Life of Viscount Bolingbroke

Front matter

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CHAPTER I. HENRY ST, John's youth and early parliamentary successes

1678-1704.

Henry St. John's birth— Position of Louis XIV., 1678— State of Politics in England — The Manor House at Battersea — St. John's ancestors — Importance of the St. John family during the Great Eebellion — His Father — His early life at Battersea — Eton — Was he at Christ Church ? — His-grand tour tind residence at Paris — His marriage and entry into Parliament — His appearance aud eloquence — Party struggles in 1701 and 1702 — The Protestant Succession and the balance of power in Europe — St. John takes a prominent position in the House of Commons — Impeachment of the Whig Mhiidters - The Kentish Petition — Louis XIV.'s recognition of the Pretender — Excitement in England — Death of William III. — Declaration of War — St. John is made an Honorary Doctor at Oxford — Comparison of the views of the Whigs and Tories — The extreme Tories grn dually cease to support the war — Godolphin and Marlborough look to the moderate Tories — Occasional Conformity Bill — Ashby versus White — Kelations between the Lords and the Commons strained — St. John's violent conduct — Parliament prorogued, April, 1704 . , . p. 1

Chapter II

ST. JOHN SECRETARY-AT-WAR AND AFTER.

1704-1710.

The extreme Tories leave the Government — Harley, St. John, and other moderate Tories are given places — Brilliant successes abroad — St. John's close relations with Marlborough — Elections of 1705 Whigs have majority in Parliament — Marlborough and Godolphin

CONTENTS.

adopt Whig view of England's foreign policy — Harley intrigues against the Ministers — St. John's attitude towards the intrigue — The Grregg scandal — Eesignation of Harley, St. John, Harcourt, and Mansell, 1708 — Ministry becomes entirely Whig — Failure of Jacobite rising in Scotland — St. John's reasons for his retirement • — His life at Bucklersbury — The Sacheverell incident — Keasons of weakness of Whig Ministry: its fall, 1710 — Tory Ministry: St. John Secretary of State . , . . • . p. 21

CHAPTER III. BOLINGBROKE's diplomacy; the peace of UTRECHT

1710-1713.

Party spirit runs high — St. John's elevation to the post of Secretary of State — Feelings of the Tory party — The elections of 1710 — Tory foreign policy — Peace necessary — Difhculties in the way of peace ■ — The Examiner — Number Ten — Employment of Swift — Violence of the Tory squires — Tlse October Club — Discontent at Hurley's indecision — Guiscard's attack on Harley — Its effect — Harley becomes Earl of Oxford — Growing rivahy between Oxford and St. John — England's true relation to the Allies considered — Negotiations opened with France — Death of Joseph I., April, 1711 — Failure of St. John's expedition to North America — Arrival of Mesnager — Preliminary articles signed in September — Discovery by the Allies of England s intention to make peace — General excitement — St. John's measures — Publication of The Conduct of the Allies — The famous debate in the House of Lords — Defeat of the Government— Dismii-sal of Marlborough — Creation of Tory Peers — St. John continues his "strong remedies "— Opening of conferences at Utrecht, Jan. 29, 1712 — Protracted character of the negotiations — St. John raised to the Peerage — Visits Paris and sees Louis XIV. — Charges against Bolingbroke — Shrewsbury sent to Paris, January, 1713, to hasten the negotiations — Bolingbroke's ultimatum — The treaties signed — Criticism of the Peace of Utrecht, of the means by which it was brought about, and of its terms — The greatness of Bolingbroke's work — He anticipated the policy of Chatham — Place occupied in English and French history by the Peace of Utrecht . . . p. 44

CONTENTS. xi

CHAPTER lY.

THE SUCCESSION QUESTION.

1713-1714.

Possibility of a Stuart Eestoration — Bolingbroke's real policy — Reasons for the belief that he was a Jacobite — Opinion of Mr. Wyon — Bolingbroke never a Jacobite — State of politics ou conclusion of Peace of Utrecht — The Jacobites, the Hanoverian

Tories, the Neutrals — Reconstruction of the Ministry The

" Crisis " — Unp£)pularity of Harley's trimming policy — The Tories rally round Bohngbroke — His extreme measures — Activity of the

Whigs — Attempt to bring the Electoral Prince into England

Eage of the Queen — Reward ofifered for apprehension of the Pretender — End of the Session, July 9— Approach of the Crisis — Dismissal of Oxford, July 27 — The Treasury to be put in Commission — Diflticulty in choosing Commissioners — Illness of

the Queen— Shrewsbury appointed Treasurer — Death of Anne

Ruin of Bolingbroke's plans^^-His failure due to various causes

Policy and position of Shrewsbury — A consideration of Bolingbroke's pohcy at the end of Anne's reign — Vigour of Whigs, p. 84

CHAPTER y.

BOLINGBROKE IN EXILE. 1714-1725.

Failure of the Schemes of Oxford and Bolingbroke — Accession of George I. — Attitude of the Council of Regency towards Bolino-- broke— His removal from his Secretaryship— Seizure of the papers of Strafford and Prior — Hostile attitude of Ministers — Alarm of Bolingbroke — His flight a fatal mistake — His attainder — He enters the service of the Pretender — He acts loyally in the

Jacobite cause — His amusing description of James' Council

James' character — Arrival of Ormond in Paris — Death of Louis XIV. — Failure of Jacobite rising of 1715 — Causes of the failure — Bolingbroke's dismissal from James' service — Berwick's testimony to his ability — Bolingbroke attempts to secure the reversal of his attainder — His Letter to Wyndham —His second marriage — Life at La Source. — Letters to M. de Pouilly — Voltaire's visit to La Source^His pardon passes the Great Seal, 1723 — Bolingbroke visits England— Fails to conciliate Walpole — Aids xii CONTENTS.

Townshend and Walpole in their diplomatic 'struggle against Carteret — Kenewed endeavours to secure reversal of his attainder — Their success, 1725 — His return to England • • p. 109

OHAPTEE VI.

1725-1742.

Bolingbroke settles at Dawley— State of politics on his return— Strong position of Walpole and Townshend — Character of Walpole's policy — The Whig plan of Government — Its good and bad points — Bolingbroke fails to undermine Walpole's influence with George I. — He joins Pulteney in the management of The Craftsman — Character of Pulteney and of his brother — The various sections which opposed Walpole — Bolingbroke unites them into a powerful Opposition — The Craftsman — Bolingbroke's first contribution to The Craftsman — His Letters on the History of Athens — His Remarks on the History of England — No. 51 — The Norfolk Lanthorn — Attacks on Walpole's foreign policy — The danger to Gibraltar — The Defences of Dunkirk — The Treaties of Seville and of Vienna — The Occasional Writer — The Excise Scheme — Popular clamour — The Scheme withdrawn — Bolingbroke's attitude towards it — His Dissertation on Parties — The Election of 1734 — ^Whig majority — Bolingbroke's political connection with Pulteney ends — He leaves England, 1735 — His objects in forming the Opposition to Walpole — His comparative failure — Attitude of the discontented Whigs towards him after 1735 — Eeasons of Bolingbroke's retirement to France — The True Use of Retirement and Study — Letters on History — The Spirit of Patriotism — His return to England in 1738 — Norfolk House and Frederic, Prince of Wales — Bolingbroke writes his Idea of a Patriot King — Growing unpopularity of Walpole — Secession of Tories from the House of Commons — Death of Wyndham, 1740— Conduct of Tories and Jacobites, 1741— Fall of Walpole, 1742 — Death of Bolingbroke's father — ^Whigs continue in power under Wilmington — ^Bolingbroke and the Tories " dished " by the Whigs — Bolingbroke declares he had long ago estimated his Whig allies at their true value p. 129

CONTENTS. xiii

CHAPTER YII.

BOLingbkoke's later years. 1742-1751.

His return to Argeville — His pavilion — Again in England — Politics in 1743 — Wilmington Prime Minister — Influence of Carteret — Carteret's foreign policy — Bolingbroke's opposition to him — Keturn to Argeville— Battle of Dettingen — At Aix-la-Chapelle — In England — The Manor House at Battersea becomes a political centre — Opposition of the Pelhams to Carteret — Fall of Carteret — Pelham's "War Administration not successful — The Jacobite Eebellion — The Three Days Revolution — Defeat of the King — Bolingbroke and the Rebellion of '45 — His weariness of the world — Some Beflections on the Present State of the Nation — His attack on Pope — Defence of Pope by Warburton — ^Death of Lady Bolingbroke — Bolingbroke's last days — ^His death, p. 157

CHAPTER YIII.

REVIEW OF bolingbroke's CAREER AND CHARACTER.

Always struggling against an adverse fate — The death of Anne — The fall of Walpole — His failure to secure the reversal of his attainder — His transcendent abilities — His writings — Illustrations — His correspondence — Eloquence — His general intellectual qualities^His power of application — Views taken by Mr. Lecky and Mr. Harrop of his character — His faults — The child of his age — His enormous personal influence — Love of hunting — His horses and dogs — His life at Bucklersbury, Ashdown Park, La Source, Dawley, Chanteloup — The last years of his life at Battersea — His influence over young statesmen — ^His European position ♦ . . • p. 165 xiv CONTENTS,

CHAPTEE IX.

bolingbkoke's literary friendships.

Close connection between politics and literature — Its results — Defoe — Importance of political writings — Addison — Jolin Philips — ■ Bolingbroke's literary friends — Pope — Parnell — Arbuthnot — Prior — Gay — Swift — Society of Brothers — Effect of Anne's death — Bolingbroke at Dawley — Pope at Twickenliam — Meeting of the survivors of the Scriblerus Club — The correspondence of Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift — Influence of — Bolingbroke on Pope^-The Essay on Man — The Moral Essays — Satires and Epistles of Horace imitated — Devotion of Pope to Bolingbroke — Influence of Pope on Bolingbroke — Voltaire's relations with Bolingbroke — They meet first at La Source — Voltaire's exile — Comes to England — Studies English literature — Influence of Bolingbroke on Voltaire's Lettres sur les Anglais — Voltaire's philosophical views — Extent of Bolingbroke's deistical opinions on Voltaire — Bolingbroke's literary tastes and literary friendships p. 181

CHAPTER X.

bolingbeoke's political, philosophical, and theological opinions.

Note on his political writings — Charge of inconsistency — His political aims in Anne's reign — His short period of Jacobitism — Hi a political theories when opposing Walpole — The Dissertation on Parties — His reconstruction of Toryism — The Patriot King — Its effect on the policy of George III. and on the future of Toryism — Bolingbroke a democratic Tory — Lord " Beaconsfield's opinion as to the value of his services to the Tory party — Bolingbroke's philosophical and religious opinions — His writings — Their uncritical and unhistorical character — Opinion of Lechler — The principles of the Deistic writers well illustrated from Bolingbroke's writings — Contempt for all dogmatic theologians — Importance of reason — Memory — Influence of the rationalistic point of view upon psychology — Bolingbroke's treatment of ethics and theology — ^His political theory p. 199

CONTENTS, XV

CHAPTER XI.

Conclusion

Bolingbroke seldom judged fairly — ^Why this is so — Hatred of Whigs — Attacks on his private life — Severe criticism of his public career — The Treaty of Utrecht a great work, and carried out by the Whigs — Walpole's appreciation of Bolingbroke's foreign policy — The questions of England's non-intervention on the Continent, of the importance of the navy, of the value of the Colonies treated of by Boliugbroke — Carries out Cromwell's policy — Unfair attitude of Johnson and Burke — The real value of Bolingbroke's writings— Popular view of his character— Its absurdity— Summary of his work— The interest still taken in his life — His claim to the title of " Great." , , • P« 222

HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE.

Chapter I

HENRY ST. JOHN'S YOUTH AND EARLY PARLIA- MENTARY SUCCESSES.

1678-1704.

Henry St. John's birth— Position of Louis XIV., 1678— State of Politics in England — The Manor House at Battersea — St. John's ancestors — Importance of the St. John family during the Great Rebellion — His Father — His early life at Battersea — Eton — Was he at Christ Church ? — His grand tour and residence at Paris — His marriage and entry into Parliament — His appearance and eloquence — Party struggles in 1701 and 1702 — The Protestant Succession and the balance of power in Europe — St. John takes a prominent position in the House of Commons — Impeachm-nt of the Whig Ministers— The Kentish Peiition— Louis XIV.'s recognition of the Pretender — Excitement in England — Death of "William III. — Declaration of War — St. John is made an Honorary Doctor at Oxford — Comparison of the views of the Whigs and Tories — The extreme Tories gradually cease to support the war — Godolpliiu and Marlborough look to the moderate Tories — Occasional Conformity Bill — Ashby versus White — Relations between the Lords and the Commons strained — St. John's violent conduct — Parliament prorogued, April, 1704:-i

Henry St. John was born at Battersea in October, 1678, and was baptized on the tenth of that month. The year of his birth augured a stormy future. In August, the

B

Peace of Nimeguen had been made, and Louis XIV. had reached the height of his power. During the next ten years, by his aggressive and ambitious pohcy, he endangered the balance of strength in Europe. St. John was destined to assist Marlborough in carrying out the operations employed so successfully to reduce the pretensions of the Bourbons, and to lower the pride of Louis Xiy. He was destined in 1712 to be received in France as the pacificator of Europe, as the statesman who would enable an exhausted country to make an honourable peace. That peace itself proved to be both the greatest monument of his fame and one of the principal reasons of his exile.

The events of the autumn of 1678 in England were no less destined to colour his whole future. The discovery of the so-called Popish Plot in August caused the wildest excitement. The impeachment of Danby, and the dissolution of the Long Parliament of the Restoration were followed, in 1679, by that endeavour to exclude the Duke of York from the Crown, which led to the formation of the Whig and Tory parties. The whole history of Bolingbroke's life, from his entry into Parliament in 1701 to his death in 1751, is, without any exaggeration, the history of the Tory party, of its triumph in 1710, of its failure in 1714, of its long years in the cold shade of Opposition, and finally of its re-construction.

His birth took place m the old Manor House, which was pleasantly situated near the Thames. " The family seat," wrote Hughson in 1808, in his ^' Circuit of London," " was a venerable structure, which contained forty rooms on a floor. The greatest part of the house was pulled down in 1778. The part left standing forms a dwellinghouse : one of the parlours fronting the Thames is lined with cedar, beautifully inlaid, and was the favourite study

EABLT FARLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 3

of Pope, the scene of many a literary conversation between him and his friend Bohno-broke."

c5

In this family mansion resided his grand-parents, Sir Walter St. John and Lady Joanna, with whom lived their son Henry St. John and his wife the Lady Mary, second daughter and joint heiress of the Earl of Warwick. On his mother's side the future Viscomit Bolingbroke could claim descent from the great family of D'Eu, distinguished in Normandy before the invasion of England by William the Conqueror. On his father's side he sprang from a race no less ancient or renowed. William St. John is said to have held an important post at the battle of Hastings, and one of his sons added to the wealth no less than to the glory of the name oF St. John by his prowess in the wars -against the Welsh? He was possessed of the Manor of Stanton St. John in Oxfordshire, and gave the site of the Convent at Goclstow. His great-granddaughter and heiress, Mabel, married Adam de Port, the Lord of Basing in Hampshire, a member of an old English family illustrious in pre-Norman times. The son of this marriage, William, took, in the reign of John, his mother's name, and styled himself William de St. John, Lord of Basing, and son and heir of Adam de Port

During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the family became prominent. In Henry III.'s reign, John St. John, who held the barony of Stanton, was appointed an itinerant justice for Oxfordshire, and his son Roger was killed at the battle of Evesham. Under Henry Y. Sir John St. John was Mayor of Bordeaux. In the reign of Henry VI. Oliver St. John married Lady Margaret Beauchamp, sister of Lord Beaucharap, and acquired the lordships of Bletso and of Lydiard Tregoze. On the death of her husband. Lady Margaret married the Duke of Somerset, and their

B 2 daughter, by her union with Edmund Tudor, Duke of Richmond, became the mother of Henry VIL The east window in Battersea Church, containing portraits of Henry VII., his grandmother Margaret Beauchamp, and Queen Elizabeth, still commemorates the alliance of the St. Johns with the Tudors. After the reign of Elizabeth, the two main branches into which the family was then divided, became very prominent in public life. Oliver St. John, Lord of Bletso, son of the first Lord St. John of Bletso, who was created a baron in 1559, was as Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire warned in 1614: on account of his coolness with reoard to the benevolence which James I. was attempting to levy in the counties. His son Oliver was created by James in 1624 the first Earl of Bolingbroke, and, during his lifetime, Charles I. elevated his son to the House of Lords as St. John of Bletso. In spite of these marks of royal favours, the Earl showed a '' mutinous disposition." In 1626, when Charles attempted to raise a forced loan, fifteen or sixteen of the Peers, among whom was Bolingbroke, refused to lend ; and later both father and son espoused heartily the Parliamentary cause, the Earl being one of the Peers who were " all of the Presbyterian dye." During the Civil War the Earl acted as a commissioner of the Admiralty, and, after figuring as a member of the Assembly of Divines and as a Joint Commissioner of the Great Seal, died in 1646. His son was killed at Edgehill, leaving two sons, each of whom succeeded in turn to the family honours. The elder, who married a daughter of the Duke of Newcastle, died in 1689, and the younger in 1711. Both seem to have taken considerable part in the ordinary county business of Bedfordshire. The peerage which became extinct in 1711, was revived in 1712 in the person of Henry St. John^ the subject of this memoir.

EABLY PABLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 5

During the seventeenth century, the younger line, which held Lydiard Tregoze, was also winning renown. A turbulent member of the family, Oliver St. John, distinguished himself in the Irish wars of Elizabeth and of James I., was appointed a Commissioner for the settlement of Ulster, and ruled Ireland as Lord Deputy from 1614 to 1622, becoming in 1621 an Irish Peer with a title of Viscount Grandison. In 1624 he was one of the Council of War in England, and in 1626 he was created an Eno^lish Peer with the title of Baron Treo^oze, receiving grants of the manors of Battersea and Wandsworth.

His great-nephew William, second Viscount Grandison, is well known to readers of Clarendon. After fiofhtinogallantly for the king, he died in 1644 at Oxford of wounds received at the siege of Bristol, and left the Battersea estates to his uncle Sir John St. John. Three of Sir John's sons died for the Crown, and after the death of a grandson the family estates reverted to a younger son of Sir John, Walter, who married Joanna, daughter of Oliver St. John, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

This Oliver, grandson of Thomas, a younger son of the first Lord St. John of Bletso, had as a young lawyer shown as early as 1629 a strong disposition to support the cause of Parliament. He became famous in 1637 as the defender of John Hampden in the case of Ship Money. In the autumn of 1640 he and Pym drew up the Petition of the Twelve Peers for a Parliament, and, in spite of his appointment by Charles to the post of Solicitor-General, remained true to his principles, took a prominent part in attacking Strafford, and supported all the violent measures of the Long J Parliament. In 1648 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He occupied an

6 EENB Y ST. JOHN, VISCO UNT BOLINOBBOKE.

influential position during Cromwell's Protectorate, and on Cromwell's death was named one of the Council of State.

The marriage of his daughter Joanna to Sir Walter St. John seemed destined to restore harmony in the faYnily. In the Manor House at Battersea the Lady Joanna's grandson Henry St. John was brought up. The memory of Sir Walter and Lady Joanna lingered long in Battersea. By the former the church was repaired and a free school founded and endowed. In 1708 Sir Walter died, leaving behind him a character for moderation, kindliness, and public spirit. His wife, the patroness of celebrated preachers like Simon Patrick, of learned theologians like Dr. Manton, and of eccentric Nonconformists like Daniel Burgess, seems to have been of a sterner type than her husband. In her was exemplified the stern puritanical spirit of the Parliamentary lawyer.

Under the care of these worthy people, Henry St. John passed his early years. Of his mother we know little. When he was but six years old his father, who led an idle life of pleasure, killed in a brawl Sir William Estcourt, pleaded guilty, and with difficulty secured the king's pardon. He seems to have been indifferent to politics, and took no part in the party quarrels of Anne's reign. In the autumn of 1710, just after the appointment of St. John to the post of Secretary of State, at a most exciting epoch in English history, Swift wrote to Stella that St. John's father " is a man of pleasure, that walks the Mall, and frequents St. James Coffee House, and the chocolate houses, and the young son is principal Secretary of State." In 1716, when his brilliant son was an exile, he was created Baron St. John of Battersea, and died in 1742, after a placid life extending over ninety years.

EARLY PABLIAMENTAIiY SUCCESSES. 7

On the death of his first wife he had married Angelica Magdalene, daughter of George Pillesary, described as the Treasurer-General of the French Marines, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. The eldest son George acted as Secretary to the English plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Utrecht, and had the honour of bringing over to England the final draft of the Treaty, He died shortly afterwards and his brother John succeeded to his expectations. Frederick, the son of this John, inherited in 1751 the honours which the author of the Treaty of Utrecht had obtained, and became Viscount Bolingbroke ; from him is descended the present Viscount.

A gloomy picture has been drawn by some writers of the early life of Henry St. John. He may have been for a time under the care of Daniel Burgess, who, though a Nonconformist, was far from being a sour fanatic. He himself tells us that he was at times condemned to read the works of Dr. Manton. In a letter to Pope he says : —

"It puts me in mind of a Paritanical parson, Dr. Manton, who, if I mistake not — for I have never looked at the fulio since I was a boy, and condemned sometimes to read in it — made a hundred and nineteen eermons on tlie cxis. psalm," And, writing to Swift in 1721, hs threatens to make his next letter as long as one of Dr. Manton's, '• who taught my youth to yawn, and prepared me to he ail High Churchmau, that I might never hear him read, nor read him more."

But beyond this fact all that is known of Sir Waiter and Lady Joanna would lead to the conclusion that the young Henry's early years were passed under kind and thoughtful guardianship. Of his school days at Eton little information can be gleaned. Walpole w-as one of his schoolfellows, and Horace Walpole, in his Memoirs of the 'Reign of George II., states that " they had set out as rivals at school." As Walpole was two years St. John's senior, this statement must, in the absence of other evidence, be received with caution. After some years at Eton, St. John, it is usually stated, proceeded to Christ Church and remained there some years. Some writers, in unhistorical flights of fancy, have ventured to describe in some detail his life at College. But of his residence at Oxford there is no absolute proof The tradition that he was at Christ Church is, however, strong, and is repeated by almost all his biographers. In a letter written from Windsor Castle to the Duke of Shrewsbury on December the 3rd, 1713, Bolingbroke says : " As to Dr. Friend, I have known him long, and cannot be without some partiality for him, since he was of Christ Church." In the autumn of 1702, on the occasion of the Queen's visit to Oxford, many of the leading Tories were made honorary Doctors. Among these was St. John, and he was then entered on the books of Christ Church. It has been suggested that, in consequence of this honour paid to him, he was accustomed to call himself a Christ Church man, but that as a matter of fact he never had resided in Oxford. Nevertheless, in the absence of positive evidence, it is still possible that the tradition may be true, and that St. John did study for a time at Oxford. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries students frequently worked in Oxford without joining a college. Antony Wood states distinctly that in his own day many who came to Oxford not intending to graduate did not matriculate. Poor scholars would follow this course to avoid expense, and a boy of good family like St John, who came to Oxford with his own tutor, or who read with a tutor of some College, would not necessarily matriculate or live in College. His name would therefore not appear on the Buttery List. Sir Philip Sidney is always said to have

EABLT PABLIAMENTABY SUCCESSES. 9

been at Christ Church, but his name is not to be found in any of the books of the University or of Christ Church. Sir Harry Vane studied in Oxford, but did not matriculate ; Davenant the poet is said to have been of Lincoln College, because his tutor was a Fellow of Lincoln. There is, however, no evidence that he matriculated. It may then be true that St. John came to Oxford, studied with a Christ Church tutor, never lived within the walls of Christ Church, and left Oxford without having matriculated. He would be spoken of as being of Christ Church, and might consider himself a Christ Church man.

There is little doubt that during these early years he acquired a considerable knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, especially of the latter ; aided by an unusually good memory, and by remarkable* powers of concentration, he managed, in all probability before he was twenty years of age, to make himself thoroughly conversant with most of the best Latin authors. One of the most striking characteristics of St. John is his readiness to turn from politics or pleasure to hard study. In 1708 he buried himself with his books in the country. After the failure of 1715 he left Paris to study philosophy in the heart of France. In 1735, disappointed with the course of his struggle against Walpole, he again withdrew to France, where he wrote some of his masterpieces.

In 1697 he was in London, where for some months he led a riotous life in imitation of his cousin John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, who had lately died. His sympathy with literature and literary men was even then evidenced by the intimate relations he formed with Dryden. Prefixed to the translation of Virgil which appeared in July, 1/97, was a poetical composition in the shape of some verses of little merit, bearing the signature " H. St. John." The existence of the well-known legends that St, John received

10 MENBY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBBOKE,

one morning from the hands of Dryden the manuscript of the Ode to St. Cecilia s Bay, and that on another day he was urged to outstay Jacob Tonson, from whom the poet apprehended some rudeness, seems to attest the truth of Pope's statement that St. John was at this time Dryden's friend and protector.

In the autumn of 1697 he left England for a Continental tour of two years. A portion of the tiiue was spent in Italy, but it is probable that he lived the greater part of 1698 and 1699 in Paris, where Lord Jersey, the Eng-lish Ambassador and a descendant of Viscount Grandison, introduced him to Parisian life and society. There he met Matthew Prior, then Secretary to the Embassy, who was destined to play an important part under St. John in bringing about the Peace of Utrecht. The thorough mastery of the French tongue which St. John acquired during his stay in Paris proved a most invaluable accomplishment during the years he was Secretary of State.