She waits, or to the scaffold, or the cell, When the last ling'ring friend has bid farewell. Ev'n now, she shades thy Ev'ning-walk with bays, (No hireling she, no prostitute to praife) 36 Ev'n now, observant of the parting ray, Eyes the calm Sun-fet of thy various Day, 40 THERE are few verses in Pope, more correct, more musical, more dignified, and affecting, than these to Lord Oxford; and such a teftimony to his merit in the hour of misfortune, must have been as grateful to Lord Oxford, as it was honourable to Pope. In private life, no one was more amiable or more beloved than Lord Oxford; whatever may be thought of his public character, (particularly that part of it which has been most obnoxious to cenfure, on account of his supposed views in favouring the fucceffion of James,) the violent state of parties at the latter end of the reign of queen Anne, should be always kept in mind, and the over-bearing conduct of the leading Whigs, who, before the admiffion of Harley to her private confidence, had kept the Queen, from the commencement of her reign, in a state of humiliation and subjection. That, of Harley it might be faid, he had truly the murus aheneus, "nil confcire fibi, nulla pallefcere culpa," I am willing to believe, and his fubfequent conduct goes a great way to prove it.Upon George the First's arrival in England, he went to pay his respects to him, among the rest of the nobility, at Greenwich. The exultation Bolingbroke expressed at the cold reception he met with, is well known (fee his Letter to Sir William Wyndham); but could Lord Oxford have exposed himself to fuch treatment had he been confcious of being, in his heart, the king's enemy? Mr. Coxe, to whose opinion I highly defer, acknowledges, that "Harley never appeared to wish to fruftrate the act of fettlement." He has been called in common language "a Trimmer," because because having been a diftinguished Whig, he afterwards joined the Tories; and endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the Elector of Hanover, when affairs took a different turn: but I confefs, setting party aside, I fee nothing inconfiftent in his conduct; at least, I fee nothing that could warrant the judgment that he was actuated by felf-interest alone. No one can fay, but that the conduct he pursued was such as a real lover of his country might have pursued; and it is such as, for that reafon, would make him obnoxious to the violent of both factions. On the one hand, he saw the Queen a cypher, and places, command, authority, power, and government in the hands of an imperious junto; on the other fide, he saw a rooted antipathy, at least among the Jacobite Tories, to all but the family of James. He was a Whig, as far as was confiftent with supporting the power, and authority, and dignity of the Crown; a Tory, but without entering into the designs of those who saw with a malignant eye the prospect of the protestant fuccession. From the state of parties at the time, one might conclude, that to be a Whig, it was necessary to submit to the "imperium in imperio" of the Duke of Marlborough, or rather of the Duchess; and that a Tory must necessarily be in league with the Pretender; - that is, to be a Jacobite. Oxford courted, indeed, men of abilities and integrity on both fides, but he avoided either extreme. His conduct, when impeached, was worthy such a character. He neither meanly fled, like Bolingbroke, although he was well aware of the odium excited against him, and the pains and penalties which an exasperated party might inflict; nor, when he had lost the favour of one party, did he basely fly to the other, avowing at once his connections, or his profligacy. He endured his imprisonment without complaint, and waited the event of his trial with resigned fubmiffion, but with the intrepidity of unshaken and confcious integrity. These lines of Pope, which seem to me truly to characterife Lord Oxford, are therefore particularly interesting, and they have a melancholy flow, yet a dignified force of expression, fuitable to the character and occafion. EPISTLE TO JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ. SECRETARY OF STATE. SOUL as full of Worth, as void of Pride, A Which nothing seeks to shew, or needs to hide, Which nor to Guilt nor Fear, its Caution owes, And boasts a Warmth that from no Passion flows. A Face NOTES. Secretary of State] In the year 1720. POPE. Mr. Craggs was made Secretary at War, in 1717, when the Earl of Sunderland and Mr. Addison were appointed Secretaries of State. This Epistle appears to have been written soonafter his being made one of the Secretaries of State. He was deeply implicated in the famous South-Sea scheme. When Mr. Shippen, alluding to him, faid in the House of Commons, (at the time a motion was made to secure the perfons and property of the South-Sea directors,) " in his opinion, there were fome men in high stations, who were " no less guilty than the directors;" Mr. Craggs immediately answered, he was ready to give fatisfaction to any man, who should question him in that House, or out of it. This created great offence, and was understood as a challenge, but after some ferment, Mr. Craggs said, that "by giving fatisfaction" he meant, clearing his conTyndal's Continuation of Rapin. duct. He died foon after the detection of the fallacy of the great scheme, and would most probably have been called to a fevere ac. count, had he lived. He died of the small-pox, on the ninth day, 16th February 1721. See a farther account of him in this volume, Epitaph on Craggs. ة JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ" JUN" From a Kicture by Sir Godfrey Knellere. in the Marquis of Buckingham's Collection at Stowe: Published by Cadell & Davies, Strand, and the other Proprietors May 1,1807. |