It is obfervable, that bishop Atterbury, who was banished at this very juncture, happening, on his being fet afhore at Calais, to hear that lord Bolingbroke was there, on his return to England, made this remark: Then I am exchanged. There was undoubtedly appearance enough of fuch a thing from the circumstances.

Bolingbroke's leave to return was granted, immediately after the act for banifliing Atterbury had received the royal affent; and this leave was obtained at the preffing inftance of lord Harcourt, who had thewed great warmth in profecuting the bishop. We are told also, that Sir Robert Walpole, who was obferved not to be particularly engaged against the latter, oppofed the return of Bolingbroke very warmly in a speech at the council-board, when the motion for it was made by Harcourt.

Perhaps Mr. Pope alludes to this exchange, in a letter to Dean Swift, where he writes thus:

"The lord Bolingbroke is now returned, as I hope, to take me, with all his other "hereditary rights. It is fure my ill fate, "that all thofe whom I most loved, and with "whom I most lived, must be banished. After "both of you left England, my conftant hoft was the bishop of Rochester. Sure this is a nation, which is curfedly afraid of being "over run with too much politeness; and we

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"cannot, regain one great genius, but at the <6 expence of another."

And two years afterwards, having obtained an Act of Parliament to reftore him to his family inheritance, and enabling him likewife, 10 poffefs any purchafe he fhould make of any. other real or perfonal eftates in the kingdom; he pitched upon a feat of lord Tankerville's, at Dawley near Uxbridge, in Middlefex, where he fettled with his lady, and indulged the pleasure of gratifying the politeness of his tafte, by improving it into a most elegant villa, picturesque of the prefent ftate of his fortune, and there amufed himfelf with rural employ

ments.

We have a sketch of his lordship's way of life at this retreat, in a letter to Dr. Swift by Mr. Pope, who omits no opportunity of reprefenting his lordship in the most amiable. colours. This letter is dated at Dawley, June 8, 1728, and begins thus:

"I now hold the pen for my lord Boling "broke, who is reading your letter between "two hay cocks; but his attention is fome-> "what diverted, by cafting his eyes on the

clouds, not in admiration of what you fay, "but for fear of a fhower. He is pleafed "with your placing him in the triumvirate between yourfelf and me; though he fays, that he doubts he shall fare like Lepidus: "while one of us runs away with all the power,

..

"

"

"

up

power, like Auguftus; and another with all the pleasure like Anthony. It is upon a a forefight of this, that he has fitted up his farm; and you will agree, that this scheme of retreat is not founded upon weak appear ances. Upon his return from Bath, he finds all peccant humours are purged out of him ;. "and his great temperance and ceconomy are fo fignal, that the first is fit for my coníitution, and the latter would enable you to lay fo much money, as to buy a bishoprick in England. As to the return of his health and vigour, were you here you might en16 quire of his haymakers: but as to his temperance I can answer, that for one whole "day we had nothing for dinner, bat mutton"broth, beans and bacon, and a barn door "fowl. Now his lordship is run after his "cart, I have a moment left to myself to tell 16 you, that I overheard him yesterday agree "with a Painter, for 200 pounds, to paint his country hall with rakes, fpades, prongs, &c. " and other ornaments, merely to countenance "his calling this place a farm."

"

So far Mr. Pope; to which I will take leave to add, from ocular teftimony, that it was painted accordingly; and what fill makes it more ftriking, the whole is executed in black crayons only fo that one cannot avoid calling to mind, on viewing it, the figures so often seen scratched with charcoal upon the kitchen walls of farm-houfes. And to heighten the fame

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fame tafle, we read over the door, at the entrance into it, this motto: Satis beatus ruris honoribus. In the fame humour, likewise, his lordship writes to Dr. Swift.

“I am in my farm, and here I fhoot ftrong " and tenacious roots; I have caught hold of "the earth, to ufe a Gardener's phrase, and "neither my enemies nor my friends will find it an eafy matter to transplant me."

Thus the tree was replanted, took root, and flourished. But ftill it bore not the fruit that was moft defired, and for want of which the owner looked upon it as little better then a barren trunk; he was in effect, yet no more than a meer titular lord, and ftill flood excluded from a feat in the house of Peers.

Inflamed with this taint that yet remained in his blood, he entered again, in 1726, upon the public ftage; and difavowing all obligations to the minifter, he embarked in the oppofition; and taking that share in it for which he was beft fuited by his circumstances, he foon diftinguished himself by a multitude of pieces, wrote during the fhort remainder of that reign, and likewife for feveral years under the late, with great freedom and boldness, against the measures that were then purfued.

In the height of thefe political disputes, he found fome fpare hours for the meditations of Philofophy, and drew up feveral effays upon

the

the fubject of metaphyfics. Having carried on his part of the fiege against the minifter, with inimitable spirit for ten years; he laid down his pen, upon a difagreement with his principal coadjutors; and, in 1735, he retired France, in a full refolution never more to engage in public business.

to

It has been obferved, that, in the profecu. tion of this controverfy, our statesman found himself obliged, from the beginning, to recommend the earl of Oxford's old fcheme under the coalition of parties (then called the Broadbottom Scheme) the Tories being at this timeout of any condition to aim at places and power, except as auxiliaries: and it may be added, that he joined with a person who had fhewn the fame conduct with regard to Sir Robert Walpole, as he had done to the carl of Oxford. However, his lordship was refolved to push it as far as poffible; and when fome fufpicions began to arife in him of the fidelity of his new friends, Mr. Pope fays he gave him a hint of it in the first lines of his Effay on Man.

Awake, my St. John, leave all meaner things: To low ambition, and the pride of kings.

But this had not the defired effect. In anfwer to that friend's fuggeftions he writes thus: