the studies he had neglected. His learning was crude and undigested, but the mass was great, and as he always possessed the strong art of displaying every qualification in the most advantageous view, his companions considered him as resembling Chrichton as deeply in his acquirements as he certainly did in his dissipation. When he left them, they looked after him with anxious expectations as he immerged into the world: none doubted that he was destined to perform a distinguished part in the great drama of his age.'-As a writer, it may be said of Bolingbroke, that he was considered by the unanimous consent of his contemporaries, as in no wise inferior even to those who were esteemed the first models of their age. His style was said to possess all the graces and elegance of Addison's, and the idiomatic purity of Swift's; while it surpassed them both in the majestic flow of its eloquence, and in the tasteful richness of its decorations. Pope said, Lord Bolingbroke was much the best writer of the age.' Chesterfield says, Bolingbroke talked all day long, as elegantly as he wrote.'* As an orator he stood pre-eminent and unapproached. To the knowledge of a statesman, and the attainments of a philosopher, he added all the graces of the courtier: the fascinating powers of his conversation, and the almost boundless stores of his intellectual wealth, were acknowledged by all. He ought to have been the greatest man of his age. The man gifted with the greatest variety of the highest qualities which nature could bestow, or education improve; one who seemed born to occupy a commanding situation, and exercise that powerful influence which superior genius possesses over common minds. Ingenium cui sit, cui mens divinior, atque os Hear what Swift says of him,t in the commencement of his political career: I think Mr. St. John the greatest young man I ever knew. Wit, capacity, beauty, quickness of apprehension, good learning, and an excellent taste; the best orator in the House of Commons, admirable conversation, goodnature, and good manners; generous, and a despiser of money. This is his character. In after life, Pope speaks of him, as of a being almost elevated above the level of mortality, Lord Bolingbroke is something superior to any thing I have seen in human nature. You know I don't deal much in hyperboles; I quite think him what I say. When a man is much above the rank of men, (he had been speaking of Bolingbroke,) who can he have to converse with?.... Nobody knows half the extent of his excellencies but two or three of his most intimate friends..... There is one thing in Lord Bolingbroke which seems peculiar to himself. He has so great a memory as well as judgment, that if he is alone and without books, he can sit down by himself, and refer to the books, or such a particular subject in them, in his own mind; and write as fully on it, as another man would with all his books about him. He sits like an intelligence, and recollects all the question within himself.' I really think there is something in that great man which looks as if he were placed here by mistake. There is so; and when the comet appeared to us a month or two ago, I had sometimes an Doctor Parr, in his Warburtonian Tracts, speaks of “hanging with rapture over the gorgeous declamation of Bolingbroke." But Bolingbroke's style possessed a great variety of excellence; and was as perspicuous when the subject demanded, as it was ornamented and elaborate when he chose to soar away in praise of friendship, and virtue, and patriotism, and give the thoughts of Seneca in the language of Tully. + See Journal to Stella, vol. xv. p. 176, ed. Nichols. See Spence's Anecdotes, in various places. imagination, that it might possibly be come to our world to carry him home, as a coach comes to one's door for other visiters.' If something, in the stern severity of truth, is to be taken from these transcendent eulogies, and given, as perhaps justly, to the tenderness of established friendship, and the generous warmth of the poet's affectionate heart,* yet enough will remain to convince us of the real existence of those rare excellencies which could excite the boundless admiration of so wise a man, and so accurate an observer of human nature as Pope; and the rapid decline, and indeed all but total extinction of this fullblown and exalted fame, may be traced to causes, other than the supposition, that what was so lavishly bestowed, is now by a too-tardy justice recalled; and that time has made a more correct estimate than friendship, of the value of Bolingbroke's princely reputation. We should rather advance other opinions upon the subject; and while we confess that neither the intrinsic excellencies that shine through many of his works, nor the candid, able, and well-written biography of Mr. Cooke, (the first and only one that deserves that name,) will avail to rescue his reputation from the indifference which has fallen on it, we believe the causes to be such as we shall now enumerate. We do not speak of the growing neglect in our days, so obvious, as to strike all who have turned their attention to the subject, towards those illustrious writers, whose works have given the high title of "the Augustan age" to that in which they lived; an indifference which has almost closed the pages of Addison, and Swift, and Middleton; and which has made a too partial exception in the case of Pope, from the oblivion that has fallen on the companions and rivals of his song; not to say how far the exquisite and refined graces of Bolingbroke's style (once so admired, and wrought ont with so much genius and labour), the dazzling splendour of his composition, and the stately march of his measured prose, may be now comparatively disregarded or unfelt: putting aside the consideration, that in the present day, the fine modulations and cunningly wrought harmonies, both of poetry and prose, have lost the charm which they once possessed; because, it may be said, that this objection does not act exclusively or more emphatically on the works of Bolingbroke, than of any of his contemporaries; we should attribute the decline of his fame to the following causes:— First, that as a statesman there is nothing in his short and, we must call it, his most inglorious ministry, that would call for the admiration of the historian, or detain him amid the selfish intrigues, and low jealousies, dishonourable factions, and unconstitutional designs of a divided dominion; when he was hastening on to the contemplation of the long and successful administration of his more politic and more judicious rival. The distrust, the contempt, the stifled hatred, and, at length, the avowed enmity to Harley,-+the ambi Spence told Dr. J. Warton, that Bolingbroke bent over the chair of the dying poet, and, looking earnestly down upon him, repeated several times, interrupted with sobs, Oh! great God! what is man!' I never saw a person who had so tender a heart for his particular friends, or a warmer benevolence for all mankind. His lordship's melancholy attitude, says Spence, on the morning of the 21st, was remarkable, leaning against Pope's chair and crying over him for a considerable time, with more concern than can be expressed. + Swift plainly mentions that the first misunderstanding between Harley and St. John arose from some intrigues or indiscretions of the latter, during Harley's illness from his assassinatión. I am not altogether sure that Mr. St. John did not entertain some prospect of succeeding as first minister in case of Harley's death,' &c. his last years of Queen Anne. Neither the exact cause of Harley and St. John's See guous correspondence with Marlborough,*-the mysterious connexion with the Pretender; these might find either an apology or defence from the friendly historian of his acts; but a darker shadow is cast over that short and melancholy period when Bolingbroke held the reins of power, when we recollect that through him the arm of Marlborough was arrested in its proud career of victory, and his sword forced back into its scabbard; and the ambition of France again let loose to deform and desolate the world. Louis the XIV. was lost, said the King of Prussia, if Marlborough had held his power two years more; that through him, in the face of the most solemn engagements and the most binding treaties, the old and faithful allies of Great Britain were deserted by her; and that the inglorious Peace of Utrecht remains an opprobrious monument of the violence of faction, the dread of rivals, and the lust of power, prevailing over the principles of duty, his own integrity, his sovereign's honour, his country's glory, and the interests of Europe. Bolingbroke fell, the victim of his own dark ambition, and his acknowledged perfidy; † and in the unceasing struggle of a long and anxious life, in honour and dishonour, in apostacy, and in repentance, in exile or at home, by flattering promises, or by threatened vengeance, he never was able to regain the pre-eminence he had lost, or to wrest the rod of power from the strong and skilful hands of his more cautious rival, and his determined and implacable foe. As a Statesman, therefore, no longer considered, still there might have remained to Bolingbroke, it may be said, a glory of another kind, and that was pre-eminently his own; he might have been known to posterity as the rival of Demosthenes, or Tully, as the greatest orator of his age, 'When listening Senates hung on all he spoke.' Who has not heard with admiration of the influence which this extraordinary man is reported to have exerted over the senate, by the splendour of his eloquence, the vigour and force of his arguments, the brilliancy of his imagery, the variety and beauty of his illustrations, his constitutional knowledge, and his captivating address? All these were pre-eminently his own; and these justify the high eulogies, which men of the first attainments in his own art, have been anxious to pronounce. Burnet, a man of course in no way friendly to him, confesses that his eloquence was superhuman; and Mr. Pitt, being in company with certain friends, each of whom was expressing a particular wish that he was anxious to fulfil,-one said he should like to see the lost books of Livy, another a specimen of an ancient comedy; Mr. Pitt said, that upon the whole he should prefer to see a violent rupture, nor the disgrace of Harley, and the anger of the Queen, are known; they probably both arose from secret intrigues of Harley; but how far culpable, beyond the point of endeavouring to maintain his power and party, cannot be said. Harley may have had correspondence, both at St. Germains and Hanover, that St. John was not admitted to; and the Queen may have expected more from Lord Oxford in favour of her brother, than he ever designed to give; and may have unexpectedly become acquainted with his intercourse with a successor she disliked: and in this double disappointment, the outbreak of her heavy displeasure and complaints MAY have arisen. See a note by Mr Rose, in Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 192. In his correspondence with Mr. Drummond of Amsterdam, (see the edition by Mr. G. Parke) where Bolingbroke mentions Marlborough, he calls him- that great man;' and his character of him in Marchmont Papers, vol. i. p. 214. † Lord Bolingbroke's father said to him, on his being made lord, Ah, Harry! I ever said you would be hanged, but now I find you will be beheaded.' See the Unhappy Consequences of the Peace of Utrecht, justly given in Coxe's Life of Sir R. Walpole, vol. i. p. 26. speech of Bolingbroke. Such was that great statesman's opinion (himself an orator of the highest class) of Bolingbroke's extraordinary eloquence, shown as it was in his speeches in Parliament; and not without evidence to its value, in the success of his skilful negociations, and his great influ- • ence at the different courts of Europe. Mr. Cooke says,-*" It is said, that, in the delivery of his speeches, there were occasional pauses of reflections; but when he had recovered and arranged his ideas, as he clothed them in words, his language flowed on without either hurry or hesitation, in a copious stream of eloquence which equally delighted the ear and convinced the judgment. In all the arts of oratory he seems to have been endowed with a natural proficiency; and even the tactics of debate were not in him the acquirements of experience. When the weakness of a cause was to be disguised, or the attention of the audience withdrawn from its examination, the wit of the orator shot like a star-shoot athwart the debate; but when the arguments of an adversary were to be sifted and his fallacies exposed, he discovered a wonderful power of analysing his subject at a single glance, and of almost instantly discovering its capabilities of attack and defence. He united in his reply a subtlety of reasoning, a profundity of thinking, and a solidity of judgment, which fixed attention and commanded admiration." Yet is all this treasure of eloquence lost to us. Not a report of a single speech remains! The lightning of his winged mind' has faded away; the playful corruscations of his genius and wit, and the awful thunders of his indignant and glowing oratory are alike gone. We have only, alas! left-the firm conviction of the reality and magnitude of our loss stat magni nominis umbra.' As regards his metaphysical speculations, and his deistical diatribes, they have long since been' where Chubb and Tindal rest.' They have ceased to disturb the consciences, awaken the scruples, or perplex the judgment, of the pious and timid Christian the weakness of his arguments, the inaccuracy of his speculations, and the imperfection of his knowledge, were seen and acknowledged even in his own day, and by his most zealous admirers and friends. Pope acknowledged, that in matters of theology and discussion on religion he was but a common man. If ever he trifles, it must be when he turns divine.' Warburton attacked him in his violent and intemperate manner; but Leland subsequently examined his objections with patience, and refuted them with candour and knowledge. * See Life, vol. i. p. 20. + See also Lord Cornbury's excellent letter to Mallet, which does him great honour, (vide Cooke's Life, vol. ii. p. 256) on the subject of religion particularly (whatever was the reason that inflamed his passions upon that subject chiefly, his passions were then most strong;) and I will venture to say (when called upon to do it), what I have said more than once to himself, with the deference due to his age and extraordinary talents, his passions upon that subject did prevent his otherwise superior reason from seeing, that even in a political light only he hurt himself and wounded society, by striking at establishments upon which the conduct at least of society depends, and by striving to overturn in their minds the systems which experience at least has justified, and which at least has rendered respectable, as necessary to public order and private peace, without suggesting to men's minds a better or indeed any system.' See a very elegant Criticism on the Philosophical Works of Bolingbroke, in Mr. Ward's Tremaine, vol. iii. p. 316-334; and Rose's excellent Note in Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 230. his character and abilities, see Social Life of England and France, by Miss Berry, p. 303. The anonymous letter to Warburton, on his treatment of Bolingbroke in his View of his Philosophy, was by the great Lord Mansfield. M. de St. Lambert composed an Essay on the Life and Works of Lord Bolingbroke, at the request of Lord Cornbury. See his Posthumous Works. On Pope was once shocked to hear Warburton and Spence discoursing on Bolingbroke's denial of the attributes of the Deity. Those who have not Leland's work at hand, will derive satisfaction from the very able manner in which Mr. Cooke has conducted his arguments, but which are far too extended for us either to extract or abridge, as they occupy nearly fifty pages of his volume. The best that can be said of these works of Bolingbroke is, that the disposition of his arguments is often managed with considerable skill; and that his language is, as usual, copious, elegant, and flowing. The political pamphlets which he gave to the world on different occasions, and the various treatises either published in self-defence, or for the purpose of embarrassing and wounding his enemies, and his exposition of the true interest and of the designs of the European states, perhaps at present form the most valuable part of his writings. Lord Bolingbroke's strength (says Goldsmith) lay in the province of politics; for as a philosopher and critic he was ill qualified, being destitute of virtue for the one, and of learning for the other. His writings against Walpole are comparatively the best part of his works. The personal and perpetual antipathy he had for that family, to whose places he thought his own abilities had a right, gave a glow to his style and an edge to his manner, that has never been yet equalled in political writing. His misfortunes and disappointments gave his mind a turn which his friends mistook for philosophy, and at one time of his life he had the art to impose the same belief on some of his enemies. His idea of a patriot king, which I reckon (as indeed it was) amongst his writings against Walpole, is a masterpiece of diction. Even in his other works his style is excellent; but where a man either does not or will not understand the subject he writes on, there must always be a deficiency. In politics, he was generally master of what he undertook, in morals never. His letter to Windham is one of the most curious of his works. and gave, as it has been truly said, a deadly and incurable blow to the folly and madness of Jacobitism, and is also of great value as regards the history of the times. Mr. Cooke says-' Had this work alone survived, it would have sufficed to place its author among the first writers of the age, and among the classic authors of his country. The forcible argument, the clear narrative, and the polished style, which distinguish this production, will be admired as long as the language in which it is written will last. It will be studied with equal pleasure as a portion of history which is no where else to be obtained, and as a piece of elegant composition which has seldom been surpassed.'* Warburton said, that his Occasional Writer,' (the first stroke in his long-continued pursuit against Walpole,) is one of the best things Bolingbroke ever wrote. His papers in the Craftsman' are pointed with all the keenness of political invective; and his letters on English History, uuder the name of Oldcastle, will be read with interest and instruction, even now that the ingenuity of the parallelisms, the poignancy of the satire, and the felicity of the allusions are no longer sought for or enjoyed. I am not sure,' says an author who has chosen a fictitious narrative† as a channel to convey some historic truth, whether the most brilliant passages, the most noble illustrations, the most profound reflections, and the most useful truths, are not to be gathered from the least popular of Bolingbroke's writings-his political tracts. The correspondence of the retired philoso * See Cooke's Life, vol. ii. p. 26. + See Devereux, vol. iii. p. 9. There were a great many MSS. letters of Bolingbroke in the possession of the |