Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

gotiation, but still with the same dispiriting prospect of ultimate discomfiture; and yet throughout this busy and harassing period, notwithstanding the repeated failure of his favourite schemes, we find the mind of St. John still buoyant under disappointment, and his powers cheerfully opposing themselves to the host of difficulties which encountered him. Placing the most perfect confidence in the genius and resources of his own mind, we find him at one time conducting the complicated machinery of foreign politics; at another crushing the machinations of his enemies in Parliament; and in the midst of this hurry and variety of employments, contributing to the periodical papers of the day; replying to the arguments and invectives of the Whig writers, and clearly demonstrating to the nation how much the burden of the war rested upon England, and how little was sustained by the Dutch, who alone reaped the advantages of its continuance.

Notwithstanding the extraordinary personal exertions of St. John, the negotiations continued to be tediously protracted till the month of July, 1712, when he was himself sent to Paris to conduct the treaty in person, and to counteract the intrigues and opposition of the Dutch. His instructions were, to endeavour "to remove all difficulties and differences that might obstruct the general suspension of arms between England and France from taking place, or settling the treaty of peace in such a course as might bring it to a

happy and speedy conclusion." It was a singular circumstance, as related to Spence by St. John himself, that, in the three weeks which preceded his departure on his memorable mission, he made himself sufficiently master of Spanish to be able to read and answer letters in that language.

St. John was not only received by the French King with the most distinguished marks of respect, but, in the gay circles of Paris, homage was universally paid to his graceful manners and brilliant abilities. In Paris, as in London, he sought to combine the character of a fine gentleman with the reputation of being a man of business; and, at the same time that he conducted the object of his mission with all the address and ability which his friends had anticipated from him, he rendered himself no less an object of general curiosity by his gaiety, his libertinism, and his wit.

St. John, having at length successfully performed the object of his mission, took leave of the French King, Louis the Fourteenth, on the 27th of August, on which occasion that magnificent monarch presented him with a diamond ring valued at about four thousand pounds sterling.* Within a few months, treaties of peace

• The apartment at Versailles, (well known as the Cabinet du Roi,) in which Bolingbroke received his celebrated audiences with Louis the Fourteenth, is of itself a history. It was here that he used to discuss the merits of his magnificent schemes with his ministers, Colbert, Louvois, and Torcy. Here he took leave of Marshal Villars, when the fate of his monarchy depended on the ensuing campaign. It was here that he introduced to the grandees of Spain, his grandson, the Duke

and commerce were signed between France and England, the ratification of which is known by the name of the Peace of Utrecht. St. John received all the applause which his talents and exertions merited; and these were considered so extraordinary that, even his enemies, while they violently opposed his measures, could not but acknowledge the greatness of his genius. In July, 1712, he was created Baron St. John of Lydiard Tregoye, in Wiltshire, and Viscount Bolingbroke; and the same year was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Essex. His father is said to have remarked to him, on hearing of his son's intended elevation to the peerage :"Ah! Harry, I always said you would be hanged, but now I find you will be beheaded."

d'Anjou, as their King. Here Louis the Fifteenth signed the treaty which expelled the Jesuits; and, finally, it was in a recess of one of the windows of this room that Louis the Sixteenth received from the Marquis de Dreux-Brézé the celebrated reply of Mirabeau, that "the Deputies of the States were assembled by the will of the people, and would not leave their place of meeting except by the force of his master's bayonets."

[ocr errors]

CHAPTER II.

[ocr errors]

St John's taste for literary society and patronage of Dryden.His generosity to literary men.-Extracts from Spence's Anecdotes of Pope. Mutual admiration of Pope and St. John.-St. John's subsequent attempts to blast the poet's memory.- Probable reasons for his vindictiveness.-Gradual estrangement between Harley and St.John, and causes of their estrangement.-St. John's letters to the Earl of Strafford and Sir William Wyndham. St. John's ambitious hopes disappointed by the death of Queen Anne.-Extract from his letter to Swift on the occasion.-Accession of George the First. Earl of Dorset despatched to Hanover to convey to him the news of his accession.-Addison appointed Secretary by the Regency.-Insults offered to St. John.-His dignified equanimity. His letters to Swift and Lord Strafford.-Dismissed from all his employments.-Harley's humiliating reception by George the First.-St. John's delight at his rival's mortification. He is threatened with impeachment, and escapes from England in the disguise of a servant.-Curious letter respecting his flight.-Letter from St. John to Lord Lansdowne, dated from Dover.-Violence of his enemies in Parliament.

THE fact is, unquestionably, to Bolingbroke's credit, that amidst the multiplicity of his political engagements and the harassing nature of his duties as a statesman, he still found leisure to enjoy the society and to cultivate the friendship of literary men. Even in the midst of his early

debaucheries, he had given evidence, by the eagerness with which he had courted the acquaintance of the immortal Dryden, that a want of taste was not among his failings. St. John, though at the time of the poet's death he could only have entered into his twenty-second year, is, nevertheless, confidently asserted to have been "the patron, the friend, and the protector of that great poet," "* and Pope says, in his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot,

"And St. John's self, great Dryden's friend before,
With open arms received one poet more."

Later in life, Bolingbroke formed one of a splendid galaxy of genius, in which his own star was not the least dazzling. Pope, Swift, Atterbury, Prior, Parnell, Gay, Arbuthnot! when will so brilliant a circle again assemble beneath the same roof, or join in social converse beside the same hearth! Bolingbroke, to his credit, was the friend of literary men; and in addition to his having opened his purse, or extended his patronage, to a host of writers whose names are no longer interesting to posterity, it may be mentioned that Dryden, Prior, Gay, and Thomson, received substantial favours at his hands. Neither does a contrariety of political opinion appear to have made the slightest difference in his liberality, when the object was a deserving one. Steele, though closely leagued with the opposite party, experienced proofs of his

* Biog. Brit. vol. v. p. 3561, note.

« ZurückWeiter »