rature, and who was at that time more profitably employed in endeavouring to settle a general peace.1

Prior was again employed as secretary to the English negotiations at the treaty of Ryswick in 1697. Having been nominated the same year principal secretary of state in Ireland. In 1698 he was secretary to the embassy to France, in which he continued both under the Earl of Portland, and the Earl of Jersey: and where he was said to be considered of great distinction. An anecdote, honourable alike to his wit and his sincerity, is recorded in his memoirs :-Being shown the pictures at Versailles which Le Brun painted to commemorate the victories of Louis the XIVth, and being asked whether the King of England's Palace had any such decorations, he answered-' The monuments of my master's actions are to be seen everywhere but in his own house.'

In

He did not leave Paris till some time after the arrival of the Earl of Manchester, to whom his experience in foreign affairs, and his interest at the French Court, were of eminent service. the middle of August, 1699, he went to King William in Loo in Holland, when, after a very particular audience with his majesty, he departed for England, and took possession of the under-secreta

1 In the second volume of the Analecta Mus: Anglican: there is a copy of verses 'In obitum Augustissimæ et Desideratissimæ Reginæ Mariæ, by H. Sacheverell-G. Adams -Ant. Alsop-P. Foulkes-Ed. Chishull.

ry's seat, in the Earl of Jersey's office; but he was soon ordered back to Paris to assist the ambassador. In the Christmas of this year, he printed his Carmen Seculare; in which King William received all the prodigality of a poet's commendation. Yet, as Johnson justly observes,—We must not accuse Prior of flattery. Of the domestic life, of the private virtues, and perhaps the temper of the monarch, no very favourable account could be given; but his great public actions, his zeal in the cause of liberty and of Europe, his perseverance and inflexible steadfastness in adversity, his courage and military skill, acquit Prior of lavishing an inelegant and undistinguished praise: he said, that he praised others out of compliance with fashion, but that, in praising William, he followed his inclination.

In 1700, the university conferred on him the degree of master of arts: he succeeded Locke at the board of trade; and he was elected representative of East Grinstead in Sussex, in 1701, when he seems to have changed his political opinions, and to have voted for impeaching the lords who were charged with advising the Partition treaty. He excuses himself, however, in one of his poems, (Conversation) by saying that he never approved the treaty, though obliged to carry it through in obedience to his sovereign.

Mathew, who knew the whole intrigue,
Nor much approved that mystic league.

2

During the reign of Anne, the negotiators and secretaries gave way to persons of more active virtues, and the sword took the place of the pen. Prior published his well known letter to Boileau on the Battle of Blenheim, and an ode addressed to the queen. Soon after he printed a volume of his poems, beginning with his College Exercise, and ending with his Nut-Brown Maid. Eugene and Marlborough gave for some years ample employments to the court-poets, and accordingly, the Battle of Ramilies was celebrated by Prior, as Blenheim had been before. By some it has been believed, that the queen and the nation were wearied of the war, before the great commander who had so successfully prosecuted it, was inclined to listen to terms of pacification. It has been said, that Marlborough was influenced by private views in its continuance; perhaps, however, his sagacity and experience enabled him to foresee what still greater conquests his military talents, assisted by his powerful allies, could enable him to achieve : and he might not have been willing to have his long career of victories separated from the great end to which they were directed, The reduction of the power of France, and the assured safety of the liberties of Europe. Prior joined the party of Harley in endeavouring to drive the whigs from power: and a paper called the Examiner was set

2 On the origin of this poem of the Nut-Brown Maid, see Censura Literaria, vol. vi. p. 114.

up, of which much is said in Swift's works, and to which all the wits of the party contributed. One in ridicule of Garth's verses to Godolphin on the loss of his place was written by Prior, and answered by Addison. He is thought also to have been the author of a very satirical attack on the Duke of Marlborough, called the Widow and her Cat, which concludes with the following stanza :

So glaring is thy insolence,

So vile thy breach of trust is,
That longer with thee to dispense
Were want of power, or want of sense,

Then, Towzer, do him justice.

The change in Prior's political sentiments did not pass unnoticed. He turned, says Pope, from a strong whig (which he had been when most with Lord Halifax) to a violent tory; and did not care to converse with any whigs after, any more than Rowe did with tories.

In 1711, Prior was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the Court of France, for the purpose of negotiating a peace. In a few weeks he returned, bringing with him Monsieur Mesnager, and the Abbé Gualtier. As the whole of this transaction was private, Prior and his companions were seized at Canterbury, but immediately re

8 See account of Prior's arrest at Deal, in Scott's ed. of Swift, vol. ii. p. 356; and Annals of Queen Anne's Reign, p. 231, and vol. iv. p. 59.

leased by the queen's orders. The meetings were held at Prior's house, who was joined with the privy council in the commission to sign the articles, after the agreement; and who would have been joined with the two ministers at Utrecht, but the president, Lord Strafford, not willing to act with a person of so mean an extraction as Prior, the business of trade was committed to the Lord Privy Seal; the letters of St. John and the queen, however, sufficiently evince their conviction of Prior's knowledge and services, especially in matters of trade. In 1712, he went to Paris, it is supposed with Lord. Bolingbroke, to arrange those matters which remained unsettled at Utrecht. He had the appointments of an ambassador, though he did not assume the character till after the departure of the Duke of Shrewsbury. In October, he returned to England: bearing a private letter from the French King5 to the queen, and returned in November. He remained at Paris in the character of a public minister for some

4 Swift says, in his Journal to Stella, 'I dined with Lady Betty. I hear Prior's commission is passed to be ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary for the peace. .......... And so I must go see his Excellency, 'tis a noble advancement, but they could do no less, after sending him to France. Lord Strafford is as proud as hell, and how he will bear one of Prior's mean birth on an equal character with him, I know not.'

5 Prior was personally acceptable to Louis the XIVth, and well known to Boileau.' See Scott's Swift, iv. p. 75.