LETTER XXIV.

To Lord OXFORD,

On hearing his Intentions to refign his Staff.

MY LORD,

July 25th, 1714.

TO-MORROW fe'en-night I shall set out

from hence to Ireland; my licence for absence being fo near out, that I can ftay no longer without taking another. I fay this, that, if you have any commands, I fhall have just time enough to receive them before I go. And, if you refign in a few days, as I am told you design to do, you may poffibly retire to Herefordshire, where I fhall readily attend you, if you foon withdraw; or, after a few months stay in Ireland, I will return at the beginning of winter, if you please to command me. I fpeak in the dark, because I am altogether fo; and what I fay may be abfurd. You will please to pardon me; for, as I am wholly ignorant, fo I have none of your composure of mind. I pray God Almighty direct and defend you, &c.

LET.

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LETTER XXV.

To Lady M ASHA M.

MADAM,

Auguft 7th, 1714.

HAD the honour of a letter from your Ladyship a week ago; and, the day after, came the unfortunate news of the Queen's death, which made it altogether unfeafonable, as perhaps it may be still, to give your Ladyship this kind of trouble. Although my concern be as great as that of any other good fubject, for the lofs of fo excellent a Princefs; yet I can affure you, Madam, it is little to what I fuffer upon your Ladyfhip's particular account. As you excel in the feveral duties of a tender mother, a true friend, and a loving wife, fo you have been the best and most faithful fervant to your Mistress, that ever any Sovereign had. And although you have not been rewarded fuitable to your merits, I doubt not but God will make it up to you in another life, and to your children and pofterity in this. I cannot go about to comfort your Ladyfhip in your great affliction, otherwife than by begging you to make ufe of your own piety and your own

wisdom,

wisdom, of both which you have fo great a fhare. You are no longer a fervant, but you are ftill a wife, a mother, and a friend; and you are bound in confcience to take care of your health, in order to acquit yourfelf of these duties, as well as you did of the other, which is now at an end.

I pray God to fupport your Ladyship, under fo great a fhare of load, in this general calamity: And remain, with the greatest refpect and truth,

MADAM, Your Ladyfhip's

Moft obedient, and

Moft obliged fervant.

I moft heartily thank your Ladyfhip for the favourable expreffions and intentions in your letter, written at a time when you were at the height of favour and power,

LETTER XXVI.

To Lord BOLINGBROKE,

MY LORD,

August 7th, 1714,

HAD yours of the third, and our country. poft is fo ordered, that I could acknowledge it no fooner. It is true, my Lord,

the

the events of five days laft week might furnish morals for another volume of Seneca. As to my Lord Oxford, I told him freely my opinion before I left the town, that he ought to refign at the end of the feffion. I faid the fame thing often to your Lordship and my Lady Masham, although you seemed to think otherwise, for some reasons; and faid fo to him one afternoon, when I met you there with my Lord Chancellor. But, I remember, one of the last nights I faw him, (it was at Lady Masham's lodgings) I faid to him, that, upon the foot your Lordship and he then were, it was impoffible you could ferve together two months; and I think I was just a week out in my calculation. I am only forry, that it was not a refignation, rather than a removal; because the personal kindness and diftinction I always received from his Lordship and you, gave me fuch a love for you both, (if you great men will allow that expreflion in a little one) that I refolved to preferve it entire, however you differed between yourselves; and, in this I did, for fome time, follow your commands and example. I impute it more to the candour of each of you, than to my own conduct; that, having been,

been, for two years, almost the only man who went between you, I never obferved the leaft alteration in either of your coun tenances towards me. I will fwear for no man's fincerity, much less for that of a minifter of ftate: But thus much I have faid, wherever it was proper, that your Lordship's proposals were always the faireft in the world, and I faithfully delivered ́ them as I was empowered: And, although I am no very skilful man at intrigue, yet I durft forfeit my head, that, if the case were mine, I could have either agreed with you, or put you dans votre tort. When I faw all reconciliation impracticable, I thought fit to retire; and was refolved, for fome reasons (not to be mentioned at this diftance) to have nothing to do with whoever was to be laft in. For, either I fhould not be needed, or not be made ufe of. And, let the case be what it would, I had rather be out of the way. All I pretended was, to speak my thoughts freely, to reprefent perfons and things without any mingle of my own intereft or paffions, and, fometimes, to make ufe of an evil inftrument, which was like to coft me dear, even from those for whose service it was employed. I did believe there would be no further VOL. XVI. occafion

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