peace, if possible, at home; and in a short time, with his characteristic activity, he procured, through the mediation of Lord Stair (who declared himself perfectly convinced of his sincerity) a conditional promise of pardon. As a pledge of his partial reconciliation, in 1716 his Majesty created his father Baron of Battersea and Viscount St. John, with the reversion to his other sons. He himself was, however, not restored in blood.

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These events drew from him, by way of relief, the • Consolatio Philosophica,' which he composed the same year under the title of Reflexions upon Exile.' He had, also, written about the same period several letters in answer to the charge brought against him by the Pretender and his adherents; and, in 1717, he published a vindication of his whole conduct with respect to the Tories, in the form of A Letter to Sir William Wyndham.' In this, he drew so striking a picture of the Jacobite counsels abroad, and of the bigotry of their Prince, as must have had a great effect in detaching the respectable English Tories from their cause. He now, likewise, married for his second wife the niece of Madame de Maintenon, widow of the Marquis de Villette, with whom he received a very large fortune, encumbered however by a long and troublesome law-suit.

With this lady he passed his time in France till 1723; when, on the breaking up of the parliament, his Majesty was pleased to grant him a full pardon. Upon the first notice of this favour, the expectation of which had guided his political conduct for several years, he returned to his native country.*

* Bishop Atterbury, who was banished at this very juncture, learning on being set ashore at Calais that Bolingbroke was

He now wrote letters of thanks to the King, Lord Townshend, and the Duchess of Kendal at Hanover, and behaved in the most servile manner to Walpole. Why the latter, usually so prudent, should at last have concurred in a project enabling Bolingbroke to settle in England, and (as was, eventually, the case) to harass his administration, it has usually been a perplexing problem to determine. He had known the exile from his early youth, and was fully aware of his talents, his turbulence of temper, and his fawning and faithless character. It is now ascertained, on the authority of Sir Robert himself, that the bill for his restoration was brought forward by the express commands of his Sovereign, in obedience to the wishes of the Duchess of Kendal, to whom Bolingbroke had made a present of 11,000l. Arduous, however, as the affair was (being opposed among others by Mr. Methuen, at that time Comptroller of the Household, and several members who almost uniformly supported the measures of government) it was carried by 230 votes against 113.

This act has been pronounced the most unpopular, as well as the most indecent, in which Walpole ever engaged. The very person, for whom he consented to incur so much obloquy, was himself exasperated by it: "Here I am," he observed, in an epistle to

there on his return to England, exclaimed, "Then I am exchanged." And, from the following circumstances, it may be concluded, that the prelate's conjecture was well founded: Bolingbroke's pardon was granted immediately after the act for banishing Atterbury had received the royal assent; and both these measures had been most strenuously urged by the same individual, Lord Harcourt. Sir Robert Walpole, likewise, who displayed no particular hostility against the Bishop, had warmly opposed the return of the Ex-Secretary.

Swift," two thirds restored, my person safe (unless I meet hereafter with harder treatment, than even that of Sir Walter Ralegh) and my estate, with all the other property I have acquired or may acquire, secured to me. But the attainder is kept carefully and prudently in force, lest so corrupt a member should come again into the House of Lords, and his bad leaven should sour that sweet untainted mass." About the same time, likewise, he addressed a letter to the King relative to the promise which had been made to him of a full restitution, and throwing all the blame of the failure upon the Minister, whom he accused of meanness and treachery, declared himself his decided enemy,* effected a reconciliation with the Tories whom he had recently reviled, and joined Pulteney and the discontented Whigs.

After some time, dissatisfied and disgusted, he settled with his lady at Dawley near Uxbridge, in Middlesex, which he rendered highly interesting by rural and elegant embellishments.

Of his mode of life, in this retirement, we have a sketch in a letter from Pope to Dean Swift, dated Dawley, June 8, 1728:"

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"I now hold the pen for my Lord Bolingbroke, who is reading your letter between two haycocks; but his attention is somewhat diverted by casting his eyes on the clouds, not in admiration of what you say, but for fear of a shower. He is pleased with

* Bolingbroke, it has been remarked, too frequently falls into the error of which he has accused Clarendon, that of drawing characters of persons incompatible with their actions. In his portrait of Walpole, Mr. Coxe declares him guilty of the grossest misrepresentation and the most exaggerated malice.' It is sketched as not containing a single virtue.

your placing him in the triumvirate between yourself and me; though he says, that he doubts he shall fare like Lepidus: while one of us runs away with all the power, like Augustus; and another with all the pleasure, like Antony." It is upon a foresight of this, that he has fitted up his farm; and you will agree, that this scheme of retreat is not founded upon weak appearances.' And he himself thus addresses the Dean: "I am in my farm, and here I shoot strong and tenacious roots: I have caught hold of the earth,' to use the gardener's phrase; and neither my enemies, nor my friends, will find it an easy matter to transplant me again."

Happy would it have been for him, if he could have verified his anticipations! But the seeds of ambition were too deeply rooted in his constitution. Pining after the recovery of his seat in the House of Lords, and some share in the government, under the visitation of disappointment about the year 1726 he became a warm anti-ministerial writer, and distinguished himself for several years by a multitude of pieces drawn up with great vigour and freedom.

In the height of these political disputes, however, he found occasional leisure for the meditations of philosophy, and composed some essays upon metaphysical subjects. His state-polemics finally terminated in 1735, upon a disagreement with his principal coadjutors Pulteney and others, whom he charged with private views; and he again retired into France, with the full resolution of never more engaging in public business. "Plato," he observes,

" ceased to act for the commonwealth, when he ceased to persuade and Solon laid down his arms before the public magazines, when Pisistratus grew

too strong to be opposed any longer with hopes of success. These examples he followed, not however without collecting his utmost force to give a parting blow to the minister; which, of all his masterly compositions, is generally accounted the best.

He had, now, passed his sixtieth year; had pushed matters as far toward reinstating himself in the full possession of his former honours, as mere talents and application could go; and was at length satisfied that the decree was irreversible, and that the doors of the cabinet were finally shut against him.

If, in the decline of his life, he became less conspicuous, he became more amiable; and he was far from suffering the hours to slide away unimproved, or unproductive.

He had not been long at his retreat near Fontainbleau, when he began a course of Letters on the Study and Use of History.' It was obvious, however, that a person of his active ambition must lie strikingly open to ridicule, in assuming an air of philosophical contemplation. He saw it; and to obviate the sneer, addressed a Letter to Lord Bathurst, upon the true Use of Retirement and Study;' in which he defends himself in the following able

manner:

"To set about acquiring the habits of meditation and study late in life, is like getting into a go-cart with a grey beard, and learning to walk when we have lost the use of our legs. In general, the foundation of a happy old age must be laid in youth; and in particular he, who has not cultivated his reason young, will be utterly unable to improve it old. Manent ingenia senibus, modò permaneant studium et industria.