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diff --git a/5132-0.txt b/5132-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee5397a --- /dev/null +++ b/5132-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4525 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Letters to Sir William Windham and Mr. Pope, +by Lord Bolingbroke, Edited by Henry Morley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Letters to Sir William Windham and Mr. Pope + + +Author: Lord Bolingbroke + +Editor: Henry Morley + +Release Date: August 10, 2014 [eBook #5132] +[This file was first posted on May 7, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO SIR WILLIAM WINDHAM AND +MR. POPE*** + + +This eBook was produced by Les Bowler. + + CASSELL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY + + * * * * * + + + + + + LETTERS + TO + SIR WILLIAM WINDHAM + AND + MR. POPE + + + BY + LORD BOLINGBROKE + + [Picture: Decorative graphic] + + CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED + _LONDON_, _PARIS & MELBOURNE_ + 1894 + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +HENRY ST. JOHN, who became Viscount Bolingbroke in 1712, was born on the +1st of October, 1678, at the family manor of Battersea, then a country +village. His grandfather, Sir Walter St. John, lived there with his wife +Johanna,—daughter to Cromwell’s Chief Justice, Oliver St. John,—in one +home with the child’s father, Henry St. John, who was married to the +second daughter of Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick. The child’s +grandfather, a man of high character, lived to the age of eighty-seven; +and his father, more a man of what is miscalled pleasure, to the age of +ninety. It was chiefly by his grandfather and grandmother that the +education of young Henry St. John was cared for. Simon Patrick, +afterwards Bishop of Ely, was for some years a chaplain in their home. +By his grandfather and grandmother the child’s religious education may +have been too formally cared for. A passage in Bolingbroke’s letter to +Pope shows that he was required as a child to read works of a divine who +“made a hundred and nineteen sermons on the hundred and nineteenth +Psalm.” + +After education at Eton and Christchurch, Henry St. John travelled +abroad, and in the year 1700 he married, at the age of twenty-two, +Frances, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Winchescomb, a Berkshire +baronet. She had much property, and more in prospect. + +In the year 1701, Henry St. John entered Parliament as member for Wotton +Bassett, the family borough. He acted with the Tories, and became +intimate with their leader, Robert Harley. He soon became distinguished +as the ablest and most vigorous of the young supporters of the Tory +party. He was a handsome man and a brilliant speaker, delighted in by +politicians who, according to his own image in the Letter to Windham, +“grow, like hounds, fond of the man who shows them game.” He was active +in the impeachment of Somers, Montague, the Duke of Portland, and the +Earl of Oxford for their negotiation of the Partition Treaties. In later +years he said he had acted here in ignorance, and justified those +treaties. + +James II. died at St. Germains, a pensioner of France, aged sixty-eight, +on the 6th of September, 1701. + +His pretensions to the English throne passed to the son, who had been +born on the 10th of June, 1688, and whose birth had hastened on the +Revolution. That son, James Francis Edward Stuart, who was only thirteen +years old at his father’s death, is known sometimes in history as the Old +Pretender; the Young Pretender being his son Charles Edward, whose defeat +at Culloden in 1746 destroyed the last faint hope of a restoration of the +Stuarts. It is with the young heir to the pretensions of James II. that +the story of the life of Bolingbroke becomes concerned. + +King William III. died on the 8th of March, 1702, and was succeeded by +James II.’s daughter Anne, who was then thirty-eight years old, and had +been married when in her nineteenth year to Prince George of Denmark. +She was a good wife and a good, simple-minded woman; a much-troubled +mother, who had lost five children in their infancy, besides one who +survived to be a boy of eleven and had died in the year 1700. As his +death left the succession to the Crown unsettled, an Act of Settlement, +passed on the 12th of June, 1701, had provided that, in case of failure +of direct heirs to the throne, the Crown should pass to the next +Protestant in succession, who was Sophia, wife of the Elector of Hanover. +The Electress Sophia was daughter of the Princess Elizabeth who had +married the Elector Palatine in 1613, granddaughter, therefore, of James +I. She was more than seventy years old when Queen Anne began her reign. +For ardent young Tories, who had no great interest in the limitation of +authority or enthusiasm for a Protestant succession, it was no treason to +think, though it would be treason to say, that the old Electress and her +more than forty-year-old German son George, gross-minded and clumsy, did +not altogether shut out hope for the succession of a more direct heir to +the Crown. + +In 1704 St. John was Secretary at War when Harley was Secretary of State, +and he remained in office till 1708, when the Whigs came in under +Marlborough and Godolphin, and St. John’s successor was his rival Robert +Walpole. St. John retired then for two year from public life to his +country seat at Bucklersbury in Berkshire, which had come to him, through +his wife, by the death of his wife’s father the year before. He was +thirty years old, the most brilliant of the rising statesmen; impatient +of Harley as a leader and of Walpole as his younger rival from the other +side, both of them men who, in his eyes, were dull and slow. St. John’s +quick intellect, though eager and impatient of successful rivalry, had +its philosophic turn. During these two years of retirement he indulged +the calmer love of study and thought, whose genius he said once, in a +letter to Lord Bathurst “On the True use of Retirement and Study,” +“unlike the dream of Socrates, whispered so softly, that very often I +heard him not, in the hurry of those passions by which I was transported. +Some calmer hours there were; in them I hearkened to him. Reflection had +often its turn, and the love of study and the desire of knowledge have +never quite abandoned me.” + +In 1710 the Whigs were out and Harley in again, with St. John in his +ministry as Secretary of State. “I am thinking,” wrote Swift to Stella, +“what a veneration we used to have for Sir William Temple because he +might have been Secretary of State at fifty; and here is a young fellow +hardly thirty in that employment.” + +It was the policy of the Tories to put an end to the war with France, +that was against all their political interests. The Whigs wished to +maintain it as a safeguard against reaction in favour of the Pretender. +In the peace negotiations nobody was so active as Secretary St. John. On +one occasion, without consulting his colleagues, he wrote to the Duke of +Ormond, who commanded the English army in the Netherlands: “Her Majesty, +my lord, has reason to believe that we shall come to an agreement on the +great article of the union of the two monarchies as soon as a courier +sent from Versailles to Madrid can return; it is, therefore, the Queen’s +positive command to your grace, that you avoid engaging in any siege or +hazarding a battle till you have further orders from her Majesty. I am +at the same time directed to let your grace know that the Queen would +have you disguise the receipt of this order; and that her Majesty thinks +you cannot want pretences for conducting yourself so as to answer her +ends without owning that which might at present have an ill effect if +publicly known.” He added as a postscript: “I had almost forgot to tell +your grace that communication is given of this order to the Court of +France.” The peace was right, but the way of making it was mean in more +ways than one, and the friction between Harley and St. John steadily +increased. St. John used his majority in the House for the expulsion of +his rival Walpole and Walpole’s imprisonment in the Tower upon charges of +corruption. In 1712, when Harley had obtained for himself the Earldom of +Oxford, St. John wanted an earldom too; and the Earldom of Bolingbroke, +in the elder branch of his family, had lately become extinct. His +ill-will to Harley was embittered by the fact that only the lower rank of +Viscount was conceded to him, and he was sent from the House of Commons, +where his influence was great, at the age of thirty-four, as Viscount +Bolingbroke and Baron St. John. His father’s congratulation on the +peerage glanced at the perils of Jacobitism: “Well, Harry, I said you +would be hanged, but now I see you’ll be beheaded.” + +The Treaty of Utrecht, that closed the War of the Spanish Succession, was +signed on the 11th of April (new style), 1713. Queen Anne died on the +1st of August, 1714, when time was not ripe for the reaction that +Bolingbroke had hoped to see. His Letter to Windham frankly leaves us to +understand that in Queen Anne’s reign the possible succession of James +II.’s son, the Chevalier de St. George, had never been out of his mind. + +The death of the Electress Sophia brought her son George to the throne. +The Whigs triumphed, and Lord Bolingbroke was politically ruined. He was +dismissed from office before the end of the month. On the 26th of March, +1715, he escaped to France, in disguise of a valet to the French +messenger La Vigne. A Secret Committee of the House of Commons was, a +few days afterwards, appointed to examine papers, and the result was +Walpole’s impeachment of Bolingbroke. He was, in September, 1715, in +default of surrender, attainted of high treason, and his name was erased +from the roll of peers. His own account of his policy will be found in +this letter to his friend Sir William Windham, in which the only weak +feature is the bitterness of Bolingbroke’s resentment against Harley. + +When he went in exile to France, Bolingbroke remained only a few days in +Paris before retiring to St. Clair, near Vienne, in Dauphiny. His Letter +to Windham tells how he became Secretary of State to the Pretender, and +how little influence he could obtain over the Jacobite counsels. The +hopeless Rebellion of 1715, in Scotland, Bolingbroke laboured in vain to +delay until there might be some chance of success. The death of Louis +XIV., on the 1st of September in that year, had removed the last prop of +a falling cause. + +Some part of Bolingbroke’s forfeited property was returned to his wife, +who pleaded in vain for the reversal of his attainder. Bolingbroke was +ill-used by the Pretender and abused by the Jacobites. He had been +writing philosophical “Reflections upon Exile,” but when he found himself +thus attacked on both sides Bolingbroke resolved to cast Jacobitism to +the winds, speak out like a man, and vindicate himself in a way that +might possibly restore him to the service of his country. So in April, +1717, at the age of thirty-nine, he began work upon what is justly +considered the best of his writings, his Letter to Sir William Windham. + +Windham was a young Tory politician of good family and great wealth, who +had married a daughter of the Duke of Somerset, and had been accepted by +the Tories in the House of Commons as a leader, after Henry St. John had +been sent to the House of Lords. Windham was “Dear Willie” to +Bolingbroke, a constant friend, and in 1715 he was sent to the Tower as a +Jacobite. But he had powerful connections, was kindly and not dangerous, +and was soon back in his place in the House fighting the Whigs. The +Letter to Windham was finished in the summer of 1717. Its frankness was +only suited to the prospect of a pardon. It was found that there was no +such prospect, and the Letter was not published until 1753, a year or two +after its writer’s death. + +Bolingbroke’s first wife died in November, 1718. He married in 1720 a +Marquise de Villette, with whom he lived on an estate called La Source, +near Orleans, at the source of the small river Loiret. There he talked +and wrote philosophy. His pardon was obtained in May, 1723. In 1725 he +was allowed by Act of Parliament the possession of his family +inheritance; but as the attainder was not reversed he could never again +sit in Parliament. So he came home in 1725, and bought an estate at +Dawley, near Uxbridge. There he philosophised in his own way and played +at farming, discoursed with Pope and plied his pen against the Whigs. In +his letter to Pope, Bolingbroke writes of ministers of religion as if +they had no other function than to maintain theological dogmas, and draws +a false conclusion from false premisses. He died on the 12th of +December, 1751. + + H.M. + + + + +A LETTER +TO +SIR WILLIAM WINDHAM. + + +I WAS well enough acquainted with the general character of mankind, and +in particular with that of my own countrymen, to expect to be as much out +of the minds of the Tories during my exile as if we had never lived and +acted together. I depended on being forgot by them, and was far from +imagining it possible that I should be remembered only to be condemned +loudly by one half of them, and to be tacitly censured by the greatest +part of the other half. As soon as I was separated from the Pretender +and his interest, I declared myself to be so; and I gave directions for +writing into England what I judged sufficient to put my friends on their +guard against any surprise concerning an event which it was their +interest, as well as mine, that they should be very rightly informed +about. + +As soon as the Pretender’s adherents began to clamour against me in this +country, and to disperse their scandal by circular letters everywhere +else, I gave directions for writing into England again. Their groundless +articles of accusation were refuted, and enough was said to give my +friends a general idea of what had happened to me, and at least to make +them suspend the fixing any opinion till such time as I should be able to +write more fully and plainly to them myself. To condemn no person +unheard is a rule of natural equity, which we see rarely violated in +Turkey, or in the country where I am writing: that it would not be so +with me in Great Britain, I confess that I flattered myself. I dwelt +securely in this confidence, and gave very little attention to any of +those scurrilous methods which were taken about this time to blast my +reputation. The event of things has shown that I trusted too much to my +own innocence, and to the justice of my old friends. + +It was obvious that the Chevalier and the Earl of Mar hoped to load me +with the imputation of treachery, incapacity, or neglect: it was +indifferent to them of which. If they could ascribe to one of those +their not being supported from France, they imagined that they should +justify their precipitate flight from Scotland, which many of their +fastest friends exclaimed against; and that they should varnish over that +original capital fault, the drawing the Highlanders together in arms at +the time and in the manner in which it was done. + +The Scotch, who fell at once from all the sanguine expectations with +which they had been soothed, and who found themselves reduced to despair, +were easy to be incensed; they had received no support whatever, and it +was natural for them rather to believe that they failed of this support +by my fault, than to imagine their general had prevailed on them to rise +in the very point of time when it was impossible that they should be +supported from France, or from any other part of the world. The Duke of +Ormond, who had been the bubble of his own popularity, was enough out of +humour with the general turn of affairs to be easily set against any +particular man. The emissaries of this Court, whose commission was to +amuse, had imposed upon him all along; and there were other busy people +who thought to find their account in having him to themselves. I had +never been in his secret whilst we were in England together: and from his +first coming into France he was either prevailed upon by others, or, +which I rather believe, he concurred with others, to keep me out of it. +The perfect indifference I showed whether I was in it or no, might carry +him from acting separately, to act against me. + +The whole tribe of Irish and other papists were ready to seize the first +opportunity of venting their spleen against a man, who had constantly +avoided all intimacy with them; who acted in the same cause, but on a +different principle, and who meant no one thing in the world less than +raising them to the advantages which they expected. + +That these several persons, for the reasons I have mentioned, should join +in a cry against me, is not very marvellous; the contrary would be so to +a man who knows them as well as I do. But that the English Tories should +serve as echoes to them—nay more, that my character should continue +doubtful at best amongst you, when those who first propagated the slander +are become ashamed of railing without proof, and have dropped the +clamour,—this I own that I never expected; and I may be allowed to say, +that as it is an extreme surprise, so it shall be a lesson to me. + +The Whigs impeached and attainted me. They went farther—at least, in my +way of thinking, that step was more cruel than all the others—by a +partial representation of facts, and pieces of facts, put together as it +best suited their purpose, and published to the whole world, they did all +that in them lay to expose me for a fool, and to brand me for a knave. +But then I had deserved this abundantly at their hands, according to the +notions of party-justice. The Tories have not indeed impeached nor +attainted me; but they have done, and are still doing something very like +to that which I took worse of the Whigs than the impeachment and +attainder: and this, after I have shown an inviolable attachment to the +service, and almost an implicit obedience to the will of the party; when +I am actually an outlaw, deprived of my honours, stripped of my fortune, +and cut off from my family and my country, for their sakes. + +Some of the persons who have seen me here, and with whom I have had the +pleasure to talk of you, may, perhaps, have told you that, far from being +oppressed by that storm of misfortunes in which I have been tossed of +late, I bear up against it with firmness enough, and even with alacrity. +It is true, I do so; but it is true likewise that the last burst of the +cloud has gone near to overwhelm me. From our enemies we expect evil +treatment of every sort, we are prepared for it, we are animated by it, +and we sometimes triumph in it; but when our friends abandon us, when +they wound us, and when they take, to do this, an occasion where we stand +the most in need of their support, and have the best title to it, the +firmest mind finds it hard to resist. + +Nothing kept up my spirits when I was first reduced to the very +circumstances I now describe so much as the consideration of the +delusions under which I knew that the Tories lay, and the hopes I +entertained of being able soon to open their eyes, and to justify my +conduct. I expected that friendship, or, if that principle failed, +curiosity at least, would move the party to send over some person from +whose report they might have both sides of the question laid before them. +Though this expectation be founded in reason, and you want to be informed +at least as much as I do to be justified, yet I have hitherto flattered +myself with it in vain. To repair this misfortune, therefore, as far as +lies in my power, I resolve to put into writing the sum of what I should +have said in that case. These papers shall lie by me till time and +accidents produce some occasion of communicating them to you. The true +occasion of doing it with advantage to the party will probably be lost; +but they will remain a monument of my justification to posterity. At +worst, if even this fails me, I am sure of one satisfaction in writing +them: the satisfaction of unburdening my mind to a friend, and of stating +before an equitable judge the account, as I apprehend it to stand, +between the Tories and myself—“Quantum humano consilio efficere potui, +circumspectis rebus meis omnibus, rationibusque subductis, summam feci +cogitationum mearum omnium, quam tibi, si potero, breviter exponam.” + +It is necessary to my design that I call to your mind the state of +affairs in Britain from the latter part of the year 1710 to the beginning +of the year 1715, about which time we parted. I go no farther back +because the part which I acted before that time, in the first essays I +made in public affairs, was the part of a Tory, and so far of a piece +with that which I acted afterwards. Besides, the things which preceded +this space of time had no immediate influence on those which happened +since that time, whereas the strange events which we have seen fall out +in the king’s reign were owing in a great measure to what was done, or +neglected to be done, in the last four years of the queen’s. The memory +of these events being fresh, I shall dwell as little as possible upon +them; it will be sufficient that I make a rough sketch of the face of the +Court, and of the conduct of the several parties during that time. Your +memory will soon furnish the colours which I shall omit to lay, and +finish up the picture. + +From the time at which I left Britain I had not the advantage of acting +under the eyes of the party which I served, nor of being able from time +to time to appeal to their judgment. The gross of what happened has +appeared; but the particular steps which led to those events have been +either concealed or misrepresented—concealed from the nature of them or +misrepresented by those with whom I never agreed perfectly except in +thinking that they and I were extremely unfit to continue embarked in the +same bottom together. It will, therefore, be proper to descend under +this head to a more particular relation. + +In the summer of the year 1710 the Queen was prevailed upon to change her +Parliament and her Ministry. The intrigue of the Earl of Oxford might +facilitate the means, the violent prosecution of Sacheverel, and other +unpopular measures, might create the occasion and encourage her in the +resolution; but the true original cause was the personal ill-usage which +she received in her private life and in some trifling instances of the +exercise of her power, for indulgence in which she would certainly have +left the reins of government in those hands which had held them ever +since her accession to the throne. + +I am afraid that we came to Court in the same dispositions as all parties +have done; that the principal spring of our actions was to have the +government of the state in our hands; that our principal views were the +conservation of this power, great employments to ourselves, and great +opportunities of rewarding those who had helped to raise us, and of +hurting those who stood in opposition to us. It is, however, true that +with these considerations of private and party interest there were others +intermingled which had for their object the public good of the nation—at +least what we took to be such. + +We looked on the political principles which had generally prevailed in +our government from the Revolution in 1688 to be destructive of our true +interest, to have mingled us too much in the affairs of the Continent, to +tend to the impoverishing our people, and to the loosening the bands of +our constitution in Church and State. We supposed the Tory party to be +the bulk of the landed interest, and to have no contrary influence +blended into its composition. We supposed the Whigs to be the remains of +a party formed against the ill designs of the Court under King Charles +II., nursed up into strength and applied to contrary uses by King William +III., and yet still so weak as to lean for support on the Presbyterians +and the other sectaries, on the Bank and the other corporations, on the +Dutch and the other Allies. From hence we judged it to follow that they +had been forced, and must continue so, to render the national interest +subservient to the interest of those who lent them an additional +strength, without which they could never be the prevalent party. The +view, therefore, of those amongst us who thought in this manner was to +improve the Queen’s favour, to break the body of the Whigs, to render +their supports useless to them, and to fill the employments of the +kingdom, down to the meanest, with Tories. We imagined that such +measures, joined to the advantages of our numbers and our property, would +secure us against all attempts during her reign, and that we should soon +become too considerable not to make our terms in all events which might +happen afterwards: concerning which, to speak truly, I believe few or +none of us had any very settled resolution. + +In order to bring these purposes about, I verily think that the +persecution of Dissenters entered into no man’s head. By the Bills for +preventing Occasional Conformity and the growth of schism, it was hoped +that their sting would be taken away. These Bills were thought necessary +for our party interest, and, besides, were deemed neither unreasonable +nor unjust. The good of society may require that no person should be +deprived of the protection of the Government on account of his opinions +in religious matters; but it does not follow from hence that men ought to +be trusted in any degree with the preservation of the Establishment, who +must, to be consistent with their principles, endeavour the subversion of +what is established. An indulgence to consciences, which the prejudice +of education and long habits have rendered scrupulous, may be agreeable +to the rules of good policy and of humanity, yet will it hardly follow +from hence that a government is under any obligation to indulge a +tenderness of conscience to come, or to connive at the propagating of +these prejudices and at the forming of these habits. The evil effect is +without remedy, and may, therefore, deserve indulgence; but the evil +cause is to be prevented, and can, therefore, be entitled to none. +Besides this, the Bills I am speaking of, rather than to enact anything +new, seemed only to enforce the observation of ancient laws which had +been judged necessary for the security of the Church and State at a time +when the memory of the ruin of both, and of the hands by which that ruin +had been wrought, was fresh in the minds of men. + +The Bank, the East India Company, and in general the moneyed interest, +had certainly nothing to apprehend like what they feared, or affected to +fear, from the Tories—an entire subversion of their property. Multitudes +of our own party would have been wounded by such a blow. The intention +of those who were the warmest seemed to me to go no farther than +restraining their influence on the Legislature, and on matters of State; +and finding at a proper season means to make them contribute to the +support and ease of a government under which they enjoyed advantages so +much greater than the rest of their fellow-subjects. The mischievous +consequence which had been foreseen and foretold too, at the +establishment of those corporations, appeared visibly. The country +gentlemen were vexed, put to great expenses and even baffled by them in +their elections; and among the members of every parliament numbers were +immediately or indirectly under their influence. The Bank had been +extravagant enough to pull off the mask; and, when the Queen seemed to +intend a change in her ministry, they had deputed some of their members +to represent against it. But that which touched sensibly even those who +were but little affected by other considerations, was the prodigious +inequality between the condition of the moneyed men and of the rest of +the nation. The proprietor of the land, and the merchant who brought +riches home by the returns of foreign trade, had during two wars borne +the whole immense load of the national expenses; whilst the lender of +money, who added nothing to the common stock, throve by the public +calamity, and contributed not a mite to the public charge. + +As to the Allies, I saw no difference of opinion among all those who came +to the head of affairs at this time. Such of the Tories as were in the +system above mentioned, such of them as deserted soon after from us, and +such of the Whigs as had upon this occasion deserted to us, seemed +equally convinced of the unreasonableness, and even of the impossibility, +of continuing the war on the same disproportionate footing. Their +universal sense was, that we had taken, except the part of the States +General, the whole burden of the war upon us, and even a proportion of +this; while the entire advantage was to accrue to others: that this had +appeared very grossly in 1709, and 1710, when preliminaries were insisted +upon, which contained all that the Allies, giving the greatest loose to +their wishes, could desire, and little or nothing on the behalf of Great +Britain: that the war, which had been begun for the security of the +Allies, was continued for their grandeur: that the ends proposed, when we +engaged in it, might have been answered long before, and therefore that +the first favourable occasion ought to be seized of making peace; which +we thought to be the interest of our country, and which appeared to all +mankind, as well as to us, to be that of our party. + +These were in general the views of the Tories: and for the part I acted +in the prosecution of them, as well as of all the measures accessory to +them, I may appeal to mankind. To those who had the opportunity of +looking behind the curtain I may likewise appeal, for the difficulties +which lay in my way, and for the particular discouragements which I met +with. A principal load of parliamentary and foreign affairs in their +ordinary course lay upon me: the whole negotiation of the peace, and of +the troublesome invidious steps preliminary to it, as far as they could +be transacted at home, were thrown upon me. I continued in the House of +Commons during that important session which preceded the peace; and +which, by the spirit shown through the whole course of it, and by the +resolutions taken in it, rendered the conclusion of the treaties +practicable. After this I was dragged into the House of Lords in such a +manner as to make my promotion a punishment, not a reward; and was there +left to defend the treaties almost alone. + +It would not have been hard to have forced the Earl of Oxford to use me +better. His good intentions began to be very much doubted of; the truth +is, no opinion of his sincerity had ever taken root in the party, and, +which was worse perhaps for a man in his station, the opinion of his +capacity began to fall apace. He was so hard pushed in the House of +Lords in the beginning of 1712 that he had been forced, in the middle of +the session, to persuade the Queen to make a promotion of twelve peers at +once, which was an unprecedented and invidious measure, to be excused by +nothing but the necessity, and hardly by that. In the House of Commons +his credit was low and my reputation very high. You know the nature of +that assembly; they grow, like hounds, fond of the man who shows them +game, and by whose halloo they are used to be encouraged. The thread of +the negotiations, which could not stand still a moment without going +back, was in my hands, and before another man could have made himself +master of the business much time would have been lost, and great +inconveniences would have followed. Some, who opposed the Court soon +after, began to waver then, and if I had not wanted the inclination I +should have wanted no help to do mischief. I knew the way of quitting my +employments and of retiring from Court when the service of my party +required it; but I could not bring myself up to that resolution, when the +consequence of it must have been the breaking my party and the distress +of the public affairs. I thought my mistress treated me ill, but the +sense of that duty which I owed her came in aid of other considerations, +and prevailed over my resentment. These sentiments, indeed, are so much +out of fashion that a man who avows them is in danger of passing for a +bubble in the world; yet they were, in the conjuncture I speak of, the +true motives of my conduct, and you saw me go on as cheerfully in the +troublesome and dangerous work assigned me as if I had been under the +utmost satisfaction. I began, indeed, in my heart to renounce the +friendship which till that time I had preserved inviolable for Oxford. I +was not aware of all his treachery, nor of the base and little means +which he employed then, and continued to employ afterwards, to ruin me in +the opinion of the Queen and everywhere else. I saw, however, that he +had no friendship for anybody, and that with respect to me, instead of +having the ability to render that merit, which I endeavoured to acquire, +an addition of strength to himself, it became the object of his jealousy +and a reason for undermining me. In this temper of mind I went on till +the great work of the peace was consummated and the treaty signed at +Utrecht; after which a new and more melancholy scene for the party, as +well as for me, opened itself. + +I am far from thinking the treaties, or the negotiations which led to +them, exempt from faults. Many were made no doubt in both by those who +were concerned in them; by myself in the first place, and many were owing +purely to the opposition they met with in every step of their progress. +I never look back on this great event, passed as it is, without a secret +emotion of mind; when I compare the vastness of the undertaking and the +importance of its success, with the means employed to bring it about, and +with those which were employed to traverse it. To adjust the pretensions +and to settle the interests of so many princes and states as were engaged +in the late war would appear, when considered simply and without any +adventitious difficulty, a work of prodigious extent. But this was not +all. Each of our Allies thought himself entitled to raise his demands to +the most extravagant height. They had been encouraged to this, first, by +the engagements which we had entered into with several of them, with some +to draw them into the war, with others to prevail on them to continue it; +and, secondly, by the manner in which we had treated with France in 1709 +and 1710. Those who intended to tie the knot of the war as hard, and to +render the coming at a peace as impracticable as they could, had found no +method so effectual as that of leaving everyone at liberty to insist on +all he could think of, and leaving themselves at liberty, even if these +concessions should be made, to break the treaty by ulterior demands. +That this was the secret I can make no doubt after the confession of one +of the plenipotentiaries who transacted these matters, and who +communicated to me and to two others of the Queen’s Ministers an instance +of the Duke of Marlborough’s management at a critical moment, when the +French Ministers at Gertrudenberg seemed inclinable to come into an +expedient for explaining the thirty-seventh article of the preliminaries, +which could not have been refused. Certain it is that the King of France +was at that time in earnest to execute the article of Philip’s +abdication, and therefore the expedients for adjusting what related to +this article would easily enough have been found, if on our part there +had been a real intention of concluding. But there was no such +intention, and the plan of those who meant to prolong the war was +established among the Allies as the plan which ought to be followed +whenever a peace came to be treated. The Allies imagined that they had a +right to obtain at least everything which had been demanded for them +respectively, and it was visible that nothing less would content them. +These considerations set the vastness of the undertaking in a sufficient +light. + +The importance of succeeding in the work of the peace was equally great +to Europe, to our country, to our party, to our persons, to the present +age, and to future generations. But I need not take pains to prove what +no man will deny. The means employed to bring it about were in no degree +proportionable. A few men, some of whom had never been concerned in +business of this kind before, and most of whom put their hands for a long +time to it faintly and timorously, were the instruments of it. The +Minister who was at their head showed himself every day incapable of that +attention, that method, that comprehension of different matters, which +the first post in such a Government as ours requires in quiet times. He +was the first spring of all our motion by his credit with the Queen, and +his concurrence was necessary to everything we did by his rank in the +State, and yet this man seemed to be sometimes asleep and sometimes at +play. He neglected the thread of business, which was carried on for this +reason with less dispatch and less advantage in the proper channels, and +he kept none in his own hands. He negotiated, indeed, by fits and +starts, by little tools and indirect ways, and thus his activity became +as hurtful as his indolence, of which I could produce some remarkable +instances. No good effect could flow from such a conduct. In a word, +when this great affair was once engaged, the zeal of particular men in +their several provinces drove it forward, though they were not backed by +the concurrent force of the whole Administration, nor had the common +helps of advice till it was too late, till the very end of the +negotiations; even in matters, such as that of commerce, which they could +not be supposed to understand. That this is a true account of the means +used to arrive at the peace, and a true character of that Administration +in general, I believe the whole Cabinet Council of that time will bear me +witness. Sure I am that most of them have joined with me in lamenting +this state of things whilst it subsisted, and all those who were employed +as Ministers in the several parts of the treaty felt sufficiently the +difficulties which this strange management often reduced them to. I am +confident they have not forgotten them. + +If the means employed to bring the peace about were feeble, and in one +respect contemptible, those employed to break the negotiation were strong +and formidable. As soon as the first suspicion of a treaty’s being on +foot crept abroad in the world the whole alliance united with a powerful +party in the nation to obstruct it. From that hour to the moment the +Congress of Utrecht finished, no one measure possible to be taken was +omitted to traverse every advance that was made in this work, to +intimidate, to allure, to embarrass every person concerned in it. This +was done without any regard either to decency or good policy, and from +hence it soon followed that passion and humour mingled themselves on each +side. A great part of what we did for the peace, and of what others did +against it, can be accounted for on no other principle. The Allies were +broken among themselves before they began to treat with the common enemy. +The matter did not mend in the course of the treaty, and France and +Spain, but especially the former, profited of this disunion. + +Whoever makes the comparison, which I have touched upon, will see the +true reasons which rendered the peace less answerable to the success of +the war than it might and than it ought to have been. Judgment has been +passed in this case as the different passions or interests of men have +inspired them. But the real cause lay in the constitution of our +Ministry, and much more in the obstinate opposition which we met with +from the Whigs and from the Allies. However, sure it is that the defects +of the peace did not occasion the desertions from the Tory party which +happened about this time, nor those disorders in the Court which +immediately followed. + +Long before the purport of the treaties could be known, those Whigs who +had set out with us in 1710 began to relapse back to their party. They +had among us shared the harvest of a new Ministry, and, like prudent +persons, they took measures in time to have their share in that of a new +Government. + +The whimsical or the Hanover Tories continued zealous in appearance with +us till the peace was signed. I saw no people so eager for the +conclusion of it. Some of them were in such haste that they thought any +peace preferable to the least delay, and omitted no instances to quicken +their friends who were actors in it. As soon as the treaties were +perfected and laid before the Parliament, the scheme of these gentlemen +began to disclose itself entirely. Their love of the peace, like other +passions, cooled by enjoyment. They grew nice about the construction of +the articles, could come up to no direct approbation, and, being let into +the secret of what was to happen, would not preclude themselves from the +glorious advantage of rising on the ruins of their friends and of their +party. + +The danger of the succession and the badness of the peace were the two +principles on which we were attacked. On the first the whimsical Tories +joined the Whigs, and declared directly against their party. Although +nothing is more certain than this truth: that there was at that time no +formed design in the party, whatever views some particular men might +have, against his Majesty’s accession to the throne. On the latter, and +most other points, they affected a most glorious neutrality. + +Instead of gathering strength, either as a Ministry or as a party, we +grew weaker every day. The peace had been judged, with reason, to be the +only solid foundation whereupon we could erect a Tory system; and yet +when it was made we found ourselves at a full stand. Nay, the very work +which ought to have been the basis of our strength was in part demolished +before our eyes, and we were stoned with the ruins of it. Whilst this +was doing, Oxford looked on as if he had not been a party to all which +had passed; broke now and then a jest, which savoured of the Inns of +Court and the bad company in which he had been bred. And on those +occasions where his station obliged him to speak of business, was +absolutely unintelligible. + +Whether this man ever had any determined view besides that of raising his +family is, I believe, a problematical question in the world. My opinion +is that he never had any other. The conduct of a Minister who proposes +to himself a great and noble object, and who pursues it steadily, may +seem for a while a riddle to the world; especially in a Government like +ours, where numbers of men, different in their characters and different +in their interests, are at all times to be managed; where public affairs +are exposed to more accidents and greater hazards than in other +countries; and where, by consequence, he who is at the head of business +will find himself often distracted by measures which have no relation to +his purpose, and obliged to bend himself to things which are in some +degree contrary to his main design. The ocean which environs us is an +emblem of our government, and the pilot and the Minister are in similar +circumstances. It seldom happens that either of them can steer a direct +course, and they both arrive at their port by means which frequently seem +to carry them from it. But as the work advances the conduct of him who +leads it on with real abilities clears up, the appearing inconsistencies +are reconciled, and when it is once consummated the whole shows itself so +uniform, so plain, and so natural, that every dabbler in politics will be +apt to think he could have done the same. But, on the other hand, a man +who proposes no such object, who substitutes artifice in the place of +ability, who, instead of leading parties and governing accidents, is +eternally agitated backwards and forwards by both, who begins every day +something new, and carries nothing on to perfection, may impose awhile on +the world; but a little sooner or a little later the mystery will be +revealed, and nothing will be found to be couched under it but a thread +of pitiful expedients, the ultimate end of which never extended farther +than living from day to day. Which of these pictures resembles Oxford +most you will determine. I am sorry to be obliged to name him so often, +but how is it possible to do otherwise while I am speaking of times +wherein the whole turn of affairs depended on his motions and character? + +I have heard, and I believe truly, that when he returned to Windsor in +the autumn of 1713, after the marriage of his son, he pressed extremely +to have him created Duke of Newcastle or Earl of Clare, and the Queen +presuming to hesitate on so extraordinary a proposal, he resented this +hesitation in a manner which little became a man who had been so lately +raised by the profusion of her favours upon him. Certain it is, that he +began then to show a still greater remissness in all parts of his +Ministry, and to affect to say that from such a time, the very time I am +speaking of, he took no share in the direction of affairs, or words to +that effect. + +He pretended to have discovered intrigues which were set on foot against +him, and particularly he complained of the advantage which was taken of +his absence during the journey he made at his son’s marriage to undermine +him with the Queen. He is naturally inclined to believe the worst, which +I take to be a certain mark of a mean spirit and a wicked soul. At +least, I am sure that the contrary quality, when it is not due to +weakness of understanding, is the fruit of a generous temper and an +honest heart. Prone to judge ill of all mankind, he will rarely be +seduced by his credulity, but I never knew a man so capable of being the +bubble of his distrust and jealousy. He was so in this case, although +the Queen, who could not be ignorant of the truth, said enough to +undeceive him. But to be undeceived, and to own himself so, was not his +play. He hoped by cunning to varnish over his want of faith and of +ability. He was desirous to make the world impute the extraordinary +part, or, to speak more properly, the no part, which he acted with the +staff of Treasurer in his hand, to the Queen’s withdrawing her favour +from him and to his friends abandoning him—pretences utterly groundless +when he first made them, and which he brought to be real at last. Even +the winter before the Queen’s death, when his credit began to wane apace, +he might have regained it; he might have reconciled himself perfectly +with all his ancient friends, and have acquired the confidence of the +whole party. I say he might have done all this, because I am persuaded +that none of those I have named were so convinced of his perfidy, so +jaded with his yoke, or so much piqued personally against him as I was; +and yet if he would have exerted himself in concert with us to improve +the few advantages which were left us and to ward off the visible danger +which threatened our persons and our party, I would have stifled my +private animosity and would have acted under him with as much zeal as +ever. But he was incapable of taking such a turn. The sum of all his +policy had been to amuse the Whigs, the Tories, and the Jacobites as long +as he could, and to keep his power as long as he amused them. When it +became impossible to amuse mankind any longer, he appeared plainly at the +end of his line. + +By a secret correspondence with the late Earl of Halifax, and by the +intrigues of his brother and other fanatical relations, he had +endeavoured to keep some hold on the Whigs. + +The Tories were attached to him at first by the heat of a revolution in +the Ministry, by their hatred of the people who were discarded, and by +the fond hopes which it is easy to give at the setting out of a new +administration. Afterwards he held out the peace in prospect to them and +to the Jacobites separately, as an event which must be brought about +before he could effectually serve either. You cannot have forgot how +things which we pressed were put off upon every occasion till the peace; +the peace was to be the date of a new administration, and the period at +which the millenary year of Toryism should begin. Thus were the Tories +at that time amused; and since my exile I have had the opportunity of +knowing certainly and circumstantially that the Jacobites were treated in +the same manner, and that the Pretender was made, through the French +Minister, to expect that measures should be taken for his restoration as +soon as the peace had rendered them practicable. He was to attempt +nothing, his partisans were to lie still, Oxford undertook for all. + +After many delays, fatal to the general interest of Europe, this peace +was signed: and the only considerable thing which he brought about +afterwards was the marriage I have mentioned above; and by it an +accession of riches and honour to a family whose estate was very mean, +and whose illustration before this time I never met with anywhere, but in +the vain discourses which he used to hold over claret. If he kept his +word with any of the parties above-mentioned, it must be supposed that he +did so with the Whigs; for as to us, we saw nothing after the peace but +increase of mortification and nearer approaches to ruin. Not a step was +made towards completing the settlement of Europe, which the treaties of +Utrecht and Radstadt left imperfect; towards fortifying and establishing +the Tory party; towards securing those who had been the principal actors +in this administration against future events. We had proceeded in a +confidence that these things should immediately follow the conclusion of +the peace: he had never, I dare swear, entertained a thought concerning +them. As soon as the last hand was given to the fortune of his family, +he abandoned his mistress, his friends, and his party, who had borne him +so many years on their shoulders: and I was present when this want of +faith was reproached him in the plainest and strongest terms by one of +the honestest men in Britain, and before some of the most considerable +Tories. Even his impudence failed him on this occasion: he did not so +much as attempt an excuse. + +He could not keep his word which he had given the Pretender and his +adherents, because he had formed no party to support him in such a +design. He was sure of having the Whigs against him if he made the +attempt, and he was not sure of having the Tories for him. + +In this state of confusion and distress, to which he had reduced himself +and us, you remember the part he acted. He was the spy of the Whigs, and +voted with us in the morning against those very questions which he had +penned the night before with Walpole and others. He kept his post on +terms which no man but he would have held it on, neither submitting to +the Queen, nor complying with his friends. He would not, or he could +not, act with us; and he resolved that we should not act without him as +long as he could hinder it. The Queen’s health was very precarious, and +at her death he hoped by these means to deliver us up, bound as it were +hand and foot, to our adversaries. On the foundation of this merit he +flattered himself that he had gained some of the Whigs, and softened at +least the rest of the party to him. By his secret negotiations at +Hanover, he took it for granted that he was not only reconciled to that +Court, but that he should, under his present Majesty’s reign, have as +much credit as he had enjoyed under that of the Queen. He was weak +enough to boast of this, and to promise his good offices voluntarily to +several: for no man was weak enough to think them worth being solicited. +In a word, you must have heard that he answered to Lord Dartmouth and to +Mr. Bromley, that one should keep the Privy Seal, and the other the seals +of Secretary; and that Lord Cowper makes no scruple of telling how he +came to offer him the seals of Chancellor. When the King arrived, he +went to Greenwich with an affectation of pomp and of favour. Against his +suspicious character, he was once in his life the bubble of his +credulity; and this delusion betrayed him into a punishment more severe +in my sense than all which has happened to him since, or than perpetual +exile; he was affronted in the manner in which he was presented to the +King. The meanest subject would have been received with goodness, the +most obnoxious with an air of indifference; but he was received with the +most distinguishing contempt. This treatment he had in the face of the +nation. The King began his reign, in this instance, with punishing the +ingratitude, the perfidy, the insolence, which had been shown to his +predecessor. Oxford fled from Court covered with shame, the object of +the derision of the Whigs and of the indignation of the Tories. + +The Queen might, if she had pleased, have saved herself from all those +mortifications she met with during the last months of her reign, and her +servants and the Tory party from those misfortunes which they endured +during the same time; perhaps from those which they have fallen into +since her death. When she found that the peace, from the conclusion of +which she expected ease and quiet, brought still greater trouble upon +her; when she saw the weakness of her Government, and the confusion of +her affairs increase every day; when she saw her First Minister +bewildered and unable to extricate himself or her; in fine, when the +negligence of his public conduct, and the sauciness of his private +behaviour had rendered him insupportable to her, and she took the +resolution of laying him aside, there was a strength still remaining +sufficient to have supported her Government, to have fulfilled in great +part the expectations of the Tories, and to have constituted both them +and the Ministers in such a situation as would have left them little to +apprehend. Some designs were, indeed, on foot which might have produced +very great disorders: Oxford’s conduct had given much occasion to them, +and with the terror of them he endeavoured to intimidate the Queen. But +expedients were not hard to be found by which those designs might have +been nipped in the bud, or else by which the persons who promoted them +might have been induced to lay them aside. But that fatal irresolution +inherent to the Stuart race hung upon her. She felt too much inward +resentment to be able to conceal his disgrace from him; yet, after he had +made this discovery, she continued to trust all her power in his hands. + +No people ever were in such a condition as ours continued to be from the +autumn of 1713 to the summer following. The Queen’s health sank every +day. The attack which she had in the winter at Windsor served as a +warning both to those who wished, and to those who feared her death, to +expect it. The party which opposed the court had been continually +gaining strength by the weakness of our administration: and at this time +their numbers were vastly increased, and their spirit was raised by the +near prospect of the succession taking place. We were not at liberty to +exert the strength we had. We saw our danger, and many of us saw the +true means of avoiding it; but whilst the magic wand was in the same +hands, this knowledge served only to increase our uneasiness; and, +whether we would or no, we were forced with our eyes open to walk on +towards the precipice. Every moment we became less able, if the Queen +lived, to support her Government; if she died, to secure ourselves. One +side was united in a common view, and acted upon a uniform plan: the +other had really none at all. We knew that we were out of favour at the +Court of Hanover, that we were represented there as Jacobites, and that +the Elector, his present Majesty, had been rendered publicly a party to +that opposition, in spite of which we made the peace: and yet we neither +had taken, nor could take in our present circumstances, any measures to +be better or worse there. Thus we languished till the 27th of July, +1714, when the Queen dismissed the Treasurer. On the Friday following, +she fell into an apoplexy, and died on Sunday the 1st of August. + +You do me, I daresay, the justice to believe that whilst this state of +things lasted I saw very well, how little mention soever I might make of +it at the time, that no man in the Ministry, or in the party, was so much +exposed as myself. I could expect no quarter from the Whigs, for I had +deserved none. There were persons amongst them for whom I had great +esteem and friendship; yet neither with these, nor with any others, had I +preserved a secret correspondence, which might be of use to me in the day +of distress: and besides the general character of my party, I knew that +particular prejudices were entertained against me at Hanover. The Whigs +wanted nothing but an opportunity of attacking the peace, and it could +hardly be imagined that they would stop there. In which case I knew that +they could have hold on no man so much as myself: the instructions, the +orders, the memorials had been drawn by me; the correspondence relating +to it in France, and everywhere else, had been carried on by me; in a +word, my hand appeared to almost every paper which had been writ in the +whole course of the negotiation. To all these considerations I added +that of the weight of personal resentment, which I had created against +myself at home and abroad: in part unavoidably, by the share I was +obliged to take in these affairs; and in part, if you will, +unnecessarily, by the warmth of my temper, and by some unguarded +expressions, for which I have no excuse to make but that which Tacitus +makes for his father-in-law, Julius Agricola: “honestius putabam +offendere, quam odisse.” + +Having this prospect of being distinguished from the rest of my party, in +the common calamity, by severer treatment, I might have justified myself, +by reason and by great authorities too, if I had made early provision, at +least to be safe when I should be no longer useful. How I could have +secured this point I do not think fit to explain: but certain it is that +I made no one step towards it. I resolved not to abandon my party by +turning Whig, or, which is worse a great deal, whimsical; nor to treat +separately from it. I resolved to keep myself at liberty to act on a +Tory bottom. If the Queen disgraced Oxford and continued to live +afterwards, I knew we should have time and means to provide for our +future safety: if the Queen died, and left us in the same unfortunate +circumstances, I expected to suffer for and with the Tories; and I was +prepared for it. + +The thunder had long grumbled in the air; and yet when the bolt fell, +most of our party appeared as much surprised as if they had had no reason +to expect it. There was a perfect calm and universal submission through +the whole kingdom. The Chevalier, indeed, set out as if his design had +been to gain the coast and to embark for Great Britain; and the Court of +France made a merit to themselves of stopping him and obliging him to +return. But this, to my certain knowledge, was a farce acted by concert, +to keep up an opinion of his character, when all opinion of his cause +seemed to be at an end. He owned this concert to me at Bar, on the +occasion of my telling him that he would have found no party ready to +receive him, and that the enterprise would have been to the last degree +extravagant. He was at this time far from having any encouragement: no +party numerous enough to make the least disturbance was formed in his +favour. On the King’s arrival the storm arose. The menaces of the +Whigs, backed by some very rash declarations, by little circumstances of +humour which frequently offend more than real injuries, and by the entire +change of all the persons in employment, blew up the coals. + +At first many of the Tories had been made to entertain some faint hopes +that they would be permitted to live in quiet. I have been assured that +the King left Hanover in that resolution. Happy had it been for him and +for us if he had continued in it; if the moderation of his temper had not +been overborne by the violence of party, and his and the national +interest sacrificed to the passions of a few. Others there were among +the Tories who had flattered themselves with much greater expectations +than these, and who had depended, not on such imaginary favour and +dangerous advancement as was offered them afterwards, but on real credit +and substantial power under the new government. Such impressions on the +minds of men had rendered the two Houses of Parliament, which were then +sitting, as good courtiers to King George as ever they had been to Queen +Anne. But all these hopes being at once and with violence extinguished, +despair succeeded in their room. + +Our party began soon to act like men delivered over to their passions, +and unguided by any other principle; not like men fired by a just +resentment and a reasonable ambition to a bold undertaking. They treated +the Government like men who were resolved not to live under it: and yet +they took no one measure to support themselves against it. They +expressed, without reserve or circumspection, an eagerness to join in any +attempt against the Establishment which they had received and confirmed, +and which many of them had courted but a few weeks before; and yet in the +midst of all this bravery, when the election of the new Parliament came +on, some of these very men acted with the coolness of those who are much +better disposed to compound than to take arms. + +The body of the Tories being in this temper, it is not to be wondered at +if they heated one another, and began apace to turn their eyes towards +the Pretender; and if those few who had already engaged with him, applied +themselves to improve the conjuncture, and endeavoured to list a party +for him. + +I went, about a month after the Queen’s death, as soon as the Seals were +taken from me, into the country; and whilst I continued there, I felt the +general disposition to Jacobitism increase daily among people of all +ranks; amongst several who had been constantly distinguished by their +aversion to that cause. But at my return to London in the month of +February or March, 1715, a few weeks before I left England, I began for +the first time in my whole life to perceive these general dispositions +ripen into resolutions, and to observe some regular workings among many +of our principal friends, which denoted a scheme of this kind. These +workings, indeed, were very faint; for the persons concerned in carrying +them on did not think it safe to speak too plainly to men who were, in +truth, ill disposed to the Government because they neither found their +account at present under it nor had been managed with art enough to leave +them hopes of finding it hereafter, but who at the same time had not the +least affection for the Pretender’s person, nor any principle favourable +to his interest. + +This was the state of things when the new Parliament which his Majesty +had called assembled. A great majority of the elections had gone in +favour of the Whigs; to which the want of concert among the Tories had +contributed as much as the vigour of that party and the influence of the +new Government. The Whigs came to the opening of this Parliament full of +as much violence as could possess men who expected to make their court, +to confirm themselves in power, and to gratify their resentments by the +same measures. I have heard that it was a dispute among the Ministers +how far this spirit should be indulged; and that the King was determined, +or confirmed in a determination, to consent to the prosecutions, and to +give the reins to the party, by the representations that were made to him +that great difficulties would arise in the conduct of the Session if the +Court should appear inclined to check this spirit, and by Mr. W—’s +undertaking to carry all the business successfully through the House of +Commons if they were at liberty. Such has often been the unhappy fate of +our Princes: a real necessity sometimes, and sometimes a seeming one, has +forced them to compound with a part of the nation at the expense of the +whole; and the success of their business for one year has been purchased +at the price of public disorder for many. + +The conjuncture I am speaking of affords a memorable instance of this +truth. If milder measures had been pursued, certain it is that the +Tories had never universally embraced Jacobitism. The violence of the +Whigs forced them into the arms of the Pretender. The Court and the +party seemed to vie with one another which should go the greatest lengths +in severity: and the Ministers, whose true interest it must at all times +be to calm the minds of men, and who ought never to set the examples of +extraordinary inquiries or extraordinary accusations, were upon this +occasion the tribunes of the people. + +The Council of Regency which began to sit as soon as the Queen died, +acted like a council of the Holy Office. Whoever looked on the face of +the nation saw everything quiet; not one of those symptoms appearing +which must have shown themselves more or less at that moment if in +reality there had been any measures taken during the former reign to +defeat the Protestant succession. His Majesty ascended the throne with +as little contradiction and as little trouble as ever a son succeeded a +father in the possession of a private patrimony. But he who had the +opportunity, which I had till my dismission, of seeing a great part of +what passed in that Council, would have thought that there had been an +opposition actually formed, that the new Establishment was attacked +openly from without and betrayed from within. + +The same disposition continued after the King’s arrival. This political +Inquisition went on with all the eagerness imaginable in seizing of +papers, in ransacking the Queen’s closet, and examining even her private +letters. The Whigs had clamoured loudly, and affirmed in the face of the +world that the nation had been sold to France, to Spain, to the +Pretender; and whilst they endeavoured in vain, by very singular methods, +to find some colour to justify what they had advanced without proof, they +put themselves under an absolute necessity of grounding the most solemn +prosecution on things whereof they might indeed have proof, but which +would never pass for crimes before any judges but such as were parties at +the same time. + +In the King’s first Speech from the Throne all the inflaming hints were +given, and all the methods of violence were chalked out to the two +Houses. The first steps in both were perfectly answerable; and, to the +shame of the peerage be it spoken, I saw at that time several lords +concur to condemn in one general vote all that they had approved of in a +former Parliament by many particular resolutions. Among several bloody +resolutions proposed and agitated at this time, the resolution of +impeaching me of high treason was taken; and I took that of leaving +England, not in a panic terror improved by the artifices of the Duke of +Marlborough (whom I knew even at that time too well to act by his advice +or information in any case), but on such grounds as the proceedings which +soon followed sufficiently justified, and as I have never repented +building upon. Those who blamed it in the first heat were soon after +obliged to change their language; for what other resolution could I take? +The method of prosecution designed against me would have put me +immediately out of condition to act for myself, or to serve those who +were less exposed than me, but who were, however, in danger. On the +other hand, how few were there on whose assistance I could depend, or to +whom I would, even in those circumstances, be obliged? The ferment in +the nation was wrought up to a considerable height; but there was at that +time no reason to expect that it could influence the proceedings in +Parliament in favour of those who should be accused. Left to its own +movement, it was much more proper to quicken than slacken the +prosecutions; and who was there to guide its motions? The Tories who had +been true to one another to the last were a handful, and no great vigour +could be expected from them. The Whimsicals, disappointed of the figure +which they hoped to make, began, indeed, to join their old friends. One +of the principal amongst them was so very good as to confess to me that +if the Court had called the servants of the late Queen to account, and +had stopped there, he must have considered himself as a judge, and have +acted according to his conscience on what should have appeared to him; +but that war had been declared to the whole Tory party, and that now the +state of things was altered. This discourse needed no commentary, and +proved to me that I had never erred in the judgment I made of this set of +men. Could I then resolve to be obliged to them, or to suffer with +Oxford? As much as I still was heated by the disputes in which I had +been all my life engaged against the Whigs, I would sooner have chose to +owe my security to their indulgence than to the assistance of the +Whimsicals; but I thought banishment, with all her train of evils, +preferable to either. I abhorred Oxford to that degree that I could not +bear to be joined with him in any case. Nothing, perhaps, contributed so +much to determine me as this sentiment. A sense of honour would not have +permitted me to distinguish between his case and mine own; and it was +worse than death to lie under the necessity of making them the same, and +of taking measures in concert with him. + +I am now come to the time at which I left England, and have finished the +first part of that deduction of facts which I proposed to lay before you. +I am hopeful that you will not think it altogether tedious or +unnecessary; for although very little of what I have said can be new to +you, yet this summary account will enable you with greater ease to recall +to your memory the passages of those four years wherewith all that I am +going to relate to you has an immediate and necessary connection. + +In what has been said I am far from making my own panegyric. I had not +in those days so much merit as was ascribed to me, nor since that time +have I had so little as the same persons allowed me. I committed, +without dispute, many faults, and a greater man than I can pretend to be, +constituted in the same circumstances, would not have kept clear of all; +but with respect to the Tories I committed none. I carried the point of +party honour to the height, and specified everything to my attachment to +them during this period of time. Let us now examine whether I have done +so during the rest. + +When I arrived in France, about the end of March, 1715, the affairs of +England were represented to me in another light than I had seen them in +when I looked upon them with my own eyes very few weeks before. I found +the persons who were detached to speak with me prepared to think that I +came over to negotiate for the Pretender; and when they perceived that I +was more ignorant than they imagined, I was assured by them that there +would be suddenly a universal rising in England and Scotland. The +leaders were named to me, their engagements specified, and many +gentlemen, yourself among others, were reckoned upon for particular +services, though I was certain you had never been treated with; from +whence I concluded, and the event has justified my opinion, that these +assurances had been given on the general characters of men by such of our +friends as had embarked sooner and gone farther than the rest. + +This management surprised me extremely. In the answers I made I +endeavoured to set the mistake right, to show that things were far from +the point of maturity imagined, that the Chevalier had yet no party for +him, and that nothing could form one but the extreme violence which the +Whigs threatened to exercise. Great endeavours were used to engage me in +this affair, and to prevail on me to answer the letter of invitation sent +me from Bar. I alleged, as it was true, that I had no commission from +any person in England, and that the friends I left behind me were the +only persons who could determine me, if any could, to take such a step. +As to the last proposition, I absolutely refused it. + +In the uncertainty of what would happen—whether the prosecutions would be +pushed, which was most probable, in the manner intended against me, and +against others, for all of whom, except the Earl of Oxford, I had as much +concern as for myself; or whether the Whigs would relent, drop some, and +soften the fate of others—I resolved to conduct myself so as to create no +appearance which might be strained into a pretence for hard usage, and +which might be retorted on my friends when they debated for me, or when +they defended themselves. I saw the Earl of Stair; I promised him that I +would enter into no Jacobite engagements, and I kept my word with him. I +wrote a letter to Mr. Secretary Stanhope which might take off any +imputation of neglect of the Government, and I retired into Dauphine to +remove the objection of residence near the Court of France. + +This retreat from Paris was censured in England, and styled a desertion +of my friends and of their cause, with what foundation let any reasonable +man determine. Had I engaged with the Pretender before the party acted +for him, or required of me that I should do so, I had taken the air of +being his man; whereas I looked on myself as theirs. I had gone about to +bring them into his measures; whereas I never intended, even since that +time, to do anything more than to make him as far as possible act +conformably to their views. + +During the short time I continued on the banks of the Rhone the +prosecutions were carried on at Westminster with the utmost violence, and +the ferment among the people was risen to such a degree that it could end +in nothing better—it might have ended in something worse—than it did. +The measures which I observed at Paris had turned to no account; on the +contrary, the letter which I wrote to Mr. Secretary Stanhope was quoted +as a base and fawning submission, and what I intended as a mark of +respect to the Government and a service to my friends was perverted to +ruin me in the opinion of the latter. The Act of Attainder, in +consequence of my impeachment, had passed against me for crimes of the +blackest dye; and among other inducements to pass it, my having been +engaged in the Pretender’s interest was one. How well founded this +Article was has already appeared; I was just as guilty of the rest. The +correspondence with me was, you know, neither frequent nor safe. I heard +seldom and darkly from you, and though I saw well enough which way the +current ran, yet I was entirely ignorant of the measures you took, and of +the use you intended to make of me. I contented myself, therefore, with +letting you all know that you had but to command me, and that I was ready +to venture in your service the little which remained, as frankly as I had +exposed all which was gone. At last your commands came, and I shall show +you in what manner I executed them. + +The person who was sent to me arrived in the beginning of July, 1715, at +the place where I was. He spoke in the name of all the friends whose +authority could influence me, and he brought me word that Scotland was +not only ready to take arms, but under some sort of dissatisfaction to be +withheld from beginning; that in England the people were exasperated +against the Government to such a degree that, far from wanting to be +encouraged, they could not be restrained from insulting it on every +occasion; that the whole Tory party was become avowedly Jacobite; that +many officers of the army and the majority of the soldiers were very well +affected to the cause; that the City of London was ready to rise; and +that the enterprises for seizing of several places were ripe for +execution: in a word, that most of the principal Tories were in a concert +with the Duke of Ormond, for I had pressed particularly to be informed +whether his Grace acted alone, or, if not, who were his council; and that +the others were so disposed that there remained no doubt of their joining +as soon as the first blow should be struck. He added that my friends +were a little surprised to observe that I lay neuter in such a +conjuncture. He represented to me the danger I ran of being prevented by +people of all sides from having the merit of engaging early in this +enterprise, and how unaccountable it would be for a man impeached and +attainted under the present Government to take no share in bringing about +a revolution so near at hand and so certain. He entreated that I would +defer no longer to join the Chevalier, to advise and assist in carrying +on his affairs, and to solicit and negotiate at the Court of France, +where my friends imagined that I should not fail to meet with a +favourable reception, and from whence they made no doubt of receiving +assistance in a situation of affairs so critical, so unexpected, and so +promising. He concluded by giving me a letter from the Pretender, whom +he had seen in his way to me, in which I was pressed to repair without +loss of time to Commercy; and this instance was grounded on the message +which the bearer of the letter had brought me from my friends in England. +Since he was sent to me, it had been more proper to have come directly +where I was; but he was in haste to make his own court, and to deliver +the assurances which were entrusted to him. Perhaps, too, he imagined +that he should tie the knot faster on me by acquainting me that my +friends had actually engaged for themselves and me, than by barely +telling me that they desired I would engage for myself and them. + +In the progress of the conversation he related a multitude of facts which +satisfied me as to the general disposition of the people; but he gave me +little satisfaction as to the measures taken for improving this +disposition, for driving the business on with vigour if it tended to a +revolution, or for supporting it with advantage if it spun into a war. +When I questioned him concerning several persons whose disinclination to +the Government admitted of no doubt, and whose names, quality, and +experience were very essential to the success of the undertaking, he +owned to me that they kept a great reserve, and did, at most, but +encourage others to act by general and dark expressions. + +I received this account and this summons ill in my bed; yet, important as +the matter was, a few minutes served to determine me. The circumstances +wanting to form a reasonable inducement to engage did not escape me. But +the smart of a Bill of Attainder tingled in every vein; and I looked on +my party to be under oppression and to call for my assistance. Besides +which I considered, first, that I should certainly be informed, when I +conferred with the Chevalier, of many particulars unknown to this +gentleman; for I did not imagine that you could be so near to take arms, +as he represented you to be, on no other foundation than that which he +exposed. And, secondly, that I was obliged in honour to declare, without +waiting for a more particular information of what might be expected from +England, since my friends had taken their resolution to declare, without +any previous assurance of what might be expected from France. This +second motive weighed extremely with me at that time; there is, however, +more sound than sense in it, and it contains the original error to which +all your subsequent errors, and the thread of misfortunes which followed, +are to be ascribed. + +My resolution thus taken, I lost no time in repairing to Commercy. The +very first conversations with the Chevalier answered in no degree my +expectations; and I assure you, with great truth, that I began even then, +if not to repent of my own rashness, yet to be fully convinced both of +yours and mine. + +He talked to me like a man who expected every moment to set out for +England or Scotland, but who did not very well know for which. And when +he entered into the particulars of his affairs I found that concerning +the former he had nothing more circumstantial nor positive to go upon +than what I had already heard. The advices which were sent from thence +contained such assurances of success as it was hard to think that men who +did not go upon the surest grounds would presume to give. But then these +assurances were general, and the authority seldom satisfactory. Those +which came from the best hands were verbal, and often conveyed by very +doubtful messengers; others came from men whose fortunes were as +desperate as their counsels; and others came from persons whose situation +in the world gave little reason to attend to their judgment in matters of +this kind. + +The Duke of Ormond had been for some time, I cannot say how long, engaged +with the Chevalier. He had taken the direction of this whole affair, as +far as it related to England, upon himself, and had received a commission +for this purpose, which contained the most ample powers that could be +given. After this, one would be apt to imagine that the principles on +which the Pretender should proceed, and the Tories engage, in this +service had been laid down; that a regular and certain method of +correspondence had been established; that the necessary assistances had +been specified; and that positive assurances had been given of them. +Nothing less. In a matter as serious as this, all was loose and +abandoned to the disposition of fortune. The first point had never been +touched upon; by what I have said above you see how little care was taken +of the second; and as to the third, the Duke had asked a small body of +regular forces, a sum of money, and a quantity of arms and ammunition. +He had been told in answer by the Court of France that he must absolutely +despair of any number of troops whatever, but he had been made in general +to hope for some money, some arms, and some ammunition; a little sum had, +I think, been advanced to him. In a case so plain as this it is hard to +conceive how any man could err. The assistances demanded from France at +this time, and even greater than these, will appear, in the sequel of +this relation, by the sense of the whole party, to have been deemed +essentially necessary to success. In such an uncertainty, therefore, +whether even these could be obtained, or rather with so much reason to +apprehend that they could not, it was evident that the Tories ought to +have lain still. They might have helped the ferment against the +Government, but should have avoided with the utmost care the giving any +alarm or even suspicion of their true design, and have resumed or not +resumed it as the Chevalier was able or not able to provide the troops, +the arms, the money, etc. Instead of which those who were at the head of +the undertaking, and therefore answerable for the measures which were +pursued, suffered the business to jog merrily on. They knew in general +how little dependence was to be placed on foreign succour, but acted as +if they had been sure of it; while the party were rendered sanguine by +their passions, and made no doubt of subverting a Government they were +angry with, both one and the other made as much bustle and gave as great +alarm as would have been imprudent even at the eve of a general +insurrection. This appeared to me to be the state of things with respect +to England when I arrived at Commercy. + +The Scots had long pressed the Chevalier to come amongst them, and had of +late sent frequent messages to quicken his departure, some of which were +delivered in terms much more zealous than respectful. The truth is, they +seemed in as much haste to begin as if they had thought themselves able +to do the work alone; as if they had been apprehensive of no danger but +that of seeing it taken out of their hands and of having the honour of it +shared by others. However, that which was wanting on the part of England +was not wanting in Scotland; the Scots talked aloud, but they were in a +condition to rise. They took little care to keep their intentions +secret, but they were disposed to put those intentions into immediate +execution, and thereby to render the secret no longer necessary. They +knew upon whom to depend for every part of the work, and they had +concerted with the Chevalier even to the place of his landing. + +There was need of no great sagacity to perceive how unequal such +foundations were to the weight of the building designed to be raised on +them. The Scots, with all their zeal and all their valour, could bring +no revolution about unless in concurrence with the English; and among the +latter nothing was ripe for such an undertaking but the temper of the +people, if that was so. I thought, therefore, that the Pretender’s +friends in the North should be kept from rising till those in the South +had put themselves in a condition to act; and that in the meanwhile the +utmost endeavours ought to be used with the King of France to espouse the +cause; and that a plan of the design, with a more particular +specification of the succours desired, as well as of the time when and +the place to which they should be conveyed, ought to be written for;—all +which I was told by the Marshal of Berwick, who had the principal +direction at that time of these affairs in France, and I daresay very +truly, had been often asked, but never sent. I looked on this enterprise +to be of the nature of those which can hardly be undertaken more than +once, and I judged that the success of it would depend on timing as near +as possible together the insurrection in both parts of the island and the +succours from hence. The Pretender approved this opinion of mine. He +instructed me accordingly, and I left Lorraine after having accepted the +Seals much against my inclination. I made one condition with him; it was +this—that I should be at liberty to quit a station which my humour and +many other considerations made me think myself very unfit for, whenever +the occasion upon which I engaged was over, one way or other; and I +desire you to remember that I did so. + +I arrived at Paris towards the end of July, 1715. You will observe that +all I was charged with, and all by consequence that I am answerable for, +was to solicit this Court and to dispose them to grant us the succours +necessary to make the attempt as soon as we should know certainly from +England in what it was desired that these succours should consist and +whither they should be sent. Here I found a multitude of people at work, +and every one doing what seemed good in his own eyes; no subordination, +no order, no concert. Persons concerned in the management of these +affairs upon former occasions have assured me this is always the case. +It might be so to some degree, but I believe never so much as now. The +Jacobites had wrought one another up to look on the success of the +present designs as infallible. Every meeting-house which the populace +demolished, every little drunken riot which happened, served to confirm +them in these sanguine expectations; and there was hardly one amongst +them who would lose the air of contributing by his intrigues to the +Restoration, which, he took it for granted, would be brought about, +without him, in a very few weeks. + +Care and hope sat on every busy Irish face. Those who could write and +read had letters to show; and those who had not arrived to this pitch of +erudition had their secrets to whisper. No sex was excluded from this +Ministry. Fanny Oglethorpe, whom you must have seen in England, kept her +corner in it, and Olive Trant was the great wheel of our machine. + +I imagine that this picture, the lines of which are not in the least too +strong, would serve to represent what passed on your side of the water at +the same time. The letters which came from thence seemed to me to +contain rather such things as the writers wished might be true, than such +as they knew to be so: and the accounts which were sent from hence were +of the same kind. The vanity of some and the credulity of others +supported this ridiculous correspondence; and I question not but very +many persons, some such I have known, did the same thing from a principle +which they took to be a very wise one: they imagined that they helped by +these means to maintain and to increase the spirit of the party in +England and France. They acted like Thoas, that turbulent Ætolian, who +brought Antiochus into Greece: “quibus mendaciis de rege, multiplicando +verbis copias ejus, erexerat multorum in Græcia animos; iisdem et regis +spem inflabat, omnium votis eum arcessi.” Thus were numbers of people +employed under a notion of advancing the business, or from an affectation +of importance, in amusing and flattering one another and in sounding the +alarm in the ears of an enemy whom it was their interest to surprise. +The Government of England was put on its guard: and the necessity of +acting, or of laying aside with some disadvantage all thoughts of acting +for the present, was precipitated before any measures necessary to enable +you to act had been prepared, or almost thought of. + +If his Majesty did not, till some short time after this, declare the +intended invasion to Parliament it was not for want of information. +Before I came to Paris, what was doing had been discovered. The little +armament made at the Havre, which furnished the only means the Chevalier +then had for his transportation into Britain, which had exhausted the +treasury of St. Germains, and which contained all the arms and ammunition +that could be depended upon for the whole undertaking, though they were +hardly sufficient to begin the work even in Scotland, was talked of +publicly. A Minister less alert and less capable than the Earl of Stair +would easily have been at the bottom of the secret, for so it was called, +when the particulars of messages received and sent, the names of the +persons from whom they came, and by whom they were carried, were +whispered about at tea-tables and in coffee-houses. + +In short, what by the indiscretion of people here, what by the rebound +which came often back from London, what by the private interests and +ambitious views of persons in the French Court, and what by other causes +unnecessary to be examined now, the most private transactions came to +light: and they who imagined that they trusted their heads to the keeping +of one or two friends, were in reality at the mercy of numbers. Into +such company was I fallen for my sins; and it is upon the credit of such +a mob Ministry that the Tories have judged me capable of betraying a +trust, or incapable of discharging it. + +I had made very little progress in the business which brought me to +Paris, when the paper so long expected was sent, in pursuance of former +instances, from England. The unanimous sense of the principal persons +engaged was contained in it. The whole had been dictated word for word +to the gentleman who brought it over, by the Earl of Mar, and it had been +delivered to him by the Duke of Ormond. I was driving in the wide ocean +without a compass when this dropped unexpectedly into my hands. I +received it joyfully, and I steered my course exactly by it. Whether the +persons from whom it came pursued the principles and observed the rules +which they laid down as the measures of their own conduct and of ours, +will appear by the sequel of this relation. + +This memorial asserted that there were no hopes of succeeding in a +present undertaking, for many reasons deduced in it, without an immediate +and universal rising of the people in all parts of England upon the +Chevalier’s arrival; and that this insurrection was in no degree probable +unless he brought a body of regular troops along with him: that if this +attempt miscarried, his cause and his friends, the English liberty and +Government, would be utterly ruined: but if by coming without troops he +resolved to risk these and everything else, he must set out so as not to +arrive before the end of September, to justify which opinion many +arguments were urged. In this case twenty thousand arms, a train of +artillery, five hundred officers with their servants, and a considerable +sum of money were demanded: and as soon as they should be informed that +the Chevalier was in condition to make this provision, it was said that +notice should be given him of the places to which he might send, and of +the persons who were to be trusted. I do not mention some inconveniences +which they touched upon arising from a delay; because their opinion was +clearly for this delay, and because that they could not suppose that the +Chevalier would act, or that those about him would advise him to act, +contrary to the sense of all his friends in England. No time was lost in +making the proper use of this paper. As much of it as was fit to be +shown to this Court was translated into French, and laid before the King +of France. I was now able to speak with greater assurance, and in some +sort to undertake conditionally for the event of things. + +The proposal of violating treaties so lately and so solemnly concluded, +was a very bold one to be made to people, whatever their inclinations +might be, whom the war had reduced to the lowest ebb of riches and power. +They would not hear of a direct and open engagement, such as the sending +a body of troops would have been; neither would they grant the whole of +what was asked in the second plan. But it was impossible for them, or +any one else, to foresee how far those steps which they were willing to +take, well improved, might have encouraged or forced them to go. They +granted us some succours, and the very ship in which the Pretender was to +transport himself was fitted out by Depine d’Anicant at the King of +France’s expense. They would have concealed these appearances as much as +they could; but the heat of the Whigs and the resentment of the Court of +England might have drawn them in. We should have been glad indirectly to +concur in fixing these things upon them: and, in a word, if the late King +had lived six months longer, I verily believe there had been war again +between England and France. This was the only point of time when these +affairs had, to my apprehension, the least reasonable appearance even of +possibility: all that preceded was wild and uncertain: all that followed +was mad and desperate. But this favourable aspect had an extreme short +duration. Two events soon happened, one of which cast a damp on all we +were doing, and the other rendered vain and fruitless all we had done. +The first was the arrival of the Duke of Ormond in France, the other was +the death of the King. + +We had sounded the duke’s name high. His reputation and the opinion of +his power were great. The French began to believe that he was able to +form and to head a party; that the troops would join him; that the nation +would follow the signal whenever he drew his sword; and the voice of the +people, the echo of which was continually in their ears, confirmed them +in this belief. But when, in the midst of all these bright ideas, they +saw him arrive, almost literally alone, when, to excuse his coming, I was +obliged to tell them that he could not stay, they sank at once from their +hopes, and that which generally happens happened in this case: because +they had had too good an opinion of the cause, they began to form too bad +a one. Before this time, if they had no friendship for the Tories, they +had at least some consideration and esteem. After this, I saw nothing +but compassion in the best of them, and contempt in the others. + +When I arrived at Paris, the King was already gone to Marly, where the +indisposition which he had begun to feel at Versailles increased upon +him. He was the best friend the Chevalier had: and when I engaged in +this business, my principal dependence was on his personal character. +This failed me to a great degree; he was not in a condition to exert the +same vigour as formerly. The Ministers who saw so great an event as his +death to be probably at hand, a certain minority, an uncertain regency, +perhaps confusion, at best a new face of Government and a new system of +affairs, would not, for their own sakes, as well as for the sake of the +public, venture to engage far in any new measures. All I had to +negotiate by myself first, and in conjunction with the Duke of Ormond +soon afterwards, languished with the King. My hopes sank as he declined, +and died when he expired. The event of things has sufficiently shown +that all those which were entertained by the duke and the Jacobite party +under the Regency, were founded on the grossest delusions imaginable. +Thus was the project become impracticable before the time arrived which +was fixed by those who directed things in England for putting it in +execution. + +The new Government of France appeared to me like a strange country. I +was little acquainted with the roads. Most of the faces I met with were +unknown to me, and I hardly understood the language of the people. Of +the men who had been in power under the late reign, many were discarded, +and most of the others were too much taken up with the thoughts of +securing themselves under this, to receive applications in favour of the +Pretender. The two men who had the greatest appearance of favour and +power were D’Aguesseau and Noailles. One was made Chancellor, on the +death of Voisin, from Attorney-General; and the other was placed at the +head of the Treasury. The first passes for a man of parts, but he never +acted out of the sphere of the law: I had no acquaintance with him before +this time; and when you consider his circumstances and mine, you will not +think it could be very easy for me to get access to him now. The latter +I had known extremely well whilst the late King lived: and from the same +Court principle, as he was glad to be well with me then, he would hardly +know me now. The Minister who had the principal direction of foreign +affairs I lived in friendship with, and I must own, to his honour, that +he never encouraged a design which he knew that his Court had no +intention of supporting. + +There were other persons, not to tire you with farther particulars upon +this head, of credit and influence with whom I found indirect and private +ways of conversing; but it was in vain to expect any more than civil +language from them in a case which they found no disposition in their +Master to countenance, and in favour of which they had no prejudices of +their own. The private engagements into which the Duke of Orleans had +entered with his Majesty during the life of the late King will abate of +their force as the Regent grows into strength, and would soon have had no +force at all if the Pretender had met with success: but in these +beginnings they operated very strongly. The air of this Court was to +take the counterpart of all which had been thought right under Louis XIV. +“Cela resemble trop à l’ancien système” was an answer so often given that +it became a jest and almost a proverb. But to finish this account with a +fact which is incredible, but strictly true; the very peace which had +saved France from ruin, and the makers of it, were become as unpopular at +this Court as at the Court of Vienna. + +The Duke of Ormond flattered himself, in this state of things, that he +had opened a private and sure channel of arriving at the Regent, and of +bending him to his purposes. His Grace and I lived together at this time +in an house which one of my friends had lent me. I observed that he was +frequently lost, and that he made continual excursions out of town, with +all the mysterious precaution imaginable. I doubted at first whether +those intrigues related to business or pleasure. I soon discovered with +whom they were carried on, and had reason to believe that both were +mingled in them. It is necessary that I explain this secret to you. + +Mrs. Trant, whom I have named above, had been preparing herself for the +retired abstemious life of a Carmelite by taking a surfeit of the +pleasures of Paris, when, a little before the death of the Queen, or +about that time, she went into England. What she was entrusted either by +the Chevalier, or any other person, to negotiate there, I am ignorant of; +and it imports not much to know. In that journey she made or renewed an +acquaintance with the Duke of Ormond. The scandalous chronicle affirms +that she brought with her, when she returned into France, a woman of whom +I have not the least knowledge, but who was probably handsome, since +without beauty such a merchandise would not have been saleable, nor have +answered the design of the importer; and that she made this way her court +to the Regent. Whatever her merit was, she kept a correspondence with +him, and put herself upon that foot of familiarity which he permits all +those who contribute to his pleasures to assume. She was placed by him, +as she told me herself, where I found her some time after that which I am +speaking of, in the house of an ancient gentlewoman who had formerly been +Maid of Honour to Madame, and who had contracted at Court a spirit of +intrigue which accompanied her in her retreat. + +These two had associated to them the Abbé de Tesieu in all the political +parts of their business; for I will not suppose that so reverend an +ecclesiastic entered into any other secret. This Abbé is the Regent’s +secretary; and it was chiefly through him that the private treaty had +been carried on between his master and the Earl of Stair in the King’s +reign. Whether the priest had stooped at the lure of a cardinal’s hat, +or whether he acted the second part by the same orders that he acted the +first, I know not. This is sure, and the British Minister was not the +bubble of it—that whilst he concerted measures on one hand to traverse +the Pretender’s designs, he testified on the other all the inclination +possible to his service. A mad fellow who had been an intendant in +Normandy, and several other politicians of the lowest form, were at +different times taken into this famous Junto. + +With these worthy people his Grace of Ormond negotiated; and no care was +omitted on his part to keep me out of the secret. The reason of which, +as far as I am able to guess at, shall be explained to you by-and-by. I +might very justly have taken this proceeding ill, and the duke will not +be able to find in my whole conduct towards him anything like it; I +protest to you very sincerely I was not in the least moved at it. + +He advanced not a step in his business with these sham Ministers, and yet +imagined that he got daily ground. I made no progress with the true +ones, but I saw it. These, however, were not our only difficulties. We +lay under another, which came from your side, and which embarrassed us +more. The first hindered us from working forward to our point of view, +but the second took all point of view from us. + +A paper was sent into England just before the death of the King of +France, which had been drawn by me at Chaville in concert with the Dukes +of Ormond and Berwick, and with Monsieur de Torcy. This paper was an +answer to the memorial received from thence. The state of this country +was truly represented in it: the difference was fixed between what had +been asked, and what might be expected from France; and upon the whole it +was demanded what our friends would do, and what they would have us to +do. The reply to this came through the French Secretary of State to our +hands. They declared themselves unable to say anything till they should +see what turn affairs would take on so great an event as the death of the +King, the report of which had reached them. + +Such a declaration shut our mouths and tied our hands. I confess I knew +neither how to solicit, nor what to solicit; this last message suspending +the project on which we had acted before, and which I kept as an +instruction constantly before my eyes. It seemed to me uncertain whether +you intended to go on, or whether your design was to stifle, as much as +possible, all past transactions; to lie perfectly still; to throw upon +the Court the odium of having given a false alarm; and to wait till new +accidents at home, and a more favourable conjuncture abroad, might tempt +you to resume the enterprise. Perhaps this would have been the wisest +game you could have played: but then you should have concerted it with us +who acted for you here. You intended no such thing, as appeared +afterwards: and therefore those who acted for the party at London, +whoever they were, must be deemed inexcusable for leaving things on the +foot of this message, and giving us no advice fit to be depended upon for +many weeks. Whilst preparations were to be made, and the work was to be +set a-going by assistance from hence, you might reasonably expect to hear +from us, and to be determined by us: but when all hopes of this kind +seemed to be gone, it was your part to determine us; and we could take no +resolution here but that of conforming ourselves to whatever should come +prescribed from England. + +Whilst we were in this condition, the most desperate that can be +imagined, we began to receive verbal messages from you that no more time +was to be lost, and that the Chevalier should come away. No man was, I +believe, ever so embarrassed as I found myself at that time. I could not +imagine that you would content yourselves by loose verbal messages, after +all that had happened, to call us over; and I knew by experience how +little such messages are to be depended on. For soon after I engaged in +these affairs, a monk arrived at Bar, despatched, as he affirmed, by the +Duke of Ormond, in whose name he insisted that the Chevalier should +hasten into Britain, and that nothing but his presence was wanting to +place the crown on his head. The fellow delivered his errand so +positively, and so circumstantially, that the resolution was taken at Bar +to set out, and my rendezvous to join the Chevalier was appointed me. +This method to fetch a King, with as little ceremony as one would invite +a friend to supper, appeared somewhat odd to me, who was then very new in +these affairs. But when I came to talk with the man, for by good luck he +had been sent for from Bar to Paris, I easily discerned that he had no +such commission as he pretended to, and that he acted of his own head. I +presumed to oppose the taking any resolution upon his word, though he was +a monk: and soon after we knew from the Duke of Ormond himself that he +had never sent him. + +This example made me cautious; but that which determined my opinion was, +that I could never imagine, without supposing you all run mad, that the +same men who judged this attempt unripe for execution, unless supported +by regular troops from France, or at least by all the other assistances +which are enumerated above, while the design was much more secret than at +present; when the King had no fleet at sea, nor more than eight thousand +men dispersed over the whole island; when we had the good wishes of the +French Court on our side, and were sure of some particular assistances, +and of a general connivance; that the same men, I say, should press for +making it now without any other preparation, when we had neither money, +arms, ammunition, nor a single company of foot; when the Government of +England was on its guard, national troops were raised, foreign forces +sent for, and France, like all the rest of the Continent, against us. I +could not conceive such a strange combination of accidents as should make +the necessity of acting increase gradually upon us as the means of doing +so were taken from us. + +Upon the whole matter, my opinion was, and I did not observe the Duke of +Ormond to differ from me, that we should wait till we heard from you in +such a manner as might assure us of what you intended to do yourselves, +and of what you expected from us; and that in the meanwhile we should go +as far as the little money which we had, and the little favour which was +shown us would allow, in getting some embarkations ready on the coast. + +Sir George Byng had come into the road of Havre, and had demanded by name +several ships which belonged to us to be given up to him. The Regent did +not think fit to let him have the ships; but he ordered them to be +unloaded, and their cargoes were put into the King’s magazines. We were +in no condition to repair the loss; and therefore when I mention +embarkations, you will please to understand nothing more than vessels to +transport the Pretender’s person and the persons of those who should go +over with him. This was all we could do, and this was not neglected. + +We were thus employed when a gentleman arrived from Scotland to represent +the state of that country, and to require a definitive answer from the +Chevalier whether he would have the insurrection to be made immediately, +which they apprehended they might not be able to make at all if they were +obliged to defer it much longer. This gentleman was sent instantly back +again, and was directed to let the persons he came from know that the +Chevalier was desirous to have the rising of his friends in England and +Scotland so adjusted that they might mutually assist each other and +distract the enemy; that he had not received a final answer from his +friends in England, but that he was in daily expectation of it; that it +was very much to be wished that all attempts in Scotland could be +suspended till such time as the English were ready; but that if the Scots +were so pressed that they must either submit or rise immediately, he was +of opinion they should rise, and he would make the best of his way to +them. + +What this forwardness in the Scots and this uncertainty and backwardness +in the English must produce, it was not hard to foresee; and, therefore, +that I might neglect nothing in my power to prevent any false measures—as +I was conscious to myself that I had neglected nothing to promote true +ones—I despatched a gentleman to London, where I supposed the Earl of Mar +to be, some days before the message I have just spoken of was sent to +Scotland. I desired him to make my compliments to Lord Mar, and to tell +him from me that I understood it to be his sense, as well as the sense of +all our friends, that Scotland could do nothing effectually without the +concurrence of England, and that England would not stir without +assistance from abroad; that he might assure himself no such assistance +could be depended upon; and that I begged of him to make the inference +from these propositions. The gentleman went; but upon his arrival at +London he found that the Earl of Mar was already set out to draw the +Highlanders into arms. He communicated his message to a person of +confidence, who undertook to send it after his lordship; and this was the +utmost which either he or I could do in such a conjuncture. + +You were now visibly departed from the very scheme which you had sent us +over, and from all the principles which had been ever laid down. I did +what I could to keep up my own spirit, as well as the spirits of the +Chevalier, and of all those with whom I was in correspondence: I +endeavoured even to deceive myself. I could not remedy the mischief, and +I was resolved to see the conclusion of the perilous adventure; but I own +to you that I thought then, and that I have not changed my opinion since, +that such measures as these would not be pursued by any reasonable man in +the most common affairs of life. It was with the utmost astonishment +that I saw them pursued in the conduct of an enterprise which had for its +object nothing less than the disposition of crowns, and for the means of +bringing it about nothing less than a civil war. + +Impatient that we heard nothing from England, when we expected every +moment to hear that the war was begun in Scotland, the Duke of Ormond and +I resolved to send a person of confidence to London. We instructed him +to repeat to you the former accounts which we had sent over, to let you +know how destitute the Chevalier was either of actual support or even of +reasonable hopes, and to desire that you would determine whether he +should go to Scotland or throw himself on some part of the English coast. +This person was further instructed to tell you that, the Chevalier being +ready to take any resolution at a moment’s warning, you might depend on +his setting out the instant he received your answer; and, therefore, that +to save time, if your intention was to rise, you would do well to act +immediately, on the assurance that the plan you prescribed, be it what it +would, should be exactly complied with. We took this resolution the +rather because one of the packets, which had been prepared in cypher to +give you an account of things, which had been put above three weeks +before into Monsieur de Torcy’s hands, and which by consequence we +thought to be in yours, was by this time sent back to me by this Minister +(I think, open), with an excuse that he durst not take upon him to +forward it. + +The person despatched to London returned very soon to us, and the answer +he brought was, that since affairs grew daily worse, and could not mend +by delay, our friends in England had resolved to declare immediately, and +that they would be ready to join the Chevalier on his landing; that his +person would be as safe there as in Scotland, and that in every other +respect it was better that he should land in England; that they had used +their utmost endeavours, and that they hoped the western counties were in +a good posture to receive him. To this was added a general indication of +the place he should come to, as near to Plymouth as possible. + +You must agree that this was not the answer of men who knew what they +were about. A little more precision was necessary in dictating a message +which was to have such consequences, and especially since the gentleman +could not fail to acquaint the persons he spoke with that the Chevalier +was not able to carry men enough to secure him from being taken up even +by the first constable. Notwithstanding this, the Duke of Ormond set out +from Paris and the Chevalier from Bar. Some persons were sent to the +North of England and others to London to give notice that they were both +on their way. Their routes were so ordered that the Duke of Ormond was +to sail from the coast of Normandy some days before the Chevalier arrived +at St. Malo, to which place the duke was to send immediate notice of his +landing; and two gentlemen acquainted with the country, and perfectly +well known to all our friends in those parts, were despatched before, +that the people of Devonshire and Somersetshire, who were, we concluded, +in arms, might be apprised of the signals which were to be made from the +ships, and might be ready to receive the duke. + +On the coast of France, and before his embarkation, the duke heard that +several of our principal friends had been seized immediately after the +person who came last from them had left London, that the others were all +dispersed, and that the consternation was universal. He embarked, +notwithstanding this melancholy news, and, supported by nothing but the +firmness of his temper, he went over to the place appointed; he did more +than his part, and he found that our friends had done less than theirs. +One of the gentlemen who had passed over before him, and had traversed +part of the country, joined him on the coast, and assured him that there +was not the least room to expect a rising; in a word, he was refused a +night’s lodging in a country which we had been told was in a good posture +to receive the Chevalier, and where the duke expected that multitudes +would repair to him. + +He returned to the coast of Brittany after this uncomfortable expedition, +where the Chevalier arrived about the same time from Lorraine. What his +Grace proposed by the second attempt, which he made as soon as the vessel +could be refitted, to land in the same part of the island, I profess +myself to be ignorant. I wrote him my opinion at the time, and I have +always thought that the storm in which he had like to have been cast +away, and which forced him back to the French coast, saved him from a +much greater peril—that of perishing in an attempt as full of extravagant +rashness, and as void of all reasonable meaning, as any of those +adventures which have rendered the hero of La Mancha immortal. + +The Chevalier had now but one of these two things left him to do: one was +to return to Bar; the other was to go to Scotland, where there were +people in arms for him. He took this last resolution. He left Brittany, +where he had as many Ministers as there were people about him, and where +he was eternally teased with noisy disputes about what was to be done in +circumstances in which no reasonable thing could be done. He sent to +have a vessel got ready for him at Dunkirk, and he crossed the country as +privately as he could. + +Whilst all these things passed I remained at Paris to try if by any means +some assistance might be at last procured, without which it was evident, +even to those who flattered themselves the most, that the game was up. + +No sooner was the Duke of Ormond gone from Paris on the design which I +have mentioned, and Mrs. Trant, who had accompanied him part of the way, +returned, but I was sent for to a little house at Madrid, in the Bois de +Boulogne, where she lived with Mademoiselle de Chaussery, the ancient +gentlewoman with whom the Duke of Orleans had placed her. These two +persons opened to me what had passed whilst the Duke of Ormond was here, +and the hopes they had of drawing the Regent into all the measures +necessary to support the attempts which were making in favour of the +Chevalier. + +By what they told me at first I saw that they had been trusted, and by +what passed in the course of my treating with them it appeared that they +had the access which they pretended to. All which I had been able to do +by proper persons and in proper methods, since the King of France’s +death, amounting to little or nothing, I resolved, at last, to try what +was to be done by this indirect way. I put myself under the conduct of +these female managers, and without having the same dependence on them as +his Grace of Ormond had, I pushed their credit and their power as far as +they reached during the time I continued to see them. I met with +smoother language and greater hopes than had been given me hitherto. A +note signed by the Regent, supposed to be written to a woman, but which +was to be explained to be intended for the Earl of Mar, was put into my +hands to be sent to Scotland. I took a copy of it, which you may see at +the end of these papers. When Sir John Areskine came to press for +succour, the Regent was prevailed upon by these women to see him; but he +carried nothing real back with him except a quantity of gold, part of the +money which we had drawn from Spain, and which was lost, with the vessel, +in a very odd manner, on the Scotch coast. The Duke of Ormond had been +promised seven or eight thousand arms, which were drawn out of the +magazines, and said to be lodged, I think, at Compiègne. I used my +utmost efforts that these arms might be carried forward to the coast, and +I undertook for their transportation, but all was in vain, so that the +likelihood of bringing anything to effect in time appeared to me no +greater than I had found it before I entered into this intrigue. + +I soon grew tired of a commerce which nothing but success could render +tolerable, and resolved to be no longer amused by the pretences which +were daily repeated to me, that the Regent had entertained personal +prejudices against me, and that he was insensibly and by degrees to be +dipped in our measures; that both these things required time, but that +they would certainly be brought about, and that we should then be able to +answer all the expectations of the English and the Scotch. The first of +these pretences contained a fact which I could hardly persuade myself to +be true, because I knew very certainly that I had never given His Royal +Highness the least occasion for such prejudices; the second was a work +which might spin out into a great and uncertain length. I took my +resolution to drive what related to myself to an immediate explanation, +and what related to others to an immediate decision; not to suffer any +excuse for doing nothing to be founded on my conduct, nor the salvation, +if I could hinder it, of so many gallant men as were in arms in Scotland, +to rest on the success of such womanish projects. I shall tell you what +I did on the first head now, and what I did on the second, hereafter, in +its proper place. + +The fact which it was said the Regent laid to my charge was a +correspondence with Lord Stair, and having been one night at his house +from whence I did not retire till three in the morning. As soon as I got +hold of this I desired the Marshal of Berwick to go to him. The Marshal +told him, from me, that I had been extremely concerned to hear in general +that I lay under his displeasure; that a story, which it was said he +believed, had been related to me; that I expected the justice, which he +could deny to no man, of having the accusation proved, in which case I +was contented to pass for the last of humankind, or of being justified if +it could not be proved. He answered that such a story had been related +to him by such persons as he thought would not have deceived him; that he +had been since convinced that it was false, and that I should be +satisfied of his regard for me; but that he must own he was very uneasy +to find that I, who could apply to him through the Marshal d’Huxelles, +could choose to treat with Mrs. Trant and the rest; for he named all the +cabal, except his secretary, whom I had never met at Mademoiselle +Chaussery’s. He added that these people teased him, at my instigation, +to death, and that they were not fit to be trusted with any business. He +applied to some of them the severest epithets. The Marshal of Berwick +replied that he was sure I should receive the whole of what he had been +pleased to say with the greatest satisfaction; that I had treated with +those persons much against my will; and, finally, that if his Royal +Highness would not employ them he was sure I would never apply to them. +In a conversation which I had not long after with him he spoke to me in +much the same terms as he had done to the Marshal. I went from him very +ill edified as to his intentions of doing anything in favour of the +Chevalier; but I carried away with me this satisfaction, that he had +assigned me, from his own mouth, the person through whom I should make my +applications to him, and through whom I should depend on receiving his +answers; that he had disavowed all the little politic clubs, and had +commanded me to have no more to do with them. + +Before I resume the thread of my narration give me leave to make some +reflection upon what I have been last saying to you. When I met with the +Duke of Ormond at his return from the coast, he thought himself obliged +to say something to excuse his keeping me out of a secret which during +his absence I had been let into. His excuse was that the Regent had +exacted from him that I should know nothing of the matter. You will +observe that the account which I have given you seems to contradict this +assertion of his Grace, since it is hard to suppose that if the Regent +had exacted that I should be kept out of the secret, these women would +have dared to have let me into it, and since it is still harder to +suppose that the Regent would make this express condition with the Duke +of Ormond, and the moment the duke’s back was turned would suffer these +women to tease him from me and to bring me answers from him. I am, +however, far from taxing the duke with affirming an untruth. I believe +the Regent did make such a condition with him; and I will tell you how I +understand all this little management, which will explain a great deal to +you. This Prince, with wit and valour, has joined all the irresolution +of temper possible, and is, perhaps, the man in the world the least +capable of saying “no” to your face. From hence it happened that these +women, like multitudes of other people, forced him to say and do enough +to give them the air of having credit with him and of being trusted by +him. This drew in the Duke of Ormond, who is not, I daresay, as yet +undeceived. The Regent never intended from the first to do anything, +even indirectly, in favour of the Jacobite cause. His interest was +plainly on the other side, and he saw it. But then the same weakness in +his character carried him, as it would have done his great-uncle Gaston +in the same case, to keep measures with the Chevalier. His +double-trimming character prevailed on him to talk with the Duke of +Ormond, but it carried him no farther. I question not but he did, on +this occasion, what you must have observed many men to do: we not only +endeavour to impose on the world, but even on ourselves; we disguise our +weakness, and work up in our minds an opinion that the measure which we +fall into by the natural or habitual imperfection of our character is the +effect of a principle of prudence or of some other virtue. Thus the +Regent, who saw the Duke of Ormond because he could not resist the +importunity of Olive Trant, and who gave hopes to the duke because he can +refuse nobody, made himself believe that it was a great strain of policy +to blow up the fire and to keep Britain embroiled. I am persuaded that I +do not err in judging that he thought in this manner, and here I fix the +reason of his excluding me out of the commerce which he had with the Duke +of Ormond, of his affecting a personal dislike of me, and of his avoiding +any correspondence with me upon these matters, till I forced myself in a +manner upon him, and he could not keep me any longer at a distance +without departing from his first principle—that of keeping measures with +everybody. He then threw me, or let me slide if you will, into the hands +of these women; and when he found that I pressed him hard that way, too, +he took me out of their hands and put me back again into the proper +channel of business, where I had not been long, as you will see +by-and-by, before the scene of amusement was finished. + +Sir John Areskine told me when he came from the first audience that he +had of his Royal Highness, that he put him in mind of the encouragement +which he had given the Earl of Mar to take arms. I never heard anything +of this kind but what Sir John let drop to me. If the fact be true, you +see that the Scotch general had been amused by him with a witness. The +English general was so in his turn; and while this was doing, the Regent +might think it best to have him to himself. Four eyes comprehend more +objects than two, and I was a little better acquainted with the +characters of people, and the mass of the country, than the duke, though +this Court had been at first a strange country to me in comparison of the +former. + +An infinity of little circumstances concurred to make me form this +opinion, some of which are better felt than explained, and many of which +are not present to my memory. That which had the greatest weight with +me, and which is, I think, decisive, I will mention. At the very time +when it is pretended that the Regent treated with the Duke of Ormond on +the express condition that I should know nothing of the matter, two +persons of the first rank and greatest credit in this Court, when I made +the most pressing instances to them in favour of the Chevalier, threw out +in conversation to me that I should attach myself to the Duke of Orleans, +that in my circumstances I might want him, and that he might have +occasion for me. Something was intimated of pensions and establishment, +and of making my peace at home. I would not understand this language, +because I would not break with the people who held it: and when they saw +that I would not take the hints, they ceased to give them. + +I fancy that you see by this time the motives of the Regent’s conduct. I +am not, I confess, able to explain to you those of the Duke of Ormond’s; +I cannot so much as guess at them. When he came into France, I was +careful to show him all the friendship and all the respect possible. My +friends were his, my purse was his, and even my bed was his. I went +further; I did all those things which touch most sensibly people who have +been used to pomp. I made my court to him, and haunted his levee with +assiduity. In return to this behaviour—which was the pure effect of my +goodwill, and which no duty that I owed his Grace, no obligation that I +had to him, imposed upon me—I have great reason to suspect that he went +at least half way in all which was said or done against me. He threw +himself blindly into the snare which was laid for him; and instead of +hindering, as he and I in concert might have done, those affairs from +languishing in the manner they did several months, he furnished this +Court with an excuse for not treating with me, till it was too late to +play even a saving game; and he neither drove the Regent to assist the +Chevalier, nor to declare that he would not assist him; though it was +fatal to the cause in general, and to the Scotch in particular, not to +bring one of the two about. + +It was Christmas 1715 before the Chevalier sailed for Scotland. The +battle of Dunblain had been fought, the business of Preston was over: +there remained not the least room to expect any commotion in his favour +among the English; and many of the Scotch who had declared for him began +to grow cool in the cause. No prospect of success could engage him in +this expedition: but it was become necessary for his reputation. The +Scotch on one side spared not to reproach him, I think unjustly, for his +delay; and the French on the other were extremely eager to have him gone. +Some of those who knew little of British affairs imagined that his +presence would produce miraculous effects. You must not be surprised at +this. As near neighbours as we are, ninety-nine in an hundred among the +French are as little acquainted with the inside of our island as with +that of Japan. Others of them were uneasy to see him skulking about in +France, and to be told of it every hour by the Earl of Stair. Others, +again, imagined that he might do their business by going into Scotland, +though he should not do his own: this is, they flattered themselves that +he might keep a war for some time alive, which would employ the whole +attention of our Government; and for the event of which they had very +little concern. Unable from their natural temper, as well as their +habits, to be true to any principle, they thought and acted in this +manner, whilst they affected the greatest friendship to the King, and +whilst they really did desire to enter into new and more intimate +engagements with him. Whilst the Pretender continued in France they +could neither avow him, nor favour his cause: if he once set his foot on +Scotch ground, they gave hopes of indirect assistance; and if he could +maintain himself in any corner of the island, they could look upon him, +it was said, as a king. This was their language to us. To the British +Minister they denied, they forswore, they renounced; and yet the man of +the best head in all their councils, being asked by Lord Stair what they +intended to do, answered, before he was aware, that they pretended to be +neuters. I leave you to judge how this slip was taken up. + +As soon as I received advice that the Chevalier was sailed from Dunkirk, +I renewed, I redoubled all my applications. I neglected no means, I +forgot no argument which my understanding could suggest to me. What the +Duke of Ormond rested upon, you have seen already. And I doubt very much +whether Lord Mar, if he had been here in my place, would have been able +to employ measures more effectual than those which I made use of. I may, +without any imputation of arrogance, compare myself on this occasion with +his lordship, since there was nothing in the management of this affair +above my degree of capacity; nothing equal, either in extent or +difficulty, to the business which he was a spectator of, and which I +carried on when we were Secretaries of State together under the late +Queen. + +The King of France, who was not able to furnish the Pretender with money +himself, had written some time before his death to his grandson, and had +obtained a promise of four hundred thousand crowns from the King of +Spain. A small part of this sum had been received by the Queen’s +Treasurer at St. Germains, and had been either sent to Scotland or +employed to defray the expenses which were daily making on the coast. I +pressed the Spanish Ambassador at Paris; I solicited, by Lawless, +Alberoni at Madrid, and I found another more private and more promising +way of applying to him. I took care to have a number of officers picked +out of the Irish troops which serve in that country; their routes were +given them, and I sent a ship to receive and transport them. The money +came in so slowly and in such trifling sums that it turned to little +account, and the officers were on their way when the Chevalier returned +from Scotland. + +In the summer endeavours had been used to prevail on the King of Sweden +to transport from Gottenburg the troops he had in that neighbourhood into +Scotland or into the North of England. He had excused himself, not +because he disliked the proposition, which, on the contrary, he thought +agreeable to his interest, but for reasons of another kind. First, +because the troops at hand for this service consisted in horse, not in +foot, which had been asked, and which were alone proper for such an +expedition. Secondly, because a declaration of this sort might turn the +Protestant princes of the Empire, from whose offices he had still some +prospect of assistance, against him. And thirdly, because although he +knew that the King of Great Britain was his enemy, yet they were not in +war together, nor had the latter acted yet awhile openly enough against +him to justify such a rupture. At the time I am speaking of, these +reasons were removed by the King of Sweden’s being beat out of the Empire +by the little consequence which his management of the Protestant princes +was to him, and by the declaration of war which the King, as Elector of +Hanover, made. I took up this negotiation therefore again. The Regent +appeared to come into it. He spoke fair to the Baron de Spar, who +pressed him on his side as I pressed him on mine, and promised, besides +the arrears of the subsidy due to the Swedes, an immediate advance of +fifty thousand crowns for the enterprise on Britain. He kept the officer +who was to be despatched I know not how long booted; sometimes on +pretence that in the low state of his credit he could not find bills of +exchange for the sum, and sometimes on other pretences, and by these +delays he evaded his promise. The French were very frank in declaring +that they could give us no money, and that they would give us no troops. +Arms, ammunition, and connivance they made us hope for. The latter, in +some degree, we might have had perhaps; but to what purpose was it to +connive, when by a multitude of little tricks they avoided furnishing us +with arms and ammunition, and when they knew that we were utterly unable +to furnish ourselves with them? I had formed the design of engaging +French privateers in the Pretender’s service. They were to have carried +whatever we should have had to send to any part of Britain in their first +voyage, and after that to have cruised under his commission. I had +actually agreed for some, and it was in my power to have made the same +bargains with others. Sweden on one side and Scotland on the other would +have afforded them retreats. And if the war had been kept up in any part +of the mountains, I conceive the execution of this design would have been +of the greatest advantage to the Pretender. It failed because no other +part of the work went on. He was not above six weeks in his Scotch +expedition, and these were the things I endeavoured to bring to bear in +his absence. I had no great opinion of my success before he went; but +when he had made the last step which it was in his power to make, I +resolved to suffer neither him nor the Scotch to be any longer bubbles of +their own credulity and of the scandalous artifice of this Court. It +would be tedious to enter into a longer narrative of all the useless +pains I took. To conclude, therefore; in a conversation which I had with +the M. d’Huxelles, I took occasion to declare that I would not be the +instrument of amusing the Scotch, and that, since I was able to do them +no other service, I would at least inform them that they must flatter +themselves no longer with hopes of succour from France. I added that I +would send them vessels which, with those already on the coast of +Scotland, might serve to bring off the Pretender, the Earl of Mar, and as +many others as possible. The Marshal approved my resolution, and advised +me to execute it as the only thing which was left to do. On this +occasion he showed no reserve, he was very explicit; and yet in this very +point of time the promise of an order was obtained, or pretended to be +obtained, from the Regent for delivering those stores of arms and +ammunition which belonged to the Chevalier, and which had been put into +the French magazines when Sir George Byng came to Havre. Castel Blanco +is a Spaniard who married a daughter of Lord Melford, and who under that +title set up for a meddler in English business. I cannot justly tell +whether the honour of obtaining this promise was ascribed to him, to the +Junto in the Bois de Boulogne, or to any one else. I suppose they all +assumed a share of the merit. The project was that these stores should +be delivered to Castel Blanco; that he should enter into a recognisance +to carry them to Spain, and from thence to the West Indies; that I should +provide a vessel for this purpose, which he should appear to hire or buy; +and that when she was at sea she should sail directly for Scotland. You +cannot believe that I reckoned much on the effect of this order, but +accustomed to concur in measures the inutility of which I saw evidently +enough, I concurred in this likewise. The necessary care was taken, and +in a fortnight’s time the ship was ready to sail, and no suspicion of her +belonging to the Chevalier or of her destination was gone abroad. + +As this event made no alteration in my opinion, it made none in the +despatches which I prepared and sent to Scotland. In them I gave an +account of what was in negotiation. I explained to him what might be +hoped for in time if he was able to maintain himself in the mountains +without the succours he demanded from France. But from France I told him +plainly that it was in vain to expect the least part of them. In short, +I concealed nothing from him. This was all I could do to put the +Chevalier and his council in a condition to judge what measures to take; +but these despatches never came to his hands. He was sailed from +Scotland just before the gentleman whom I sent arrived on the coast. He +landed at Graveline about the 22nd of February, and the first orders he +gave were to stop all the vessels which were going on his account to the +country from whence he came. + +I saw him the morning after his arrival at St. Germains, and he received +me with open arms. I had been, as soon as we heard of his return, to +acquaint the French Court with it. They were not a little uneasy; and +the first thing which the M. d’Huxelles said to me upon it was that the +Chevalier ought to proceed to Bar with all the diligence possible, and to +take possession of his former asylum before the Duke of Lorraine had time +to desire him to look out for a residence somewhere else. Nothing more +was meant by this proposal than to get him out of the dominions of France +immediately. I was not in my mind averse to it for other reasons. +Nothing could be more disadvantageous to him than to be obliged to pass +the Alps, or to reside in the Papal territory on this side of them. +Avignon was already named for his retreat in common conversation, and I +know not whether from the time he left Scotland he ever thought of any +other. I imagined that by surprising the Duke of Lorraine we should +furnish that Prince with an excuse to the King and to the Emperor; that +we might draw the matter into length, and gain time to negotiate some +other retreat than that of Avignon for the Chevalier. The duke’s +goodwill there was no room to doubt of, and by what the Prince of +Vaudemont told me at Paris some time afterwards I am apt to think we +should have succeeded. In all events, it could not be wrong to try every +measure, and the Pretender would have gone to Avignon with much better +grace when he had done, in the sight of the world, all he could to avoid +it. + +I found him in no disposition to make such haste; he had a mind, on the +contrary, to stay some time at St. Germains, and in the neighbourhood of +Paris, and to have a private meeting with the Regent. He sent me back to +Paris to solicit this meeting. I wrote, I spoke, to the Marshal +d’Huxelles; I did my best to serve him in his own way. The Marshal +answered me by word of mouth and by letter; he refused me by both. I +remember he added this circumstance: that he found the Regent in bed, and +acquainted him with what the Chevalier desired; that the Regent rose up +in a passion, said that the things which were asked were puerilities, and +swore that he would not see him. I returned without having been able to +succeed in my commission; and I confess I thought the want of success on +this occasion no great misfortune. + +It was two or three o’clock on the Sunday or Monday morning when I parted +from the Pretender. He acquiesced in the determination of the Regent, +and declared that he would instantly set out for Lorraine; his trunks +were packed, his chaise was ordered to be at the door at five, and I sent +to Paris to acquaint the Minister that he was gone. He asked me how soon +I should be able to follow him, gave me commissions for some things which +he desired I should bring after him, and, in a word, no Italian ever +embraced the man he was going to stab with greater show of affection and +confidence. + +Instead of taking post for Lorraine he went to the little house in the +Bois de Boulogne where his female Ministers resided; and there he +continued lurking for several days, and pleasing himself with the air of +mystery and business, whilst the only real business which he should have +had at that time lay neglected. He saw the Spanish and Swedish Ministers +in this place. I cannot tell, for I never thought it worth asking, +whether he saw the Duke of Orleans; possibly he might. To have been +teased into such a step, which signified nothing, and which gave the +cabal an air of credit and importance, is agreeable enough to the levity +of his Royal Highness’s character. + +The Thursday following, the Duke of Ormond came to see me, and after the +compliment of telling me that he believed I should be surprised at the +message he brought, he put into my hands a note to himself and a little +scrip of paper directed to me, and drawn in the style of a justice of +peace’s warrant. They were both in the Chevalier’s handwriting, and they +were dated on the Tuesday, in order to make me believe that they had been +written on the road and sent back to the duke; his Grace dropped in our +conversation with great dexterity all the insinuations proper to confirm +me in this opinion. I knew at this time his master was not gone, so that +he gave me two very risible scenes, which are frequently to be met with +when some people meddle in business; I mean that of seeing a man labour +with a great deal of awkward artifice to make a secret of a nothing, and +that of seeing yourself taken for a bubble when you know as much of the +matter as he who thinks that he imposes on you. + +I cannot recollect precisely the terms of the two papers. I remember +that the kingly laconic style of one of them, and the expression of +having no further occasion for my service, made me smile. The other was +an order to give up the papers in my office, all which might have been +contained in a letter-case of a moderate size. I gave the duke the Seals +and some papers which I could readily come at. Some others—and, indeed, +all such as I had not destroyed—I sent afterwards to the Chevalier; and I +took care to convey to him by a safe hand several of his letters which it +would have been very improper the duke should have seen. I am surprised +that he did not reflect on the consequence of my obeying his order +literally. It depended on me to have shown his general what an opinion +the Chevalier had of his capacity. I scorned the trick, and would not +appear piqued when I was far from being angry. As I gave up without +scruple all the papers which remained in my hands, because I was +determined never to make use of them, so I confess to you that I took a +sort of pride in never asking for those of mine which were in the +Pretender’s hands; I contented myself with making the duke understand how +little need there was to get rid of a man in this manner who had made the +bargain which I had done at my engagement, and with taking this first +opportunity to declare that I would never more have to do with the +Pretender or his cause. + +That I might avoid being questioned and quoted in the most curious and +the most babbling town in the world, I related what had passed to three +or four of my friends, and hardly stirred abroad during a fortnight out +of a little lodging which very few people knew of. At the end of this +term the Marshal of Berwick came to see me, and asked me what I meant to +confine myself to my chamber when my name was trumpeted about in all the +companies of Paris, and the most infamous stories were spread concerning +me. This was the first notice I had, and it was soon followed by others. +I appeared immediately in the world, and found there was hardly a +scurrilous tongue which had not been let loose on my subject; and that +those persons whom the Duke of Ormond and Earl of Mar must influence, or +might silence, were the loudest in defaming me. + +Particular instances wherein I had failed were cited; and as it was the +fashion for every Jacobite to affect being in the secret, you might have +found a multitude of vouchers to facts which, if they had been true, +could in the nature of them be known to very few persons. + +This method of beating down the reputation of a man by noise and +impudence imposed on the world at first, convinced people who were not +acquainted with me, and staggered even my friends. But it ceased in a +few days to have any effect against me. The malice was too gross to pass +upon reflection. These stories died away almost as fast as they were +published, for this very reason, because they were particular. + +They gave out, for instance, that I had taken to my own use a very great +sum of the Chevalier’s money, when it was notorious that I had spent a +great sum of my own in his service, and never would be obliged to him for +a farthing, in which case, I believe, I was single. Upon this head it +was easy to appeal to a very honest gentleman, the Queen’s Treasurer at +St. Germains, through whose hands, and not through mine, went the very +little money which the Chevalier had. + +They gave out that whilst he was in Scotland he never heard from me, +though it was notorious that I sent him no less than five expresses +during the six weeks which he consumed in this expedition. It was easy, +on this head, to appeal to the persons to whom my despatches had been +committed. + +These lies, and many others of the same sort, which were founded on +particular facts, were disproved by particular facts, and had not time—at +least at Paris—to make any impression. But the principal crime with +which they charged me then, and the only one which since that time they +have insisted upon, is of another nature. This part of their accusation +is general, and it cannot be refuted without doing what I have done +above, deducing several facts, comparing these facts together, and +reasoning upon them; nay, that which is worse is, that it cannot be fully +refuted without the mention of some facts which, in my present +circumstances, it would not be very prudent, though I should think it +very lawful, for me to divulge. You see that I mean the starving the war +in Scotland, which it is pretended might have been supported, and might +have succeeded, too, if I had procured the succours which were asked—nay, +if I had sent a little powder. This the Jacobites who affect moderation +and candour shrug their shoulders at: they are sorry for it, but Lord +Bolingbroke can never wash himself clean of this guilt; for these +succours might have been obtained, and a proof that they might is that +they were so by others. These people leave the cause of this +mismanagement doubtful between my treachery and my want of capacity. The +Pretender, with all the false charity and real malice of one who sets up +for devotion, attributes all his misfortunes to my negligence. + +The letters which were written by my secretary, above a year ago, into +England; the marginal notes which have been made since to the letter from +Avignon; and what is said above, have set this affair in so clear a +light, that whoever examines, with a fair intention, must feel the truth, +and be convinced by it. I cannot, however, forbear to make some +observations on the same subject here. It is even necessary that I +should do so, in the design of making this discourse the foundation of my +justification to the Tories at present, and to the whole world in time. + +There is nothing which my enemies apprehend so much as my justification: +and they have reason. But they may comfort themselves with this +reflection—that it will be a misfortune which will accompany me to my +grave, that I suffered a chain of accidents to draw me into such measures +and such company; that I have been obliged to defend myself against such +accusations and such accusers; that by associating with so much folly and +so much knavery I am become the victim of both; that I was distressed by +the former, when the latter would have been less grievous to me, since it +is much better in business to be yoked to knaves than fools; and that I +put into their hands the means of loading me, like the scape-goat, with +all the evil consequences of their folly. + +In the first letters which I received from the Earl of Mar he wrote for +arms, for ammunition, for money, for officers, and all things frankly, as +if these things had been ready, and I had engaged to supply him with +them, before he set up the standard at the Brae of Mar; whereas our +condition could not be unknown to his lordship; and you have seen that I +did all I could to prevent his reckoning on any assistance from hence. +As our hopes at this Court decreased, his lordship rose in his demands; +and at the time when it was visible that the Regent intended nothing less +than even privately and indirectly to support the Scotch, the Pretender +and the Earl of Mar wrote for regular forces and a train of artillery, +which was in effect to insist that France should enter into a war for +them. I might, in answer to the first instances, have asked Lord Mar +what he did in Scotland, and what he meant by drawing his countrymen into +a war at this time, or at least upon this foot? He who had dictated not +long before a memorial wherein it was asserted that to have a prospect of +succeeding in this enterprise there must be a universal insurrection, and +that such an insurrection was in no sort probable, unless a body of +troops was brought to support it? He who thought that the consequence of +failing, when the attempt was once made, must be the utter ruin of the +cause and the loss of the British liberty? He who concurred in demanding +as a _pis-aller_, and the least which could be insisted on, arms, +ammunition, artillery, money, and officers? I say, I might have asked +what he meant to begin the dance when he had not the least assurance of +any succour, but, on the contrary, the greatest reason imaginable to +believe this affair was become as desperate abroad by the death of the +most Christian King as it was at home by the discovery of the design and +by the measures taken to defeat it? + +Instead of acting this part, which would have been wise, I took that +which was plausible. I resolved to contribute all I could to support the +business, since it was begun. I encouraged his lordship as long as I had +the least ground for doing so, and I confirmed the Pretender in his +resolution of going to Scotland when he had nothing better left him to +do. If I have anything to reproach myself with in the whole progress of +the war in Scotland, it is having encouraged Lord Mar too long. But, on +the other hand, if I had given up the cause, and had written despondingly +to him before this Court had explained itself as fully as the Marshal +d’Huxelles did in the conversation which is mentioned above, it is easy +to see what turn would have been given to such a conduct. + +The true cause of all the misfortunes which happened to the Scotch and to +those who took arms in the North of England lies here—that they rose +without any previous certainty of foreign help, in direct contradiction +to the scheme which their leaders themselves had formed. The excuse +which I have heard made for this is that the Act of Parliament for +curbing the Highlanders was near to be put in execution; that they would +have been disarmed, and entirely disabled from rising at any other time, +if they had not rose at this. You can judge better than I of the +validity of this excuse. It seems to me that by management they might +have gained time, and that even when they had been reduced to the dilemma +supposed, they ought to have got together under pretence of resisting the +infractions of the Union without any mention of the Pretender, and have +treated with the Government on this foot. By these means they might +probably have preserved themselves in a condition of avowing their design +when they should be sure of being backed from abroad. At the worst, they +might have declared for the Chevalier when all other expedients failed +them. In a word, I take this excuse not to be very good, and the true +reason of this conduct to have been the rashness of the people and the +inconsistent measures of their head. + +But admitting the excuse to be valid, it remains still an undeniable +truth that this is the original fountain from whence all those waters of +bitterness flowed which so many unhappy people have drunk of. I have +said already that the necessity of acting was precipitated before any +measures to act with success had been taken, and that the necessity of +doing so seemed to increase as the means of doing so were taken away. To +whom is this to be ascribed? Is it to be ascribed to me, who had no +share in these affairs till a few weeks before the Duke of Ormond was +forced to abandon England, and the discovery of the intended invasion was +published to Parliament and to the world? or is it to be ascribed to +those who had from the first been at the head of this undertaking? + +Unable to defend this point, the next resort of the Jacobites is to this +impudent and absurd affirmation—that, notwithstanding the disadvantages +under which they took arms, they should have succeeded if the indirect +assistances which were asked from France had been obtained. Nay, that +they should have been able to defend the Highlands if I had sent them a +little powder. Is it possible that a man should be wounded with such +blunt weapons? Much more than powder was asked for from the first, and I +have already said that when the Chevalier came into Scotland, regular +troops, artillery, etc., were demanded. Both he and the Earl of Mar +judged it impossible to stand their ground without such assistance as +these. How scandalous, then, must it be deemed that they suffer their +dependents to spread in the world that for want of a little powder I +forced them to abandon Scotland! The Earl of Mar knows that all the +powder in France would not have enabled him to stay at Perth as long as +he did if he had not had another security. And when that failed him, he +must have quitted the party, if the Regent had given us all that he made +some of us expect. + +But to finish all that I intend to say on a subject which has tired me, +and perhaps you; the Jacobites affirm that the indirect assistances which +they desired, might have been obtained; and I confess that I am +inexcusable if this fact be true. To prove it, they appeal to the little +politicians of whom I have spoken so often. I affirm, on the contrary, +that nothing could be obtained here to support the Scotch or to encourage +the English. To prove the assertion, I appeal to the Ministers with whom +I negotiated, and to the Regent himself, who, whatever language he may +hold in private with other people, cannot controvert with me the truth of +what I advance. He excluded me formerly, that he might the more easily +avoid doing anything; and perhaps he has blamed me since, that he might +excuse his doing nothing. All this may be true, and yet it will remain +true that he would never have been prevailed upon to act directly against +his interest in the only point of view which he has—I mean, the crown of +France—and against the unanimous sense of all his Ministers. Suppose +that in the time of the late Queen, when she had the peace in view, a +party in France had implored her assistance, and had applied to Margery +Fielding, to Israel, to my Lady Oglethorpe, to Dr. Battle, and +Lieutenant-General Stewart, what success do you imagine such applications +would have had? The Queen would have spoke them fair—she would speak +otherwise to nobody; but do you imagine she would have made one step in +their favour? Olive Trant, Magny, Mademoiselle Chaussery, a dirty Abbé +Brigault, and Mr. Dillon, are characters very apposite to these. And +what I suppose to have passed in England is not a whit more ridiculous +than what really passed here. + +I say nothing of the ships which the Jacobites pretend that they sent +into Scotland three weeks or a month after the Pretender was returned. I +believe they might have had my Lord Stair’s connivance then, as well as +the Regent’s. I say nothing of the order which they pretend to have +obtained, and which I never saw, for the stores that were seized at Havre +to be delivered to Castel Blanco. I have already said enough on this +head, and you cannot have failed to observe that this signal favour was +never obtained by these people till the Marshal d’Huxelles had owned to +me that nothing was to be expected from France, and that the only thing +which I could do was to endeavour to bring the Pretender, the Earl of +Mar, and the principal persons who were most exposed, off, neither he nor +I imagining that any such would be left behind. + +When I began to appear in the world, upon the advertisements which my +friends gave me of the clamour that was raised against me, you will +easily think I did not enter into so many particulars as I have done with +you. I said even less than you have seen in those letters which Brinsden +wrote into England in March and April was twelvemonth, and yet the +clamour sank immediately. The people of consideration at this Court beat +it down, and the Court of St. Germains grew so ashamed of it that the +Queen thought fit to purge herself of having had any share in encouraging +the discourses which were held against me, or having been so much as let +into the secret of the measure which preceded them. The provocation was +great, but I resolved to act without passion. I saw the advantage the +Pretender and his council, who disposed of things better for me than I +should have done for myself, had given me; but I saw likewise that I must +improve this advantage with the utmost caution. + +As I never imagined that he would treat me in the manner he did, nor that +his Ministers could be weak enough to advise him to it, I had resolved, +on his return from Scotland, to follow him till his residence should be +fixed somewhere or other. After which, having served the Tories in this +which I looked upon as their last struggle for power, and having +continued to act in the Pretender’s affairs till the end of the term for +which I embarked with him, I should have esteemed myself to be at +liberty, and should in the civillest manner I was able have taken my +leave of him. Had we parted thus, I should have remained in a very +strange situation during the rest of my life; but I had examined myself +thoroughly, I was determined, I was prepared. + +On one side he would have thought that he had a sort of right on any +future occasion to call me out of my retreat; the Tories would probably +have thought the same thing: my resolution was taken to refuse them both, +and I foresaw that both would condemn me. On the other side, the +consideration of his keeping measures with me, joined to that of having +once openly declared for him, would have created a point of honour by +which I should have been tied down, not only from ever engaging against +him, but also from making my peace at home. The Chevalier cut this +gordian knot asunder at one blow. He broke the links of that chain which +former engagements had fastened on me, and gave me a right to esteem +myself as free from all obligations of keeping measures with him as I +should have continued if I had never engaged in his interest. I took +therefore, from that moment, the resolution of making my peace at home, +and of employing all the unfortunate experience I had acquired abroad to +undeceive my friends and to promote the union and the quiet of my +country. + +The Earl of Stair had received a full power to treat with me whilst I was +engaged with the Pretender, as I have been since informed. He had done +me the justice to believe me incapable to hearken, in such circumstances, +to any proposals of that kind; and as much friendship as he had for me, +as much as I had for him, we entertained not the least even indirect +correspondence together during that whole time. Soon afterwards he +employed a person to communicate to me the disposition of his Majesty to +grant me my pardon, and his own desire to give me, on this occasion, all +the proofs he could of his inclination in my favour. I embraced the +offer, as it became me to do, with all possible sense of the King’s +goodness, and of his lordship’s friendship. We met, we talked together, +and he wrote to the Court on the subject. The turn which the Ministers +gave to this matter was, to enter into a treaty to reverse my attainder, +and to stipulate the conditions on which this act of grace should be +granted me. + +The notion of a treaty shocked me. I resolved never to be restored +rather than go that way to work; and I opened myself without any reserve +to Lord Stair. I told him that I looked on myself to be obliged in +honour and in conscience to undeceive my friends in England, both as to +the state of foreign affairs, as to the management of the Jacobite +interest abroad, and as to the characters of persons—in every one of +which points I knew them to be most grossly and most dangerously deluded; +that the treatment I had received from the Pretender and his adherents +would justify me to the world in doing this; that if I remained in exile +all my life, he might be assured that I would never more have to do with +the Jacobite cause; and that if I was restored, I should give it an +effectual blow, in making that apology which the Pretender has put me +under a necessity of making: that in doing this I flattered myself that I +should contribute something to the establishment of the King’s +Government, and to the union of his subjects; but that this was all the +merit which I could promise to have; that if the Court believed these +professions to be sincere, a treaty with me was unnecessary for them; and +that if they did not believe them so, a treaty with them was dangerous +for me; that I was determined in this whole transaction to make no one +step which I would not own in the face of the world; that in other +circumstances it might be sufficient to act honestly, but that in a case +as extraordinary as mine it was necessary to act clearly, and to leave no +room for the least doubtful construction. + +The Earl of Stair, as well as Mr. Craggs, who arrived soon after in +France, came into my sense. I have reason to believe that the King has +approved it likewise upon their representations, since he has been +pleased to give me the most gracious assurances of his favour. What the +effect of all this may be in the next or in any other Session, I know +not; but this is the foot on which I have put myself, and on which I +stand at the moment I write to you. The Whigs may continue inveterate, +and by consequence frustrate his Majesty’s good intentions towards me; +the Tories may continue to rail at me, on the credit of such enemies as I +have described to you in the course of this relation: neither the one nor +the other shall make me swerve out of the path which I have traced to +myself. + +I have now led you through the several stages which I proposed at first; +and I should do wrong to your good understanding, as well as to our +mutual friendship, if I suspected that you could hold any other language +to me than that which Dolabella uses to Cicero: “Satisfactum est jam a te +vel officio vel familiaritati; satisfactum etiam partibus.” The King, +who pardons me, might complain of me; the Whigs might declaim against me; +my family might reproach me for the little regard which I have shown to +my own and to their interests; but where is the crime I have been guilty +of towards my party and towards my friends? In what part of my conduct +will the Tories find an excuse for the treatment which they have given +me? As Tories such as they were when I left England, I defy them to find +any. But here lies the sore, and, tender as it is, I must lay it open. +Those amongst them who rail at me now are changed from what they were, or +from what they professed themselves to be, when we lived and acted +together. They were Tories then; they are Jacobites now. Their +objections to the course of my conduct whilst I was in the Pretender’s +interest are the pretence; the true reason of their anger is, that I +renounce the Pretender for my life. When you were first driven into this +interest, I may appeal to you for the notion which the party had. You +thought of restoring him by the strength of the Tories, and of opposing a +Tory king to a Whig king. You took him up as the instrument of your +revenge and of your ambition. You looked on him as your creature, and +never once doubted of making what terms you pleased with him. This is so +true that the same language is still held to the catechumens in +Jacobitism. Were the contrary to be avowed even now, the party in +England would soon diminish. I engaged on this principle when your +orders sent me to Commercy, and I never acted on any other. This ought +to have been part of my merit towards the Tories; and it would have been +so if they had continued in the same dispositions. But they are changed, +and this very thing is become my crime. Instead of making the Pretender +their tool, they are his. Instead of having in view to restore him on +their own terms, they are labouring to do it without any terms; that is, +to speak properly, they are ready to receive him on his. Be not +deceived: there is not a man on this side of the water who acts in any +other manner. The Church of England Jacobite and the Irish Papist seem +in every respect to have the same cause. Those on your side of the water +who correspond with these are to be comprehended in the same class; and +from hence it is that the clamour raised against me has been kept up with +so much industry, and is redoubled on the least appearance of my return +home, and of my being in a situation to justify myself. + +You have seen already what reasons the Pretender, and the several sorts +of people who compose his party here, had to get rid of me, and to cover +me to the utmost of their power with infamy. Their views were as short +in this case as they are in all others. They did not see at first that +this conduct would not only give me a right, but put me under a necessity +of keeping no farther measures with them, and of laying the whole mystery +of their iniquity open. As soon as they discovered this, they took the +only course which was left them—that of poisoning the minds of the +Tories, and of creating such prejudices against me whilst I remained in a +condition of not speaking for myself, as will they hope prevent the +effect of whatever I may say when I am in a condition of pleading my own +cause. The bare apprehension that I shall show the world that I have +been guilty of no crime renders me criminal among these men; and they +hold themselves ready, being unable to reply either in point of fact or +in point of reason, to drown my voice in the confusion of their clamour. + +The only crimes I am guilty of, I own. I own the crime of having been +for the Pretender in a very different manner from those with whom I +acted. I served him as faithfully, I served him as well as they; but I +served him on a different principle. I own the crime of having renounced +him, and of being resolved never to have to do with him as long as I +live. I own the crime of being determined sooner or later, as soon as I +can, to clear myself of all the unjust aspersions which have been cast +upon me; to undeceive by my experience as many as I can of those Tories +who may have been drawn into error; and to contribute, if ever I return +home, as far as I am able, to promote the national good of Britain +without any other regard. These crimes do not, I hope, by this time +appear to you to be of a very black dye. You may come, perhaps, to think +them virtues, when you have read and considered what remains to be said; +for before I conclude, it is necessary that I open one matter to you +which I could not weave in sooner without breaking too much the thread of +my narration. In this place, unmingled with anything else, it will have, +as it deserves to have, your whole attention. + +Whoever composed that curious piece of false fact, false argument, false +English, and false eloquence, the letter from Avignon, says that I was +not thought the most proper person to speak about religion. I confess I +should be of his mind, and should include his patrons in my case, if the +practice of it was to be recommended; for surely it is unpardonable +impudence to impose by precept what we do not teach by example. I should +be of the same mind, if the nature of religion was to be explained, if +its mysteries were to be fathomed, and if this great truth was to be +established—that the Church of England has the advantage over all other +Churches in purity of doctrine, and in wisdom of discipline. But nothing +of this kind was necessary. This would have been the task of reverend +and learned divines. We of the laity had nothing more to do than to lay +in our claim that we could never submit to be governed by a Prince who +was not of the religion of our country. Such a declaration could hardly +have failed of some effect towards opening the eyes and disposing the +mind even of the Pretender. At least, in justice to ourselves, and in +justice to our party, we who were here ought to have made it; and the +influence of it on the Pretender ought to have become the rule of our +subsequent conduct. + +In thinking in this manner I think no otherwise now than I have always +thought; and I cannot forget, nor you neither, what passed when, a little +before the death of the Queen, letters were conveyed from the Chevalier +to several persons—to myself among others. In the letter to me the +article of religion was so awkwardly handled that he made the principal +motive of the confidence we ought to have in him to consist in his firm +resolution to adhere to Popery. The effect which this epistle had on me +was the same which it had on those Tories to whom I communicated it at +that time; it made us resolve to have nothing to do with him. + +Some time after this I was assured by several, and I make no doubt but +others have been so too, that the Chevalier at the bottom was not a +bigot; that whilst he remained abroad and could expect no succour, either +present or future, from any Princes but those of the Roman Catholic +Communion, it was prudent, whatever he might think, to make no +demonstration of a design to change; but that his temper was such, and he +was already so disposed, that we might depend on his compliance with what +should be desired of him if ever he came amongst us, and was taken from +under the wing of the Queen his mother. To strengthen this opinion of +his character, it was said that he had sent for Mr. Leslie over; that he +allowed him to celebrate the Church of England service in his family; and +that he had promised to hear what this divine should represent on the +subject of religion to him. When I came abroad, the same things, and +much more, were at first insinuated to me; and I began to let them make +impression upon me, notwithstanding what I had seen under his hand. I +would willingly flatter myself that this impression disposed me to +incline to Jacobitism rather than allow that the inclination to +Jacobitism disposed me easily to believe what, upon that principle, I had +so much reason to wish might be true. Which was the cause, and which the +effect, I cannot well determine: perhaps they did mutually occasion each +other. Thus much is certain—that I was far from weighing this matter as +I ought to have done when the solicitation of my friends and the +persecution of my enemies precipitated me into engagements with the +Pretender. + +I was willing to take it for granted that since you were as ready to +declare as I believed you at that time, you must have had entire +satisfaction on the article of religion. I was soon undeceived; this +string had never been touched. My own observation, and the unanimous +report of all those who from his infancy have approached the Pretender’s +person, soon taught me how difficult it is to come to terms with him on +this head, and how unsafe to embark without them. + +His religion is not founded on the love of virtue and the detestation of +vice; on a sense of that obedience which is due to the will of the +Supreme Being, and a sense of those obligations which creatures formed to +live in a mutual dependence on one another lie under. The spring of his +whole conduct is fear. Fear of the horns of the devil and of the flames +of hell. He has been taught to believe that nothing but a blind +submission to the Church of Rome and a strict adherence to all the terms +of that communion can save him from these dangers. He has all the +superstition of a Capuchin, but I found on him no tincture of the +religion of a prince. Do not imagine that I loose the reins to my +imagination, or that I write what my resentments dictate: I tell you +simply my opinion. I have heard the same description of his character +made by those who know him best, and I conversed with very few among the +Roman Catholics themselves who did not think him too much a Papist. + +Nothing gave me from the beginning so much uneasiness as the +consideration of this part of his character, and of the little care which +had been taken to correct it. A true turn had not been given to the +first steps which were made with him. The Tories who engaged afterwards, +threw themselves, as it were, at his head. He had been suffered to think +that the party in England wanted him as much as he wanted them. There +was no room to hope for much compliance on the head of religion when he +was in these sentiments, and when he thought the Tories too far advanced +to have it in their power to retreat; and little dependence was at any +time to be placed on the promises of a man capable of thinking his +damnation attached to the observance, and his salvation to the breach, of +these very promises. Something, however, was to be done, and I thought +that the least which could be done was to deal plainly with him, and to +show him the impossibility of governing our nation by any other expedient +than by complying with that which would be expected from him as to his +religion. This was thought too much by the Duke of Ormond and Mr. +Leslie; although the duke could be no more ignorant than the minister how +ill the latter had been used, how far the Chevalier had been from keeping +the word which he had given, and on the faith of which Mr. Leslie had +come over to him. They both knew that he not only refused to hear +himself, but that he sheltered the ignorance of his priests, or the +badness of his cause, or both, behind his authority, and absolutely +forbade all discourse concerning religion. The duke seemed convinced +that it would be time enough to talk of religion to him when he should be +restored, or, at soonest, when he should be landed in England; that the +influence under which he had lived being at a distance, the +reasonableness of what we might propose, joined to the apparent necessity +which would then stare him in the face, could not fail to produce all the +effects which we could desire. + +To me this whole reasoning appeared fallacious. Our business was not to +make him change appearances on this side of the water, but to prepare him +to give those which would be necessary on the other; and there was no +room to hope that if we could gain nothing on his prejudices here, we +should be able to overcome them in Britain. I would have argued just as +the Duke of Ormond and Leslie if I had been a Papist; and I saw well +enough that some people about him, for in a great dearth of ability there +was cunning to be met with, affected nothing more than to keep off all +discourse of religion. To my apprehension it was exceeding plain that we +should find, if we were once in England, the necessity of going forward +at any rate with him much greater than he would find that of complying +with us. I thought it an unpardonable fault to have taken a formal +engagement with him, when no previous satisfaction had been obtained on a +point at least as essential to our civil as to our religious rights; to +the peace of the State as to the prosperity of the Church; and I looked +on this fault to be aggravated by every day’s delay. Our silence was +unfair both to the Chevalier and to our friends in England. He was +induced by it to believe that they would exact far less from him than we +knew they expected, and they were confirmed in an opinion of his +docility, which we knew to be void of all foundation. The pretence of +removing that influence under which he had lived was frivolous, and +should never have been urged to me, who saw plainly that, according to +the measures pursued by the very persons who urged it, he must be +environed in England by the same people that surrounded him here; and +that the Court of St. James’s would be constituted, if ever he was +restored, in the same manner as that of St. Germains was. + +When the draft of a declaration and other papers which were to be +dispersed in Great Britain came to be settled, it appeared that my +apprehension and distrust were but too well founded. The Pretender took +exception against several passages, and particularly against those +wherein a direct promise of securing the Churches of England and Ireland +was made. He was told, he said, that he could not in conscience make +such a promise, and, the debate being kept up a little while, he asked me +with some warmth why the Tories were so desirous to have him if they +expected those things from him which his religion did not allow. I left +these drafts, by his order, with him, that he might consider and amend +them. I cannot say that he sent them to the Queen to be corrected by her +confessor and the rest of her council, but I firmly believe it. Sure I +am that he took time sufficient to do this before he sent them from Bar, +where he then was, to Paris, whither I was returned. When they were +digested in such a manner as satisfied his casuists he made them be +printed, and my name was put to the declaration, as if the original had +been signed by me. I had hitherto submitted my opinion to the judgment +of others, but on this occasion I took advice from myself. I declared to +him that I would not suffer my name to be at the bottom of this paper. +All the copies which came to my hands I burnt, and another was printed +off without any countersigning. + +The whole tenor of the amendments was one continued instance of the +grossest bigotry, and the most material passages were turned with all the +Jesuitical prevarication imaginable. As much as it was his interest at +that time to cultivate the respect which many of the Tories really had +for the memory of the late Queen, and which many others affected as a +farther mark of their opposition to the Court and to the Whig party; as +much as it was his interest to weave the honour of her name into his +cause, and to render her, even after her death, a party to the dispute, +he could not be prevailed upon to give her that character which her +enemies allowed her, nor to make use of those expressions, in speaking of +her, which, by the general manner of their application, are come to be +little more than terms of respect and words of form proper in the style +of public acts. For instance:— + +She was called in the original draft “his sister of glorious and blessed +memory.” In that which he published, the epithet of “blessed” was left +out. Her eminent justice and her exemplary piety were occasionally +mentioned; in lieu of which he substituted a flat, and, in this case, an +invidious expression, “her inclinations to justice.” + +Not content with declaring her neither just nor pious in this world he +did little less than declare her damned in the other, according to the +charitable principles of the Church of Rome. + +“When it pleased Almighty God to take her to Himself,” was the expression +used in speaking of the death of the Queen. This he erased, and instead +thereof inserted these words: “When it pleased Almighty God to put a +period to her life.” + +He graciously allowed the Universities to be nurseries of loyalty; but +did not think that it became him to style them “nurseries of religion.” + +Since his father passes already for a saint, and since reports are +encouraged of miracles which they suppose to be wrought at his tomb, he +might have allowed his grandfather to pass for a martyr; but he struck +out of the draft these words, “that blessed martyr who died for his +people,” which were applied to King Charles I., and would say nothing +more of him than that “he fell a sacrifice to rebellion.” + +In the clause which related to the Churches of England and Ireland there +was a plain and direct promise inserted of “effectual provision for their +security, and for their re-establishment in all those rights which belong +to them.” This clause was not suffered to stand, but another was formed, +wherein all mention of the Church of Ireland was omitted, and nothing was +promised to the Church of England but the security, and “re-establishment +of all those rights, privileges, immunities, and possessions which belong +to her,” and wherein he had already promised by his declaration of the +20th of July, to secure and “protect all her members.” + +I need make no comment on a proceeding so easy to be understood. The +drift of these evasions, and of this affected obscurity, is obvious +enough—at least, it will appear so by the observations which remain to be +made. + +He was so afraid of admitting any words which might be construed into a +promise of his consenting to those things which should be found necessary +for the present or future security of our constitution, that in a +paragraph where he was made to say that he thought himself obliged to be +solicitous for the prosperity of the Church of England, the word +prosperity was expunged, and we were left by this mental reservation to +guess what he was solicitous for. It could not be for her prosperity: +that he had expunged. It must therefore be for her destruction, which in +his language would have been styled her conversion. + +Another remarkable proof of the same kind is to be found towards the +conclusion of the declaration. After having spoken of the peace and +flourishing estate of the kingdom, he was made to express his readiness +to concert with the two Houses such further measures as should be thought +necessary for securing the same to future generations. The design of +this paragraph you see. He and his council saw it too, and therefore the +word “securing” was laid aside, and the word “leaving” was inserted in +lieu of it. + +One would imagine that a declaration corrected in this manner might have +been suffered to go abroad without any farther precaution. But these +papers had been penned by Protestants; and who could answer that there +might not be still ground sufficient from the tenor of them to insist on +everything necessary for the security of that religion? The declaration +of the 20th of July had been penned by a priest of the Scotch college, +and the expressions had been measured so as to suit perfectly with the +conduct which the Chevalier intended to hold; so as to leave room to +distinguish him, upon future occasions, with the help of a little pious +sophistry, out of all the engagements which he seemed to take in it. +This orthodox paper was therefore to accompany the heretical paper into +the world, and no promise of moment was to stand in the latter, unless +qualified by a reference to the former. Thus the Church was to be +secured in the rights, etc., which belong to her. How? No otherwise +than according to the declaration of the month of July. And what does +that promise? Security and protection to the members of this Church in +the enjoyment of their property. I make no doubt but Bellarmine, if he +had been the Chevalier’s confessor, would have passed this paragraph thus +amended. No engagement whatever taken in favour of the Church of +Ireland, and a happy distinction found between securing that of England, +and protecting her members. Many a useful project for the destruction of +heretics, and for accumulating power and riches to the See of Rome, has +been established on a more slender foundation. + +The same spirit reigns through the whole. Civil and religious rights are +no otherwise to be confirmed than in conformity to the declaration of +July; nay, the general pardon is restrained and limited to the terms +prescribed therein. + +This is the account which I judged too important to be omitted, and which +I chose to give you all together. I shall surely be justified at present +in concluding that the Tories are grossly deluded in their opinion of +this Prince’s character, or else that they sacrifice all which ought to +be esteemed precious and sacred among men to their passions. In both +these cases I remain still a Tory, and am true to the party. In the +first, I endeavour to undeceive you by an experience purchased at my +expense and for your sakes: in the second, I endeavour to prevail on you +to revert to that principle from which we have deviated. You never +intended, whilst I lived amongst you, the ruin of your country; and yet +every step which you now make towards the restoration you are so fond of, +is a step towards this ruin. No man of sense, well informed, can ever go +into measures for it, unless he thinks himself and his country in such +desperate circumstances that nothing is left them but to choose of two +ruins that which they like best. + +The exile of the royal family, under Cromwell’s usurpation, was the +principal cause of all those misfortunes in which Britain has been +involved, as well as of many of those which have happened to the rest of +Europe, during more than half a century. + +The two brothers, Charles and James, became then infected with Popery to +such degrees as their different characters admitted of. Charles had +parts, and his good understanding served as an antidote to repel the +poison. James, the simplest man of his time, drank off the whole +chalice. The poison met in his composition with all the fear, all the +credulity, and all the obstinacy of temper proper to increase its +virulence and to strengthen its effect. The first had always a wrong +bias upon him; he connived at the establishment, and indirectly +contributed to the growth, of that power which afterwards disturbed the +peace and threatened the liberty of Europe so often; but he went no +further out of the way. The opposition of his Parliaments and his own +reflections stopped him here. The Prince and the people were, indeed, +mutually jealous of one another, from whence much present disorder +flowed, and the foundation of future evils was laid; but his good and his +bad principles combating still together, he maintained, during a reign of +more than twenty years, in some tolerable degree, the authority of the +Crown and the flourishing estate of the nation. The last, drunk with +superstitious and even enthusiastic zeal, ran headlong into his own ruin +whilst he endeavoured to precipitate ours. His Parliament and his people +did all they could to save themselves by winning him. But all was vain; +he had no principle on which they could take hold. Even his good +qualities worked against them, and his love of his country went halves +with his bigotry. How he succeeded we have heard from our fathers. The +revolution of 1688 saved the nation and ruined the King. + +Now the Pretender’s education has rendered him infinitely less fit than +his uncle—and at least as unfit as his father—to be King of Great +Britain. Add to this that there is no resource in his understanding. +Men of the best sense find it hard to overcome religious prejudices, +which are of all the strongest; but he is a slave to the weakest. The +rod hangs like the sword of Damocles over his head, and he trembles +before his mother and his priest. What, in the name of God, can any +member of the Church of England promise himself from such a character? +Are we by another revolution to return into the same state from which we +were delivered by the first? Let us take example from the Roman +Catholics, who act very reasonably in refusing to submit to a Protestant +Prince. Henry IV. had at least as good a title to the crown of France as +the Pretender has to ours. His religion alone stood in his way, and he +had never been King if he had not removed that obstacle. Shall we submit +to a Popish Prince, who will no more imitate Henry IV. in changing his +religion than he will imitate those shining qualities which rendered him +the honestest gentleman, the bravest captain, and the greatest prince of +his age? Allow me to give a loose to my pen for a moment on this +subject. General benevolence and universal charity seem to be +established in the Gospel as the distinguishing badges of Christianity. +How it happens I cannot tell; but so it is, that in all ages of the +Church the professors of Christianity seem to have been animated by a +quite contrary spirit. Whilst they were thinly scattered over the world, +tolerated in some places, but established nowhere, their zeal often +consumed their charity. Paganism, at that time the religion by law +established, was insulted by many of them; the ceremonies were disturbed, +the altars thrown down. As soon as, by the favour of Constantine, their +numbers were increased, and the reins of government were put into their +hands, they began to employ the secular arm, not only against different +religions, but against different sects which arose in their own religion. +A man may boldly affirm that more blood has been shed in the disputes +between Christian and Christian than has ever been drawn from the whole +body of them in the persecutions of the heathen emperors and in the +conquests of the Mahometan princes. From these they have received +quarter, but never from one another. The Christian religion is actually +tolerated among the Mahometans, and the domes of churches and mosques +arise in the same city. But it will be hard to find an example where one +sect of Christians has tolerated another which it was in their power to +extirpate. They have gone farther in these later ages; what was +practised formerly has been taught since. Persecution has been reduced +into system, and the disciples of the meek and humble Jesus have avowed a +tyranny which the most barbarous conquerors never claimed. The wicked +subtilty of casuists has established breach of faith with those who +differ from us as a duty in opposition to faith, and murder itself has +been made one of the means of salvation. I know very well that the +Reformed Churches have been far from going those cruel lengths which are +authorised by the doctrine as well as example of that of Rome, though +Calvin put a flaming sword on the title of a French edition of his +Institute, with this motto, “Je ne suis point venu mettre la paix, mais +l’epée;” but I know likewise that the difference lies in the means and +not in the aim of their policy. The Church of England, the most humane +of all of them, would root out every other religion if it was in her +power. She would not hang and burn; her measures would be milder, and +therefore, perhaps, more effectual. + +Since, then, there is this inveterate rancour among Christians, can +anything be more absurd than for those of one persuasion to trust the +supreme power, or any part of it, to those of another? Particularly must +it not be reputed madness in those of our religion to trust themselves in +the hands of Roman Catholics? Must it not be reputed impudence in a +Roman Catholic to expect that we should? he who looks upon us as +heretics, as men in rebellion against a lawful—nay, a divine—authority, +and whom it is, therefore, meritorious by all sorts of ways to reduce to +obedience? There are many, I know, amongst them who think more +generously, and whose morals are not corrupted by that which is called +religion; but this is the spirit of the priesthood, in whose scale that +scrap of a parable, “Compel them to come in,” which they apply as they +please, outweighs the whole Decalogue. This will be the spirit of every +man who is bigot enough to be under their direction; and so much is +sufficient for my present purpose. + +During your last Session of Parliament it was expected that the Whigs +would attempt to repeal the Occasional Bill. The same jealousy +continues; there is, perhaps, foundation for it. Give me leave to ask +you upon what principle we argued for making this law, and upon what +principle you must argue against the repeal of it. I have mentioned the +principle in the beginning of this discourse. No man ought to be trusted +with any share of power under a Government who must, to act consistently +with himself, endeavour the destruction of that very Government. Shall +this proposition pass for true when it is applied to keep a Presbyterian +from being mayor of a corporation, and shall it become false when it is +applied to keep a Papist from being king? The proposition is equally +true in both cases; but the argument drawn from it is just so much +stronger in the latter than in the former case, as the mischiefs which +may result from the power and influence of a king are greater than those +which can be wrought by a magistrate of the lowest order. This seems to +my apprehension to be _argumentum ad hominem_, and I do not see by what +happy distinction a Jacobite Tory could elude the force of it. + +It may be said, and it has been urged to me, that if the Chevalier was +restored, the knowledge of his character would be our security; “habet +fœnum in cornu;” there would be no pretence for trusting him, and by +consequence it would be easy to put such restrictions on the exercise of +the regal power as might hinder him from invading or sapping our religion +and liberty. But this I utterly deny. Experience has shown us how ready +men are to court power and profit, and who can determine how far either +the Tories or the Whigs would comply, in order to secure to themselves +the enjoyment of all the places in the kingdom? Suppose, however, that a +majority of true Israelites should be found, whom no temptation could +oblige to bow the knee to Baal; in order to preserve the Government on +one hand must they not destroy it on the other? The necessary +restrictions would in this case be so many and so important as to leave +hardly the shadow of a monarchy if he submitted to them; and if he did +not submit to them, these patriots would have no resource left but in +rebellion. Thus, therefore, the affair would turn if the Pretender was +restored. We might, most probably, lose our religion and liberty by the +bigotry of the Prince and the corruption of the people. We should have +no chance of preserving them but by an entire change of the whole frame +of our Government or by another revolution. What reasonable man would +voluntarily reduce himself to the necessity of making an option among +such melancholy alternatives? + +The best which could be hoped for, were the Chevalier on the throne, +would be that a thread of favourable accidents, improved by the wisdom +and virtue of Parliament, might keep off the evil day during his reign. +But still the fatal cause would be established; it would be entailed upon +us, and every man would be apprised that sooner or later the fatal effect +must follow. Consider a little what a condition we should be in, both +with respect to our foreign interest and our domestic quiet, whilst the +reprieve lasted, whilst the Chevalier or his successors made no direct +attack upon the constitution. + +As to the first, it is true, indeed, that princes and States are friends +or foes to one another according as the motives of ambition drive them. +These are the first principles of union and division amongst them. The +Protestant Powers of Europe have joined, in our days, to support and +aggrandise the House of Austria, as they did in the days of our +forefathers to defeat her designs and to reduce her power; and the most +Christian King of France has more than once joined his councils, and his +arms too, with the councils and arms of the most Mahometan Emperor of +Constantinople. But still there is, and there must continue, as long as +the influence of the Papal authority subsists in Europe, another general, +permanent, and invariable division of interests. The powers of earth, +like those of heaven, have two distinct motions. Each of them rolls in +his own political orb, but each of them is hurried at the same time round +the great vortex of his religion. If this general notion be just, apply +it to the present case. Whilst a Roman Catholic holds the rudder, how +can we expect to be steered in our proper course? His political interest +will certainly incline him to direct our first motion right, but his +mistaken religious interest will render him incapable of doing it +steadily. + +As to the last, our domestic quiet; even whilst the Chevalier and those +of his race concealed their game, we should remain in the most unhappy +state which human nature is subject to, a state of doubt and suspense. +Our preservation would depend on making him the object of our eternal +jealousy, who, to render himself and his people happy, ought to be that +of our entire confidence. + +Whilst the Pretender and his successors forbore to attack the religion +and liberty of the nation, we should remain in the condition of those +people who labour under a broken constitution, or who carry about them +some chronical distemper. They feel a little pain at every moment; or a +certain uneasiness, which is sometimes less tolerable than pain, hangs +continually on them, and they languish in the constant expectation of +dying perhaps in the severest torture. + +But if the fear of hell should dissipate all other fears in the +Pretender’s mind, and carry him, which is frequently the effect of that +passion, to the most desperate undertakings; if among his successors a +man bold enough to make the attempt should arise, the condition of the +British nation would be still more deplorable. The attempt succeeding, +we should fall into tyranny; for a change of religion could never be +brought about by consent; and the same force that would be sufficient to +enslave our consciences, would be sufficient for all the other purposes +of arbitrary power. The attempt failing, we should fall into anarchy; +for there is no medium when disputes between a prince and his people are +arrived at a certain point; he must either be submitted to or deposed. + +I have now laid before you even more than I intended to have said when I +took my pen, and I am persuaded that if these papers ever come to your +hands, they will enable you to cast up the account between party and me. +Till the time of the Queen’s death it stands, I believe, even between us. +The Tories distinguished me by their approbation and by the credit which +I had amongst them, and I endeavoured to distinguish myself in their +service, under the immediate weight of great discouragement and with the +not very distant prospect of great danger. Since that time the account +is not so even, and I dare appeal to any impartial person whether my side +in it be that of the debtor. As to the opinion of mankind in general, +and the judgment which posterity will pass on these matters, I am under +no great concern. “Suum cuique decus posteritas rependit.” + + + + +A LETTER TO ALEXANDER POPE. + + +DEAR SIR,—Since you have begun, at my request, the work which I have +wished long that you would undertake, it is but reasonable that I submit +to the task you impose upon me. The mere compliance with anything you +desire, is a pleasure to me. On the present occasion, however, this +compliance is a little interested; and that I may not assume more merit +with you than I really have, I will own that in performing this act of +friendship—for such you are willing to esteem it—the purity of my motive +is corrupted by some regard to my private utility. In short, I suspect +you to be guilty of a very friendly fraud, and to mean my service whilst +you seem to mean your own. + +In leading me to discourse, as you have done often, and in pressing me to +write, as you do now, on certain subjects, you may propose to draw me +back to those trains of thought which are, above all others, worthy to +employ the human mind: and I thank you for it. They have been often +interrupted by the business and dissipations of the world, but they were +never so more grievously to me, nor less usefully to the public, than +since royal seduction prevailed on me to abandon the quiet and leisure of +the retreat I had chosen abroad, and to neglect the example of Rutilius, +for I might have imitated him in this at least, who fled further from his +country when he was invited home. + +You have begun your ethic epistles in a masterly manner. You have copied +no other writer, nor will you, I think, be copied by any one. It is with +genius as it is with beauty; there are a thousand pretty things that +charm alike; but superior genius, like superior beauty, has always +something particular, something that belongs to itself alone. It is +always distinguishable, not only from those who have no claim to +excellence, but even from those who excel, when any such there are. + +I am pleased, you may be sure, to find your satire turn, in the very +beginning of these epistles, against the principal cause—for such you +know that I think it—of all the errors, all the contradictions, and all +the disputes which have arisen among those who impose themselves on their +fellow-creatures for great masters, and almost sole proprietors of a gift +of God which is common to the whole species. This gift is reason; a +faculty, or rather an aggregate of faculties, that is bestowed in +different degrees; and not in the highest, certainly, on those who make +the highest pretensions to it. Let your satire chastise, and, if it be +possible, humble that pride, which is the fruitful parent of their vain +curiosity and bold presumption; which renders them dogmatical in the +midst of ignorance, and often sceptical in the midst of knowledge. The +man who is puffed up with this philosophical pride, whether divine or +theist, or atheist, deserves no more to be respected than one of those +trifling creatures who are conscious of little else than their animality, +and who stop as far short of the attainable perfections of their nature +as the other attempts to go beyond them. You will discover as many silly +affections, as much foppery and futility, as much inconsistency and low +artifice in one as in the other. I never met the mad woman at Brentford +decked out in old and new rags, and nice and fantastical in the manner of +wearing them, without reflecting on many of the profound scholars and +sublime philosophers of our own and of former ages. + +You may expect some contradiction and some obloquy on the part of these +men, though you will have less to apprehend from their malice and +resentment than a writer in prose on the same subjects would have. You +will be safer in the generalities of poetry; and I know your precaution +enough to know that you will screen yourself in them against any direct +charge of heterodoxy. But the great clamour of all will be raised when +you descend lower, and let your Muse loose among the herd of mankind. +Then will those powers of dulness whom you have ridiculed into +immortality be called forth in one united phalanx against you. But why +do I talk of what may happen? You have experienced lately something more +than I prognosticate. Fools and knaves should be modest at least; they +should ask quarter of men of sense and virtue: and so they do till they +grow up to a majority, till a similitude of character assures them of the +protection of the great. But then vice and folly such as prevail in our +country, corrupt our manners, deform even social life, and contribute to +make us ridiculous as well as miserable, will claim respect for the sake +of the vicious and the foolish. It will be then no longer sufficient to +spare persons; for to draw even characters of imagination must become +criminal when the application of them to those of highest rank and +greatest power cannot fail to be made. You began to laugh at the +ridiculous taste or the no taste in gardening and building of some men +who are at great expense in both. What a clamour was raised instantly! +The name of Timon was applied to a noble person with double malice, to +make him ridiculous, and you, who lived in friendship with him, odious. +By the authority that employed itself to encourage this clamour, and by +the industry used to spread and support it, one would have thought that +you had directed your satire in that epistle to political subjects, and +had inveighed against those who impoverish, dishonour, and sell their +country, instead of making yourself inoffensively merry at the expense of +men who ruin none but themselves, and render none but themselves +ridiculous. What will the clamour be, and how will the same authority +foment it, when you proceed to lash, in other instances, our want of +elegance even in luxury, and our wild profusion, the source of insatiable +rapacity, and almost universal venality? My mind forebodes that the time +will come—and who knows how near it may be?—when other powers than those +of Grub Street may be drawn forth against you, and when vice and folly +may be avowedly sheltered behind a power instituted for better and +contrary purposes—for the punishment of one, and for the reformation of +both. + +But, however this may be, pursue your task undauntedly, and whilst so +many others convert the noblest employments of human society into sordid +trades, let the generous Muse resume her ancient dignity, re-assert her +ancient prerogative, and instruct and reform, as well as amuse the world. +Let her give a new turn to the thoughts of men, raise new affections in +their minds, and determine in another and better manner the passions of +their hearts. Poets, they say, were the first philosophers and divines +in every country, and in ours, perhaps, the first institutions of +religion and civil policy were owing to our bards. Their task might be +hard, their merit was certainly great. But if they were to rise now from +the dead they would find the second task, if I mistake not, much harder +than the first, and confess it more easy to deal with ignorance than with +error. When societies are once established and Governments formed, men +flatter themselves that they proceed in cultivating the first rudiments +of civility, policy, religion, and learning. But they do not observe +that the private interests of many, the prejudices, affections, and +passions of all, have a large share in the work, and often the largest. +These put a sort of bias on the mind, which makes it decline from the +straight course; and the further these supposed improvements are carried, +the greater this declination grows, till men lose sight of primitive and +real nature, and have no other guide but custom, a second and a false +nature. The author of one is divine wisdom; of the other, human +imagination; and yet whenever the second stands in opposition to the +first, as it does most frequently, the second prevails. From hence it +happens that the most civilised nations are often guilty of injustice and +cruelty which the least civilised would abhor, and that many of the most +absurd opinions and doctrines which have been imposed in the Dark Ages of +ignorance continue to be the opinions and doctrines of ages enlightened +by philosophy and learning. “If I was a philosopher,” says Montaigne, “I +would naturalise art instead of artilising Nature.” The expression is +odd, but the sense is good, and what he recommends would be done if the +reasons that have been given did not stand in the way; if the +self-interest of some men, the madness of others, and the universal pride +of the human heart did not determine them to prefer error to truth and +authority to reason. + +Whilst your Muse is employed to lash the vicious into repentance, or to +laugh the fools of the age into shame, and whilst she rises sometimes to +the noblest subjects of philosophical meditation, I shall throw upon +paper, for your satisfaction and for my own, some part at least of what I +have thought and said formerly on the last of these subjects, as well as +the reflections that they may suggest to me further in writing on them. +The strange situation I am in, and the melancholy state of public +affairs, take up much of my time; divide, or even dissipate, my thoughts; +and, which is worse, drag the mind down by perpetual interruptions from a +philosophical tone or temper to the drudgery of private and public +business. The last lies nearest my heart; and since I am once more +engaged in the service of my country, disarmed, gagged, and almost bound +as I am, I will not abandon it as long as the integrity and perseverance +of those who are under none of these disadvantages, and with whom I now +co-operate, make it reasonable for me to act the same part. Further than +this no shadow of duty obliges me to go. Plato ceased to act for the +Commonwealth when he ceased to persuade, and Solon laid down his arms +before the public magazine when Pisistratus grew too strong to be opposed +any longer with hopes of success. + +Though my situation and my engagements are sufficiently known to you, I +choose to mention them on this occasion lest you should expect from me +anything more than I find myself able to perform whilst I am in them. It +has been said by many that they wanted time to make their discourses +shorter; and if this be a good excuse, as I think it may be often, I lay +in my claim to it. You must neither expect in what I am about to write +to you that brevity which might be expected in letters or essays, nor +that exactness of method, nor that fulness of the several parts which +they affect to observe who presume to write philosophical treatises. The +merit of brevity is relative to the manner and style in which any subject +is treated, as well as to the nature of it; for the same subject may be +sometimes treated very differently, and yet very properly, in both these +respects. Should the poet make syllogisms in verse, or pursue a long +process of reasoning in the didactic style, he would be sure to tire his +reader on the whole, like Lucretius, though he reasoned better than the +Roman, and put into some parts of his work the same poetical fire. He +may write, as you have begun to do, on philosophical subjects, but he +must write in his own character. He must contract, he may shadow, he has +a right to omit whatever will not be cast in the poetic mould; and when +he cannot instruct, he may hope to please. But the philosopher has no +such privileges. He may contract sometimes, he must never shadow. He +must be limited by his matter, lest he should grow whimsical, and by the +parts of it which he understands best, lest he should grow obscure. But +these parts he must develop fully, and he has no right to omit anything +that may serve the purpose of truth, whether it please or not. As it +would be disingenuous to sacrifice truth to popularity, so it is trifling +to appeal to the reason and experience of mankind, as every philosophical +writer does, or must be understood to do, and then to talk, like Plato +and his ancient and modern disciples, to the imagination only. There is +no need, however, to banish eloquence out of philosophy, and truth and +reason are no enemies to the purity nor to the ornaments of language. +But as the want of an exact determination of ideas and of an exact +precision in the use of words is inexcusable in a philosopher, he must +preserve them, even at the expense of style. In short, it seems to me +that the business of the philosopher is to dilate, if I may borrow this +word from Tully, to press, to prove, to convince; and that of the poet to +hint, to touch his subject with short and spirited strokes, to warm the +affections, and to speak to the heart. + +Though I seem to prepare an apology for prolixity even in writing essays, +I will endeavour not to be tedious, and this endeavour may succeed the +better perhaps by declining any over-strict observation of method. There +are certain points of that which I esteem the first philosophy whereof I +shall never lose sight, but this will be very consistent with a sort of +epistolary licence. To digress and to ramble are different things, and +he who knows the country through which he travels may venture out of the +highroad, because he is sure of finding his way back to it again. Thus +the several matters that may arise even accidentally before me will have +some share in guiding my pen. + +I dare not promise that the sections or members of these essays will bear +that nice proportion to one another and to the whole which a severe +critic would require. All I dare promise you is that my thoughts, in +what order soever they flow, shall be communicated to you just as they +pass through my mind, just as they use to be when we converse together on +these or any other subjects when we saunter alone, or, as we have often +done with good Arbuthnot and the jocose Dean of St. Patrick’s, among the +multiplied scenes of your little garden. That theatre is large enough +for my ambition. I dare not pretend to instruct mankind, and I am not +humble enough to write to the public for any other purpose. I mean by +writing on such subjects as I intend here, to make some trial of my +progress in search of the most important truths, and to make this trial +before a friend in whom I think I may confide. These epistolary essays, +therefore, will be written with as little regard to form and with as +little reserve as I used to show in the conversations which have given +occasion to them, when I maintained the same opinions and insisted on the +same reasons in defence of them. + +It might seem strange to a man not well acquainted with the world, and in +particular with the philosophical and theological tribe, that so much +precaution should be necessary in the communication of our thoughts on +any subject of the first philosophy, which is of common concern to the +whole race of mankind, and wherein no one can have, according to nature +and truth, any separate interest. Yet so it is. The separate interests +we cannot have by God’s institutions, are created by those of man; and +there is no subject on which men deal more unfairly with one another than +this. There are separate interests, to mention them in general only, of +prejudice and of profession. By the first, men set out in the search of +truth under the conduct of error, and work up their heated imaginations +often to such a delirium that the more genius, and the more learning they +have, the madder they grow. By the second, they are sworn, as it were, +to follow all their lives the authority of some particular school, to +which “tanquam scopulo, adhærescunt;” for the condition of their +engagement is to defend certain doctrines, and even mere forms of speech, +without examination, or to examine only in order to defend them. By +both, they become philosophers as men became Christians in the primitive +Church, or as they determined themselves about disputed doctrines; for +says Hilarius, writing to St. Austin, “Your holiness knows that the +greatest part of the faithful embrace, or refuse to embrace, a doctrine +for no reason but the impression which the name and authority of some +body or other makes on them.” What now can a man who seeks truth for the +sake of truth, and is indifferent where he finds it, expect from any +communication of his thoughts to such men as these? He will be much +deceived if he expects anything better than imposition or altercation. + +Few men have, I believe, consulted others, both the living and the dead, +with less presumption, and in a greater spirit of docility, than I have +done: and the more I have consulted, the less have I found of that inward +conviction on which a mind that is not absolutely implicit can rest. I +thought for a time that this must be my fault. I distrusted myself, not +my teachers—men of the greatest name, ancient and modern. But I found at +last that it was safer to trust myself than them, and to proceed by the +light of my own understanding than to wander after these _ignes fatui_ of +philosophy. If I am able therefore to tell you easily, and at the same +time so clearly and distinctly as to be easily understood, and so +strongly as not to be easily refuted, how I have thought for myself, I +shall be persuaded that I have thought enough on these subjects. If I am +not able to do this, it will be evident that I have not thought on them +enough. I must review my opinions, discover and correct my errors. + +I have said that the subjects I mean, and which will be the principal +objects of these essays, are those of the first philosophy; and it is +fit, therefore, that I should explain what I understand by the first +philosophy. Do not imagine that I understand what has passed commonly +under that name—metaphysical pneumatics, for instance, or ontology. The +first are conversant about imaginary substances, such as may and may not +exist. That there is a God we can demonstrate; and although we know +nothing of His manner of being, yet we acknowledge Him to be immaterial, +because a thousand absurdities, and such as imply the strongest +contradiction, result from the supposition that the Supreme Being is a +system of matter. But of any other spirits we neither have nor can have +any knowledge: and no man will be inquisitive about spiritual +physiognomy, nor go about to inquire, I believe, at this time, as Evodius +inquired of St. Austin, whether our immaterial part, the soul, does not +remain united, when it forsakes this gross terrestrial body, to some +ethereal body more subtile and more fine; which was one of the +Pythagorean and Platonic whimsies: nor be under any concern to know, if +this be not the case of the dead, how souls can be distinguished after +their separation—that of Dives, for example, from that of Lazarus. The +second—that is, ontology—treats most scientifically of being abstracted +from all being (“de ente quatenus ens”). It came in fashion whilst +Aristotle was in fashion, and has been spun into an immense web out of +scholastic brains. But it should be, and I think it is already, left to +the acute disciples of Leibnitz, who dug for gold in the ordure of the +schools, and to other German wits. Let them darken by tedious +definitions what is too plain to need any; or let them employ their +vocabulary of barbarous terms to propagate an unintelligible jargon, +which is supposed to express such abstractions as they cannot make, and +according to which, however, they presume often to control the particular +and most evident truths of experimental knowledge. Such reputed science +deserves no rank in philosophy, not the last, and much less the first. + +I desire you not to imagine neither that I understand by the first +philosophy even such a science as my Lord Bacon describes—a science of +general observations and axioms, such as do not belong properly to any +particular part of science, but are common to many, “and of an higher +stage,” as he expresses himself. He complains that philosophers have not +gone up to the “spring-head,” which would be of “general and excellent +use for the disclosing of Nature and the abridgment of art,” though they +“draw now and then a bucket of water out of the well for some particular +use.” I respect—no man more—this great authority; but I respect no +authority enough to subscribe on the faith of it, to that which appears +to me fantastical, as if it were real. Now this spring-head of science +is purely fantastical, and the figure conveys a false notion to the mind, +as figures employed licentiously are apt to do. The great author himself +calls these axioms, which are to constitute his first philosophy, +observations. Such they are properly; for there are some uniform +principles, or uniform impressions of the same nature, to be observed in +very different subjects, “una eademque naturæ vestigia aut signacula +diversis materiis et subjectis impressa.” These observations, therefore, +when they are sufficiently verified and well established, may be properly +applied in discourse, or writing, from one subject to another. But I +apprehend that when they are so applied, they serve rather to illustrate +a proposition than to disclose Nature, or to abridge art. They may have +a better foundation than similitudes and comparisons more loosely and +more superficially made. They may compare realities, not appearances; +things that Nature has made alike, not things that seem only to have some +relation of this kind in our imaginations. But still they are +comparisons of things distinct and independent. They do not lead us to +things, but things that are lead us to make them. He who possesses two +sciences, and the same will be often true of arts, may find in certain +respects a similitude between them because he possesses both. If he did +not possess both, he would be led by neither to the acquisition of the +other. Such observations are effects, not means of knowledge; and, +therefore, to suppose that any collection of them can constitute a +science of an “higher stage,” from whence we may reason _à priori_ down +to particulars, is, I presume, to suppose something very groundless, and +very useless at best, to the advancement of knowledge. A pretended +science of this kind must be barren of knowledge, and may be fruitful of +error, as the Persian magic was, if it proceeded on the faint analogy +that may be discovered between physics and politics, and deduced the +rules of civil government from what the professors of it observed of the +operations and works of Nature in the material world. The very specimen +of their magic which my Lord Bacon has given would be sufficient to +justify what is here objected to his doctrine. + +Let us conclude this head by mentioning two examples among others which +he brings to explain the better what he means by his first philosophy. +The first is this axiom, “If to unequals you add equals, all will be +unequal.” This, he says, is an axiom of justice as well as of +mathematics; and he asks whether there is not a true coincidence between +commutative and distributive justice, and arithmetical and geometrical +proportion. But I would ask in my turn whether the certainty that any +arithmetician or geometrician has of the arithmetical or geometrical +truth will lead him to discover this coincidence. I ask whether the most +profound lawyer who never heard perhaps this axiom would be led to it by +his notions of commutative and distributive justice. Certainly not. He +who is well skilled in arithmetic or geometry, and in jurisprudence, may +observe perhaps this uniformity of natural principle or impression +because he is so skilled, though, to say the truth, it be not very +obvious; but he will not have derived his knowledge of it from any +spring-head of a first philosophy, from any science of an “higher stage” +than arithmetic, geometry, and jurisprudence. + +The second example is this axiom, “That the destruction of things is +prevented by the reduction of them to their first principles.” This rule +is said to hold in religion, in physics, and in politics; and Machiavel +is quoted for having established it in the last of these. Now though +this axiom be generally, it is not universally, true; and, to say nothing +of physics, it will not be hard to produce, in contradiction to it, +examples of religious and civil institutions that would have perished if +they had been kept strictly to their first principles, and that have been +supported by departing more or less from them. It may seem justly matter +of wonder that the author of the “Advancement of Learning” should espouse +this maxim in religion and politics, as well as physics, so absolutely, +and that he should place it as an axiom of his first philosophy +relatively to the three, since he could not do it without falling into +the abuse he condemns so much in his “Organum Novum”—the abuse +philosophers are guilty of when they suffer the mind to rise too fast, as +it is apt to do, from particulars to remote and general axioms. That the +author of the “Political Discourses” should fall into this abuse is not +at all strange. The same abuse runs through all his writings, in which, +among many wise and many wicked reflections and precepts, he establishes +frequently general maxims or rules of conduct on a few particular +examples, and sometimes on a single example. Upon the whole matter, one +of these axioms communicates no knowledge but that which we must have +before we can know the axiom, and the other may betray us into great +error when we apply it to use and action. One is unprofitable, the other +dangerous; and the philosophy which admits them as principles of general +knowledge deserves ill to be reputed philosophy. It would have been just +as useful, and much more safe, to admit into this receptacle of axioms +those self-evident and necessary truths alone of which we have an +immediate perception, since they are not confined to any special parts of +science, but are common to several, or to all. Thus these profitable +axioms, “What is, is,” “The whole is bigger than a part,” and divers +others, might serve to enlarge the spring-head of a first philosophy, and +be of excellent use in arguing _ex prœcognitis et prœconcessis_. + +If you ask me now what I understand then by a first philosophy, my answer +will be such as I suppose you already prepared to receive. I understand +by a first philosophy, that which deserves the first place on account of +the dignity and importance of its objects, natural theology or theism, +and natural religion or ethics. If we consider the order of the sciences +in their rise and progress, the first place belongs to natural +philosophy, the mother of them all, or the trunk, the tree of knowledge, +out of which, and in proportion to which, like so many branches, they all +grow. These branches spread wide, and bear even fruits of different +kinds. But the sap that made them shoot, and makes them flourish, rises +from the root through the trunk, and their productions are varied +according to the variety of strainers through which it flows. In plain +terms, I speak not here of supernatural, or revealed science; and +therefore I say that all science, if it be real, must rise from below, +and from our own level. It cannot descend from above, nor from superior +systems of being and knowledge. Truth of existence is truth of +knowledge, and therefore reason searches after them in one of these +scenes, where both are to be found together, and are within our reach; +whilst imagination hopes fondly to find them in another, where both of +them are to be found, but surely not by us. The notices we receive from +without concerning the beings that surround us, and the inward +consciousness we have of our own, are the foundations, and the true +criterions too, of all the knowledge we acquire of body and of mind: and +body and mind are objects alike of natural philosophy. We assume +commonly that they are two distinct substances. Be it so. They are +still united, and blended, as it were, together, in one human nature: and +all natures, united or not, fall within the province of natural +philosophy. On the hypothesis indeed that body and soul are two distinct +substances, one of which subsists after the dissolution of the other, +certain men, who have taken the whimsical title of metaphysicians, as if +they had science beyond the bounds of Nature, or of Nature discoverable +by others, have taken likewise to themselves the doctrine of mind; and +have left that of body, under the name of physics, to a supposed inferior +order of philosophers. But the right of these stands good; for all the +knowledge that can be acquired about mind, or the unextended substance of +the Cartesians, must be acquired, like that about body, or the extended +substance, within the bounds of their province, and by the means they +employ, particular experiments and observations. Nothing can be true of +mind, any more than of body, that is repugnant to these; and an +intellectual hypothesis which is not supported by the intellectual +phenomena is at least as ridiculous as a corporeal hypothesis which is +not supported by the corporeal phenomena. + +If I have said thus much in this place concerning natural philosophy, it +has not been without good reason. I consider theology and ethics as the +first of sciences in pre-eminence of rank. But I consider the constant +contemplation of Nature—by which I mean the whole system of God’s works +as far as it lies open to us—as the common spring of all sciences, and +even of these. What has been said agreeably to this notion seems to me +evidently true; and yet metaphysical divines and philosophers proceed in +direct contradiction to it, and have thereby, if I mistake not, +bewildered themselves, and a great part of mankind, in such inextricable +labyrinths of hypothetical reasoning, that few men can find their way +back, and none can find it forward into the road of truth. To dwell +long, and on some points always, in particular knowledge, tires the +patience of these impetuous philosophers. They fly to generals. To +consider attentively even the minutest phenomena of body and mind +mortifies their pride. Rather than creep up slowly, _à posteriori_, to a +little general knowledge, they soar at once as far and as high as +imagination can carry them. From thence they descend again, armed with +systems and arguments _à priori_; and, regardless how these agree or +clash with the phenomena of Nature, they impose them on mankind. + +It is this manner of philosophising, this preposterous method of +beginning our search after truth out of the bounds of human knowledge, or +of continuing it beyond them, that has corrupted natural theology and +natural religion in all ages. They have been corrupted to such a degree +that it is grown, and was so long since, as necessary to plead the cause +of God, if I may use this expression after Seneca, against the divine as +against the atheist; to assert his existence against the latter, to +defend his attributes against the former, and to justify his providence +against both. To both a sincere and humble theist might say very +properly, “I make no difference between you on many occasions, because it +is indifferent whether you deny or defame the Supreme Being.” Nay, +Plutarch, though little orthodox in theology, was not in the wrong +perhaps when he declared the last to be the worst. + +In treating the subjects about which I shall write to you in these +letters or essays, it will be therefore necessary to distinguish genuine +and pure theism from the unnatural and profane mixtures of human +imagination—what we can know of God from what we cannot know. This is +the more necessary, too, because, whilst true and false notions about God +and religion are blended together in our minds under one specious name of +science, the false are more likely to make men doubt of the true, as it +often happens, than to persuade men that they are true themselves. Now, +in order to this purpose, nothing can be more effectual than to go to the +root of error, of that primitive error which encourages our curiosity, +sustains our pride, fortifies our prejudices, and gives pretence to +delusion. This primitive error consists in the high opinion we are apt +to entertain of the human mind, though it holds, in truth, a very low +rank in the intellectual system. To cure this error we need only turn +our eyes inward, and contemplate impartially what passes there from the +infancy to the maturity of the mind. Thus it will not be difficult, and +thus alone it is possible, to discover the true nature of human +knowledge—how far it extends, how far it is real, and where and how it +begins to be fantastical. + +Such an inquiry, if it cannot check the presumption nor humble the pride +of metaphysicians, may serve to undeceive others. Locke pursued it; he +grounded all he taught on the phenomena of Nature; he appealed to the +experience and conscious knowledge of every one, and rendered all he +advanced intelligible. Leibnitz, one of the vainest and most chimerical +men that ever got a name in philosophy, and who is often so +unintelligible that no man ought to believe he understood himself, +censured Locke as a superficial philosopher. What has happened? The +philosophy of one has forced its way into general approbation, that of +the other has carried no conviction and scarce any information to those +who have misspent their time about it. To speak the truth, though it may +seem a paradox, our knowledge on many subjects, and particularly on those +which we intend here, must be superficial to be real. This is the +condition of humanity. We are placed, as it were, in an intellectual +twilight, where we discover but few things clearly, and none entirely, +and yet see just enough to tempt us with the hope of making better and +more discoveries. Thus flattered, men push their inquiries on, and may +be properly enough compared to Ixion, who “imagined he had Juno in his +arms whilst he embraced a cloud.” + +To be contented to know things as God has made us capable of knowing them +is, then, a first principle necessary to secure us from falling into +error; and if there is any subject upon which we should be most on our +guard against error, it is surely that which I have called here the first +philosophy. God is hid from us in the majesty of His nature, and the +little we discover of Him must be discovered by the light that is +reflected from His works. Out of this light, therefore, we should never +go in our inquiries and reasonings about His nature, His attributes, and +the order of His providence; and yet upon these subjects men depart the +furthest from it—nay, they who depart the furthest are the best heard by +the bulk of mankind. The less men know, the more they believe that they +know. Belief passes in their minds for knowledge, and the very +circumstances which should beget doubt produce increase of faith. Every +glittering apparition that is pointed out to them in the vast wild of +imagination passes for a reality; and the more distant, the more +confused, the more incomprehensible it is, the more sublime it is +esteemed. He who should attempt to shift these scenes of airy vision for +those of real knowledge might expect to be treated with scorn and anger +by the whole theological and metaphysical tribe, the masters and the +scholars; he would be despised as a plebeian philosopher, and railed at +as an infidel. It would be sounded high that he debased human nature, +which has a “cognation,” so the reverend and learned Doctor Cudworth +calls it, with the divine; that the soul of man, immaterial and immortal +by its nature, was made to contemplate higher and nobler objects than +this sensible world, and even than itself, since it was made to +contemplate God and to be united to Him. In such clamour as this the +voice of truth and of reason would be drowned, and, with both of them on +his side, he who opposed it would make many enemies and few converts—nay, +I am apt to think that some of these, if he made any, would say to him, +as soon as the gaudy visions of error were dispelled, and till they were +accustomed to the simplicity of truth, “Pol me occidistis.” Prudence +forbids me, therefore, to write as I think to the world, whilst +friendship forbids me to write otherwise to you. I have been a martyr of +faction in politics, and have no vocation to be so in philosophy. + +But there is another consideration which deserves more regard, because it +is of a public nature, and because the common interests of society may be +affected by it. Truth and falsehood, knowledge and ignorance, +revelations of the Creator, inventions of the creature, dictates of +reason, sallies of enthusiasm, have been blended so long together in our +systems of theology that it may be thought dangerous to separate them, +lest by attacking some parts of these systems we should shake the whole. +It may be thought that error itself deserves to be respected on this +account, and that men who are deluded for their good should be deluded +on. + +Some such reflections as these it is probable that Erasmus made when he +observed, in one of his letters to Melancthon, that Plato, dreaming of a +philosophical commonwealth, saw the impossibility of governing the +multitude without deceiving them. “Let not Christians lie,” says this +great divine: “but let it not be thought neither that every truth ought +to be thrown out to the vulgar.” (“Non expedit omnem veritatem prodere +vulgo.”) Scævola and Varro were more explicit than Erasmus, and more +reasonable than Plato. They held not only that many truths were to be +concealed from the vulgar, but that it was expedient the vulgar should +believe many things that were false. They distinguished at the same +time, very rightly, between the regard due to religions already +established, and the conduct to be held in the establishment of them. +The Greek assumed that men could not be governed by truth, and erected on +this principle a fabulous theology. The Romans were not of the same +opinion. Varro declared expressly that if he had been to frame a new +institution, he would have framed it “ex naturæ potius formula.” But +they both thought that things evidently false might deserve an outward +respect when they are interwoven into a system of government. This +outward respect every good citizen will show them in such a case, and +they can claim no more in any. He will not propagate these errors, but +he will be cautious how he propagates even truth in opposition to them. + +There has been much noise made about free-thinking; and men have been +animated in the contest by a spirit that becomes neither the character of +divines nor that of good citizens, by an arbitrary tyrannical spirit +under the mask of religious zeal, and by a presumptuous factious spirit +under that of liberty. If the first could prevail, they would establish +implicit belief and blind obedience, and an Inquisition to maintain this +abject servitude. To assert antipodes might become once more as +heretical as Arianism or Pelagianism; and men might be dragged to the +jails of some Holy Office, like Galilei, for saying they had seen what in +fact they had seen, and what every one else that pleased might see. If +the second could prevail, they would destroy at once the general +influence of religion by shaking the foundations of it which education +had laid. These are wide extremes. Is there no middle path in which a +reasonable man and a good citizen may direct his steps? I think there +is. + +Every one has an undoubted right to think freely—nay, it is the duty of +every one to do so as far as he has the necessary means and +opportunities. This duty, too, is in no case so incumbent on him as in +those that regard what I call the first philosophy. They who have +neither means nor opportunities of this sort must submit their opinions +to authority; and to what authority can they resign themselves so +properly and so safely as to that of the laws and constitution of their +country? In general, nothing can be more absurd than to take opinions of +the greatest moment, and such as concern us the most intimately, on +trust; but there is no help against it in many particular cases. Things +the most absurd in speculation become necessary in practice. Such is the +human constitution, and reason excuses them on the account of this +necessity. Reason does even a little more, and it is all she can do. +She gives the best direction possible to the absurdity. Thus she directs +those who must believe because they cannot know, to believe in the laws +of their country, and conform their opinions and practice to those of +their ancestors, to those of Coruncanius, of Scipio, of Scævola—not to +those of Zeno, of Cleanthes, of Chrysippus. + +But now the same reason that gives this direction to such men as these +will give a very contrary direction to those who have the means and +opportunities the others want. Far from advising them to submit to this +mental bondage, she will advise them to employ their whole industry to +exert the utmost freedom of thought, and to rest on no authority but +hers—that is, their own. She will speak to them in the language of the +Soufys, a sect of philosophers in Persia that travellers have mentioned. +“Doubt,” say these wise and honest freethinkers, “is the key of +knowledge. He who never doubts, never examines. He who never examines, +discovers nothing. He who discovers nothing, is blind and will remain +so. If you find no reason to doubt concerning the opinions of your +fathers, keep to them; they will be sufficient for you. If you find any +reason to doubt concerning them, seek the truth quietly, but take care +not to disturb the minds of other men.” + +Let us proceed agreeably to these maxims. Let us seek truth, but seek it +quietly as well as freely. Let us not imagine, like some who are called +freethinkers, that every man, who can think and judge for himself, as he +has a right to do, has therefore a right of speaking, any more than of +acting, according to the full freedom of his thoughts. The freedom +belongs to him as a rational creature; he lies under the restraint as a +member of society. + +If the religion we profess contained nothing more than articles of faith +and points of doctrine clearly revealed to us in the Gospel, we might be +obliged to renounce our natural freedom of thought in favour of this +supernatural authority. But since it is notorious that a certain order +of men, who call themselves the Church, have been employed to make and +propagate a theological system of their own, which they call +Christianity, from the days of the Apostles, and even from these days +inclusively, it is our duty to examine and analyse the whole, that we may +distinguish what is divine from what is human; adhere to the first +implicitly, and ascribe to the last no more authority than the word of +man deserves. + +Such an examination is the more necessary to be undertaken by every one +who is concerned for the truth of his religion and for the honour of +Christianity, because the first preachers of it were not, and they who +preach it still are not, agreed about many of the most important points +of their system; because the controversies raised by these men have +banished union, peace, and charity out of the Christian world; and +because some parts of the system savour so much of superstition and +enthusiasm that all the prejudices of education and the whole weight of +civil and ecclesiastical power can hardly keep them in credit. These +considerations deserve the more attention because nothing can be more +true than what Plutarch said of old, and my Lord Bacon has said since: +one, that superstition, and the other, that vain controversies are +principal causes of atheism. + +I neither expect nor desire to see any public revision made of the +present system of Christianity. I should fear an attempt to alter the +established religion as much as they who have the most bigot attachment +to it, and for reasons as good as theirs, though not entirely the same. +I speak only of the duty of every private man to examine for himself, +which would have an immediate good effect relatively to himself, and +might have in time a good effect relatively to the public, since it would +dispose the minds of men to a greater indifference about theological +disputes, which are the disgrace of Christianity and have been the +plagues of the world. + +Will you tell me that private judgment must submit to the established +authority of Fathers and Councils? My answer shall be that the Fathers, +ancient and modern, in Councils and out of them, have raised that immense +system of artificial theology by which genuine Christianity is perverted +and in which it is lost. These Fathers are fathers of the worst sort, +such as contrive to keep their children in a perpetual state of infancy, +that they may exercise perpetual and absolute dominion over them. “Quo +magis regnum in illos exerceant pro sua libidine.” I call their theology +artificial, because it is in a multitude of instances conformable neither +to the religion of Nature nor to Gospel Christianity, but often repugnant +to both, though said to be founded on them. I shall have occasion to +mention several such instances in the course of these little essays. +Here I will only observe that if it be hard to conceive how anything so +absurd as the pagan theology stands represented by the Fathers who wrote +against it, and as it really was, could ever gain credit among rational +creatures, it is full as hard to conceive how the artificial theology we +speak of could ever prevail, not only in ages of ignorance, but in the +most enlightened. There is a letter of St. Austin wherein he says that +he was ashamed of himself when he refuted the opinions of the former, and +that he was ashamed of mankind when he considered that such absurdities +were received and defended. The reflections might be retorted on the +saint, since he broached and defended doctrines as unworthy of the +Supreme All-Perfect Being as those which the heathens taught concerning +their fictitious and inferior gods. Is it necessary to quote any other +than that by which we are taught that God has created numbers of men for +no purpose but to damn them? “Quisquis prædestinationis doctrinam +invidia gravat,” says Calvin, “aperte maledicit Deo.” Let us say, +“Quisquis prædestinationis doctrinam asserit, blasphemat”. Let us not +impute such cruel injustice to the all-perfect Being. Let Austin and +Calvin and all those who teach it be answerable for it alone. You may +bring Fathers and Councils as evidences in the cause of artificial +theology, but reason must be the judge; and all I contend for is, that +she should be so in the breast of every Christian that can appeal to her +tribunal. + +Will you tell me that even such a private examination of the Christian +system as I propose that every man who is able to make it should make for +himself, is unlawful; and that, if any doubts arise in our minds +concerning religion, we must have recourse for the solution of them to +some of that holy order which was instituted, by God Himself, and which +has been continued by the imposition of hands in every Christian society, +from the Apostles down to the present clergy? My answer shall be shortly +this: it is repugnant to all the ideas of wisdom and goodness to believe +that the universal terms of salvation are knowable by the means of one +order of men alone, and that they continue to be so even after they have +been published to all nations. Some of your directors will tell you that +whilst Christ was on earth the Apostles were the Church; that He was the +Bishop of it; that afterwards the admission of men into this order was +approved, and confirmed by visions and other divine manifestations; and +that these wonderful proofs of God’s interposition at the ordinations and +consecrations of presbyters and bishops lasted even in the time of St. +Cyprian—that is, in the middle of the third century. It is pity that +they lasted no longer, for the honour of the Church, and for the +conviction of those who do not sufficiently reverence the religious +society. It were to be wished, perhaps, that some of the secrets of +electricity were improved enough to be piously and usefully applied to +this purpose. If we beheld a shekinah, or divine presence, like the +flame of a taper, on the heads of those who receive the imposition of +hands, we might believe that they receive the Holy Ghost at the same +time. But as we have no reason to believe what superstitious, credulous, +or lying men (such as Cyprian himself was) reported formerly, that they +might establish the proud pretensions of the clergy, so we have no reason +to believe that five men of this order have any more of the Divine Spirit +in our time, after they are ordained, than they had before. It would be +a farce to provoke laughter, if there was no suspicion of profanation in +it, to see them gravely lay hands on one another, and bid one another +receive the Holy Ghost. + +Will you tell me finally, in opposition to what has been said, and that +you may anticipate what remains to be said, that laymen are not only +unauthorised, but quite unequal, without the assistance of divines, to +the task I propose? If you do, I shall make no scruple to tell you, in +return, that laymen may be, if they please, in every respect as fit, and +are in one important respect more fit than divines to go through this +examination, and to judge for themselves upon it. We say that the +Scriptures, concerning the divine authenticity of which all the +professors of Christianity agree, are the sole criterion of Christianity. +You add tradition, concerning which there may be, and there is, much +dispute. We have, then, a certain invariable rule whenever the +Scriptures speak plainly. Whenever they do not speak so, we have this +comfortable assurance—that doctrines which nobody understands are +revealed to nobody, and are therefore improper objects of human inquiry. +We know, too, that if we receive the explanations and commentaries of +these dark sayings from the clergy, we take the greatest part of our +religion from the word of man, not from the Word of God. Tradition, +indeed, however derived, is not to be totally rejected; for if it was, +how came the canon of the Scriptures, even of the Gospels, to be fixed? +How was it conveyed down to us? Traditions of general facts, and general +propositions plain and uniform, may be of some authority and use. But +particular anecdotical traditions, whose original authority is unknown, +or justly suspicious, and that have acquired only an appearance of +generality and notoriety, because they have been frequently and boldly +repeated from age to age, deserve no more regard than doctrines evidently +added to the Scriptures, under pretence of explaining and commenting +them, by men as fallible as ourselves. We may receive the Scriptures, +and be persuaded of their authenticity, on the faith of ecclesiastical +tradition; but it seems to me that we may reject, at the same time, all +the artificial theology which has been raised on these Scriptures by +doctors of the Church, with as much right as they receive the Old +Testament on the authority of Jewish scribes and doctors whilst they +reject the oral law and all rabbinical literature. + +He who examines on such principles as these, which are conformable to +truth and reason, may lay aside at once the immense volumes of Fathers +and Councils, of schoolmen, casuists, and controversial writers, which +have perplexed the world so long. Natural religion will be to such a man +no longer intricate, revealed religion will be no longer mysterious, nor +the Word of God equivocal. Clearness and precision are two great +excellences of human laws. How much more should we expect to find them +in the law of God? They have been banished from thence by artificial +theology, and he who is desirous to find them must banish the professors +of it from his councils, instead of consulting them. He must seek for +genuine Christianity with that simplicity of spirit with which it is +taught in the Gospel by Christ Himself. He must do the very reverse of +what has been done by the persons you advise him to consult. + +You see that I have said what has been said, on a supposition that, +however obscure theology may be, the Christian religion is extremely +plain, and requires no great learning nor deep meditation to develop it. +But if it was not so plain, if both these were necessary to develop it, +is great learning the monopoly of the clergy since the resurrection of +letters, as a little learning was before that era? Is deep meditation +and justness of reasoning confined to men of that order by a peculiar and +exclusive privilege? In short, and to ask a question which experience +will decide, have these men who boast that they are appointed by God “to +be the interpreters of His secret will, to represent His person, and to +answer in His name, as it were, out of the sanctuary”—have these men, I +say, been able in more than seventeen centuries to establish an uniform +system of revealed religion—for natural religion never wanted their help +among the civil societies of Christians—or even in their own? They do +not seem to have aimed at this desirable end. Divided as they have +always been, they have always studied in order to believe, and to take +upon trust, or to find matter of discourse, or to contradict and confute, +but never to consider impartially nor to use a free judgment. On the +contrary, they who have attempted to use this freedom of judgment have +been constantly and cruelly persecuted by them. + +The first steps towards the establishment of artificial theology, which +has passed for Christianity ever since, were enthusiastical. They were +not heretics alone who delighted in wild allegories and the pompous +jargon of mystery; they were the orthodox Fathers of the first ages, they +were the disciples of the Apostles, or the scholars of their disciples; +for the truth of which I may appeal to the epistles and other writings of +these men that are extant—to those of Clemens, of Ignatius, or of +Irenæus, for instance—and to the visions of Hermes, that have so near a +resemblance to the productions of Bunyan. + +The next steps of the same kind were rhetorical. They were made by men +who declaimed much and reasoned ill, but who imposed on the imaginations +of others by the heat of their own, by their hyperboles, their +exaggerations, the acrimony of their style, and their violent invectives. +Such were the Chrysostoms, the Jeromes, an Hilarius, a Cyril, and most of +the Fathers. + +The last of the steps I shall mention were logical, and these were made +very opportunely and very advantageously for the Church and for +artificial theology. Absurdity in speculation and superstition in +practice had been cultivated so long, and were become so gross, that men +began to see through the veils that had been thrown over them, as +ignorant as those ages were. Then the schoolmen arose. I need not +display their character; it is enough known. This only I will say—that +having very few materials of knowledge and much subtilty of wit they +wrought up systems of fancy on the little they knew, and invented an art, +by the help of Aristotle, not of enlarging, but of puzzling, knowledge +with technical terms, with definitions, distinctions, and syllogisms +merely verbal. They taught what they could not explain, evaded what they +could not answer, and he who had the most skill in this art might put to +silence, when it came into general use, the man who was consciously +certain that he had truth and reason on his side. + +The authority of the schools lasted till the resurrection of letters. +But as soon as real knowledge was enlarged, and the conduct of the +understanding better understood, it fell into contempt. The advocates of +artificial theology have had since that time a very hard task. They have +been obliged to defend in the light what was imposed in the dark, and to +acquire knowledge to justify ignorance. They were drawn to it with +reluctance. But learning, that grew up among the laity, and +controversies with one another, made this unavoidable, which was not +eligible on the principles of ecclesiastical policy. They have done with +these new arms all that great parts, great pains, and great zeal could do +under such disadvantages, and we may apply to this order, on this +occasion, “si Pergama dextra,” etc. But their Troy cannot be defended; +irreparable breaches have been made in it. They have improved in +learning and knowledge, but this improvement has been general, and as +remarkable at least among the laity as among the clergy. Besides which +it must be owned that the former have had in this respect a sort of +indirect obligation to the latter; for whilst these men have searched +into antiquity, have improved criticism, and almost exhausted subtilty, +they have furnished so many arms the more to such of the others as do not +submit implicitly to them, but examine and judge for themselves. By +refuting one another, when they differ, they have made it no hard matter +to refute them all when they agree. And I believe there are few books +written to propagate or defend the received notions of artificial +theology which may not be refuted by the books themselves. I conclude, +on the whole, that laymen have, or need to have, no want of the clergy in +examining and analysing the religion they profess. + +But I said that they are in one important respect more fit to go through +this examination without the help of divines than with it. A layman who +seeks the truth may fall into error; but as he can have no interest to +deceive himself, so he has none of profession to bias his private +judgment, any more than to engage him to deceive others. Now, the +clergyman lies strongly under this influence in every communion. How, +indeed, should it be otherwise? Theology is become one of those sciences +which Seneca calls “scientiæ in lucrum exeuntes;” and sciences, like arts +whose object is gain, are, in good English, trades. Such theology is, +and men who could make no fortune, except the lowest, in any other, make +often the highest in this; for the proof of which assertion I might +produce some signal instances among my lords the bishops. The +consequence has been uniform; for how ready soever the tradesmen of one +Church are to expose the false wares—that is, the errors and abuses—of +another, they never admit that there are any in their own; and he who +admitted this in some particular instance would be driven out of the +ecclesiastical company as a false brother and one who spoiled the trade. + +Thus it comes to pass that new Churches may be established by the +dissensions, but that old ones cannot be reformed by the concurrence, of +the clergy. There is no composition to be made with this order of men. +He who does not believe all they teach in every communion is reputed +nearly as criminal as he who believes no part of it. He who cannot +assent to the Athanasian Creed, of which Archbishop Tillotson said, as I +have heard, that he wished we were well rid, would receive no better +quarter than an atheist from the generality of the clergy. What recourse +now has a man who cannot be thus implicit? Some have run into +scepticism, some into atheism, and, for fear of being imposed on by +others, have imposed on themselves. The way to avoid these extremes is +that which has been chalked out in this introduction. We may think +freely without thinking as licentiously as divines do when they raise a +system of imagination on true foundations, or as sceptics do when they +renounce all knowledge, or as atheists do when they attempt to demolish +the foundations of all religion and reject demonstration. As we think +for ourselves, we may keep our thoughts to ourselves, or communicate them +with a due reserve and in such a manner only as it may be done without +offending the laws of our country and disturbing the public peace. + +I cannot conclude my discourse on this occasion better than by putting +you in mind of a passage you quoted to me once, with great applause, from +a sermon of Foster, and to this effect: “Where mystery begins, religion +ends.” The apophthegm pleased me much, and I was glad to hear such a +truth from any pulpit, since it shows an inclination, at least, to purify +Christianity from the leaven of artificial theology, which consists +principally in making things that are very plain mysterious, and in +pretending to make things that are impenetrably mysterious very plain. +If you continue still of the same mind, I shall have no excuse to make to +you for what I have written and shall write. Our opinions coincide. If +you have changed your mind, think again and examine further. You will +find that it is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a +real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths. One follows +Nature and Nature’s God—that is, he follows God in His works and in His +Word; nor presumes to go further, by metaphysical and theological +commentaries of his own invention, than the two texts, if I may use this +expression, carry him very evidently. They who have done otherwise, and +have affected to discover, by a supposed science derived from tradition +or taught in the schools, more than they who have not such science can +discover concerning the nature, physical and moral, of the Supreme Being, +and concerning the secrets of His providence, have been either +enthusiasts or knaves, or else of that numerous tribe who reason well +very often, but reason always on some arbitrary supposition. + +Much of this character belonged to the heathen divines, and it is in all +its parts peculiarly that of the ancient Fathers and modern doctors of +the Christian Church. The former had reason, but no revelation, to guide +them; and though reason be always one, we cannot wonder that different +prejudices and different tempers of imagination warped it in them on such +subjects as these, and produced all the extravagances of their theology. +The latter had not the excuse of human frailty to make in mitigation of +their presumption. On the contrary, the consideration of this frailty, +inseparable from their nature, aggravated their presumption. They had a +much surer criterion than human reason; they had divine reason and the +Word of God to guide them and to limit their inquiries. How came they to +go beyond this criterion? Many of the first preachers were led into it +because they preached or wrote before there was any such criterion +established, in the acceptance of which they all agreed, because they +preached or wrote, in the meantime, on the faith of tradition and on a +confidence that they were persons extraordinarily gifted. Other reasons +succeeded these. Skill in languages, not the gift of tongues, some +knowledge of the Jewish cabala and some of heathen philosophy, of Plato’s +especially, made them presume to comment, and under that pretence to +enlarge the system of Christianity with as much licence as they could +have taken if the word of man, instead of the Word of God, had been +concerned, and they had commented the civil, not the divine, law. They +did this so copiously that, to give one instance of it, the exposition of +St. Matthew’s Gospel took up ninety homilies, and that of St. John’s +eighty-seven, in the works of Chrysostom; which puts me in mind of a +Puritanical parson who, if I mistake not—for I have never looked into the +folio since I was a boy and condemned sometimes to read in it—made one +hundred and nineteen sermons on the hundred and nineteenth Psalm. + +Now all these men, both heathens and Christians, appeared gigantic forms +through the false medium of imagination and habitual prejudice; but were, +in truth, as arrant dwarfs in the knowledge to which they pretended as +you and I and all the sons of Adam. The former, however, deserved some +excuse; the latter none. The former made a very ill use of their reason, +no doubt, when they presume to dogmatise about the divine nature, but +they deceived nobody. What they taught, they taught on their own +authority, which every other man was at liberty to receive or reject as +he approved or disapproved the doctrine. Christians, on the other hand, +made a very ill use of revelation and reason both. Instead of employing +the superior principle to direct and confine the inferior, they employed +it to sanctify all that wild imagination, the passions, and the interests +of the ecclesiastical order suggested. This abuse of revelation was so +scandalous that whilst they were building up a system of religion under +the name of Christianity, every one who sought to signalise himself in +the enterprise—and they were multitudes—dragged the Scriptures to his +opinion by different interpretations, paraphrases, comments. Arius and +Nestorius both pretended that they had it on their sides; Athanasius and +Cyril on theirs. They rendered the Word of God so dubious that it ceased +to be a criterion, and they had recourse to another—to Councils and the +decrees of Councils. He must be very ignorant in ecclesiastical +antiquity who does not know by what intrigues of the contending +factions—for such they were, and of the worst kind—these decrees were +obtained; and yet, an opinion prevailing that the Holy Ghost, the same +Divine Spirit who dictated the Scriptures, presided in these assemblies +and dictated their decrees, their decrees passed for infallible +decisions, and sanctified, little by little, much of the superstition, +the nonsense, and even the blasphemy which the Fathers taught, and all +the usurpations of the Church. This opinion prevailed and influenced the +minds of men so powerfully and so long that Erasmus, who owns in one of +his letters that the writings of Œcolampadius against transubstantiation +seemed sufficient to seduce even the elect (“ut seduci posse videantur +etiam electi”), declares in another that nothing hindered him from +embracing the doctrine of Œcolampadius but the consent of the Church to +the other doctrine (“nisi obstaret consensus Ecclesiæ”). Thus artificial +theology rose on the demolitions, not on the foundations, of +Christianity; was incorporated into it; and became a principal part of +it. How much it becomes a good Christian to distinguish them, in his +private thoughts at least, and how unfit even the greatest, the most +moderate, and the least ambitious of the ecclesiastical order are to +assist us in making this distinction, I have endeavoured to show you by +reason and by example. + +It remains, then, that we apply ourselves to the study of the first +philosophy without any other guides than the works and the Word of God. +In natural religion the clergy are unnecessary; in revealed they are +dangerous guides. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS TO SIR WILLIAM WINDHAM AND +MR. 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