of a prince, and the truest patriots. But as in doing this you took a proper season to expose some of those brutish notions of government, and vile arts of wretched pretenders to politics, which are the bane of national felicity; you have provok'd your adversaries (while I was studying a compliment of thanks to you) to give you so high an encomium, that 't is impossible for me, Iwith all the affection and veneration I have for you, to go beyond them. The writer of the Letter to the Examiner comparing you to Cato the censor, and forgetting (as men of his vivacity of imagination may be allow'd to do, without bringing their reading in question) that there were two Catos, applies to you Lucan's fam'd saying of the last: • Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni; 'that however Providence dispos'd of events, he ad'her'd to the just, tho' vanquish'd cause.' And the Examiner pursuing the same thought, reminds you by a sneering application of some words of Virgil, tua cœlo Præcipitant, suadentque cadentia sidera somnos ; that you have chosen a time to declare your senti'ments, when the patrons of both them and you are ' removing from court.' "Thus, Sir, I have staid till nothing is left me but only to congratulate you on the very great honour they have done you and to confess the truth, I am glad I can so easily acquit myself of the most troublesome part of a visit, salutes and compliments."] ROBERT HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD. THE history of this lord is too fresh in every body's memory to make it requisite to expatiate upon his character. What blemishes it had have been so severely censured by the associate * of his councils and politics, that a more distant observer has no pretence to enlarge on them. Besides, as the public conduct of this earl, to which alone I know any objections, was called to such strict account by persons of my name, it would be an ungrateful task in me to renew any disturbance to his ashes. He is only mentioned here as author of the following tracts : "An Essay upon Public Credit, by Robert Harley, Esq." 17103. "An Essay upon Loans, by the Author of the Essay on Public Credit"." "A Vindication of the Rights of the Commons of England;" said to be by him, but signed Humphry Mackworth 5. • Lord Bolingbroke. • Somers's Tracts, vol. ii. p. 1. • Ib. p. 10. 5 Ib. second coll. vol. iv. p. 313. |