to return in an hour. I have therefore dispatched it, having retained Efpryt, for reafons which you w foon hear talked of. I had yesterday news from Germany; our army will, on the first of July old ftile, be at La Place Montre, in France. A horfe-load of corn in Champaigne and Burgundy is worth 50 livres, in Paris 30. It greatly excites one's pity to fee how the people perish here for hunger. If you want a coach-horse, I have one in my troop as handfome as yours. I arrived here last night from Marans, where I went to provide for the fafety of the place. I cannot tell you how much I wished you there: it is a place more fuited to your taste than any I ever faw; is it for this reajon that I must part with it fo foon +? It is an iiland "furrounded by a woody morafs, cut into many ca. nals for the conveniency of fetching the wood by boats. The water is very clear, not quite ftagnant; the canals are of all dimenfions, and the boats of all fizes; among thefe deferts there are thousand gardens, which are acceffible only by boats. The island, thus furrounded, is about two leagues in circumference, and a river flows by the foot of the caftle to the middle of the town, which is as habitable as Pau, and there a are few houfes that have not a little boat at the door. This river divides itfelf into two branches, which carry not only large boats, It is a but veffels of 50 tons, from hence to the fea, which is about two leagues; and I am inclined to think, that what I call a river, is really a canal. The other way large boats go quite up to Nyort, which is 12 leagues: in this paffage there is an infinite number of little iflands, with mills and manufactures of various kinds, ina numerable birds of all forts which fill the air with mufic, and a great variety of fea-fowl, of which I fend you fome of the feathers. The fish are incredible, as well with refpect to quantity as fize and price. A carp of the largest fize may be bought for three-pence, and a pike for five-penee. place of great traffick, carried on by boats; and the foil, though very low, produces great plenty of corn. One may live there pleafantly in peace, and fafely in war. A lover might here rejoice with the object of his withes, or filently complain of abfence without intrufion. O how fit is this place for delight! I fhall fet out on Thurfday for Pons, where I fhall be nearer you, but I fhall not stay there long. I am afraid my other lackeys are dead, for I hear nothing of them. Let me, my foul, be ftill happy in your favour; be* lieve my fidelity to be without fpot, and without parallel; if this can give you pleasure, be happy; for your flave adores you to distraction. I kifs your hands, my life, a thoufand times. June 17. Marans is a town of Aulnis, in France, fituated upon the Sevre Niertoife, in a moraf: it has a caftle, and is two 1 agues from the fea, and four from Rochelle. It fuffered much in the civil wars,eing fometimes in the hands of the Hugonots, and fometimes in thofe of the Catholics. The French is, pour ce ceul refpect fuys je apres a les changer. Character Character of the late duke of Ormond; from the two last pofthumous volumes of dean Swifi's works. TH HIS event [meaning the attainder of the duke] neither they [the miniftry] nor I, nor, I believe, any one perfon in the three kingdoms, did ever pretend to foresee; and, now it is done, it looks like a dream to thofe, who confider the nobleness of his birth, the great merits of his ancestors, and his own; his long unfpotted loyalty, his affability, generofity, and fweetness of nature. I knew him long and well, and, excepting the frailties of his youth, which had been for fome years over, and that eafinefs of temper, which did fometimes lead him to follow the judgement of thofe who had, by many degrees, lefs understanding than himself, I have not converfed with a more faultless perfon; of great juftice and charity; a true fenfe of religion, without oftentation; of undoubted valour, thoroughly skilled in his trade of a foldier; a quick and ready ap. prehenfion, with a good fhare of understanding, and a general knowledge in men and hiftory; although under fome difadvantage by an invincible modefty, which however could not but render him yet more amiable to thofe who had the honour and happinefs of being thoroughly acquainted with him. This is a fhort imperfect character of that great perfon the duke of Ormond, who is now attainted for high treafon; and therefore I fhall not prefume to offer one fyllable in his Yet vindication, upon that head, against the decifion of a parliament: this, I think, may be allowed me to believe, or at leaft to hope, that when, by the direct and repeated commands of the queen, his mistress, he committed those faults for which he hath now forfeited his country, his titles, and his fortune; he no more conceived himfelf to be acting high treason, than he did when he was wounded and a prifoner at London, for his fovereign king William, or when he took and burned the enemy's fleet at Vigo. Character of Harley earl of Oxford; from the two laft pofthumous volumes of dean Swift's works. HE earl of Oxford is a per TH fon of as much virtue, as can poffibly confift with the love of power; and his love of power is no greater than what is common to men of his fuperior capacities; neither did ary man ever appear to value it lefs after he had obtained it, or exert it with more moderation. He is the only inftance, that ever fell within my memory or obfervation, of a perfon paffing from private life, through the feveral ftages of greatnefs, without any perceivable impreffion upon his temper or behaviour. As his own birth was illuftrious, being defcended from the heirs.general of the Veres and the Mortimers, fo he feemed to value that accidental advantage in himfelf, and others, more than it could pretend to deferve. He abounded in good-nature and good humour; although fubject to paflion, as I have heard led him in the knowledge of our conftitution; the reputation whereof made him be chofen fpeaker to three fucceffive parliaments; which office I have often heard his enemies allow him to have executed with univerfal applaufe: his fagacity was fuch, that I could produce very amazing inftances of it, if they were not unfeasonable. In all difficulties, he immediately found the true point that was to be purfued, and adhered to it: and one or two others in the miniftry have confeffed very often to me, that, after having condemned his opinion, they found him in the right, and themselves in the wrong. He was utterly a ftranger to fear; and, confequently, had a prefence of mind upon all emergencies. His liberality, and contempt of money, were fuch, that he almoft ruined his eftate while he was in employment; yet his avarice for the public was fo great, that it neither confifted with the prefent corruptions of the age, nor the circumftances of the times. He was feldom mistaken in his judgement of men, and therefore not apt to change a good or ill opinion by the reprefentation of others; except toward the end of his miniftry. He was affable and courteous, extremely easy and agreeable in converfation, and altogether difengaged; regular in his life, with great appearance of piety; nor ever guilty of any expreffions that could poffibly tend to what was indecent or profane. His imperfections were, at least, as obvious, although not fo numerous, as his virtues. He had an air of fecrecy in his manner and it affirmed by others, and owned by himself; which, however, he kept under the ftricteft government, till towards the end of his miniftry, when he began to grow foured, and to fufpect his friends; and, perhaps, thought it not worth his pains to manage any longer. He was a great favourer of men of wit and learning, particularly the former, whom he careffed without diftinction of par. ty, and could not endure to think that any of them fhould be his enemies; and it was his good fortune that none of them ever appeared to be fo; at least, if one may judge by the libels and pamphlets published against him, which he frequently read, by way of amufement, with a moft unaffected indifference: neither do I remember ever to have endangered his good opinion fo much, as by appearing uneafy when the dealers in that kind of writing firft began to pour out their fcurrilities againft me; which, he thought, was a weakness altogether inexcufable in a man of virtue and liberal education. He had the greatest variety of knowledge that I have any where met; was a perfect mafter of the learned languages, and well killed in divinity. He had a prodigious memory, and a moft exact judgment. In draw ing up any ftate-paper, no man had more proper thoughts, or put them in fo ftrong and clear a light. Although his ftyle were not always correct, which, however, he knew how to mend; yet, often, to fave time, he would leave the fmaller alterations to others. I have heard that he spoke but feldom in parliament, and then rather with art countenance, by no means proper than eloquence: but no man equal for a great minifter, because it warns warns all men to prepare against it. He often gave no answer at all, and very feldom a direct one: and I the rather blame this refervedness of temper, because I have known a very different practice facceed much better: of which, anong others, the late earl of Sunderland, and the prefent lord Sommers, perfons of great abili. ties, are remarkable inftances; who used to talk in fo frank a manner, that they feemed to dif. cover the bottom of their hearts, and, by that appearance of confidence, would easily unlock the breafts of others. But the earl of Oxford pleads, in excufe of this charge, that he hath feldom or communicated any thing which was of importance to be concealed, wherein he hath not been deceived, by the vanity, trea, chery, or indifcretion, of thofe he difcovered it to. Another of his imperfections, univerfally known and complained of, was procraftination, or delay; which was, doubtlefs, natural to him, although he often bore the blame without never the guilt, and when the remedy was not in his power; for never were prince and minister better matched than his fovereign and he, upon that article; and, therefore, in the difpofal of employments, wherein the queen was very abfolute, a year would often pafs before they could come to a determination. 1 remember he was likewife heavily charged with the common court vice, of promifing very liberally, and feldom performing; of which, although I cannot altogether acquit him, yet, I am confident, his intentions were generally better than his difappointed folicitors would believe. It may be likewife faid of him, that he certainly did not value, or did not understand, the art of acquiring, friends; having made very few during the time of his power, and contracted a great number of enemies. Some of us ufed to obferve, that those whom he talked well of, or fuffered to be often near him, were not in a fituation of much advantage; and that his mentioning others with contempt, or diflike, was no hindrance at all to their preferment. I have dwelt the longer upon this great man's character, because I have obferved it fo often mistaken by the wife reafoners of both parties befides, having had the honour, for almoft four years, of a nearer acquaintance with him than ufually happens to men of my level, and this without the leaft mercenary obligation, I thought it lay in my power, as I am fure it is in my will, to reprefent him to the world with impartiality and truth. T happens to very few men, in any age or country, come into the world with fo many advantages of nature and fortune, as the late fecretary Bolingbroke : defcended from the best families in England, heir to a great patri monial eftate, of a found conftitution, and a mot graceful, amiable perfon: but all thefe, had they been of equal value, were infinitely below, in degree, to the accomplishments of his mind, which was adorned with the choiceft gifts that God hath yet thought fit to bestow upon the children of men; a ftrong memory, a clear judgement, a vast range of wit and fancy, a thorough comprehenfion, an invincible eloquence, with a most agreeable elo-, cution. He had well cultivated all thefe talents by travel and ftudy, the latter of which he feldom omitted, even in the midit of his pleafures, of which he had indeed been too great and criminal a purfuer: for, although he was per funded to leave off intemperance in wine, which he did for fome time to fuch a degree that he feem. ed rather abftemious; yet he was faid to allow himfelf other liberties, which can by no means be reconciled to religion or morals; whereof, I have reafon to believe, he began to be fenfible. But he was fond of mixing pleafure and bufinefs, and of being efteemed excellent at both; upon which ac. count he had a great refpect for the characters of Alcibiades and. Petronius, especially the latter, whom he would gladly be thought to refemble. His detractors charged him with fome degree of affectation, and, perhaps, not altogether without grounds; fince it was hardly poffible for a young man, with half the bufinefs of the nation upon him, and the applaufe of the whole, to efcape fome tinc. ture of that infirmity. He had been early bred to bufinefs, was a moft artful negociator, and per fectly understood foreign affairs. But what I have often wondered at in a man of his temper was, his prodigious application, whenever he thought it neceffary; for he would plod whole days and nights, like the lowest clerk in an office. His talent of fpeaking in public, for which he was fo very much celebrated, I know nothing of, except from the informations of others; but understanding men, of both parties, have affured me, that, in this point, in their memory and judgement, he was never equalled. Memoirs of the life of William Palt ney, earl of Bath. Waterwards earl of Bath, ILLIAM Pultney, efq; defcended from one of the most ancient fimilies in the kingdom, was born in the year 1682. Being fprung to a plentiful fortune, he early had a feat in the house of commons, and began to diftinguifh himfelf by being a warm partizan against the miniftry in the reign of queen Anne. He had fagacity to detect their errors, and fpirited eloquence fufficient to expofe them. Thefe fervices were well rewarded by king George I. who, upon coming to the throne, raised Mr. Pultney to the place of fecretary at war, in the year 1714. Not long after, he was railed to be cofferer to his majefty's houfhold; but the intimacy between this gentleman and Sir Robert Walpole, who then acted as prime minifter, was foon interrupted, by its being fufpected that fir Robert was defirous of extending the limits of prerogative, and promoting the interefts of Hanover, at the expence of his country. Accordingly, in the year 1725, the king, by advice of this minifter, defiring that a fum of money thould |