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ROBERT HARLEY,

EARL OF OXFORD AND MORTIMER.*

[1661-1724.]

ROBERT, the eldest son of Sir Edward Harley, was born in Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, December 5, 1661, and received his education under the Rev. Mr. Birch at Shilton near Burford in Oxfordshire which, though a private school, was remarkable for having produced at the same time a Lord High Treasurer, Lord Oxford; a Chancellor, Lord Harcourt; a Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Lord Trevor; and ten members of the House of Commons. Here he laid the foundation of those extensive acquirements, which rendered him subsequently so conspicuous.

At the Revolution, in conjunction with his father, he raised a troop of horse for the service of the Prince of Orange; and after the accession of the new Sovereigns, he was elected Member first for Tregony in Cornwall, and afterward for Radnor in South Wales, which he continued to

* AUTHORITIES. Collins' Lives of the Earls of Oxford, Biographia Britannica, Birch's Lives, and Tindal's Continuation of Rapin.

represent till he was called up to the House of Lords.

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In 1690, he was chosen by ballot one of the nine Commissioners for Stating the Public Accounts; and, also, one of the Arbitrators for uniting the two India Companies. Four years afterward, the Commons appointed him to prepare and bring in a bill, For the frequent meeting and calling of parliaments, which was adopted by both Houses without alteration. In 1702, he was elected Speaker; an honour, which he subsequently received both in the ensuing parliament of King William, and the first of Queen Anne.

In 1704, he was sworn of her Majesty's Privy Council; and soon afterward constituted one of the principal Secretaries of State.*

In 1706, he was appointed one of the Commissioners for the treaty of Union with Scotland; and in 1710, on the dismission of Earl Godolphin, † Commissioner of the Treasury, and Chancellor and Under Treasurer of the Exchequer. In this situation, he accomplished for Swift, as agent for the Irish prelacy, the grant of the First Fruits and Tenths to the Clergy of Ireland, which had been for many years solicited in vain. Throughout the whole business, he paid a particular attention to the honour of his friend, whom he extremely loved.‡

*This office, in which he succeeded Daniel, Earl of Nottingham, he resigned in 1708, under the influence of the intrigues of the Lords Marlborough and Godolphin.

+ The fall of this nobleman brought on the removal of all his friends. This accounts for the bitter portrait drawn of Harley by the Duchess of Marlborough in the Account of her Conduct,' &c.

See the Extracts.

In 1711, he incurred great danger of his life; the Abbé de la Bourlie* (commonly called, the Marquis of Guiscard) a Frenchman, while under examination before the Privy Council for high treason, having stabbed him with a penknife.† Upon this, the assassin was committed to Newgate, where he died within a few days. During his confinement he confessed, that his intention was to have murthered Mr. St. John (afterward Viscount Bolingbroke) at that time one of the Secretaries of State, on account of his activity in the conviction of one Greg for a treasonable correspondence with France.' Greg and Guiscard were both, it appears, in the pay of that country; and Harley had been the first detector of Greg's designs. The only reason, however, assigned by Guiscard for stabbing the latter, who had changed seats with St. John (so that he could not reach the

*This man had solicited to be employed against his country in several courts of Europe, obtained at length a commission from Queen Anne, and embarked in an expedition which miscarried. His expectations being disappointed by the new ministry, he endeavoured to make his peace at home by acting here as a spy, and commenced a treasonable correspondence. His letters were intercepted, and produced to him at his examination by Mr. Harley.

+ See the Examiner, No. xxxiii. March 15, 1710-11; and The true Narrative of what passed at the Examination of the Marquis de Guiscard,' in Swift's Works, iv. 201-222. Swift addressed an extempore tetrastich, upon this flagitious event, to his physician:

On Britain Europe's safety lies;
Britain is lost, if Harley dies:
Harley depends upon your skill,

Think what you save, or what you kill.'

Prior, also, shed some "melodious tears on the same occasion."

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latter) was, that he thought it some satisfaction to kill his dearest friend.*

An Act of Parliament was soon afterward passed, making it felony without benefit of clergy to attempt the life of a Privy Councillor in the execution of his office; and a clause was inserted, to indemnify all persons who, in assisting to defend Mr. Harley, had given any wound or bruise to the Sieur de Guiscard, whereby he received his death. Both Houses of Parliament addressed the Queen upon this occasion, and received from her Majesty an answer, in which she spoke of Mr. Harley's zeal and fidelity in her service, and his known opposition to Popery and faction, as having instigated the "horrid endeavour."

He was confined by his wound for several weeks, before he was able to resume his attendance upon his parliamentary duty.

In 1711, with a view of rewarding his exertions, her Majesty created him Baron Harley of Wigmore in the county of Hereford, Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mortimer; with remainder, in default

* This sanguinary attempt the dependents of the new ministry, in the libels of the day, attempted to charge upon the whigparty, who had lately been dismissed from all public employments: but the villain, it was proved, had no connexion with any man of consequence in the kingdom, and was only a common wretch in the service of the French ministry.

By this dearest friend,' in a letter to Swift, dated August 11, 1714, Harley is thus characterised: "I shall never forgive myself for having trusted, so long, to so much real pride and awkward humility; to an air of such familiar friendship, and a heart so void of all tenderness; to such a temper of engrossing business and power, and so perfect an incapacity to manage one, with such a tyrannical disposition to abuse the other, &c."

of male issue of his own body, to the heirs male of Sir Robert Harley, K. B., his grandfather.*

In the same year, likewise, he was appointed Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain; and on his taking the usual oaths, Sir Simon Harcourt, Lord Keeper, made him the following speech:

66 MY LORD,

"The Queen, who does every thing with the greatest wisdom, has given a proof of it in the honours she has lately conferred on you, which are exactly suited to your deserts and qualifications. My Lord, the title which you now bear could not have been so justly placed on any other of her Majesty's subjects. Some of that ancient blood, which fills your veins, is derived from the Veres; and you have shown yourself as ready to sacrifice it for the safety of your prince and the good of your country, and as fearless of danger on the most trying occa sions, as ever any of that brave and loyal house were. Nor is that title less suited to you, as it carries in it a relation to one of the chief seats of learning; for even your enemies, my Lord, if any such there still are, must own that the love of letters, and the encouragement of those who excel in them, is one distinguishing part of your character.

"My Lord, the high station of Lord Treasurer of Great Britain, to which her Majesty has called you,

* Upon this occasion Le Sack, the famous French dancingmaster (as Swift related, from the statement of Oxford himself) exclaimed, "Well, I wonder what the Queen could see in him; for I attended him two years, and he was the greatest dunce that ever I taught."

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