Of ^-UBRARYQ^ ^OJITVDJO^ aWEUNIVEM/a ^lOSAMaj> <013DWSO^ '^3AINA 3\\V ^ Nf? ^OFCAUFO/?^ aWEMIW/v ^lOSANCEL^ c ^.OfCAUFO^ ^OFCAUFOty^ %fl3AIN(H\W ^ahvhsiit^ ^AHvaan-v^ 1 ^tUBRARYtf/ ^ ^OJITCHO^ o %133NVS0^ vN $dOSANGElf.; ^3AINaWV iva! AWEUNIVER% ^U)VANGflij> ^ajmwih^ - ^lOSANGElfr^ ^WEUHIVER% ^clOSANCEU^x, ^laoKvsoi^ %ji3mm-3v\v <$UIBf 5 DO so IT 'I ^cios-AHcnau. 2 *%3AiN(Ht\v ^HIBRARYQ* #-UBRAHY0r. ^OFCALIF(% ^OFCALIFOfy* ^AHvaam^ y 0Auvnan-iS^ i =3 ^lUBRARYQr ^QFCAilF(% %Awaaiv# AWEUNIVERS/a v^lOSANCEl% o %)JIW3J0^ c:< x :>z:-::::< >: The Compiler has been favoured, by the Marquis of Buckingham (a name dear to Lite* rature and to the Arts) with the Original of the following Letter of Lord Clarendon, addrefTed to the Juftices of the Peace for the County of Buckingham; which, from the excellent fenfe it contains, and the good advice it gives, feems par- ticularly fuited to the fituation of affairs in thefe. tjmes of alarm and danger *, * Jn the Summer of 1794" I ANECDOTES OF SOMB ,c MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN, ct HIS Majeftie being well afiured, as well by ** the confeflion of fome defperate perfons lately ** apprehended, as by other credible informations, ur example, you may imitate what is applica- 4 * ble to your condition in the world, and endca- ** vour to avoid thofe- misfortunes we have pafled * through, if God plcafes. " Kndtravour to be innocent as a dove, but as 11 wife as a ferpent ; and let this leffon direct you <* mod in the greater extremes of fortune: " H.;tC DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 1J * Hate idlenefs, and avoid all paflions. Be true in 44 your words and actions. Unneceflarily deliver '* not your opinion; but when you do* let it be H juftj confident, and plain. Be charitable in thought, word, and deed, and ever ready to H forgive injuries done to yoUrfelf; and be more " pleafed to do good than to receive good. Be * l civil and obliging to all (dutiful where God and " nature command you), but a friend to one ; and " that friendfhip keep facred, as the greateft ti " upon earth ; and be fure to ground it upon " Virtue, for no other is either happy or lafting. ** Endeavour always to be content in that ftate " of life to which it hath pleafed God to call you; ** and think it a great fault not to improve your " time, either for the good of your foul, or the ** improvement of your underftanding, health, or ** eftate ; and as thefe are themoft pleafant paftimes, * l foever). He was very obliging to all, and \ w lives j our fouls were wrapped up in each other; * our aims and defigns were one ; our loves one i, " our refentments. one. We fo ftudied one the *' other, that we knew each other's minds by our " looks. Whatever was real happinefs, God gave *' it to me in him. But to commend my better " half (which I want fufficient expreiuon for), " methinks is to commend myfelf, and fo may bear " a cenfure. But might it be permitted, I could *' dwell eternally on his praife moft juftly. But " thus without offence I do, and fo you may-r- "'imitate him in his patience, "his prudence, his tl chaftity, his charity, his generoftty, his perfect: " fefignation to God's will; and praife God for M him as long as you live here, and be with him " hereafter in the kingdom of Heaven." LADT FANSILUVK. incomparable woman wrote the Memoirs of her Life, which contain many curious anecdotes of herfelf and her.hufband and of the great per-' foliage's of the times : unfortunately, however, for the lovers of truth, of nature, and of fimplicity, ' they remain in MS. The following beautiful picture of connubial affecYio'n Jblcndcd with good ; c 2 fenfe 22 ANECDOTES OF SOME Cenfc and good -humour, might well be appended, as an additional chapter to Xenophon's excellent Treatife on " (Economics j or, The Duties of r a Wife." (i One day, ih difcourfe, Lady ! 1 tacitly " commended the knowledge of State affairs, and 44 that fome women were very happy in a good tc underfianding the;cof, as my Lady A. LadyS. w Mrs. T. and divers others, and that for it it nobody was at firft more capable than myfelf " That In the night me knew there came a poit tc from Paris from the Queen*, and that (he " would be extremely glad to hear what the P Queen commanded the Kihg in order to his t{ affairs ; faying, that if I would aflc my hufband XK privately, he would tell me what he found in the ' packet, and I might tell her. I, that was young " and innocent, and to that day never had in my < mouth ' What news ? ' began to think there " was more in enquiring into bufinefs of public " affairs than I thought of, and that being a '* fafhionable thing , it would make me more beloved " of my hufband (if that had been poffible) than I a was. After my hufband returned home from 11 Council, after welcoming him (as my cuftom i Henrietta-Maria, wife to Charles I. u ever DISTIK-CUISI1ED PERSONS. 2J ** ever was), he went with his hand full of papers *' into his ftudy for an hour or more. I followed *' him.- He turned haitily, and faid, What < wouldft thou have, my life? I told him, I " heard the Prince had received a packet from the *' Queen, and i gueffed it that in his hand, and i " defired to know what was in it. He fmiling Li replied, My love, I will immediately come to " thee j pray thee go, for J am very bufy. When if he came out of his clofet, I refumed my fuit $ " he killed me, and talked of .other things. At *' fupper I would eat nothing. He (as ufuajly) f l fat by me, and drank often to me (which was u his cuftom)., and was full of difcourfe to conj<- * pany that was at table. Going to bed I aflcetf " him again, and faid, I could not believe he loved u me, if he refufed to tell me all lie knew; buthf lace between Lady Fanfhawe and her hufband, in a voyage they made together from Gal way to Malaga, in the fpring of the year 1649. ** We purfued our voyage with prosperous * c winds, but a mofttempeftuousmafter, a Dutch - 4 roan (which is enough to fay), but truly, I <* think, the greatcft beaft I ever faw of his kind. U When we had juft pafled the Straits, we faw " coming towards us, with full fails, a Turkifh ** galley well manned, and we believed we fhould "" be carried away flaves j for this man had fo laden . . his "-his -(hip with- goods for Spain, that bjsguns; were : your et >dt3r Mother's death,, the gxeateft his that ever. 3? -'ANKCfcOTM Of SOME ' " * yet befel you ! I am not only deprived of * * kind and loving confort, but you alfo arc ct bereaved of the moft indulgent mother that * ever dear children had. But we muft comfort c * ourfelves in God with this confederation, that *' the lols is or.ly ours, and that what is our forrow *< is her gain: the confederation of her joys, which <* I do afiiire myftlf are unutterable, fhould refresh * our drooping fpirits. " * Mv dear hearts, your blcfled mother lived " a moft holy life, and made* a moft comfortable ** and happy end, and is now inverted with a fa crown of righteouliicfs. I think that it may* ** be ufeful to you to have a narrative of your h dear mother's virtues,- that by the knowledge ** thereof you may learn to imitate her excellent c qualities. 41 In the firff place, let me recommend to you M her piety and" devotion ( which were according H to the exat principles of the Church of f* England). .In fix next placed lean affirm of f her, that fhe was compofed of modefty ;u>d '/ humility, which virtues did polfefs her dear " foul in a moft eminent manner. Her difcotn fe *' was ever gravcuand meek, yet piraf&nt withal ; ** a vaunting immodtit v/ord was never heard to *,von out .of "hef month. Again. 1 can fct ** gut in'Ler two c*hejj HUrjKgfJ '. c. Chanty and " K-u DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. tf *' Frugality. She never valued anything (he " had, when the neceffity of her poor neighbours ** did require it, but had a bountiful heart to all " indigent and diftrefled perfons. And again, " fhe was never lavifh or profufe, but was com- * mendably frugal ; fo that 1 profefs in the pre- " fence of God, I never knew a better houfewife. *' She never delighted in the company of tattling 41 women, and abhorred as much a wandering ANECDOTES OF SOME ft rather icalded and inflamed her more ; where - jf upon her dear head became diftempered, which* " put her upon impertinences, and indeed I was 44 troubled thereat ; for I propounded feveral If queftions in divinity to her; as By whom, * and on what account, fhe expected falvation? 44 and, What afTurance fhe had of the certainty % thereof? Though in other things (he talked 44 at random, yet at the fame time to fuch quef- ** tions as thefe fhe gave me as good an anfwer as *' I could pofiibly defire or expect ; and at thefc - t times I bid her repeat after me certain prayers 44 and ejaculations, which fhe always did with 44 much devotion, which was no little comfort and 44 admiration to me, that God fhould be fo good 44 and gracious to her. 44 A little before her dear foul departed, I was 4t gone to bed ; fhe fent for me to pray with * 4 her : I got up and went to her, and afked her 44 how fhe did. Her anfwer was, that fhe was ' 4 but looking when the good fhould come, and 44 thereupon we went to prayers. 44 She had her anfwers in the Common-Prayer- 44 Book as perfect as if fhe had been in perfect 44 health, and an Amen to every pathetic cx- 44 preflion. When we had ended our prayers 4< for the Vifitation of the Sick, we made ufe of 44 thofe DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 37 thofe prayers which are in the book called fl The Whole Duty of Man; and when I heard " her fay nothing, I urged her, and faid, My dear, " doft thou mind? Yes, was the laft word ** which fhe fpoke. I queftion not, my dear M hearts, but that the redding of thefe lines will ff caufe many fait tears to fpring from your eye$. & Yet this may be fome comfort to you, to think ** (as I conclude) your dear mother a glorious < Saint in Heaven. " I could have told you of many more of your dear mother's excellent virtues, but I hope that " you will not in the leaft queftion my teftimony, M if in a few words I tell you that fhe was pious tc and upright in her coriverfation. fad, * that I perfuade myfelf it did exceed all hifrory n and example, I may truly fay that our town has become a Golgotha, the place of a fcull ; 41 and had there not been a fmall remnant of us * left, we had been as Sodom, and like unto * Gomorrah. My ears never heard fuch doleful ** tamcntations*-my nofe never fmelled fuch " horrid fmells, and my eyes j>ever beheld fuch *' ghaftiy fpeclacles I Here have been feventy- " fix families vifited within my parifh, out of * 4 which two hundred and fifty-nine pei fons died' J brt* Now (blefled be God?) all our fears are 4 over, for none have died cf the infection fince 44 the eleventh of October, and all the pefl-houfes have been long empty. I intend (God willing) 41 to^pend moft of this week in feeing all woollen 44 deaths fumed and purified, as tvell for the 44 f.iti>f.iction as for the fafcty of the country. 44 Here hath been fuch burning of goods, ** that the like, I think, was never known ; 44 and indeed in this i think that we have been too 44 prccife. For my part, 1 have fcarce left my- 44 (elf apparel to (belter my body from -the cold, 44 and DISTINGUISHED PKR-SOKS. 43 * 4 and have wafted more than needed merely for '* example. h3 .rnolod \m ni J hj ** As to my own part, I cannot fay that I had " ever better health than during the time of the ft> dreadful viiitation ; neither can I fay that J " have had any fymptoms of the difeafe; My 44 man had the di (temper, and upon the appear - 4C ance of a tumour I gave him feveral chemical 44 antidotes, which had a very kind operation, 44 and, with the blcffing of God, kept the venom : welcome to ' : Your forrovvful and 4 ' aftWiwmate Nephew " William Momplsson." i JEREMr DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 4$ nrl K L>:. iiiifiv- am Si '* JEREMT TAYLOR, ' qoii I }9{ ** . BISHOP OF DOWR (J ?foiw JsdJ (iJKig bo*.) c THIS pious and eloquent Prelate faid one> Atf*cDorts or SOMfc' " fociety, alt felicity, all prudence, anJ all wif- u dom. It /; an union >f all things excellent ; u it contains proportion, farisf.iction, reft, and' 1 confidence. The cvjs of a wife are then,'*' f.ivs this elegant and leanted writer, ' fair as the 14 light of Heaven; a man may then eafc his *' cares, and lay down his * forrows upon her " lap, anJ can ' retire horrie as to his fancluaiy " and refectory, and his garden of fweetnefs and " of chafte refre foment." His Cbmparifon between a married and a finglc life, in the fame fermon, is equally beautiful. "'Marriage," fays the Bifhop, " was ordained *' by God himfelf,' inftituted in Paradife, was the ' relief of n3tu> eyes ^ft<*fld fire, he foamed a| the ttw humorous expreffionj fometimes it lurketh e 3 M under 54 AKICDOTES OF SOME ** under an odd fimilitude; fometimes it is lodged ** in a fly queftion, in a (mart anfwer, in a fJ quirkim reafon, in a fhrewd intimation, in cun- Hi* e UmsAOAM YtAAioxuH - 1 " w 01 woa^Aar .jra one of the ableft and moft forcible Divines of tht Englifh Church. His Sermons have great energy of thinking, and a nervoufnefs of language, tainted however now and then by a vulgar expreflion, a ludicrous fimile, and a play of words. Swift appears occafionally to have copied him ; and Dr. Johnfon always fuppofed, that Dr. Bentley had him in his mind when he wrote his famous Sermons aarv . againft the Free-thinkers. Dr. South, in early life, went into Poland, as Chaplain to our Anibaf- . T 3 fador at that Court,, and has published a very entertaining account of that country, ami of" its King, the great John Sob iefky, in a Letter. )r. South was a man of great fpirit and vivacity of mind; a moft decided Tory ; and not many days before his death (which happened when he was turned of eighty), on being applied to for his vote for the Chancellorfhip of the Univerfity of Oxford, he cried out with great vehemence., "Hand and " heart for the Earl of Arrartl" . South had a difpute with Dr. Sherlock on fome fubjeel of Divinity. Sherlock accufed him of making ufe of wit in the- con.trov.erfy., -South, in d accuracy of his judgment, and Vhs antient - tioned in the Life of the Bifhop by Dr. Walter Pope. Sydenham died of the gout y and in the latter part of his life is defcribed as yifiied with that dreadful diforder, and fitting near an open window, on the ground-floor of his houfe in St. James's fquare, re- fpiring the cool breeze on a fummer's evening, and reflecting with a ferene countenance, and great complacency, on the alleviation to human mi/ery that- his flcill in his art enabled him to give. Whilft this divine man was enjoying one of thefe delicious reveries, a thief took away from the table, near to /which he was fitting, a filver tankard filled with his favourite beverage, fmall-beer in which a fprig of rofemary had been immexfed, and ran off with it. Sydenham was too lame in his feet to rine his bell, and too feeble in his voice to give the alarm after him. Sydenham has been accufed of difcouraging ftudents in medicine from reading on their very complicated art. When Sir Richard Blackmpre afked what books he fhould read on his profeflion, he 6^ ANECDOTES OF SOME he replied, " Read Don Quixote j it is a very " good book I read it ftiil." There might be many reafons given foe this advice : at that time, perhaps, the art of medicine was not approaching fo nearly to a fcience as it is at prcfent. He, perhaps, discovered that Sir Richard had as fmall a genius for medicine as he had for poetry ; and he very well knew, that in a profeflion which pcculiaily requires observation and difcrimination, books alone cannot iupply what Nature has denied. SIR JOHN TABOR, KnL WHEN Sir John went to Ve: failles, to try the effects of the Bark upon Louis the Fourteenth's onJy fon, the Dauphin, who had been long ill of an intermitting fever, the phyficians who were about the Prince did not chufe to permit him to prefcribe to their Royal Patient till they had afked him fomc medical queftions-:. amongft others, they defired him to define what an intermitting fever , was. He replied, "Gentlemen, it is a difeafe which I ' can cure, and which you cannot." Louis, however, employed him to prefcribe for his bn, which he did with the ufual fuecef9 attendant upon the heaven-defcended drug which, he DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 63 he adminiftered. The Bark was called for a long time afterwards, at Paris and at VerfkilJes, the " Engliih Remedy i" and La Fontaine himlelf, much out of his common method of writing, has written a Poem, addreffed to Madame de Bouillon, one of Cardinal Mazarine's nieces, entitled " Le 44 ^hiinqmna." It commemorates her recovery from a fever by the ufe of the Bark, then called by that name. JOHN LOCKE. THIS great philofopher is buried in the church- yard of a fmall village in Effex, called Q*&s./f/j The infeription on his tomb-ftone that is ap- /Lj.* pended to the fide of the church, is nearly ob-. ,-y^ literated. An urn has been lately eredled to hi> memory in the gardens of Mrs. More's very elegant /7\ cottage near Wrington, in Somerfetfhire, with this infeription: This Urn, 44 (acred to the memory 44 of JOHN LOCKE, t?L&tA ** a native of this village, lh&/7rtt* u was prefented to Mrs. Hannah More * 4 by Mrs. Montague." / . 4 ANECDOTES OF S02UE It is much to be wilhed that the gratitude of a lady to her inltrudtor fhould be imitated upon a larger fcale by a great nation, vvhofe envied fyftcm of government he analyfed with the fame ac- curacy and figacity with which he unravelled the intricacies of the human intellect, and that it fhould honour his memory with a magnificent memorial in one of its public rcpofitories of th;: iiluftrious dead. Mr. Locke's celebrated " Treatife on the *' Reafonablenefs of Chriftianity" is well known. It is, perhaps, known only to few that he wrote lbme letters to his pupil Lord Sha/tefoury on the Evidences of Chriilianity. They are dill in MS. Two gentlemen, who had perufed them, declared that they were written in fo afTetSring a manner, and with fuch an earned dtfire to intercft tiie young Nobleman for whole lake they were written, that they could not refrain from tears whilft they were reading them. Mr. Locke, in that fmall but excellent treatife of his " On the Conduit of the Undcrllanding," chapter * Fundamental Verities,' fays, *< Our ** Saviour's great rule, that we fhould love our u neighbour as ourfelves, is fuch a fundamental " truth for the regulating human fociety, that * 4 by that alone one might, without difficulty, M determine DISTINGUISHED PE*SoVs. 65 determine all the cafes and doubts in focial morality." Mr. Locke, m one of his Letters, fpeaking of the advantages of converfation, fays, ** There are *' fcarcely any two men that have perfectly the *' fame views of the fame thing, till they come " with attention, and perhaps mutual afliftance, *' to examjne it; a confideration that makes con- " veriation with the living a thing much more " defirable than confulting the dead, would the " living but be jnquifitive after truth, apply their " thoughts with attention to the gaining of it, * and be indifferent where it was found, fo they ' could but find it." In a letter of Mr. Locke's, not generally known, addrefled to Mr. Bold, who in a letter to him had complained that he had loft many ideas by their Hipping out of his mind, he tells the latter, " I 'J have had fad experience of that myfclf; but M for that Lord Bacon has provided^ Jure remedy. ** For, as I remember, he advifes fomewhere *' never to go without pen and ink, or fomething, " to write down ail thoughts of moment that 14 come into the mind. I muft own I have oftey ** outfitted it, and have often repented of it. The <{ thoughts that come unfought, and (as it were) " drop into the miad, are -commonly the molt vol. 11. f *' valuable 66 ANECDOTES OF SOME *' Valuable of any wc have, and therefore fliould <* be fecured, becaufc they feldom return again. ** You fay alfo, that you lofe many things becaufc 4t your thoughts are not fteady and ftrong enough to purfue thena to a juft iflue. Give me leave " to think, that herein you miftalce yourfelf and '* your own abilities. Write down your thoughts ' l upon any fubjecr, as far as you have purfucd lt them, and then go on again fome other time, " when you find your mind difpofed to do it, and " fo till you have carried them as far as you can, *' and you will be convinced, that if you have 'J loft any, it has not been for want of ftrength Unbrib'd, unfought, the wretched to redrefs, Swift of difpatch, and eafy of accefs. f 2 Yet ^ ANECDOT55 OF SOME Vet in another place he calls him, For clofe dcfigns and crooked counfels fit, Sagacious, Hold, and turbulent of wir j Rtft'efs, unfix'd in principles and place. In power unpleas'd, impaient of difgrace ; A fierv foul, which, working out its wav f ^ Fretted the pigmy body to d:ay, J. AjrJ.o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay. J Mfahm and Acbitopbcl. Lord Shafcefbury was, perhaps, pne of the ableft debaters that ever fat in parliament ; no one underftood how to lead and to manage a tjueftion better than himfelf. Mr. Locke, who was an intimate friend of LcrdShaftefbury's, thus ^efcribes him : <{ I never knew any one penetrate fo quick into 44 men's breads, and from a fmall opening furvey 44 that dark cabinet, as he would. He would " underftand men's true errand as foon as they had 44 opened their mouths, and begun their dory, in " appearance, to another purpofe. Sir Richard ff Onflow," fays Mr. Locke, and Lord " Shaftefbury were invited by Sir J. D. to dine " with him at Chelfea, and were defired to come 11 early, becaufe he had an affair of concernment <4 to communicate to them. They came at the 44 time, and being fat, he told them, that he made V. " choice DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. $} " choice of them both, from their known abilities ** and particular friendship to him, for their. advice a in a matter of the greateft moment to htm that ct could be. "He had (he faid) been a widower " for many years, and began to want fomebody that *' might eafe him of the trouble of houfekeeping, u and take fome care of him under the growing * c infirmities of old age, and to that purpofe he had " pitched upon a woman very well known to him " by the experience of many years in fine,- his " houfe-keper. Thefe gentlemen (who were not " ftrangers to his family, and knew the woman *' very well, and were befides very great friends to " his fon and daughter, grownup and both -fit for " marriage,- to whom they thought this would be tf a very prejudicial match) Were both in their " minds oppoike to it, and to that pufpofe Sir " Richard Onflow began the difcourfe, therein, " when he came to that part, he was entering upon fi the defcription of the woman, and going to fet " her out in her own colours, which were fuch as cc could not have pleafed any man in' his wife. " Lord Shaftefbury, feeing whither he was going, r, aniwcrcd, Yes, truly/ my Lord', I was f 3 * marriedr 70 ANECDOTES OF SOME " married the day before. Well then, replied* " Lord Shaftefbury, there is no more need of our " advice \ pray let us have the honour to fee my>' " Lady, and to wifh her joy, and fo to dinner. As " they were returning to London in their coach, cC I am obliged to you, my Lord Shaftefbury, fays u Sir Richard, for preventing my running into a " difcourfe which could never have been forgiven Cl me, if I had fpake out what I was going to fay : * but as for Sir J. he mcthinks ought to cut your " throat for your civil question. How could it *' poflibly enter into your head to a& a man, who " had folemnly in v tied us on puvpofe to have our *' advice about a marriage he intended, had gravely 41 propofed the woman to us, and fuffered U9 < ferioufly to enter into the debate, whether he " were already married or not? The mail and " the manner, replied Lord Shaftefbury, gave " me a fufpicion that, having done a foolifh thing, ** he was defirous to cover himfelf with the li authority of our advice. I thought it good to " be furc before you went any farther, and you 11 fee what came of it." " I fhall give," fays Mr. Locke, " anothef " inftance of his fagacity. Soon after the Reilo- " ration of King Charles the Second, the Karl * of Southampton and he were dining together " at the Lord Chancellor's (Lord Clarendon)* " As DISTlKGtriSHfiD fERSONS. J I *' As they were returning home, he faid to Lord " Southampton, Yonder Mrs. Hyde (meaning ** the Chancellor's daughter) is certainly married " to one of the Royal Brothers. The Earl, who *' was a friend to the Chancellor, treated this as a " chimera, and afked Lord Shaftefbury how fo " wild a fancy could get into his head. Aflure " yourfelf, Sir, replied Lord Shaftefbury, it is " fo. A concealed refpec"t, however fuppreffed, " fhewed itfelf fo plainly in the looks, voice, and " manner, wherewith her mother carved to her, " and offered her of every difh, that it was im- " poffible but it muft be fo. Lord Southampton," adds Mr. Locke, "who thought it a groundlefs " conceit then, was not long after convinced, by ** the Duke of York's owning her, that Lord ** Shaftefbury was no bad gueffer." Mr. Locke was wonderfully ftruck with Lord Shafteibury's acutenefs upon every fubjecl; and though he was not a man of much reading, yet nothing, in Mr. Locke's opinion, could be more jufr. than the judgment he paffed upon the books which fell into his hands. He prefcntly faW through the defign of a work ; and, without much feeding the words (which he ran over with great rapidity), he immediately found whether the author was matter of his fuhjecl, and whether hisreafonings f 4 were 72 ANECDOTES OP SOME were exact. But, above all, Mr. I^oclce admired in him that penetration, that prefence of mind, which prompted him with the beft expedients in the moft. defperate cafes ; that noble boldnefs which appeared in all his public difcourfes, always guided by a folid judgment, which, never allowing him to fay any thing that was improper, and regu- lating his Ieaft word, left no hold to the vigilance of his enemies. Lord Shaftefbury had ever been fuppofed to have affifted Mr. Locke very much in his celebrated " Treatife upon Toleration." The outline of that great work was found (bme years ago in Lord Sliaftefbury's hand-writing. Bifhop Burnet fuppofes him addicted to judicial aftrology. It has been faid, that his Lordlhip affccled to believe this folly when in company with the Biihop, to prevent his endeavours to wind cut cf him his political intentions. Lord Shaftefbury was concerned in all the- politicai tranfacYions in the Reign of Charles the Second. He advifed the King to (hut up the Treafury, and afterwards united himfelf to Oppo- fition againft the fchemes of the Court. The latter part of his life was fpent in plots and con- fpiracies, and from fear of punifhment he quitted the kingdom and retired to Holland. He died in exile ' DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. J%\ exiteiataArnfterdarh, ia the fixty-feccnd year of hisjflgc, a linking inftance of the little utility of great talents, either to the pofleffor of them or to- the world in general, when they are not dire&ed by juft and good principles. Lord Shaftefbury was a complete inftance ot the truth of one of his own maxims, which was, * c that wifdom lay in the heart and not in the " head, and that it was not the want of know- *' ledge, but ths perverfenefs of the will, that **. filled men's actions with folly, and their lives " with diibrder." According to Mr. Locke, Lord Shaftefbury nfed to fay, comically enough, " that there were u in every one two men, the wife and the foolifta, " and that each of them muft be allowed his turn. * If you would have the wiie, the grave, and the ct ferious, always to rule and to have the fway, u the fool would put the wife man out of order, "and make him fit for nothing j but he muft " have his times of being let loofe to follow his u fancies and play his gambols, if you would have * c your bufinefs go on frnoothly." GOURFILLE? 74 ATTECbotES Of 30MZ G O U R V 1 I L E, who was in England in Charles the Second's time, from the Court of France, fays, " Iio,v " happy a 'King of England maybe, and how *' powerful, if he will be content with being" the firft man of his people. If he attempts to lt be more than that, he is nothing." In hrs Memoirs he mentions a very curious' inftance of the intrigues of the Cc/urt of France* in England cf that Court which has been lb re- nowned for its interference in the intrigues and cabals of other Courts for this laft century : " In % London," fays he, " I became acquainted with V the Duke of Buckingham, who fmce that time Yi addreflcd himfelf to me with refpecl to fonitf *' proportions that he had been making to the tl King of France, in regard to his intermeddling * c in fome cabals of the Engliih Parliament. *' Thefe proportions were much approved of, * and for a certain fpace of time he received from 11 me a great deal of money, that I gave him at u Paris, in two journies that he matte thither incognito," bXSTJKt?Z*Hf> PERSONS. 75 J A M E $, FIRST DUKE OF ORMOND. - THIS illuftripus Nobleman, according to Carte* fjermitted no feverity of weather or condition of health to ferve him as a reafon for not observing- that decorum of drefs, which he thought a point of refpeil to pcrfons or places. rt In winter - V time,"* fays the Hi ftorian, *' perfons ufed *d ** come to Charles the Second's Court with ** double-breafted coat?, "a fort of undrefs: the c< Duke would never take advantage of that in- 4< dulgence, but, let it be -never (o cold, he J< always came in his proper habit; and this was * 4 indeed the more meritorious, and required the ** greater effort in his Grace, as his firft queftion ** in the morning ever was, which way the wind ** fat, and he called for his waiftcoat and drawers l< accordingly. His drefs was always fui ted to * e the weather: for this end," adds the Hifrorianj * c in our uncertain clime, he had ten different * c forts of waiftcoats and drawers, fatin, filk, " plain and quilted cloth, &c." The DukeV ihogh a man of great fpirit, was a mpft ex cellent and a moft fenfible politician, taking matters as he found them, infarct Rornuii, st non in 7& ANECDOTES OF SOME in Republic a Platonh', " for though," according to Carte, H he detelted maicing low court to any t of the King's (Charles the Second's) mifrrefles, fton% or arbitrary and meretricious ornaments, but prftrvifi #Jwy* that nnity of defign and that magic of c^Ttc^. which render them the wti comments on his own excel- lent Tr.a:ife on the Art of Architecture. * Many of them are in'trtfting : the defign fr,r infide of St. Paul's Cathedral, with the high altar under i canopy, amongft fome others, defci 'm to be engraved." The wealthy and the learned Society to which they>B" long will fome day or other, with the liberali'y of Gcntlf-** men and of Scholais, give them in thai form to the public. this DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 79 this great Architect. They were, I believe, p*e- .d to the College by his fon. The title of one of them is, " Delineatloncs Nov& Fabrica " Templl Pafdini juxta tertiam Propofit'-ovem et a ex Sententid Regis Caroli Secundi fub Pr'ivota ci Sigil'o exprejps 14 Afr/V, Ann. 167B." Sir Chriftopher appears to have floated very much in his defigns for St. Paul's Cathedral. One of them is very much like that of San GalJo for 5t. Peter's at Rome. In another, the dome is crowned with a pine-apple, and it is curious to obferve how every defign for the prefent beauti- ful dome excels the other. The favourite defign, however, of the great Architedl: himfelf was not taken. In one of his manufcript letters to a perfon who was defirous to build fome great work, Sir Chriftopher fays, " A building of that confequence w you goe about deferyes good care in the defigne, " and able workmen to performe it; and that he 11 who takes the general management may have a ' \ profpe& of the whole, and make all parts, out- " fide and infide, correfpond well together ; to this '* end I have coniprifed the whole defign in fix M figures." In another of his Letters, fpeaking, of his progrefs in building St. Paul's, he fays, " I have received a conftderable fum, which, ** though not proportionable to the greatnefie of f the wyrk, is notwithstanding fufHcient to begin " the fa ANECDOTES OF SOM the fame j and with all the materials and i. " affi fiances which may probably b expected, 41 will put the new quire in great forwardnefs." Sir Chriftophcr ufed to tell his friends with great plcafurc, * that whilft he was building St. 41 Paul's, he told one of the workmen to bring 44 him a piece of done for fome purpofe or other. 44 The workman brought him an old grave-ftone, 4< on which was inferibed Resur.gam 1 and that 44 lie accepted it as a lucky omen." When Sir Chriftopher built the church of St. Dunftan's in the Eaft, the nobleft monument of Lis geometrical fkill> he had moft certainly in his rye the High Church of Edinburgh, and St. Nicholas's Church at Ncwcaftle-upon-Tyne. His towers that adorn the front of Wcftminfter Abbey were taken from thofe of Beverley Minfler in Yrkmire. Sir Chriftopher intended a fpire for the middle of the church, but gave it up, from apprehenfton that the fabric would not bear it. Sir Chriitopher was much impeded and Ikt- raffed in his great work of St. Paul's by the care of ex pence in the Curators of it. He had defigned a *ery fine Baldaquino for the altar, like that of St. Peter's at Rome. Dr. Conipton, Bifhop of London, had fent for the marbles for its compo- sition ; or rather, as the " Parentalia" fays, fee mens were fhewn to the Architect by j Pi - blSTINGUtsHED PERSONS. 8l Prelate. Sir Chriftopher not approving of them, the defigtt was given up. He wi hed the cupola to have been painted in Mofaic, a kind of painting as durable as the place itfelf. Stone was not allowed him to fill up the piers of that wonder of archi- tecture the dome 5 rubble was given to him in its flead: in confequence of which there are fettlements in that part of the church. The prefent liberal Chapter of the Cathedral having admitted fculpture into it without fees, in the monuments of Dr. J >hnfon and Mr. Howard, it is to be hoped that the illuftrious Architect of the fabric will partake of the honour of a ftatue in his own Church, and that the Cathedral of St. Paul will become the Britifh Temple of Fame * The effect of deco- ration on the interior of this church, may be ob' < i * Weft m'inflcr Abbey is indeed focroudcd with Monu- ments, that the beauty of the exquifite proportions in that tlegant Gothic fabrick is quite deftroyed. The Monuments themfelves have no effeel, either fingly or taken together, and the whole appears rather like a Statuary's fhop, than a repofitory of diftinguifhed fepulture. The late Sit jofhua Reynolds, looking no Ids with the eye of affetion than with that of tafte, could find no proper place for the Annie of his illuftrious friend Dr. Johnfon amongft the Monuments of the tminent dead that are buried in the Abbey. vol. ii. 6 ferved 3* ANECDOTES OF SOME ferved by infpeclfhg a Plate, publiftied fimc TfitJfJj- ago by Mr. Gwynntf, in which the dome and i'c parts under it are feen as ornamented according to the intention of Sir Chriftopher. To make the perfpc&ive of the church appear with the greatest pithirsfque effect, the heavy and immejife organ that croffes the entrance into the choir lhouhj be pkced on one fide, as is done at Wincheftcr, and painted gtafc fhould be inferted into the Eaft win? dow, which atprefent caftsno"dimreligiouslight." J In fhat entertaining and inftru&ive work the "^ardhralia*," written by Mr. Jofeph Ames, See^ctoty:- to .the i Antiquarian Society, and fluMlflfedby -the Grandfon of Sir Chriftoph?r Wren, this- extraordinary and ftriking paiTage ^lire^-ai p&fiage to which credit can Only be givcrt-^y -thofe who know how the Demon of Politics like that of Fate confounds all diftine- tions ; how it elevates blockheads, how it de- press men of talents. ; how it tears from the mouth of Genius, exhausted with toil for the public good, and bending under a load of hetalefs age, for which it has made no provilion, that ' The ParentaIia not only contains an accoimt of ^ir CWri(l<.phr Wren's Works, bot alio a very elaborate - ^Rifft'rralton on Gothic Architc&ttcr, written by Si CfiiriftophtrKimftlf- ; ~ > bread t)ISTINGUlSHED PERSONS. 83 bread which it beftows upon the idle and the felfifh? tipbn'thofe whofe life and death, as the acute^. Roman Hi dorian fays, are nearly the fame *. In the year 1718, the fourth year of the reign a of George theFirft {credite Pojieri) SirChrifto-. lt pher Wren's patent for the office of Surveyor " of the Royal Works was fuperfeded, in the " fourfcore and fixth year of his age, and after ' more than fifty years fpent in a continual ** active and laborious fervice to the Crown " and Public. At that time his merits and ** labours were not remembered by fome. He then betook himfelf to a country retirement, fay- *' ing only with the Stoic, Nunc me jubet Fortuna u exftditiui philofophari. 1 n which recefs, free from *' worldly affairs, he paffed the greater part of the ** five laft following years of his life in contempla^ " tiori and ftudies, and principally in ttoe content- "plationof the Holy Scriptures, chearful in io^i " tude, and as well pleafed toidiein theihadeasiSi the light \*t "Part * Quorum *vitam ei mortem juxta effc ejlimit. Sallust, f The great t>r. Barrow, in an oration, at Grefljara "College ipoken by him in the year 1662, in this rapturous ftrain or panegyric thus defcribes Sir Chriftopher Wren, merF a young m*n* " Praecociores nejnintm unqfcam g % ** praefti- $4 ANECDOTES OF SOME *' Part of his thoughts for the difcovery of the " longitude at fea, a review of fome former tra&s in " aftronomy and mathematics, had a fliare in the tc employment of thofe hours he could fpare from " meditation and refearches intoholy writ during his *' laft retreat, when it appeared, that though time " had enfeebled his limbs (which was his chiu perhaps* one of the hardeft ftudents that ever exifted. He read or wrote nearly die whole" rms tb.-t evpr,crept into a library. His Works, piejEentcd by himteli" t? tlic Library of Uftcbhv's- \i\ri ? make forty volumes in folio arid quaep. Prynne appears to have been a perfectly honerk man. He equally oppofed Charles, the Army, and Crcmwcll, when he thought they were betrayers of the Country i- and after having accurately ob- ferved, and fenfibly felt, in his own porfon, thd violation of law occafioned by each of them,- he gave his mod ftrcnuous fupport to the legal and eilablifiied Government of his country, effected by the Reftoration of Charles the Second te-thfc C.own of thefc Kingdoms-. AMES DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. Ql JAMES THE SECOND faid to Mr. Clifton one day, H I do not know how " it is, but I never knew a modeft man make his " way at Court." " Pleafe yourMajeily, wnofe " LuJt is that ?" replied Mr. Clifton. James's feelings during the apprehenfions of the landing of the Prince of Orange are thus defcribed by a contemporary writer, M. Miffon, who was at that time in England. * October 2, 1688. " James publifhes a proclamation to remove all ft teams of horfes and other beads of burden N twenty miles from the coafts." OSober 22. 44 mitt this to doe, That 1 aefteeme y' Bookc, 44 not only as a prefent of the be ft kinde (pre- 44 ferring w lh Soloman wifdome to any other 44 treafure) but as tie b^ft of that kindc : Had 44 I gone DISTINGUISHED -PERSONS. 95* e ' I gone, (as by this tyme I had done) to the " greene dragone * to fetch it i could not have " written ex dono authoris upon it as a wittnes to *< pofterity that I Was not only in y r favor butiny r ** elieeme too (gifts being proportioned to the ufe <4 and inclination of the receaver) and that w* "bought would have been my chiefeft delight " on ty,>.tt9w that and my honor too : (S") One " fliewcd mec this morning D". Lucy's Cen- . fure f upon your Leviathan; He fubfcribc? < himfelf in his Epiftle to the Reader Williams " Pike which (as his freind tells me} is becaufc u his name in Latine is Lucius, wherein he con- f< fefles what he is offended with you for obferv- " ing that a man muft havefomethingof aScoller ** to be a verier coxcomb than ordinary, for what " Englifhman that had not dabbled in latine would " have changed fo good a name as Lucy for that " of a fluh , befides it is ominous that he will prove "but a pike to a Leviathan, a narrowe river fifh " to one which deferves the whole ocean for his ^ * Wttfinm Crookc, at the 'Green Dragon without Temple Bar, was publifhcr of moil of Mr. Hobbes's A-6rk; + Pxibiifl&cd firft in 1657, *to. and afterwards in 1663. SeeiWood's A'bcns -Oxon. 596. Lucy was made BiihcjJ of- i:. DiviJ'sAt the Refiorauwn. b.U ' The- 96 ANCD0tEB OF SOME " Theater j All that I obfcrved in the preface* " of this Pickrill was that he fays f docVme " takes us country gentlemen &c. : Cure if wif- * dome comes by ieafure we may poflibly be as * good judges of Philofophy as country parfons * arc, all whofe tyme is fpent in f.tlutiug thole t who come into the world attgoflipings takcing " leave of thofe that goe ouc of it att funerals* < and vexing thofe that flay in it w th long-winded c< haranges : For Wailis and his fellowc you " have handeled them fo well already that I will " fay nothing of them^ for if I fhould fay all 1 14 approve in you or finde ridiculous in your Ad- <; verfarys I ihould requite your booke w tfc ano- " ther ; confident 1 am that all thay write will ** never be read over once nor printed twife, fo ** unlucky are thay to provoake you, Cbe reggefe & fe goverfia Qual/i govertta & re:;g? Tbuom che certo Con i pojleri haver pratica etcrna ; Who in this age behave yourfclf and walk* As one of whom polufity muft talke ; * Probably alluding to Hrbbcs's ' Six LeflTons to the * Frcfuffor* of Mathematics of the Jnftitution of Sir * Hcni.y Srrilk" (vu. Wailis and Ward.) 4 to. 1656. . "with hiSTINCUISHED PERSONS. fj *' with well applying, and ill tranflating of w ch *' verfes 1 conclude the firft and come now to the fecond part of what I mould have *< troubled you with if I had found you in your V Lodging viz: To charge you w* my mofl ** humble fervife to the noble Lord * w' h whom *< you are as alfo w ,h my acknowledgment of ths " kinde mefiage I lately feceaved from his Lo p u letting him knowe that becaufe I could write u nothing fafely w ch he might not (inde in print, I u went to your Lodging perpofely to have " troubled you with my conjectures of what is fo " to befall us in order to fatisfy his Lo p * curiofity " who honored me with his commands therein. " Here is much talke of change both of Coun- *' cills and of Councillors and both is believed " but what or who will be next is very incertayn M and this incertenty proceeds not fo much from 11 fecrccy as from irrefolution, for rowling our- *' felves upon Providence (as formerly) many * c things have been debated but perhaps no one 4t thing yet abfolutely intended. To me it feems * c ihat his Highnefs f (who fees a good way be- ill fore him) had layd fometime flnce a perfect " foundation of Government I mean by th * The Earl of Devonfliire. f Oliver Cromwell. Vol. II. H '< Mai g8 ANECDOTES OF SOME U Ma: Qtnft reducing us to provences and ruling ** us by thofe provincials with the newe levied " army he. but faylingof the good fuccefs hoped *' for abroad and thefe arrears and w.mt of money " att home ma"y perhaps give occafion and op- '* portunity to fuch as are enemys to a Settlement " to retard and {hocke his defeins : The gencrall *' voyfe att prefent goes for a fele<5red (not an ' elefted) Parl mt and that we (hall very fhortly " fee fomthing done there : in the mean tyme de- *' firing pardon for this taedious fcribling (as if w I were infe Mayor was a gueft, with fonie other Gentlemen :. that Jefferics, according to cufloni, drank deep at dinner, and called for Mountfort, one of his. Gentlemen, who bad been a comedian and an ex- cellent mimic; and that to divert the company,adds Sir John (as be was pleafcd to terra it) , he made him pkad hefore him in a feigned caufe, during which he aped all the great lawyers of the age in their tone of voice, and in their action and gefturc, of body. When that exquifitc combination of mufical in- struments the prefent Temple organ was to be tried previous to its being fet up in the church in, which it is now placed, JefFcries was the umpire between the merit of it and the organ now in the, New Church at Wolverhampton ; and gave his judgment in favour of the firft. JefFcries fiid of hijnfelf, that he was not near Co fangutnary on the Wtftern circuit, as his employer James the Second wifbed him to have been. In that e>e- ciable buGnefs, he exhibited a ftriking inftance of the power of virtue upon a mind the moft vicious and profligate. He had no fconer retired to DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. JOI to his lodgings at Taunton, to prepare himfelffor the opening of his bloody commiffion, than he was called upon by the Minifter* of the church of St. Mary Magdalen in that town, who in a very mild manner remonfi rated with him upon the illegality and barbarity of the bufinefs upon which he was then going to proceed. JefFeries heard him with great calmnefs, and foon after he returned to Lon- don, fent for him, and prefented him to a flail in the Cathedral of Briltol. JefFeries was committed to the Tower, on the flight of James the Second from England. He is (aid to have died in that fortrefs of a difeafe occafioned by drinking brandy, to lull and to hebetate the compunctions of a terri- fied confcience. * This Clergyman, who thus nobly diftinguiflied him- feif in the caufe of virtue and humanity, was Tutor to the Rev. Walter Harte, who addreffed to him, under the title of Macarius, or the BleflTed, a copy of verfes in his JJifcellanv called M The Amaranth." CQXGREFE. '102 ANECDOTES OF SOMI CONGREVE. THIS fprightly Writer has been in general fuppofed to have written his Comedies without any reference to life or nature. The following tranfeript from a mr.nufcript letter of Mr. Drydeu to Mr. Walfh(Mr. Pope's friend) v will fhewhow ill this obfervation is founded : " Congreve's Double Dealer (fays he) is much M cenfured by the greater part of the Town, and " is defended only by the beft judges, who, you " know, are commonly the fewefl ; yet it gains M ground daily, and has already been acted eight M times. 7 he women think he has expofed their <{ bitchery too much, and the gentlemen are of- " fended with him for thedifcoveryof their follies, " and the way of their intrigues under the notion 4t of friendfhip to their ladies' hufbands." Dr. Johnfon objects to the plots of Congreve's Comedies, in fome of which the play terminates with a marriage in a mafk. This excellent and acute critic did not, perhaps, recoiled, that till the beginning of Qyeen Anne's reign women ufed to come to the theatres in a mafk. This practice UI.;riN'GUISHED PERSONS. IO3 praftice was forbidden by a proclamation of that Queen, in the firft year of her reign. Mr. Congreve, after having been at the expence of the education of the young reprefentative of his antieot and illuftrious family, .left nearly the whole of his fortune to Henrietta Duchels of Marlborough. An ElFay on the Difference between Wi-t and Humour, in a Letter to Mr. Dennis the Critic from Mr. Congreve, is printed in the Balkerville edition of this comic writer's works. It is very fhort, but very well done. . nmmm MR. DRTDEN has been faid by fome perfons to have written hi? Tragi -comedies upon his own judgment of the excellence of that neutral drama. In a manufcript letter of his, however, he fays, " I am afraid you 4i dilcover not your own opinion concerning my " irregular way of Tragi-comedy (or my Doppia " Favola). I will never defend that practice, for 'I I know it diftra&s the hearers: but I know h 4 " withal 104 AKECDCTES CF SOMI <* withal that it has hitherto pleated them, for the " fake of variety, and for the particular tafl* " which they have to Low Comedy." The fcene between Malecorn and Melanax, in Dryden's Tragedy of the Duke of Guife, appears to be taken from the ftory of Canope,in u Hijhires . ROBERT NELSON, ESQ THIS learned and pious Gentleman was pecu- liarly fplendid in his drefs and appearance. He was not willing to render the practice of piety more difficult than was necefiary j and, to attract mankind to goodnefs, fubmitted to embellifh the charms of virtue by the graces of elegance i think- ing perhaps with Virgil, Gratior et fulcbro veniens in cor fore virtus : Virtue rture pleafing in a pleafing form. Dr. Johnfon always fuppofed that Mr. Richard- fon had Mr. Nelfon in his thoughts, when he delineated the character of Sir Charles Grandifon. The DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 1^5 The following Letters of this very exemplary pcrfon to a friend pf his, will fhew what early (en:iments of wifdom and of virtue he entertained. ni jXfirwtfaM hi :od snsot sriT ft^whitt untti4ty;iii^nl <. ' od oj LETTER I. MR. ROBERT NELSON TO DR. MAPLETOFT, " London, the 12 Dec. 1679. $i DEAR AND HONOURED SIR, " AS fopn as I came to town, which was about H ten days ago, 1 made a ftri6l enquiry concern- 11 ing your welfare, which I counted myfelf not f* a little concerned in, by renfon your many 4t favours and obligations, befides the juft value of t* your perfon, have engaged me to a particular M refpet and efteem for yourfelf, fo that my own *' happinefs will be much increafed by any addition -" to your fatisfa&ion. I was foon informed of " the alteration of your condition, and that you f* had made the grand experiment of human life, " which feldom admits of any mean, but carries " us to the utmoft boundaries of happinefs or " mifery ; and being well fatisfied that your great " prudence would fecure the former of the two " extremes 1CC> ANECDOTES O? SOME ** extremes for nullum numen abr.fi, fi fit pm- u dentin I thought it no ways difcgrceable to co lgratulare your prefent enjoyment; nay, ** fviemllhip and afr'e&ion obliged me to exprefs ** my juft refentment, and be aflured that the * news of your great felicity under your prefent 14 circu ldtances finds a welcome reception from li no one more than from myfelf, the only reafon 44 that forbids my regret for your abfenco here in " town. 1 heartily wiih thofe ideas and notion^ v< you framed of matrimony may be exceeded ct in the pofivfiion, chat propriety and enjoyment. *- c rmy ^jrhetten the edge of your arfe&ioas, and 41 th^t ifo part of your happmefs may leave you " now it ceafes to be imaginary; and though 14 Thules, who was a wifr man, would feeoa to tt iniinuate as if marriage was never convenient * for til-,- wife; y-t, as Alex, lb Alex, ouferves ** wdl, W licet hac ambaoe verbor. J'apienti iiun- ** quam urorem ducendam demonfiraret^ vcrun- 14 irtm'rt qui hae propenfo judicio explorarc r juofe,'ii> in cevjugiis nmltn invemet cominoda tifui fc vitdf ntcjfarjfiy fine qnibns vix hom'int Jup'rnti 41 ccclibem vitam ditcae e.xpcdiat y &x. Nay all '*' nations have honoured thofe that are married, " and punifhed celibacy. Kvcn the Utopians, " that feem to have the molt refined and al>- ftraftcJ DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. IO7 * c ftra&ed notions of things, would have thofe that ft lived fingle punifhed, as ufelefs in a Common- 44 wealth. The creation of the world would he I! to little purpofe without it, for bumano generi 44 immortalitatem tribuit\ and therefore indigne tf vivit per quern vivit et alter : nay, it is the M opinion of fome, that it is impofTible to be faved hi without it. It would beendlefs toprofecute all ft the arguments, and enumerate all the authorities 44 in its behalf j though I am fenlible there has a 44 great deal been faid on the other fide: however, *' if it confined with my intereft and conveniency, M and the object gratified my inclinations,, it is 44 not the rant and fatire of a Poet,, or ^fjh^jiecla- f mation of an Orator, that fhould prevail fo far M as to make me fufpend the execution of that, M for which my motives were fo fpecious and 44 plaufible : but for all my zeal I am (till ma juris 4 ' free as ever, and have yet no profpecl pf being 44 otherwaies; and fhall alwayespray, that all the 44 advantages of your condition may center in 44 your match ; that you may be long happy in 41 the embraces of an excellent wife, bleffed with 44 a profperous offspring, which may inherit your 44 virtues as well as eftate, and then all other in- 44 conveniences may be well difpenfed with. As fe to news, what we now moft talk of, is the pro- 44 rogation 108 ANECDOTES Of SOME 41 rogation of the Parliament till the nth of Nov. ** with a provifo, that the King may call them " fooncr if he pleafes. It is their petitioning has " enraged him, and he fwears by God they may " knock out his brains, but fliail never cut oif f* his head. For all this, they fay they will ftilj. " go on in getting fubfcripttons ; the confequence *' I am afraid may be bad. I cannot enlarge, bt- " caufe Mrs. Firmin fends for my letter, and ' fays it will be too late, if it does not go pre- * fently. My humble fervice to your Lady, W Mr. Dent, and my Lady Brograve and all the * l good company, and be allured that I am il Ypur obliged humble fervant, * Robert Nelson." ** All your devout freinds are much your " frrvants. " My mother prefents her humble fervice to u you and your Lady. " To my worthy fretnd the much- " honoured Dr. Mapletoft, tftf u Uamzvelbyi in Hartfordjhire:* LET, DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. IC9 LETTER II. . ROBERT NELSON TO DR. MATLETOFT. " London, 2d January 1*79. " WORTHY SIR, " I AM very fenfible that the true ground and " reafon of moft of the difappointments many %i men meet with in the grand tranfa.5f.ions of *' their lives, proceeds not (os much fro.n the il nature of things themfelves, as from thofe ex- * travagant conceptions they form of them ; arid * that the chiefeft ingredient of their unhappinefs, <{ is the falfe opinion they have entertained of " fublunary enjoyments, whereby their e*pec- " tations are raifed to fo high a pitch, that as * 'tis not in the capacity of things to gratify, fo '* they were never defigned for that purpofe j * ; which gave occafion to that noble faying of * E pi ductus, homines perturb antur non rebus, fed P its quas de rebus habent opimanibus * ; and to " that of Seneca to the fame fenfe, faplv.s opinkne * quhn re labor amus f. Now a wife man, that * Men are not .-lifturbed by things themfelves, but hf- the opinions they entertaiu of things. f The opinion of the thing often gives us more trotthie thaa the ihifig itfftf. ** takes flO ANECDOTES OF SOME rt takes a true eftimtte of all thofc things whicft M* QUEEN MART. IT appears, by the Account of the Death of ' Queen Mary, written by a Minifter of State," that a letter of her's to King William, difluading him from continuing to keep a Mrs. Villcrs as his miftrefs, was found in her ftrong box, to be deli- vered to her hufband when (he was dead. The character of Queen Mary, written byBifhop Bur- net, contains a delineation of every female virtue, and of every female grace. He makes her fay, that (he looked upon idlencfs as the great cor- rupter of human nature, and believed, that if the mind had no employment given it, it would create feme of the worft to itfelfj and (he thought, that anything that might amufe and divert, without leaving a dreg and impreffion behind it ought to 11 up thofe vacant hours that were not claimed by Iayer, who, it L-en.s, always took care to play at e^uds when he was m company with the Bifhop, L*ft he mould put to him impertinent and leading imdli. >ns. The f.rir Lord S.iaftefbus'v he rcpre- jk-ms 31 aJdifted to Judicial atcrojogy, who ufed to ' talk on tint fltbjecl before tfie Kiihop merely to hthwjklkin^ politics to him. Bilhop Burnet^ at DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. ll$ at the age of eighteen, wrote a Treatife on Edu- cation in very wretched language, but in which there is this curious obfervation : "That the ** Greek language, except for the New Tefta- " rnent, is of no very great ufe to gentlemen, as " moft of the beft books in it are tranflated into u Latin, Englifli, or French." According to Dr. Cockburn, when Bifhop Burnet was prefented to Charles the Second by the Duke of Lauderdale, he faid to his Majefty, " Sir, I bring a perfon to you who is net capable " of forgetting any thing." The King replied, u Then, my Lord, you and I have the more " reafon to take care what we fay to him, os be- " fore him." ^ ._. *#* LORD SOMERS. THIS greit Lawyer, to whom every Englifli- man who feels the bleflirtgs of that Conftitutiort^ of Government under which he has the happi- nefs to live, owes the higheft obligations, for the excellent and fpirited defences he made of the two great bulwarks of it, the limited fuccef- lion to the crown, and the trial bv jury, is thus fplendidly ANECDOTES OF SOME fplendidly yet juftly delineated by the nervous and- tpirited pencil of Lord Orford, in his " Catalogue 44 of Royal and Noble Authors."*" He was " one of thofe divine men, who like a chapel ' " in a palace remain unprofaned, whilfr. all the ' l reft is tyranny, corruption, and folly, ".the traditionary accounts of him," adds the noble writer, " and the hillorians of the laft age re- M prcfent him as the mod incorrupt lawyer, and * the uonefteft Statefman ; as a mafter orator, a *' genius of the fineft tafte, and as a patriot of K the nobleft and mod extenfive views ; as a M man who difptnfed bleflings by his life, and ** planned them for pofterity." The following Anecdotes of Lord Somcrs were ropied many years ago from a manufcript in the pofleffion of the late Dr. Birch. *' April 26, 1716, died John Lord Soraers. " Burnet hath done him juftrce in fevcral places* *' and Addifon has given us his character in * colours fo ftrong, that little remaineth to be added. '* His application and capacity were equally '* great and uncommon. At his firft going to " fchool, he never gave himfelf any of the di- * verfions of children of his age -, for at noon So DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 12] ,c the book was never out of his hand. To the " laft years of his life a few hours of fleep " fufficed : at waking, a reader attended, and " entertained him with the moft valuable authors* " Such management raifed him to the higheft emi- u nency in his own profeffion, and gave him a " fuperiority in all kind of ufeful knowledge and e was really the author of the lines in queftion. " Yes, my Lord," replied the pretended Poet, " it is a trifle, I did u it off-hand.'* On hearing this, Lord Somer* burft out into a loud fit of laughter, and the Gen- tleman withdrew in the greateft confufion. " The King (George the Firft)," fays Lord Bolingbroke in a manufcript letter, u fct out from , * Hanover in the refolution or" taking the Whigs *' indeed into favour, but of opprefling no fet of " men who acknowledged the government, and " fubmittcd quietly to it. As foon as he came to 11 Holland, a contrary refolution was taken by the 41 joint importunity of the Allies and of fome of * the Whigs. " Lord Townmend came triumphantly to ac- u quaint Lord Somers with all the meafures of * profcription and of perfecution which they in- l tended, and to which the King had at laft con- ** fented. The old Peer afked him what he meant, * c and fhed tears on the forefight of meafures like ' rt tothofe of the Roman Triumvirate.'* EARL fclSflNGirlSHED PERSONS. I3K EARL OF WARRINGTON. THIS learned and valiant nobleman^ Who contributed no lefs by his pen than by his fword to bring about that glorious epoch in the Confti- tution of England, the Revolution Under Wil- liam the Third, in one of his Charges to the Grand Jury of Wilts, thus forcibly defcribes the advantages of that form of government which he had laboured to procure for his countrymen. '* Gentlemen, there is not a better form of ** government under the fun than that of England *. " Yet, excellent as it is, I find that many are im- * patient under it, and thirft extremely after *' that which is called a Commonwealth} think- " ing, no doubt, to enjoy greater privileges and " immunities than now they do. But I am apt -*' to believe, that they who are not contented u under this form of government, have not con- '<* iidered aright what a Commonwealth is. A *That honeft and upright Hiftorian Philip d* Comities, who was in England fo early as in the reign of Edward the Fourth, fays, that of all the Governments with which he was acquainted, that of England was the Government in which there was mod regard paid to the common good. K a *< Common- I32 ANECDOTES OF SOME " Commonwealth makes a found and a fhadow of * l liberty to the people, but in reality is but a " Monarchy under another name ; for if Monar- MARQUIS OF HALIFAX, had a failing but too commonly incident to perfons who have fome wit but more vanity. The Mar- quis, according to Biftiop Burnet, let his wit but too often turn upon matters of religion, fo that he k 3 pafl"ed If ANECDOTES OF SOME parted for a bold and a determined atheift ; " though," adds the Bifhop, " he often protefted '* tome that he was not one, and faid, he believed " that there was not one in the world." Tbe Marquis wrote " Memoirs of his own Life ;'* the manufcript was in the pofleffion of the late. Earl of Burlington. JOHN EVELXN, ESQ HAD this excellent and learned man left be- hind no other memorials of his integrity and ob- fervation than that recorded, at his own requeft, upon his tomb-ftone at Wotton in Surrey, he would have been entitled to the praifes and to the gratitude of pofterity. " Living," fays he, " in '* an age of extraordinary events and revolutions, ' I have learned this truth, that all is vanity which ' is not honeft, and that there is no folid wifdom ** but in true piety." The Tranflator of the Life of the learned Peyrefc, by Gaflendi, ftyles Mr. velyn " the Englifti Peyrefc ;" and indeed, no countryman of his ever better deferved that honourable appellation than the perfon thus de- fignated ; no one ever more refemWingthe learned Counfellor of the Parliament of Provence, in the extent DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. J35 extentof his knowledge, in his readinefs of com- municating that knowledge, and in the, general tnodefty and fimplicity of his manners, than Mr. Evelyn. The philofophical Editor of the lafl edition of Mr. Evelyn's '* Sylva" has thus truly and elegantly delineated the character of the Author, on a blank leaf of his copy of that valuable Work : To the memory Of John Evelyn, Efq. A man of great learning, of foundjudgment, and of extenfive benevolence. From an early entrance into public life, to an extreme old age, He confidered himfelf as living only for the benefit of Mankind. Reader, Do juftice to this illuftrious character, And be confident, ' That as long as there remains one page of his voluminous writings, And as long as Virtue and Science hold their abode in this Wand, The memory of the illuftrious Evelyn will . be held in the higheft veneration. * - - +. - Mr. Evelyn was one of the earlieft Members of the Royal Society, and had the lingular honour K 4 and I36 ANECDOTES OF SOME 3nd felicity, in fpite of his numerous writing*,' f being but once engaged in controverfy. Mr.-" Evelyn, at his death, had made collections for a very great and a very ufeful Work, which was in- tended- to be called " A Genera) Hiftory of all *' Trades." uoiteVJ doao\ 'A " *iril 0.1 --m- 1 J b3ji ANNE OF AUSTRIA, QUEEN OF FRANCE. THIS Princefs, in fpite of the cruel treatment (he had received from Cardinal Richelieu, wasftill fo confcious of his great talents for governing, that on feeing a picture of him, foon after {he be- came Regent of France, fhe exclaimed, " If M Richelieu had lived to this time, he would have " been more powerful than ever." Madame de Baviere, in her Letters, fays, Abbe wasde- " tetcdinan intrigue : Anne of A u ft ria however " did much wotfe ; fhe was not contented with ** intriguing with Cardinal Mazarin, fhe married 4 him." This fhe could do, as the Cardinal had not taken pricfr'so: :'cr-. Mazarin, however, be- came very foon tired of the Queen, and ufld her very ill, the ufualconlw-quence of fuch a marriage. Yet DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. J Ttf Yet when Mazarin founded this Queen refpe&ing the marriage of her fon Louis the Fourteenth with one of his nieces, fbe nobly replied, " If the " King was capable of degrading himfelf fo far, " I Would put myfelf with my fecond fon at the U head of the whole French Nation againft the *' King and againft you." The following Impromptu of Voiture to this Queen, who, on feeing him walking alone, afl?ed him of what he was thinking, gives fome founda- tion to the report of her taking in very good part the gallantry of the Duke of Buckingham to her ; Je penfeis (car nous antra I'oetes t Nous penfons extras age men t ) , Ce que, dans Vbumeur ou i>ous etet. rousjiencz, Ji dans ce moment Vous avffiz en ceite place Venn le Due de Buckingham ; Et lequd feroit en difgrace, Da iui, ou du Pere * Vincent. At the Duchefs of Norfolk's feat at Holme, near Hereford, there is a whole-length portrait of this Pnnceft, with this infeription, Anne Reine " p France, groje de fex mois fait par Beaubrun " 1638:" and indeed the Queen's pregnancy is pretty vifible in the picture. *. The Queen's Confeflbr. ANTONIO S$S ANECDOTES 0F SOME | ANTONIO PRIULI was a Venetian Gentleman who held fome em- ployment in the Duke of Longueville's family. He wrote, in Latin, the V Hiftory of the Trouble* *' during the Minority of Louis the Fourteenth." He thus defcribes the French Wits of his time : M They haunt great men's tables, frequent their " own academies, and trick and trim their native ** tongue without end. They run about this ' way and that way to make vifits, but do not ** delight in fecret folitude, the only ferment of ftudies*." BUC DE LQNGUEVILLE. WHEN this high-minded Nobleman was one day teiz-ed by fome of his fycophants to profecutc fome neighbouring Gentlemen who had mot upon his manor, he replied, u I (hall not follow your " advice : I had much rather have friends thafl *[ hares, I afiurc you." From th* Tranflation of Chriftophcr Wafc, London i , 0#av<4. The DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 1$$ The Duke, from friendfhip to the Prince of Conde, engaged with him in the intrigues againft Mazarin, and prevented' him from calling in the afliftance of England againft his country and his Sovereign. ^mrmirii^ . . jH ".din MMXAME. DE LONGUEVILLE feems completely to have anfwered the defcription given of the French Ladies of his time by Anto- nio Priuli, in his " Hiftory of the Troubles of * France during the Minority of Louis the Four- " teenth." * The Ladies," fays he, "following " fcholars, would make ufe of detraction in their " ruelles, and in tnar circles, curioufly unra- " veiling the myfteries of Government, and catch- * l ing at the words and actions of the Cardinal 4< (Mazarin). Some of them proftituting them- " felves to get at the fecrets of the State, and * l making rebels of their hufbands (thus doing li more hurt by their lives than good by their " exertions) fet all France in a combuftion. " Afterwards, when their; v .defigns> failed, they * brnuX yrf.the PrinceU '.Palatine, azid theDuchefsof Chevreuk." - OASTONi DUKE OF OHLE.i'Xs. POSTERITY will not readily forgive, thjt prince for not exerting himfelf fufficiently to/ave his friend, the illultrious Montmorency, from the fcaffbld ; the fame feeblenefs of mind infecting hi m in this, as on moft other occafions. During, the time of the Fronde, had hrs mind been fufficicctly ftcady and determined* he might have been the obiter of his divided and diftracled country. Antonio DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. t^ Antonio Priuli gives this melancholy account of the latter years of a Prince of the Blood, brother to one Monarch, and uncle to another : " Gallon," fays he, u on the King's (Louis the " XlVth) triumphant return into Paris, with his " mother Anne of Auftria and the Cardinal, fet " out for his palace near Blois, without feeing or " taking leave of his Sovereign ; and havine; been XIV. who could nevcf forgive the part Cp*flfrttok ag?.iidt him in the Fronde, fcems never DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. never to have entirely given him his confidence, or to have rhade that ufe of the talents of this Prince which he fhoi.ld have made. The Prince of Conde was a ftriking illuflratiort of the obfervation made by the acute Dr. Johnfon, that Iri public fpeaking there was often rffore of knack and of habit than of real talent Or knowledge : for whilft Conde never rofe to fpeak in the Par- liament of Paris but to difgrace himfelf, Gallon his coufin, with a mind very inferior to his in every refpet, was very well heard in that AfTembly. His Sovereign Louis XIV. once patd Ccrnde a fery handfome compliment : The Prince, in* the hitter part of his life, was very lame with the gout, and was one day in that fituation apologizing to him for making him wait for him at the top of the great flair-cafe at Verfailles* which he wasafcend- 1 ing very flowly. Alas ! my coufin," replied he, " who that is fo loaded with laurels as yourftlf " can walk fait ?" The Priflce was a rnari of fome learning himfelf, nnd extremely fond Of the cbrtVerfation of learned and ingenious merr. Moliere, Boileau, and the celebrated writers of their time, were frequently with him at Chantilly. He however expected as much deference from thefe great men in literary matters, as he had been ufed to exa& from his vol. ii. L Officers 14-6 ANECDOTES OF SOMS Officers at a Council of War. Boileau, however, had once the fpirit to contradict him on fome fuhjecl of literature, of which moft probably he knew more than the Prince. Conde foon fired, and darted his eyes upon him, fparkling with rage and .indignation. *' Upon my word," fatd the tatirift, * in future I will take particular care, to kC be of the fame opinion with the Prince of Conde 4 when he is in the wrong." Pains had been early taken by fome of the Prince's fuppofed friends to (hake his belief in Chriftianity; he always replied, " You give yourfelves a great " deal of unneceflary trouble : the difperfion of 4< the Jews will always be an undeniable proof to *' me of the truth of our holy religion." Some writer fays, that the difpofition of a man is to be known by his hand-writing. This ob- fervation fcems realized in this great Prince, who was a man of a very violent and hafty temper. Segrais fays of him, " The Prince of Conde ufed u to write without taking his pen from the paper " till he had finifhed a fentence, and without put- V ting any points or adjuncts to his letters." DUC DtStiNGUISHED PERSONS. I 47 WC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT. osi*^ THE Author of the celebrated Maxims which *' bear his name was not a man of learning," fays Segrais, " but he was a man of great good '* fenfe, and had a perfect knowledge of the " world. This put him upon making re- " flections, and upon reducing into aphorifms " what he had been able to difcover in the heart " of man, with which he was moil intimately ac- quainted. 5 ' .v M. de la Rochefoucault was fo accurate in the compofition of his little book, that as he fmiftied a Maxim, he ufed to fend it to his friends for their opinion upon it. Segrais afierts, that fome of his Maxims were altered thirty times. The Maxim, *' that it fhews a wretched poverty of mind to * c have but one fort of underftanding," took its rife from Boileau and Racine, who were extremely ignorant of every thing except poetry and literature. " M. de la Rochefoucault," adds Segrais, *' would have made a better Governor for the " Dauphin, Louis the Fourteenth's only fon, than " the Duke of Montaufierj" being a man of great fweetnefs of temper, extremely infinuating in his addrefs, and exceedingly agreeable in conver- t 2 fation. 148 ANECDOTES OF SOME fation. M dc la Rochefoucault could never belong to the French Academy, as he could never urmQf r up courage enough to deliver to the Academy the fpeech which it was neceflary to make in order to b, admitted into that body. . orfj bw siifF "'juqcI* ** srtT CARDINAL DE RETZ. -> 9Iqm ^ri noHKifipj fb * / I1ENAULT applies this paffage in Tacicutiiftr (tjis celebrated Demagogue ! " Nsn tarn prarmiis " fxtuulorum^ queim if/is ptriculis, /ictus prt 4< i.-r/7/.r */ 0Z//71 fartiit nova, ambigue^ ancipiti^f " tnaUtbat." 1 he fagacious Richelieu early dis- covered the difpofition of De Retz, and according to Segrais, though he was of an autient and an illuftrious family, never intended to give him a benefice of any value or conlequenee. In very - early life De Retz wrote the " Hiftory of the " Confpiracy of Fiefqui againfi: the Ariftociacy tf of Genoa/' in which he took the part of the Confptrator. He fcems by nature to have had all the qualities requifite to become a favourite with the people. Brave, generous, eloquent,. full of rtfources, and fettered by no principle^ . he; dazzled the multitude of Paris, who feem ever to havj3'bten more taken with aft ions of eclat an J of DISflN'GUlSHED PERSONS. 1 49 of enterprise, than all the efforts of model* and ht^Te" Virtue. On fctiUf ! TO\^ parbjne levelled at iftm^f <&$%& fi W rtOTnow, he had the prefer** of mind to cry out, If M your Father, Sir, wertftttf ^lig^f J& n tfpre *' about !" This fpeech immediately difarmed the fury of the aflaflin. -*w*a*^ 1 *-' The Cardinal feems nearly to haVTf made an ample compenfation for the follies "and irregu- larities of his youth by the honeft cqnfeflion he made of them in his Memoirs. He appears in them to have been a man of great talents, and of good natural difpofition, perverted by vanity, and l^e defire of that diftin&ion, which, if not acquired by honeft means, difgraces ihftead of dignifying thofe who are fo unfortunate as to poffefs it. Had he directed his great powers of mind in en- deavours to unite, inftead of efforts to divide his unhappy and diftra&ed country, he would have endeared himfelf moft effectually to his country- men, arid would have deferved the praifes pf pof- terity, by exhibiting an example which tdo rarely occurs, of a Politician facrifjcing his refentment to the good of the State. The Memoirs of this celebrated Perfonage, written by himfelf, are extremely fcanty and im- perfect : they give no account either of the early or* 'of the latter part of his life. He entrufted L 3 the 150 ANECDOTES OF SOME the Manufcript to fome Nuns of a Convent near Cpraerci in Lorraine, who garbled them, James the Seconds however, told the laft Duke of Ormond, that he had feen a perfect copy of than, which was lent to him by Madame Caumartin. Joli, his Secretary, defcribes his Matter in his re- treat at Comerci in no very favourable manner ; as idling, away his time in hunting, going to puppet - fhows,nowand thenpretendingtoadminifter jutiicc amongft his tenants, writing a page or two of his own life in folio, and fettling fome points in the genealogy of his family that of Ciondi. The Cardinal's reply to Joli's remonftrances p him on this fubjett was a cuiious one: " I know all " this as well as you do, but I don't think, you " will get any one ejfe to believe what you fay of 4t me." An opinion fo highly advantageous to the Cardinal's talents and character had gone out into the world, that the people of France could not bring themfelves to think ill of one who had been a very popular Demagogue amongft them. On the day in which he was permitted to have an audience of Louis the Fourteenth at Verfailles, the Court was extremely full, and the higheft ex- pectations were formed of the manners and ap- pearance of the Cardinal : when however they faw an hump-back'd, bow-legg'd, decrepid old man, who perhaps did not feel much elevated with hjs fitu- DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. I5I fituation, their expectations were fadly difap- pointed ; and particularly fo, when his Sovereign merely faid to him, " Your Eminence is grown " very gray fince I laft faw you." To this the Cardinal replied, *' Any perfon, Sire, who has the misfortune to incur your Majefty's uifpleafure, a . will yery readily become gray." ' St. Evremond iias preferved an anecdote of the Cardinal's nobienefs of mind and liberality during his retreat at Comerci. As he was riding out on - horfeback, he was furrounded by fome Spanish fol- diers that were in the neighbourhood. The Officer 1 however, on being told his name, ordered him to be releafed, and difmounting from his horfe, made an apology for the behaviour of his foldiers. The Cardinal, taking a valuable diamond ring from his finger, prefented it to the Officer, faying, ". Pray, " Sir, at leaft permit me to render your little " excurfion not entirely ufelefs to you." . . Pe Ret? refigned the Archbifhopric of Paris, and procured in exchange for it the rich Abbey of St. Denis. He lived long enough to pay all his debts, and divided his time between Paris and St. Denis : at the latter place he died at a very advanced age, and in the ftrongeit fentiments of piety and devotion. He is occafionally mentioned in Madame de Sevigne's Letters, as a man of great talents for conversion, and much afflicted with l 4 the i v ANEC DOTES OF SOME the head-ach. He had the honefty to fay of himfclf, ** Alankind fuppofed me extremely enter- ^'prifing and dauntlefs when I was young, and I " was much more fo than they could poilibly 'J imagine;" and fbijE may he readily acknow- ledged, from an anfwer which he made to fome one who reproached him, when he was young, with owing a great deal of money. "Why, nun," replied he, * ^Jaefar, at tny age, owed iix-times 4 < as much as I do." . / a bad bru; ,.Nq one knew better how to manage and Cajole the multitude than Cardinal dc Ret* did, yet he complains that they left him at 'th Xngefcj'beW to go to dinner. One of his maxims Wfpe&ing the aflcmbling of that many-headed Monfter ihould be diligently cpnfidered both by the Leaders of Parties sand by the Governor^ of. Kingdoms : u Qjkonque affcmble le P tuple y *' lemeut Whoever brings the people together, ** puts them in a ftate of commotion," < h I iibjii A iriJAl. IHUIJ^^ ' CARDINAL MAZARIN, on his triumphant return to Paris, after the Peace of the Pyrenees, created a great number of Dukes i and on being afked why he wa$ fo'profufe of that honour, he replied, ? I will make fuch a number, * thaj DlSTIK.GUrSHEOf FBRS0W8. I 5 j that it fliall be difgraceful to *>e ri Dukerland? *.' not to be a Duke." Though a very able, ho- was a very timid Miflifter. His brother the' Cardinal of Aix ufed to (ay of him* it Only make v little buttle, and he will defift/' One of his favourite meafures was proeraftinatiom * c Time and I againft any other two pcrfonages," was his feply,- when urged to bride and violent meafures. . Mazarin was an extremely handfome man, and had a very fine face: this he was fo anxious to preferve, that rjot;many days before he died, he gave audience to the foreign Minjfters with bis face painted. This, made the Spanifh Mini.fl.er fay, " Valla un portrait qui refemble a J% ** le Cardinal." As Tacitus fays 'of Tiberius, though' now. his ft rength and his conflitution be-* gah to fail, yet his diflimulation continued as perfect as ever. He fent for the Prince of Conde; ajnd told him fomething confidentially, which the Prince was the more inclined to believe, as he favfr the dying l^a^e in which his Eminence was. A little time after his death, to his great aftonifhment, he found . that even in that awful fixation the Cardinal had not told him one word of truth, Mazarin exhibited in himfelf a fingular in- ftance of the viciflitudes of fortune. He was of a very low extinction, had been a gambler, be- t i9dmun s Aoui oAarn \h n I '_;.., ; ;u 3d v ^came 1 54. anecdot.es of some came Prime Minifter of a great Country, vvjj afterwards banifhed and a price fet upon his head* and. then returned triumphantly to his Adminis- tration with greater power than ever. Madame 60 Bavicre lays, that^be w ( as married to his Sovereign Anne of Audria,.and that he treated her extremely. ill. The Cardinal was by no means a fanguinary Miniiterj he let the People talk and write as they pleafed, and headed as he pleafed. A collection of {he fatires written againft him was preferved in the Colbert Library at Paris : it confided of forty- i'ix volumes in quarto. When he laid any new tax, he ufed to afk his confidants what the good people of Paris were doing, whether they were ridiculing him, and making fangs and epj" grams upon him. When he was anfwered in the affirmative, he ufed to fay, *' I can never have any 44 reafon to fear a Nation which vents its fplcen fa " very gaily; let them laugh on." | h(u> When the Cardinal was obliged to quit Paris, his effecls were fold at public auction ; his very valuable library was bought for the Court of BrunW Wck, and is at prefent in the capital of that Duchy. I Mazarin appears once in his life to have been in a very enviable fituation. When the French and Spanifh armies were drawn up in order v .qf* battle DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 155 near dial, in the fpring of the year 16^1, v( iv abcut to engage, Mazarin galloped be- tween them with his hat in his hand, exclaiming loudly, f* Pair! paix!" The armies immediate- ly halted, and in a few days afterwards peace was figned at Qucrafque, under the mediation of Urban the Eighth, whofe nephew, the Cardinal Legate, Mazarin attended on that happy occafion. The talents displayed by the latter in the negociation, and.thegoouofnceshe rendered fh- French Nation, recommended him to Louis the Thirteenth and the Cardinal dc Richelieu. Mazarin, when Minifter,- caufed a Medal to be ftruck in commemoration of this event, in which he is represented galloping between the two armies. On the reverfe is this motto, " Nunc orbi fervire labor " and how in- deed can a man ferve the world better than by procuring it the bleffings of peace j by (topping the lighs of the widow, the tears of the orphan, and the anguifh of the parent; by checking the rayages of difeafe, of peftjlence, and of famine ; and by preventing the devastation of the univerfe, and the deftrucYion of the human race ! To any Prime Minifter may wi not fay, H during the minority of Louis the Fourteenth, touched gently upon the diftrefiesof the common people of the kingdom of France, found himfelf treated with flight and tool- nefe by her Majefty at the next audiencd u tib Vtid of her. * This," fays he, " was owing to the " -mifreprefentation of the Minifters, and fome of " the vermin who frequent palaces." Talon having on fome occafion taken a part which pleafed the Queen and the Court, Cardinal Mazarin fent for him, and after paying him fome compliments ort his behaviour, offered him an Abbey for his brother. Talon very politelyrefufed itj adding, that as his late conduct had nothing in view but the fervice of the ^Wjig and the fatisfaftion of his own confcience, he fhould be extremely un- happy, if there was the leaft fufpiciori afforded to the world at large that he had a&ed from other motives. * I love," added this honell French- man. 158 ASSCdotes 6f some man, ll both the King and the Parliament, with- u out being under any apprehenfion that this ap- " parent contradiction fhould do me rmy prejudice 44 with mankind." Masarin fent for him another time, to requcft him to fpeak in the Parliament of Paris in favour of fome Edicts of the King, which were to be presented by himfelf in perfon to b? regiftered by that AlTembly. Talorf replied, that he fhoulJ do his duty that the prefence of the Sovereign on fuch occafions caufed always trouble and difcontent that it was therefore the more nccefTary that he fhould exercife properly the functions of his office without fear and with- out partiality. M. Talon's rcafons for quitting public affairs were thofe which but too often have infpired men as honeft and as well-intentioned as himfelf. M All refinance and contradiction," fay's he, " to the Governing Powers was incfFeclu.il M and utllefs, who carried every point they wifh'ed * to gain by violence and conflraint. I was, m however," adds he, " very much aftonifhed ** that many honeft men, who wifhed well to the " public peace, frill attended the Parliament, in u which they were certain that every thing mud *'be carried as if plcafed the Princes ; fo that in " the fituation in which matters were, it would " have been more for their honour, that what was ** done fhould have been done by the voices of a " few DISTINGUISHED PERSON'S. J59 ,v few perfons only, whofe partiality might well ** have been fufpected, than by the majority of the tl Parliament, who had not the power either to do " the good, or to prevent the evil, as they wilhed. " Neverthelefs, the general timidity was fo great, " that many perfons were afraid of being fufpe&ed, w if they did not attend that Aflemblyj and the f* majority of thofe who went there did not con- " fider fo much what opinion they mould give, " as how their perfons fhould be fecure, even " when they had betrayed their conferences, and and who intended to attack it, m 4 retired 168 ANECDOTES OF SOME retired to Amfterdam, to avoid any pcrfecution he might Ajffer in his own country for not facrificing to the old and long-revered idol of Peripateticifm. This produced the following letter to the cele- brated Balzac, who had recommended to him to retire into fome Convent in the country, to purfue at his eafe his heterodox intention. The letter from this great Philofopher to his ingenious friend, admirably defcribes the peace and tranquillity which then prevailed in the metropolis of Holland, the emporium of the world, and the feat of liberty and fecurity. " SINCE you have been infpired with a defire " to quit the world, my dear Balzac, and to bid ** adieu to a fervile Court, you mud excufe my " zeal if I invite you to come and fettle at Amfter- 4< dam, and to prefer the refulence of that city M to any one of the famous Francifcan or Carthu- " fian Monafteries (in which there are many good 11 and pious men), to any of the moft pleafant and " falubrious fituations of Italy, or even to that " beautiful hermitage in which you werelaft year. <4 However perfect your hermitage was, yet there ** were feveral things wanting to it, which are only " to be found in great cities. To begin with only ** one dcfeft, it cannot poflibly poflcfs that com* . " pkte. ' DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 169 " p'cte and * perfect folitude which is never to be " met wirh out of a great city. You will in your. hermitage, perhaps, find a ftream that will com* " pel the moil talkative perfon to be filent,, and a 41 valley fo iecluded as to excite even the moft " inattentive perfon to meditation or to extacy. *< But you muft ftill have there many neighbours, " who leize you with their offensive vifits, audV *' who are continually inviting you to return to "Paris; whilft, on the contrary, I, who am " perhaps the only perfon in this city who have no , il concern in trade or commerce, (every other- ' perfon here being abforbed in bufinefs) can pafs * c my whole life here without being knovvn to H Cure or convenience. If it is any pleafure to " you to foe fruit growing in your garden or in 14 your orchard, and that prefcnt itfelf to the eyes 44 of thofe who walk in them, do you think that I ** enjoy Ms pleafure in beholding the mips that ride 44 in this port, bringing with them all the fruits of * 4 the Indies, and whatever is rare or precious in 44 E urope ? What place in any part of the world 44 can you chufe, in which every convenience of 44 life, and in which even every thing that nicety 44 itielf can dignify with the name of curious, can 44 be more eafily procured ? In wh2t other fitua- 44 tion is there greater liberty? Where is there 44 fafcr fleep ? Where is there lefs occafion for 44 troops to keep order and regularity? Where 44 ara poifoning, treachery, calumny, lefs known 44 than with us, where there are even veftige's 14 of the fimplicity of the Golden Age? I 44 cannot guefs why you continue fo tranfportcd 44 with theciimate of Italy, where the plague but 44 too often makes its ravages, where the heat in 44 toe middle of the d3y is intolerable, where the 44 cool DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 171 cool of the evening is umvholefome, and where * c the filent hour of midnight is polluted withmur- ** der and with robbery. If you are afraid of the " coldnefs of the Netherlands, pray tell me what u {hade, what fprings, can fo completely remedy * the fervid heat of your fummer fun, as our '* ftoves and our grates defend us from the rigour ct of the cold. I hope then to fee you here foon. 44 I have a fnall collection of my meditations to *' fhew you, which perhaps you may like to fee. * 4 Whether you come or not, believe me to be " Your moil humble u and obedient fervant, " Descartes." * Jmjlerdam-, Sept. 30, 1633." Count D'Avaux offered Defcartes a penfion, which he refufed, telling this great Negociator, after returning thanks for his generous offer, " The Public alone fliould pay what I do for the M Public." His Biographer fays, that Defcartes became rich by diminiftxing his expences, and that whiltf. he remained in Holland, he always wore a plain fuit of black cloth. " At his table," adds he, " in imitation of the good natured Plutarch, 44 he always preferred fruits and vegetables to the " bleeding flefti of animals. His afternoons were " fpsnt in the converfation of his friends, and in the 1~% ANECDOTES OF SOME " the cultivation of a fmall garden, when the " weather permitted. After having in the f morning fettled the place of a planet, in the " evening he would amufe himfclf with watering ' a flower." His health was naturally delicate, and he took care of it, without being enflaved by that care. * Though," fays he, in one of his letter, " I have not been able to find out a " method of preferving life, yet I have arrived at One of the moft ftriking pictures that was ever made of the wretchednefs and mifery of an idle ani] unappropriated life is to he met with in Lord Cla- rendon's Dialogue on the Want of Reflect due to Old Age, in the volume of his Traits, where he gives the following melancholy account of one of h;s cour.try neighbours : 41 When I vifited this Gwuleman in the morn-r *' ing I always found him in his "bed, and when I " came in the afternoon he was afleep, and to moft 44 men befides niyklf was denied, but was very 'willing to be called when 1 came, and always ' ,; revived me with cheerfulncfs. Once walking 44 with him, 1 doubted he was melancholy, and by " 'pending his time fo much in his bed, and fo f* much alone, that there was fornething which 4C troubled him, othervvife that it could not be 14 that a man upon whom God had poured down v fo many bleifings, in the comfort of fo excellent 44 a wife, . a wife, w!o had brought hinx fo niajiy hopeful " children, and in the poflefiion of i'o ample an l< sftate, fhould appear in the courf: of his life, * gfijj in the fpending of his time, to be io little * CPjipented 3s he appeared to be. To winch, < with n countenance a lirtlc more erecY an chofe for him the pfb- feflion of the Law. Whilft he remained in his ftate of uncertainty he wrote the following lines ; towhkb, from the peculiar neatntfs and felkHty of expreffion contained in them, it would be diffi- cult to do juftice in a tranflation. ___ i/irresoau. Pendant que Luc dtiibtr; Sat a qu'tldo:? devntir t F.t s y il eft bon defefaire, Homme Weglift on d* affaire, Avocal on mortfquctnire, Plui rjile quutt foisitnir, Le tempi a Catle legere Pen!, pour ne plus revrrii*, Sts beaiiX jours %-onl s\:r:bruft'r t F.t la vieiilfjfe s'avance. , Auparavakt cu'il commence llferoil temps defijiir, Flottant dans I' incertitude* Luc rejle inft nfilltmtnt, Inutile egaltme\t Pttur Li-gucrff, pair frfi/de, Lc mondi {& tafolitude. ftyanl a moiije privoil bltjf, $lue cbercbaipt trop ap. eiituoufiei, C< iju ': l prut ce qnitveul ii-e, trtfm tut He mi r:M. Sen" * Ort the ftffeyfg of die fhoire wf aprofeffion, Dr. John- foi> *ith his uiu.tl l3fcr icify bf remark fw*. " 1 hive ever * t " U*tgl.* thole happy that have bttn fixed from the nrft ** dawn t>I$tlNGUISHf> WfttdWs. IQI Senecai ufed to call cheerfulnefs of temper la beaume de la vie." He wrote fome Memoirs of Cardinal de Rctz, which are now procured 1 with difficulty, and which differ in fome refpe&s from thofe publifhed by his Eminence. COUNT OLIVAREZ. - WHEN this Minifter was once reproached by his Sovereign Philip the Fourth of Spain, for not having done for him what Cardinal Richelieu had " dawn of thought to fome ftate of life, by the choice of " one whofe authority may preclude caprice, and whoffi " influence may prejudice them m favour of his opinion. " The general precept ef confuting the genius is of little " ufe, unlefs we can tell how that genius is to be known. M If it is only to be difcovered by experiment, life will b " loft before the refolution can be fixed. If any other in- M dications are to be found, they may, perhaps, be e*fi!y " difcerned. At leaft, if to mifcarFy in an attempt be a ** proof of having miftaken the direction of the genius, ** men appear not lefs frequently miftaken with regard to " themfelves than to others; and therefore no. one has '? much, re.afon to complain, that his life was planned ouit " by his friend?, or to be confident that he fhouid ha*fi ^ " had either more honour or more happineT?, by fcsrra " abandoned to the choice of his owa-feaev." done 192 . ANECDOTES OF SOME done for his mafter Louis XIII. and for having loft him one kingdom, that of Portugal, whilft Richelieu had extended the dominions of Louis ; he replied, " The Cardinal, Sire, had no fcruples." Olivarez, in one thingat leaft, imitated the Cardinal. He caufed himfclf to be (tiled the Count Duke, becaufe Richelieu had taken the title of the Car- dinal Duke. Olivarez feems to have made fomc wife regulations for his country. He freed from the charge of public offices, for four years, all newly-married men, and exempted from taxation all thofe perfons who had fix male children. To increafe the population of his country he had re- courfe to one very dangerous and fhameful expe- dient, he permitted marriages between young peo- ple without the confent of their parents. On being diiplaced from the port of Prime Minifter, he retired to his eftate at Loches, where, according to Vittorio Siri, he died completely of chagrin and difappointment. G R O T I U S. THIS great civilian and this general fcholar is thus defcribed by Auberi du Mauricr, who was intimately acquainted with him : Grotius DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 193 * { Grotius was a very good poet in the Greek " and in the Latin languages, and knew per- " fc&ly well all the dead and the living languages. " He was, befides, a profound lawyer, and a to put * c himfelf in continual remembrance that he " fhould ufefully employ that time which was efi Gentlemen. The reft of them, 4 who ufed to tyrannize over their Farmers, and ** beat tham,. are all gone to the Devil. Was it '* not a (hamcful and a fcandalcus thing, that a ** miferable Counfellor of Parliament had it in ** his power to make every-body within twelve **- miles afraid of him !" 44 Cardinal de Retz," fays Scgrais, " told as a ** truth fomething of which I knew pofitively the * c contrary. To avoid mentioning that his Kini 4t nence had told a lie, i obferved to him, that he ** ought to do as the late Madame de Montpcnfier * did, who ufed to fay, that fhc never told an un- 44 truth, but that fhe made ufe of her imagination m to fu-pply the defect of her memory." M When 1 was young," fays Segrais in his tylemoirs* " I was fond of making verfes, and of " reading them indifferently to all forts of pcrfons. ** But I perceived, that when M. Scarron, who 4t was however my intimate friend, took out his 46 poi tefeuille, and read me fome of his verfes, ha " bored me cxceiTively, although his verfes were 44 very good. I then began to reflect, that as my fc verfes were not near lb good as his, I mult in " a greater degree bore my friends (who mofi 41 probably did not like poetry as well as I did) ; 44 and I then laid myfeif down a resolution, oxever " to DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 2-5 *' to read my verfes except to thofe who afked me, u and even then to take care that I did not glvt? " them too many of them." : \ riw 4 * Segrais, fpeaking of the difturbanees at Paris in his time called La Fronde, fays, " The party that " oppofed the Court had no real resfon for doing fo. It was to them an agreeable amufement, u in which there was a good deal of laughing, u and in which every thing was made fun of in " doggerel verfes." Would to Heaven that the late Frondeurs in that Country had been as harm- lefs and as pleafant ! t rUiJi3 J . L U L L I. THIS great Mufician was one day reproached with fetting nothing to muficbut the languid verfes ofQuinault. He ran immediately to his harp- fichord, and after having for a few minutes run over the keys in a moft violent manner, and with great violence of geiture, fang from Racine's tragedy of *' Iphigenie" the following terrific lines: . Vn Priire er,ufe us, and the utility of it is always * c evident. A King can have no fatisfaction equal *< to that of being able to obferve every day how M much he has increafed the happinels of his fub- Ci jects, and how thofe excellent projects fucceed, ** of which himfelf gave the plan and the defign. * Conftder after all, my dear fon, that we not ' only are deficient in gratitude and in juftice, " but in prudence and in good fenfe, when we do 44 not pay the proper degree of veneration to that '.' Being whofe vicegerents {lleutcnans) only wc ft are." In fhefe observations the natural good fenfe aird good intentions of the Monarch break out, in fpite of the wretched and confined education which Mazarin gave him, in order completely to govern him, a:xi of which he and his people ever afterwards felt the ill effefts. Abbe" de Lungueru'c; fays DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 221 fays of Louis, " that he was naturally a great u friend of juftice, and of good intentions, but * that he was extremely ignorant in matters of " fcience and of literature;" or, as he puts it more ftrongly, M il ne ffavoit rien de rien. So/' fays he, " his Majefty was continually deceived. He *' was really afraid of men of parts. // craigr.it, " Us efprits, that was his expreffion. A Foreign " Minifter," adds the Abbe, ufed to fay, that * l there were moft afluredly in Louis the Four- " teenth's time many men of merit in France, ** but that really he never faw one of them in place." Louis had a ^violent paflion for building, and preferred, it feerhs, the marfliy and low fituatiou of Verfailles to the dry and elevated fite of St. Germain, th*t he might not fee from his windows the fteeples of the Royal Abbey of St. Denis, in which his predecefibrs had been buried, and, in which himfelf was to reft. How mortified would this Prince have been, had he known, that in all the public and private edifices taken together which he had caufed to be built, there are, accor- ding to the calculation of a celebrated Scotch Antiquary at Rome, fewer cubic feet of mafonry than in the fingle fabric erected by a Roman Emperor, the, Amphitheatre of jVefpafian. Louis S22 ANECDOTES OF SOME Louis had the merit of knowing his own igno- rance in literary matters ; for when once on his pafTage to the Army in Flanders, he had occafion to fpend fome time at a fmall Abbey of Benedi&ins, the Prior talked to his Majefty about the charters it contained. " Alas* Sir," replied Louis, ' you " are much too learned for me ! My coufin the " Prince of Conde will be here in a few days: " you may tell all this to him ; he is the Doctor " of our family." Louis one day afked Racine* who was the French writer that had done moft honour to his reign. Racine replied, u Moliere, Sire." " 1 did not *' think fo," anfwered Louis, c< but you are a " better judge of thtfe matters than I am." As Louis's walk was different from that of his courtiers, fo was his pronunciation. Franf *, the name or his fubjects, he always pronounced like the name of the Saint. Louis, on hearing fome public Speaker make ufe of thele wor^, u Le Roi is" PEtat" exclaimed loudly, " L'Etat! ceji moi." And well indeed might he make that exclamation ; for when in the diftreflls of his kingdom, in the latter part of his life, he coufulted the Doctors of the Scrbonne whether he might raife taxes by his own authority, without the formality uf their being rcgittered by the DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 223 the Parliaments of his kingdom, they anfwered in the affirmative. In an Infcription under his ftatue he was thus ftiled : " The glory of Kings, the delight of the " human race, the terror of his enemies, the idol " of his fubjei5r.s, and the admiration of all." nihil eft, quod credere de fe Nov poffit, cum laudatur Dili atjia />cfeftas. Ye fliamelefs flatterers of a mortal's pride, Your Monarch's power with that of Jove divide. Crufh'd by his dire and arbitrary fway, Yourfelves fhall curfe th' idolatry ye pay. Segrais fays, " that fome young Noblemen " who were about the perfon of Louis the Four- ** teenth, were talking one day before him (when " he was about eleven years old) of the defpotio * c power of the Emperors of Turkey, and what *' great things they did in confequence of it." " Aye," faid the young Prince, " this may be called reigning indeed." The Marfhal d'Ef- trees, who happened to be prefent, laid, " Your " Majefly perhaps does nut know, that even in ff the courfe of my life I have known three or four " of thefe Emperors put to death by the bow- i* firing." Marfhal de Villeroi, Governor to die young King, immediately arofe from his feat, went u^ *24 AtfECD'OTES OF SOME tip to d'Eftr6es, and thanked hrm for the excellent leflbn which he had given to his royal pupil. Louis feems to have had one part of an honeft and ingenuous mind : he was inclined to take advice, and to alter hia conduct when he was con- vinced it was wrong. His pcrfon was very beau- tiful, and he was very fond of exhibiting it. He very often danced upon the ftage of Verfailles in fome of Quinault's Operas. Racine, iri the Tra- gedy of Britannicus, had the boldnefs and the kind- nefs to fay of Nero, II cxcelle a conduire un cbar dans fa carriers, A difpuler des pnx indignes de fes maim, A fe dinner lui-mime tn fpeHucle au Remains. With futile Jkill and iH-direc"ted grace He pants to outftrip the chariots in the race*. Gazed at by mi. lions of plebeian eyes, From his own l'uhjcdts hands he fecks the prize ; A prize that but proclaims the tictor's Jhamc - t How far below a Monarch's nobler aim ! The judicious lVIonarch took the hint, and never afterwards appeared upon the ftage. Louis, who had excellent natural fenfe, and who was by no means fanguinary, was moft probably led into the cruelties which he permitted to be exercifed againft his Proteftant futjec-ts, by his fanatical Chancellor Le Tellier, and his Confeflbr of the fame name ; for in the Initru&ions to his Son before DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. %2$. before mentioned in this Article, he tells him, " It " aggerated by fear, which ads always as a micro- " fcope to calamities." Montecuculi was called by fome of his rafli and unexperienced officers, theTemporizer; for, know- ing but too well the uncertainty and the mifery of * war, he was never in a hurry to rifk a battle* unlefs he was well aflured of its fuccefs. He however told thofe who were diflatisfied with his conduct, " I glory in a name which was that " given to the Roman General who faved his " country > Qui cun&ando reftituet rem. On being told of the death of the " god-like" Turenne, he faid, " I lament, and I cannot too " much lament the lofs of a man above the reft " of mankind, and who did honour to human na- " ture jfe regrette, et je ne Jqauroh a (fez re" le *' thu cflentially to lerve a pcrfon to whofe kintintiV ho tt tud-bem fo grc.it !y indebted." great DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. l$j great readinefs to a match that was to procure for his daughter the fovereignty of fo great a kingdom as that of Spain. When every thing was fettled, and immediately before the Princefs was to fet out for her new dominions, the Miniftry of Spain had heard that the Princefs was a young woman of a haughty imperious temper, and extremely intriguing and ambitious. They therefore prevailed upon the King to write to the Duke, to requeft another of his daughters in marriage, to whofe quiet difpofition they could not poflibly have any objections. The King did as he was defired, and fent his letter by a fpecial meffenger. Alberoni, who was then at Parma, hearing of this, and afraid that all his proje&s of ambition would come to nothing, unlefs the Princefs whom he recommended, and who of courfe would think herfelf highly obliged to hini for her exalted fituation, became Queen of Spain, had the meffenger flopped at one day's journey from Parma, and gave him his choice, either to delay his coming to Parma for a day, or to be affaffinated. He of courfe chofe the firft of thefe alternatives, and the Princefs fet out upon her journey to Spain, and became Queen of that country. Alberoni was foon made Prime Minifter of Spain ; a Cardinal, and Archbifhop of Valentia; vol. ii. s and 25# ANECDOTES OF SOME and exercifed his Miniftry with the mod complete defpotifm. One of AJberoni's projects was to difpoflfefs. the Duke of Orleans of the Regency of France, and to bellow it upon his own Sovereign, as the olderr. reprefentative of the Houfe of Bourbon ; to place the Pretender on the Throne of England, and 1 add to Spain the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. His project was however difcovered by the Regent, and one of the con- ditions he made with the King of Spain was, the banifhment of Alberoni from his councils and hi* kingdom. With this he was obliged to comply, .md the Cardinal received orders to leave Madrid in twenty-four hours, and the kingdom of Spain in fifteen days. Alberoni, who took with him great wealth, was upon the fecond day of his journey, when it was perceived that he was carrying out of the king- dom with him- the celebrated will of Charles the Second of Spain, which gave that kingdom to its then Sovereign. Perfons were detached from Madrid to wreft this ferious and important docu- ment from him, which it was fuppofed he in- tended to take to the Emperor of Germany, to ingratiate himlelf with him. With fome violence they effe&ed their purpofe, and the Cardinal pro- ceeded on his journey to the frontiers of France, where be was received by an officer, fent by the' Regent DISfTNGXJnHE'D PEH&6NS. 259 Regent to conduit him through that kingdom as a State prifoner. As a true politician, however, yields to crrcumftances, and is never embarrafled by any change of affairs, Alberoni, on his arrival in France, wrote to the Regent, to offer him his fervices againft Spain. To this letter, however, his Highnefs difdained to return any anfwer. The Cardinal's difgrace happened in 1720, and he retired to Parma for fome time, till he was fummoned by the Pope to attend a Confiflory, in which his conduct was to be examined by fome of the Members of the Sacred College, refpect- ing a correfpondence he was fuppofed to have kept np with the Grand Seignior. He was fen- tenced to be confined one year in the Jefuits College at Rome. After this he returned to Parma, near which city he founded, at a very great expence, an eftablifhment for the inftruction o young men deftined for the Priefthood. In the 6l celona, and would at againft it, if he perfifted in his endeavours to embroil the peace of Europe, by arming the Porte againft the Emperor, and by making the Czar and the King of Sweden go to war with England, in order to eftablifli the Pre- tender upon the throne of that country. Alberoni (hatched the paper which contained the numbers out of the Minifter's hands, and tore it in a thoufand pieces. Lord Harrington, nothing abaflied, went on coolly with the thread of his converfation, " Et comme je difois, Monfeigneur" When the Marfhal de Maillebois commanded the French troops at Parma, in the year 1746, Alberoni waited upon him uponfome bufinefs, but was refufed admittance to him by his Secretary, who told him the Marfhal was engaged with fome affairs of importance, and could not fee him. " Mon ami," replied the Cardinal, very indig- nantly, and opening the door of the MarfhaJ's apartment at the fame time, li .facbez que M. de ** Vendqmeme recevoit fur fa chaife percee." That Alberoni wrote with the fame fpirit with which he ated, the three following Letters of his to Lord Mel combe, then Envoy Extraordinary from the Court of England to the Court of Spain, will evince. They were kindly communicated to the Compiler by PenrudDock Wyndham, pfq. Member of Parliament for the County -of s 3 Wilts $ 262 ANECDOTES OF SOM* \yilts; a Gentleman on whom the unanimous fuffrages of bis own County have lately conferred that honour; an honour long merited by his pkaiing manners, his focial talents, and his elegant hofpitality. " Du Palais, ce 9 Mars, 1717. <{ J'-ay 1'honneur Monfieur de vous envoyer la " permiffion que vous avez demande depuis un fi * c long terns. Vous fcavez que ce climat H'in- V fpire qu'avec lenteur l'execution des afFairesj " nous aurons de la peine a le changer, de forte " que il y a de la prudence a le prendre tel qu'il eft. * J'ay 1'honneur d'etre H Votre tres humble et W tres obeiflant ferviteur, M AlbE'Ro.ni." " A Monfieur Monficiw Buj3B, *' Envoye Extraordinaire * duRoi de la Grande Bretagne, " tn fes Mains." <>C>C3C>CSO< " Enfin Monfieur Bubb trouvez bon que je 4 vous dife, que tous les Cabinets d'Europe ont * c perdu la tramontane, puifque la raifon d'eftal *' eft abbandone aux caprices de quelques par- " ticuliers, lesquels fans rime et fans raifon et * peutetre par des fins particulicrs, coupent et " rognent DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. zfo tl rognent des Eftats et des Royaumes comme s'ils etoient des fromages d'Holande. Soyez <{ perfuade Monfieur que perfonne ne vous eftime tc et ne vous honore plus que " Le Card. Alberoni." " A Madrid, ce 5 April .171-8. " J'ai ete tres ravi Monfieur d'apprendre votrc <* arrivee a Londres apres avoir efluie un long et d levellers. The prefcat generation * muft pals away, before either of thefc terms can relume " its priftinc and native honours." fecu- DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 277 fccuiity. It is the vice of foldiers, mariners* " and huntfmen; of thofe who exercife boifterous " occupations, or purfue dangerous amufements j ** and if the modern Italians are lefs addicted to iS excefs in wine than the Greeks and Romans in i( antient, or the Englilh and Germans in modern ' times, their temperance may fairly be afcribed " to the indolent monotony of their liftlefs lives ; " But Rome, according to the only hiftorian* " who has circumftantially and authentically de- * l fcribed its early tranfa&ions, was an expanfion 41 of Alba Longa, itfelf a Grecian colony, which, j according to the immemorial and facred cuftom " of its mother-country, diffufed into new fettle- u ments the exuberance of a flour idling popu- " lation, produced by the wifeft and moft liberal M inftitutions. According to the fame admirable " hiftorian, the manly difcernment of Romulus " offered an afylum not merely for robbers and " murderers, but for thofe who were threatened " with murder or robbery, whofpurned fubje&ion, V or fled from oppreflion ; for amidft the lawlefs turbulence of antient Italy, the weak needed '' protectors againft the ftrong, the few againft * c the many j and Rome, at her earl ieft age, 4< already fyftematically afiifted the weakeft party j i " * Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus. ' > .v u 4 *< thus 29& ANECDOTES OF SOME ' ihu9 adopting in her infancy that politick " heroifm, that was deftined, by firm and naajeftic ' fttfps, to conduct her manhood and maturity to * the fair fovereignty of confenting Nations. *' Both in their origin and in their progrefs, " Rome and St. Marino form the natural objects, "not indeed of a companion, but of a ftriking " contraft j and comprened as is the latter Re- " publick between the dominions of the Pope and *' thofe of the Grand Duke, to whofe fubjects M St. Marino is bound to allow a free paffage ** through its territory, it* citizens would defervc ridico)e or pity, did they affect the character, ** Or imitate the maxims, of thofe magnanimous Senators, who, for the fpace of more than two ** centuries, fwayed the politicks and controuled M the revolutions of the world. Convinced that <* their independence refults from their infigni- a ficancy, the Senators of St. Marino fmilcd, u when we read in Mr. Addifon, * Thefe Re- " publicans would fell their liberties dear to any * that attacked them.' We had not the indeli- * cacy to defire them to interpret this fmile ; or " to make ourfelves any comment upon it, being * perfuaded, that, precarious and fhadowy as their ** liberty is, their rational knowledge and their ** virtues have enabled them to extract from it both fubftantial and permanent enjoyment, and make them, DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 297 <4 them live happier here, amidft rocks and mows, 44 than are their Tufcan *nd Roman neighbours 44 in rich plains and warm vallies^, " To the inhabitants of this little State, the " ArengOy the Council, the different offices of 44 magiftracy, innocent rural labours, and military 44 exercifes equally ufeful and innocent, fupply 44 a continual fuccefiion of manly engagements. 44 Hopes and fears refpeting the fafety of their 44 country awaken curiofity and excite inquiry. 44 They read the gazettes of Europe with interefc ; *' they ftudy hiftory with improvement ; in con- 44 verfation their queflions are pertinent and u their anfwers fatisfak>ry. Contrary to what 44 has been obferved by travellers of other 44 Italians, the citizens of St Marino delight in 44 literary converfation j and Mr. Addifon remarks, 44 , that he hardly met with an unlettered man w in their Republick. In fpeaking of Beccaria's 44 book on Style, then recently published, one of 44 the Senators faid, that it was a treatile on ftyle 44 in a very bad ftyle, abounding in falfe ornaments 44 and epigrammatic gallicifm. Another obferved, 44 he wifhed that fafhionable wr'ter, who had been 44 commented on by Voltaire, tm author (till more 44 fafhionable and more pernicious than him- 44 felf, would confine himfelf to fuch harmlefs 44 topics as rhetoric and ftyle j for his book on 44 Crimes, 2$3 ANECDOTES OF SOME " Crimes and Punishments was calculated to do 44 much ferioijs mifchief, at lcaft to prevent much 44 pofiti ve good j becaufe in that popular work he " had declaimed very perfuafively againft capital ' puniftiments, in a country long difgraced by ** capital crimes, which were icarcely ever capi- % tally punifhed. -nf 4 The love of letters which diftinguifJhes the If people of St. Marino makes them regret that 44 they are feldom vifjted by literary travellers. 4i Of our own countrymen belonging to this de- l \ fcription, they njentioned with much refpecfc ** Mr. Addifon and 11 Signor Giovanni Syoaonds, n now Profcflbr of Hiitory in the Univerfity of ** Cambridge. We were proud of being claiTed ** with fuch u>en by the honeft fimplicity of thefe 1(> virtuous Mountaineers, whom we left with 4V legict, molt heartily wishing to tliem the con- 4i ti nuance of their liberties ; which, to men of ft their character, and theirs only, are real and iblidblellings. For-Let it never be forgotten, that the incfti- ** rnabie gift of civil liberty may often be provi- *> dentially with-hcld, becaufe it cannot be fafely 4t he flawed, unlcis rational knowledge has been * v ittained, and virtuous habits have been acquired. 4 hi t.lu -language of the wifeft man of Pagan * antiquity, a great length of time js rcqttiiitc to 44 the DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 299 ** the formation of any moderately good Govern- ** ment ; becaufe that Government is always the " beft, which is the beft adapted to the genius " and habits of its fubjedts *. The inftitutions ** which fuit the well-balanced frame of mind of ** the Mountaineers of St. Marino, who, breathing ** a purer air, feem to have diverted themfelves of " many of the grofler and more earthly affe&ions, " might ill accord with the foftened tenants of " the Capuan Plains j fince, according to the u fame penetrating fearcher into the fecrets. of 41 human nature, * the inhabitants of the Fortu- * nate Iflands, if fuch iflands really exift, muft " either be the moft virtuous or the moll ct wretched of men.' Ariftotle hardly knew the " inhabitants of the Britim Ifles ; but let us, who ** know ourfelves and our good fortune, confide " in the aflurance, that this incomparable Author ** would no longer entertain the above geographi- u cal doubt, were he to revive in the eighteenth " century, and to vifit the Brkiili dominions under " the government of George III. As we have " long been the happieft of Nations, let us cherifli " the hope, that the caufes of our happinefs are, *' morally fpeaking, inalterable. The character " of our anceftors, uniting, beyond all people on " arth, firmnefs with humanity, gave to us our * Ariftot. Politics, -ii. &. Govern- 3* nu.es, reads all dii-patcbes himfelf at firft-hand, * and writes moft of his own leturs. 1 need V- give no more particular proof of his fru- K gaUty in laying (^ut the public money, than thai " ail the cxponces of his Court (as to eating, V 4 iuiauiag, fL.c and candles, and the like) are DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 31-7 ** duly paid every Saturday night. The Officers * of his Army receive their pay every month, as * likewife his Envoys in every part of Europe; and all the Officers of his Houfehold, with the * reft that are on the Civil Lift, are cleared off every half-year." This Prince underftood Englifh fo ill., that the only method of communication between Mm and one of his Minifters, who could not fpealc French, was in bad Latin. On coming to the Crown of England, he told his Minifters, that as he knew very little of the Conftitution and cuftoms of England, he fhould put himfelf intirely in their hands, and be governed by them : " Then," added he, M you become completely anfwerable for every ffi thing that I do*." This wife Prince knew too well the facrifiees of their opinion to that of the Sovereign, which Minifters are but too apt to make in order to pre- ferve their fituation; and he had too much magna- nimity to tempt them by their own fclfiihnefs and defire of aggrandifement to defer to him without conviction, and too much honour to permit that they, and perhaps the country itfelf, fhould fuffeir *, " An idle Prince," fays the aevrte Beauriielle, " lets ** his Minifters do everything for him. Kings of a mo-' 11 derate capacity wilh to be their own Minifters. ^King *' of genius govern without Minifters.'' in 318 ANECDOTES OF SOME in confequencc of his interpofition in a manner unwarranted by the ConfHtution, which with great wifdom takes off all refponfibility for mea- fures of Government from the Sovereign, and places it upon the A'Jinifters. A German Noble- man was one clay congratulating this Monarch on his being Sovereign of this Kingdom and of Hanover. " Rather,'' faid he, " congratulate me u on having fuch a Subject in one, as Newton; 41 and fuch a Subject in the other, as Leibnitz." DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. HOW much better this great Warrior could fight than fpell, the following Letters very plainly evince : " Jully the lqtb, 17 14. ( Holland before he attacked the " enemy} how impoffible it would have been for " him to have made half the conquefts that he "did." This great Genera! lived to a good old age, and being tarn Mercurio quam Marti, " as much * a Scholar as a Soldier," amuied himfelf with making a fine collection of books, pictures, and prints, which are now in the hinperot's collection at Vienna. The celebrated Cardinal Paflionei, then Nuncio at Vienna, preached his funeral fer- mon, from this grand and well -appropriated text of Scripture : " Alexander, fon of Philip the Macedonian, *< made many wars, took many ftrong holds, went 44 through the ends of the earth, took fpoils of " many nations ; the earth was quiet before him, " After thefe things he fell fick, and perceive^ " that he fhould die." Maccabees. MARSHAL SJXE, TO the honour of the humanity of this great. General, the following fiory, told of him by M % de 3JO ANECDOTES OF SOME M. dc Senac, his Phyfician, fhould be mentioned. The night before the battle of Raucour, M. de Senac obferved his illuftrious patient very thoughtful, and afked him the reafon of it ; when he replie3 in a paiTage from the " Andromaque" of Racine, Soxgr, finge, Stnac, aeette mil cruelle, $%rti fut f>mtr tout nn pntplt une nuit tternelle. Songe aux cris de: vainquutrs, fonge aux crit des moic rans, f>*$ JMJHW tlou #< !5 J bui u f er %{#*% " Think, think, my friend, what horrid woes To-morrow's morning muft difclofe To thoufands, by Fate's hard decree, The lail morn they fljall ever fee. Think how the dying and the dead O'er yon. extenfive plain (hall fprcad ; What horrid fpeftacles afford,' Scorched by the flames, pierced by the fword. * l and added, Et tous Iesfoldals n'en favoitnt rien ' encore AnJ all thefe Soldiers knew nothing at * all of what was to happen." The following Letters were written by Marfhal Saxe to M. D'Eon de Tifle, Cenfor Royal, and Secretary to the Regent Duke of Orleans. They are permuted to embellifh this Collection, by the DISTINGUISHED PERSOKS. 33I the kindnefs of the Chevaliere D'Eon, niece to th perfon to whom they were addrefl'ed. << MONSIEUR, ' JE vous prye einjtan mant de prefer une atanjton favorable a je que MHe. Sommerville* *< vous dira, il ma paru quon la vexe & fait une <* bonne fille, a qui.je feres charme ds.rar.drc *' fervijfe, (pjtife perfuades que \onfaurct aitre plus paffaitement, Monfieur, ** Votre tres humble & tres obeiffent ferviteur, Maurice de Saxe." < A Paris le Mardh , " dernier s de Juillet', *' 174.0." u tdT u JE vous prye d % aitre perfuades, Monfieur, ** que Ton nqfaurct aitre plus fenhble que je le r I'., ccrtajiT.-" Ptrtfea lU.Pafeal, pa" ani.lt- 8. in DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 335 in length ; and their hearers appear to forget an- other obfervation of this acute Carthufian, u that * l it is furprifing that ilnce eloquence has begun " to be fufiiciently known, it fhould ftill continue < to dupe any one." . . ! nR eiw . SJMUEL CLARKE, D. % " m * boohivnoi H A FRIEND of Dr. Johnfon afked him one day, vvhofe fermons were the beft in the Englifti language ? f! Why, Sir, bating a little herefy, *' thofe of Dr. Samuel Clarke." This great and excellent man had, indeed, good reafon for 'thus highly praifing them, for, as he told a relation of Dr. Clarke, they made him a Chriilian. The Chevalier Ramfay fays, in one of his letters in- ferred in the Notes upon *' Les (Euvres ck fi Racine" M. Clarke rriavoua quelques terns ff avant de mourir (apres plujieurs confer en&s ** que f avals eues avec lui) ccmbien il fe repcnti't ** d' avoir fait imprinter fon ouvrage" (his cele- brated work on the Trinity). The Doctor's neareft relations (fome of whom were living a few- years ago at Saliibury) always faid, that they .had never heard him declare the leaft uneafinefs of mind upon this account j and the elegant ai>d in- genious 336 ANECDOTES OF SOME genious Author of the ** Efiay upon the Writings u and Genius cf Pope," when he quotes this part of the letter, very delicately prefaces it with fay* ing, that it is a circumftar.ee too remarkable to be omitted, and of which fame may be almoft tempted to doubt the truth. A fifttr of Dr. Clarke, who died (bme years ago, faid, that her brother ufed very frequently to difcourfe with her upon religious fubjedts, always expreffing his firm belief of Chriftianity, yet never hinting the lead difap- probation of anything he hed ever written. Mr. Samuel Clarke, the fon, was long tcized by many of the Doctor his father's friends and well-wifhers to contradict the afiertion of the Chevalier Ramfay refpecting his father : this^ he was at lair brought to do in a paragraph printed in one of the newfpapers g in which amongft other things he fays, that be attended his father with great affiduity in his lafi iilnefs, and that he bad never heard him cxprefs the leaft alteration in his manner of thinking on the fu bjewt of the Trinity *. In As it has beefl reported that Dr. Clarke retraced his principles a long fme befutt ht.s dcaili, and that on * hit death-bed he laid that nothing grieved hitrt fo much as having publiih ed his bcok ot, the Trinity, and ** cm he wjJitji h| c.;UMu. ait Ml b.-oks on that i'uhject ** burning DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 337 Inthe opinion of Dr. Johnfon,Dr. Samuel Clarke Was the moft complete literary character that Eng-* land ever produced. Every one muft be inclined to be of this opinion, when he confiders what a good critical fcholar, What an excellent philofo- pher, what an acute mctaphyfician he was. Amongft Dr. Clarke's papers was found a letter from Sarah Duchefs of Marlborough, offering him an Irifh Bifhoprick, which he fefufed ; and a letter of that great Greek fcholar Dr. Bentley to him^ expreffive of his concurrence of opinion with him upon the formation of the tenfes of the Greek verbs, which he has fo fully illuftrated in a note on the Firft Book of -his edition of Homer. " burning before him ; and as this account has been faid to " have been received from his fon : His fon, whofe name " is here fubfcribed, and at whofe requeft this note is " here added, thinks it proper to affure the Reader, he " never knew anything of his Father's having made M fuch a declaration, or of his having ever retraced -any ** of his fentiments. The falfhood . of the report, he " thinks, appears further evident from Dr. Clarke's owaa. " Preface to the Third Edition of the above-mentioned '* work, a copy whereof was left by him at his death, " revifed purpofely for theprefs j an^l afterwards, ia the M year 1732, printed and publifbed accordingly fron> " ; that Copy. April 5, 1773. SAMUEL CLARKE.'^ " Bp. Hoad ley's Works," Folio, Vol. III. p. 4.6^ ^ - vol, 11. z This 338 AltECIWTES OF SOME This great man was fo chary of his time, that he constantly took with him wherever he went fome book or other in his pocket. This he ufed to pull out in company and read, and fcratch under the remarkable paffages with his nail. Dr. Clarke has been cenfured by fome idle and foolifh perfons for playing at cards, and for being occasionally a practical joker. Thofe who make this objection only to the perfection of the character of Dr. Clarke, do not confider that the moft bufy perfons are in general the moft eafily amufed. The Doctor's great and fervid mind, .wearied with laborious and painful thinking, re- quired mere refpite and relaxation from toil, and did not exact either the delicacy or the violence of amufement which thofe perfons demand whofe great buiinefs is pleafure. i EARL STANHOPE, 3ECRETARY OF STATE TO GEORG] -3Er. WHISTON fays of this Nobleman, . " After he had been fome time a Courtier,. u I freely afked him whether he had bcn able to . u keep his integrity at Court ; to which he made inc. lSlTINGtJtSttED PERSONS. 339 " me no reply, whence 1 concluded he had not ct been able to do it, for he would never tell a lie." A different inference might be drawn from his filence, which probably was occafioned only by hisdifguft at the impertinence of the queftion. Lord Stanhope was at Eton School with one of the Scotch Noblemen who were condemned after the Rebellion in 1715. He requefted the life of his old fchool-fdlow (whom he had never feen fmce that time) of the Privy-Council, whilft they were deliberating upon the figning of the warrant of execution of thefe unfortunate Noblemen. His requeft was refufed, till he threatened to give up his place if the Council did not comply with it. This menace procured him the life of hisaflbciate in early life, to whom he afterwards fent a hand- fome fum of money. Of fuch advantage, occafionally* are the con- nections that are formed in public fchools. What may profit* may likewife hurt. The gold that purchafes bread may purchafe poifon, and the feminary that adminifters to virtuous and to honeft friendfhipj may likewife adminifter to a fociety in vice and in wickednefs: yet every thing in human life being but a choice of difficulties, it feems wife to prefer a public to a private education, on account of the greater z % advantages 34-0 ANECDOTES OF SOME advantages it holds forth *. A young man wilt mod aflurcdly become wifer, and moil probably more virtuous, by public than by private education j for virtue confifls in action and in trial. The following anecdote of the high Ccnfc of honour in two Eton Boys, is well known to many * Ofbornc begins. his celebrated W Advioe o a Soa" thus : " Though I can never pay enough to your Grand- father's memory for his tender care of my education, ' yet I muft obfervc in it this miftake, that by keeping "me at home, where I was one of myyoung Mafttrs, I loft " the advantage cf my mod docile time. For, not under- " going the fame discipline, I muft needs fall fhort of ** their experience that are bred up in frec-fchools, who, ' by plotting to rob an orchard, &c. ruu through all the " fubtlctics required in taking a town, being made by ufe *' familiar to fecrecy and compliance with opportunity '* qualities nev.er afterwards to be attained at cheaper rates ** than the hazard of all. Whereas thefe fee the danger 44 of ttufting others, and the rocks they fall upon by to* * obftinate an adherence to their own imprudent rcfo- " lutions, and all this under no higher penalty than that " of a whipping. And," adds he, " it i3 pofliblc this " indulgence of my Father might be the caufc I afforded *' him fo poor a return for all his coft. Children," con- tinues Ofbornc, " attain to an cxadter knowledge both M of thcmfclvcs and of the world, in free and popu- " lous fchools, than under a more folitary education." pcrfbns DISTJNQUISHED PERSONS. 341 pcrfons who have been educated in that illuftrious feminary : " Two young men, one of whom was the late " JLord Baltimore, went out a- (hooting, and were " .detected in that unpardonable offence by one of " the Mafters. He came up quickly enough to " one of them to difcover his perfonj the other, % % SJSL 341 ANECDOTES OF SOME SIR JOHN VANRRUGH, WHEN this ingenious Architect had finifhed the noble palace of Blenheim, Sarah Duchefs of Marlborough (aid to him, " Now, Sir John, you * l have built us fo fine a houfe, pray who is to *< make the gardens, and lay out the park for us ?'* * c Your Grace," replied Sir John very acutely, < (hould apply to the heft landfcape-painter you know." The epftaph made for Sir John, Lie heavy on him, Earth, for he Laid many a heavy load on thee, is remembered more on account of its point than of the truth it contains. Size and rnaffivenefs are the requifites to fublimity in Architecture j and Sir John did not, perhaps, pay that regard to the ANECDOTES OF SOM* AARON HILL. THIS excellent Man told Savage the Poet, that Lord Bolingbroke was the fineft Gentleman he had ever feen ; and Savage one day paid Aaron Hill the fame compliment, when he had occafion to fpeak of him to the late Dr. Johnfon. Hill's Tragedy of " Ethelwold" concludes thus, with an energy unufual with its Author, and worthy of Dryden himfelf : Oh Leolyn, be obftinatcly juft, Indulge no paffion and deceive no truft ; Let never Man be bold enough to fay, Thus far, no farther, ftiall my parfion ftray ; The 6rft crime paft, compels us into more, And guilt grow* fate, that was but choice before. Dom Noel d'Argonne, the Carthufian, who wrote that exquifite literary Mifcellany, " Les " Melanges de la Literature par Vigneuilde Mer- l veille" has an obfervation fimilar to thofc lines. * With many perfons," fays he, " the early age ** of life is paft in fowing in their minds the vices { that are moft fuitable to their inclinations j the ** middle age goes on in nourifhing and maturing ** thofe vices j and the laft age concludes in \f gathering in pain and in anguifh the bitter fruits ** of thefe moft accurfed feeds." DR. DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 347 DR. CHETNE. WHILST fome one was talking before this acute Scotchman of the excellence of Human Nature, " Hoot, hoot, mon, Human Nature is a *' rogue and a fcoundrel, or why would it per- * c petually ftand in need of laws and of religion V* Dr, Cheyne's memory, independent of his me-. dical and mathematical merit, fhould ever be held in veneration by all wife and good men for the golden rule of conduct which he prefcribed to him- felf (mentioned by Mr. Bofwell in his entertaining Tour to Scotland), and which unites the utmofr. acutenefs of worldly wifdom. with the moft exalted fenfe of religion : u To neglect nothing to fecure my eternal ** peace, more than if I had been certified I fliould ** die within the day; nor to mind anything that rJer. He relapfed, however, foon afterwards, and in his way to the fame falutary fprings fell from his horfe, in one of the faint- ing-fits to which he had been fubject, in a final! village, and was carried by fome charitable Monks of the Order of St. Bernard into their Convent, where they adminiflcred to his neceffi- ties in the beft manner they could. Under their 'hofpitable roof he languifhed a week, and then died. His funeral was performed in the fame fimple and chcan manner which the fathers ob- ferved to the brethren of their own community. Not long before he died he wrote to a friend, to whom he fent a MS. tragedy of Mary Queen of Scots, and fome Poems, and fini/hed his letter with thefc beautiful lines of Dryden to his friend Congrevj : Be kind to my remains ; and oh defend Againlt your judgment your departed friend .' Let not th' infulting foe my fame purfue, Hut fliadc thofe laurels that defcend to you. Thus DI3TINGUI3HED PEitSQNS. ^S3 "Thus died, unattended and unhmented, This life of pleafure and this foul of whim ; too fatally realizing the melancholy defcription of the Wits by the celebrated Roger Afcham, in his " Schoolmafter :" " Commonlie men very quick of witte be alfo u very light of conditions. In youth they be " readie fcofFers, privie mockers, and ever over- " light and merry; in age they are teftie, very " wafpifh, and alwaies over-miferable. And " yet fewe of them come to any great age, " by reafon of their mifordered life when they are " y on g e > DUt a great deal fewer of them come to " (hew any great countenance, or bear any great " authoritie abroade in the world ; but either live ** obfcurely, men wot not how, or dye obfcurely, *' men mark not when." The character of Lovelace in Clarifla has been fuppofed to be that of this Nobleman j and what makes this fuppofition more likely is, that " The True Briton," a political paper iri which the Duke ufed to write, was printed by Mr. Richardibn. vol. n. a a GEORG& 354 ANECDOTES OP SOU* GEORGE THE SECOND. THIS Prince was very anxious to fave the life of Dr. Cameron, againft whom execution was awarded for treafon five years after the aft of attainder. When he was defired to fign one of the death-warrants for a fimilar offence, he faid, in the true fpirit of mercy that has ever diftinguifbed 3 his illuftrious Houfe, " Surely there has been too " much blood already fpilt upon this occafion !" This Prince feemed to have none of that love of individual and diftintSt property which has marked the character of many Sovereigns. His Majefty came one day to Richmond Gardens, and finding the' gates of them locked, whilft fome decently drefled perfons were {landing on the out- fide, called for the head-gardener in a great paf- fion, and told him to open the door immediately : " My fubjecb, Sir," added he, ** walk where " they pleafe." The fame gardener complaining to him one day that the company in Richmond Gardens had taken up forae of the flower-roots and (hrubs that were planted there, his only reply was, fhaking his cane at him, ** Plant more then, you block- * head you." PHILIP tHstiMouiSHED Persons. 355 PHILIP V. KING OF SPAIN. fHlLlP, who was always complaining of his health, is thus defcribed by one who had frequent opportunities of feeing him : ** He eats heartily at dinner^ goes out every M day, afterwards fups more moderately, but " talces always a large plate of foup and the whole *' of a fowl j fleeps for feven hours profoundly as " foon as he lays his head upon his pillow, and is '* never difturbed either by the cough of his Queen " (who conftantly fleeps with him), or by the lt entering of her maids into the room, who are " continually coming to her affiftance." Philip was one day much embarraffed by the various accounts that had been given him of fome political occurrence by the different Foreign Minifters at his Court : " I will wait," faid he, u till the Englifli Minifter comes" (who at that time was the late excellent Sir Benjamin Keene) : " he is of a country that never deceives." a a a $UEEN 3^6 ANECDOTES CF SOME $UEEN CAROLINE. THIS excellent Princefs one day obferving that her daughter, the Princefs , had made one of the Ladies about her ftand a. long, time whilft (he was talking to her upon fome trifling fubje&, was refolved to give her a practical repri- mand for her ill-behaviour that fhould have more weight than verbal precept. When the Princefs therefore came to her in the evening as ufual to read to her, and was drawing herfelf a chair to fit down, the Queen faid, " No, my dear, you muft not " fit at prefentj for I intend to make you ftand c< this evening as long as you fuffered Lady ' " to remain in the fame pofition." Bifhop Butler's abftrufe work on the '* Analogy *' of Religion to Human Nature," was a favourite book wiih this Queen*. She told Mr. Sale, the Orientalift, that {he read it every day at breakfaft; /b light did her metaphyfical mind make of that book which Dr. Hoadley, Bifhop of Winchefter, faid he never could look into without making his head ache* SIR SIR ROBERT IVALPOLE, [HT EARL OF ORFORD. abwrn -. ' SIR ROBERT ufed to fay, in fpeaking of corruption, " V^e Minifters are generally called, " and are fometimes, tempters j but we are oftener a ,, 1 ' ? * on*m . When he quarrelled with Lord Sunderland, he went into Oppofition j and on the debate upon the capital claufe in the Mutiny Bill, he made ufe of this ftrong expreffion, "Whoever gives the power * of blood, gives blood." The queftion being; carried in favour of Miniftry by a fmall majority. Sir Robert faid, after thedivifion, " 'Faith, I was " afraid that we had got the queftion ;" his good fenfe perfectly well enabling him to fee, that armies could not be kept in order without ftricl: dis- cipline and the power of life and death. Sir Robert had very exact intelligence of what was palling at the Court of the Pretender. When Alderman Barber vifoed the Minifter after his return from Rome, he allied him how his old friend the Pretender did. The Alderman was much furprifed. Sir Robert then related fome par- ticulars of the converfation. "Well then. Jack," A a 3 faid 358 ANECDOTES OF SOMI faid Sir Robert, * go and fin no more, left a ' worfe thing befal thee.'* Soon after the dhTolution of the South-Sea Company, Sir Robert brought in the ^and-tax bill, and laid it upon the table, adding, that the bill fhould lay there till the enquiry was gone through, and the country fatisfied. Sir Robert always declared, that he meant the Excrfe fcheme in 1733 as an eafe to the owners of land, as an efficacious and cheap method of collecting revenue, and as a prevention againft fraud. The Oppofitjon, as a venerable and excel- lent Politician has always declared, thought fo well of the fcheme, that they held themfelves bound in confcience not to oppofe it. Lor.d Bolingbrolce, however, fent round to their leaders, and afked them, whether they wimcd that Sir Robert fhould be Minifter for ever. u It is," faid he, " one of the wifeft fchemes that ever *' entered into the head of any Minifter, and it is *' for that reafon you ought to oppofe it. A foolifh, <* fcheme of courfc brings difgrace upon the perfon " who propofes it. So go down to the Houfe of ' Commons j call John Bull's houfe his caftlc ; " and talk of the tyranny and oppreflion of the regulations of the Excife." This was done fo effectual ly, and fuch a clamour raifed amongft the DISTINGUISHED PERSON'S. 359 the good people of England, that Sir Robert was obliged to give up his very wife fcheme j which he did in one of the befl: fpeeches he ever made. Soon after he was obliged to relinquifh his Excifc bill, one of the American Governors propofed to him a tax upon America. " Why," replied he, " you fee I have Old England already fet againft ft me ; do you think that 1 can wifh to have New *' England fet againft me alfo?" The late Lord North told Dr. Johnfon, that Sir Robert had once got pofTeifion of fome treafonable. letters of Mr. Shippen; and that he fent for him,-. Shewed him the letters, and burnt them before his face. Soon afterwards it was neceflary in a new Parliament for Mr. Shippen to take the oaths of allegiance to George the Second, when Sir Robert placed himfelf overagainft him, and fmiled whilft he was fworn by the Clerk. Mr. Shippen then came up to him, and (aid, CI Indeed, Robin, this is hardly fair." Dr. Johnfon faid one day of Sir Robert, that he was the bed Minifter this country ever had 9 " for," added he, " he would have kept it in " perpetual peace, if we (meaning the Tories ** and thofe in oppofition to him) would have let " him." And what greater eulogium can be beftowed upon any Minifter, than that his great ancj univerfal aim was to render the country A a 4 f 3^0 ANECDOTES OF SOME of which he is entrusted with the care, tranquil and flourifhing ? It fhould be likewife remarked to the honour of this Minifter, that (as that fa- gacious and excellent politician the Dean of Gioucefter tells us) he took off by one aft of par- liament, upwards of one hundred petty and tcizing Caftom-houfe duties. There is extant a letter of this wife and excellent Statefman to the )uke of Newcaftle, written during th* time of the ferment in Ireland refpeeV ing Wood's Halfpence. He appears to approve highly of the plan, but fays, " If after all the *' Irifh diflike it, I will give it up ; as 1 would " never wifti to oppofe the general fenfc of a " country on any meafure whatfoever." During the divifion upon the celebrated Chip- penham Eleclion, Sir Robert flood near to the worthy Baronet whofc fuccefs on that occafion was the caufe of his quitting his fituation of Prime Mjniflxr, and faid to him (on obferving a particular perfon dividing againlt him), " Obferve " that fellow, Sir Edward j I faved him from the >' gallows in the year . LORP DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 36 I LORD CHATHAM fecms to have been one of tnofe fuperior Spirit?, who, in mercy to Mankind, are permitted occa- fionally to vifit this lower world, to revive or create Nations, and to decide the Fate of Empires. The Britifh Empire, finking under the difability of his immediate predecefTors, foon regained its priftine vigour under the influence of Lord Chatham. ' His great mind pervaded every part of it, and, like the torch of Prometheus, illumined ami animated the whole. Called into power at the middle time of life, and with fome experience in the -complicated bufmefs of politicks, by the voice' cf the people, and againft the inclination of hii Sovereign, he never had the infolence to declare with what rank only of ' the executive department of Government he would do his Country the honour and favour to be contented. In oppo- fition to the Minifters of his Sovereign, he never, from fpleen or from indignation, dared to attempt to innovate upon the eftablifhed Constitution of his Country, and, with a view to be a favourite with the people, cajole them with the hopes of an increafe of their power and of their confequence, which he never in his heart intended they fhould pof- 362 AXECD0TE3 OF SOME poflefs. When Prime Minifter, he never dealt out the dignities and emoluments of office to perfons merely becaufc they were related to and connected with him, and whom he intended to direct, from the fupetiority of his underttanJing to theirs, and from his knowledge of their in- capacity to fill the arduous and important iUtious %hicrw at a very critical period 01 the Stab., ne had affigned to them. In Council, when a baneful influence prevailed, which from jealoufy of autho- jity, and perhaps from meaner motives, by its improper interpofition and dangerous interference, like the pernicious remora, impeded and coun- teracted the motion of the great veflel of Govern- ment, he difdained to temporize, and, from views of intereft or of fear, to keep the helm which he was not permitted to manage as he pleafed. He nobly, and in the true fpirit of the Conftitution, declared, that he would be no longer rcfponiiblc for meafures which he was not permitted to guide. Of the manlinefs, of the wifdom, and of the virtue of this declaration, his fellow-citizens were (o fenfible, that when his Sovereign, the idol of his people, and himfelf met on an occafion of public feftivity, he appeared to divide with the beloved Vicegerent of Heaven the applaufcs of the multi- rude ! Lord DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 363 Lord Chatham never degraded his mind with that attention to the patronage which his high fituation afforded, nor divided and diflrac~ted his understanding by the minutenefs of* detail and the meaner operations of finance, which the moft or-p dinary Clerk in his office could have managed as well as himfelf. The great powers of his mind were always directed to lbme magnificent object. He faw with the eye of intuition itfelf into the characters of mankind : he faw for what each man was fitted. His fagacity pervaded the fecrets ot* the Cabinets of other Countries; and the energy of his mind informed and infpirited that of his own. The annals of his glorious administration will not be remembered by the rife of the Stocks, or by the favings of a few thoufand pounds, but by the im- portation of foreign millions, the fpoil of cities, the Sack of Nations, by conquefrs in every part of the Globe. Lord Chatham thought it difgraceful in a Prime Minifter, becaufe fome of his coHeagues differed in opinion from him, to fee armies wafte away, and fleets become ufelefs ; to behold money in-? effectually Squandered, that had been wrung from the fweat of the brow of the poor and of the labo- rious; and the lives of thoufands of his fellow- Subjects Sacrificed to murmuring compliance, ana" to pride that indignantly licks the duft. On ;/jL ANECDOTES OF SOME On certain occafions, Lord Chatham oppoicd not only the opinions of his brethren in office, but even the prejudices of the Sovereign. The fol- lowing anecdote, which was communicated by his Under- Secretary of State Mr. Wood, to a friend of his, is a finking proof of his honefty and firm- neis of mind, 44 Lord Chatham had appointed Mr. Wolfe to at the fWe of Quebec, and as he lie could not give him fo .many fo " command at the fic^e of Quebec, and as he told * him that h? could not give him fo many forces " as he wanted for that expedition, he would make " it up as well to him as he could, by giving him 44 the appointment of all his Officers. Mr. Wolfe 44 fent in his lift, included in which was a Gen- 44 tleman who was obnoxious to the Sovereign, lc then George the Second, for feme advice l which, as a military man, he had given to his 44 fon the Duke of Cumberland. Lord Ligonier, " then Commander in Chief, took in the lift to a 4t the King, who (as he expectea) made fome ob- . .lions to a particular name, and refufed to il fign the commilllon. Lord Chatham fent him 44 into the clofet a fecond time, with no better t: fuccefs. Lord Ligoiver refufed to go in a third 44 "time at Lord Chatham's fuggeftion. lie was, '"however, told that he fhould lofc his place if he 4 - did not, and that, on his pre'fentlng the name to 44 the DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 365 *' the Sovereign, he fhould tell him the peculiar " fituation of theffate of the expedition, and that " in order to make any General completely V rcfponfible for his conduct, he fhould be made, Ci as much as poffible, inexcufable if he does not " fucceed ; and that, in confequence, whatever an * { Officer, who was entrufted with any fervice of ' confidence and of confequence, defircd, fhould " (if poflible) be complied with. Lord l.igonicr " went in a third time, and told his Sovereign " what he was directed to tell him. The good " fenfe of the Monarch fo completely di farmed his " prejudice, that he figned the particular coia- " miffion, as he was defired." Lord Chatham was educated at Eton, and In no very particular manner diflinguifhed himfelf at that celebrated feminary. Virgil in early life was his favourite Author. He was by no means a good Greek fcholar; and though he occafionally copied the arrangement and the expreflions of Demofthenes with great fuccefs in his fpeeches, he perhaps drew them from the Collana tranflation of that admirable Orator (that book having been frequently feen in his room by a great Lawyer fome time deceafed). The fermons of the great Dr. Barrow and of Abernethy were favourite books with him; and of the Sermons of the late Mr. MuJge of Ply- 366 ANECDOTES OF SOME Plymouth he always fpoke very highly. He once declared in the Houfe of Commons, that no book had ever been perufed by him with equal inftruclion with the Lives of Plutarch *-. Lord Chatham was an extremely fine reader of Tragedy ; and a Lady of rank and tafie, now living, declares with what fatisfaelion (he has heard him read fome of Shakefpeare's Hiftorical Plays, particularly thofe of Henry the Fourth and Fifth. She however uniformly obferved, that when he came to the comic or buffoon parts of thofe plays, he always gave the book to one of his re- lations, and when they were gone through, he took the book again. Dr. Johnfon fays acutely, that no man is a hypocrite in his amufemcnts ; and thofe of Lord Chatham feem always to have born the {ramp of greatnefs about them. , Lord Chatham wrote occafionally very good verfes. His talie in laying out grounds was ex- quifite. One fcene in the gardens of South Lodge on Knfield Chafe (which was defigned by him), that of the Temple of Pan audits accompani- ments, is mentioned by Mr. Whatelcy, in his *' Obfcrvations on Modern Gardening," as one of the happieft efforts of well-di reeled and appro- priate decoration. Lwr3 Monboddo on th< Origin <# Language. Of DrsTlNGUISttED PERSONS. 36? Of Lord Chatham's eloquence who can fpeaic that has not heard it ? and who that had the hap- pinefs to hear it, can do juftice to it by defcription ? It was neither the rounded and the monotonous declamation, the exuberance of images, the acute fophiftry, or the Attic wit and fatirical point, that we have feen admired in our times. It was very various; it poiTeffed great force of light and fhade; it occafionally funk to colloquial familiarity, and occafionally rofe to Epic fublimity. If he crept fometimes with Timseus, he ?.s often thundered and lightened with Pericles. His irony, though ftrong, was ever dignified; his power of ridicule irrefiftible; and his inventive fo terrible, that the objects of it fhrunk under it like fhrubs before the withering and the blafting Eaft. Whoever heard this great man fpeak, always brought away Something that remained upon his memory and upon his imagination. A verbum ardens, a glow- ing word, a happy facility of expreflion, an appro- priate metaphor, a forcible image, or a fublims figure* never failed to recompenfe the attention which the hearer had beflowed upon him. Soon after Sir Robert Walpole had taken away his Cornet's commiffion from this extraordinary man, he ufed to drive himfelf about the country in a one-horfe chaife, without a fervant. At each towu to which he came, the people gathered round about 368 ANECDOTES OF SOME about his carriage, and received him with the loudeft acclamations. Lord Chatham thought very highly of the effecls of drefs and of dignity of manner upon mankind. He was never feen on bufinefs without a full-crefs coat and a tye-wig, and he never permitted his Under-Secretaries to fit down before him. A Genera] Officer was once afked by Lord Chatham, How many men he mould require for a certain expedition ? *? Ten thoufand," was the anfwer. '* You fhall have twelve thoufand," faid the Minifter, " and then if you do not fucceed, it ** is your fault." The original of the charafter of Praxiteles, in Mr. Greville's very entertaining book, of Maxims, is faid to have been Lord Chatham. When Cardinal Stoppani (furnamed in the Con- clave of Cardinals // Politico) was informed that Lo,rdC hathamhadceafed to be Minifter of England, he told an Englifh Gentleman that he could not give any credit to it. " What heir," he added, ' on coming to a confiderable eftate, arid finding ct it excellently well managed by a fteward, would 44 difmits that lie ward merely becaufe he had ferved " his predeceiTor ?" The late King of Pruflia, in his Hiftory of the Seven Years War, thus defcribes Lord Chatham: 44 Veloqucme it la genie de M. Pitt avoicnt rendu 44 titbit I - ] . DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 369 " Fidole de la Nation, c'etoit la meilleure tite " d'Angleterre. II avoit fubjugue la Cbatnbre " Baffe par la force de la parole. II y regnoit, it " en etoit, pour ainji dire, fame. Parvenu au '* timon des affaires, il appliqua toute Fetendue de " fun genie a rendre a fa patrie la do}ninatisn des " men ; e t penfant en graride homme, ilfut indign'e ** de la Convention de Clojler Seven, qu'ilregardoil *' comme Fopprobre des Anglois.** This great Minifler was born at Stratford House, at the foot of thefortrefs of Old Sarumj an Engraving of which is appended to this Col- leclion, to fatisfy that grateful curionty with which we ever contemplate the birth-place of thofe who have been the friends and the benefactors of their Country. ADMIRAL BOSCAF/EN. WHEN this great fcaman was appointed to the command of a guard-fhip that was ftationed at the Nore, he fent away ieveral of the newly- prefled men that were brought to him, in company with fome experienced feamen, in frigates and fmall veiiels, to the mouths of many of the creeks vol. 11. b b and 570 ANECDOTES OF SOME an J rivers on the coafts of Kent and of SuiTex, to guard thole counties from an invasion which was then projecting by the French *. This excellent Officer was fo anxious for the honour of the fea-fervice, and for that of hitnfelf, that when Lord Anfon, then Firft Lord of the Admiralty, refufed to confirm his promotion of two Navar Officers to the rank of Poft-Captains, in confequence of their having diftiuguifhed them- felves at the ficge of Louifburgh, he threatened to give up his feat at the Board of Admiralty. Lord Anfon however, not to be deprived of the advice and experience of this great feaman, thought fit to retract his oppofition. In fome French Memoirs Mr. Bofcawen is reprefented as having, at the fiege of Louifburgh, wholly given himfelf up to the direction of a par- ticular Captain in that arduous and enterprising bufinefs. This is by no means true. Whoever knew Mr. Bofcawen an fsn J-^-whoevcr was ac- quainted with his knowledge in his profeffion, with ' " The Admiral is gone in a great liurry to the Norc, " \vbrre' he is lent to command, in order to defend the " River and the coafts from an invafion, which it is every d*y expected tbc French will attempt. He ha< thirty ' Lieutenant* aud two Captains under hit orders, whom " he li to employ in ljnall vefiels to jruard the coa; ; ." MS. Lilio, ViCcr.k) 6, i~,tS> his DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 371 his powers of refource upon every oceafion, with his intrepidity of mind, his manlinefs and inde-' pendence of conduct and of character, can never in the leafl degree give credit to this foolifh and hazarded afTertion. The Admiral however, upon other occafions, and in other circumftances, de- ferred to the opinions of thofe with whom he was prpfeflionally connected. He was once Cent with n command to intercept a St. Domingo fleet of Merchantmen, and was waiting near the track which it was fuppofed they would take. One of hisfeamen came to him to tell him that the fleet was now in fight. The Admiral took his gl ,fs, and from his fuperior power of eye, or perhaps from previous information, faid, that the failor was iriiUken, and that what he faw was the grand French fleet. The feaman, however, perfifted. The Admiral defired fome others of his crew to look through the glafs ; who all, with their brains heated with the profpeft of a prize, declared, that what they faw was the St. Domingo fleet. He nobly replied, " Gentlemen, ypu (hall never fay " that I have flood in the way of your enriching '* yourfelvgs: I fubmit to you; but remember, " when you find your miftake, you muff, (rand by " me." The miftake was foon difcovered, and the Admiral, by fuch an exertion of manoeuvres as the fcrvice has not often feen, laved his (hip. b b 2 He 372 ANECDOTES OF SOME I He was (o little infected with the fpirit of party which, in the lall war, prevailed in our navy, to the ruin of the country, and to the difgrace of the profeflion, that when* on his return from fome expedition, he found his friends out of place, and .-mother Adminiftration appointed, and was alked whether he would continue as a Lord of the Ad- miralty with them ; he replied very nobly, " Yhe " Country has a right to the fervices of its pro- fi feflional men : fhould I be fent again upon any " expedition, my fituation at the Admiralty will .eh though the colours are fplendid and ".vivid, they are never glaring or oppreflive to the eye." Sir Jofhua wrote " Difcourfes delivered ci at the Royal Academy," 2 vols. 8vo. il Notes ** to Mr. Mafon's Tranllation of Dufrcfnoy on " Painting," 410. Papers No. 76, 79, 82, in " .The Idlcr,"on the fubject of Painting, were alfo written by him ; and he left beimid him in manu- kript fome obfervations upon the pictures of Flanders and of Holland. Sir Jofhua's views in a; t were always directed to fomething grand. He propofed to place his exejuiiice collection of Academy of Painting under Louis the Fourteenth, and to illiterate by example the truth of thofe excellent precepts which he had delivered in his Lectures. He was very defirous to DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. $jjj to introduce the ornaments of Painting * and of Sculpture into the grand though denuded fabric of the Cathedral of the Metropolis. He was anxious that that beautiful quarry of tto.ie, no lefs col 1 to the fight than the feel, (hould be warmed and animated in parts with the fplendid decoration of gilding. fie vviiheJ to make this triumph of the Art of Architecture, the Cathedral of the Metropolis, the Britiih Temple of Fame ; that in this fabric National gratitude fhould ereel Monuments to thole diitinguiihed perfo.is S^fi hi mentor es alios fecer t ' titer endo i Whofc glorious names for fervices performed Live in the grateful memory of mankind. 1 With much effort, and at great expence, he procured a nich' in that place of diftingaihhed lepulture for his friend the Britifh Lexicographer. The pl.io for decorating the Cathedral of St. Paul's with Paintings by the moft eminent Englith Artifts, wa$ flopped by the caution, perhaps necetfary at that tune, of Dr.Terrick, Bifhop of London. Sir Jofliua with a muni- ficence worthy of the Painter whom in every refpedt he moft reierrbled, the Lc:ompIifrud Ru'jeus, intended to have made the Chapter a prefent of a pioture of the HJy Family painted by himfeif. There 380 ANECDOTES OF SOME There is ftill a nich left in the Britifh Temple of Faroe for himfelf, which gratitude, friendship, and veneration for talents, will in time fupply with hrs ftatue. The following character of this great Artift,* as given in the Ncwfpapers foon after his Iblendid and public funeral in St. Paul's, is the production of Mr. Burke. It is the eulo- gium of Parrhafius pronounced by Pericles it is the eulogium of the greateil Painter by the moll confummate Orator of his time. " His illnefs was long but borne with a mild " and cheerful fortitude, without the leaft mix- " ture of anything irritable or querulous, agree- t ably to the placid and even teneur of his whole t( life. He had from the beir'mnino; of his ma- * lady a diftincl view of his difiblution, which *' he contemplated with that entire compofure " which nothing but the innocence, integrity, and " uferulnefs of his life, and an unaffected fubmif- *' fion to the will of Providence, could beflow. " In this fituation he had every confolation from " family tendernefs, which his tendernefs to his *' family had always merited. V Sir Jofhua Reynolds was, on very many '* accounts, one of the mod memorable men of his DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 3S1 '' his time : he was the firft Englifhman who a added the praife of the elegant arts to the other ** glories of his country. In tafte, in grace, in n facility, in happy invention, and in the richnefs u and harmony of colouring, he was equal to the M great mafters of the renowned ages. In portrait u he went beyond them ; for he communicated to * c that defcription of the art in which Englifh <* artifts are the moft engaged* a variety, a fancy, " and a dignity derived from the higher branches, *' which even thofc who profefled them in a fupe-' ** rior manner did not always preferve when rrow. " ILul ! and Farewell ! mm LORD AU.W FIELD. THE charachr of Lord Mansfield was, per- haps, never better, cert duly never more elegantly delineated :h.m by the gcij ; ftae p.dent BiOiop ,,r" tt'ttYwiier, l,!,^ Life of Bnlu-p W'.;:!mon. 44 Mr. DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 3$}? Mr. Murray, afterwards Earl of Mansfield, "and Lord Chief J u (lice or" England, was fo " extraordinary a perfon, and made fo great a " figure in the world, that his name muif go *' down to poftcrity with diftinguifhed honour in " the public records of the nation. For his mining " talents difplayed thtmfelves in every depa/t- l f ment of the State, as well as in the Supreme - * c Court of Juitice,; his peculiar province, which ejl Angleterrer \ The celebrated " Encyclopedie Methodique" of the French, that depot, as they are pleafed to term it, of all knowledge and of every fcience, under the article * Angleterre" fays, Of all the * Governments with which we are acquainted, * that of England pofiefles three effential ad van - ' .1 N D E X TO THE SECOND VOLUME. - .' . i !d* n\Wu> Fanjhawe, Sir Richard, - - - 13 , Lady, - - 1 ^' 21 Fletcher, Andrew, of Saltoun, - - 333 F.oucquet, Surintcndant of the Finances ^>^ of France, * - - - 160 G. George the Firft, - 316 George the Second, - 354 Godeau, Bifliop of Vence, - *tS Gourville, *" --*""- 74 Gr otitis, - - a - 192 Halifax, I N I X. IQS - H Halfox, Saville Marquis of, * * I $3 Harvey, Do&oT, - 5 ///'//, Aaron. - 34.6 \cs $8f - Sftf -. - - J. - " - ^w^ the Second, - 4 - 91 Jeftries, Lord Chancellor, - -.98 Ju/ta the Fourth, King cf Portugal, . * . 235 Innocent the Tenth, - - . 239 L. Lanfdowne, Granville Lord, - 308 f^John, * - - - 63 LongueviiU) Due de, - I -, Madame de, - - - 1 39 INDEX. Page Louis the Fourteenth, - - -216 lulls, - -. B - -205 M. Mainfenon. Madame de, - - -228 Malherbe^ - - 207 Mansfield^ Earl of, - - 382 Marinoy San, Account of that Republic, - 267 Marlborough^ Sarah Duchefs of, - - 302 , Duke of, - - 318 Mary\ Queen, - - - 1 22 Mafque de Fer, - - - - 230 Mazarin, Cardinal, " - - -152 Mole, Prefident of the Parliament of Paris, 160 Mompefon, Rev. William, - - 27 Montaufier, Due de, - - 244 Montecuculiy - - 242 N. tiielfiHy Robert, - - - 104 ^>p 1 . . -" - * Olivarez, I N D E JT. O. 4W* Oliver tz y Count, - - - 191 Orleans, Duke of, Brother to Louis XIV. 226 , Gallon Duke of, ... j^ 2 Ormondy James Firft Duke of, - 75 dp* P ft^#4 : - - - - 209 Pdlff-on, - - - 161 Peterborough, Lord, - - 324 *H/7/> the Fifth, - - - 355 Polignccy Cardinal de, - - - 147 /V> - - 312 /' w, Matthew, - - - 305 Priuliy Antonio, - - - - 138 Prjnn$ t William, - - 89 Rantzau, - - -tn 3 y 3 ( 8 * !*>* C Hegnurd, - - - - . - 181 Retz t X, N D E X. Page Retz, Cardinal de, - - - 148 Reynolds, Sir Jofhua, - 375 Rochefoucault, -' - - M7 Rufellai, Abbe, - - - 79 S, iG no ... Salmafius, - - - 1 96 Sa**, Marfhal, - - - - 3 2 9 %r ^OFCAUFOfy^ y 0AavH8n-# y - ^lOSANCH^