he fet himself to the undertaking with fpirit; he began to pave the way to the intended treaty, by making the people difcontented at the continuance of the war; for this purpofe he employed himfelf in drawing up accurate computations of the numbers of our own men, and that of foreigners employed in its deftructive progrefs. He even wrote in the Examiners, and other periodical papers of the times, fhewing how much of the burden refted upon England, and how little was fuftained by thofe who falfly boafted their alliance. By thefe means, and after much debate in the House of Commons, the Queen received a petition from Parliament, fhewing the hardships the allies had put upon England in carrying on this war, and confequently how neceffary it was to apply relief to fo ill-judged a connexion. It may be easily fuppofed that the Dutch, against whom this petition was chiefly levelled, did all that was in their power to oppose it; many of the foreign courts alfo, with whom we had any tranfactions, were continually at work to defeat the minifter's intentions. Memorial was delivered after memorial; the people of England, the Parliament, and all Europe, were made acquainted with the injuftice and the dangers of fuch a proceeding however Bolingbroke went on with fteadiness and refolution; and although the attacks of his enemies at home might have beeen deemed fufficient to. employ his attention, yet he was obliged at the fame time that he furnished materials to the prefs in London, to furnish instructions to all our minifters and ambaffadors abroad, who would do nothing but in pursuance of his directions. As an orator in the fenate he exerted all his eloquence, he stated all the great points that were brought before the houfe, he answered the objections that were made by the leaders of the oppofition; and all this with fuch fuccefs, that even his enemies, while they oppofed his power, acknowledged his abilities. Indeed, fuch were the difficulties

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ficulties he had to encounter, that we find him acknowledging himfelf fome years after, that he never looked back on this great event, paffed as it was, without a fecret emotion of mind, when he compared the vaftnefs of the undertaking, and the importance of the fuccefs, with the means employed to bring it about, and with thofe which were employed to fruftrate his intentions.

While he was thus induftriously employed, he was not without the rewards that deferyed to follow fuch abilities, joined to fo much affiduity. In July 1712, he was created Baron St. John of Lidyard Tregoze in Wiltshire, and Viscount Bolingbroke; by the last of which titles he is now generally known, and is likely to be talked of by pofterity: he was alfo the fame year appointed Lord Lieutenant of the County of Effex. By the titles of Tregoze and Bolingbroke he united the honours of the elder and younger branch of his family; and thus tranfmitted into one channel the oppofing intereft of two races, that had been diftinguished, one for their loyalty to King Charles I. the other for their attachment to the Parli ament that oppofed him. It was afterwards his boaft, that he steered clear of the extremes for which his ancestors had been diftinguished, having kept the fpirit of the one, and acknowledged the fubordination that diftinguifhed the other.

Bolingbroke, being thus raifed very near the fummit of power, began to perceive more nearly the defects of him who was placed there. He now began to find that Lord Oxford, whofe party he had followed, and whofe perfon he had efteemed, was by no means fo able or fo induftrious as he fuppofed him to be. He now began from his heart to renounce the friendship which he once had for his coadjutor; he began to imagine him treacherous, mean, indolent, and invidious; he even began to afcribe his

own

own promotion to Oxford's hatred, and to fuppofe that he was fent up to the Houfe of Lords, only to render him contemptible. These fufpicions were partly true, and partly fuggefted by Bolingbroke's own ambition; being fenfible of his own fuperior importance and capacity, he could not bear to fee another take the lead in public affairs, when he knew they owed their chief fuccefs to his own management. Whatever might have been his motives, whether of contempt, hatred, or ambition, it is certain an irreconcileable breach began between these two leaders of their party; their mutual hatred was fo great, that even their own common intereft, the vigour of their negociations, and the fafety of their friends, were entirely facrificed to it. It was in vain that Swift, who was admitted into their counfels, urged the unreafonable impropriety of their difputes; that, while they were thus at variance within the walls, the enemy were making irreparable breaches without. Bolingbroke's antipathy was fo great, that even fuccefs would have been hateful to him, if Lord Oxford were to be a partner. He abhorred him to that degree, that he could not bear to be joined with him in any cafe; and even fome time after, when the lives of both were aimed at, he could not think of concerting measures with him for their mutual fafety, preferring even death itself to the appearance of a tem-. porary friendship.

Nothing could have been more weak and injudicious than their mutual animofities at this juncture; and it may be afferted with truth, that men, who were unable to fupprefs or conceal their refentments upon fuch a trying occafion, were unfit to take the lead in any measures, be their induftry or their abilities. ever fo great. In fact their diffentions were foon found to involve not only them, but their party in utter ruin; their hopes, had for fome time been declining, the whigs were daily gaining ground, and

the

the Queen's death foon after totally deftroyed all their schemes with their power.

Upon the acceffion of George I. to the throne, dangers began to threaten the late miniftry on every fide; whether they had really intentions of bringing in the Pretender, or whether the whigs made it a a pretext for deftroying them, is uncertain; but the King very foon began to fhew, that they were to expect neither favour nor mercy at his hands. Upon his landing at Greenwich, when the court came to wait upon him, and Lord Oxford among the number, he ftudioufly avoided taking any notice of him, and teftified his refentment by the careffes he beftowed upon the members of the oppofite faction. A regency had been fome time before appointed to govern the kingdom, and Addifon was made fecretary. Bolingbroke ftill maintained his place of ftate fecretary, but fubject to the contempt of the great, and the infults of the mean. The firft ftep taken. by them to mortify him, was to order all letters and packets directed to the Secretary of State to be fent to Mr. Addifon; fo that Bolingbroke was in fact removed from his office, that is, the execution of it, in two days after the Queen's death. But this was not the worft, for his mortifications were continually heightened by the daily humiliation of waiting at the door of the apartment where the regency fat, with a bag in his hand, and being all the time, as it were, exposed to the infolence of those, who were tempted by their natural malevolence, or who expected to make their court to thofe in power by abufing him.

Upon this fudden turn of fortune, when the feals were taken from him, he went into the country, and having received a meffage from court, to be prefent when the feal was taken from the door of the fecretary's office, he excufed himfelf, alleging, that fo trifling a ceremony might as well be performed by one

of

of the under fecretaries but, at the fame time requefted the honour of kiffing the King's hand, to whom he teftified the utmoft fubmiffion. This requeft however was rejected with difdain; the King had been taught to regard him as an enemy, and threw himself entirely on the whigs for fafety and protection.

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The new Parliament, moftly compofed of whigs, met the 17th of March, and in the King's Speech from the Throne many inflaming hints were given, and many methods of violence chalked out to the two houfes. "The firft fteps, (fays Lord Bolingbroke, fpeaking on this occafion) in both were perfectly anfwerable; and, to the fhame of the peerage be "it fpoken, I faw at that time several Lords concur "to condemn in one general vote all that they had approved in a former Parliament by many parti"cular refolutions. Among feveral bloody refoluti"ons propofed and agitated at this time, the refolu"tion of impeaching me of high treason was taken; "and I took that of leaving England, not in a pa

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nic terror, improved by the artifices of the Duke "of Marlborough, whom I knew even at that time "too well to act by his advice or information in "any cafe, but on fuch grounds as the proceedings "which foon followed fufficiently juftified, and fuch "as I have never repented building upon. Thofe, "who blamed it in the firft heat, were foon after "obliged to change their language: for what other "refolution could I take? The method of profecu"tion defigned againft me would have put me out "of a condition immediately to act for myself, or

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to ferve those who were lefs expofed than me, but "who were however in danger. On the other hand, "how few were there on whofe affiftance I could de"pend, or to whom I would even in thefe circum"ftances be obliged! The ferment in the nation was "brought