Madam Maintenon to fet her Features by, against that Time. Three Priefts of your Acquaintance are very pofitive, by her Intereft, to be his Father Confeffor.

By our laft Accounts from Duke Street, Weftminfter, the Converfion of T. G. Efq; is reported in a Manner fomewhat more particular: That upon the Seizure of his Flanders Mares, he feem'd more than ordinarily disturb'd for fome Hours, fent for his Ghoftly Father, and refolv'd to bear his Lofs like a Chriftian; till about the Hours of feven or eight the Coaches and Horfes of feveral of the Nobility paffing by his Window towards Hyde Park, he could no longer endure the Disappointment, but inftantly went out, took the Oath of Abjuration, and recover'd his dear Horfes which carried him in Triumph to the Ring. The poor diftrefs'd Roman Catholicks, now unhorfs'd and uncharioted, cry out with the Pfalmift, Some in Chariots and fome on Horses, but we will invocate the Name of the Lord.

I am,

Dear Madam, &c.

You will understand by the latter Part of this Letter, that she is a Papift, which still made her more valuable in the Eyes of Mr. Pope; her whole Family was esteem'd by him, and that Esteem was reciprocal, he interested himself now more and more with it, and little was done without first advising with him, yet it (i.e. her Family) was unhappily mention'd in the imprudent Affair at Preston, tho' Mr. Pope had counfell'd fo as to avoid it, and at leaft thought it most proper to wait a while; what was done is no Secret to the World, the Rebels were defeated, the Party among themselves difunited, there wanted Money and Difcretion, and every Thing, but Zeal in a few Desperadoes,

who

who draw'd in the Reft with falfe Counfels, falfe Affurances, false Promises, and falfe Performances; there followed Imprisonment, Attainders, Executions of Gentry and Nobility, voluntary Banishments, the prefent Royal Family being more firmly establish'd than ever.

It was certainly an Infatuation, to think that the Body of the People would be brought to dethrone a Proteftant King, in Favour of a Papift, who, but two Reigns before, had invited the Prince of Orange, a Prince who had no hereditary Right to the Crown, to come from Holland, and deliver them from that Papift King, James the Second, of inglorious Memory; I fay this very People, who had elected the Prince of Orange, and after the Death of Queen Anne, fix'd the Succeffion in the House of Hanover, not as being Hereditary Heirs, but Proteftants, there being at that Time several Pretenders before the House of Brunfwick, only being as Papifts incapable of Ruling, according to our present good and wholsome Laws, this Proteftant People of Great Britain, &c. it was Folly to imagine, that they should alter fo madly for a total Change, lose all Security for the publick Debt, and pay thofe enormous ones contracted with foreign popish Courts, and the Pope's Court, by the Pretender.

Their imaginary Notion of finding all the Papists here in his Intereft, was quite groundless; there were, and are, to our certain Knowledge, many Families, who never wish to see the Pretender King of these Imperial Realms, and that would refift him with their Fortunes and Lives, and who have Freedom in themselves all that is neceffary to take the Oaths of Abjuration of the Pretender and faithful Allegiance to the King, without any mental Reservation; but they cannot (it being a Contradiction) deny the Su

premacy

premacy and Infallibility of the Pope: This to a Papift is impoffible with Christian Verity and without Perjury to do. But fome there are among Papifts, who wifh there was a Teft for the present King and Abjuration for the Pretender separate from the other, and that would fairly diftinguish, that all the Nonjurors to the Oath of Allegiance and Abjuration were those in his Intereft, and the Nonjurors to the Oath of Supremacy only were Papifts, in the Intereft of the prefent King George and his Royal Family.

After the Defeat at Prefton Mr. Pope, very much concern'd not at the Succefs of the King's Forces and Counfels, but at the Diftrefs of his fo very dear Friend, writes a Letter of Comfort and Condoleance dated March 20, 1715-16,

Dear Sir,

I'

Find that a real Concern is not only a Hindrance to speaking, but to writing too: The more Time we give ourselves to think over one's own, or a Friend's Unhappiness, the more unable we grow to exprefs the Grief that proceeds from it. It is as na» tural to delay a Letter at fuch a Season as this, as to retard a melancholy Visit to a Perfon one cannot relieve. One is afhamed in that Circumftance, to pretend to entertain People with trifling infignificant Affectations of Sorrow on the one Hand, or unfeafonable and forced Gaieties on the other. 'Tis a Kind of Profanation of Things facred, to treat fo folemn a Matter as a generous voluntary Suffering, with Compliments on Heroick Gallantries. Such a Mind as your's has no Need of being spirited-up into Honour, or, like a weak Woman, praised into an Opinion of its own Virtue. 'Tis enough to do and fuffer what we ought; and Men fhould know, that the

the noble Power of fuffering bravely, is as far above that of enterprifing greatly, as an unblemish'd Confcience and inflexible Refolution are above an accidental Flow of Spirits, or a fudden Tide of Blood, If the whole religious Business of Mankind be included in Refignation to our Maker, and Charity to our Fellow-Creatures, there are now fomé People, who give us an Opportunity of affording as bright an Example in practifing the one, as themselves have given an infamous Inftance of the Violation of the other. Whoever is really brave, has always this Comfort when he is opprefs'd, that he knows himfelf to be fuperior to those who injure him: For the greatest Power on Earth can no fooner do him that Injury, but the brave Man can make himself greater by forgiving it.

If it were generous to feek for alleviating Confolations in a Calamity of fo much Glory; one might fay that to be ruined thus in the Grofs, with a whole People, is but like perifhing in the general Conflagration, where nothing we can value is left behind us.

Methinks in our prefent Condition, the moft heroick Thing we are left capable of doing, is to endeavour to lighten each other's Load, and (suppress'd as we are) to fuccour fuch as are yet more opprefs'd. If there are too many who cannot be affifted but by what we cannot give, our Money, there are yet others who may be relieved by our Counsel, by our Countenance, and even by our Chearfulness. The Misfortunes of private Families, the Misunderstandings of People whom Diftreffes make fufpicious, the Coldneffes of Relations, whom Change of Religion may difunite, or the Neceffities of half-ruin'd Eftates render unkind to each other; thefe, at least, may be foftened in fome Degree, by a general well

manag'd

manag'd Humanity among ourselves, if all thofe who have your Principles of Belief, had also your Senfe and Conduct. But, indeed, most of them have given lamentable Proofs of the contrary; and it is to be apprehended, that they who want Senfe, are only religious thro' Weakness, and good-natur'd thro' Shame: These are narrow minded Creatures, that never deal in Essentials ; their Faith never looks beyond Ceremonials, nor their Charity beyond Relafions. As poor as I am, I would gladly relieve any diftrefs'd confcientious French Refugee at this Inftant: What must my Concern then be, when I perceive fo many Anxieties now tearing thofe Hearts which I have defired a Place in, and Clouds of Melancholy rifing on those Faces, which I have long look'd upon with Affection? I begin already to feel both what fome apprehend, and what others are yet too ftupid to apprehend. I am grieved with the Old for fo many additional Inconveniences and Chagrins, more than their finall Remain of Life feem destined to undergo; and with the Young, for so many of those Gayeties and Pleasures, (the Portion of Youth) which they will by this Means be deprived of. This brings into my Mind one or other of thofe I love beft, and among them the Widow and Fatherlefs, late of As I am certain no People living had an earlier and truer Senfe of others Misfortunes, or a more generous Refignation, as to what might be their own; fo I earneftly wifh, that whatever Part they must bear, may be rendered as fupportable to them, as it is in the Power of any Friend to make

it.

But I know you have prevented me in this Thought, as you always will in any Thing that's good or generous. I find by a Letter of your Lady's, (which I have feen) that their Eafe and Tranquillity is Part of your