paffed through most of the great offices of ftate; he was knight of the garter, ambaffador in France, lord-lieutenant in Ireland, and, I believe, once fecretary of ftate; in all which stations he had the happiness to pleafe, and give fa. tisfaction. He is very well fpoken of in France and Ireland, though this latter country was at that time the most difficult to govern and content, from the rage of party and faction which then prevailed in the remnants of Jacobitifm, fo rooted in that people's understanding; it being immediately or foon after the revolu. tion, when king William gained the crown of Great Britain with, out the lofs of one man's life but as he established himself in Ireland by victory, coutage, and military fkill fuperior to his opponent, this of courfe left more rancour in that people's mind, from the natural confequences of the humiliating confideration of being beaten; and a lively people, as the Irish are, were more particularly affected by it. This fpirit of remembrance was fully kept up by all the principles of religion, and the most violent jealoufy; and perhaps encouraged by foreign powers, as well as all the interest and influence of the Stuart family, who then refided at St. Germain in France, and who ever lived in the flattering hopes of a restoration; for which reafon it is the writer's opinion, that un happy Stuart family has done more harm to Irish Roman Catholics, than many of the penal laws, as they were fundamentally the occafion of their being made. At this time, and under thefe circumftances, this nobleman gave con

art

tent and fatisfaction to a people who are not eafily pleafed, from the above reafons; which is a very ftrong proof of the folidity of his understanding, juftnefs of think.. ing, difinterefted and upright be. haviour, and more particularly fo in him, as he had to ftruggle with the odium of having changed his religion among a nation who, at that time, were five to one Roman Catholics, and were, from religious and political principles, very zealous and furious to thofe they looked upon or regarded as apoftates. The duke of Norfolk and himself conformed to the Proteftant religion in Charles II's reign, at the time of Oates's plot; but as he had no iffue by the Italian lady he married (Poaloty,) the family continue Roman Catholics, and is very refpectably reprefented in the moral and truly religious earl of Shrewsbury. His attachment to his family was noble, juft, and praife-worthy; for though he difliked his fucceffor, he left him all his eftate, free and unencumbered, with this faying, "Though I diflike George Talbot, I leave my eftate to the earl of Shrewsbury."

In James II's reign, he went over to Holland, to young Naffau, prince of Orange, and landed with him in England, and was very in. ftrumental in the revolution, Perhaps he might be induced to take this ftep, from the Letters of Coleman, who was fecretary to the duke of York, and which were published at the time of Oates's plot: by thefe it plainly appears, that the meafures pursued by that unhappy monarch could anfwer no end bur to defeat his own intentions; ruin and dethrone himfelf,

and

and hurt his own friends and adherents. He could have no motive in his junction with the prince of Orange but a fincere conviction (in the writer's opinion), that in doing of it he was ferving his country: for he was made duke by him afterwards in 1694. He might, in all probability, have received the fame honours from James II. He wanted no acquifition of fortune, having a very good one, and he always lived within compafs; but then he did not trim, or ftand fhilly-fhally, but manly, and nobleman-like, purfued the meafures he thought right he took a fide, and on that fide was firm and ftrong. Whatever faults he might have (and who is without them?) they were only perfonal, and did not concern the public: the writer has therefore no bufinefs to meddle with them.

In a word, he feems to have been very deferving of the character one of the greatest of the English poets, Pope, gave him: and was a worthy defcendant of his renowned anceftor, fo well characterized by the immortal towering genius Shakespear, in the picture he gives of the father and fon, in his Henry VI. where the fon is brought in dead before his father.

regard or look upon Oates's plot to be one of the moft vile forgeries and perjuries that ever dif. graced the annals of English hiftory; or to fuppofe that the vifcount Stafford, who was executed for the fame, was not the reverse of the character and difpofitions he was charged with by thofe perjured wretches Bedloe and Oates; the latter of whom was convicted of perjury in the fhort reign of James II. and publicly whipt at a cart's tail through the streets_of London; and king William, after the revolution, never attempted to reverfe his attainder.

His

Though he changed his religion himfelf, he, unlike many converts, did not think himself obliged to behave with more violence than others againft his old friends, weakly to fhew the fincerity of his conviction; on the contrary, he ever behaved with the greatest moderation, candour, and civility, to the Roman Catholics. leaving his eftate, as mentioned, is one proof; and his fupporting Savage, earl of Rivers, a Roman Catholic prieft and nobleman, in a family difpute in which he had been fo ill ufed, that in heat and refentment he conformed to the Proteftant religion, against his own conviction. The duke told him, "My lord, what you have done in a private fort of manner before a justice of peace, do publicly in the house of lords, and take your feat, and you will be fupported according to the juftnefs of your pretenfions." Upon his replying," My lord, I have through paffion and refentment gone too far already;" the duke's anfwer was worthy of himself: "My lord, I never will prefs a

"tender

"tender confcience;" and lord Rivers made what terms he could with his antagonist, and retired into Flanders, and lived many years afterwards, much refpected, canon of Liege, where he died, about thirty years fince. Such was the uprightnefs, and force of friendship, in the duke of Shrewfbury in fupporting what appeared to himself juft and honeft, without being guided by thofe little nar. row party-notions of fearing confequences, or what the world would fay.

bites, though they had fewer Ro man Catholics among them than in either of the two other kingdoms, England or Ireland; and, perhaps, for that reafon more openly determined and daringly profeffed being acting friends to the Stuart family.

In direct oppofition to him, or that part of the army he commanded, at the head of all his Campbells was placed Campbell earl of Breadalbin, of the fame family and kindred, by fome faral error that ever misguided and mifled that unhappy family of the Stuarts, and all its adherents.

From the fame.

HIS nobleman was a Scotch

THIS man, chief and head of the

ancient and numerous family of the name of Campbell in Scotland. He was duke and peer of Scotland, and the fame in England, by the title of Greenwich, which he acquired himself before the union of the two kingdoms; and perhaps he may allude to this by the motto he then took, Vix illa noftra voco que non fecimus ipfi. He was brought up to the profeffion of arms, and behaved well, and in a foldier-like and gallant manner; witnefs his conduct under the duke of Marlborough, and his behaviour at Sherif-Moor, where he commanded in chief, and was the principal means and caufe of the total extinction, at that time, of the rebellion in Scotland, without much bloodshed. He had then a very difficult part to act as a Scotchman; for at that period three parts out of four of that kingdom were naturally and affectionately Jaco

fets of Campbells, from family affection, refused to strike a stroke, and retired out of the field of battle. He never was first minifter, but was a very able statesman and politician, and was moft fteadily fixed in thofe principles that he thought right, and not to be fhaken or changed. His delicacy and honour were fo great, that it hurt him to be even fufpected; witnefs that application faid to be made to him by one of the adherents of the Stuart family, in 1743 or 1744, in order to gain his intereft, which was confiderable both in England and Scotland. He immediately fent the letter to the fecretary of state, and it vexed him much even to have an application made him, left any perfon fhould think him capable of acting a double part. He was equally firm and refolute in his oppofition to the meafures and minifters, when he thought them wrong.

He did not oppose Sir Robert Walpole out of pique, party, or faction, but; becaufe he thought

fome of his meafures were erroneous, and that he made corruption too much the guide and ftandard of his actions. Indeed, this, and his playing the fool with Jacobitifm, and his keeping it as a ftalking-horse to himfelf in its power, and not attacking its headquarters, às it has been effectually done fince, feems the moft blameworthy part of this minifter's character, who otherwife was a very able one, a friend to liberty, and understood the conftitution of his country well. You never can fo effectually take any principle from man by power, force, or any method, as you do when you take it from their minds; and thofe people you diveft of this opinion you make more eafy, chearful in their mind, and more capable of ferving

you.

When he thought measures wrong or corrupt, he cared not who was the author, however great or powerful he might be; witnefs his boldly attacking the great duke of Marlborough in the houfe of lords, about his forage and army-contracts in Flanders, in the very zenith of his power and popularity; though, in all other refpects, he was the most able renowned general of his time. He deferved, and indeed he was nobly and amply rewarded by his country. The duke of Argyle poffeffed great public places and honourable employ. ments, which did not influence him in his way of acting, or voting in parliament, as he fhewed upon feveral occafions, by refigning them when he thought any thing was required of him to comply with that he did not think right. In this he is cenfured by fome, as

too hafty; for why fhould a man punish himself when he acts upon principle, and deprive his country of his fervice, because he thinks another deth wrong? If he was mistaken, it must be as little as any man, because he had a good head and heart. In the house of lords he fpoke well, with a firm, manly, and noble eloquence, and feems to deferve the character given of him by Pope :

Argyle the ftate's whole thunder born to wield,

And shake alike the fenate and the field.

Character of the Duke of Berwick. From the jame.

HE duke of Berwick was na

THE

tural fon of James II. by Mrs. Arabella Churchill, fifter to the great duke of Marlborough, He followed the fate of his father, and came into France after the revolution with James II. who retired thither, to put himself under the protection of his friend and ally Lewis XIV. His ally he was, becaufe he refufed to fign the treaty of Augfburgh, in a general combination, to lower the ambition and greatnefs of the French monarch, agreed to by most of the European powers, and, it is faid, even by the Pope himfelf. This refufal, it is thought, haftened the revolution; for at that time the prince of Orange's views to the crown of Great Britain, if he had any, muft have been very diftant; and it is thought that king William was better pleafed with his acceffion to the crown of Great Britain, from the fituation and

power

power it gave him to attack the overgrown power of France, than from any real fatisfaction as being king of Great Britain: and this appears more probable, from the anfwer he gave to the conventions of the ftates, when they offered to make him king conjointly with his wife, but only for his life: "I refpect the princefs, but will not hold my crown on her apron ftrings." Such was the native love that the Naffau prince of Orange bore his country, perhaps founded upon a good deal of refentment, naturally caufed by the attack upon Holland by Lewis XIV. in Charles II's reign, when that republic, by the rapid victories of the French monarch, was very near deftruction. He was not fuccefsful, in general, in his wars with France, but laid the foundation for the more fuccefsful one of his fucceffor queen Anne.

James II. was received in France, and fupported in a king-like manner during all his life at the caftle of St. Germain. Lewis XIV. fhewed upon all occafions the utmost friendship for him. Indeed, the two monarchs were in fome measure directed by the fame principles in religion, which ever unite friendship; and both were too much, at that time, governed by the fame fet of priests. Lewis XIV's great, and otherwife moft noble character, was much ble. mished by being in fuch fubjection to them. James II. was dethroned by them, from his own weaknefs in too precipitately liftening and following their councils, in miftaking obftinacy and wrong-headednefs for firmness and refolution; for zeal without knowledge ever counteracts itself.

The duke of Berwick was recommended to the court of France by his fuperior merit; he attained all the military honours and dignities his moft Chriftian Majefty could confer on him; he was marhal of France, knight of the Holy Ghoft, duke and peer of France, grandee of Spain, commander in chief of the French armies; in all which stations his behaviour was fuch, that few equalled, perhaps none furpaffed him. He lived in an age when the renowned prince of Orange, and many other of the greatest men, commanded against him. His courage was of the cool, fteady kind; always poffeffing himself, taking all advantages, not foolishly, rafhly, or wantonly throwing away the lives of his foldiers. He kept up on all occafions the moft ftrict difcipline, and did not fpare punishment among his foldiers for marauding and other crimes, when properly deferved; for which fome rafh, filly, in confiderate people have found fault, and blamed him. They were hard put to it to find a fault in this great man; for furely an army without ftrict difcipline, good order, and due fubordination, will never do their duty, as all hiftories and times evince; and they would be little better (confidering the fort of men armies must be compofed of) than a powerful fet of banditti and thieves. This, then, in the writer's opinion, is far from blameable, but a moft praife worthy part of his character. If he were ftrict and exact in his command, and the prevention of wrongs by others, he was most just in him. felf; not raifing unneceffary con

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