Care to prefer a Petition to the House of Commons, defiring to be reinftated in his former Emoluments and Capacities. This Petition at first occafioned very warm Debates; Walpole, who pretended to espouse his Caufe, alledged that it was very right to admit him to his Inheritance; and when Lord William Pawlett, moved for a Claufe to disqualify him from fitting in either Houfe, Walpole rejected the Motion, fecretly fatisfied with a Refolution which had been fettled in the Cabinet, that he should never more be admitted into any Share of Power. To this artful Method of evading his Pretenfions, Bolingbroke was no Stranger; and he was now refolved to thake that Power, which thus endeavoured to obftruct the Increase of his own: taking therefore his Part in the Oppofition with Pultney, while the latter engaged to manage the Houfe of Commons, Bolingbroke undertook to enlighten the People: accordingly he foon distinguished himself by a Multitude of Pieces, written during the latter Part of George the First's Reign, and likewise the Beginning of that which fucceeded. These were conceived with great Vigour and Boldness; and now, once more engaged in the Service of his Country, though difarmed, gagged, and almost bound, as he declared himself to be, yet he resolved not to abandon his Caufe, as long as he could depend on the Firmness and Integrity of those Coadjutors, who did not labour under the fame Difadvantges with himself. His Letters in a Paper called the Craftsman, were particularly diftinguished in this political Conteft; and though several of the moft expert Politicians of the Times joined in this Paper, his Elays were peculiarly relished by the Public. However, it is the Fate of Things written to an Occafion, feldom to furvive that Occafion: the Craftsman, though written with great Spirit and Sharpness, is now almost forgotten, although when it was published as a weekly Paper, it fold much

more

more rapidly than even the Spectator. Befides this Work, he published several other feparate Pamphlets, which were afterwards reprinted in the Second Edition of his Works, and which were very popular in their Day..

This political Warfare continued for Ten Years, during which Time he laboured with great Strength and Perfeverance, and drew up fuch a Syftem of Politics as fome have fuppofed to be the most complete now exifting. But as upon all other Occafions, he had the Mortification once more, to fee thofe Friends defert him, upon whofe Affiftance he moft firmly relied, and all that Web of fine-spun Speculation actually destroyed at once by the Ignorance of fome, and the Perfidy of others. He then declared that he was perfectly cured of his Patriotic Phrenzy; he fell out not only with Pultney for his felfish Views, but with his old Friends the Tories, for abandoning their Caufe as desperate, averring, that the faint and unfteady Exercise of Parts on one Side, was a Crime but one Degree inferior to the iniquitous Mifapplication of them on the other. But he could not take leave of a Controverfy in which he had been fo many Years engaged, without giving a parting Blow, in which he feemed to fummon up all his Vigour at once, and where, as the Poet fays,

Animam in vulnere pofuit.

This inimitable Piece is intituled, A Differtation on Parties, and of all his masterly Pieces, it is in general efteemed the best.

Having finished this, which was received with the utmoft Avidity, he refolved to take leave not only of his Enemies and Friends, but even of his Country; and in this Refolution, in the Year 1736, he once more retired to France, where he looked back to his native Country with a Mixture of Anger and Pity, and upon his former profefling Friends, with a Share

of

' about Measures. The true Divifion is about their • different Ends. Whilft the Minifter was not hard pushed, nor the Profpect of fucceeding to him near, they appeared to have but one End, the Reformation of the Government. The Destruction of the Minifter was purfued only as a Preliminary, but of effential and indifputable Neceffity, to that End: But when his Deftruction feemed to approach, the Object of his Succeflion interpofed to "the Sight of many, and the Reformation of the 'Government was no longer their Point of View. < They had divided the Skin, at least in their

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Thoughts, before they had taken the Beast. The 'common Fear of haftening his Downfal for others, 'made them all faint in the Chace. It was this, ' and this alone, that faved him, and put off his • evil Day.'

Such were his cooler Reflections, after he had laid down his political Pen, to employ it in a Manner that was much more agreeable to his ufual Profelfions, and his approaching Age. He had long employed the few Hours he could fpare on Subjects of a more general and important Nature to the Interests of Mankind; but as he was frequently interrupted by the Alarms of Party, he made no great Profici ency in his Defign. Still, however, he kept it in View, and he makes frequent Mention in his Letters to Swift, of his Intentions to give Metaphyfics a new and useful Turn. I know,' fays he, in one of thefe, how little Regard you pay to Writings of this Kind; but I imagine, that if you can like any, it must be thofe that trip Metaphyfics of all their Bombaft, keep within the Sight of every "well-constituted Eye, and never bewilder them

6

• felves,

felves, whilst they pretend to guide the Reason of ⚫ others.'

Having now arrived at the fixtieth Year of his Age, and being bleffed with a very competent Share of Fortune, he retired into France, far from the Noife and Hurry of Party; for his Seat at Dawley was too near to devote the rest of his Life to Retirement and Study. Upon his going to that Country, as it was generally known that Difdain, Vexation, and Disappointment had driven him there, many of his Friends, as well as his Enemies, fuppofed, that he was once again gone over to the Pretender. Among the Number who entertained this Suspicion, was Swift, whom Pope, in one of his Letters, very roundly chides for harbouring fuch an unjust Opinion. 'You should be cautious,' fays he,' of cen❝ furing any Motion or Action of Lord Bolingbroke, because you hear it only from fhallow, envious, ❝ and malicious Reporters. What you writ to me about him, I find, to my great Scandal, repeated ❝ in one of yours to another. Whatever you might *hint to me, was this for the Profane? The Thing,

if true, fhould be concealed; but it is, I affure you, abfolutely untrue in every Circumftance. He ' has fixed in a very agreeable Retirement, near Fontainbleau, and makes it his whole Business vacare ' litteris.'

This Reproof from Pope was not more friendly than it was true; Lord Bolingbroke was too well acquainted with the forlorn State of that Party, and the Folly of its Conductors, once more to embark in their desperate Concerns. He now faw that he had gone as far towards reinftating himself in the full Poffeffion of his former Honours, as the mere Dint of Parts and Application could go, and was at length experimentally convinced, that the Decree was abfolutely irreverfible, and the Door of the House of Lords finally fhut against him. He therefore, at Pope's

Pope's Suggeftion, retired merely to be at Leisure from the Broils of Oppofition, for the calmer Pleafures of Philofophy. Thus the Decline of his Life, though lefs brilliant, became more amiable; and even his Happiness was improved by Age, which had rendered his Paffions more moderate, and his Wishes more attainable.

But he was far from suffering, even in Solitude, his Hours to glide away in torpid Inactivity. That active reftlefs Difpofition ftill continued to actuate his Pursuits; and having loft the Season for gaining Power over his Cotemporaries, he was now refolved upon acquiring Fame from Pofterity. He had not been long in his Retreat near Fontainbleau, when he began a Course of Letters on the Study and Ufe of History, for the Ufe of a young Nobleman. In these he does not follow the Methods of St. Real and others who have treated on this Subject, who make History the great Fountain of all Knowledge; he very wifely confines its Benefits, and fupposes them to confift rather in deducing general Maxims from particular Facts, than in illustrating Maxims by the Application of Hiftorical Paffages In mentioning Ecclefiaftical History, he gives his Opinion very freely upon the Subject of the divine Original of the facred Books, which he fuppofes to have no fuch Foundation. This new Syftem of Thinking, which he had always propagated in Converfation, and which he began now to adopt in his more laboured Compofitions, feemed no Way fupported either by his Acutenefs or his Learning. He began to reflect seriously on these Subjects too late in Life, and to suppose those Objections very new and unanswerable, which had been already confuted by Thoufands. 'Lord Bolingbroke,' fays Pope, in one of his Letters, is above trifling; when he writes of any < Thing in this World, he is more than mortal. If ' ever he trifles, it must be when he turns Divine.’ VOL. III.

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