxford by the Queen. Anne, it seems, had taken some pleasure in looking over his collection of seals and old charters; and on her mentioning his name to her minister as a person in whose advancement she took an interest, Harley affected to anticipate her wishes, by observing that Anderson was the man in the whole world whom he most desired to oblige. The Scotchman, however, and his curiosities seem to have been speedily forgotten, and consequently the suppliant for court favour, having anxiously expected a place for fourteen or fifteen months, again ventured to wait on the minister, and reminded him of his promise. Oxford admitted him to an interview; and not only gave him the kindest and most flattering reception, but paid him the high compliment of asking him for his picture, which it was his intention, he said, to place in his library,

in a collection that he possessed of the portraits of other learned and ingenious men. The Scotchman now believed his fortune to be made in good earnest. The picture was sent, but he never received any favour more substantial, and at length desisted from further importunities in disgust. Lockhart informs us that from this period, when it was asked what place such a person was about to obtain at Court, the answer commonly was,— "A place in the Treasurer's Library."

Another anecdote, equally amusing, is recorded by the same writer. A person,-whose name Lockhart omits to mention, but whom he represents as a wit and poet,-attended one of the minister's levees, furnished with recommendatory letters from some of the most influential persons of the day. Lord Oxford's first inquiry of the candidate for Court favour was, whether he understood Spanish? The poet replied in the negative, but added that he could soon make himself master of the language; a task he speedily accomplished, upon which he again presented himself to the minister. Oxford inquiring of him whether he had completed his labours, and being answered in the affirmative,-" Well, then," he said, "you will have the pleasure of reading Don Quixote in the original language, and it's the finest book in the world." According to Pope, the unfortunate hero of the tale was Rowe, the dramatic poet. "It was Lord Oxford," he says, "who advised Mr. Rowe to learn Spanish; and after all his pains and ex