The life of Henry St. John, viscount Bolingbroke ..

Front matter

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Preface

The lives of Lord Bolingbroke and Edmund Burke illustrate each other. They may be said to embrace the whole political history of the eighteenth century; and from the very different characters of the two men, the very different principles they announced, and the very different causes they advocated, form a curious contrast, and a most instructive study. The biography of the one statesman may rightly be considered a companion to the biography of the other.

A Life of Bolingbroke, presenting in one continuous view all the vicissitudes of his ambitious and chequered life, has long been a favourite design of the author. Without wishing to depreciate what has been written by others, he can ask no greater favour than that his volume may be fairly compared with anything which has as yet appeared professing to contain a delineation of Lord Bolingbroke's career. The narrative, as will

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easily be seen, has not been based on any former work. It will be found, to differ materially from every other publication of the kind in the estimate of Bolingbroke himself, in the representation of the most important facts pf his life and the motives of his actions, as well as in the view of his contemporaries in relation to himself.

Beginning, as the author does, with a political narrative almost from the very year in which the great historical work of Lord Macaulay abruptly terminates, it was necessary to make some observations on the characters of the different persons who figured most prominently on the political scene when the young St. John first entered public life. While tracing his earlier career in the House of Commons, as Secretary-at-War, and during the two years of his retirement, it has been sought to exhibit clearly the nature of his connection with the Duke of Marlborough, which in some degree gave a colour to the whole of Bolingbroke's future career, and which has been far too little understood. Again, his obligations to Harley, his labours on the peace of Utrecht, and his real intentions with regard to carrying out the Act of Settlement on the death of Queen Anne, all afford matter of the highest biographical and historical interest, and present problems which have never yet been solved.

Side by side with his struggles as a party leader and a statesman, it has been endeavoured to illustrate his private life. The author cannot charge himself with having neglected anything which might throw light on Bolingbroke's career. All that has been written on

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the subject in the Library of the British Museum, the Lord Advocate's Library in Edinburgh, and the Library of Trinity College at Dublin, has been sifted ; nor have the materials in the Manuscript department of the Museum, and in the State Paper Office, been neglected. It would not have been difficult to have printed for the first time many more documents than will be found quoted in the course of the narrative ; but it was not desirable to make the book a mere collection of papers. The author would particularly call attention to the interesting Letter of the Dowager Countess of Rochester to the Lady Johanna St. John on the death of the repentant Wilmot. On this subject there are several other letters, with which pages might have been filled. The despatch from Lord Stanhope to Lord Stair, of the 30th of March, 1716, will be found to confirm Bolingbroke's repeated statements of the unconditional offer of a pardon made to him even at so early a period ; and it is of the utmost importance in showing the justice or injustice with which he was afterwards treated. His retirement in France, and in England, at Marcilly, La Source, Dawley, Chanteloup, and Battersea, all offer interesting scenes for contemplation ; and the history of these closing years will be found very instructive and suggestive. The Lettres de Lord Vicomte Bolingbroke, published with notes at Paris in 1808, afford the most authentic materials for depicting his life in France. But the dates of these letters, particularly those to the Abbe Alari, are untrustworthy, and can only be used when corrected by other authorities.

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such as the letters to Sir William Windham. The epistles Bolingbroke received on the death of his friend Windham from Pope, Lyttelton, and Marchmont, show in a very interesting light the characters of the different writers. The author, while presenting a brief analysis of Bolingbroke's writings as they were produced, has not thought it necessary to enter very fully into the controversial questions about philosophy and religion which occupied so much of the later period of his life. Neither has he quoted at any length the correspondence of Swift, Pope, and Boling broke, which is in the hands of every reader ; nor made any long extracts from Bolingbroke's pubKshed writings. Throughout the work the aim has been to subordinate the general history of the period, in order to present fully the details of Bolingbroke's personal history.

Of the result it is not for the author to speak. He has endeavoured to present an impartial view of the subject. Bolingbroke's life abounds in vicissitudes; there are great changes of scene and of fortune ; he was born with great intellectual endowments, and also with the strongest passions ; and it is assuredly a curious and interesting study to observe their effects through the eventful times in which his lot was cast. His character assumes by turns many varying and apparently contradictory phases; and yet, when carefully analysed, it appears peculiarly consistent and uniform as a whole, working towards a definite if not a very satisfactory end. Why was it that, in action as well as in speculation, a man so gifted as Boling-

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broke was so completely unsuccessful ? Why was it that his life was but a series of defeats ? If the author has performed in aoy satisfactory manner his biographical duty, the answer will be evident and require no commentary of his own.

Chapter I

Eakly Years — The St. Jolins and tlie Tudors — Sir Walter St. John — Bolingbroke's Father — Daniel Bnrgess — The Countess Dowager of Rochester' — The Household at Battersea — St. John's Dissipation — Verses to Dryden — Dryden and St. John — Ode to Ahnahide — St. John and the Orange Girl — Marriage — Memher of Parliament.